Harry's Strings (Rewrite)

Chapter 1

As the Dursley family arrived home after Dudley's party, none of them noticed anything unusual. They continued their routines and went to bed without a care in the world. After about three days of utterly boring routine, Petunia decided that she was too tired to cook dinner that night and went to collect their freak of a nephew to do the job for her. She rapped on the door of the cupboard under the stairs and threw the lock open before opening the door.

"Freak, I expect dinner to be on the-"

Her sentence was cut off as she realized that she was speaking to an empty space. Where there should have been a boy, there were only spider webs and the ratty towel he was given to use as a bed. She took a deep breath to keep herself from panicking before going to ask Vernon if he had seen the freak.

"Vernon dear," she began as she rounded the corner into the lounge "have you seen the freak? He's not in his cupboard."

Vernon set down the newspaper he was reading and looked at his wife.

"No, I haven't seen him. If he isn't in the cupboard, where could he be?"

Petunia's heart started racing as she considered the possibilities. She gasped in a quick breath as something occurred to her.

"Vernon, have you seen him since our Sweetums party?" she asked breathlessly.

Her husband's eyes widened as he understood what she was implying.

"Let us not panic, Pet," he said, taking a deep breath "he might turn up soon. If not, we can just play the grieving family, and we'll never have to worry about him again!"

With an uneasy look upon her face, Petunia said, "I suppose we could do that. What about the police?"

Now at this point, I believe that it would be rather dull to follow along with the Dursley's, so I'll just sum it up for you. Petunia and Vernon waited a few days, and when Harry declined to make an appearance, they filed a missing person report and wallowed in "grief" for all the public to see. After several months of investigation with no leads, it faded into another cold case gathering dust in the darkness of the filing cabinet. Now that I have filled you in on the Dursley's, let us shift our focus to the wizarding world, or more specifically, Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore had had an unnerving fascination with Harry Potter form before the child was even born. After the untimely demise of Harry Potter's parents, Dumbledore saw fit to place Harry in the loving care of the Dursley's without the legal power to do so, but we'll get back to that point later. When he left Harry on the doorstep of the Dursley's that cold November morning, he also left a few charms to keep an eye on the goings-on of the Dursley household. Because of these charms, the moment Petunia Dursley discovered her nephew's disappearance, Dumbledore was notified. This resulted in a panic-induced search across Europe, a search that included goblins, curses, many false leads, and on one memorable occasion, a dragon. However, despite their fervent searching, Harry Potter was not to be found, and the search had to be put on the back burner in favor of more important matters. If only the poor fools knew that Harry Potter was only a short distance away from his prior home.

~~~

On the exceedingly ordinary morning of July 31, 1991, Petunia Dursley was in the process of preparing breakfast for her perfectly normal family. She was soon interrupted by the doorbell, and she felt an immediate distaste for whoever was on the other side of the door; after all, what respectable person would come calling before they had even had breakfast.

As she threw open the door, ready to send the unsavory caller away, she was frozen when her eyes registered the figure standing on her front step. It was a small boy; he couldn't have been older than seven, and his posture was unnervingly off like he was being held up by strings placed at specific points. The boy made no move to acknowledge her presence, just stood there silently.

Shaking her head and clearing her throat, Petunia started to speak, "Well, boy, what do you want?"

The boy didn't answer, just tilted his head slightly, causing the fringe of hair over his forehead to part just enough to see a lightning bolt scar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's the new and improved chapter 1! I really hope you all enjoyed it, I know it's a little short. I hope you all are doing well; what are you doing to keep entertained during quarantine? I'm mostly writing and practicing my SFX makeup and trying not to go crazy being stuck with my Mom, 3-year-old sister, 11-month-old sister, and stepdad. On top of all that, switching to online school for college sucks! Well, that's all for now. Let me know what you thought of the chapter in the comments! See you next Sunday! (^-^)

Vote, Comment, Share, and don't forget to wind the music box!

~ Allure Crimson ~