HP/TVD
Harry Potter is saved from the abusive Dursleys by a surprising business partner of Vernon's: Elijah Mikaelson.
Elijah takes her from the Dursleys and offers seven year old Harry the one thing she's always wanted: true family.
Excerpt:
1987
Seven year old Harry Potter was good at pretending she didn’t exist. She had been doing it for years, ever since she’d been dumped at the Dursleys’ house after her good-for-nothing parents had died in a car crash, and her perfectly normal Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were burdened with her; she’d perfected the art of being non-existent, of being invisible, from an early age.
Harry was better off being unseen and unheard. If she obeyed silently and as unobtrusively as possible, it meant she was given meagre scraps of food and half a bottle of water every night and left unbeaten. If she failed to follow the rule of unseen and unheard, she went hungry and locked in her cupboard, body smarting from the beating Uncle Vernon would heap on her.
The rules were simple and clear, and Harry followed them to a T:
1. Don’t ask questions
2. Don’t speak out of turn
3. Don’t show your freaky face unless necessary
4. Be grateful for what you’re given
5. Obey Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon
6. Don’t be better than Dudley
7. Do not touch anything that isn’t yours
The rules had been impressed upon Harry for as long as she could remember. If she broke them, the punishments were harsh and severe; but she was a dab hand at observing her relatives moods and acting accordingly. Especially whenever Uncle Vernon had business deals. He always started the day nervously optimistic and cheerful, boasting about how swiftly his company had taken off, how investors flocked to him and his innovative ideas, but she was on constant eggshells, because if the deal went sour Harry was blamed and punished.
Harry was always hard-pressed not to laugh. Uncle Vernon wasn’t innovative. He merely rode his business partner, Mr Mason’s, coattails to success. If not for Mr Mason, the business would have failed miserably with only Vernon spearheading it.
But Harry remained silent, keeping her snide and sarcastic comments to herself, especially when Vernon rounded on her the morning of the 4th and demanded she remain in her cupboard from five pm, when he was to return home with a possible investor, one Mr Mikaelson.
Harry had since stopped hoping that the investors would notice her in the cupboard, that they’d swoop in and save her. She stopped dreaming of the day a distant family member would come for her, or her parents – miraculously alive – would return and take her away.
Freaks like Harry didn’t have families.