Author's Notes: As I said in the last chapter, the real divergence from canon begins from the end of Chamber of Secrets. But it is coming soon. I don't intend to cover first or second years. They proceed as per canon. The reasons behind this & the differences will be explained as flashbacks at appropriate points.

Another point is that while Harry will be smart, perceptive and sly, he will still have some Gryffindor traits in him. I intend to make him a hybrid between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

So folks read, review and most importantly, enjoy! This is my first fic, so please be gentle. I don't mind criticism, as long as it is constructive. By the way, English is not my native language, so please forgive some minor grammatical mistakes, if there are any! If pointed out, I'll try to correct them. Although I have already got most of the story planned, I am open to suggestions and will try to incorporate them as long as they don't alter the story too much!

Note that fiction rating may change!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and associated characters are NOT mine! So lawyers, keep away!

Chapter 2: Ten Years Later

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the morning when Mrs Dursley had found Harry. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.

But Harry Potter was still there. He had spent last ten years of his life being bullied and punished for things he didn't do or could not explain. There were times when Dudley and his gang were on their favourite pastime – Harry hunting – which involved chasing Harry and beating him to a pulp; and he miraculously found himself out of their reach. There was one time when his teacher had been scolding him for getting low marks when his hair had turned blue. Unexplained stuff like this often happened around him. No matter how much he said he hadn't done it, he was always punished. The Dursleys would beat him and lock him up in his bedroom, which happened to be the cupboard under the stairs, without food, for days. Dudley often got some sort of reward and praise for beating Harry up. Fortunately for Harry – he had realised that his injuries always healed way faster than anybody else – without any medical treatment. Unfortunately, the Dursleys had realised it too. So they weren't afraid of anybody finding out about the abuse he suffered. As long as he didn't receive any fatal wound, he couldn't do anything; as he had found out when he tried telling his teacher. She didn't believe him and informed the Dursleys that he was spreading nasty lies. It had earned him the most brutal beating till date – resulting in a broken arm and a month in the cupboard, with only one meal per day. It was at this point that Harry stopped trusting adults – and especially – authority figures.

Needless to say, Harry was small and skinny for his age. But this came to be an advantage while shaking off Dudley and his gang. The only thing he liked about his appearance was a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He remembered asking Aunt Petunia about it when he was six. Aunt Petunia had shaved off his head except a tiny fringe she had left to hide that awful scar.

"Aunt Petunia, how did I get this scar?"

"In the accident when your parents died. And don't ask questions."

Don't ask questions. This was the first rule for peaceful coexistence with Dursleys, well – as peaceful as it could be!

Harry had been told that his parents had died in a car accident. There were no photographs of them. When he tried to remember them, all he could remember was a lot of green light and a cackle of cold, cruel laughter. Aunt Petunia had told him it was the accident. Harry found it odd. Why would there be laughter in an accident? But he could not ask his aunt and uncle.

Living with Dursleys had sharpened Harry's survival instincts. He was not the dumb idiot his teachers made him out to be. He only played that part to avoid punishment for being smarter than Dudley. As a matter of fact, he was smarter than most boys of his age. He was quite perceptive. He had realized that all those freaky things – as Aunt Petunia had called them – happened only when he was angry or scared. Afterwards he was often left exhausted. He had also felt something rise within him before those things happened. He had tried to make those things happen consciously when he was locked up in his cupboard, but he never succeeded. He managed to get the feeling of something rising inside him, but it felt much weaker, like something was blocking it.

There were times when he found strangers – and very strange strangers at that, for they were wearing strange clothes – staring at him. Once an excitable old man had bowed to him and shaken his hand. When he tried to look closely, he found that the man had simply vanished. His aunt, after asking if he knew the man, had taken him home immediately. Thankfully he wasn't punished for that.

It was Dudley's eleventh birthday when Harry accidently discovered that he could talk to snakes. The Dursleys had been forced to take him to the zoo with them because they couldn't find anyone to take him in for the day. Their cat obsessed neighbour, Mrs Figg, who usually took care of Harry while the Dursleys were away, had broken her leg and Vernon's sister Marge was ill. Harry suggested them to leave him at home but it fell on deaf ears. They said that they didn't want the house blown up. So after much debate and a Dudley tantrum, they had decided to take him with them, but with the warning that there would be hell to pay if anything strange happened.

It happened when they were in the reptile house, watching snakes. Dudley had quickly found the largest snake in the place. It was sleeping. Dudley and Uncle Vernon tried to wake it up by tapping the glass. Harry felt pity for the poor creature. It was kept captive and wasn't even allowed to sleep peacefully. It was then that Harry heard a hissing sound –

"Stupid humanssss, can't let me sleep peacefully!"

Harry was astonished. He could understand the snake. He decided to talk to it.

"Hello there, you get a lot of that, don't you?"

"Yessss human, How can you understand me?"

"I don't really know," replied a puzzled Harry. "Where do you come from, anyway?"

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on:

This specimen was bred in the zoo.

"Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. "Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they were inside the glass and the snake was outside.

As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry heard a low, hissing voice say, "Thanksssssss"

The escape of the Boa Constrictor had earned Harry his longest punishment yet. By the time he got out of his cupboard, July was almost over. Harry found out that he would be going to local Stonewell High while Dudley would be going to Smeltings, Uncle Vernon's old school. Harry was glad about that. Without Dudley around, his life would be much easier. He wouldn't have to hold back his true potential there. He wouldn't be punished for all the things Dudley did. He might even be able to find some friends since Dudley wouldn't be there to scare them off.

It was a day before his birthday that Harry found a letter addressed to him among the mail he was ordered to get. He found the letter very odd. To begin with, it wasn't ordinary paper. It was thick yellowish parchment. Another thing was the way it was addressed –

Mr H. Potter
Cupboard under the Stairs
4, Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey

Who could be writing to him? He hadn't received any letters before. Who could possibly know that he lived in the cupboard? Before he could think further, Uncle Vernon was yelling at him to hurry up. Being cautious, he stowed his letter in his pocket and gave the remaining letters to Uncle Vernon. He wasn't sure if he would be allowed to read his letter if the Dursleys saw it. He decided to read the letter when he was safely inside his cupboard.

He never found time to read his letter during the day because his aunt kept giving him chores after chores. He had noticed that she had been a bit tense for last couple of weeks, as if she was anticipating something. Harry found it odd, but as usual, couldn't ask her about it, not that he wanted to. So when he went to bed after dinner, he enthusiastically opened his letter. It said –

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
Order of Merlin, First Class
Grand Sorcerer
Chief Warlock
Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards

Dear Mr Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. Someone will be at you residence soon to explain this to your guardians and take you shopping for school.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress

Harry was furious. So this was some huge joke Dursleys had planned for his birthday. His first instinct was to tear the letter and throw it away. But, as he calmed down, he realized that Dursleys wouldn't bother to remember his birthday. There was a tiny chance that it might be true. After all, those freaky things, what if it was all magic? So he decided he'd wait for this person. Even if it was a joke, he could hardly do anything about it. He tossed the letter aside and lay down waiting for midnight when he will be eleven years old.

The Dursleys usually ignored his birthday. He had found out about it only after he had started going to school. When he was five, he had asked his aunt why his birthday wasn't celebrated. He was told that freaks like him didn't deserve birthdays and was given four days in cupboard for asking questions.

As the clock struck midnight, there was a loud knock on the door. Harry wondered who would be calling at such a late hour. He heard Uncle Vernon thundering down the stairs to open the door. As Harry came out, he saw the largest man he had ever seen standing on the doorstep.

"WHO THE RUDDY HELL ARE YOU?" roared uncle Vernon.

The man paid no heed to him and looked straight at Harry. "Hullo Harry!" he said, "Las' time I saw yeh, yeh was only a baby, yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

When Harry woke up the next morning, he decided that last night must have been a dream. A giant called Hagrid had come and told him that he was a wizard and the letter wasn't a hoax. He had taken him to London – on a weird purple coloured bus called the Knight Bus – where they had spent rest of the night at an inn called The Leaky Cauldron. He had also told him that his parents didn't die in a car crash, they were murdered by an evil wizard – Lord Voldemort – though Hagrid called him You-Know-Who, that he was famous and that his parents had left him some money for his education. He had also found out that Aunt Petunia had known about all this. Hagrid had also made them give him Dudley's second bedroom and had given Dudley a pigs' tail when Vernon insulted the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. So when he opened his eyes and found himself not in his cupboard but in the room at The Leaky Cauldron, he was pleasantly surprised. At first he considered the possibility that all of this might be a huge joke planned by the Dursleys. But then, the Dursleys had no sense of humour.

Author's Notes: Thanks to all those who reviewed, though I admit there wasn't much to review in the first chapter. Hope you continue doing so.

DukeBrymin: The idea behind 5000 pounds was that Dumbledore basically bribed them to raise Harry. This will have some significance later.

James018: As I said in Chapter 1, they will not be super power type. The same goes for cunning as well. After all Dumbledore is the master of manipulations; he has been doing it for ages. Harry & Ginny will be successful at first, but eventually make mistakes; otherwise the story will be extremely boring. As far as maturity is concerned, they will be slightly mature due to their pasts; but they won't be all grown up type. Also Harry is taking a path separate from both Voldemort and Dumbledore, there is bound to be some bashing. But I'll try to keep it moderate. And as of now Dumbledore is only misguided, not evil. That may change if too many people want to see evil Dumbles. I'll put up a poll when I need to decide this. On the other hand Dumbledore is never gonna take orders from Harry; as I have seen in many fics. It's just weird!

Anyway thanks again. Hope you liked this chapter. Please Review.