Corvus

(2) Take Me Away

Twinkling blue eyes and a long white beard. The man who destroyed my life. And he drops me at an orphanage. They dropped him in a bloody orphanage. A muggle orphanage. 

They stuck a wizarding child in a muggle orphanage.

Oh, and he was evil? Harry chuckled under his breath.

Oh this was going to suck

()

The beatings started immediately. 

He was the new kid and was quite small for his age. He also was in the older age group... most people didn’t want children his age. Not that he would go with a muggle family anyway. Then again, anything would be better than the orphanage.

But back to the beatings. Even children 5 years old would join in the fighting. They would surround him and take turns hitting and kicking. Sometimes they would throw rocks.

Every now and then he had a bout of accidental magic that would send the kids flying. 

And then he was the ‘Freak’.

But that wasn’t true. He wasn’t a freak… well, not in the sense that the muggle children thought. He was magical. He was a wizard, damn it! 

But even to wizards he was a freak… So what did that make him?

()

Harry spent his days being polite and helpful to the women at the orphanage. By doing this, he was also able to dodge the older boys who liked to pick on him. Harry was small from the time he was born and his mistreatment by his parents didn’t help matters. 

Every Friday like clockwork, the boys would find him and corner him… and use him as a punching bag. And every Saturday, Harry would wake, sore and in pain, but healing quickly. He couldn’t tattle on them since he healed so quickly- at least on the outside. Bones took longer to mend, but since there was no visible damage, there was nothing to report.

Finally, after more than a year, it became too much. Harry kept his trunk in one pocket all shrunken down and his bag of galleons in his other pocket. This day, October 24^th, he would be thankful he kept these things on him. 

The boys cornered him at the park that he sat and relaxed in and beat him so badly that he blacked out. He woke hours later, curled under the bench. He could hear the security coming closer to check on any bums in the area. He quickly got up and ran, not wanting to be returned to the place where no one cared. He didn’t know where he was going, he just ran. There was no way he was returning to that place ever again. 

Suddenly, he came across The Leaky Cauldron and remembered it from his parents’- no James and Lily’s- talks, as well as the trips to Diagon Alley with his family. Heh… family…. Right.

But what was he to do now? He really couldn’t picture someone renting a room to an 8 year old… Then again there was always Knockturn… he shivered at the idea of being down there alone… maybe not. 

Harry entered the bar and walked to the passageway, waiting for someone to come through. He only had to wait a few minutes before it opened and he dashed through quickly. 

Harry browsed the Alley for a bit while the stores began to close. No one would recognize him as a Potter… Even though he looked like James Potter, no one knew about another twin. Hopefully. When he noticed that the crowds had thinned enough for him to start being noticed, he turned off into a side alley and ducked beside some boxes until all the stores completely closed up. He stood to move away from the building, but sat down again as a wave of pain and dizziness overtook him. The adrenaline had finally worn off completely. He ended up dragging a couple of boxes together and curled into a tight ball to conserve heat. He would figure out what to do tomorrow. For now he was tired and in pain and didn’t give a damn. 

()

Hours later, but what felt like mere minutes, Harry was pulled out of his sleep-fogged mind.

“Hey kid,” a woman’s voice flowed over him. “Come on kid, you gotta get up.”

He knew it wasn’t Lily… or the matrons from the orphanage… they usually called him by name at least. Harry groaned and rolled over onto his back and began coughing roughly. He could see it was still night. Didn’t this woman understand he needed to sleep to heal? He looked at the stranger blearily for a moment before rolling onto his stomach and closing his eyes again. 

“Come on kid, you’ll catch your death out here.” He mumbled something into his arms that his head was pillowed on. “What was that?”

He picked his head up and glared at the witch “That’s. What. I’m. Hoping.” He growled out, before falling into another coughing fit. 

“Where’s your parents, kid?” 

“Disowned me.”

He watched as she looked him over skeptically. “Well, you’re young, where have you been staying?”

“Muggle orphanage,” he replied, a sneer on the use of the word ‘muggle’.

“Muggle?” She asked shocked. “They sent you to a muggle orphanage? What are you a squib or something?” 

Harry growled and stood up, swaying for a moment. He put out his hand and summoned a glass bottle to his hand. “Not a squib but they don’t know that. They don’t care. They think I’m Dark, evil.” He paused for a minute. Why am I telling this woman so much!? “Forget it. Fine you want me gone, I’m moving.” He replied, pushing his way past the woman.

“What happened?” she called after him.

He gave no answer and continued walked- staggering- out of the alley. She followed quickly behind him and grabbed his arm before quickly side-along apparating with him. After which, Harry promptly passed out.

(edited 10/1/13)