A Forgotten Youth

A Forgotten Youth: Prologue

The night was one of the darkest of the summer, matching the mood of a boy living in the small, locked cupboard in one of the perfect houses on Privet Drive. The room was barely large enough for a small cot, as well as his 'filth' as his only family deemed his school supplies.

The boy was huddled in the corner on the bed, knees clutched to his chest, suppressing ragged breaths until only if you strained, you could hear them. Longer, shaggy hair shielded his bruised and bleeding face from view. The hair had grown longer, as the boy had wished, so it could hide his distinguished scar, as well as the other injuries from view.

One empty, dull green eye twitched in suppressed pain as the other eye gushed blood. His Uncle had been a little too eager, again, to punish his nephew for living with his abnormality under their roof. The lacerations along his back, as well as the bruises and cuts that ran along the rest of his body did not compare to the new injury.

~ Flashback ~

The cupboard door was yanked open to reveal a malnourished boy shielding his eyes from light. A beefy hand grabbed the boy by the overly large clothing and hauled him up close to his face.

Putrid breath that reeked of alcohol was blown across a face whose eyes weakly glared defiantly. Eyes narrowed, and the face grew red with anger at the small display of defiance.

"How dare you boy! This will be a lesson you'll never forget!" The drunken man spat angrily. He proceeded to brutally beat the boy; punching and kicking every inch of skin he could get his hands on. "Worthless," and "No one could care for a freak like you," were screamed over the whimpers of the boy.
At the end of the beating the Uncle just glared down in disgust at the body that littered his house. Those emerald eyes, one swollen, however, still glared upon him in hatred, haunting him for his sins. How he couldn't stand looking into those eyes!

He watched as those eyes widened in horror as he picked up the shears that Petunia was using to cut coupons out of the paper, uninterested as the events were unfolding.

Feeble hands unsteadily rose to block his face as the large man bore down on him with the sharp scissors, and then flailed wildly in a weak attempt to halt in Uncle from his goal. All was in vain as the broken youth gasped, his mouth open in a silent scream as the man stabbed the tips of the scissors into the bottom of his cursed scar and began to drag it downward.

The boy began to thrash and scream, but this only manage to make the process more painful as the incision became jagged. He lapsed into unconsciousness as the sharp shears glided over his eye and down part of his cheek, only to come awake several minutes later to being thrown into his cupboard.

~ End of Flashback ~

He was lucky; his uncle hadn't decided to attack his other eye that was already black and blue from a punch to the face. Slowly a small pale hand dabbed blood from the fresh scare across his face, causing just enough pain to keep him awake. He couldn't deal with any dreams tonight.

The youth sighed quietly, one dark eye glazed over in unsettling thoughts. He was a murderer, and everybody knew it. No one could ever love him for what he was. He was simply worthless. Death would relieve everybody of their burden of knowing him.

The dreams, or more like nightmares, had caused such dark thoughts. Cedric, his parents, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Ron and Hermione, Dumbledore, everyone was there. They had such a look of hatred in their eyes as the screamed words of disgust and accusations at him that he shivered at the thought of it.

Whether it was pain or exhaustion, slumped back into unconsciousness. No one even blinked, as the broken youth and his belongings disappeared suddenly, leaving no trace that he had lived there in that small cupboard.

Harry Potter had vanished.