Disclaimer: I don't own any of the stuff you recognize. Anything else, I most likely came up with.

Takes place after the first chapter in 'The Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone'

Raven's Chronicles. Book 1

Chapter 1:

A boy sat in the park near his home, book in hand. Sitting on the swing set, he stared off into space. The book in his hands was torn and frayed; looking like it had been read over and over again. It was the boy's favorite, ever since he had first began to read fantasy books like he did.

As far back as he could remember, he had been taking books that his cousin didn't want, and then reading them, and keeping them in his cupboard. One whole wall was covered in books that he had taken from his cousin. Since his family never offered or gave him anything, he just decided to take what wasn't used. His family gave everything to his cousin, and nothing to him, so he just took what he deserved.

The boy was lost in a fantasy world at the moment, reading his favorite book. He had always imagined something like that happening to him, something wonderful that would take him away from the hell that was his home life. But it never did. He always woke up in the morning, and went to bed at night, his only escape dreams and books. He had read nearly every fantasy book he could, in hopes that maybe something would give him a way to leave his family.

He had always dreamed that he was a hero involved in some larger plot, but it had never happened. He was still the same small boy that he had been forever. Caught forever in his family's grasp.

But today, something was different. Something changed. The winds of change had started to blow… err… maybe that was only the literal winds, but that doesn't matter.

Harry saw something out of the corner of his eyes. A bird was flying right at him. A bird of all things. Harry watched as the bird flew at him, a letter held in its claws. The bird landed in front of him, on the other swing set, and held its claw out.

Harry raised an eyebrow. A bird carrying a letter? That was strange. Harry reached out and grabbed the scroll that the bird was holding. A scroll? Why would the sender use a scroll? Nobody had done that for a few hundred years.

Harry flipped the scroll over, looking at the strange wax seal. It was a large 'H' surrounded by four animals. A raven, a badger, a snake, and a lion. Very strange.

After unrolling the scroll, he stared at the letter that was there. It was an invitation, by the looks of it. But what for? He scanned the letter quickly, and his eyes widened along the way.

Quickly, he shoved the letter inside of his coat, before his cousin came along to take it from him. Since his coat was so large, being his cousin's coat from a few years ago, it hid the scroll/letter well.

He looked at the strange bird that had delivered the letter, and hoped it would understand him. "Could you come here tomorrow, so that I can give you my response?"

The bird, scarily enough, nodded and turned to fly away.

Harry rushed home, intent on hiding the letter before anyone found out about it. Slipping into the house, he jumped straight into his cupboard. Pulling off a fake panel in the wall that he had found a few years ago, he slid the letter in there.

The panel that came off the wall had been found after he had been punished one time. The light inside the cupboard was off, and Harry was fumbling around, trying to find the cord to turn it on. His fingers found a small fissure in the wall, though, and got stuck. He pulled and pulled, until the whole piece of the wall was pulled off. Behind the barrier was open space, empty for whatever Harry wanted to put in there. Once he had found the seemingly fake panel, he had started to steal his cousin's books, and hide them back there. The area behind the panel was large enough to hide nearly twenty books at a time, so he returned them after reading them a few times.

The only books he ever really stole were fantasy books though, realistic books just made him depressed.

He quickly dashed out a response to the letter he had gotten, and hid that behind the wall too. Afterwards, he had gone out to his family, to cook for them.

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Later that night, he was sitting his room, unable to sleep because of his excitement. He might have found a way to escape his family's torture.

With this thought in mind, Harry Potter fell into the world of dreams.

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A/N: I realize that the chapter is really short, but I am writing it during a fourty minute study period. My computer at home stopped working, so I only have my study hall period during school to use their computers to type and upload my stories. I have today and tommorrow to do so, before break starts and you'll have to survive without me for a week. Since my computer at home is getting fixed, the next chapter of Harry's Demons won't be put up until after its fixed, which most likely will be in two weeks (one, I have break, the next, its actually getting fixed.).