Chapter 1

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Harry had always known that he was different, that he was strange and unusual; a freak. Uncle Vernon had always told him that he was a freak of nature and that he should have died with his freaky parents instead of burdening them with his upbringing. That's why they made him do all of the chores like cleaning the house, mowing the lawn and cooking all of the meals as soon as he was big enough to do them. He needed to pay them back for putting up with all of his freakishness. He did everything without complaint because they were his family and they wouldn't lie to him about things like that.

Uncle had been particularly angry when he had had to start sending Harry to school with his hard earned money. He ordered Harry to make sure that he never got anything but full marks and that he did all of Dudley's homework and let Dudley cheat off of his tests whenever he could. He didn't want anyone in the neighborhood to think that anyone in his family was stupid; not even the freak. Harry managed to keep both himself and Dudley at the top spots in the classes even when they were in separate classes by doing plenty of extra credit to make up for Dudley's tests for three years; all while making sure to keep any of the strange happenings that occurred around him to himself.

One time he had been running from some of the local bullies that thought that he looked fun to 'play' with when he was cornered in an alley and suddenly found himself on the roof of one of the closest buildings. Another time one of the teachers had been picking on Dudley trying to prove that he didn't know anything that was on the previous day's homework despite the perfect score when her hair turned blue and she ran out of the room crying; Dudley had found it so funny that he had kept it to himself. He knew that his uncle and aunt wouldn't want to know that his weirdness was starting to manifest and he wanted to make them happy, no matter what that took. They are his only family after all.

Harry knew that something was very wrong. He had woken up on his own instead of hearing his aunt's shrill voice demanding that he make breakfast or his cousin's thundering footsteps echoing through his cupboard as he raced down the stairs. He had butterflies in his stomach even after his aunt let him out an hour later to make breakfast and the rest of the morning pasted much as it always did, he just knew that something was going to go wrong very soon.

It wasn't until after breakfast when Dudley wobbled into the living room to watch the Saturday morning cartons that the thing that he had been expecting happened. The doorbell rang several times in quick succession with a very impatient air that had Uncle Vernon glaring at the door from the couch. "Boy! Get the door and tell them that we don't buy anything from salesmen and that we will not change our faith so they can save both our time and leave!"

Harry made his way to the door and opened it quickly to find a rather intimidating man standing on the front step. He looked to be about Uncle Vernon's age, though he was in very good shape. He was wearing a suit that made his dark blue eyes look almost black and he looked down at Harry with a look that he didn't recognize as he dutifully repeated his message. When he tried to close the door the man stopped it with his foot and pushed past Harry gently as he walked into the living room and blocked the family's view of the TV, which sent Dudley into mini hysterics for several moments before he tottered up the stairs to watch it in his room, the TV was bigger anyway.

Vernon stood up with a rapidly darkening face. "What did of idiot are you? The boy told you that we aren't going to buy anything and I don't care about anything you have to say, so get off of my property before I call the authorities and have you arrested for trespassing!"

The man stared at Vernon for a minute before he flashed a badge that looked like the toy one that Dudley had only better made. Vernon paled and sat down with a heavy flop that made the couch sag in the middle dangerously. "I do believe that you have said more then enough Mr. Dursley." The man stepped closer to the couch so that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had to look up at him. "Several of the neighbors and teachers at the local school have reported suspicions that you are abusive toward your nephew and from your attitude it isn't very hard to see where they got those suspicions from. Now all of us are going to go down to the station and we are going to find out exactly how long you both are going to be put away for."

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