Chapter 1 – Buried Alive

About half an hour is all it takes for Harry's mood go from fantastic to dreadful. One moment he's on the Hogwarts Express having fun with his friends, and seemingly the next he's stepping into his aunt and uncle's house, wishing he wouldn't have to once again become accustomed to the familiar combination of loneliness, boredom and misery that is all pervading at Number Four Privet Drive.

He's been inside for all of five seconds, and he can already feel it. Dudley is in the next room, ranting at his mother about something or another, and Vernon is stepping inside behind him, grumbling about Harry being in his way, and the inconvenience about having to go and pick him up.

Before Vernon evolves from grizzling to a full on angry tirade, Harry drags his suitcase through the front door and towards the stairs.

"Where do you think you're going with that?" Vernon grumbles, giving Harry his best 'are you an idiot' face.

Harry arches a single eyebrow. "To my room?"

Vernon shuts the front door with a huff. "Not this year. Marge is coming, and she will be sleeping in the spare bedroom."

Spare bedroom. Not his bedroom. No matter what he could do, no matter how much he could ever try to be a part of the Dursley's family, they would never think of it as his bedroom. He's just a temporary visitor, the same as ever.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?"

Vernon's eyes flick towards the cupboard under the stairs, but he doesn't actually say it out loud.

No way.

"You must be kidding," Harry all but growls.

Vernon's face colors. It's one of the sure signs that his short fuse has been lit.

"Don't take that tone with me! We were good enough to take you in, and kind enough to give you Dudley's second bedroom. You will do as you're told!"

Harry almost laughs, despite the situation not being in the slightest bit humorous.

"Believe it or not, I have actually grown since I was eleven," Harry comments, his voice oozing with sarcasm. "I don't actually fit in there anymore."

He might only be thirteen, and not even a particularly big thirteen, but it's definitely true that he's too big now to still be sleeping in the cupboard, even for a limited time. Hell, he was too big when he was eleven, let alone now. It was the reason they'd told him they'd given him Dudley's second bedroom, after all. He's not about to just go back to his childhood life just because evil Aunt Marge is coming.

"You're just going to have to make do," Vernon says, stalking past Harry, and making it sound like the final word.

Harry shakes his head, not that his uncle can see it. "What if I sleep on the-" Harry starts.

Vernon doesn't even let him finish before he's turning around to refute the idea firmly. "There's no way you are sleeping on our couch."

"You can't seriously expect me to spend the whole summer cooped up in that cupboard!" Harry argues in a rare show of courage towards his uncle.

"And where else should I expect you to stay?"

In any other house, the most logical conclusion would be for Harry to stay in Dudley's room, but there's no way that'll happen. God forbid that Harry's magic starts to affect Dudley, as if it's some sort of contagious disease.

But there's still one room in the house that's big enough to house him, even if he's never been in it before.

"What about the attic?"

Vernon hesitates for a moment before shaking his head. "The attic is full of junk. There's no room for you."

It's not really a no, not in the firm way any other suggestions would be.

"What if I clear it out?" Harry suggests. For Vernon it would be a win win. His attic gets cleared out, and Harry has somewhere to stay and won't spend the entire summer complaining. Not to mention that it will essentially isolate Harry from the rest of them. In fact, that's probably the biggest benefit for both of them.

Vernon taps his chin several times, seemingly actually contemplating the idea.

"You'll clear it out, completely?"

Harry nods. "Right down to the last box."

Vernon sighs and waves a hand through the air. "Fine then" he says, turning around and walking towards the kitchen. "But that attic better be spotless by the time you're done."

Harry's first thought upon seeing the attic is that he's bitten off more than he can chew. Vernon had said that it's 'full of junk,' but if anything, that now seems like an extreme understatement.

It looks like decades worth of forgotten objects. Old and broken furniture, boxes full of photos and memorabilia and what looks to be thousands of Dudley's old toys and games.

Still, it's worth it. Even if it takes him the better part of his summer holidays, it at least means that he can stay out of the Dursley's way, and that he can set up a bedroom up here, rather than being forced to sleep in the cupboard… again.

He decides that the best way to do it is to separate it into different groups. If he can group up all the things that his aunt and uncle might want to keep, as well as remove anything clearly broken and useless, it should give him enough room to lie a mattress down, so that he will at least have a place to sleep.

There's no point in waiting now that he's already volunteered, so he gets started right away.

It's tougher than he thought it would be. It's not that anything is particularly heavy or anything, but more the sheer volume of crap there is. He'd handled everything fairly gingerly in the beginning, but now anything that looks like it'll just be thrown in the rubbish he simply throws across the room to his allocated 'junk' corner.

On the other hand, there is so much in the attic that Harry wouldn't consider junk that it's laughable. Old black and white photos in nice frames, mostly. There's even a few that Harry suspects could be of his grandparents, but he's not about to go and ask Petunia that. Despite them knowing that Harry's clearing out the attic, no doubt they would consider him snooping should he ask.

But it's the box at the very back wall that Harry can't believe is up here. So many years as a child he begged his aunt to tell him more about his mother. All he ever got was that she died in a car accident. Even at Hogwarts he never found out a great deal. Sure, now he knows that she was kind and an incredible witch, and he has a picture of her, but he still doesn't know nearly enough. All that and the whole time there has been a box in the attic with her name on it.

Harry approaches it, kicking the other boxes and trash out of the way as he does. There's nothing special about it at all, just a simple cardboard box with Lily inscribed with a black marker.

He unfolds the top of the box, his brows furrowing as he looks inside. He's not sure what he was expecting to be inside, but it certainly wasn't a box filled with unfurled scrolls. None of them are very big, the largest of them appearing to be about as long as his forearm. He grabs the one on top and turns it over in his hands. There's nothing too distinctive about it, just a simple scroll covered in markings of thick, black ink.

Harry starts unrolling it, hoping perhaps some of its secrets are hidden inside. Instead, all he finds is more questions. It's not any sort of writing he's ever seen, looking more like symbols, arranged in some strange pattern.

Ancient Runes?

There's no guarantee of course, but its possible that Lily studied Ancient Runes when she was at Hogwarts, and some of those mysteries will be revealed by studying the same.

I wonder if it's too late to change electives for my third year?

Harry rolls the scroll up and sets it down gently aside the box. He digs deeper through it, setting a large pile of scrolls with the first one.

He finally finds something other than a scroll near the bottom. It's not something that answers any questions, but still, it's something. It's a long strip of black cloth, attached to the middle of which is a solid metal plate. Inscribed on the plate is a strange swirl pattern, like an encircled spiral.

He sets that down, too, only to find another scroll lying underneath. This one feels different from the other's though. Where the others didn't seem to be anything other than what they are, something is screaming at Harry that this last scroll is different. He doesn't know what senses are telling him so, but the last scroll just seems to be positively humming with power.

He gingerly reaches out to touch it. Nothing happens.

But the feeling of power hasn't vanished, so Harry pulls it from the box, pushing aside some rubbish on the floor so that he can unfurl it completely. This one too is covered in strange symbols, but it stands out from the others right in the center. All the symbols on the entire page seem to be surrounding the one right in the middle, a symbol that is glowing bright red, the clear source of the power.

Unsure of himself, Harry reaches out to touch it. He draws his hand back for a moment, and, drawing on all of his Gryffindor courage, places his hand fully on the glowing red mark.

He regrets it immediately.

Pain shoots up his arm, and the symbols on the scroll begin moving across the page, shooting up his arm in little waves. Harry struggles to remove his hand from the page, but it's like he and the scroll are both glued to the floor.

The top of his arm, near his shoulder, begins to grow hot. He reaches across to lift his sleeve, wincing in pain as he witnesses the symbols move up his arm and transform themselves into an thick black tattoo. He's almost screaming out from the pain as more and more of the scroll forces itself onto his previously unblemished skin.

It feels like so much longer, but the whole things probably only takes about a minute to fully form itself on his arm. The burning on his arm begins to subside, but it's still hot, and the skin is red and blotchy around where it's settled.

It looks different on his arm than it did on the page. Some of the symbols are the same, but this one traverses around his whole arm, all the symbols surrounding a newer symbol, the same one transcribed on the metal plate. The encircled swirl pattern.

Harry slowly gets back to his feet. He has no idea what's just happened, but he's not stupid enough to not mention it to anyone.

Before he even gets the chance to owl anyone, he's off his feet again, doubling over in pain, this time clutching his stomach. It hit him instantly, a thousand times worse than any stomach cramp he's ever had in his whole life.

He's already writhing in pain when the scar on his forehead begins to burn too. Closely following, the already hot tattoo on his right shoulder heats back up, and now his forehead and shoulder and burning, feeling like they're on fire, and he feels more sick every second.

He begins banging on the floor, unable to move more than that, and willing to try anything to get someone's attention.

He doesn't get much of a chance. After about a minute of the most excruciating pain he's ever felt, he passes out.

It takes him a good ten seconds to understand where he is when he wakes up. All of the pain from before is still absolutely present, and he gets the feeling that it's been going on for some time.

He's in the living room of the Dursley house, lying on the lounge. It's dark outside, now, a clear sign that it's been hours since he got like this.

"We have to take him to a hospital!" he hears Petunia whisper urgently from the kitchen beyond.

Please…

"How can we?" Vernon whispers back. "If our kind don't blame us for his condition, his will!"

"But he's dying!"

"No hospital can save him. It's probably some… freak disease he's got anyway."

I'm dying? With the amount of pain he's in, it doesn't sound too ridiculous. With the way his scar is hurting, too, it seems more than likely that Voldemort is involved.

"Then what are we going to do?" Petunia asks, sounding utterly desperate.

Harry doesn't hear Vernon's solution before he's passing out again.

When Harry wakes again, he's lying on cold, wet grass. He can't see much, just the shadowy silhouettes of a couple of nearby people. He can hear the soft thud of something smashing into the ground, and then dirt falling onto the ground nearby.

They're burying me? Alive?

He doesn't have the strength to speak. He's still in an unbelievable amount of pain, and at this point he feels like he's simply trapped in his own body. Whatever this mark is on his shoulder, and whatever it's done to the rest of his body, it's sapped every single bit of his energy, down to the point where he can't control a single one of his limbs.

"Are you sure about this, Vernon?" Petunia asks. He can't see her, but from the sound of her voice, she's terrified.

"We've talked about this, Pet," Vernon answers her, sounding both like he's trying to soothe his wife's fears and to shut her up. There's the sound of more dirt falling on the ground.

"But… they'll know."

There's a few moments of awkward silence before Vernon answers. The air is tense, and Harry can practically feel the fear emanating from his aunt and uncle.

"All we have to do is say that the boy ran away. Then we have no idea what happened to him," Vernon explains, though his tone is more uncertain than Harry's ever heard from him before.

There's several more seconds of tense silence before the digging sound begins again in earnest.

Harry's trying desperately to call out that this is a mistake, that they don't need to do this, but there's nothing. Whatever's happening to his body, he doesn't have any semblance of control, not even enough to sound off a whimper.

"I think that's enough," Vernon finally says after a few more minutes digging in silence. Harry hears his heavy footsteps get closer to where he lies on the cold grass.

Vernon's not gentle when he picks him up, shoving one arm underneath the back of his knees, and the other under his back. Harry's head lulls back helplessly as he's lifted off the ground.

It means at the very least that Harry can see more of his surroundings. It's dark still, but the Dursley's car headlights is illuminating a little of the way in front of them.

They're definitely not anywhere near civilization. There's trees all around, and a dirt path that they'd obviously driven through to get here. Even if Harry had the strength to call out for help, out here in the middle of nowhere, nobody would even hear him.

And there's the hole that Vernon has been digging.

My final resting place.

It doesn't look nearly as long as a normal grave, but that's not surprising. In a cemetery, bodies are given the dignity of being buried comfortably, and in a coffin. Harry knows he's not going to get the same treatment. He'll just get tossed unceremoniously into the grave and the dirt heaped on top of him.

It's desperation that allows Harry to finally find at least a part of his voice.

"H-Help…" he manages to stammer out. It's so quiet that Harry doesn't even know if Vernon will be able to hear him, but from the way he stops walking, he clearly must have.

Vernon shifts his arm so that he's lifting Harry's head slightly to look into his eyes. Vernon's face looks pale, even with the dark shadows over his face. It's only from the ambient light of the nearby car headlights that he's able to see him at all, but even with limited vision, Harry can see the fear in his eyes.

There's no doubt that he can see Harry is still alive, had heard him weakly beg for help.

"Vernon, what's wrong?" Petunia squeaks.

Again, Vernon hesitates before he answers. After a few moments though, he keeps moving forward towards the makeshift grave.

"Nothing," he answers.

He really shouldn't be surprised. Even if he wasn't terrified to the point of near insanity, Vernon would jump at the chance to get Harry out of their lives forever.

I guess this is the end.

Vernon puts him down on the grass next to the grave. He's a mere inch from the edge, and one tiny push is all it will take. One tiny push means his final end.

Petunia screams.

Its a horrid, terrified scream, the stuff of nightmares.

Vernon turns away from Harry, calling out into the darkness for his wife.

Harry doesn't hear her answer. He feels unconsciousness coming on him again, and all he hears before his eyes shut again is an angry, loud growl.

Notes

Not much Naruto in this first chapter, but I assure you, it's coming. I hope you enjoy it :)

Also, for anyone following my other Hp/Naruto fic, an update for that is coming soon. It's going through MASSIVE rewrites, most of which is already done. I've also written a chapter for earlier in the story, and half of the next chapter after the last time I updated.

Thanks