Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Rewritten - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Chaos at the Circus

Harry Potter sat in the back of his uncle's car and wondered what an outing would be like. Harry was eleven years old. But in all that time, he had only ever been in three places; his aunt and uncle's house, the local primary school and the house of Mrs. Figg, their next-door neighbor, who watched Harry whenever, his aunt, uncle and cousin were going out.

A sharp poke in the side brought Harry out of his thoughts. He glanced to his right. His cousin, Dudley Dursley, was pointedly looking out of the rear window on his side but there was a grin on his face. Another poke from the opposite direction made Harry look to his left. Piers Polkiss, Dudley's best friend was also looking out of the window on his side, an equally stupid grin on his face. Harry sighed. Over the years, Dudley had found numerous ways to torment him, from using him as a punching bag to leaving dung between Harry's sheets. Dudley's latest attempt involved making Harry believe in ghosts. But as Dudley wasn't particularly bright, his attempts had only been amusing. Until now. Wincing in pain at the force of the third poke, this time in his back, Harry leaned back into the car seat and pressed his arms to his sides, in the hopes that this would make them desist.

Harry surveyed his cousin out of the corner of his eye. Dudley was only two months older than Harry. But being of the same age and growing up in the same household was where the similarities ended. Dudley was tall and had the poundage of a baby whale. He had watery blue eyes and blonde hair which had been combed neatly. He wore braces on his teeth. There was always an impish grin on his face. Dudley's clothes and shoes were expensive and not just because it was his birthday. A gold-plated wristwatch with a gleaming dial hung from his left wrist. That watch had been one of Dudley's thirty-nine birthday presents. He'd also gotten a second television, the latest model computer, several new video games, a VCR, a tortoise for a pet, a racing bike (which he likely wouldn't use since he hated exercise), a new wallet stuffed full of five pound of notes and many other things. Dudley Dursley looked like what he was; a happy, fat, pampered, spoilt brat who always got what he wanted, sometimes even before he had opened his mouth and asked for it.

Harry on the other hand was so small and scrawny that he'd been told he looked like an under-fed dog. He had jet black hair that grew thickly and messily and never lay flat on his head. His eyes were bright green. His teeth were straight but he wore spectacles, cellotaped around the middle where they'd been broken more than once by a punch from Dudley. Harry had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead which he was always careful to hide with his hair because Aunt Petunia didn't like seeing it. Harry's clothes for the day (his best set since it was his first and probably his only outing) were a pair of jeans purchased specifically for him at the second-hand store instead of the usual over-sized hand-me-downs from Dudley and a t-shirt stained with paint from his weekend morning chore of painting the garden benches. When Harry got home that day, he could look forward to trying to figure out a way to get the stain out. Harry had never received a single present from the Dursleys or any pocket money to buy himself things. Harry looked like what the Dursleys thought him to be; an orphan boy who was lucky that he had not wound up in the orphanage or on the streets.

For ten long, miserable years, ever since the death of his parents in a car-crash, Harry had lived with his aunt and uncle. When he'd been younger, he'd hoped and hoped to be rescued by some unknown relative. Then, he'd hoped to find friends at school. But Dudley always bullied off anyone that Harry liked or that liked Harry. Eventually, he'd grown out of hoping. There was no one for him except his aunt Petunia who was his mother's sister and aunt Petunia's husband, uncle Vernon.

In the driver's seat, uncle Vernon was complaining about the traffic. Uncle Vernon loved to complain. He was avoiding his favorite subject (Harry) today because of the presence of Piers Polkiss. The Dursleys never treated Harry very badly in front of the neighbors or other outsiders and Harry had been threatened with beatings and starvation if he ever complained to strangers about his life at No. 4.