A Strange Child
Harry Potter is a strange child.
It’s something everyone can agree on.
He wanders through the streets, stuck in his head. There is a world in there that brings him peace. It is a sweet escape that he’s treasured through the years. Without it, he would have embraced death at a much earlier age. It's the only constant he has: the bitter knowledge of life and death.
He finds comfort in this sentiment and peace in the gentle promise that Death gives. Why be scared of Death when he treats everyone equally? He promises peace and takes the hurt to a place where they’ll no longer be hurt. Harry wishes he could go. He yearns for peace, for escape from the pain inflicted by the Dursleys. Only Death can provide that relief. It’s a morbid thought, though it shouldn’t be surprising given the legacy he comes from.
Death. That is what his parents have left him with. Death and a family that only knows how to hurt. Would his parents be the same?
He is quick to dismiss the thought. Even if it were to be the case, it didn’t matter. They were dead, and he was alive. They died and left him behind. They left him to the Dursleys, who hated him for things beyond his control.
Aunt Petunia hated him because he looked like the boy who had seduced her sister away. Dudley hated him for the little attention and focus he got. Uncle Vernon hated everything about him. He couldn’t quite pin one thing or another on the man; unlike the other family members, there was no apparent motive. They hated him for the blight he was in their ‘normal, perfect’ family.
To them, Harry was a freak. He was someone who caused the neighbors to gossip and play backhanded politics that the Dursleys hated. Different occurrences made him strange, unexplainable things happening when least expected. From apparating to a roof to turning a teacher’s hair blue, Harry was the definition of abnormal.
The world moved differently around him, wind tousling his hair when there was none. In certain lights, it looked to be a different color, blue-black fading into red-black. Petunia was abnormally quiet, not quite gentle, but not as harsh on those days. It was the only strange thing he wasn’t blamed for.
When the lights flickered, it was his fault. When the hand-me-downs from Dudley shrank, it was his fault. His hair grew back overnight and longer than before. Dudley tripping, because he was running upstairs was his fault. It was all his fault, all his fault.
It wasn’t, though. It wasn’t his fault, and that was a truth he had to fight to remember.
It wasn’t his fault strange things happened around him.
It wasn’t his fault he could make things happen when he was scared or angry.
It wasn’t his fault he had magic.
Oh, and learning that was certainly a surprise. The Dursleys had deemed it appropriate to leave him in the dark and hate him for circumstances beyond his control. Harry supposes he would never have learned the truth from the Dursleys; after all, they were content to call his parents drug addicts and alcoholics.
He had been lucky to find the truth when he had. It had been chanced upon, seen only when cleaning the attic. His mother had left a trunk for him, small trinkets of the past, and a journal to provide a glimpse into the woman she was. From her diary, he had learned of magic.
Lily Potter Nee Evans had revealed a world of magic. There was a world out there of wizards and witches- wixen, if you will. There are magical creatures- vampires, house elves, mermaids, unicorns, and so much more. Each is unique and different, possessing different forms of magic and skills.
Vampires can see better in the dark and have a great sense of hearing. They were born more often than turned, and contrary to muggle legend, they could go outside. Severus Snape, her best friend, brother, a classmate, was a born vampire.
House elves were bound to their family’s magic, but it was for the best. It was a symbiotic relationship, as the elf would wither and fade away without being bound. They could get in and out of everywhere and could do anything. However in the end, they just wanted to help. All he wanted to do was to help, too.
In the magical world, mermaids aren’t beautiful. They’re not like the mermaids you see in Peter Pan. No- they are cruel and self-serving, more akin to the muggle concept of a siren. They possess great prowess and skill, full of danger that magic can hardly negate.
The unicorns are what he’s most curious about. Unicorns flock to those who are innocent and clean in every matter. They care for those that are pure, for innocents and children. Would they like him? Would they consider him to be pure? Or would the sins pressing against his chest turn him into something to be destroyed?
It leads to an ache in his chest a bitter sense of resignation over the fact that he is not like the others. No matter how much he might share with other wizards, it won’t change the fact that he is damaged and scared in ways no child should be.
Still, he can’t help but hope for a different world. One that is brighter, free from the bruising grasp of his aunt and uncle. So he’ll wait one day at a time until he’s finally free.