Chapter 1
It had been an accident. A very stupid accident, at that, that got him killed. It wasn't the way he saw himself dying, especially not three years after the war or how he had died. He could not believe that he'd died the way he had. "Idiot!" He berated himself, floating uselessly in the void he found currently himself in. He'd had so much ahead of him; he had just gotten married, damn it! And his wife Ginny's and his first child would be due in three months —it would be a boy, he'd decided to name him James Sirius— he couldn't die, not with a child on the way! He wanted to cry in despair and embarrassment.
You may be wondering how Harry James Potter died. Well, it was rather embarrassing and quite stupid really- so stupid Harry thought he could die, if not for the fact that he was already dead. If he had been younger and it been anyone else but him he would have laughed —Well maybe not if it had been his friends— But it had been him to die in such a ridiculous way and he didn't know if he could live it down. Well, maybe not live, but you get the idea.
Harry and his wife had gone to Diagon Alley for the day. He had been excited since he hadn't been there in almost three years — it was to be expected after all he had helped clean up and repair Hogwarts and then he had his Auror training which Ron also took. He had then gotten married about a year ago… and he was a war hero. — He had just wanted to get some ice cream and spend some time with his wife before their child was born. But in the end he died; and it was the stupidest way to die too! He had tripped — yes, that's right, he tripped! — over his own two feet and hit the ground hard. Now it would have been fine if he hadn't hit his head on something sharp and deadly.
He didn't remember what it was, but it hurt. It felt like his head was on fire, burning everything in his body from the inside out. He didn't have time to scream but he remembered his wife screaming his name. It had been a terrible experience and he hoped that he would never have to hear her like that way ever again. But her screams stuck with him in whatever this was… this blackness. The place was warm and cold all at the same time, It felt like both nothingness and water. Which was strange in and of itself. He suddenly felt very tired, a feeling which he tried to fight. At some point it became too much and he had to close his eyes and sleep.
When he opened his eyes again the feeling of being in both nothing at all and water was gone. He was on a familiar mattress —more like a wooden plank— and he almost groaned. He prayed to whatever god was up there that this wasn't his afterlife. If it was, then it sucked. He sat up trying to pop the aches and pains out of his abused back when it suddenly got bright in his cupboard —the one he thought was his afterlife— as the door was slammed open. He looked up startled, the person who had opened the door was his uncle Vernon. He looked both angry and calm —A look Harry couldn't remember ever seeing on his face before— even with his face a purple color.
"Out of the cupboard, Boy!" His uncle shouted. Yep, same old Vernon.
Harry hurried to get out of the cupboard. As he did so he noticed that he was really small, smaller than he was when he was ten years old. He began to wonder how old he was until he saw the date on aunt Petunia's calendar.
'June 22, 1985'
He came to the realization that he was only four — almost five — which was both a good and bad thing. Good because he didn't have to cook and bad because he had more chores at this age than he did as a ten-year-old. What brought Harry out of his thoughts was his uncle grabbing his tiny arm with a grip that could bruise and could break bones — it wasn't like it hadn't happened before when he was seven — and practically dragged him outside. The backyard and garden were just as he remembered it but with a few things he didn't remember being there the first time around. He didn't remember there being a garden gnome in the yard or the heating rock near the gnome.
"This whole list better be done by the time I get back!" His uncle shouted as he stopped, shoving the list and harry to the ground before stalking off to his car.
Harry rubbed his arm that he knew would bruise from both his uncle's hand and the fall to the ground. He picked himself off the ground and began the impossible list of chores starting with the flower bed — it had alway been his favorite place — and then the rest of the garden and backyard. He knew deep down that he wouldn't be able to finish on time and found himself wishing he had learned wandless magic when Hermione had instead. Perhaps he could learn it now in whatever this place was but not here in the open. He would probably do it in his cupboard when he wasn't being watched. Maybe he could practice on healing bruises and broken bones for now.
He also knew that he wouldn't be getting any lunch and quite possibly no dinner. He worked himself to the bone bypassing lunch — much to his disappointment — and by the time Vernon got home he wasn't even halfway done with his chores which resulted in him being beaten and shoved into the cupboard for a week. In that time not only did he wish that his relatives would disappear but he also began practicing his wandless magic on his injuries. If anyone in the house were to know that he was using magic he knew that they would beat him. There was another thing that peeved him so much that the wish to make the Dursleys disappear became stronger and more frequent. His uncle was always yelling about how 'Freakish' Harry was and how he 'should have drowned the little freak in the river when he was forced on us' Harry began to hate the Dursleys more than he already had.
After about a week, Harry was finally let out of his cupboard: except it wasn't for chores. He was given an apple which surprised him because the Dursleys would never give him an apple or any food they had deemed him unworthy of. He became even more suspicious when they cleaned him up and dressed him in nice clothes before shoving him into the backseat of the car next to a very unhappy Dudley. His aunt and uncle warned him about funny business before driving off.