Title: Untitled 004 (rev 10) – 1/2
Author: Animealam
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Warnings: Child Abuse, Neglect, Blind Harry, OCC-ness, Other Female Character, Manipulative but not evil Dumbledore
Disclaimer: Nope, doesn’t belong to me. I only play with them a bit.
Summary: Well this is another one of the plot bunnies I’m starting to type. This one is an AU starts before Hogwarts. It has some Dursley abuse, and in the story Harry ends up blind before he goes to Hogwarts. Will be a Harry is apprenticed to Snape but it will be a more father/son relationship. Dumbledore is not going to be such a nice old man, but I don’t think I’m going to make him truly awful. Also there will be an OC here, and I’m of a mind of exploring a Snape/OC relationship although not completely sure and even if I decide to add it, it won’t be the focus of the story. Super power Harry and Snape warning, although it’ll be mostly Harry. I already have about 22 pages of this bunny, and this is only the first 4.

I made some revisions since I first posted this in the journal. The muses have been refusing to let me work on anything save little bits of this one. So I am reposting this one with with the revisions I made and the next installment in about 10 min. As soon as I finish cleaning the MSWord useless html code.

Revision 17/02/2005

The young boy moved about with precision, he knew where everything was and had learned to leave things in the exact same place as he dusted and did the cleaning. It had taken him a couple of months, and a lot of pain inflicted by his aunt and uncle to learn the trick. But he had, and managed to keep the house clean even if he could not see a thing.

His name was Harry, Harry Potter, and he was ten years old… no scratch that. Today was his birthday, so he was eleven; not that it was going to be any different to any other day. His aunt and uncle had never celebrated his birthday, unlike that of his cousin. The boy was an orphan. According to his aunt and uncle, his parents died in a car crash when Harry was fifteen months old, and they regretted that he had not died with them too. Petunia, his mum’s sister, had been his only living relative. She was forced to take him in, and ‘they’ reminded him of that fact many times a day.

Harry at first had been like any healthy kid, but as he grew, he became sickly. Of course anyone would if they were not properly fed, beaten often, and made to work on chores not fit for a child. Still, Harry managed to go on. His aunt and uncle had a son -Dudley- which they spoiled rotten, and that early on developed a sick pleasure for making Harry’s life as miserable and painful as possible. It was because of Dudley that the young boy lost his sight in an accident.

That day in early December Harry had had a very difficult conversation with his teacher, Miss Diana Talbot. She and the other teachers had noticed that all was not well at his home. Miss Talbot had cornered him and asked all kinds of questions about his home life. Harry at first had refused to respond, but after a while ended admitting the abuse he was subjected to by his uncaring relatives. Miss Talbot and the teachers had promised to help him, but he had not much faith on it. The Dursleys were respected and had a good reputation in Little Whining; it was his word against theirs. As it was, the conversation delayed him. He was not allowed to be out of the house after school. They did not want to risk someone finding out their secret.

Harry was late, and he was going to be in so much trouble with his aunt Petunia for it. To make matters worse, Dudley and his gang decided it was the ‘perfect’ day for ‘Harry Hunting’. A ‘sport’ that consisted in chasing the poor boy around and beating him to a pulp when they caught him; thankfully it was not often, Harry was small but fast and good at dodging. It was while trying to escape Dudley’s gang as they closed in on him that he crossed the street not noticing a car did not stop at the red light. It hit the boy head on.

Harry woke up a week later in the hospital and found out several things. The doctors discovered the belt marks and signs of Vernon’s previous beatings, and they corroborated what he had told Miss Talbot. The school had already pressed charges, and to those were added the ones the hospital reported. It became a big scandal back among the people of Little Whining.

It was hard to believe that the apparently ‘normal’ and respectable Dursley were capable of hurting the innocent child that was under their care. But the evidence was there. The Dursleys were given a second chance, although they were put on probation. That meant they would be closely monitored. For some reason even if people wanted to take Harry away from them, the documents made it so that the child ended back with his ‘family’.

The small child also found that due to his head injuries he was blind, with no hopes of ever seeing again. It was a hard blow for the little boy, but he had a resilient spirit and soon learned to accept it. To clean their ‘image’ a bit, the Dursleys made a big show of sending Harry for a few months to a school for the blind. There the boy learned to be independent, to read Braille, to move about without help, and even cooking when he asked. Cooking had been one of his chores at ‘home’ and he actually liked it. Harry also did not think his aunt and uncle would really change the way they treated him. He may have to call the place where he lived ‘home’ for appearances sake, but he had been ‘instructed’ to never consider the Dursley house ‘home’, and he never had after Vernon made his point.

Just before his eight birthday, the Dursleys removed Harry from the school. Miss Talbot and the prosecutor that had been in charge of his case had complained about the measure, feeling that the family would go back to the way they were before the trial. They hated the boy even more because ‘he had tainted their immaculate reputation’, and did not bother to hide their feelings. The Dursleys argued that they could not afford to keep the boy at that school. It was expensive and because of that they were ‘neglecting’ their own son’s needs. The adult Dursley had decided Harry should be home schooled.

Harry had no choice but to return to number four Privet Drive. To his surprise he was not back to the cupboard under the stairs that up until the day of the accident had been his room. Instead, he was given Dudley’s second bedroom. He soon settled in his new room, carefully mapping the place in his mind like he had been taught. It was at the school that he learned he had an incredibly good memory, almost photographic. In his new situation it was a blessing, it helped him to learn faster.

His Braille books, audio books, Braille machine, tape player and typewriter were orderly placed so he could find them, as well as his clothes; all Dudley’s hand me downs, as he did not own anything else. Of course, his meager possessions did not remain that way for long. Dudley broke his Braille typewriter, and the tape player for his audio books. That happened after the social worker’s visit. The Dursleys believed that would be the only visit, and were keen on returning to the way things were before the ‘freak’s’ accident.

Miss Talbot had arrived just as Dudley was finishing off with the tape player while his mother looked at him with approval. The resulting confrontation had not been nice. Diane Talbot had taken a liking to Harry. The young teacher had come to care for the little boy very much, and was not willing to let him keep suffering under his relatives ‘care’. She and Mr. Pritchard –the prosecutor- found a way to monitor the child’s condition legally, in hopes that would keep the Dursley family abuse to a minimum.

Petunia Dursley found out what being under probation really meant. The family would have to endure being under constant supervision by the authorities and the education board. The Dursley had really not planned on educating the ‘Freak’ as they called Harry. They firmly believed the boy did not need it. That was why they had insisted on home schooling him. What neither Vernon Dursley nor Petunia were expecting was that the boy’s progress would be evaluated by a capable teacher.

Mr. Pritchard and Miss Talbot argued that Mrs. Dursley had no higher education; she was not fit to teach the little boy. If the Dursleys refused to let, not only the assigned teacher, but the counselor and the social worker visit Harry, they would have to go to court again. That was something the adult Dursley did not want.

When Miss Talbot found out about this option for Harry’s protection she volunteered to be the teacher to monitor the boy’s progress. Her mother was blind and she knew Braille. She was also able to teach the sight impaired. That afternoon the young teacher was shocked to see how fast the Dursleys had returned to their old habits, so she threatened to call Mr. Pritchard again if they did not buy Harry those things Dudley broke. Petunia had no other choice but to agree.

Harry was not spared his chores and Vernon still beat him -just not as bad- and always where it would not be noticed by any of those checking on him; especially Miss Talbot, who protected the child like a lioness does her cubs. Harry was also not fed as punishment, so he was really small and skinny. It had been hard for the little boy to get used to perform the chores he was forced to do, but slowly he began learning. There were some of course that he was no longer able to do, like painting the fences or re-arrange the whole garden, and they had to give him the time to study too.

It was while learning to do his chores that the boy discovered he could make strange things happen. He had ‘magically’ repaired an ashtray he broke once. He almost floated down without hurting himself when he tripped on the stairs with one of Dudley’s toys. He had been all happy and exited about this last thing, as his cousin was always leaving things in his path for him to trip over, and breaking things always resulted in a beating. When the Dursleys found out what he did Vernon actually threw him back into the cupboard with no food for three days, and he was forbidden to use the word ‘magic’ from then on.

After those two incidents things kept happening, but Harry was careful not to mention them anymore. With time he began trying to control those things, it was all nice and good when they happened, but he could not depend on getting things repaired depending on the ‘whatever it was’ whim. The little boy started by willing things to happen, taking advantage of his good concentration skills. He also developed an uncanny detection sense. The small blind boy always knew where in the house his relatives were. That way he could perform his tricks without his aunt and uncle knowing.

Harry at first was quite successful with small things; like finding his possessions, or ordering them into their rightful places when Dudley messed with his belongings. He was also able to repair most of those things he broke by accident or that his cousin broke on purpose. Diana and Miss Blockhurst –the counselor- had seen him repair some stuff. They had been surprised, but both were very open-minded and encouraged him to keep experimenting and seeing what else he could do.

Dudley stopped breaking Harry’s things when he realized that every time he did, his parents were forced to buy new ones for his cousin –they were not cheap- and that left less money to buy him –Dudley- toys. Soon Harry was doing more complex things, like shielding himself from hot oil when he fried bacon, managing trips to the town’s library all on his own even when he had to take the bus, or making normal books read themselves to him.

The small boy realized that his only chance to leave the Dursleys would be if he could support himself and became self sufficient when he was old enough to leave. For that he needed to have some kind of education; the more, the better, so he concentrated on learning as much as he could. It surprised him when he realized that he like dreading and learning. Harry was also able to silence his Braille machine and typewriter, since his aunt and uncle complained about the noise.

Life for Harry Potter, while not good, was bearable; there were people that loved him even if they were not related to him and they offered him as much affection as they could during visits. His thirst for knowledge helped the child to do well with his studies. So well in fact that Miss Talbot had encouraged him to seek a scholarship from a very good school for secondary education. It was for blind children and prepared them to go to University, a sighted one. The school did not often grant scholarships, as they had a rather limited availability of funds. But Miss Talbot was sure he could get one that year or be taken into consideration when a position opened.

Because of his application to Fulton Secondary School for the Blind the Dursley did not take too much notice when on his birthday a letter for Harry Potter, Dudley’s second bedroom arrived. Vernon was not too happy for the ‘freak’ to keep studying, but he would allow it as long as he did not have to spend a pound on it. He had more than enough with ensuring that his precious son was admitted to Smeltings, the boarding school he attended as a young teen.

Letter in hand Harry went to his room heart pounding. He would know if he could continue his education or he was doomed to be his relatives’ slave. His aunt Petunia would not mind that too much, he already did most of the house work. To the boy’s surprise the letter was not in Braille. The young child frowned, why did a school for the blind send a letter that was not in Braille? At that moment his aunt came in –without knocking, Harry hated that- and tossed him another letter. Harry took it, went to close the door and locked it. Once sure no Dursleys would come unannounced into his room Harry did one of his little tricks, the letter read itself.

Next

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Tags: Abusive Dursley, Angst, Apprentice (Posted), AU, AU 1st year, Blind, Child Abuse, Disabled, Drama, Dumbledore, General, Good Goblins, Good McGonagall, Good Severus, Harry, Harry Potter, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulative Dumbledore, Neglect, Other Female Character, Powerful Severus, Pre Hogwarts, Rated: PG-13, Severus, Severus is Harry's Guardian, Super Power Harry