Warning: Child Abuse

With the seed of information Remus gave him growing in his head, Harry came to the conclusion that he had to directly confront James. There was no way he could ignore this. This confrontation had been long since coming, he assured his reflection in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. He tried to comb through his thick black locks, but they refused to lie flat. At last, with Muggle hair spray, ironically enough, he got it to lie neatly past his ears and his fringe covering his left eye. Just how he liked it.

"Harry! Hurry up in there!" Luka banged on the door, and Harry jumped.

"Patience, brother," Harry snapped back, fastening the last button of his shirt, and grabbing his makeup. James hadn't been as bad lately, but he still had to cover a particularly nasty bruise on the side of his jaw. The concealer he was using had taken hours to find! Practically no brands catered to skin as pale as his. Unlocking the door, Luka shoved past him, his eyes deadset on the toilet.

"Merlin, Harry! You take hours in the bathroom. You're such a girl," Luka said, though he was smiling.

"Sexist much?" teased Harry, and laughed when Luka made a face.

"Now I really need to go, so get out!"

Harry rolled his eyes as the door slammed in his face. Heading downstairs, he planned out exactly what he was going to say. But then he heard voices in the living room.

"-and why would I do that?" A snide sounding voice said.

"-I know we weren't on the best of terms-"

They both stopped talking as they noticed Harry standing at the threshold.

"Good morning, Harry," James said, with a relieved smile on his face. Harry glanced curiously at the serious looking man standing across from James with a murderous expression on his face.

"Good morning, James,"

Snape appeared surprised by the venom in Harry's words, but it James himself wasn't.

"This man is Severus Snape, a Professor at Hogwarts. He's going to be tutoring you," He said, with a glare directed towards Snape, as if daring him to say otherwise. He didn't get a chance to. Harry beat him to it.

"Snape as in the man you've ranted about who supposedly tried to steal Lily from you? If that's even remotely the case, I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to tutor the person who murdered her," Both men flinched at his tone.

"I don't like your attitude, Harry," James reprimanded in a voice that made Snape's blood freeze.

Harry paled- something Snape hadn't thought was possible- but didn't back down. He couldn't, he was in too deep. He was going to be punished anyway, so might as well finish what he'd started. He opened his mouth with a snarky retort on the tip of his tongue, but he was interrupted.

"Looks like you've found an interesting way to raise children, James. Bullying them, just like you do to everyone else," Snape sneered, staring at Harry with disgust, "No wonder they've turned out to be murderers-"

Hot rage boiled up inside of him at the thought of being compared to his father. Without thinking, Harry lunged, his first crashing into Snape's nose. Snape stumbled, his feet not supporting his weight, and fell into the sofa, tipping it over. The sofa jostled the coffee table laden with glass fineries, which promptly shattered into pieces as they smashed into the floor. Snape cursed loudly, clutching his broken, bleeding nose. Luka chose then to walk into the living room, "Good morn- Whoa! What happened here,"

Harry gulped guiltily, looking down at his clenched fist.

"An accident?" he said, though it came out as a question.

"An accident, my arse," James ran his fingers through his hair, surveying the damage. At times like these, it was easy for James to feel justified about the abuse.

"You can forget about the tutoring, Potter," Snape sneered, back on his feet.

Harry just had to get in the last word, "Like we wanted your services anyway, lover boy,"

Snape apparated away. Leaving James to wonder whether to punish Harry or reward him. Seeing the gleeful look in Harry's eyes, he made his decision.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

James didn't dare touch him until the door was closed. But the moment the telltale click of the lock was heard, James reached out. Grabbing a fistful of Harry's tousled tresses, he kicked him to the floor. Gasping for breath, Harry looked up just in time to dodge a push kick to his ribs. James froze for an instant. Harry never dodged or fought back. He had always just gritted his teeth with resignation and accepted the blows. But now, there was a glint in his eyes that James didn't like.

"Child abuse," Harry panted out, just as James had raised his fist.

"What did you say?" James snarled, but the fear on his face was unmistakable.

"Child abuse, is what you're doing," he repeated, unflinchingly, "It's illegal, you know. So you should probably be more careful about covering your tracks,"

"Where did you learn that?" James demanded, ignoring the last part.

"I read," Unlike you, he thought.

"You think this is abuse? You haven't seen real abuse. I could have starved you, I could have raped you. You think this discipline is tough? Well maybe if you showed respect like Luka does, then it wouldn't be necessary," was what James said on the outside, but on the inside he was distraught.

'What if he starts lying to people, telling them that I abuse him? It wouldn't be that far from a lie, as I haven't been the most loving father...But he's a monster. Not a boy. A monster. A murderer,' he reminded himself. Harry had gotten back to his feet, so James reached out and smashed his fist into Harry's nose. Blood dripped in rivulets. Red blood. Human blood.

"Don't...Just don't go around punching people. Okay?" James said, shaken. Looking down at the blood on his hands, James shivered. I need to get him away from me. He brings out the worst of me. It's what should have been done a long time ago. Leaving the room, James started on his preparations to send Harry away to Darkness Boarding school for the wealthy.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry stood in front of the warmly decorated school building, with its red brick walls, and wood furnishes. He idly kicked the side of his trunk, wondering if punching Snape was worth being shipped away to some Muggle boarding school. Only until my Hogwarts letter arrives, he reminded himself. Only three more years, before I'm learning magic.

The door swung open, jolting Harry out of his musings. A girl who didn't appear to be much older than him looked down at him, with an almost dead look on her eyes. They stood there in the cold for a moment, as she took in his messy hair and bony arms.

Finally she spoke, but what she said left Harry hoping that she hadn't, "A word of advice. Keep your head up, your eyes open, and your feet off the ground. That's how you survive at Darkness Academy,"

Harry had a feeling that he wouldn't be thinking about Hogwarts any time soon.

A/N: Sorry about the stupid boarding school crap. This isn't totally random, I actually have a reason for this, as you'll find out soon. He'll still be going to Hogwarts, but we've still got two more chapters to go before that. And BTW, what did you think of Harry punching Snape in the nose. I've always wanted to write that, but eleven year olds don't go around punching teachers so I figured it would make more sense for an angsty eight year old to do it instead. Please review. War out!