Chapter Two

It had been two years since Freak became Harry, and the Dursleys were as loud as ever.

Harry had no idea how: they never talked when he looked at them. They never even moved. He could hear them though. They taunted when he was too slow and a monster got him, screamed in rage when he broke a rule. Yelled when he ate more food than usual.

Everything changed, and yet nothing did. And Harry couldn't figure out why.

It scared him. Freak was the one with the Dursleys, Harry wasn't. The Dursleys hadn't really done anything since they stopped screaming in the living room. So why was Harry still trapped by them?

How was Harry different from Freak? He pondered as he looked for groceries. The distance he had to go now was just ridiculous. It took him days to get anywhere with food. He had finally made it to a new town, only to be distracted by screams from the direction he had come in. Still, he took off: screams of the dead usually meant good food.

The house he came to was very odd: it looked like the house had just been added onto over time. Oddly, there were bodies littered around the house, with a weird type of blood on their head. Was that hair? He'd never seen hair that color. He ran a hand over the head of the nearest body, just to be sure. It was a little girl, maybe a year younger than him. The body pulled something out of him: a spark. He yanked his hand back, frantically looking around. This place was wrong. There were no monsters, no bodies shifting and changing. He needed to-

A yell from inside pulled him forward. There was man with a stick, yelling at a kid huddled in a corner. The kid- boy, also with red hair- was hit with some red light and fell to the ground, screaming. A weird, different spark ran through Harry. The man was dead before he realized he moved.

The boy was still on the ground, now gasping instead of screaming. Harry took a step forward: the kid flinched back and put up an arm. He was afraid, Harry realized. Afraid of him. Harry didn't like that. He picked up a fork and threw it at the kid, needing to make that look stop. Others had looked at him like that, but it felt wrong when this kid did so.

There was a red light and the kid dropped to the floor, fork hitting the wall behind him. Harry stared, brain malfunctioning. What had he done? He stumbled forward, putting a hand over the kid's neck. Aunt Petunia was de- she left after too much blood came out of her neck. Was this kid...?

There was a weird beating in the kid's neck, like the one his cousin used to have, but slower. Harry let out a stuttering breath, the nervous energy lessening slightly. Then he picked up the kid- how light was this kid? Did he ever eat?- and walked out of the house. Halfway down the road, he put the kid down- out of sight, don't let him get hurt- and pulled out a lighter. He couldn't let any of them turn into monsters.


It took about four hours before the kid started waking up. Whatever Harry did apparently wore off. Interesting.

The kid groaned, then shot up, breathing heavily. He looked around, obviously confused before his eyes landed on Harry.

"Who are you?" the kid asked, scooting back.

"Harry," Harry said, voice flat. The kid was going to make that face again, the one that got Harry to knock him out with light because he hated it so much-

"You saved me?" the kid asked, still hesitant. Harry nodded.

The kid relaxed and smiled, "I'm Ron," the kid- Ron said, leaning forward, "Is my family okay? Did you-"

Harry interrupted him, "Family?"

"Yeah!" Ron said, "The people outside, or inside. They look like me, a bit..."

Ron kept talking as Harry processed what he said. Family? Harry never had one of those. The Dursleys had, but he was never a part of that.

He turned back to Ron, who was still talking, "And Charlie wanted to work with dragons. I think he was all about them before-"

"They're dead." Harry said without emotion.

Ron blinked, "What?"

"The people in your family. They're dead."

Ron stared for a minute, a look of devastation on his face, before shaking his head, "No."

Harry looked confused, "No?"

"No, we didn't survive this long for them to suddenly-" He broke off, shaking his head again. "You don't know them. They're probably still sleeping off whatever that guy did to them. They're fine."

Harry debated telling Ron that all of the people in and around the house as well as the house itself were now ash, but decided against it. Still, he couldn't let Ron go back.

"It is not safe to go back."

Ron stared at him, ears going red. "What? But I have to! That's my family, you-"

Harry growled, the tone too close to the Dursleys. Instantly, Ron shrank back, looking fearful again. Between the two, Harry preferred fear to anything like the Dursleys. But overall... he forced himself to calm down.

"It is not safe to go back."

He watched Ron take a breath and calm down, "Where is it safe to go then?" He asked, glancing and almost making eye contact with Harry.

Harry thought for a moment, then a place came to mind.


The shack Harry brought Ron to was old. It was also far away from where Ron had lived. Fortunately Ron knew how to hot wire a car- something his siblings taught him when they couldn't leave the house. Harry was surprised the things even moved.

There was a secret entrance to the shack, under some giant tree and near a bunch of rubble that might've once been a castle. Ron took one look at the place and sucked in a breath. Then he started talking.

"Okay, okay..." Ron muttered, looking around the shack, "Good security system out front, that should keep this place safe, but we should add a safe spot upstairs or a way to escape just in case. So we don't die-" Ron's voice cracked, and for a moment Harry thought he was going to lose it, but then he got himself back under control. He turned towards Harry. "Does that sound good?"

Harry didn't understand why Ron was asking him, but he nodded anyways. Ron beamed, making the same part of Harry that drove him to save Ron start purring.

Ron pointed towards the other room, "Okay, we can put a kitchen there..."

We? Harry thought, mind whirling Who's we?

" My bed can go away from the windows- which we need to put bars in- and in that corner there, and yours can go behind the doors so you can easily get in and out but you're a little protected if a monster slams the door open."

There is was again. Was Ron- did Ron think Harry was- or even wanted Harry-

"Does that work for you?" Ron asked, seeing the surprise on Harry's face. He turned red, "I know it's not the best strategy, but I thought... Would you rather have your bed somewhere else?"

"It is fine," Harry muttered, then pointed to the windows, hoping he read Ron right, "My weapons are going there."

Ron nodded, breathing a sigh of relief, "Weapons at the windows would be good. If a monster tries to get in then the weapons would fall on them. So, where should we store the extra food?"

Extra? Harry thought., What was Ron talking about?

But Harry didn't have time to ask. Ron was busy making plans, with Harry's input morphing them slightly. They worked long into the night.