Disclaimer: I do not own the concept and characters of Harry Potter… actually, I'm not sure I'd want to. What a complicated mess! A/N: And here is the next step in Harry's time line. Hope you enjoy! This Interlude and Chapter Three are dedicated to Lakewater. Check A/N at the end to see why!

Interlude

Harry, Age 4

Harry held his burnt hand under the faucet that gushed cold water, rather thankful that Aunt Petunia had recently deemed him a competent enough cook to leave him unsupervised. Usually he was very careful when cooking his family's dinner, but he was only four, and as such had a four-year-olds hands, which weren't really suited for the labour he now endeavored to achieve – and so he had accidentally burned himself on the pan. If Aunt Petunia had been "supervising" she wouldn't have let him treat the burn until he'd finished, and according to a first aid book he'd read in the local library, it was important to get the heat out of a burn as soon as possible.

When Harry had left the food as long as he dared, he turned off the water and went about serving the Dursleys their dinner. He himself wouldn't touch any of the food he'd worked so hard to prepare; lest he should be slapped across the face by Aunt Petunia for being greedy or bashed over the head by his uncles meaty fist (or whatever hard, unbreakable object Vernon found close at hand) for being ungrateful. Instead, he snuck a few slices of bread into his pocket, along with a few shavings of meat he'd procured from the bone that the Dursleys were saving to send to Aunt Marge's pets (Vernon's sister raised dogs).

Harry might have suffered far more injuries than he did if he didn't disappear everyday to the only safe place for him in his world – the library. There he read; all day, everyday. When he had finished what books had interested him for his age group, he moved onto other books; books that spoke of the world outside of Privet Drive and Surrey, outside of London and even Britain. He learned about other cultures and geography, he learned about the history of the world, he learned about mathematics (something that was easy for him to understand, considering his first love of music), he learned all about the English language and how to tell apart verbs from nouns, and all other sorts of useful and interesting things.

The last book he'd picked up was all about the history of British law; the origins of it and how parliament worked and how it had evolved from the feudal system to what ruled today. It made mention of something Harry felt he had to look up for himself: child laws. Specifically, the laws dealing with how a guardian should treat a child under their care. Having found a reference to the particular law he wanted to look at, Harry proceeded to find said reference, a law dictionary and an oxford dictionary. What followed was a period of enlightenment to Harry. Having the vaguest recollection of what life had been like for him before he lived with the Dursleys, it hadn't been a life-shattering discovery; but it had been hard for him to swallow, especially given the lessons being drilled into him day in and day out.

Vernon Dursley was wrong.

Petunia Dursley was wrong.

And the hardest of all to come to grips with:

Harry was being abused.

And it was wrong.

TBC...

A/N: Short and sweet, I know. As the kids get older, these little back stories will get longer. I'm not really sure how that happened…

Oh, and PS: a special message to Lakewater; thank-you so much for that little reminder you sent me! I have had trouble with the third chapter of this story for so long, I'd almost given up on it. You gave me a kick just when I needed it, so thanks!