Project Motherhood: Squigly

Chapter 1

Number Four Privet Drive was a boring place full of boring people. But it harboured a dark secret in its fourth house... In this house lived Vernon Dursley, and his wife, child and nephew.

Vernon treated his wife and son very well. He loved and cherished them with all his heart, and worked long and hard to provide for their desires.

However, this did not mean he was a good man. Far from it. He was an angry, short-tempered man that always treated the general public like yesterday's trash.

But the worst thing about him was, by far, the way he treated his nephew... Or as he saw him, his stress-relief punching bag.

Everything that went wrong in his life was Harry's fault, pure and simple. He stubbed his toe? Freak put the table in the way and got a beating. Breakfast burned? Freak needed to cook better, so he got burned on the stovetop. Dudley and his friends made the freak drink chemicals? Freak provoked them, so he got the hot fire poker.

Now, Vernon wasn't entirely at fault. An old jinx surrounding the house was greatly enhancing his anger and hatred. Without it, he would at the very most starve and hit him... But the longer the blood wards stood, the more enraged and creative he became with his punishments.

Harry Potter was scared. All his life, all he had ever known was pain, fear and sadness. He was certain he would die if this kept up...

Whimpering, the little boy curled up in a ball, trying his best to sleep through the pain of his latest beating... He let out a choked sob that he wasn't able to choke back. "I wanna be somewhere else... Anywhere else..." He whimpered.

His pleas were heeded... In a flash, little Harry Potter was gone from his cupboard, his blanket and teddy bear left behind on the cupboard floor.

He felt something soft... He finally opened his eyes and felt a cool wind on his face. Looking down, he saw he had landed on some grass. Harry blinked, confused as to what had happened. Then he looked up. When he did, he felt his spine freeze. In front of him was a tombstone, beside him was a tombstone, all around him were tombstones. Had he died?! Did his freaky stuff kill him?! He was led to believe it would, but... if he was dead, wouldn't he see his mommy and daddy? Or... or whatever else there was?

Weakly rising, Harry began wandering aimlessly, trying to find a way out of the graveyard, or someone to help him. But he didn't believe he would ever find either. He was a freak. That's all he was. That's all he ever would be.

He finally gave up, sitting with his back to a headstone, not knowing what else to do. He had been told he would be hurt if he cried, but... it's all he could do.

He managed to fight back tears enough to avoid breaking down completely... But he couldn't prevent a few from streaming down his face and onto the grave beneath him, the small tear droplet trickling down into the ground below...

In a coffin lay a corpse, relatively preserved due to the parasite taking residence within. The corpse was that of a girl. In spite of her blue skin, boney hand and missing eye, she still managed to look as radiant as she did in life, her youthful beauty having been maintained, her long purple dress still in pristine condition despite the years inside the coffin. Across her corpse laid a skeletal snake-like parasite, loyally lying by the side of his best friend's daughter.

They had been revived three times in the past seven years to face the Skullgirls. Despite their condition, they had managed to make friends, and tie up several loose ends, chief among them being the destruction of the very people who had killed her: The Medic mafia.

They'd had help, of course. Filia was truly appalled by her family and knew they needed to be taken down. Cerebella had realized she was following the wrong side after one dirty job too many, defecting from the Medicis alongside her best friend Feng and arch-rival Beatrix. Peacock, Ms. Fortune and Big Band all had their own personal grudges against them that they felt needed to be unleashed. Parasoul had been itching for an opportunity to destroy the corruption of the Medicis. Painwheel loyally followed Filia into battle. And Valentine? Well, she saw a chance to atone.