THE ORPHAN

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

NOTE: Been sick lately and so has my computer (who I am finally naming Peeves). I think Peeves is on his last leg so I am going to be posting as many stories (still in progress) as I can to avoid losing all of them. The ones that people vote on that they want me to finish will be finished first. Thank you.

Chapter 1- Rescued

Harry Potter was an orphan. From what he was told his parents were worthless drunks, his father didn't work and had seduced and then turned his wife into a drug-addicted whore, and they had died while his father had been drunk and high yet decided to drive into town no doubt to rob a bank or a shop to get money for more booze and/or drugs. The police were chasing them, drunken daddy lost control of the car, killing him and the whore with the only survivor being the FREAK, who the Dursleys were stuck with.

Apparently, the whore's only living relative was her dear, sweet, sainted, "NORMAL" sister Petunia, who was married to another normal and upstanding, successful, pillar of the community Vernon Dursley. They were blessed with the most wonderful, handsome, intelligent son named Dudley and they lived in a very good "NORMAL" neighborhood where they were respected and liked (and envied) by their neighbors. They had a perfect life until they had been forced to take in the FREAK, who despite being only 15 months old was such an abomination and blot on mankind that no orphanage or foster parents would consider taking him in.

Therefore, the Dursleys, out of the kindness of their hearts and because the government made them do it, had to take in and raise the FREAK whether they wanted to or not. They didn't but because they were such wonderful, noble and "NORMAL" people (who were practically saints) they took on this onerous duty and tried to make the best of it.

By "making the best of it" translated into making the life of the 15 month old baby and eventual child into one of constant fear, pain, mental and emotional abuse, starvation, privation and, to just put it simply, making the Freak's life a living hell. Freak didn't know the definition of "normal" or what a saint was, but if it meant what the Dursleys were he knew he never wanted to be normal let alone a saint.

He made this final decision the day when he could no longer endure the "care" given to him by the Dursleys. It started out as usual, with him being viciously awaken by his Aunt Petunia, told to get his lazy, disgusting, worthless arse out of his cupboard (an old dirty cupboard once and still used to hold odds and ends, cleaning supplies and now his valueless carcass) and earn his keep.

It was a Saturday which usually meant that his relatives would sleep in except today they were going to take their precious son Dudley shopping to buy him some new toys, because good boys like him deserved to have the best and newest toys, then they would take him to an arcade so he could play the newest machines before they all went to have lunch at his favorite pizza restaurant where he would try to match his father in eating as much pizza and drinking as much Coke as they could, before spending the rest of the day seeing the latest films before coming back with Dudley's favorite take-away foods.

They would be gone all day but still expected the Freak to get his assigned chores done or he wouldn't be eating for a week. Since immediately after breakfast, he was going to be foisted off on the crazy old cat lady who babysat him when the Dursleys went out, there was no way he could do any of his chores except maybe the dishes since he would be going to her house. In other words, with the exception of whatever food she fed him, he would be getting NOTHING to eat at least from the Dursleys. It was a no-win situation for him and they did it at least once a month because it amused them. The only food he might get during that week was food he could sneak out of the garbage, but not the Dursleys' garbage as Petunia carefully watched the garbage and/or would destroy it by pouring bleach or other caustic things on it.

However, today the Freak had more to fear than usual as last night his Uncle had gotten drunk – very, very drunk – because he had lost a big sale. Naturally it wasn't his fault because he was an excellent salesman and it couldn't be the customer's fault therefore it had to be the Freak's fault. Thus, the first thing his Uncle had done when he came home was to punish the Freak for his freakishness by beating the hell out of him. Then his Uncle began drinking heavily and after eating the gargantuan dinner which the Freak had helped cooked (and wouldn't be getting any of), Vernon Dursley continued drinking until he had finished off two-thirds of a bottle of scotch whiskey. He was still fuming over the lost sale so before he went to bed, he pulled the still suffering child out from his cupboard and gave him another sound beating before throwing him back into his sty and heading to his bed.

A hung over Vernon was usually worse than a drunk Vernon and the poor Freak was in such pain that not only could he barely move without suffering, he was weak from hunger because he hadn't been given any food for two days and hadn't been allowed out to scavenge any. Also Freak was put in charge of cooking the bacon and his Aunt warned him "not to burn it or else" which she always did. The big problem was no matter what he did concerning the bacon it was never right as Vernon liked his bacon fatty, Dudley liked his crisp but not too crisp and Petunia liked it in between. After cooking all bacon was placed on the same platter and even if Freak had succeeded in cooking the pound of bacon three different ways and had separated it into three different sections, if Dudley helped himself to some of Vernon's fatty (which he always did) or vice versa, then Freak would get in trouble for "cooking the bacon wrong or burning it."

The Freak knew he would be getting beaten because Dudley had entered the room and his face was lit up with mischief. He was going to do something to start his special day out right like getting the Freak in trouble. And he did as his Mother's back was turned and she couldn't see a grinning Dudley push the Freak into the stove. The Freak had been carrying the platter containing all of the bacon he had so carefully cooked to the table but Dudley pushed him and naturally the Freak dropped some of the bacon off of the plate, which was more than enough to get him in trouble but not enough for Dudley, who actually pulled the plate from his cousin's grip and throw it on the floor.

"Mum, the Freak purposely dropped all of the bacon on the floor so now what am I supposed to eat? Freak ruined my special day." He then started wailing and crying crocodile tears. Petunia screeched at the poor boy, Dudley continued his fake crying (while trying not to laugh) and then Vernon arrived in the kitchen to see the bacon on the floor and hear the complaints of his family.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS YOU WORTHLESS $%#&$#^&# FREAK" Vernon screamed. He then grabbed the boy and began to give him the worst beating of his young life. He lost control and couldn't stop. The beating was so vicious that even Dudley and Petunia knew he was going to go too far but yet they wouldn't say a thing or try to stop it.

Vernon was in the process of stomping on the frail already seriously injured body and when he yelled "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE NOW" his wife and son knew he meant it. So did the Freak who, despite having a life not worth living, didn't want to die and found himself using some of his freakishness to stop the abuse and pain.

Vernon was about to use his 325 lbs. body to jump on the boy's torso with every intention of continuing doing it until he was exhausted or the Freak was well and truly dead. He would have to get rid of the body but he had already figured it out long ago for when this day would come. He'd just tell the Old Freak who had placed the %#$&## with them and paid them to raise IT a certain way, that the $#*$&#^#& had run away. He'd never know, never find out. Granted they'd lose the "tax-free" £1,000 month they were getting but it would be worth it.

However, before Vernon could jump and thus land on the pitiful body he felt himself rising towards the ceiling. For a second he thought it was due to the euphoria of what he was about to do until his entire body rose too high and then exploded. The last thing he heard was the terrified screams of his wife.

It had been difficult to explain and might have been covered up – somehow - if a terrified Dudley had not fled the house and screamed for help, actually running into the home of No. 2 Privet Drive in full panic mode. Neighbors came to investigate, the police were called and reporters soon arrived after being tipped off of a strange occurrence. What they all saw and/or heard was that the Freak nephew was lying on the kitchen floor in a near-death state while Vernon Dursleys, or rather pieces of him of various sizes were all over as were his blood, guts, organs, skin, muscles – well it was just Vernon all over - on the floor, walls and ceiling.

Since it was just Vernon dead and not the boy, the instruments in an office in the north of Scotland did not register a death, just the usual injuries on the child they were monitoring. The great wizard who had arranged for it all, was out of the office and his phoenix, who would have immediately found and transported his master to the scene to "fix things" heard the normal buzzing which meant the boy was only injured and as ordered, did nothing except to privately mourn. The great bird had its orders and could not disobey or deviate from the norm.

Arabella Figg, the crazy old cat lady who had been placed to further watch the boy tried to find out what was happening. She couldn't get near the house but was told only what the neighbors knew, that Vernon had had an accident and was seriously hurt or he had had a heart attack or something. Since nothing was said about Harry, she didn't contact Dumbledore or at least right away.

Because of the strangeness of Vernon's death, a special unit from Scotland Yard was brought in to investigate. It consisted of policemen with certain "talents" who had not been able to get a job in a certain world due to their blood status and usually returned to their world, got a real education and were quickly snatched up by the Muggle government, military and police force. The senior officer realized that they had found the hiding place of Harry Potter as well as finding out to his shock and horror, the boy's living conditions. He immediately sent for the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones, who was one of the few – very few – honest and noble Magicals in Britain, who took charge after making a quick but accurate assessment of the situation.

"#%&#&#$*## Albus Dumbledore and $*#&$*#&$*# *#$&*#&*#*# certain highly placed people in the Ministry of Magic" she said to herself. She liaised with the Muggleborn police, called in reliable Aurors and Unspeakables she could trust to do a thorough investigation, and got the boy away from the scene and the possible clutches of Dumbledore and others who would harm and/or use the "Boy-Who-Lived" for their own reasons.

The secret couldn't be kept for long but by the time Dumbledore and others had found out and taken steps to snatch the boy (Ministry personnel and/or Death Eaters) or get him back under their control (Dumbledore) the boy had been rescued and WOULD NOT BE RETURNING TO THE MAGICAL WORLD until it was time for him to attend school.

Despite Dumbledore and others screaming, threatening and moving heaven and earth to get their way, for once they were stymied because Queen Elizabeth II had gotten involved. It was a shock to most British Magicals, especially certain Purebloods, but under the most ancient of laws the British Sovereign ruled over Magical Britain and his/her word was the final law in anything involving any of his/her Magical subjects. Not even Dumbledore could "convince" her to change her mind because he couldn't get anywhere near her any more than the Minister of Magic (or even Voldemort) could because the Monarchy was sacrosanct and very heavily warded against Magicals.

So Harry James Potter was placed in the control of the British Crown. Although Her Majesty wouldn't know his whereabouts (for safety sake) the child would be in a safe and possibly even loving hands and would have a decent life so much unlike the one he had known for the past four years. The next anybody in the Magical World would hear about Harry Potter was when he received his Hogwarts letter in six years.

During that time Dumbledore would be thoroughly investigated as would certain other people in the Ministry of Magic and…sad to say…Gringotts, the only wizarding bank in Magical Britain and the entity which should have seen to it that the Potters' Will was publically read and not immediately and illegally sealed by Dumbledore.

Dumbledore had also "fired" the law firm used by the Potter Family for two centuries and had taken complete control over the boy's life in more ways than one but most especially his financial matters. To put it simply, many discrepancies would be discovered and corrected, including but not limited to bequests and presents left to Harry Potter by grateful people and the merchandizing of his name in books, toys, clothing and other endorsements which had been generating a substantial amount of money which had not been deposited in his trust vault.

Yes, the next six years would be very interesting and enlightening while people waited for their hero to return to his real world.