Disclaimer: The 'Harry Potter' and 'Batman' franchises are not mine and it is extremely unlikely that I ever will ever own them.

Warning! This story is rated M for readers above 17 years of age. It contains strong language, violence, torture, drug abuse and several other things that some readers may find offensive. If it was to go by the film rating standards in England it would most likely be rated somewhere between certificate '15' and '18'.

Right there's the boring stuff out of the way on with the story.

Chapter 1

Vernon Dursley, an overweight man with black hair and a matching moustache, was making his way to his boss' office in order receive an assignment from him. He had been working for Grunnings for over a decade and it seemed that his hard worked was starting to pay off, if he did well on this assignment then it could mean a promotion for him. When he stood outside the door he took a moment to straighten his clothing before knocking on the door.

"Come in."

When Vernon entered the office, his boss indicated to one of the seats in front of his desk,

"Take a seat."

As soon as Vernon sat down his boss got straight to the point,

"Mr Dursley, as I'm sure you are aware, you've been selected to be sent to meet with the owner of a foreign company. Your job will be to try a secure a contract between Grunnings and that company, even a basic one would be acceptable. This is very important because if we gain this contract then Grunnings will have made its first step into the international market. The reason you have been selected is because you have a good track record when it come to securing contracts with some of the businesses in this country and we would like to see if you can do the same here. If you succeed you could very well be put in charge of several more of our business ventures. Are you interested?"

Vernon thought about the proposition for a few moments before he gave his answer,

"I'll do it."

"Good. Now the man you'll be seeing is a man called Bruce Wayne …"

The plan for Vernon Dursley was simple; he would take his family with him to America while leaving his nephew with Mrs Figg, or if for some reason that wasn't possible he would be left with Vernon's sister, Marge. Once there he would secure the deal allowing him and his family to spend the rest of their time on a well deserved vacation, before then heading back to England to receive his well deserved promotion.

However, when his wife Petunia told him that Mrs Figg would be visiting relatives during that time and wouldn't be able to cancel her plans so there was no need to contact her about the trip, and when they called Marge they found out that she was busy at a dog show on the other side of the country, meaning that she wouldn't be able to take care of the boy. Unfortunately that left them with having to take him with them on their trip to Gotham.

Revaluating his plan Vernon decided to use this situation to his advantage, once he finished his business his family could find a way to get rid of it before eventually making their way back home. He knew that the boy wouldn't last long on his own in a city, let alone Gotham, he had done what he could to find out what information there was available about the city in case it might come in handy during the meeting and he didn't like what he found; criminals running rampant, with several of them being as bad as the freaks, law enforcement practically dependent on someone just as bad that dressed as a bat; the boy would barely survive a week there, especially since winter would just be coming in. It was a perfect idea, not only would it get rid of one more freak in the world but it would mean that he would no longer have to put his family at risk to take care of the boy while making it look like an unfortunate accident, leaving him mostly blameless while he regretted what he had to do he made sure that the details were worked out, right down to the return ticket for it in order to help avoid suspicion.

Although he hated the idea of essentially killing another human he hated magic just as much, under normal circumstances he would have treated the boy like an ordinary child when it was found on their doorstep and left it at and adequate foster home or orphanage and moved on with their lives, but the letter that came with it changed that. Even though it seemed to be friendly enough saying that it was safest for both the boy and them, and how that Dumbledore man hoped that they would take the boy in and that if they didn't he hoped that they could meet each other so he could try and persuade them to take him in. Now Vernon may be a proud man but he could admit that he wasn't the smartest person in the world, however even he picked up upon the very subtle threat in the letter and it scared him. It was a little known fact that Petunia's sister tried to keep them informed about what was happening in their world, that was how he found out about the hidden war, she kept them informed because, as her sister, Petunia was a potential target as well as the rest of her family unfortunately that was how Petunia's parents met their end when the other side found out where they lived, and the sadists took their time as well and did thing that he was certain that only war criminals did, it took them hours to die apparently. Did help arrive for the defenseless old couple? No. In a world where the country could be traversed in a matter of minutes at most, no aid was sent to help an old non-magical couple that had brought up one of their most brilliant minds, the only officials that were sent were ones to wipe out any knowledge of magical evidence from the minds of those who investigated. That was when his eyes were truly opened to the danger of this hidden world, they were warned about the various things that could happen to them if they weren't careful and they terrified him.

A spell that kill with the slightest touch and leave no evidence, while told that it was original meant for livestock and euthanasia he wondered just who they 'euthanized'. A spell that would make you experience pain on a level that would make you wish for death and eventually drive you insane if used long enough, but the spell that scared him the most was one that would strip you of your free will and make you little for than a toy to the one who cast it on you, a spell that could force children to murder their own parents, force parents to rape their own children, force women to become little more than a sex toy for monsters in human skin, it horrified him to think about what this world must be like if it can produce ... freaks that would create such horrible tools that, tools that nearly everyone in that world had access to because nearly all of them had what was need to use them. A wand.

He wondered why Petunia's sister couldn't see how wrong that world was, but he realised that they got to her young, when there was still that air of wonder about her and that by the time that she would be old enough to lose that spark of childish wonder, she would have either been so ingrained that she was blind to it or trapped in that world due to missing on most her secondary education leaving her almost no career choice, if that was indeed the case then he would have tried to pull a few strings at Grunnings to try and find her employment, possibly as his secretary so that she could use her magic to help when they were in private if she didn't want to give it up. Unfortunately it seemed as if she was indeed blinded rather than trapped and so unless she asked him for help there was little he could do, but he did wish that she would open her eyes if only for Petunia's sake. With each letter (delivered by an owl of all things) him and Petunia saw more of the darker side of this hidden world, 'darling little house-elves' – blatant enslavement, 'love potions, so romantic' – he knew of another thing similar; they were widely known as date rape drugs (he simply found them horrid), imagine his surprise when he found out that they learned how to make these things in school, the list of problems he found in that world just through letters alone disturbed him greatly.

When they asked her what laws there were to protect them, her reply didn't seem to actually answer the question for Petunia due to the 'mumbo-jumbo' as she called it but due to having to work quite closely with the legal team at Grunnings he was able to discern that there were minimal if any laws to protect them from the monsters out to get them. He didn't have the heart to tell Petunia that her sister had basically chosen a world that wouldn't protect innocent people like themselves but he was sure that she was easily smart enough to work it out from his reluctance to talk about it. They then asked her what would happen if he was to shoot any of them with one of his old guns from when he used to do sport shooting and the occasional spot of rabbit and small-game hunting, the answer actually made him feel insulted, she had essentially said that they probably wouldn't work and even if they did HE would be arrested for killing a wizard, where he would executed by handed over to some kind of creature and having his soul eaten. It was a little known fact that when he was younger he was brought up by a devout Christian family and although he wasn't as big a practitioner as his parents were he still regularly said prayers, even if he couldn't make it to church as often as he would have liked he still had his faith and the idea of his immortal soul not being able to move onto the next life chilled him almost as much as the control spell, (that scared him more due to it being able to force you to do things that would tarnish your soul before having you feed yourself to one of these things). That letter showed him just bigoted that world truly was, and although he could admit to being prejudiced at times, he couldn't stand the ideas that were commonly accepted in this hidden world.

It was shortly after that when by some kind of unspoken agreement contact started to dry up between the two sisters until it was nearly non-existent, the last letter they received simply told them that she was going into hiding along with her husband and son, Harry, due to being targeted by the leader of the terrorists. They didn't even know that she had been pregnant let alone that she had a son, it saddened them to think that things had degraded to such an extent between the two sisters.

When they found the boy on the steps they had been angry at Dumbledore for leaving them with another child to bring up that they weren't ready for and his callous way of informing them of Lily's demise, even more so when they realised that it had basically put a target on their backs for the supporters of this Dark Lord. At first they tried to care for the child but just couldn't connect with him, it only got worse when Dudley playfully pushed the boy a little too hard one time when they were playing together the boy somehow made Dudley appear on top of cabinet that could have seriously hurt him had he fallen off, it was then that they first locked him in the cupboard under the stairs, not out of hatred but out of fear, fear of how dangerous this particular child was, it reminded them of what Dumbledore's letter told them and how the child was responsible for the death of the Dark Lord. If he was capable of killing as a baby, even if it was by accident, no, especially if it was an accident then what would he be do when throwing a tantrum when he was a toddler? What would he do to any childish bullies he might encounter when he went to school? The thoughts alone scared them, so they responded to the child with indifference at first, but the constant threat of the Dark Lord's supporters began to have detrimental effects on the two of them, Petunia had started to lose her appetite and soon was just a shadow of the lovely woman that Vernon had fallen in love with and although he didn't realise it he placed the blame of her loss of appetite on the boy. The stress also brought out some underlying heart problems that most likely wouldn't have become a problem had it not been for the stress and caused him to be prone to chest pains whenever he exercised too much or too strenuously, while he would never have been considered an epitome of human fitness he could at least been able to go for a decent run every once in a while, now however the most he was restricted to was a brisk walk at best. The reduction in exercise had a knock on effect of causing him to gain weight and cholesterol, thereby putting more strain on his heart, something that Petunia blamed the boy for, and so as time went on their indifference and fear gradually developed into hatred, hatred for their decline in health, hatred for bring danger to their family and hatred for them hating him. That hatred eventually gave way to neglect of the boy which ate away at their conscience and so to compensate they tried to love their own son even more, inadvertently turning him into a horrid and selfish child, which made the hate fester. The first time Vernon struck the boy he immediately told him to go to the cupboard and sent Dudley to his room, when he was certain that neither boy could see him he broke down and cried over having hit the boy, no, child over such a petty reason as accidently knocking Vernon's tea into his lap, while Petunia comforted him they both promised themselves that it wouldn't happen again. But the promises we make to ourselves are nearly always the hardest ones to keep.

One day Petunia had a revelation, what if they could keep magic a secret from him or at least show him that it was obsolete that way he wouldn't have to set foot in that world and hopefully the Dark Lord's supporters would forget about him and thereby get the targets of their backs, so they assigned the boy numerous chores to do and planned to try and get him interested in technology and science due to them essentially being the opposite of magic, so should the time come he would see no use for magic, if they had to tell him about the magical world then they would let him know about the parts the teachers 'forget' to mention, such as the bigotry and all the other horribleness they only reveal when it's too late and hopefully he would be able to forgive them for how they treated him at first. However that plan shattered around them when Vernon entered the kitchen and saw the boy drop a plate but before it hit the ground it stopped and slowly returned to the boy's hands, Vernon saw the quiet contemplation on the boys face that soon gave way to realisation and backed out of the kitchen without the boy realising he was there, he felt his heart sink as he realised that the plan had failed. As the boy showed more accidental and semi-deliberate magic, Vernon and Petunia started to become more and more paranoid about being found out by the Dark Lord's supporters.

When he received to offer to secure a deal for Grunnings in Gotham and found out that he would have to take the boy an idea slowly crept into his mind, an idea which chilled him, if he was to leave the boy there it could possibly be made to look like an accident, which would leave them with minimal blame and get rid of the target on his family's back. What made him hesitate was the city, any city was dangerous for a child, especially one all alone, and Gotham was worse than most. He knew that if he left the child there he would essentially be condemning the child to death and might as well just smother the boy in his sleep, at least it probably be quicker and less painful as what that city would do. Normally when it came to the boy he would discuss things with Petunia but this was one case where she needed to be kept out of the loop so she could have plausible deniability, the travel pills she took made her drowsy and also affected her short term memory. At least if he should face charges for abandoning the boy, Petunia would be able to look after Dudley in his absence and his sister, Marge, would probably help as well. But could he do it? Could he essentially condemn an innocent child to death as well as himself to hell when he died? The answer he found didn't surprise him in some regards. For his family's safety he would readily spend eternity in hell and sell his soul to the devil himself if it meant they could be safe.

Sometimes the boy made him feel as if he was just one bad day away from losing himself to his inner demons.

Unfortunately he had no idea how right he was.

After a long and arduous flight the Dursleys and the boy got checked into a hotel, it wasn't anything luxurious but it would suit their needs for the moment. Vernon and Petunia would share one bed, Dudley would get the other while the boy would sleep on the couch until it was time for them to move on and leave it behind.

The meeting for Vernon however didn't go as well as it could have done, while the deal would have been greatly beneficial for Grunnings it was unable to offer as much to Wayne Enterprises as other potential companies and after going over the contract Mr Wayne refused to consider them any longer due to some of the fine print indicating that some of the mineral mining and processing facilities would fall under the control of Grunnings. Vernon left the office building with a dark cloud over his head. The deal had failed and although he didn't draw up the contract he would be the one to suffer for it, he had been sent as a fall guy in case the deal went wrong for the company, facing at least demotion and at worst dismissal from the company. After leaving the office some street punk ran into him knock his briefcase from his hands before quickly running off with it, the company document mattered very little him at that moment but the passports for his family did as well as most of their traveller's checks, what made it worse was that it was the last present he received from his father before he passed away. Before hailing a cab for the hotel he stopped off at a liquor store and bought some cheap whisky to drown his troubles.

After arriving back at the hotel room an uncomfortable silence fell upon Vernon and his wife while he continued to drink, while petunia watched the daytime T.V. During this time Dudley was 'roughhousing' with his cousin, such as pinning him to the ground, twisting his limbs and pulling his hair. When the smaller boy was pushed into the table his Uncle was sat at, the force of it knocked the bottle of whiskey over; spilling the contents over it and set off Vernon's festering fury.

Six-year old Harry Potter was by no means stupid, despite his so-called family's apparent wishes, if he didn't have to hold back, so he didn't do better than his cousin, he could easily be considered a genius his teachers. Despite his age he knew he was different from normal people, strange things would happen around him, such as when he was about to start school and his aunt gave him an awful haircut leaving only a fringe to cover his lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead but the next morning it had grown back just the same as it was before it was cut.

Then there was a time when he dropped plate he was cleaning at the sink (while perched precariously on a chair) before it could hit the ground however, it suddenly stopped and he somehow managed to slowly 'will it' into his hands. It was at that moment that he realised that whatever 'it' was it could be controlled and was probably the reason his relatives hated him. One day he found out what 'it' was, after accidently finding himself on the roof of the school when running away from Dudley and his friends, he was dragged back to Privet Drive by his Aunt and heard her muttering under her breath about 'using freakish magic, just like my sister', he was then locked in the cupboard under the stairs for the rest of the weekend but now he knew what 'it' was, it was magic, and his mother could do it to but if his mother could use magic then how could she die in a car crash like he was told? It was then that Harry guessed that the Dursleys lied about what happened to his parents, which left him wondering what did happen to them.

As time went on he continued to practice what magic he could in secrecy, although it was limited to seeing what he could levitate or move without touching, at first he would tire quickly but with practice he was able to do it longer, and eventually he had gotten it to the point where he could almost instinctually do it, after he recovered from his practice he felt as if some form of pressure was building, slowly at first but then it started to get uncomfortable and then it became painful until he tired himself out using magic again, however due to the treatment from the Dursleys he had a much higher pain threshold than a child his age should have.

When his Uncle announced that they would be going to America Harry was curious as to why they were taking him as well instead of leaving him with Mrs Figg but was taught not to ask the Dursleys questions. It had been good on the plane he was actually given something good to eat and was able to watch a film along the way. When they reached the hotel he was allowed to sleep on the couch and not in a cupboard, Dudley still continued to hit him which he didn't like and wasn't allowed to do anything about, the last time he hit his cousin back his Uncle back handed him and the locked him in the cupboard for a week when Dudley told him that Harry started it, if it wasn't for that then he felt he could win against Dudley in a fight after all he knew that he could out run him and could tire him out and although he didn't know it, the manual labour that he had been given made him proportionally stronger than Dudley however the extra weight of Dudley's would also balance things out probably, of course that was without Harry's magic being taken into consideration.

One evening in the hotel his Uncle had come back and started drinking an orange coloured drink while steadily getting redder and redder in the face it was shortly afterwards that Dudley pushed Harry into the table knocking over the drinks and backed away in fear as he saw his Uncle's furious expression.

"Look What You've Done!"

Vernon slurred as he back-handed Harry across the face breaking his glasses beyond repair, the force of the blow knocking him to the floor and cutting open his lip.

"Do You Have Any Idea What You've Put Me Through?"

Vernon's drunken bellow rang out as he delivered a swift and sharp kick the young child's side, knocking the wind out of his lungs and bruising his ribs at the very least,

"Ever Shince You Came Along It'sh Been One Problem After Another!"

Vernon picked up Harry's small form and threw him against the wall, the few other people in some of the other rooms ignoring the Vernon's drunken rant, following one of the unwritten rules of Gotham as it were, 'don't interfere with stuff that doesn't involve you'.

When Harry hit the floor Vernon raised his fist ready to bring it down on top of the young child's head

"Vernon please stop. You're going too far and you're frightening Dudley."

Dudley was clearly terrified; his white face staring in horror at what his father was doing but before Petunia could say anything else, Vernon slammed a meaty fist into her gut before then back-handing her across the face sending her backwards onto the coffee table, near the T.V, which collapsed due to the force of her impact, the blow leaving her disorientated and her mouth bloody due to a couple of her teeth being knocked out,

"Shut Up Woman! He Deshervesh It For What He Is, Ever Shince We Were Left With It Becaushe Your Shlut Of A Shishter Got Her And Her Freak Of A Hushband Killed By Shome Other Freak."

While Vernon continued his rant Harry began to pick himself up off the floor, he knew that this beating was different from the others, he may have only been six but he understood the concept as to what his uncle was doing, his uncle was going to kill him. As the adrenaline began to enter his system an age old response kicked in. Fight or Flight. Harry knew that he couldn't run, his uncle would soon catch up to him, and even if he could get away he couldn't leave his aunt and cousin behind, despite the neglect in the past his aunt had just tried to help him and there was no guarantee that Dudley was safe either, so those things left Harry with one option. Fight. He knew, subconsciously, instinctually, that he wouldn't win but he wasn't going to make it any easier for Vernon if he could.

Harry reached out with his magic for anything he could used to defend himself with while Vernon was distracted with shouting at Petunia,

"I'll Shooner Kill That Boy Before He Getsh Old Enough To Ushe That Freakishnessh Of Hish Near Me Or My Family."

It was at that moment that the back of Vernon's head exploded in pain as the sound of glass breaking filled the room, Vernon winced as he felt the back of his head and was shocked to see that his hand was covered in blood, his own blood. Turning around he saw his nephew shakily leaning against the wall, breathing heavily with blood dripping onto the ground from his injuries, however what really caught his attention sent a shiver of fear down his spine, a broken whiskey bottle was shakily floating in front of the boy.

Harry meanwhile was feeling that tight pain throughout his body again, only this time it wasn't stopping when he was using his magic, if anything that just made it worse. It felt as if there was something struggling to get out, that it would destroy his entire body in order to be released, but right then he needed to focus on his uncle.

On the other side of the Atlantic, in a hidden castle, sat Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, a man whose appearance could pass of as a stereotypical depiction of Merlin, in his office conducting a staff meeting for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As they discussed the progress of the students as well as which ones would be heading home for Christmas, the silver trinkets that seemed to act as decoration began show surface cracks appear on their surfaces making the staff pause in their discussion, while worry seemed to spread across Dumbledore's face. One the trinkets that normally gave out small puffs of white smoke had a relatively large piece fall off itself before the smoke began to change from white to a dark grey, when the smoke did change to its new, stormy colour a large crack appeared that went along its length and another trinket, which resembled a small globe, burst into countless shards of silver.

"Meeting Adjourned!" Dumbledore cried out,

As the staff began to make their way out he called two of the back from leaving, a stern looking woman wearing dark red robes along with a tartan scarf, and a man dressed in all black robes with greasy hair, sallow skin and a hooked nose,

"Severus. Minerva. Come with me."

He made his way over to the fireplace and threw in a hand-full of Floo Powder into the flames, turning them emerald green,

"Arabella Figg's residence!" He called out before disappearing in a flash of green flames, the Potions Master and Transfiguration Mistress followed his example.

In a small and empty bungalow in Surrey, England, the fireplace burst to life with green flames from which Dumbledore stepped out of followed closely by the two staff members, before they could get their bearings, the Headmaster had made his way out of the bungalow and was quickly making his way down the street, forcing them to jog to keep up,

"Albus what on earth is the matter?" Minerva McGonagall asked Dumbledore,

"It's Harry. Something's wrong with him." Dumbledore answered as he pointed his wand at house number 4 forcing the door open allowing him to enter the house,

"And what, pray tell, could be wrong with Potter Prince? Apart from the obvious, of course." Severus Snape asked in snide voice,

Ignoring the comments from the Potions Master, Dumbledore cast a quick non-verbal spell that reveal the location of any humans within a certain vicinity, depending on the amount of magical power put into the spell, from the tip of his wand a grey smoke like substance formed that shifted until it formed the shape of the number three.

"Shit." Dumbledore cursed under his breath, yet was still clear enough for the two professors to hear catching them by surprise. In the years that they had each known him neither professor had heard Dumbledore openly swear before, not even on the occasions that he had fought Voldemort during the last war. For something to make him swear must be something incredibly bad. Dumbledore himself meanwhile was starting to feel his extensive age as he slumped down in the arm-chain the living room, an expression of true dread on his face.

"Headmaster, what is the problem?" Snape enquired with non of his usual snide or sarcasm,

Dumbledore answered him in a numb and subdued voice,

"The night that I left Harry here, after Minerva and Hagrid left, I remembered how proud James and Lily were of Harry's accidental magic, granted the level of control he seemed to display indicated that it was anything but accidental, I thought that if I was to leave him there then it would only be a short matter of time before the Ministry had to come in to deal with the neighbours seeing his magic which would reveal Harry's location, I couldn't risk that knowledge getting out for Harry's sake."

When he stopped talking an uncomfortable silence descended upon the three magic users as the old man let out an audible sigh, suddenly McGonagall's eyes widened in realisation before narrowing in anger,

"What did you do?" She hissed at the Headmaster,

He looked at her with tired eyes,

"I used an old binding spell to restrict his use of magic."

"And why is that such a bad thing?" Snape asked him,

"Because I used the Eubracum Binding Spell." He answered

The other two professors looked at each other to see if either of them knew what Dumbledore was referring to and seeing that neither of them knew what Dumbledore was referring to they soon looked towards the old man again,

"Explain." McGonagall Barked at him,

"The Eubracum Binding Spell was developed in the Celtic settlement of Eubracum shortly after the Roman occupation of Britain, it was developed so that the parents of magically powerful children could keep them hidden from the Roman wizards who would have taken the children away from the parents to be brought up as loyal to the empire. When the wizards started to go into hiding during the medieval period the spell started to be used more widely in order to help hide ourselves from the muggles."

"I sense a 'but' coming Headmaster." Snape said dryly,

"Indeed. But it was only when it started being widely used across most of Europe that it mostly unknown flaws became apparent. You see while the parents were able to prevent the children from doing most accidental magic they couldn't stop it all, granted only the most powerful of children were able to do any accidental magic when it was applied, also the parents themselves could be careless from time to time, meaning that they could still be discovered by the muggles and so while it wouldn't be uncommon for parents to be killed while the children escaped, and due to usual age that the Spell was applied many of them didn't know that it was on them an so continued with their lives with it still affecting them, the spell was developed to be difficult to find so only the best healers and curse breakers would be able to locate it let alone remove it, some even theorise that it even affected their children as well, restricting their abilities later on, granted there's no evidence for this. Yet, that wasn't the worst of it, while the Spell made it painful for the child to use magic, the biggest problem with the spell, one I had hoped would not come into play, was that if the child was put in a situation of true emotional trauma, the kind found in a life or death situation, then in those rare situations they could forcibly break the spell unleashing all of that contained magic, amplified, in one explosive blast destroying everything and everyone around them as well as breaking all but the strongest tracking and monitoring spells, the survival rate of such an experience was lower that one in hundred, unless it can be fixed in time to stop the spell from breaking."

When Dumbledore told the two Professors the survival rate McGonagall's knees almost gave way forcing her to sit down on the sofa and Snape's already pale skin turned ashen,

"Why on earth would you use such a dangerous spell on the child Albus?" McGonagall asked in a shocked voice,

The tired old man sighed before replying,

"Although other and safer versions of the spell were developed none of them were anywhere near as powerful and with Harry having such strong magic as a baby I couldn't take the risk of the Ministry investigating or sympathisers of the Death Eaters cause may have tried to cause him harm if that information was then leaked to them, however I never thought that Harry would be put into a situation where the spell would be forcibly broken."

Both Snape and McGonagall was stunned into silence, before either of them could comment however the Headmaster dropped another bombshell on them,

"There's more though, of those children that did survive the experience nearly all of them were eventually revealed to have developed some form of insanity, whether or not it was from the experiences that caused it or the spell itself breaking was debateable."

'There's also no telling what effect Tom's soul shard will have on the boy either.' He thought to himself before continuing after allowing the two professors to process the information,

"Of those that remained completely sane, there were so few that I could count them on one hand."

"So if the boy survives we'll be left with little more than a gibbering vegetable!" Snape practically snarled,

"I hope not Severus. The odds of that are low; it is far more likely that if his sanity is affected then it will be some form of psychosis." He responded sadly,

"Is there any way to tell if the wee lad is alive Albus?" McGonagall growled out, her accent slipping out due to her barely contained anger,

Nodding Dumbledore reached into the neckline of his robes and pulled out a silver amulet. It was circular in shape and had numerous runes etched into it, all of the surrounding a white pearl in the centre of it,

"This is the strongest monitoring device I have that is attuned to Harry. So long as the pearl remains white Harry will still be alive, if it turns black however…" He trailed off unable to finish the sentence,

"Then you had better pray that it stays white then and that if we find the child that he has managed to retain his sanity or I'll reveal exactly what you've done to the world before killing you myself. What you've done is unforgivable." McGonagall said in a cold tone,

"And I would indeed let you Minerva, but I do wonder why you won't reveal what has happened anyway, it could help us find him sooner."

"It could, but did you not say that the reason you did this in the first place was to keep him hidden from those that supported the Dark Lord? If we were to reveal that he was missing it could trigger a potentially global manhunt, this would be a double edged sword, while there are many that would try to find him for his own safety, there are those that would try finding him for less scrupulous means and I'm not just referring to the followers of You-Know-Who, kidnappers, bounty hunters and various other dark wizards as well would be looking for him. While I would prefer to have search parties out looking for him the risk at the moment is too great. When the time comes for Hogwarts to send out his acceptance letter we will be able to find him, I will try to alter his letter so that he will receive the standard Muggleborn acceptance letter so that he will show up for the orientation session that I give to the Muggleborns. It's unfortunate but it seems that this will be our best course of action." McGonagall explained in a cold yet resigned tone,

Her plan caught both of the men by surprise due to them both expecting her to demand to be in charge the search parties herself and although he would never admit it, Snape found the plan itself to be quite Slytherin, in terms of cunning and ambition, and was surprised further that it came from the head of Gryffindor who would have normally gone along with Dumbledore,

"I have to agree that my college's plan does have merit and would seem to be the best course of action we can take based on the information we have available." Snape said in a calm tone of voice,

Reluctantly Dumbledore nodded his head in agreement, as the three magic users made their ways out of the house he used his wand to remove any trace that they were there before using the Floo at Mrs Figg's home to get back to Hogwarts.

Back in Gotham, Harry groaned as he tried to pick himself up from the glass covered floor, the bottles had been mostly useless against his uncle who had swatted them out of the air before crushing them under-foot, the few scratches he had managed to inflict on his uncle went ignored due to his drunken rage and adrenaline overriding his pain receptors. Petunia had tried to stop Vernon but was rendered unconscious when he threw her to the floor and she hit her head on it, all the while Dudley was cowering in a corner, leaving Harry vulnerable to Vernon's fury.

As Harry struggled to pick himself up Vernon removed his belt from around his waist, after tugging it to test its strength he brought it down upon Harry's back, the heavy buckle tearing of parts of his clothes exposing and scratching his undernourished form beneath them and making the child gasp out in pain, he raised his hand and the belt above his head before bringing it down once more, this time the buckle tore into the flesh of the boy leaving him with a bloody and gapping gash that reached from his right shoulder down to his left hip. The excruciating pain of his new injury and the ever increasing amount of pain from his use of his magic caused him to scream out in agony for a few seconds before it dissolved into quiet whimpers, brought on by both the pain and the fear he was experiencing, unaware of his surroundings he didn't notice his Vernon raise his foot until it was too late and he stomped upon his already injured back, the already near unbearable pain that the boy was experiencing was made much worse by the weight that his uncle was slowly increasing on his injury, when he felt as if his back was going to snap he felt his magic suddenly run wild as if something had stopped restricting it, with no time for his body to adapt to the sudden influx of magic it caused him all that much more pain for him sending him into convulsions and rendering him unable to think, surprised by what was happening Vernon lifted his foot of the boy in time to actually see magic begin to pour out of the boy in the form of clear pale blue energy. A tendril of the magical energy turned back on itself towards the convulsing child and ran itself along the gash on his back cauterizing the injury just enough to stop the bleeding and producing the smell of burning flesh. Before Vernon could do anything to the boy in an attempt to stop the magic, it started to violently swirl around the boy ripping into the walls and floor of the room before it lifted the boy into the air and turned him around so that his back was now facing the floor, while the boy was in the air Petunia had awoken from her unconsciousness and saw what was happening, despite being more scared than any other time in her life she made her way over to her son in the corner and held him while doing her best to shield him from the raw power that had been unleashed. As the magic continued to wrap itself around the boy the magic began to steadily change from a pale blue to a darker shade, Vernon in his desperation to stop whatever was happening tried to approach the boy but before he could get close a tendril lashed out at him shallowly slicing into his chest, the pain of which brought him to his knees with a pain filled scream, when he looked at the injury he saw that the tissue around the injury had become blackened like burnt meat, it was then that he vaguely noticed that whatever the magic seemed to touch had similar reactions, as if they had been exposed to an extremely hot heat source but only if touched by the magic, recognising the danger he made his way over to his family stood in front of them to try and shield them from the magic. As he did so the magic became denser and denser in colour until it was no longer transparent and was closer to black than it was to blue, it also seemed to form a more and more refined shape until the child was suspended and surrounded by a sphere of the magic. Petunia seeing that the magic was no longer as volatile began to move herself and Dudley towards the door with Vernon staying between them and the sphere the whole while, unfortunately the last thing the Dursleys saw was the sphere as it seemed to exploded outwards before they were sent into oblivion.

On the streets outside the hotel the various residents of Gotham were going about their business when suddenly the one of the floors of the hotel seemed to explode outwards in a wave of seemingly black energy, frightening all and even sending some into a panic, fortunately some had the presence of mind to call the necessary authorities.

Within hours the streets were lined with the police, fire department and paramedics, as well as various media reporters. As the people inside the hotel were evacuated the fire department set about trying to combat the fires that had broken out on the floor where the explosion was reported, with forensics on standby ready to begin investigating once the building was deemed safe. Leading the investigation was Commissioner Gordon,

"What can you tell me so far?" He asked one of the police officers that was first to arrive at the scene,

The officer looked over their notes before answering,

"Not much so far. So far we've had no survivors from the ninth floor which is where multiple witnesses have said is where the explosion originated, most of the bodies that have been recovered from that floor will probably require dental records and/or DNA in order to be able to accurately identify them due to the severity of the burn damage. The unusual thing though is that the witnesses have all said the explosion was made up of black energy."

"Black energy?"

"Yeah, black energy, you don't think that it's some new villain trying to make their mark or something sir?" the officer asked nervously,

"It's too early to tell, for now we'll continue the investigation."

While the emergency services were rushed off of their feet trying to treat the injured and investigate what had happened, no one noticed the small child make his way out of one of the fire escapes before limping into the dark of Gotham's alleyways.

Author's Notes:

Well here it is, the first chapter of my re-write hopefully it's better than the first one. I apologise that it took so long but hope you have enjoyed reading it.

"Feel free to review and constructive criticism is always welcome."