Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter, this story is one of a new line of stories. I hope you like it.
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Summary - Escaping the Dursleys after discovering he could walk through shadows, Harry flees to London, hoping for a new life on the streets, but as he experiments with his abilities he comes across something devastating that will change his future. The Dursleys lied to him. His parents are alive, but when he discovers their reasons for leaving him, Harry decides on a new path.
Xxxx
Harry James Potter looked around the kitchen of Number 4 Privet Drive as he worked on finishing the Dursleys' pudding. He ignored their laughter and their pointless chatter, relieved he had a few moments of relative peace while he worked. He knew it wouldn't last, but as long as he had some kind of peace for the moment, he welcomed it.
The Dursleys hated him and the feeling was more than mutual. Harry was positive the Dursleys hated him because of the strange things that happened around him. Instead of hating himself since he had learnt abused children often hated themselves, meaning the abusers won, Harry had spent his time trying to grow.
In the meantime, he had the chance to think. But as always, his mind went back to the discovery he had made when he was six years old, concerning the strange powers he had. Powers that he was positive were the same ones the Dursleys punished him for having.
All his life, strange things had happened around Harry; a pen would come back to where he was working at school when he had wanted it back, appearing on top of the school roof after Dudley and his gang of neanderthals had chased him across the playground with the plan to beat him up, suddenly finding himself on the other side of the street after freezing in fright when a car sped towards him.
At first, particularly when it was just the small things like things coming back to him, Harry had just merely assumed them to be coincidences. But they were anything but; as he had grown older, they had become more frequent and their effects couldn't be ignored anymore.
Once he had made that realisation and when he had started to write a diary describing the different moments, it was not long before Harry discovered that strong emotions like anger and fear triggered them; beginning his experiments after that was far from difficult, and he had experimented with them ever since.
And the most amazing thing about his powers was there seemed to be no limit to what he could do; once inspired by a picture in a comic strip showing Spider-Man crawling up and down the side of a building before he fired his web-shooter to swing from building to building in New York City, Harry had tried wall-crawling himself. He had concentrated and wished really hard, and so he had climbed to see if he could cling to the building, and he could.
Flight was also possible; he had been reading another comic, this time an old Superman comic, and he had seen for himself Superman flying.
Again, inspired by the image, he had gone to a fairly isolated place in Little Whinging, and he had willed himself to fly, but he had discovered he could only float above the ground by only a few feet, but it was still an achievement.
Later, as his skills improved and his imagination ran rampant as he flicked or read through dozens of books he had found when he had taken refuge in the Little Whinging library, he had learnt how to move things with his mind, summoning them into the palm of his hand, and he had even learnt how to create fire like Charley from Stephen King's Firestarter. He had even learnt how to make his things go unnoticed as well as himself, which was a major boon for him at school since he just wanted to be left alone. It also kept his things safe.
But one of the most amazing discoveries he had made was when he had moved through the shadows.
He hadn't expected it, really, honestly.
Harry had been in his Cupboard under the Stairs, and he had leaned into one of the many shadows, wishing he had been somewhere else - ever since he had discovered how his powers worked, Harry had improved his methods in avoiding Dudley, but sometimes his luck ran out and sometimes his powers would act up and his supposed uncle and supposed aunt would find out, or something would go wrong, and he received a beating.
Hurting and in agony, Harry had wished he was somewhere else…and he had found himself stepping out of the shadows and in a different city. Harry had panicked and he had tried going back the same way; he regretted that since he could have been free of the Dursleys for good, but he had panicked and he had discovered a form of his power he hadn't expected.
Ever since that day, Harry had experimented with his shadow-walking ability. He found that if he had the idea, or the place in his mind, and a good enough shadow nearby, he could teleport from one place and appear instantly in the new location. He had discovered this power only a few months ago, and he had been getting better at it with each passing day, and he had plans to use it to escape somewhere where nobody could find him. Originally when he had discovered his powers, Harry had intended to just simply travel to London, but after seeing that city street (he still wasn't clear where it was), he realised with his shadow-walking ability, he could go anywhere he wanted. Everywhere was open to him. And there would be better opportunities out there for him than Little Whinging.
When Harry had discovered how to use his powers, it had been a godsend; the Dursleys had come up with a brand new punishment where if he did anything wrong then he would be thrown into the Cupboard for long periods without anything to eat. Sometimes he wouldn't eat anything but scraps or tatters of bread that was way past stale.
Discovering his powers allowed him to open the cupboard door and steal money for food. Dudley's room was the perfect place for him to go, given how much of a pig his cousin was; Dudley often left his money lying around in piles, and it was easy to pinch a few quid off of him.
His mind had sparked into life as he had imagined having a life like the characters in some of the books he had read in the library; he could meet a tiger like Shere Khan, go diving into the sea like Captain Nemo, travel in hot air balloons over Africa, meeting new people all over the world and living the life he wanted so much.
Harry was still daydreaming about his intentions to leave Privet Drive, picturing himself travelling all over the world, having adventures like the characters he had read in a book that he didn't immediately notice the Dursleys wanted something.
"Boy! Boy! Why are you standing there? Get over here and give us our puddings," Vernon shouted in frustration.
Harry jumped, and he cursed himself for letting his mind wander. He didn't bother offering any apologies to the Dursleys, since they would not take it well. He went over and served them, using his powers to stop the Dursleys from grabbing him or tripping him up; one of Dudley's old favourite tactics was to watch him and then subtly trip him up. Harry had learnt how to watch his feet and the floor while keeping watch on the older Dursleys, but there were times Dudley succeeded. He was convinced Vernon and Petunia put him up to it, just to give them an excuse.
But with his powers, it was easy for him to avoid the Dursleys.
As he got back to the kitchen, Harry considered what he was going to do. He was practically ready to escape already; his backpack was filled, and all he needed to do was to leave the letter he had written and then he would leave.
Xxxx
Petunia Dursley followed a specific routine when she woke up. She had always been an early riser and it gave her the time to use the shower and apply her makeup. Once she was finished, she went downstairs, making enough noise as she did so to wake the freak up, although he was probably already awake by now and was waiting to be let out of the cupboard. Ever since the day, the damned brat had appeared with the letter, she had never been able to believe what she had learnt, and it made her smug to know she was the better of the Evans sisters.
Petunia banged on the door. "UP! WAKE UP! NOW!" She called through the door before she walked off to begin breakfast; well, the freak would be the one who'd prepare breakfast, but it was good to do something in the kitchen. A few minutes later, she walked back to the cupboard when she realised the little freak hadn't come out.
"Are you up yet?" She demanded furiously.
No response.
Petunia yanked the door open, preparing to give the boy a tongue lashing, but the moment her brain processed what her eyes were telling her, she could not believe it.
The freak was gone.