Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, though I wish I did.

Chapter One, Abandoned.

Harry James potter, age 1, sat in a small bassinet on the dining room table of Petunia and Vernon Dursley. The boy was sleeping quietly, but their own son, Dudley, was putting up a fuss for not being the center of attention. He kicked and screamed, but Vernon and Petunia had other things on their mind. They were having a hushed argument over the boy, quite literally. Petunia, on one side of the table, was gesturing wildly at Vernon on the other.

"He can't stay here!" said Petunia in hoarse whisper, not wanting to wake the boy. Dudley's crying had given her enough of a headache to last the rest of the day and she didn't need any more loud noises.

Vernon was in complete agreement on that fact, but on the next, they differed widely.

"We'll drop him off at the orphanage," she said.

Vernon shook his head. Quite frankly, he had been weary of marrying Petunia when he found out what her sister was, and knowing what the boy was made him even more loath to grant that small kindness.

"Float him down the Thames," he snarled. "I don't want any government people showing up and asking funny questions!" He had barked the last word, and Harry awoke with a start.

He stared up at them with wide, green eyes, unblinking. He fidgeted some in his bassinet, but didn't make a peep. He kicked about, rocking the bassinet side to side. Petunia grabbed a hold of it so he didn't go rocking off the side.

"I'll just leave him at the orphanage, Vernon!" she said, still whispering. "I don't have to tell them we're connected."

Vernon, who had had enough of the argument, waved his hand as though trying to swat a bothersome fly away, and stomped out of the room.

Petunia sighed when he was out of earshot. She grabbed a pen off the counter and jotted a quick note down on a scrap of paper.

"Harry James Potter

Born July 31, 1980

NO FAMILY"

She tucked the note in the folds of his blanket, along with a bottle with formula and rushed out to the car. With Harry in the back seat, cooing softly, she started it up and drove away from Little Whinging, and away from Surrey.

The drive to London took less than she expected, and Harry hadn't cried once, for which she was grateful.

She drove to an orphanage that she had heard Marge talking about, Cole's. The place looked more like a prison than anything.

She got out of the car and pulled Harry from the back seat. She pushed open the iron gates and walked quickly up to the front door. She kept her head down, watching her feet more than where she was going.

She made it to the door without incident, and hurriedly set the bassinet on the step before quickly running back. She had made it to the gate when he finally started crying. She stopped, biting her lip rather hard.

She forced herself onward, unaware that she had been seen by the proprietress, who had spotted her from an upstairs window. The woman had only made it to the door as Petunia shut the car door.

"Ma'am!" she called out, looking at the baby at her feet then at the woman who seemed to be crying herself. Without a glance in her direction, the woman in the car drove away very quickly, leaving Mrs. Cole to pick up the baby.

A note fluttered down from his blanket, and she picked it up. "Harry Potter, eh?" she asked the boy, smiling at him.

His watery green eyes opened wide in surprise, and he smiled again. Mrs. Cole laughed at the boy. "What beautiful eyes," she said, picking up the bassinet in her free hand. "Nasty scar, though," She touched her finger to it, and he had gone cross-eyed trying to keep it in view.

She set the boy back in the bassinet in her office, and began filling out a report.

"Harry Potter, age 1, born July 31st." She paused and looked at the boy, turning back to the paper, and scratched down "Abandoned" with more venom then she had intended, gouging the paper.

AN: Hello all, and welcome to my newest Fic. I hope you enjoy it, and please Review. Now, a few things about my first Fic, The Best laid Plans; first off, I have not abandoned it. I lost the several chapters I had been working on, and I was rather discouraged. I will be starting it again when I can, but not right now. This Chapter has been retrofitted to match later chapters.