So, I have finally bitten the bullet and written something. I hope it turns out well.

There are some slight crossovers into other stuff, both movies (Hackers, 1995), essays (references to The Conscience of a Hacker), real life (with the MoD in the next chapter), and anything else that strikes my fancy.

If you would like to beta the story, please contact me. (I'm still learning how to work the site.)

This will be a multi-chapter story, obviously. I've been hesitating for how long to make chapters, so please give me your opinion on that. Updates will happen every Saturday at 12pm EST, or earlier.

.:-o~o-:.

It was the night before christmas, and all through the house, not a sound to be heard, but the click of a mouse.

Harry Potter was a small, 5 year old boy. He had green eyes, and hair which absolutely refused to be tamed. However, it's not the only thing which refused to be tamed. He also had his curiosity.

He had a thirst for finding things out. That wasn't very easy, though, with his living conditions. He lived with his uncle, and aunt, and cousin. Three perfectly normal people, in the perfectly normal house of Number 4 Privet Drive.

Harry, however, was not normal. He was abused, ridiculed, and never allowed to state his mind, or play with toys. If he let show any sign of independant thought, he would receive a good beating from his Uncle Vernon.

He thus stopped showing signs of independent thought. He went through the motions of cooking their breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and cleaning the house, and being invisible, and in return, he wasn't beaten much, and he had some food.

But in his mind he was always thinking.

.:-o~o-:.

It was Dudley's 6th Birthday, and he received a brand new, top of the line laptop, router, and printer. He promptly stepped on the charger and broke it. He threw a huge fit, beat up Harry, and moved on. Computers were for nerds and other losers.

Harry, however, was intrigued by the computer. He saved it from the trash, and hid it in his cupboard. Using his nails, and spare bits of metal, he was able to open up the charger, and found what made it break - the fuse had come off. He place it back, taped it together, and, booting up the laptop, he found it worked.

Over the next year, he would start using it, more and more. He would no longer take advantage of his family being out of the house to watch the TV. He would spend his nights, and all his free time on the computer. He stole The C Cookbook from the library, and using that started to learn to program increasingly complex programs.

And, only then, when his family left on a weekend vacation to France, did he plug in the modem.

It was amazing. The data rushed in through the phone line, onto the screen and into his mind like heroin through an addict's veins. He was transfixed. And then he started playing around. He didn't want to ever lose this. But when his uncle came back...

Harry put on his best T-shirt and shorts (Which really weren't that good), took a buck from Dudley's piggy bank, and went to the local 99 cent store. Strolling down the aisle, he placed a 10ft phone cable in his pocket (The cable sliding conveniantly through the hole in it), along with a jack duplicator (To plug 2 wires into one jack). He picked up a roll of tape, paid for that (80 cents) and went back home.

It was only one hours work to hide the phone line going into his room. It was so cramped, anyway, and no one ever went into his room, ever. He plugged back in, and started talking on an IRC network, to someone by the name of Electron. That person mentioned how they had just managed to access NASA's servers, through some vulnerability in their servers, but then got stuck at a password screen.

This was how he was introduced to the world of Hacking.

With only 2 hours till his uncle came back, he took apart the router, disconnected the speakers, put it back together, unplugged it, and hid it as he heard the car coming back.

But from then on, whenever the clock passed 11PM, he was online, talking with other hackers, exploring the internet.

He quickly found a way onto Oxford's computers, and began using their phone line to connect to other continents. He talked to people in Melbourne, and New York, and Washington, and Paris, and Hong Kong. And none of them disliked him.

He was welcomed with open arms, encouraged, they valued his curiosity, and increased his self-esteem. He became confident.

Or as confident as a 7 and a half year old could be.

.:-o~o-:.

It was approaching 7am on Sunday, 2 years later, and he knew, somewhere, in the very back of his mind, that he should go to sleep. But he was so close. He knew that a vulnerability was only a few keystrokes away. He was a few moments from gaining control of a DoD computer.

8am arrived, and he finally reached. A triumphant smile spread on his face, he marked a few notes down, unplugged the modem, his the computer, and his head thunked onto his bed.

9am passed. His aunt awoke and went into the shower.

10am passed, his uncle awoke, heaved his large mass off the bed, and walked through his bedroom door. He went downstairs, and frowned when he didn't heard the sound of bacon sizzling from the kitchen. He arrived there, and yelled out "BOY!"

But Harry was fast asleep.

"BOY!" Uncle Vernon yelled again "GET IN HERE THIS MINUTE."

But Harry was fast asleep.

Vernon brought his heavy body back towards the cupboard and smacked open the door.

And Harry woke up, all bleary eyed.

"So you think you can just sleep in, did ya now?" His uncle picked him up and dragged him into the hallway. A heavy blow hit the side of his head, and was followed by another. And another. And another.

Dudley came down and started watching, before being told to bring a belt.

Harry Potter's uncle ripped off his shirt and began hitting him, again, and again, and again, and again. Dudley arrived and started kicking him too. And then he drifted in and out of consciousness.

.:-o~o-:.

He came to later at around 1pm. Everyone had left. His aunt appears to have bandaged up the worst of the cuts, and poured some rubbing alcohol on his back to disinfect it (It wouldn't to do have to bring him to the hospital).

He lays in bed, thinking in misery.

.:-o~o-:.

And then he decides that he should leave.

.:-o~o-:.

Please leave a review! Thanks!