Dante's Inferno

AN: Some of you might recognize this story, which is the revamped version of my story Dante's Inferno.I have made some major changes to the story and will be uploading it chapter for chapter as soon as my editing is done. I hope that some of my old fans will enjoy this one just as much if not more then my old story, and that many new readers will enjoy it as well. I really appreciate reviews and feedback, even if it's to say that you don't like something. I am constantly trying to improve my writing so please tell me what you think. Now I will leave of this looong AN with: I hope you enjoy this fic, and I will not normally write such long AN at the beginning of each chapter, I promise. MM


Dante's Inferno

PROLOGUE

It was dark and silent in Privet Drive, but that was not all that surprising since it was several hours past midnight. The only sound in the neighborhood was that of a slight breeze and the sound of crickets. All the inhabitants in the neighborhood except one were fast asleep.

A little boy, at the age of 4, though looking to be no more than three, was still awake. The child was inside his bedroom, a cupboard under the stairs, crying. Surrounded by cobwebs, dust and spiders, the toddler was laying on a rusty cot, which had springs sticking up from the mattress. Tears were streaming down his battered face, and he was curled around a decapitated teddy without arms, with one hand clutching his sore bottom.

There was no diaper, he had been potty trained when he was about 1 ½ years old, his Aunt had refused changing his diapers and had instead potty trained her nephew so that she no longer had to. However on the rare occasion that he did have accidents the punishment would be so severe, that they were really few and far between. Maybe his freakishness was part of the answer to why he had learned things so early, it was as if everything except his growth was accelerated. For example Dudley, the real son in the household had not begun toilet training until this year, he turned 4 a couple of weeks back.

The boy remembered his cousin’s birthday really well, he had been in his cupboard listening to the birthday party. Dudley had invited all his friends from pre-school, and they all ate the cake and the food that the boy had prepared. The party took place in the living room, which the boy had decorated. After all he began doing most of the chores in the household as well as the cooking by the time he was 2 ½ years old. By the time the child was three years old, he could read and do simple math, this was necessary for him when he used cooking books and also garden magazines. His aunt loved having the garden perfect at all times, and she often used advice from garden magazines, or rather her nephew used the tips, she just supervised the process.

The child, did not know his own name, he suspected that he might not even have one. His relatives merely referred to him as it, freak or boy. Though he did seem to recall a name beginning with an H, but it was a moot point, he could not remember. He probably did not deserve a name anyway, maybe he could make one up when he got older.

The reason why the little boy, remembered his cousins birthday that well, was because it was that night that was the first night his uncle visited his cupboard at night. His uncle called it special punishment, he would first be beaten by his uncle and then his uncle would push him up against the wall outside of the cupboard, and then right there in the hallway Uncle would stick something up his bottom. The child thought that it was the worst owie he had ever had, but he wasn't allowed to make a noise, not even a peep. The boy thought that it was strange since his uncle would always moan and groan, huff and puff, and tell him what a nice boy he was. For that reason alone, the child thought that special punishment wasn't that bad, his Uncle thought that he was a nice boy because of it. The boy, soaked up all the attention like a sponge, for despite the fact that his Uncle was a big meanie sometimes, the child still loved him.

That was why the boy was currently, reassuring himself and his headless teddy that it wasn't that bad. “It's owkay, Pafoo, it's just spewcial punishment. It's so that I can be a good boy, it'll make me all better. That what Unca Vernon says, all better.” he patted the teddy reassuringly on one of the frail arms before promptly falling asleep.

The headless teddy, did not answer how could it? It had no head, Dudley had decided to try out a guillotine on one of his many teddy bears. Naturally, the bear had been damaged and therefore chucked in the bin. Boy, had salvaged it from there, and had proudly named his first toy and friend Pafoo. A name, he remembered from somewhere, though he did not know where from.

The next morning, he was roughly awoken by his Aunt. She told him to pack all of his things, so the boy packed his blanket, his extra clothes, some books he had pillaged from Dudley's dust collecting collection, and of course Pafoo. It was all meticulously put into a small backpack his Aunt had supplied, along with some food that she handed him, a letter, a golden key and some money. She then proceeded with taking the boy along when she dropped of Dudley at pre-school, after that they took the bus to London. When in London she took him to a park, before crouching down so that she could speak with her nephew eye to eye.

“Listen boy, I have to leave you here now okay? It's for your own good, I can't let Vernon keep doing those unspeakable things to you. You certainly don’t deserve much, but those unspeakable things are the devil’s work. If I can get rid of you and your freakishness, then maybe the devil will leave Vernon. You’ll see, it’s all your fault. You brought the devil upon us you did. You are better off without us, here take this.” She said while handing him his backpack, she then hesitated before patting him on the head.

It was as if she had a moment of clarity “You really are a good boy aren't you?” Suddenly her face shifted again, to one that the boy easily could recognize as the meanie face. Sometimes his aunt would smile at him and pat his head, but most of the time she would have her meanie face. Once again her face shifted and her eyes kind of lost focus, she smiled and slowly but steadily began walking away from her responsibility, her nephew a 4- year old little innocent boy.

The little boy's eyes widened when he comprehended what his Aunt was doing, and he desperately cried out after her while running after her. “Auntie, don't weawe me, I wuw you!” But he couldn't catch up with her, with his short legs, and he quickly fell and scraped his knee. Before he knew it he could not even see his aunt, she had left him. Big silvery tears ran down his cheek as he realized the truth of his situation at least to the extent that a four year old could comprehend, now he was truly all alone.

The boy crawled into a bush, and sat there silently crying for a while, before calming down enough to assess his situation. He might just be four years old, but he was after all an exceptionally bright child and he was most certainly capable of understanding that this was not a good situation to be in. He needed to find a safe place to stay, he had heard that bad men came to the parks at night.

Though he was uncertain if bad was necessarily bad, or if it simply meant that the men were like him. Maybe they were just freaks of some kind, he was often called both bad and freak by his Aunt and Uncle. Of course bad could also mean that they did bad things, but his family’s teachings of right and wrong was a little bit sketchy so the boy was uncertain of exactly what made some men bad. Nonetheless the boy decided that this was not the right time to find out exactly what bad men did to bad little boys, so the brave little boy dried his eyes with his sleeve and crawled out of the bush. It was already late afternoon, he needed to hurry up if he wanted to find some place to stay for the night. He decided that he probably should get out of the park, before it became dark and dangerous. The boy didn’t like the dark, as he was often locked in his dark cupboard for long periods of time.

So the little bruised boy walked towards the shops, maybe he could find somewhere to sleep there. Luckily for him he found an old and run down bookstore, he really did love to read. So the boy decided to sneak into the bookstore, and see if he could find a place to stay there. The man by the cash register was busy reading a large and dusty tome. So the boy could easily sneak past his desk, he looked around the store with wide eyes. Eagerly searching for a hidden place to stay for the night, he really liked this place and hoped that he could stay there for a while. There!

Behind the back row bookshelves there was a door, the child silently crept towards the door being careful not to make too much noise. Luckily for him there was no creaking floor boards or other noisy items in the store. Upon finally reaching his target the boy became frustrated when he realized that not only was the door quite large, thus enabling him to reach the doorknob easily, but that the door was also locked. The desperation started to take over the boy’s mind, he really needed to find a safe place. With a low click the door suddenly opened, almost making the boy topple down from the small pile of books that he had used to try and open the door. He quickly entered the new room that was waiting for him behind the door, and the door closed behind him almost without a sound.

Once again darkness surrounded the small child, but fortunately a small ball of light appeared in front of him. Underneath the ball he could see the steps of a quite steep staircase, this seemed like a daunting task for his toddler legs. However the boy was not one to give up easily, so he determinedly started climbing the staircase. As he climbed the ball floated in front of him, as if it was there merely to show him the way. After a while he grew very tired, but he still refused to give up, and even though his legs burned and his arms ached, he kept on climbing. When he finally reached the top of the staircase he found himself in a large and dusty room. It seemed as if not only the owner had forgotten about this room, in fact it appeared to have been forgotten by the entire world.

Judging by the dust layers in the attic, it had been abandoned. It was the perfect place for the little boy, filled with books and old furniture. He could use one of the couches as a bed. After having eaten some of the food his Aunt had made him pack, he decided to get ready for bed. While he was lying on the old and dusty couch trying to sleep, he found that something was sticking into his back. He used his little hand to dig around in between the pillows searching for the object causing him such uncomfort, his hand found a rather large square object. It was a book. He pulled it out of the couch it was clear that it had some lettering on the outside, however the dust layer was too thick to be able to read the cover properly. He blew away some of the dust making it whirl around his face, a sneeze and a minute later the boy could finally reed the title of the book.

”The divine comedy”, it said in large, red and Gothic lettering. Underneath the title was an unusual name, a name that he had never heard before “Dante Alighieri”. The boy liked the name it sounded cool and scary, “Dante, that's a pwetty name isn't it Pafoo?” The boy said to himself more than Pafoo, before slowly falling asleep whilst clutching the old tome.

***********

Dante, slowly became quite famous in the English underworld. Not because of his criminal history, but as the heir and chosen son of the most dangerous crime lord in Europe. Who also happened to be the leader of one of the biggest crime empires in the world. The Pericolo empire, Antonio Pericolo, known as angelo della morte or the angel of death had taken Dante under his wing so to speak. Still Dante, tended to not involve himself too much in the criminal world. His sense of moral, was to many, quite surprising since he had grown up on the streets. Antonio had taken him in when he was about 9 years old, at that time he was an extremely intelligent and independent child. However a long time on the streets as well as remainders from his old family’s abuse had left him with some odd quirks.

He was highly intelligent, some might even call him a prodigy, he was fluent in several languages besides English, though he had never set foot in a school. Antonio had tried to talk him into entering a school, or even have private tutors but Dante flat out refused. He saw it as a waste of time, seeing as he already knew most of what he needed to know. If the need for more knowledge ever surfaced he would simply learn it by himself. However, he actually enjoyed visiting Universities, they after all had some extraordinary book collections. Among the languages he spoke fluently were Latin, Italian, German, Norwegian, Russian, Mandarin and Japanese to mention a few. Some he had learned from his connections other he learned through books.

Dante always knew that he was not like others, he had discovered that he had some extraordinary abilities. He also suspected that his high intelligence might be a result of these abilities. After many years with working on his abilities, he managed to gain at least some level of control over his powers. He used his powers quite frequently, and if he was to be perfectly honest then he would probably not have survived without them. His powers had aided him through many hardships in his life, and he often used them in combat. He was fully aware of the magical world’s existence, after he once stumbled upon it whilst running away from an angry shop keeper. He had been forced to steal some food to survive and had unfortunately been caught, however he managed to escape and hid inside a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. Thus a new world opened up to Dante, and many of his questions were answered.

The name Dante, created fear in among most in the underworld, but he was also known for being just and nice to those he deemed worthy. The fear was not due to his cruelty or criminal acts, however everybody knew that one did not make him angry. If you made Dante angry He had so far taken seven people under his wings, you had to be prepared to face the wrath of not only the entire Pericolo empire as well as the members of his familia. Dante didn’t like to call them a gang, but they were known by the name the Inferno crew. If one needed to find Dante then the night club Dante's Inferno was the place to go, everybody knew that Dante knew almost everything that went on in the streets. However to get to Dante one had to go through his crew who all bore nicknames after the seven deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride.

The names signified more the circumstances in which they were saved by Dante, rather than qualities in their personalities.

Lust, had been a young male prostitute, and when we say young we mean young. He was 14 when Dante rescued him, he was being punished by his pimp at the time. Dante killed the pimp, and took Lust under his wing,

Gluttony, was a young girl Dante saved from a vampire in blood lust. She was barely 10 years old when he saved her, the vampire had already killed her entire family beforehand. Dante was like her big brother or foster dad of sorts, and she was probably the only member of the inner circle that had not had sex with Dante. She was the second save, and the youngest.

Greed, was a Korean girl that had been kidnapped by human traffickers, the slave market was huge and they intended to sell her for a hefty profit. Dante had set the entire group of slaves free, after killing the man behind the entire operation. But Greed was only 11 at the time, and none of the other slaves would take responsibility for her, so Dante took her in. He taught her English, and protected her.

Sloth, was an orphan boy, he lived in a Catholic orphanage, where he had been sexually abused by the leader of the orphanage a Catholic priest. Dante had met the kid, when he got lost on a field trip in London. Dante had taken the kid in, and later he went back to the orphanage and castrated the priest with a dull knife. Dante later explained that he used a dull knife to prolong the suffering and worsen the pain.

Wrath was a girl Dante saved from being killed by skinheads. Since she lived on the streets the cops did not care too much if a black person was killed. The girl was 13 at the time when Dante saved her, though she had already received a severe beating by the gang of skinheads. She was nursed back to health by Dante personally, and was now part of his inner circle.

Envy, was a girl whose entire face had been mutilated by prostitutes in a brothel. She had been bought by the owner because of her beauty, and the other girls had feared the competition. Dante had found her crying in an empty alley with a mirror in her hand, and her face covered with blood and cuts. She was only 14 years old at the time, and Dante had been furious, so he burned down the brothel with customers and all. He also made sure that nobody could leave the burning building, as well as ward the place with his powers so that the fire could not be extinguished, and make sure that it would not spread. Dante managed to heal Envy's face, there were no longer any scars on her face.

Pride was a boy that had been dumped on the streets by his family due to the fact that he had been found kissing another boy. He was 16 at the time, and his family thought that he would ruin the family's good name and reputation. That was why his father had first beaten his son, before dumping him in a deserted London alley. Dante had found him lying in a puddle of blood behind a dumpster, sobbing. Pride refused to tell Dante where his family lived, claiming that he should be the one to take revenge, not Dante. He had been the last person included in the inner circle of the gang, of course Dante did save others that joined the gang. But those 7 were the ones that were the most important to him, they were the first.

AN: So what do you think? Improved?