Lily was terrified. The Dark Lord had broken through their front door and killed James, and she knew for a fact he was after her precious son. It was just luck she happened to had last ingredient to the protection ritual that she had found in the Potter vaults.

It was an odd pill, one that was colored a rather fetching pink. According to what she found in one of the journals, it had a protective spirit that would follow their 'owners' even into death.

Lily slipped the pink pill into her son's mouth.

"Stand aside, foolish girl!"

Lily stood defiant in front of the Dark Lord, refusing to budge. A few moments later, she lay dead on the ground.

Her sacrifice kick started the ritual to bind the protective spirit to her son. But there was one fact she failed to realized...her son hadn't swallowed the pill...it was still in his mouth.

Voldemort sneered at the child, and sent the same curse towards him.

The ritual forcibly drew his magic from him, even as the child was hit with the curse and killed the same way his mother was.

However the moment he fell over, the pill Lily had placed into his mouth fell down his throat.

There was a blast of raw, wild magic that took out a section of the roof.

The dead toddler, which lay in it's cot where it had been sleeping when the attack began...opened it's eyes.

The "protective spirit" that Lily had hoped to bind to her son...took possession of his corpse. The soul chain, which had bound the infant to the body, became twisted courtesy of the ritual and in the process absorbed some of Voldemort's own crippled soul to further insure that the soul remain bound to it's new body.

The old magicks, which had stripped Voldemort of his claim as the heir of Slytherin when he killed his muggle father and pinned the deed on his maternal uncle, deamed the soul within the true heir of Slytherin...unknown to anyone else. The Potter and Black family magics which had been present in the infant were now bound to the new soul that had taken the child's place.

The infant stared wailing, not really aware enough to understand what was going on or why the room was so cold.

An odd man that smelled of wet dog picked the child up and soothed it enough to calm down, only to hand them to another man that smelled of wild things.

That would be the last genuine contact the child would have for the next ten years. Considering the toddler wasn't even two, that meant they were in for a very lonely childhood.

Five years later...

Harry Potter was not normal, thank you very much, and he was rather proud of this fact after coming to the conclusion that 'normal' was either an unhealthy condition or something that turned perfectly reasonable people into callous, uncaring creatures who would turn a blind eye so long as it meant their perfectly "normal" lives were never bothered overly much.

It should be noted that Harry's idea of what constituted as "normal" and "acceptable behaviors" had long since been skewed by the disdain his 'relatives' showed him ever since Petunia found him on the doorstep one morning without them even being asked if they were willing to raise another child. The idea that "normal" was not a good thing was solidified by the fact that not a single adult in the neighborhood ever bothered to notice the obvious signs of abuse (via Dudley who could get away with a lot more than Vernon or Petunia could) and neglect (his 'aunt and uncle' made it abundantly clear he was a burden on them that they vehemently never wanted in their lives and shorted him whenever and wherever possible) because it meant actually paying attention to the world around them and having to get off their ass to do something about it.

As if that wasn't enough, the teachers who did take notice were usually replaced within a fortnight of reporting the situation, and any inquiries about their reports was often met with confusion and several days without food the moment the Dursleys learned what he was asking about.

One particularly peppy teacher, who had a thing for folklores and happened to have a copy of a movie that was very popular in Japan (Harry vaguely overheard the maker of the movie was the Japanese version of Disney, whatever that meant) decided that rather than deal with Dudley for an entire class period since she was only a mere substitute, she would have them watch the movie 'to give them a better understanding of different cultures' complete with popcorn.

The other teachers, when they found out why she had done something that was firmly on the 'no-no' list courtesy of one Petunia Dursleys, had been far more sympathetic than outraged.

Naturally, since Harry was such a 'disruptive influence' on the class and his cousin in particular, he was 'forced' to watch the movie up close so that the teacher could 'better keep an eye on him'.

The fact that the woman had kept a closer eye on Dudley while Harry quietly enjoyed the small treat of popcorn was something the teachers kept to themselves.

Petunia was absolutely furious at the thought of the substitute 'contaminating' her son with that 'foreign nonsense'. She was even more livid upon learning Harry had been permitted to watch the movie as well, since she didn't want him getting 'ideas'.

What sort of 'ideas' she was trying to prevent was anyone's guess, but the damage was done.

Ever since then Harry's opinion of 'normal' was that of something that had to be avoided at all costs. He quit trying to do his homework, since the Dursleys hated it whenever he did better than Dudley. By this point the teachers had already cottoned on that the Dursleys had some rather selective blinders when it came to the two children, so they allowed Harry to skip class and read quietly in the library out of sight so long as he was able to pass the tests they gave to all the children.

That meant that while on paper Harry had a consistently "D" average, in reality he had a much better grasp of the subjects compared to the rest of his peers. It didn't hurt that the librarian would help sneak in books from the local library that were well above the reading level of most children for Harry to read while he was hiding in there during class. And since the local librarians never interacted with the child, they couldn't report him to Petunia.

(On an unrelated note, Harry became a hard-core Dungeons and Dragons player by the time he was eight. The local 'guild' knew him only as Gabriel.)

When Harry first found the letter in the mail, his first reaction was to hide it. However knowing Dudley, he would tattle the second he saw Harry attempting to hide anything.

Considering all the practice he had hiding small snacks from Dudley, it hadn't taken much for him to slip the letter into his pants since they were Dudley's hand-me downs. He made a show of 'dropping' one of the letters so that he could slide the one to him further down his pant legs until he felt it stop. So long as he didn't draw any attention to that leg, it was unlikely any of the Dursleys would realize what he had done.

The second he saw the name "Hogwarts", he wanted to groan.

'Really? That fifth-rate school thinks I'm stupid enough to fall for this tripe?' thought Harry with disgust.

Harry knew about Hogwarts, not because of his aunt, but because one of the 'Guild' had gotten a letter...only to nearly quit in disgust due to the rampant prejudice and bullying. The only reason he even went back was because it was the only way he could become a 'wizard' in real life. He was currently in his third year in 'Ravenclaw'.

After hearing a fraction about the school the Guild had done some research on the internet.

Whoever these "Obliviators" and "Aurors" were, they clearly didn't understand what a computer was or how information could be stored in a way they couldn't destroy. The internet was rife with stories from past graduates who were less than happy with the idiot running the place and one teacher in particular in recent years by the name of Severus Snape.

Harry, being no fool, started asking about the school and the likelihood of finding alternate education.

Sadly the second the past graduates heard who he was, they quickly warned him of the 'hard-on' the old bloods, the Ministry and even the Headmaster had about his so-called accomplishment.

There was no way his attempts to get a decent education elsewhere would go over well, much less quietly.

Harry grimaced. While living with the Dursleys was a nightmare, according to some of the others who had attended the school there was literally no way he could avoid being sent back at the end of the year because the Headmaster refused to allow students from bad home lives a chance to stay at the school or offer up alternative solutions.

It was a simple fact that some people would react badly to magic (like the Dursleys) and take it out on their kids for something they had no control over.

Which meant that once the school year was over, he was screwed until the school started up again. Especially since the people on the chat room he used warned that there was a "no magic over the summer" clause and that the Ministry would send a letter if they detected any magic.

None of them knew for sure if the 'Trace' was on the student, the wand or simply the area.

Which meant Harry would have to do some 'extra' shopping if he wanted to have any hope of a life away from the Dursleys during the summer.

Considering they wanted nothing to do with him, it would be ridiculously easy to 'convince' them to let him stay at a friend's house over the summer.

If nothing else his fellow guild member might be willing to divert any Aurors looking for him. Not only was camping a popular past-time among magicals, but there was something call the Knight Bus that wouldn't look twice at children using their services to get around the magical alleys.

Harry could easily stay at youth hostels over the summer and do an extensive tour of the UK so long as he made it look like he had 'adult supervision' or that the adults had mistakenly bothered an adult who was 'vertically challenged'.

Couple that with a magical tent and a large stock of food and he wouldn't have to deal with the Dursleys for the entire summer. They'd probably throw a party if he pulled it off.

With that in mind, Harry ignored the other letters sent to 'reach' him in the hopes of receiving a confirmation.

It didn't take much to make his aunt believe he was confused and baffled by the entire mess and more inclined to avoid the 'crazy people' who seemed to think the best way to get his acceptance letter to him was to bombard the home with as many letters as possible and openly harass the family.

Honestly, these people were so dead set about keeping 'magic' from being discovered by those without it, and then they go and pull a stunt like this?

If this was the average level of common sense the wizards had, Harry genuinely feared for his sanity once he properly 're-entered' their society.

Five years later...

It was official. Harry loathed the magical society and the complete lack of sense that went with it.

Fortunately Harry was a great believer in "pattern recognition". First time was an accident, second time was a coincidence, but three times was enemy action and he refused to be lulled into a fifth attempt on his life.

First year had been normal enough, and he even made a few minions along the way.

Ron reminded him of a slightly skinnier Dudley, only without his parents to cater to his every whim. And Hermione was simply too focused on the approval of the adults to be fully trusted after she went over his head third year about the broom...she never even asked if he would consider taking it to McGonagall!

So no, Harry was never going to consider them 'friends'. More like semi-trusted minions. Considering how Ron reacted when his name came out of the goblet, that was a good thing.

Which was why when the dementors came, Harry was already starting his preparations to leave England and the UK entirely.

He was not suffering another year of nonsense when he didn't have to! He had lived without magic for years and there wasn't really much to stop him from leaving it behind when it had brought him nothing but misery!

Besides, he'd like to see the faces of everyone when they read the letter he would send off to the Daily Prophet three days after he left England legally via airplane. He already had his passport, he was fluent enough in the language to get by, and the goblins were all too pleased to piss off the Ministry because he was putting most of his account under a full audit save for his trust vaults which he had coverted third year and put into a non-magical bank.

There was no way they were getting their hands on any of his gold until the audit was complete, and those took at least two years.

By which time he would be considered a 'full adult' by their standards and fully capable of telling them where to shove their demands.

Harry debated on what name to call himself, before he settled on something simple and easy to remember.

"Haku" after the dragon in the movie he saw as a child thanks to that substitute teacher. Maybe he could find more movies by 'Hayao Miyazaki' while he was in Japan. From what the guild told him, the man's work was very popular over there.

Eleven hours after putting everything into motion and sending a time-delayed letter (Hedwig had flown on ahead), Harry (who went by the name of Haku) was in Karakura.

To insure no one found him right away, he decided to indulge in something that never would have been allowed in England.

He cross-dressed as a girl, even going so far as to make his hair longer and wear only girl's clothing. Fortunately Haku was a name used by both genders and according to the guild he had always looked more like an 'androgynous pretty boy' to begin with.