Prologue- The Beginning

It was a cold night in Privet Drive, one which was silent and calm. All the residents slept soundly in their beds with not a one aware of the wonderful and dreadful thing that had occurred in a sleepy little village away in the west.

None that is, aside the newest of the residents, a little baby boy who but a few hours ago had lost what little family he had in the world. He had been taken from the wreckage of what could have been where the bodies of his parents lay and left on the doorstep of his relatives on the assumption that they would do as any family should do and take in that which was their blood bound duty and raise him well.

Well, as they say about an assumption, it makes an ass of the assumer. The Dursleys who resided at a number 4 Privet Drive were horrified at the discovery a little after 5am that their freak of a nephew had been left for them to care for. They sprang into action, though perhaps not the action that would be wished for in that situation, and ripped up the letter that lay atop the baby. After writing a new one saying simply "I am Harry Potter, please look after me" , bundling their son up and strapping him into his car seat they stuck the basket with Harry in it on the floor of the car and drove into London, bickering with each other as they went

"This is business is all your fault Petunia, you and your freakish sister. None of my family ever did anything so unnatural as being a witch. Why if my Marge had ever had such a silly notion as that my Father would have beat it out of her! Good strong family like ours, all the men have gone to Smelting's Academy, and all the women know their place. Not like your parents fussing and coddling her and her abnormal was." The more he ranted, the more Vernon Dursley turned a nasty mottled colour.

Petunia turned up her nose and sniffed dismissively, "She was no sister of mine. I'll have you remember that Vernon. Once I married you I turned my back on all that nonsense, and I won't have it affecting my little Duddykins. We shall simply have to drop the wretch off at an orphanage."

Vernon's eyes flickered fearfully "What about that older bloke… the headmaster at that godforsaken school? What was it Bumbledore? He won't be happy about this and what if he comes for us and demands we take him?"

She turned and gave Vernon an icy glare. "He won't find us. You can take up that transfer that was offered to you by the Grunnings branch in the states. We will move there and take Dudley with us, there are much finer schools and better prospects for him anyway, so shut up and drive." And with her final demand given she turned to glare first at the baby who was now wailing in the basket, then out the window with folded arms.

With a firm nod Vernon looked forward, and in a little over an hour they arrived at the steps of Wools Orphanage in London.

"And you say that you found the boy… Harry is it?" asked a bespectacled woman in her late 80s absently, "in a basket on your doorstep? How very peculiar. One would almost suggest that that hints to a family link…"

"No!" Petunia butted in, then seeing the surprise on the elder woman's face calmed her tone and tried again. "No I'm sorry … Martha was it? My sister was childless and went missing with her husband some years ago, and my husband's sister has never married. The child is no relative of ours and we simply cannot take him in. We thought the best thing to do would be to leave him in a place such as this where he will be cared for properly."

Martha nodded and looked through the viewing window to the nursery area where a nurse dressed in a plain white uniform could be seen dressing the child in a green romper suit. He was no longer crying, a clean nappy and a bottle of formula settling him down. "He seems to be calmer… strange... he reminds me of another child from a long while ago" her eyes clouded as she seemed to drift inside herself as she remembered being so much younger working under Mrs. Cole and there being a boy who hated the world. She would always try to get through to him and he would look at her in a way that chilled her to her very bones. Shaking herself out of it she turned briskly back to the Dursleys.

"Thank you for your prompt action in bringing the child here. We shall inform the police so that they can attempt to search for his parents, however I'm not hopeful. We have so many children who are left on doorsteps and in public buildings, most parents are never heard from again. We may be in touch, or the police may be to get some further details, what is your address?"

"4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey" answered Vernon promptly, before he cringed under a look from his wife. Petunia glared at him a little more before expanding with a look back to Martha, "We do live at that address at the moment, however we shall shortly be moving overseas, so we cannot guarantee that we will be there for much longer. If that is all Ms. Mallard we have a young son as you can see, and my poor little poppet must be starving away. I'd like to get my family home."

Martha glanced at the pudgy boy sat by his Father's leg, and snorted inwardly at the thought that such a large child could possibly be starving away after only being in a building for an hour. However she saw no further need for the Dursleys to be kept so walked them to the door and bade them goodbye. She turned on her heel and marched to the nursery area where the nurse was now rocking him as he drifted off back to sleep. She stepped forward and looked at the baby closely, messy black hair framed a pale face with a thumb firmly in his mouth sucking gently. She felt silly for her reaction comparing him to the Riddle boy, that was till he yawned, brushing his hair off his face exposing a lightning bolt scar and opening startlingly green eyes to look at the woman. She recoiled, the child had the same feeling, the same… wrongness about him.

"Emma, put that child down. It won't do to pamper it," she snapped.

The nurse looked puzzled but obeyed, moving to put the baby in an empty plastic cot between two others.

"No. I… I don't think that we should put it in that one. Put the boy in the empty one in the corner"

"Yes Ms. Mallard…"

And so alone and without a single person who cared knowing where he was, Harrys life in Wools Orphanage began.