Harry By Proxy

Chapter 3: Slenderman's Children

Chapter 3: Slenderman's Children

I own nothing, least of all Harry Potter.

Trigger warnings: Harry Potter child abuse.

-Crow

Slenderman got out of bed early the next morning. He still had on his custom-made Extra-Long, black pajamas. As a personal touch, he even had little, white operator symbols on the pants.

It was the little things, sometimes.

He yawned… or… something… before stretching out a few knots in his tentacles and heading down to the lower level.

Last night had gone almost exactly how he'd predicted.

*Flashback*

Slenderman led the group down to the main living room where he'd asked Harry to stay shortly after arriving back at the house. Seeing everyone present at dinner sitting or handstanding upside down (Laughing Jack) in one of the chairs and waiting expectantly, he began his story.

"I had my suspicions a few months prior. I was doing a few international visits for old times' sake out in the Black Forests of Germany. No one to report there, so I just wandered around Europe briefly while I was in the area.

"I had decided to stop in Britain to restock on some tea for the pantry. On my search for a decent tea shop, I happened across an elementary school. Naturally, I looked everyone over as I was passing by, just scanning the surface emotions. There was petulant anger, bubbling happiness, spoilt discontent, irrational fear; the usual for most children.

"That's when I sensed that soul-crushing sadness. Normally children feel mild levels of sadness over trifle things, and it reflects in their emotional outputs, but this one screamed volumes of abuse.

"I quickly found the source to be young Harry. He was hiding behind one of the school dumpsters as his fellow peers played, completely unaware that he even existed. I questioned it, but continued to watch for a moment. After some time, my patience was rewarded… though I use that term scathingly.

"A gang of five children around Harry's age were deliberately seeking him out. Apparently, he hides behind the dumpster often. They found him and chased him across the playground. There were no monitors, no teachers, not even a single friend to stand up for young Harry.

"I watched as he was beaten black and blue by the children, whose ring leader I discovered to be none other than Harry's own cousin. What's worse, evidently they left him in that sorry state until well after the bell rang. Only then did Harry regain consciousness… yes, he was beaten unconscious. I did not realize until he had failed to move for five minutes.

"Taking my usual measures, I observed him and his class. The teacher was a horrible, old crone. She obviously saw his bruises and distress and deliberately ignored them focusing on berating him for arriving late to class. Upon stalking the teacher, I discovered her views on the subject of bullying to be largely that it 'is none of her concern what those monsters do to each other'.

"What's more, she deliberately asked them questions I know were well beyond the material, refused to teach them anything, and punished them with techniques ranging from time-outs to slaps to a dunce cap… yes, she had a dunce cap and a corner.

"Unfortunately, it seemed Harry would regularly receive all three. I'm not sure if Little Winging is just the honey pot for vitriol-spitting furies, but it seems as though almost every mother, aunt, teacher, even some teenaged daughters were either indifferent to children other than their own, horrendous gossips, or took great delight in looking down upon Harry Potter, specifically, as the title-less ragamuffin.