AN: Brief trigger warning. There are mentions of child abuse (of all kinds) and rape in this chapter. I do not go into any descriptions or details of the events but the mentions/allusions are there. For those that know about the Fate series you know how fucked up parts of it are so that should not be surprising. Neither should it be surprising for those that read HP fanfics as Harry's childhood is almost never pleasant in them. Still I thought it best to put the warning in.

Edited and cleaned up a bit as of 11/4/18

Harry Potter was not a happy child; in fact, he has never had the chance to be a happy child. His relatives were, to put it bluntly, monsters for the way they had treated him through the last 6 years of his life. The beatings, the starvation, the isolation, the degradation, the lack of any positive emotional support. All of it was simply too much for even an adult to handle let alone a small child. The fact that Harry survived for as long as he did without killing himself, becoming an unfeeling/emotionless monster or gaining some sort of personality disorder was nothing sort of a miracle, although that last one was debatable.

Harry liked to attribute his "success" to his special power for his physical health, and his imagination combined with his love of reading for his mental health. His special power always healed him when he was hurt so he was happy to have it, of course it seemed to be the reason for all his problems but Harry didn't like to dwell on the negatives, he had too many of those as it is. Instead he'd rather dwell on more important things, like which new world he'd travel to today. Of course he couldn't physically travel to other worlds but that was what his imagination and a good book was for. What better way to escape the despair of his world than by pretending to live in another after all?

So today, like every other day he could get away with it, he was in the local library looking for a new story to take his mind off his aching body. Usually, the library was all but empty since most other kids in Surrey had friends and preferred either playing outside or at each other's homes (likely to show off their newest video games). So his curiosity was peaked when he spotted a group of older boys, somewhere around twelve or thirteen years old, clustered around a computer.

Generally speaking, Harry avoided older kids even more than those his age as they were, in his experience, more likely to bully him rather than simply ignore him. However, the awed looks on their faces and the enjoyment they seemed to be getting from what they were looking at made him decide it was worth the risk. Besides, while the librarian might be all but deaf even he would notice someone getting beat up in an empty library…right?

As he got closer to the row of computers he started to hear voices talking in another language, or at least that was what he assumed since it definitely wasn't English and sounded too structured to be gibberish. The group of pre-teens were too engrossed in what they were watching for them to notice his approach, enabling him to sneak behind them and get a glimpse of what they were watching. What he saw was the coolest thing he had ever seen.

Some blond guy was shooting weapons out of a golden portal at a black knight who was grabbing those weapons out of the air to fight off the others. Basically it looked cool, had flashy violence and there was awesome background music, a boy's dream show as it were. Also, even though he couldn't understand what was being said there were at least words on the bottom in English that seemed to be explaining things. He stood there watching, careful to avoid drawing attention to himself lest he be chased away, for minutes as the show, as he was pretty sure it was some kind of cartoon, continued. Eventually, like all shows, it ended much to the disappoint meant of both Harry and the older kids alike.

Harry quickly retreated at that point so as to not get caught but remained within hearing distance of the group in the hope of figuring out more about the show. Luckily, he wasn't disappointed.

"Aww man, I can't believe we have to wait another week until the next episode."

"Yeah it sucks, though I wish it was English dubbed, I hate having to read all the time to understand what's happening."

"You could always learn Japanese."

"No way! That's way too bloody hard, I'll just stick to subtitles. Besides it's not like I watch anime enough for it to actually matter. If this show wasn't so awesome and you hadn't dragged me to watch it with you I probably would have never tried it. It's just too nerdy and I don't want to end up like your brother."

"Haha yeah my brother is such a nerd, he even has dolls of Saber in his room, do you believe that?"

The sound of laughter slowly faded as the group walked towards the library's exit. Harry didn't really care about most of the stuff they had said but he did get some important clues to find out the name of the show. He knew it was Japanese, called an anime, had English subtitles and a new episode was coming out next week. That combined with the names of the characters he learned from the show would (hopefully) be enough for him to find it.

Of course he had never been on a computer before so that might pose a slight problem. Luckily the old librarian was willing enough to help him learn how, though he gave up asking verbally and instead wrote out his request after the 6th exclamation of "What!? Speak up sonny!".

Computers, as it turned out, were fairly simple to use as long as you didn't want to do anything too complicated. Of course what he actually wanted to do was use the internet as it turned out. Harry had heard the word before, even in conjunction with computers, but since he had zero friends and his relatives loathed him he could never find out the meaning. As it was the internet was an amazing place and thanks to something called Google finding the show was actually fairly easy.

The anime, that he now knew was called Fate/Zero, was…not what he had been expecting. It was not a show for children, that much was obvious to him, and seeing Sakura Matou that first time had a profound effect on him. He felt physically ill seeing her in the pit but he couldn't stop watching, he had to know if she had a happy ending, it was important. Unfortunately, the anime was only a few episodes in at this point and so he finished them all without his question being answered.

Another unfortunate thing was that he was out of time. If he didn't get back to the Dursley's soon he wouldn't have time to cook dinner and if that happened the consequences would be extremely unpleasant for him. Well, more unpleasant than they usually were at any rate.

Harry ended up getting back to Privet Drive just in time and the rest of the night proceeded as normal, his version of it at least. He cooked dinner, watched his relatives eat said dinner, stole some scraps to eat when no one was looking, cleaned the dishes and got thrown (literally) back into his cupboard. The only difference between this time and others was that he didn't immediately go to sleep. He simply couldn't get his mind off Sakura, he was obsessed.

Maybe it was because their situations were similar in a way. The only difference was the age they had been abandoned at, the details of their hellish lives and that Sakura at least had someone trying to help her unlike him. The reason why he was needed he was so obsessed was that if she could go through that hell and still have a happy ending didn't mean that he could as well? It also likely didn't help that with the way he read/experienced into stories was almost as if he was physically there in person as well. His imagination had been honed to such a degree that he even felt phantom sensations at times. So it was not very surprising that he was obsessing over her fate, it was just bad for his sleep.

School the next morning was difficult for Harry. Beyond the usual aches from the long term damage and hunger pains he suffered from, he had also gotten a fresh whipping today when he burnt breakfast. It had taken him a long time to go to sleep last night as he constantly thought about Fate/Zero and Sakura and when he woke up the next morning he still couldn't get it out of his head. Combined with the poor sleep the result was him not putting the usual care he took during his cooking and thus the punishment when he made a mistake.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, pain was an old friend to Harry and he barely noticed the newest additions to his back. The only slightly worrying things in his mind was his uncle hadn't made it a show to his aunt and cousin like usual and had him take off more than just his shirt. He had also noticed his uncle touching him with his hands more often lately. In the past he actively avoided touching him with bare skin so the change gave him a bad feeling. Harry hoped his uncle wasn't searching for the areas with the least amount of scars for his future punishments. He had few of those as it is.

Harry forcibly dragged himself out of those thoughts, after all he only had a few more minutes until class ended and then he could go back to the library. He was grateful that his relatives seemed to almost encourage him to stay away from their house as much as possible on school days. If they didn't he wouldn't even have the small escape from his hell that he currently had.

Hearing the bell ring signaling the end of the school day Harry booked it out of the classroom, both due to his eagerness and for practical reasons (he didn't want to spend a few hours being chased by his cousin and friends).

The library was as empty as it usually was (a good thing in his mind) when he got there so he able to choose any of the computers he wanted. He of course knew there wasn't a new episode out yet but he needed to know what happened to Sakura, how everything ended, it was important. Luckily, the internet is a useful place and he found information that could help him with his desires.

When he found out Fate/Zero was adapted from a novel that made Harry's day. Books and reading were his favorite things in the world, the only things that brought him a measure of happiness, and the fact that his current obsession came in book form was priceless to him. The problem was, the entire story was only available in Japanese so he couldn't read it.

There were a few things he could do at this point. One, he could simply wait for the anime to continue at the pace of an episode a week with no knowledge of how many episodes might be made. Or two, he could try to learn Japanese so he could read the novel, something that would likely take months of hard work at least. Neither option made him happy but there wasn't anything he could do about it, those were his options.

In the end he simply decided to do both. He'd try to learn Japanese in between watching episodes of the anime, that way he'd be able to reach the ending in the fastest time possible regardless of which option it was. With his resolve set and plan made he set out to learn Japanese. Thankfully not only did the library surprisingly have some books on the language to help but the internet had many resources he could use as well.

"Well, there's no time like the present. Better get started."

It was now Christmas Eve, almost two months since his first exposure to Fate/Zero, and Harry's life has gotten worse. His uncle had found a new form of punishment for whenever they were alone and it was the worst one yet. Harry now felt he as if he knew a little of what it must be like for Sakura when she was in the worm pit. Those punishments were the only times Harry ever cried now. The whippings and beatings, the insults and starvation were all known to him already. They had been a constant in his life for years so they no longer bothered him. But this… this went beyond mere pain.

Now more than ever he wished he could control his special power but nothing he did worked. He had tried willing the power to work, remembering what it felt like the few times he caused something strange before. He had tried meditating in an attempt to feel his power. He had even tried working himself into a panic attack in an attempt to at least make something happen. But none of it worked. He had seen no evidence he even had "freakishness" anymore beyond his healing since he somehow got on the school roof about a month before he obtained his newest obsession.

Running away or telling someone about the change in his life wasn't an option either. He had tried both before a few years ago, multiple times in fact, and the results were…unpleasant. Anyone he told, even if he showed proof of his abuse, just gained a glazed look and promptly forgot about it. Any further attempts to get them to help after that just caused those adults to ignore his very existence.

The couple of times he tried to run away had been weird and ended badly as well. The first time, as soon as he got out of Surrey he had lost control over his own body, which promptly walked back to his relatives' home despite his mind screaming for it to stop. The second time, he didn't even manage to get that far before a couple of policemen who, like the adults he talked to before, had a glazed look in their eyes picked him up and dropped off back at Privet Drive. The punishments following those two attempts still featured prominently in his nightmares to this day.

As a result of these failures his desire to just escape from his existence and the world as a whole increased exponentially. Now that his new punishment had entered the picture it was no longer a simple desire, it was an obsession to escape in any way he could. As a direct result of this he threw himself into his Japanese studies, taking to even forgo sleep and practice at school in order to learn quicker.

He had made a decent amount of progress in the written language and in at least understanding basic spoken sentences by this point in them. He had no idea on how to judge his ability to speak the language though since he had neither a teacher nor someone to practice talking with. All in all, he was almost happy with his progress. Almost because it was nowhere near fast enough for his tastes and because he no longer knew what being happy felt like. Maybe that would change in a month or two when he felt he would be able to read the novel. He prayed that it would in fact, though he knew his prayers had never been answered before.

Despite it all however today was a good day for Harry and he was happy for the brief reprieve he had gotten. He had no additional punishments of any kind with his uncle and had been allowed to leave the house for most of the day. The best news however, was that there was a new episode being released today and Harry was almost giddy with excitement.

The show may have had much more…. darker elements than he had been expecting but the show was still amazing and his obsession never wavered. Before Fate/Zero he had preferred stories that were only happy (some would say childish) in tone. Why would he want to escape to a world that wasn't happy, his life was already unhappy enough after all. Now however, he found he preferred stories like this. It was easier for him to image himself in a world that was more realistic after all (the existence of magic had no bearing on the realness in his mind).

His good mood didn't last long though. The episode that came out was the last of the season, there would be no more weekly episode to satiate his obsession. There was also little indication that Kariya would be able to save Sakura in the end. If anything it was looking like quite the opposite in fact. The only good news about the whole thing was the show wasn't cancelled and was likely to come back next year at some point. Harry wasn't sure when next year though so it was likely he'd be able to read the novel by the time it came back. That wasn't so bad at least but it wasn't really the best news to have that day. Still. today was probably the best Christmas Eve he'd ever had.

Harry spent the rest of his time in the library studying after that, trying to make as much progress as he could with Japanese before he had to go back to the Dursleys. He hadn't bothered returning for lunch, he neither had to make it nor would he had received any if he did. So he ended up staying at the library until it got dark out and it was time for him to make dinner.

Thankfully the rest of the night once he returned was uneventful, though the looks his uncle had occasionally given him had him shivering in fear as he tried to lull himself to sleep that night. Unfortunately sleep never came, just before he fell asleep, he was woken by the heavy thuds of his uncle coming down his stairs. The noise bringing him ever increasing dread as they descended down step by step. When his uncle opened the cupboard door with that familiar look in his eyes Harry broke down crying, silently of course as he knew the punishment only got worse if he made noise.

It was…sometime in February. Harry wasn't sure of the exact date really. He had trouble thinking lately, it had been a long time since he had last eaten. A couple of weeks maybe? His aunt had found out about his new punishments and was very unhappy…with him, and had made sure he spent as much time in his cupboard with as little food (read none) as possible as a result. The punishments hadn't stopped of course, but they seemed to be his fault now for some reason? Well the punishments were always his fault, but the type of punishment being his fault was new. Harry was more confused than normal but he knew he'd probably get food soon; the starving cycles never went passed two-two ½ weeks for some reason.

His escape from the library was probably not really a good idea in any sense of the word though. He was supposed to be in his cupboard right now as he no longer got free time after school. The only reason why he wasn't there in fact was because he was beyond desperate for a reprieve. He'd gotten lucky when his uncle didn't fully luck his cupboard when he got home today and before he could even think he had bolted out the door. His obsession with a certain novel and his being on the very last volume of it likely had something to do with his great escape. So here he was, a few hours later, and way past the time he should have tried to sneak back, still in the library finishing the last few chapters of Fate/Zero.

Harry snarled in unmatched fury when he finished reading it. He had held out hope that there would be a happy ending until the very last page, way past the point where he knew there would be no such thing. But he couldn't give up hope, he had been desperate for a good ending for Sakura. For someone, anyone, to save her from the almost literal pit of hell she was living in. He could see it in his mind, the days and months following the end of the novel as Sakura was thrown again and again into the basement full of worms. He could feel her hope dying every day, he could feel the pain as the worms tore through her body, he could feel the loathing, the disgust, the sense of violation as the worms did unspeakable things to her. And he couldn't accept it. He wouldn't accept it!

Unknown to Harry his magic was struggling to respond to his emotions, his desire, his obsession, his wish. Currently however, his magic was under so many bindings and restraints that if he was scanned for magic he would be categorized as a squib. Those bindings however, were now starting to crack. There was so much built up pressure that the bindings would have had broken in a few months naturally if it wasn't alleviated anyways. That, combined with the sheer depths of Harry's desire along with the potency of his raw emotions, meant that those bindings were now about to shatter.

Meanwhile Harry was delving deeper and deeper into his imagined world, experiencing more and more of Sakura's life after the Fourth Holy Grail War. The details were becoming ever clearer, the phantom sensations more real as Harry desperately tried to force his will on the that world and change it. To change her. To save her. Harry Potter could not let this happen, he could not let her suffer as he had suffered, as he still suffers. He could not, would not, let her live a life devoid of hope and love. Harry was so invested with the character that was Sakura Matou, so obsessed with her, that he was forgetting what was real and what was fiction in his desperation to protect her from her fate. And it was because of this that the bindings on his magic finally snapped.

In a magical explosion that ended up leveling the library that had stood as his sanctuary for years, Harry's enacted the strongest burst of accidental magic ever recorded. At that moment, Harry Potter vanished from the library of Little Whinging, England leaving nothing but magical residue and rubble in his place.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore's heart stopped for a brief moment when he felt a veritable tsunami of magic wash over the wards of Hogwarts. No one else currently inside the castle noticed anything off however, behind his sudden paling of the skin. He was the only one tied into the wards, which did their jobs of blocking out the disturbance perfectly. If it wasn't for the fact that the magical wave actually somehow charged the wards instead of damaging them he would have thought Hogwarts was under attack.

The knowledge that the castle wasn't under attack was what finally managed to get his heart pumping once again. He even managed to relax himself at that moment, though he was immensely curious about what could have caused such an event. That lasted only a few seconds however until he remembered something he wasn't supposed to. He remembered were Harry Potter lived.

At that realization Albus Dumbledore, former Supreme Mugwump, ex-Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, current Headmaster of Hogwarts and DADA professor at the same institution all but ran to his office much to the confusion, and concern, of his students and staff.

When Dumbledore rushed into his office he was met with the sight of the various instruments designed to monitor young Harry's health in pieces, scorch marks on the shelf and walls where they had once been placed. Dumbledore could now also remember exactly what the actions/reactions the devices made meant, the data they were reporting, and that knowledge made him go so pale that he looked like one of the many ghosts in his castle.

"FAWKES!" Dumbledore roared at his familiar, who was so stunned by the level of desperation and anger in his companion that he failed to respond to the implied command to attend him. It took Dumbledore physically grabbing his familiar for the phoenix be shaken out of its shock. The verbal order for him to take him to Number 4 Privet Drive was then all but screamed in the phoenix's ear, and the bird wasted no time in complying.

Dumbledore appeared in a flash of flame in front of the quant suburban home a split second later, not caring about any breaches in the statute of secrecy at the moment. A bystander might even think that he was actually trying to break the statute as the old wizard quickly cast a Bombarda at the front door of the Dursley's home. Albus Dumbledore might be a kind grandfatherly figure to msot, he might be seen as the "Leader of the Light" and he might preach forgiveness until the sun turned cold, but everyone has some line that, when crossed, causes that person to snap. For Dumbledore that was the knowledge that these...animals! had abused, both physically and sexually, the child he considered to be not only the hope of magical Britain but his own grandchild as well.

With that said it was little surprise that when he saw the human whale that was Vernon Dursley charge out of the hole that used to be his front door he wasted no time in slamming a Legilimency probe into the man's mind. He barely had enough time to stun the monster before he threw up his dinner at the images he had taken from his mind. Even as he was dry heaving however he maintained presence of mind enough to stun the rest of the Dursley family. By the time he had finished however he had still not located Harry, and had no clue as to his whereabouts. At this point he started to fear the worst.

When the aurors started showing up not a minute after he cast his first spell they arrived to the sight of Albus Dumbledore staring blankly at Harry's "room" under the stairs, looking every year of his 100+ years of age. He answered their rapid fire questions in a daze, not really paying attention to what anyone, including himself, was saying. The only exception was when he heard about the local library being blown up in a magical explosion from one of the aurors.

Throughout the whole process he continued to stare at the blood soaked mattress and the desperate cries for help literally carved into walls. He was about 95% sure that he had failed, that Harry Potter was dead and that it was his fault. He was 100% certain that he had lived a miserable life before said death and that it was his fault. He had one last method to check if young Harry was still alive however. Fawkes couldn't find him, his monitors had exploded, and all his locator spells were failing. All that was left now was the Hogwart's Big Book of Students.

Dumbledore was still in a daze as he walked slowly towards Hogwarts' inner sanctum, dreading what he might find within the Book's pages. He had absent-mindedly told the aurors about the Dursleys and what they had done to Harry before he had arrived. It was going to be a big hit on his credibility when the rest of magical Britain found out what happened but he had least managed to convince the aurors that Harry Potter was still alive. He had to come up with a very quick lie to explain everything and it was likely only his presences there before the aurors arrived that had let them believe his tale. Though his refusal to allow them to see Harry Potter likely poked some holes in that very same lie.

He was so caught up in his thoughts and fears that he hadn't even noticed he had been joined by his closest friends and confidants, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Snape. He continued to be oblivious to their presences even after he broke down crying in relief. The book showed him Harry's name as clear as the day it was first written within, with no time of death or greyed out lettering marring the black ink. The last thought Dumbledore had before he passed out from mental exhaustion was where exactly Harry had disappeared to.

Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, also known as the Wizard Marshal, the Kaleidoscope or just simply "Zelretch!" by his "adoring fans", was curious. A few months ago he had felt someone or something use an equivalent of his magic with the target being his own reality. When he didn't feel anything actually show up in his reality though he had brushed it off as one of the semi-common attempts to emulate his magic from another dimension. Since all but an infinitesimally small number of those attempts succeeded he had simply shrugged and soon forgotten all about it.

Now however, he could feel the same magical signature from all those month's getting closer. It wasn't another attempt by the same entity though, if it was he wouldn't be nearly as interested in it. No, he was interested because it was almost as if someone had thrown, or rather shot, themselves into the inter-dimensional dead space after vaguely aiming at one of "his" realities. That was interesting for a few reasons.

The most important being that multi-verse travel was NOT supposed to work like that. If you were capable of traveling between dimensions it was supposed to be instantaneous as they operate sort of out of phases from one another. Having the journey take any amount of time was a sign that the dimensional coordinates were used or interpreted incorrectly in some way, which should result in failure or death. For the caster to take months of travel and still not be at the destination meant that the crazy bastard had tried to dimension walk without any coordinates at all, and that, to Zelretch, was interesting enough for him to want to meet said crazy individual.

Reaching out with his magic the Wizard Marshal grabbed, for lack of a better word, the ball of mana cocooning the… young boy? The hell? Before pulling him to his room in the Clock Tower. An interesting side note about the Kaleidoscope is that when the mana of two users of the magic (or magic similar in affect) mixed the users gain knowledge of each other's home dimension if one was skilled enough. For Zelretch this was only interesting because the boy come from a reality from outside his area of influence, meaning a version of him didn't exist there at any point in time. The boy also never existed in the realities he was connected to either, which made his travel here even more interesting.

When Zelretch was hurt during his fight with Crimson Moon it had damaged his ability to use his True Magic. What that damage essentially did was prevent his ability to connect/travel to a "large" portion of the multiverse. This portion mainly consisted of realities he didn't exist in some form or another and worlds where Zelretch was too different from the "original" to truly be understood. Since that still left an infinite amount of realities he had cared more for his declined physical state instead of his magic. Still, the boy intrigued him and it was possible that he could restore his full abilities with his unwitting help.

When the boy showed up on the floor in front of him he had smiled. When the first words out of his semi-delirious mouth was "must save Sakura" he was confused, until he realized what he meant. Then he grinned.

"You used magic you don't actually understand in a way that would have seen you dead or insane if you didn't have such a ridiculously huge magical core all in desperate attempt to save a girl that, too you, was completely fictional from having a bad life? You, my boy, are just as insane as I am and you know what? Since you're so interesting and might be able to help me with a little problem of mine I'm going to help you with yours."

If Harry was lucid enough to both look at and understand the truly sadistic grin on the old wizard's face he likely would have reacted in much the same way as he would to his uncle in one of his rages. Unfortunately, he wasn't and as a result he gave a small smile and nod in thanks.

Something that few people know, and even fewer lived to continue knowing, was that Zelretch was actually a fairly cruel man, he was both a magus and a vampire after all. He wasn't actually evil per say, he just derived a certain amount of enjoyment from the suffering of others, especially if they are interesting people. What that meant for Harry is that he would definitely "help" Harry protect Sakura but would make him suffer for his enjoyment first. Yes, he would eventually help him in some form or another, but what form that help was in and how much help it was would really solely on the boy's entertainment value.

So, as soon as Harry fell unconscious, Zelretch got to work on his "plan". Of course all the plan involved was getting the kid some magic circuits (ripped off a rather convenient alternate version of Harry that now existed in a reality he was connected to) and then dumping him in in front of the Matous. He did give a little help to make sure that old fucker Zouken didn't kill him immediately but that was it.

Sure the plan was not very elaborate but Zelretch was lazy and didn't really care, though it was interesting to see how quickly his alternate's circuits bonded to him. He had never really experimented with doing such a thing before… He was also rather curious how the boy's circuits and core would interact with each other but he would find out sooner or later and now wasn't the time. Now was the time to throw this chick to the wolves, or worms in this case.

Zouken Matou was… confused to put it mildly. In one of his rare forays outside of his estate he had a young boy literally appear out of nowhere in front of him. His first impulse was to just let his worms eat the child, he obviously didn't look like anyone would miss him judging by the clothes. That however was tempered by the fact that he radiated prana like heat from a furnace and his appearance in front of him was distinctly magical in nature. So instead of letting his worms feast he instead analyzed the boy to find out why exactly he felt like a magical reactor.

What he found out caused him to unleash maniacal laughter that could be heard for blocks. Said laughter also caused all the sleeping children who heard it nightmares for weeks to come. Zouken had a reason to laugh though. Not only did the boy have a magical core of all things but he had fifty extremely high quality magical circuits… that were currently not activated. And he literally appeared right in front of him, like a gift from heaven. Combined with the obvious signs of abuse, and thus the fact that he wouldn't be missed, meant Zouken just found out who would be paired with his granddaughter in continuing the Matou line.

Thankfully his little excursion was done in the dead of night and so he wasn't accosted as he half dragged half carried the boy back to his home. While he could easily hypnotize any who would wonder why a strange old man was dragging an unconscious child back to his home it would be annoying and he didn't want to have to if he could help it. By the time he got back, and into, his home and near the basement he was tired of carrying the boy. So decided to wake up him, it was more fun to send some who is conscious to the worms for the first time after all.

He didn't have a mystery that would wake the child up, that would have been both foolish and wasteful, but he also didn't want to use something as mundane as a slap or cold water either. Luckily he soon had a rather evil epiphany and found out a good way to kill two birds with one stone. The pain of awakening one's circuits could be quite intense after all and would surely give a good jolt to the child's system. With a malicious look in his eyes Zouken put his hand on the boy's back.

Harry Potter jerked awake with a soundless scream on his lips, the pain he was in was something indescribable and he couldn't concentrate enough to scream properly even if he wanted to. Thankfully the pain didn't last all that long, though once it faded to a dull ache he had a new problem. Mainly his confusion as he tried to figure out where he was and why the creepy old man speaking Japanese looked so familiar. The fact that he was trying to mentally translate while he tried to make sense of things didn't help his confusion either. It wasn't until he was forced to stand up and start walking that he understood what the man wanted.

As they walked Harry tried to figure out what exactly happened to him. The evil smirk on the old man next to him along with the ever increasing feeling of déjà vu he was experiencing did little to help his concentration. It wasn't until they seemingly reached their destination and he walked through the door the old man held open did he finally figure out why everything felt so familiar. This was the Matou manor and he was currently standing in its basement, looking down into a pit of disgusting worm creatures. Harry froze and Zouken's smirk grew even bigger.

"What's wrong boy? Do you not like my pets?"

Harry couldn't answer, he was too stunned to even breathe properly let alone form a sentence.

"Well that's ok, you'll get to know them real soon. Look you'll even have a playmate."

Those words shocked Harry's cognitive processes into working again like they had been hit by a bolt of lightning.

"Hey Sakura, you'll never guess what I found on my evening walk. Never let it be said that your grandfather doesn't take care of you."

Sakura. That name. That girl. He had wanted to protect her. He had wanted to save her. Where is she?! I can't see her?! I have to find her! I have to find her!

"I found you a friend and guess what? He'll be joining you here from now on, be sure to play nice now."

Zouken was all set to shove the young boy into the pit, no child, or adult, would willing go into the pit after all. He never got the chance however as at the same moment he was set to throw the child into the deep end, was the same moment Harry caught sight of Sakura. Without even thinking he jumped into the pit in an attempt to reach her. Zouken was stunned enough that he just stood there, simply watching what the boy was doing instead of just leaving the basement right away as he had intended.

Harry, for his part, was in utter agony as the worms swarmed him, their attraction to his utterly insane amount of prana nearly all consuming. There was only a "small" grouping around Sakura that ignored his presence. Luckily Harry was both used to high amounts of pain and had managed to land near his goal, his obsession, otherwise he likely wouldn't have been able to make it without curling up into a pain filled ball. But make it he did, even as the worms burrowed into his body any and all ways they could. The only safe place was his face, and that was because Zouken was actively controlling them so that they didn't disfigure him.

When he finally made it to the girl he had obsessed over for the past months he didn't think about how she wasn't supposed to be real. He didn't think about how he got here nor did he think about how much pain he was in. Instead he focused his will on moving his body to envelop the young girl (though she was not much younger than he was) and force out a single sentence before he succumbed to the pain.

"I'll never leave you alone."

Harry wasn't sure why he used those words instead of something else like "I'll save you" or "I'll protect you" but those were the words that came out and those were the words that Sakura Matou would carve into her heart forever. After that Harry could no longer ignore the pain of countless worms burrowing into his body and his mind shut down. Time knew no meaning for him as never ending pain poured into his body. But never once did Harry let go of Sakura. This made Sakura have the first real smile on her face since before her first session in the pit. It was a small fragile thing that only looked all the more so as she cried. It was the first time she had done so since her parent's abandoned her.

Zouken for his part merely looked on in interest. His newest acquisition's actions had surprised him but he wasn't upset by them. If anything it was the opposite. Thanks to the boy it would be that much easier to break the girl and twist her into his own corrupt grail. He could hardly wait to see the despair in their eyes as they watch each other go through hell.

AN: And that's the end of the prologue. This story was inspired by Fate's Gamble and A Broken Wizard and a Broken Magus, both of which I highly enjoyed reading. I'm going to try and make my story unique in terms of both HP fanfics and HP fate/stay night crossovers so this story will be heavily AU (Harry Potter world will be like nothing you've seen). The pairing will be Harry x harem mainly because that's what I like to write most of the time so if you don't like that you don't have to read it. That's all I really have to say besides thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Ren Waya