A/N: PLEASE READ- In this story, Neville is the Boy-Who-Lived and Harry's parents really did die in a car crash.
Harry Potter lived on Privet Drive, Surrey. It was a perfectly normal neighbourhood full of perectly normal people. He lived with his perfectly normal relatives; Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley Dursley, his cousin. He was 4"6, thin, had messy black hair and emerald green eyes and on his forehead was a lightning bolt shaped scar. He had lived with his perfectly normal relatives in this perfectly normal neighbourhood since he was a year old and his parents had died in a car crash. But Harry Potter was a strange boy. At 10 years old he could easily have passed all his GCSE's with A's, he was very sarcastic and had a dry sense of humor, he was independant and extraemely observant.
What was even more strange was the fact thet he could make things do what he wanted. He could manipulate objects, elements and even people.
His relatives noticed that from a very young age he was strange and that he could make things happen, they could could feel his power and they were scared. So they tried to stop it.
He was given the cupboard under the stairs as a bedroom, locked in there for days on end as punishment. He was starved when he did his 'strange' things and when his relatives were particulally angry, he was beaten. But people took no notice of the quiet little boy with amazing talent. Not the teachers, not the other residents of the streets and certinaly not the children.
No, little Harry Potter had never had any friends, the other children had always been too scraed of being beaten up by Dudley Dursley or been off-put by his sense of humor and his sarcasm. So Harry Potter carried on his perfectly normal life and his perfectly normal routine. Until the day of his eleventh birthday, the day the letter came.
Harry stared thoughtfuly at the letter that was in his hand. It did explain his powers and his relatives horrible treatment towards him. Oh yes, Harry had understood from a very early age that what his relatives did was wrong, he understood that the other children had friends and didn't have to live in cupboards. And now he knew why. He thought for a moment before smiling slightly and grabbing a pen and a piece if notebook paper and he began to write out a reply.
Severus Snape was annoyed. The old fool Dumbledore had gone on a holiday and left him in charge of all the incoming mail and visiting confused first years about Hogwarts. He sighed in annoyance as yet another old came soaring though the window. He paid the old and tore open the letter.
To whom it may concern,
I am afraid i do not understand certain aspects of the letter i recieved earlier this morning. Before i make my decision on whether i should attend your school i would like some more information about the 'wizarding world'. Thank you.
Yours sincerly,
Harry Potter.
Now, Severus Snape was not easily surprised but the way the letter was written was most unlike a potter. He snorted in amusement and sighed again before folding the letter back up and wearliy setting off towards Privet Drive.
"FREAK! GET THE GODDAM DOOR!" " Yes Uncle Vernon" Harry replied. He ran to the door and opened it to a tall scowling man in black robes.
" Can i help you?" he asked with a sneer. The man frowned at him.
" Is this the home of Mister Harry Potter? I wish to speak to him"
Harry looked at his expectantly for a few minutes before speaking. " Well, speak then." Snape stared at the small boy looking up at him. " I assume you are Mister Potter then?" The boy nodded curtly. "Yes. You have come about the letter, yes?" Snape, still slightly bemused, nodded and followed him into an immaculatly clean looking living room.
"FREAK! WHO THE HELLS AT THE DOOR"
"A man about my letter" He said calmly. Snape watched as a huge whale of a man came storming into the room, his face red with anger, and pinned the child to the wall.
"HOW DARE YOU! I TOLD YOU ALREADY, YOU WILL NOT BE GOING!" He raised his hand and brought it down on Harry's face. Harry shrank back in fear and refused to look at the man staring shellshocked at him from the other side of the room.
Severus Snape watched in shock as the man struck the boy across the face, but when he raised his hand to strike him again, he took action.
"Petrificus Totalus!" He yelled and the man that Severus assuned to be Vernon Dursley fell to the ground, a look of shock and fear upon his face. Severus turned to the boy who had picked himself up of the floor and was staring in amusment at his petrified uncle. He cleared his throut and Harry looked at him warily. "Why did you help me?" he asked quietly. Severus looked at him for a moment before relpying.
" Because i believe it is wrong to strike a child." Harry looked at him for a few more minutes, silently observing him.
"Can you tell me about Hogwarts?"
A/N: I'm going to end the chapter here as i want the explanation about Hogwarts and the trip to diagon alley in the next chapter. I might include the train journey to Hogwarts aswell.
So please REVIEW! you know you want to... But please don't flame me :(