5 o'clock was approaching and Harry knew he would soon have to face the reality of his new life. In the last 24 hours he had been whisked away from school and set up at the house of Mrs. White. All of its residents were energetic and the house had a personality. Then the fire happened and Harry was whisked to a new place.

Wool's Orphanage.

A place filled to the brim with dread and misery. The seams in the walls almost oozed misery and conduct.

He felt alone in his small room, sitting tightly against the bed wishing he could be wrapped around his bear. Harry couldn't convince himself that changing his clothes into the straight uniform was even worth the effort he had given it.

But when the clock on the desk glowed 5:00 in red letters, Harry was happy he had already changed. His stomach was growling from the exertion of climbing up the hill and eating solely hospital food that day.

His feet almost trembled beneath him, unused and had fallen asleep long ago from his unmoved position. The black uniform shoes didn't squeak as he shuffled along the floor towards the door.

Looking down at his clutched hand, he thought about the fact that he would never see his bear again. His most prized possession had slowly and painfully burned in the house that had caught fire. The world was such a cruel place for Harry, every joy he had in his life was always ripped away from him. Harry would have to toughen up, he would have to wipe the tears with his eyes and continue with his life. Become a hardened shell impenetrable by kindness and the love that always hurt him.

The knob on the door was relatively stiff, most likely from being opened very few times and it took Harry a couple himself to get it opened.

When he did he believed that the dreary hallway ahead of him stretched on forever. And with every step, it appeared to elongate itself further, giving him an even longer distance to travel.

His nerves were on fire when he finally reached the staircase. Instead of galloping downwards at once, he paused at the top to steady his breathing.

Harry was in a new place, with new people, with new clothes, with a new life. Nothing was what he had ever know. Harry wouldn't know anyone and no one would know Harry. It was a place for a fresh start with no one to know his story. He could be anyone he wanted to be.

After multiple deep breaths, he gained the courage he needed to descend the stairs. At the bottom he followed the smell of food through an archway which opened up into a somber room filled to the brim with decorations of different shades of grey.

The separation of this room compared to the rest of the house was well defined. Your eyes were drawn immediately to it. The center table meant for fine dining was topped precariously with a basket of flowers. The red of them popped against the grey. Above the centered red was glass. An elegant crystal glass chandelier hung down from the ceiling overhead. The glass glinted in the light as one moved around it.

"Nice of you to join us Harry." Called Jonathan from the head of the table. His deep voice boomed across the silence and startled Harry from his reverie. "What time did I tell you dinner was to be at?"

Noticing the long table was seated with children of all ages, all of whom were staring at him, Harry lost his nerve and transformed into a nervous wreck.

He was barely able to get out a response, "Fi-fi-five o'clock." He looked expectantly at Harry when he paused in his answer, before Harry continued, "Sir."

He spoke to Harry, with an air of superiority and Harry got the feeling there would be no fun or, according to Vernon, funny business around him. Jonathan had the same hawk eyes his uncle had, which could seek out every mistake Harry could do, and they had already begun their strenuous work.

"I said to be here at five o'clock. Then why would you decide to be late?"

Harry couldn't comprehend a good reason so he merely stated exactly what had happened merely minutes ago, "I waited till my clock said five, before coming down here Sir."

"Clearly that made you late."

"Yes sir." Harry answered

"Will you repeat this mistake again?"

Content with single worded answers, Harry gladly let the man continue with his questions. "No sir."

"When I say five o'clock, I mean 5 o'clock promptly. That goes for any time I specify. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Then take a seat."

Harry gazed at the table looking for an empty seat for him to place himself. He found the only one to be located near the center of the table where some older boys had already been situated.

He could feel the stares of everyone following him as he circled the table. But more specifically, as he approached he could hear the older boys whispering and could see some slight hand gestures between them.

They all silenced when the scraping of the chair being pulled outwards resounded through the room. No one commented as he precariously balanced himself on the edge of the chair and pulled himself backwards, his legs too short to reach the ground.

Jonathan was looking up again at Harry, and when it seemed he was going to pester him again, everyone returned their attention to their food. But Harry was not forgotten in their minds.

The younger boys deemed him worthy to play outside with them on a later date. The girls decided he wasn't worth their effort. The older boys marked him with a big red x on his forehead, he was their new target. A plaything for them to team up and mess with, the way Dudley and his friends had done previously. Any pranks or mischief would be done to Harry and the blame would be put on him.

But Harry didn't know this. His innocent mind was content to believing that all the children around him, since they were orphaned like him, they were like him. He assumed they would all be kind to him and include him in their plans.

However wrong Harry could be, their first torturous plan was already in motion, and Harry didn't suspect a thing.

His plate, like the others, had already been served and was resting at his seat.

A steaming glob of meat took up the majority of his plate, unrecognizable due to the sauce topping it. It deserved the title of being mystery meat. Bright orange carrot slices took up a quarter of the plate. The rest of the plate was filled with peas. All things which Harry had never eaten before. Harry felt the urge to tasted the three foods separately and savor each flavor. The divine green peas and orange carrots looked absolutely-

Green peas.

And orange carrots.

The two colors mixing in between where there was no divider.

They mustn't touch.

Thoughts of the two colors clashing in his mind and his concentration on separating the two with his knife prevented him from noticing his surroundings.

He was encircled by older orphan boys. Whom had been giving each other peculiar glances. Glances which Harry took no notice of. In other words, he was the perfect unsuspecting victim of any cruel school boy.

While he loaded his first spoonful of green peas, and opened his mouth to consume them, an elbow from the boy on his right jutted sharply into his ribs underneath his raised arm. He gasped out in surprise and pain as he was collided with. His eyes went wide and his arm was thrown off balance. The fork dropped the small distance from his hand to the plate and the peas were dispelled across his plate and the table. The mixture of the orange and green vegetables appeared once more on his plate and he scrambled to correct them.

In the process of leaning forward to separate them, the boy on his left had pulled his chair back. And instead of jumping forward to clean his plate, Harry jumped forward to put his head in his food.

The boys around him boisterously laughed, and Harry's cheeks turned embarrassingly red.

Reaching forward to grab a napkin, Harry took a gaze around the room. Everyone looked an equal amount of surprised and horrified. That is, except for Jonathan, who was fuming at the head of the table. It seemed that the man had already taken a disliking to Harry and would use anything as reason to punish him.

"This is not acceptable behavior." he fumed.

An intense fear crept over Harry. This was his first day being at this house and he was already in trouble. He had expertly managed to piss off any authoritative person without doing anything.

They wouldn't be helping him with anything. At all. Harry was on his own. He could already tell that the red x on his forehead had grown and was visible to everyone at the table instead of just the boys.

"May I be excused?" Harry whispered, hoping to get out of there as fast as possible.

"We will have a chat after dinner, until then, stay in your room." He declared threateningly pointing a fork towards Harry and the door.

His small feet scrambled to get underneath himself as he stumbled out of the room. Harry could feel the eyes of everyone following him, heads turning, as he left.

He didn't need to sit alone in his room for long, he was late for dinner and when he hadn't even started, everyone had been nearly finished. Harry could hear the sound of chairs scraping against the floor as everyone stood up.

His stomach growled thinking about the dinner he just missed, but he couldn't care. He was used to being hungry.

Harry imagined he could hear an extremely heavy set of footsteps climbing the stairs along with the flurry of children scurrying up the stairs. He imagined they would be giving him a wide berth as he tromped away.

The anger would turn his face red and steam would blow out of his ears and nose. Arguably, in Harry's mind he looked like the devil, coming to bring hell to anyone who dared to defy him.

And in that case, it was Harry.

It was surprising that when Jonathan entered, the door didn't slam open. Instead, it silently clicked open and slowly spun into the room.

Maybe it was for the dramatics, because Harry didn't notice anyone else in his room until Jonathan had his feet planted firmly in front of Harry. He nearly jumped sky high when the shock hit him and he noticed the man.

"Look at me." He growled.

Harry only got a glimpse of the thunderous expression before his head was tossed quickly to the side.

"Look at me when I am speaking to you."

A red mark had already begun to develop on his cheek and he hesitantly lifted a hand to his face as he turned back to Jonathan.

Jonathan moved his hands to his hips in a sort of offensive position and Harry feared for the worst.

"Do not ever behave like that again." He said, punctuating each word. "Do not ever disobey me again."

Harry mutely nodded along to everything he said, wishing for him to simply leave. He had already started tuning him out and stopped listening to everything he said.

Thankfully it seemed his rampage was coming to an end, "If you ever embarrass me like that in front of anyone again, you will be punished."

When his final words filled Harry's mind, the towering man left the room, closing the door behind him, filling the room with silence.

Hardy could hear the laughter of the children in the rooms next to him die down as Jonathan travelled through the hall then start back up as he passed.

He sat for a couple more minutes before he decided Jonathan would leave him for the rest of the evening. Then, once certain he was gone, Harry stood.

He ran across the hall to the washroom and locked the door behind him, not wanting anyone to walk in on him.

Looking in the mirror, he thought he looked grey. As if the house were closing in on him, and its greyness was rubbing on him. The uniform he wore was still cleanly pressed despite being worn.

He ripped them off, feeling like he was ridding himself of his jail and gaining freedom.

The warm water flowed around his body, creating arrows and rivulets along his body. His feet reddened from the heat and grew wrinkled.

Harry stood there for a while simply enjoying the feel of warm water heating him up and drowning his sorrows.

And when it was time to get out, he also felt saddened as he pulled on his clothes.

They were a marker of his new life, confining him to the walls of this house.

He stumbled back to his room and feeling exhausted, only able to shut the door behind him, he crawled onto his bed and slept. He didn't have the effort to cry, he knew it would be useless as his life wouldn't get better here.

xXx

Harry's dreams were plagued by his reality.

He'd seen angered teachers, guardians, adults. All because of something he'd done.

But it didn't matter to him. He didn't care.

Instead of waking up in fear like he would from any of his nightmares, Harry woke up silently, staring ahead at the ceiling. He felt nothing-except hunger.

His stomach growled loudly. Harry hadn't eaten dinner earlier that night, and when falling asleep he had completely forgotten about it.

But he couldn't forget about it now, his stomach felt like it was curling in on itself and was sending signals of pain to his mind.

Irritated, he took matters into his own hands. He hopped out of bed as quiet as he could and crept down the hall and to the kitchen.

Silver light from the moon streamed in through a window Harry never realized existed. It illuminated the room little, and cast shadows all around. In the dark, the room looked the same as during the day, grey.

It wasn't hard for Harry to find the fridge. He easily pulled it open and the light filled the room.

A glance around the room showed that no one had seen or reacted to the bright light.

Hungrily he pulled out a small bag of grapes and picked out a full vine. The fridge door drifted closed on its own accord and Harry winced at the noise. He paused for only a second to establish that no one was coming to investigate. Then he proceeded to wash his green delicacy under a small stream of water and munch on them.

Suddenly Harry had an idea.

He pulled out a single egg from a carton that was in the fridge.

He held it lightly in both hands, carefully, to not let it go flying if he were to trip.

The living room was less than a second away and Harry started to develop some nerves. He was jumpy and nearly screamed every time he planted his foot down and the floor creaked.

He crawled under the table and set the egg gently on the chair. He froze when the chandelier in the room went on, his entire body tenses to either fight or flight.

"Who's in here?" Called a cleaning lady who did chores around the house.

Harry stayed still as a statue as she moved away and waited what seemed an eternity. Certain that she was gone and the egg wouldn't move, he left the room and made his getaway.

The path to his new room was shorter than ever and Harry crawled back into bed to sleep and await the prank he had already put in motion.