Vernon Dursley frowned darkly as he stalked down the street in front of his house in the middle of the night, glancing back and forth constantly to see if anyone was watching him as he tried to be furtive and discrete...although if anyone had been there to see, his very behavior would have drawn more attention than whatever he was attempting to do. Admittedly, his constant muttering of 'Damn freaks', 'show them', 'not my responsibility' and the like disturbed the quiet of the night to quite the degree, he lucked out as no one was around to care about his actions...or about the basket he gripped in one ham-fisted hand, or its contents. The basket had only been left on their doorstep a few nights ago, but Vernon was not about to let anyone dictate his life or the lives of his family...and the brat in the basket he did not consider family.
"I'll just tell Pet that the freaks came and took him back," he muttered under his breath as he reached his destination. Due to the odd activity of the past few days, work on repairing some pipes in the sewer had been delayed, and the manhole that was being used for access was left barricaded off but uncovered rather than having to lift it every day that work needed doing. "They'd have to find the brat before they could bring him back to try and make us take him again..." Tilting an ear, he smirked as he could hear water rushing through the sewers echoing up from the hole. "And good luck finding him down there!" Without hesitation, he tossed the basket into the open hole, grinning as he heard a splash that was quickly overwritten by the rushing of the water. Feeling no guilt over what he had done - and not caring if the basket had even landed right side up or had dumped its contents into the water - he turned and marched home with a grin on his face, considering his biggest problem solved for good.
In the sewer, the basket bobbed along in the water, its burden carefully protected by the charms that had been left on the basket when it had originally been left on the Dursleys doorstep, and from the magic in the child's very skin left when his mother died to protect him. The magic buried in his scar also worked to keep what it saw as its new vessel alive, and all three magics struggled to get their burden somewhere before the water ate away enough at the basket to dissolve it and dump the sleeping child into the flowing sewage. The charms on the basket sought safety for their burden. Mother's love sought a place where the child would be raised with love, where he would grow up happy and healthy. Dark Lord's hate sought one who would turn the vessel to the ways of the evil conqueror and dark magic.
All three magics found what they were looking for as an offshoot from the main sewage flow through a recently collapsed wall led the basket to flow down an oddly large green pipe brimming with magic and yet invisible to magical senses. Elsewhere in England, a carefully stored glass sphere containing swirling mists flashed with lightning within the fog, only for one bolt to lash out of the sphere to strike the shelf that held it, etching a 'K' between the 'P' and '?' inscribed there.
Bowser, King of the Koopas, grumbled to himself as he rode his clown car back to his fortress. Yet again his attempts to kidnap Princess Peach to compel her to marry him and thus be mother to his children had failed. Mario had - as usual - jumped into the middle of things, freeing the Princess, and causing Bowser's latest construction and scheme to come collapsing down practically on top of him. Still, he was undeterred. He would succeed in his attempts one of these days, Princess Peach would be his and his children's, and Mario would admit defeat and nevermore be a threat to his family goals! He just...needed to come up with a new plan after the failure of the last one.
...at least Mario had been kind enough to confirm that Bowser was still invited to next week's golf tournament. He was glad nothing he'd done had offended the plumber turned hero (and who knew what else, he'd never met someone with that many jobs before!) enough to exclude him, and he could certainly use the relatively calming influence of a day on the green to help plot his next attempt. Maybe he could even bounce some ideas off Mario, if only to confirm he wasn't repeating himself. Creativity was important in the kidnapping and conquest business, after all, and he considered himself an artist in that regard.
As he flew along, he turned his attention upward as he heard a sound he knew all to well. "Someone coming through a warp pipe?" he asked himself, looking up at the only warp pipe above him. "Did Mario forget something, or...?" His words trailed off as he saw a waterlogged basket come through the pipe and begin to drop. His frown darkened, as he knew that sound only echoed when someone came through a warp pipe, not just something. His eyes trailed after the basket...only to bulge wide as he saw it was falling straight into the lava.
He didn't think, he acted. Moving faster than it ever did when he used it in his conquest attempts, his clown car shot down through the air, getting to beneath the basket as he reached out with his arms. The propeller on the bottom of his craft buzzed the lava tides as the car dipped with his catching motion so as not to excessively jostle the basket's contents from the sudden stop. He held the basket close to his chest, completely enfolded by his massive scaly arms to protect its contents from the heat of the lava's proximity until he was able to regain altitude. Once he was back at cruising height, he breathed a sigh of relief as the clown car returned to normal speed. "That was a close one," he stated breathlessly as he unfolded his arms. Managing to relax, he looked into the basket, wondering who would be using a basket of all things as a warp vehicle and why they didn't move away from the lava. Was it fairies and they were unconscious or somethin-
His thoughts - and his breath - stopped as he caught sight of the infant in the basket. While it was a human baby - and he wasn't familiar enough with human development to tell much by sight -his magic told him that this was a child barely over a year old, far too young to be left uncared for and survive. Under the boy's - it was a boy, right? yes, his magic resonated with a masculine aura - dark hair, a magical scar in the shape of a lightning bolt was all but burned into his forehead, a wound no child this age should have been anywhere close to receiving. Someone had been seriously irresponsible with this child...even before he'd wound up going through the warp pipe.
"But how did you end up here?" Bowser asked himself as he lifted the basket, trying to get a better look. Getting a brief whiff of the wet part of the basket, he scrunched his nose up and tried to hold his breath. "Ugh, do you need changing? No, that's the basket...wait, Mario said the warp pipes in the human world connect through the sewers..." The King's eyes narrowed as his fire threatened to escape him. "Someone tossed you out with the bathwater? And deliberately? And it was allowed?!" Only the fact the child was still sleeping kept his voice from turning into a full roar of wrath. "How dare...how dare they..." He shook with his rage on behalf of this infant as he remembered those days when it was just him and Kamek, friendless and alone in the castle with no idea what had become of his parents. While there'd never been any sign that he'd been abandoned or tossed out, that feeling of loneliness had left deep scars in Bowser's psyche that had forever shaped him. That someone would deliberately put a child in such a situation...
"They won't get another chance," he growled deep in his throat as he scooped the boy out of the basket. Sensing several tracking charms on the child, he pulled all the ones that gave any information about his location and anchored them to the basket before tossing it over the side, where the lava rapidly consumed it and destroyed the magic. "You are mine now, little one, and if anyone seeks to harm you again, they will learn why it will be their last mistake to cross Bowser, Evil King of the Koopas!" Lifting his head, he let out a roar of flame to punctuate his declaration and claim. To his pleasant surprise, rather than waking the child, the boy instead merely curled closer to him, nuzzling against his shell.
Smiling at that, Bowser brought his hand to the boy's forehead, stroking him with a single claw as he cradled him in his other arm. A brief touch of his magic gave him the information he needed. "Harry," he murmured thoughtfully, now knowing the child's name. "I'm sure you, Jr, and the 'lings will get along wonderfully. And your magic is so strong...you will make the Koopa Kingdom proud..."
As he cradled his new child in his arms, he sighed happily as he saw his castle - his home - come into view. He was looking forward to introducing the new tyke to Kamek and to his new siblings. He was sure there were many wonderful days ahead of him. The lad's first words, his first steps, his first conquest victories, teaching him to polish his shell...
His eyes narrowed as a thought struck him. "Wait...humans don't have shells..." He lifted Harry up to check his back, just to make sure. "...fungus, I have no idea how to raise a baby human, do I?"