Remember When You Were Little

Chapter 1

It was cold.

VERY cold.

So cold that little Harry had already stopped violently trembling a long time ago, and was instead being warmed up by his increasingly flaming fever.

But it was still freezing, without a doubt, and bone soaking wet; from which Harry learned by sitting in the Dursley's muddy backyard, hugging his small knees to his chest in a fetal position, dressed in Dudley's baggy castoffs.

It was already the midnight of Hallows Eve, and while the weather had been brisk and chilly 5 hours earlier, it was nothing but deathly cold and wet now.

During the early evening, when the parade of children dressed in their costumes were demanding their yearly candy from each house in the neighborhood, Harry had been forlornly looking out the window as groups of children passed by his house, laughing and showing off their new found candy to their friends while they ran from the next house to the next.

The small lad had so badly wanted to join the other group of trick-or-treaters and partake in their nightly fun of running and screaming and stuffing themselves with chocolate and other assortments of sweets, but he knew he wasn't allowed, even without the order laced with disdain given by his Aunt P'tunia, and also because the other children would most likely avoid him.

But harry was okay with this, the children never played with him either, so why should trick-or-treating be any different. He would probably get shoved to the ground, as always, and have his candy stolen by his cousin, Dudley.

Dudley, always the one to get whatever he wanted, had chosen to dress up as a pirate this year, and after much flaunting and jeering off at his small cousin that was without a costume, laughed over his shoulder and skipped out the door, with his similarly fat father, Vernon Dursley, hobbling after him.

Harry was instead given his remaining long list of chores to do from the day, being shoved into his small hands by his sneering aunt, and sharply told to start on them immediately.

Which was also the reason why he was now being brutally yanked by the ear in surprise, and dragged to the back door; after being caught for not wiping the window ledges, and was instead being distracted by the events happening outside.

"So you'd like to go outside instead of doing your chores like a lazy brat, don't you?" Petunia hissed menacingly in his ear.

"Then you can stay outside like a dog until you learn to do your job properly!" and with that, little Harry was grabbed by his neck and harshly thrown out across the backyard.

His head barely missed colliding with a brick that was bordering the garden, while his body skidded into the grass with great force, landing in a heap.

Petunia slammed the door and walked into the living room with a turn on her heels and without a second look behind her back, unfolding a magazine as she waited for the first groups of trick-or-treaters to stop by her door.

While Harry checked his newly developed bruises (a large growing bump on his head and a few rather noticeable crescent-shaped nail marks on his neck) he decided to calmly wait by sitting down on the back doorsteps as he fervently hoped he would still get a morsel of food tonight.

The minutes ticked away and became several hours later when trick-or-treating was done for the night and Dudley and Vernon finally returned home.

Harry knew this when he heard the familiar shout of Dudley's as he exclaimed at the top of his lungs the plethora amount of candy he'd gotten and showing off to his horse-like mother the full sack of candy he'd gotten for the night.

Petunia immediately began to fawn over her little 'candy-looting pirate' as she told him not to "eat all the candy in one night, otherwise you'll get a tummy-ache, Duddykins!" in a loving and cheery tone; although her heeding went unheard as Dudley began shoveling fistfuls of candy into his mouth.

Vernon's loud voice then joined in as he spoke of the proudness for his son as he described of the events that occurred, "Oh, he was a real winner, got to every house on every street and always ahead of the other children, always first!"

Dudley purposefully left out the parts of where he deliberately shoved a few boys and girls down to get to the door first, or perhaps he was too preoccupied in gulping down the delicious sweet candy that he'd stolen from them too, to bother to correct his father of his story.

Harry heard all of this and more as he listened to their joyful chattering and shouts, but none he heard about himself or questions of his whereabouts.

He desperately hoped his auntie would remember that he was still outside so he could return to the warmth inside the house, and perhaps snag something that would ease his growling stomach for a little while.

But she never had the chance to remember, as she and the rest of the family members continued conversing until they retired to their rooms were already fast asleep upstairs, leaving Harry to be forgotten outside in the cold.

He had hoped that it wouldn't get any colder than it already was, cold enough that he could see his own foggy breath, but he was terribly wrong when the first drop of rain landed on his small nose.

The rain had suddenly decided to incessantly pour over the small black-haired head that sat in the midst of it all, as he uselessly tried to press himself closer under the thin, roofless ledge of the door.

His attempts at staying dry were in vain as he was continually pelted by the rain, until he slowly gave up when couldn't feel his lower body anymore, mostly from the numbing coldness that the rain had brought.

A boom of lightning flashed across the sky, but he didn't feel scared as he started to drift into a trance-like state.

He felt sleepy now, as his eyelids started drooping, and he had a final thought, At least if I pass out now, I won't feel the cold anymore… But he also realized that he was going to soon die alone.

But someone's voice stopped him from dying just yet.

Harry

The child slowly jerked his eyelids open as he heard a sweet voice resonate inside his mind.

Harry, my sweet child, said the sweet sounding voice.

Did somebody really call for me? He thought, as he became more fully aware. Rarely anybody called him by his name, he'd been usually called 'freak' or 'boy' so many times; he would often forget his name.

Little one, you can't go to sleep just yet.

It was most likely just a dream, no one ever spoke to him in such a loving way, yet he heard it again. Did people normally hallucinate just before they died?

Someone is coming to save you soon, love, I promise.

Harry opened his eyes wider as he peered lifelessly at the pouring rain through the fringe that covered his eyes. He tried to remember in the deeply hidden recesses of his mind why the voice sounded so familiar to him, from a time long ago. It sounded almost…motherly…

"Mummy…?" he whispered hoarsely, as the words, Someone is coming, continued to echo in his mind; but not before the ghost of Lily Evans disappeared from Privet Drive.

I apologize for the long wait, even though there's nothing really new, I've recently been studying up for something that took up a whole month's time, even though new ideas were just burning in my mind….rest assured the next chapter is coming its actually almost written right now, and don't forget to leave a review, its what spreads the fame around :D