Warning: Cursing? Bullying?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

BTW Can someone tell me how to add Authors Note Im dying here.

Harry had always thought that school was like a miniature Sea World. He came up with this analogy in second grade while he was sitting all by himself in the corner of the cafeteria, and found it quiet fitting. You see, school was like the ocean, and most children were all different sorts of harmless fishes. All except one type, the bullies. The bullies were the sharks.

Harry looked up, and saw a familiar gang of boys standing not far ahead of him. His whale of a cousin Dudley was standing in the center of the group,no doubt showing off his brand new shirt from some trending brand for the rest of the group to admire.

Now that he thought about it, Dudley was really more like a whale than anything else... But Harry immediately stopped himself in this train of thoughts because he refused to give up on the sharks analogy, which he was quite fond of. The way Harry saw it, bullies sense weaknesses in other children, just like sharks smell blood a mile away. The moment one shows his weakness, the sharks would bare their teeth, close in on the prey, and feast on its fear and pain.

Dudley was turning in a circle excitedly to let others get a better look at him when he caught sight of the small form of Harry. "Hey, Harry!" he yelled in a commanding tone that was just typical Dudley "Come over here quickly!"

Harry walked over towards them with steady steps, until he came face to face with the group. All the boys were staring down at him now, and blocking his sight with their towering heights.

"What took you so long?" Piers asked.

Harry shrugged "Getting my paper cutter from Dawson, son of a bitch confiscated it."

"Well now you are finally here, let's just get going" Dudley said, and the group, now including Harry, walked slowly through the school playground. They were used to going home together after school: it allowed them to pick on easy targets that had wandered too far away from the "safety zone. "

"You think my parents will get me a shirt like that if I ace my next math test?" Rick wondered out loud. He was a tall boy with hair that looked like a nest made out of straw, and had even less brains than Dudley.

"You? Acing the math test?" Dudley laughed "it'd be like... like..."

Rick didn't wait for Dudley to come up with a witty metaphor "It's not like you got good marks on that exam by yourself, I could do it too if I sat next to Harry, you know!"

Dudley's face reddened, and Harry sighed.

"I could get any grade I want if I tried, but I didn't study, because I didn't want to!" Dudley protested.

Before the argument got any further, Harry cut in.

"The school year's almost over, Rick, and we are going to different middle schools, so this talk is really pointless."

"Right, but I was saying, like hypothetically..." Rick couldn't finish the rest of his sentence, when several lower grade kids playing ball sprinted past the formidable gang, laughing and yelling. Lost in the ball chase, a kid ran dangerously close to Dudley, and the consequences were immediate.

"Watch it!" Dudley sneered, pushing the kid to the ground and hurriedly smoothed his shirt for non-existent creases. Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. None of them paid any attention to the kid who quickly scrambled up from the ground and scurried away, because the next second Dudley was turned towards Harry with an annoyed frown.

"Don't roll your eyes at me like that." He demanded.

Harry answered with another dramatic eye roll.

A wide grin slowly formed on Dudley's face, like he just thought of something very funny "You know what, Harry? I think you are just jealous at me because you don't have what I have." He taunted, as if daring Harry to be mad. But Harry knew the game too well, and he was not going to bite the bait.

"Only in your dreams, Dudley." Harry retaliated, pretending not to notice the group's sudden focus on his pitiful second hand clothes at Dudley's words. Dudley dragged his eyes over Harry's ugly shirt and saggy pants one last time, snorted loudly and turned away, a sign that he let the matter slide for now.

The fact that everything Harry wore were hand downs from Dudley really wasn't news to anyone, but Harry's group of "friends" still liked to poke him with occasional insults when they were bored.

When sharks got put in the same area without any prey nearby, they were bound to go after each other, and the weakest one would get devoured. Harry entertained this idea in his head.

"Hey look, isn't that little Sammy over there?" Piers shouted out.

"What?" The group whipped around and saw a skinny boy on the other side of the field, and confirmed that it was indeed their usual victim little Sammy. Even Harry was a little surprised. He could not believe that the boy still had the courage to walk this way home after what happened last time, but then he saw the boy's source of courage walking right next to him and understood.

"Pyke" Dudley identified the boy escorting their little Sammy, and looked as if he wanted to punch said boy in the guts.

It seemed that Piers shared that impulse "What does he think he's doing?Playing the hero?"

Harry squinted to get a better picture of the boy named Pyke through the broken lenses of his glasses. He had been curious about the boy who reported their "bullying behavior" to the teachers and landed them with a home visit from Mrs Smith. The unbearable presence of Mrs Smith in his house had been an experience he tried to avoid, but he wasn't mad at the boy. It seemed ridiculous too, that Dudley should hold such a grudge against Pyke when his parents only doted on him even more to-in their words-compensate for the harshness of that stupid teacher.

"He's just a crybaby and cries to his parents about everything" Dudley said,stressing every syllable to show how serious he was "We should go teach him a lesson on why he shouldn't tell on us."

"But...What if he tells on us again?" Rick asked weakly "My parents said that if they hear something like that from the teachers again..."

Dudley held his head high like he was the very symbol of courage "Well some teachers don't scare me. My mom says Mrs Smith is stupid and my parents will have a talk with the principal next time she calls me bad names."

"So what are we waiting for? Let's do it now." Piers seemed very enthusiastic about beating the boy up.

"Wait!" Dudley stopped Piers in his track, paused a moment to organize his words, and said "We are going to teach him a lesson, but we will be, like, a bit more careful."

"Careful how?" Rick asked stupidly.

Dudley looked somewhat anxious at this question "I mean like we can't leave any marks on him, or do anything too obvious."

When nobody said anything, Dudley quickly added "Of course I'm not scared of him telling anybody! But my parents said that I have to be careful, if that stupid Smith leaves something on my records I won't get into Smelting, and I need to get into Smelting!"

"So, what can we do to him then?"

"I don't know, just say something..."

"Like what?"

"Like we are going to beat him up"

"Can we beat him though?" Rick asked.

"No, of course not, haven't you been listening to me?!"

"Guys" Harry was watching this exchange in mild amusement, but it was getting a bit annoying "They are almost gone now, just decide on something. "

"Don't tell me what to do! I said we go after him now but you guys just have so many questions!" Dudley had now turned a shade of red purple, and looked like a miniature replicate of his father.

"What do you think we should do?" Rick asked expectantly at Harry.

"Yeah, don't you always have lots of ideas?" Piers added.

Harry tilted his head to the side "Pyke isn't someone we'd normally go after, isn't he? He's got a rich daddy and he's not scared of us. Plus he's disgustingly close with the teachers. Getting him is not worth the trouble." Harry thought it was very considerate of himself to explain this to the boys, at least Rick and Piers nodded in approval, but Dudley did not seem to appreciate this at all. He glared daggers at Harry.

"Well I have some ideas as well!" Dudley crossed his arms and bellowed "We can't have teachers after us, or anything bad on our records, but you wouldn't mind that, right? Since you were going to that correctional school anyway! So I think you should be the one to teach him a lesson."

Immediately Dudley looked very pleased with his amazing idea, and looked at Harry challengingly.

Piers sounded surprised "Let Harry go alone? Come on Dudley, didn't you see the size of that Pyke?"

"If he can't handle that Pyke, maybe he shouldn't be here with us." Dudley said, and leaned in close to Harry in one threatening move, addressing Harry directly "You can go up to him right now and teach him a lesson. But you don't have to, of course, if you are scared of him. If you are so scared,you can even go cry to him about it, and maybe he will let you follow him around like another little minion."

All eyes were on Harry now, scanning for weaknesses and waiting for an reaction.

Harry pushed Dudley away a little so he's not breathing down his neck. "That's actually not a bad idea, Dudley." He said, and started walking towards his targets.

"You are going to be Pyke's minion?" Rick asked, astonished.

Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes again "No, not that idea, the other one!" And he ushered the other boys along "Come on, catch up, do you want to watch me do it or not?"

His target, Pyke, was a fair haired boy. He dressed smartly and had a nice face, probably the reason why the teachers adored him. He was medium sized- just a few inches taller than Harry, but he appeared much larger when he stepped in front of little Sammy protectively at the sign of approaching danger-aka Harry.

"Run to the school bus, I'll hold them off." He said. If this was the movies, little Sammy, the "damsel" in distress, would hug Pyke from behind and cry tearfully "I'll never leave you behind!" But this was not the movies, and Sam kept his head down and ran for dear life.

"Don't worry, I'm not here for your little boyfriend." Harry said teasingly as he approached Pyke, hands in his pockets.

Pyke's nose scrunched up at the insult, but remained mostly calm "Just you?What about your friends, they not coming?"

"Nah" Harry glanced back at the group gathered under a tree and felt their scrutinizing gaze "It's just you and me."

Pyke looked at Harry like he was crazy "You seriously think you can do something to me, Potter?" When Harry only smiled in reply, he just turned around and started walking away.

Harry placed a firm hand on his shoulder to make him stay "Sorry, but I can't let you walk away like this."

Pyke turned around in annoyance, when a look of realization suddenly crossed his face. "They made you come get me, didn't they?" He said, pointing at the Dudley gang not far away, and looking rather smug about his new discovery "They are just a bunch of cowards who only pick on the softies, they can't handle me, so they made you come at me."

"I guess you can say that" Harry said, taking his hand off Pyke's shoulder and putting it back in his pocket.

" You can't seriously think you can fight me." Pyke said a bit condescendingly "If you stop bothering me right now, maybe I won't tell anyone about this"

"You won't?"

"No!" Pyke actually looked down at Harry and sighed, as if he was feeling sorry for him "And you don't have to listen to them, I know they give you trouble all the time. They copy your homework, and they blamed everything on you last time the teachers got them ..." Pyke took a moment to take in the sight of Harry's scrawny body covered in Dudley's old clothes, and the pity in his voice deepened at that "I mean, it's obvious that you are not one of them, so stop trying so hard to fit in..."

This time he was cut off by a sharp blow to his face. His nose made a sickeningly crunching noise, and he stumbled. Almost at the exact same moment, something hard kicked his ankle and Pyke fell into solid ground with a yelp.

Pyke reached up to touch his nose, and felt blood all over his face.

"How...How dare you!" He cried, shaking with anger "My parents will know!"

"And what makes you think I care about that?" Harry examined the bruises on his knuckles absentmindedly, and bent down next to Pyke's crouching form.

The taller boy immediately struggled to get up, knowing that Harry wasn't strong enough to hold him down, but a piece of cold metal against his neck made him stop.

It was Harry's paper cutter. It was, to be honest, rather dull and brittle,and even an adult male would have a hard time making cuts with this, but Pyke still froze like a dead fish in the freezer.

"You wouldn't dare..." He said shakily, swallowing hard under the pressure.

Harry was looming above him now. He may be small, but still large enough cover Pyke's face in the shadow.

"Do you really think I'm afraid of you whining to the teachers?" Harry laughed "You know, you were right that I'm not like the rest of them. Look at me, I have no parents, no money, and I'm about to go to the most shitty school in the area. What do I have got to lose?"

Pyke studied Harry, mind racing. Unfortunately he did not understand the full meaning behind Harry's words, and managed to appear impressively stubborn. "I'm still not scared of you!" he said defiantly "You won't do it."

But Harry could smell his hidden fear. "Maybe I won't cut you right here,right now" Harry said, emerald eyes boring into the Pyke's pupils diluted in fear"But you should be scared, Pyke. This is just the beginning. When I go to my middle school, that shit hole filled with good for nothing delinquents like me, I will make friends with them, like I did with the Dudley gang, and I will tell them all about this little rich kid named Pyke."

The boy turned as pale as a bar of soap.

"About his beautiful house next to the park, what a big hero he was, and how he always keeps a handful of cash in his pockets. Just imagine what's going to happen to you then."

Pyke was now shaking so badly Harry was afraid he would wet himself.

"Don't you think you should be scared of me?"

The boy, eyes red, nodded.

Harry let that sink in, and asked "Will you ever tell the teachers on us again?"

The boy shook his head violently five times.

"Good" Harry said, wiping the blood off Pyke's face with the sleeve of his own expensive shirt, and let him go.

Needless to say, the Dudley gang was impressed.

A few days later, the ever so nosy Mrs. Smith showed up on the Dursley's front porch. His aunt and uncle were reluctant to let her in at first, but became very relieved when they heard that she was here only about problems with Harry. They invited her to have some tea and expressed their anger and disappointment at Harry effusively.

Harry was reading in his cupboard at the time and sipping on iced lemonade he nicked from the kitchen earlier, so he didn't pay any attention to their conversation. Unfortunately the cupboard door was not made to be sound-proof, and Harry still caught why Smith was here this time. Apparently, she suspected that Harry cheated on his finals ( And weren't the Dursley's overjoyed to hear that Harry's good grades were a result of cheating? Harry almost laughed). More importantly, a certain student had been acting strangely lately, but refused to say what's wrong when she asked him about it. So basically, Mrs Smith was here with no evidence except rumors and suspicions. That didn't stop the Dursleys from sharing their hatred for Harry with her though, and they promised to get this neighborhood rid of Harry as soon as physically possible. Their attitude on Smith changed so drastically from this visit, they even insisted on giving her gifts for being so such a good, just teacher. When Smith finally left the house, Harry thought his ears were going to bleed from hearing all the noises they made. Before he could finally read in peace, however, there was a loud bang on his cupboard door.

"Get out of there, boy" Vernon's voice said "We need to talk."

Harry was a bit taken back. Are the Dusleys going to try and scold him again? He could barely remember the last time it happened.

Not that the Dursleys did not love yelling at him, but they realized the futility of their attempts a long time ago. The whole locking him up in the cupboard business stopped working in third grade, when Harry picked up the habit of hiding blunt objects around and damaging the cupboard door whenever he got locked inside for too long. The door he had right now was the fourth one they got.

When the threat of the cupboard failed, dear Uncle Vernon could not help but finally resort to using force. The memory of it brought a smile to Harry's lips. It was in fourth grade, and Harry just sat there looking totally unimpressed when they went through their routine yelling. Vernon was so infuriated that for the first time, he laid his hands on Harry. It was a stinging smack that made Harry see stars in his eyes. But he did not cry or cower. Quite the opposite, he dared the Dursleys to hit him again. "But if you are going to beat me, you better make sure you it kills me" he said "because if I live through this I will make sure everybody finds out about the marks you left me, and if that's not enough, one day I will make sure to leave the exact same marks on your precious son. "

The funny thing was, in his heart Harry was almost scared to death when he said that. He remembered that his fingers trembled and his voice even cracked a little. Fortunately, the Dursleys were too shocked to notice. It worked like a charm and they barely even bothered to scold him again.

Harry guessed at some degree the Dursleys were not really bad people. Someone more vicious could have easily beaten Harry half dead and there would be nothing he could do about it.

While entertaining those thoughts in his head, Harry quietly observed his aunt and uncle, who stared back at him solemnly.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Sit." Aunt Petunia said curtly, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Instincts told Harry that something important was about to happen, so he sat opposite to them obediently and waited for them to break the awkward silence.

"Your head teacher was here, telling us about what a good for nothing trouble-maker you are and what kind of human scum you will grow up to be" His aunt said.

"Yes, I got it the first two thousand times you predicted my future" Harry said "Can we just get to the point?"

His aunt raised her voice "The point is, it has been decided" she exchanged a glance with her husband "that you will not be going to that correctional school anymore."

"What?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Oh Don't look so surprised" Vernon spat angrily, as if he was making the most hated decision in his life "We are not stupid, we know it won't be able to control you and your freakish ways!"

Harry thought the "not stupid" part was very debatable, but did not make any sarcastic remarks because he was curious where this conversation was going.

"Therefore it had been decided that you will be going to this... boarding school" Aunt Petunia said. She produced a large envelope from her bag and threw it at Harry, as if it contained some deadly virus. "You will go to this school and we won't have to see you except for the summer holidays."

Harry stared at the envelope in his hand. It had been a while since the last time he was so lost and confused. He opened the envelope, (ignoring Vernon's cry of "Open it somewhere else!") and found lying inside, another envelope...except this one was not blank, but had his name and address written on it. It even said he lived in the cupboard under the stairs.

Harry deftly ripped that envelope open as well to see what's inside. He found a long piece of parchment paper, the heading said "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class. Grand Sorcerer. Chief Warlock. Supreme Mug..."

What the fuck is a Mugwump, and what is it with this letter? Harry stared at his relatives in disbelief. Is he supposed to believe that he is a wizard and going to a special, magical school for wizards?

"I'm not sure if this is a joke, or your attempt to land me in a mental hospital. " Harry said uncertainly.

"No, you brat! You are going there and the decision is final." Aunt Petunia snapped "You will be going no matter what and hopefully the freaks there can get a handle of you!"

"I thought you hate everything freaks related." Harry said half jokingly,unsure how to react.

His aunt glared at him, the veins in his neck protruding "Of course we do! But you are one of the freaks and nothing can change that. Everything you've done is to destroy our family life and be a bad influence on Dudley. It is better to have you be a freak away from our house than become some drug lordhere and bring the cops to our doorstep." Petunia shuddered while saying this, as if her vivid imagination of cops knocking on her door was too much to bear.

"What? Can you just let it go? It was a joke!" Harry protested. He joked about becoming a drug lord one time and now the Dursleys firmly believed it. Their lack of a sense of humor was truly appalling.

"Don't try to deny it boy!" Thanks to Petunia, Vernon's now completely worked up as well, bellowing like a volcano about to explode "There's no doubt you will grow up to be a menace to society, some thief, robber,rapist...!"

"Ok, yes, you've made your point!" Harry interrupted "I'll have a hard time living up to your high expectations."

"... It's better to let the other freaks take care of you. Even if you blow yourself up just like your parents did, it won't be our problem anymore!"

The anger and loathing in Vernon's eyes were so real, almost tangible, that something clicked in Harry's mind.

"You are being serious." Harry could not believe it. Of course his relatives had always been nothing but serious, what Harry meant to say was, they truly believed in wizards and witchcraft, and it was real.

Memories he had almost forgotten suddenly came flooding back. How he appeared miraculously in impossible places, how his hair grew back overnight. It all made sense now. It was because he was a wizard, and they were not. He never belonged here and it was the reason behind every shitty thing the Dursleys did to him when he was little.

"...What do you mean my parents blew themselves up? Were they fre...wizards too?" Harry asked with great effort "And there were lots of others like them out there? "

"Your parents...!"

The Dursleys didn't have to finish their sentence, the expression on their faces already gave Harry the answer he needed.

"I can't believe it." Harry muttered.

"Your parents got themselves what they deserved for their freakish business" Vernon said, delighted to see the torn expression on Harry's face "And you'd better believe it, because we are sending you to that school no matter what..."

"No! Shut up!" It was like something else had possessed Harry, who suddenly stood up screaming, knocking his chair back with a screech "You said they were alcoholics and criminals! You said they died from drunk driving! How long would you have hid it from me you fucking liars?!" Harry swept Petunia's tea set off the table in one violent move, and the loud crack of delicate china smashing against the floor filled the room. Harry grabbed his letter, stormed off into the cupboard and slammed the door after him.

Congrats on making the first chapter! This fic is basically a reaction against the kind of plot with Harry so good and innocent, but pushed over the edge by bullies and goes dark. I just wanted to do things differently. This fic will have some InsensitiveJerk!Harry but it will NOT be Dark!Harry, and there will be No Bashing so sorry to disappoint if you are into really dark fics. This is not one of them.