Redemption

Chapter One:

Harry sighed and stepped onto the merry-go-round. Since returning to Privet Drive, this small park had become his favorite place to mope. About a day after arriving back, Sirius' death sunk in once more. He was as good as alone now with no one around to cheer him up. Half of him expected Sirius to suddenly tap him on the shoulder and envelope him in a big hug but the other half knew better. The other half knew that the older man was dead and never coming back. It knew that Voldemort had won this time. That evil bastard had finally gotten to Harry in a way that his parents' death had not. This time, he'd been old enough to love the man who was killed; the man who was like a surrogate father to him. This time, it had been Harry's fault.

His dark thoughts were interrupted by a booming laugh which he recognized. Groaning, Harry turned to face Dudley; he didn't bother running. If Dudley hit him, then he was getting nothing less than he deserved for causing the death of the only person who had been close to a father to him. However, it appeared that Dudley and his friends hadn't even noticed him. They were preoccupied with a small, dark boy, who was apparently ignoring them.

As the group stepped into the light, Harry noticed that Pierres seemed to missing and several other boys were sporting what promised to be heavy bruises. Could that small guy have been responsible?

"Hey! Don't walk away from me you little shit!" In a move of desperation, Dudley lunged forward and grabbed the Asian boy's arm. "Now, you listen to me. I run these streets. Every kid out there is afraid of me, and I'm giving you a chance to get in on that. With those moves you pulled, no little punk would ever stand up to me and my boys again. Now, are you with us? Or against us?"

Without a word, the boy executed a combination of movements, first ducking under Dudley's arm which was still holding onto his, then smashing his elbow into the larger boy's side before sweeping a low kick which laid Dudley flat out on the grass. "Lay a hand on me again and I'll snap your wrist, followed by several other parts of your body. Any man who uses fear to get what he wants is weak and undeserving," he spat and walked away.

Harry stared after him, still unnoticed by Dudley who was wide eyed in shock, lying flat on his back nor by the rest of the gang who looked as though they were lost. Obviously, they'd never entertained the notion of someone beating Dudley up. He decided to make his break while the boys were still lost in confusion, and swiftly followed after the boy who'd caused said confusion.

"Wait," he called once he finally caught up, breathing heavily from the sprint across the wet grass. "Who-who are you?"

"No one to concern yourself with," came the cold reply.

"I just want to congratulate you. You know, for getting Dudley like that. On behalf of all the neighborhood kids, thanks," Harry replied with a small smile.

"So, you aren't with that gang then," the boy said quietly, stopping and looking at Harry from the corner of his eye. "My name is Chang Wufei, and that is all you need to know." With that, Wufei continued to walk; his tone so final that Harry thought it best to leave him be for now.

Even so, Harry determined to find out more about this new face in town before the summer ended.

.................................................................................................................................

It had been about three weeks since Wufei had first attacked Dudley. Needless to say, the teenaged boxer had not been happy, and had taken to relieving his frustrations by knocking Harry around. The smaller boy retained several tokens of this in the form of bruises and a black eye, but he did nothing to stop the beatings which Dudley would dish out whenever they ran into each other outside the house.

Harry had spent many a night either crying in his room or combing the streets. He had run into Wufei a few times; occasionally being threatened, occasionally discovering new information. He had confirmed his suspicions that the boy was of Chinese decent and also found that he was a year older than Harry, confident in several forms of martial arts and smoked when he was particularly grumpy.

He didn't know why he was so interested, but it seemed that Harry's brief conversations with Wufei numbed the pain of Sirius' death, for a short while at least. It wasn't until one night when Dudley caught Harry watching the Chinese boy from afar that their true friendship began.

Dudley had begun by teasing Harry about being a fag and pining for his crush before landing a heavy blow in his gut. Hearing the loud guffaws from Dudley's gang, Wufei had come over to investigate and found Harry doubled over coughing, Dudley beaming with pride. Before Harry could tell what had happened, Dudley's wrist had indeed been snapped and he was howling in pain, the other gang member's faces were pale and they were backing away from Wufei who was seething with anger.

"I warned you. Those who gain by fear are weak, and will always get what they deserve. Get the hell out of here now before I change my mind. And if I ever find you using your strength against someone smaller again, then I won't hold back." He spoke quietly, but the tone was deadly and Dudley scrambled to his feet, clutching his broken wrist, tears of pain in his eyes. "Go!"

As the bully turned tail and ran, Wufei's attention switched to Harry. "Are you ok? Not to badly hurt, I hope."

"I'm ok. I'm used to pain. Especially Dudley's kind. You shouldn't have put yourself out for me," Harry answered, his eyes averted in self-shame. "I'm not worth it."

"Nonsense. That fat git had it coming anyway. Here," the Chinese boy wrapped an arm around Harry's waist. "Let me help you."

Wufei led him towards a small bench by the roadside, frowning disapprovingly at the bruise over Harry's eye. "Why don't you stop him?"

"I couldn't if I wanted to," Harry answered." But I deserve it anyway. I'm just getting what I deserve. If it wasn't for me... Look. I'd better be getting home." Harry stood carefully, suspecting a cracked rib, and wincing when it was confirmed. If only he was at Hogwarts it could be fixed easily but here in the Muggle world, the pain simply served as another reminder of his stupidity.

"Harry," Wufei stood as well, quickly pushing aside his confusion at the boy's comments and focusing on more important matters. "If that overgrown pig does hurt you again, let me know. I... guess I'll see you around."

Harry made his way home slowly to find Dudley sulking in the living room. He'd spun some cock and bull story about falling on his wrists to save face about having his arse kicked. Even through his self-pity, part of Harry jumped with glee at seeing the state which Dudley was in.

From that night onwards, he and Wufei had met up around the town and began to form a friendship that Harry found he sorely needed. Wufei could be the answer to ending his depression, whether Harry wanted it that way or not.