Harry wasn't with the Dursleys very long, at least he didn't think he was, before the day came that they took him to an orphanage, and left him there.
He thinks this might have happened because they don't like living with a monster. Or maybe it was his eyes. They never seemed to like them much either.
Well, either way, he was dropped off at an orphanage, and in short order, put in a corner room on the fourth floor, one with a window that overlooked the small yard surrounded by dead trees.
The woman who led him to his room asked him his name, and he told her "Harry". When she asked for his last, he had nothing to say, because he didn't know, and her weary blue, soon changed to confused white.
She asked how old he was next, when his birthday was, and again, he couldn't answer her, because he didn't know. Or maybe he simply didn't have one? The Dursleys always celebrated their birthdays, but never once had he encountered a day set aside just for him.
Maybe monsters didn't have birthdays, and only humans did.
That must be the case, Harry decided, and since he was a monster without a birthday, that meant that he also didn't have an age, so even if he wanted to tell the woman how old he was, he realized that he couldn't, because he wasn't any age at all.
The woman turned darker purple at his silence, and when she turned to look at him, her eyes stopped on his neck, and she quickly turned orange, her eyes growing wide.
Harry thought that orange must be the color of shock.
The woman left quickly after that, closing the bedroom door behind her, and Harry settled down on his first real bed, in his first real room, and turned to face the window.
He wasn't with the Dursleys anymore, but nothing had really changed.
The sky was still blue, the clouds were still white, and Harry wondered whether or not he would die (wake up) tonight.
Maybe he would feel more real if he stopped sleeping.
He stared at his reflection in the window, and pitch black eyes stared back. He reached out to touch the cool glass of the window, and his reflection did the same, until it almost looked like he was palm to palm with another him.
He wondered which of them was real.
He wondered if he was dreaming.
He wondered.