A/N: I decided to take a small break from Forgotten Twin and start this. This is the original version of Forgotten Twin if you can believe it. This was the story that eventually turned into Forgotten Twin after a few edits (fine, a lot of edits). It's kind of dark so be prepared. I hope you enjoy chapter 1.

Harry James Potter has an okay life. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. His parents somewhat took care of him. They would occasionally forget to feed him, by what was to be expected of 20 something year olds? They were barley adults themselves. Harry retained the belief that he was an accident. There were some special things about Harry James Potter. For one, he could talk to animals, or at least he thought he could. He might have just been so lonely that he was imagining things. He also had a very active imagination and was a fast learner. But by far the oddest thing about him was his lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Harry knee it made him different from everyone around him. He sometimes heard his parents and their friend, Sirius, talking about it. On one such night, they were drunk out of their minds. They didn't know Harry was listening to what they were saying.

"Sometimes I wish I never had a kid eh Lily?" James drunkenly said.

Lily, equally as drunk replied, "Life would be so much easier. Kids are so needy. Feed me! Talk to me! Play with me! What about me? I need some time to myself to do what I want to do."

Sirius, even drunker that Lily and James said, "That's why I don't have kids. I don't even own a plant. They're too much work. I prefer the care free lifestyle. No worries, no responsibility."

"Yeah!" James agreed. "We should be living carefree now that Voldemort's gone. He's been gone 4 years and we haven't done anything worthwhile. We need a vacation. To bad we have a kid. Can't we just get rid of him?"

Harry, having heard enough, went to his room and started to pack a backpack. He put in a change of clothes, 2 bags of dried fruit, 10 jerky strips, and apple, and a large water bottle. He also added a blanket that was on his bed to the bag. Several hours later, James and Lily went to bed and Sirius left. It was the perfect time for Harry to make his escape. He quietly crept down the stairs to the back door and as quietly as possible, exited the house. When he was a good 200ft away, he turned back and in a barely audible whisper said, "Goodbye. I hope you find what your looking for." And with those parting words, Harry was gone.

It was several days before Lily noticed something was wrong. Usually Harry was bothering her about something or other.

"James! Have you seen Harry?" Lily yelled across their house.

James yelled back, "No! He's probably at the pond. He goes their often. Don't worry! It's charmed so that it's impossible to drown. If he doesn't show up by tonight, then you can worry. But for now, just relax."

Lily sighed and then got back to what she doing. Within an hour, she had forgotten about Harry again. She didn't remember about him that night at dinner either. It wasn't until 4 o'clock in the morning that she remembered. When she did remember she sat bolt right up. She shook James awake.

"James! James! We've done something terrible!" Lily cried.

"What?" James asked.

"We forgot about Harry again! He hasn't been here all day!" Lily said panicking slightly.

"I'm sure he's here. Let's go look in his room." James said getting out of bed.

When Lily and James opened Harry's door, they were greeted by an unpleasant surprise. The bed was made and all the clothes were neatly folded in the drawers and not a single book was out of place on the bookshelves. The room looked as though no one had been in there for days.

"Blinky!" James called.

"Yes Master? What is yous needing?" Blinky asked.

"Where is Harry?" James asked.

"He left. He left 5 days ago. Had yous been more involved in his life yous would have known." Blinky said angrily.

"Can you find him?" Lily asked.

"No. He no longer associated with the Potters. Is cannot find him." Blinky said.

"What do you mean no longer associates?" Lily asked confused.

"If ones were to ask him if yous were his parents, he be saying no. He no longer associates." Blinky said.

"What does that mean?" Lily asked. Blinky had already popped away.

"It means, that we don't have a son anymore." James said solemnly.

This was too much for Lily to handle. She started to cry and apologize to Harry. Because she was crying so hard though, it all came out as jumbled nonsense. James quietly left the room and went to make a floo call to Dumbledore.

Harry was hungry. The trill of leaving had worn off by the end of day one. He was currently in London looking for food. The day before he had eaten out of a trash can like he saw some other people doing. Today, he wanted real food. It was about 9 o'clock at night and all the fast food places were slow. Figuring he could at least fill up his water bottle, he made his way to the nearest McDonalds. He silently went in and made his way to the bathroom to fill up his water bottle with the tap water. When he came out, he noticed that someone had left the cash register open. Harry was hungry. He knew he need money for food, but he also knew that stealing was bad. Seeing more pros than cons, Harry crept over to the register and stole £75. Harry heard footsteps and he bolted in the opposite direction. He might not look it, but he was a fast runner. He didn't stop until he was four blocks away. Noticing a park, he decided that it would be a good place to sleep for the night. He settled himself in the heart of the park and took his blanket out of his backpack. Before he gave into sleep, he put his £75 in his pocket and decided that he needed a permanent camp.

"He ran away! We have no way of finding him! Do you know what this means!" James yelled at Dumbledore.

"I'm sure it's just a small rebellion. He just wants more attention." Dumbledore said calmly.

"It's been 5 days and we just noticed today. I don't think he wants more attention. I think he just wants attention." James said.

"Alas, you may be right. He has to learn though that he can't go and disappear whenever he wants attention. It wouldn't be good for him to think that." Dumbledore said.

"You better have some idea on where he is in the next three days." James said. "For now, I'm going to and comfort my wife. I trust you know where the door is?"

"I will have some information on the whereabouts of your son. Until then, goodbye and good luck." Dumbledore said apparating away.

Harry was walking back to the McDonalds. He wanted to give the money back, but he knew he needed it for food. He figured the next best thing would be to buy something there and pay for it with the stolen money.

"Welcome to McDonalds. How can I help you?" asked the lady behind the desk.

"Could I have 4 hamburgers and 2 large fries?" Harry asked. He had thought himself how to read prior to running away.

"Is that all?" the lady asked.

"Yes." Harry responded.

"Your total will be £15.46." Harry handed her the money and stepped to the side to wait for his food. When he got his food he put 3 of the hamburgers in his backpack and both orders of fries. He ate the fourth hamburger while walking out to try and find a new place to camp. Harry walked until all the people in suits came out of buildings for lunch and after a short 2 minute break, he continued walking. While he was walking he noticed one of the men in suits dropped his wallet. By the time Harry had gotten there though, the man had walked too far away for Harry to catch up. Opening the wallet to see what was inside, he saw £200 and a drivers license. Harry removed the cash and put the wallet back on the sidewalk in case the owner came back for it. It was another 30 minutes before Harry found a new place to camp. It was an abandoned warehouse near the center of the city and the men in suits. The warehouse was about 5 stories tall but only about half of the second floor was still intact, the rest had long since fallen down. Harry found a metal ladder and used it to get to the second floor and pulled the ladder up when he got to the top. The area was about 10 square feet, plenty big enough for one person. By the looks of it, it was once a very nice office. Harry began to unpack. First his food, then is money, then his blanket. Harry layed down his blanket by the wall and stashed his money in a crack in the wall. His food was placed back in his backpack to eaten later. With nothing else to do, Harry returned to the outside world.

Over the next few days Harry's cash reserve nearly tripled in size. After watching some of the older homeless people pickpocket people, Harry decide to try it for himself. His size was a great advantage for him. No one noticed him. He could get about 3 people in 5 minutes. He didn't want to pickpocket two people that were standing right next to each other, he'd seen some of the others make that mistake and get caught by the police. Instead he pickpocketed one person, walked 20 feet, pickpocketed the next, walked 20 feet, pickpocket the next and so on and so forth. By the time a week had passed, Harry had over a £1.000 and his humble camp in an abandoned warehouse now had an alarm clock, a pillow and a camp lantern. He also made himself a nightstand out of wood from the warehouse floor and he had found a mattress outside of a hotel that seemed to be in good condition. He was slowly making London his home.

Lily and James would read every muggle newspaper in London everyday. They would comb through the obituaries, comb through the crime section and read just about anything that had to do with crime, death, and missing persons. If someone didn't know what they were doing, they would think that they were crazy and should be sent to an insane asylum. For those that did know them, they sent them every muggle newspaper they could find to help them in their search for Harry. Dumbledore has promised that he would have information on where Harry was in three days. 3 years had passed and no one in the Wizarding community had seen hide nor hair of him since he left. Everyone, including James and lily were hoping that in another 3 years that Harry would show up at Hogwarts. That was all they could ask for at this point.

6 years had passed since Harry had moved into his warehouse. He now had over £5.000 stuffed in the walls from pickpocketing. He was nimble on his feet and had honed his skill to the point where the people he robbed wouldn't even know until they went to look for their wallet. His loft like room in the warehouse now had sheets on the mattress, a pillowcase in the pillow, several books, another camp lantern, more blankets and hygiene products. Every 3 days Harry would break into a nearby gym to shower and clean up. He would go every month to the Tames to wash his 5 outfits. There was rarely a night when Harry went without food now. Whenever he did go without food it was because he had gotten in a fight and could barely lift his head up. Over the years Harry had gotten into his fair share of knife fights over land, food, and money. Apparently, his warehouse was prime restate for the homeless teenagers. After losing 3 knife fights when he was 6 after his place was found by a local gang, Harry decided that he need to learn to fight. He went down to a hunting store and bought himself a hunting knife and a sharpener. His knife cost him £50 and was his most prized possession. He made sure that it was always sharp and that the leather handle was always pristine and he would replace it as needed. The next day was Harry's birthday. He didn't expect much from it. He stopped caring about his birthday a long time ago. He would buy himself a cupcake to sing himself happy birthday with. Most people would find this sad. A homeless 10, soon to be 11 year old singing himself happy birthday in the upper portion of a abandoned warehouse, but Harry found it uplifting. He loved being independent and relying on no one. Before he went to bed that night he turned off his lamp and opened the loose board on the wall so he could see the London skyline. This was his favorite part of living in London. He could see all the lights of the buildings for miles around, and on clear nights like that one, he could see the stars. With one last glance, Harry went to bed with a smile on his face.

The next morning when Harry woke up, there was a letter addressed to him sitting in his nightstand. It was written on thick, yellowy paper in bright emerald ink. Harry turned the letter over and saw the crest of Hogwarts in red wax. Knowing exactly what the letter was, Harry gathered his thing and put them in his backpack. He climbed down the ladder and went to the other side of the warehouse were there was a supply closet where he could store his mattress, nightstand and lanterns in while he was at Hogwarts. When he was pleased with how his stuff was hidden, he went back to his are to collect all the cash he had stuffed into the cracks in the wood. Once he had everything in proper order, he headed out to Diagon Alley to buy his supplies.

Even though it was summer, Harry still wore a black hoodie to hide his identity. His first stop in Diagon Alley was Gringotts. While in the bank he got £2.000 converted into Galleons. Now having enough money to buy all his school supplies, Harry went out into the alley to buy what need to be bought. First he bought his robes and meet one of the most unpleasant people he ever had the displeasure of meeting, then he went to Flourish and Blotts to buy his books, after that he went to the luggage store to buy a trunk for all his stuff, ext he went to the apothecary to buy all his potion supplies, and at around 2 o'clock he went to Ollivander' to buy a wand. The matching process took a lot longer than Harry expected. That may have been because Harry refused to identify himself to Ollivander. After what seem like forever, Harry bought a beechwood and Phoenix feather wand 12 ½ inches for 7 galleons. Just as he was about to leave the alley, he noticed a muggle weapons store. He didn't need any new weapons, but a sheath for his knife would be nice. He had to leave his blade outside while he was in Gringotts and he didn't like feeling so exposed. 20 minutes later, Harry was the proud owner of a leather belt-loop sheath. As soon as he paid for it, Harry clipped it onto his belt and sheathed his knife. Exiting the store, Harry noticed how many finely dressed wizards there were. Smiling to himself, Harry set out down the alley to begin robbing everyone blind. When he was done robbing most of the Wizarding population, Harry knew he was fling to turn Hogwarts in its ear and wreck havoc on a scale not seen since the marauders.

A/N: I will still be working on Forgotten Twin while doing this. I just thought this would be a fun side project. As stated in the authors note above, this was the blueprint for Forgotten Twin and after many edits, Harry, Claire, Tonks, Hermione, Neville, Lily, Daniel, Remus, Amanda, and James has their personalities down on the cloud. (Was going to say paper then I remembered that I'm writing this electronically.) Anyway, I hope you liked it and reviews (constructive) are always welcome. Until next time!

-Sheltie1267