July 28th 1984

Small hands played with a lump of cloth; a misshapen form of grey which had numerous holes and stains. Small digits smoothed out the cloth on the floor in an attempt to figure out what it had been before. Was it just a rag or had it been something else once?

A sock. That was what Harry decided it had to have been, even if it hardly could be wearable any longer. If he just smooth this bit out and tilted his head slightly to the left, he could just see a pattern of what looked like...cats! That's it! It had to have been a sock with a cat print on it. With that mystery solved, the young boy pulled out another piece of cloth from the discarded bin to examine.

As Harry worked through another piece of cloth (a towel, it had to be), his young mind wandered to his birthday. He hoped that if he did really good at the job that his Aunt Petunia had told him to do, then maybe she would make him something for his birthday. Anything given to him as a present really would be a miracle to the young boy, as he could never remember a day in which his birth had been celebrated. To be mocked, teased, and insulted about his birth was common; but to have someone celebrate him, well... Harry would be beside himself.

Pulling out a purple blob of fabric went to working out what in the world it could be. As he laid it flat on the floor and pulled and tugged at the sides, he was starting to figure out what it was. It was large, humungous even to the smaller boy, and had four great big round holes in it. But what was it? If he just moved this bit and rearranged... there! A shirt! It was one of Dudley's old shirts, except it was ripped and stained in many places so it was placed in the garbage pile.

His Aunt Petunia had wanted him to go through all the cloth in the rag bin and make sure it was really rags, and not lost socks or misplaced mittens. Not a hard job in the slightest, but she had also demanded total and utter silence. That was a bit harder for a three year old, but Harry knew not to disobey his Aunty or Uncle because if he did...it was back in the cupboard.

As he picked up another piece of cloth, this time green and shredded, a silent shudder rocked his tiny frame. He hated the cupboard, even if he slept there and it was because it was so dark and dusty. And the spiders! Ah, the very thought of those eight legged beasts made him afraid. But that was why he always tried his hardest at whatever his Aunty or Uncle asked, because then maybe it wouldn't be back to the cupboard.

As he placed the cloth that turned out to really just be a rag in the pile to be thrown away, a piece of unusual fabric caught his eye. It was tucked way in the bottom of the bin, but it didn't look old. And it was then that Harry decided that he wanted to figure out what that cloth was; it was a new mystery for his ever curious mind to try to conquer.

Reaching down in the bin, Harry snagged his next mystery and with childlike amusement whipped the cloth out with a grand flourish. But what he was holding puzzled the young boy because it didn't look like a sock, shirt or towel. What was it?

Spreading out the small, silky piece of cloth Harry took a moment to study what he was looking at. It was really small, and it was just really a... what was that shape again... a... Triangle! Yeah, it was a triangle of black lacy fabric that was connected to some kind of string with a hot pink bow in the back. But what kind of clothing looked like that? It looks more like a toy he had seen in Dudley's room called a sling shot. But Dudley didn't have one that looked like that exactly, or had a pink bow for that matter. Maybe it was a girls sling shot.

But if it was a sling shot then it wouldn't go in the rag bin, so where would it go? Maybe Aunt Petunia would know...

"Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked shyly, hoping that he wasn't going to get in trouble for breaking the silence rule.

"What?" She snapped as she turned to glare at him, making him back up a bit but still held up the sling shot for her to see.

"Where do I put the girls' slingshot?" He asked softly, a bit unnerved with how fast her face had lost its color.

"G...girls sling...slingshot?" She stammered eyes fixated on the black fabric in his little hands. After a few moments of dead silence, her face suddenly twisted in anger and gained back its color and then some as she went as red as a lobster. Reaching forward, she ripped the cloth for his hands and then roughly picked the little boy up and stormed down the stairs. Opening the door to Harrys closet, she placed him down on his bed.

"Stay here" she shot out before she shut the door again. Harry was shaking, what had he done? Was he not supposed to ask about the girls' slingshot?

From where Harry sat he could hear his Aunty Petunia Shouting at Dudley to get a few of his toys together and pack a bag. Why did Dudley have to pack a bag Harry wondered, were they going somewhere?

After a few more words were muttered and doors were slammed shut ; the sound of Uncle Vernon's' SUV being parked in the driveway echoed through the house. And then there was silence. Aunt Petunia had stopped muttering and crying, she had become deathly quiet. Like a predator stalking her prey, just waiting for the best moment to pounce...

Heavy footsteps could be heard coming up the walk way, and Harry found himself glued to the crack in the door, wanting to see what was going to happen next. The steps creaked under Uncle Vernon's weight as he ascended the front porch steps, the door handle jiggled as he slid his key in the lock and slowly opened the door...

"What in the world have you done you done you DIRTY, FILTHY, CHEATING BASTARD?" Aunt Petunia screeched as soon as Uncle Vernon had stepped in the door. From where Harry was looking through the crack in the door, he could see that his Uncles face was frozen in a look of total and utter surprise.

"B-but Pet, what are you tal-talking about?" He managed to stutter out to his fuming wife, who in responce just held up the cloth Harry had found so he could see it. If it was possible, Uncle Vernon's face got even paler when presented with the incriminating cloth.

"This is what i am talkin about, husband dearest. This tiny piece of cloth that your darling nephew found hidden in the rag bin tells quite a story doesn't it?" Aunt Petunia asked in a calm, sickeninglly sweet voice. When she mentioned Harry's name, Uncle Vernon shot a quick nasy glare at the cupboard before turning back to his raging wife. "So who was she, huh? Was she trying to get higher in the company, or was it for a pay raise? And what made you think i wouldn't find out, huh?"

"No Pet, it wasn't..."

"How could you do this to me? I have given you my life, given you a son... hell i gave you everything i had for this marriage to work! How could you just throw that back in my face like like i was just a piece of trash?" Her voice was slowly but steadily raising as she got more and more wound up. Her fists were shaking, clutched at her sides; and if Harry squinted really hard he thought he could even see a vein in her long neck pulsating. No one had noticed that the incriminating garment had fallen to the floor in the heat of the argument, no one that is except Harry. As the little lacy black triangle wth a pink bow laid innocently on the hardwood floor, Harry began to realize that he really wished that he had never found that piece of cloth in the rag bin.

"No, honestly Pet I don't..."

"Do not Pet me! I am through! I am not going to let you waste anymore of my life on your cheating, unfaithful ass. Dudley!" As soon as she called, Harry's cousin quickly waddled towards his mother from behind the chair he had been hiding behind. As soon as he was within reach of her, Petunia grabbed his arm and quickly led him out of the house and towards their second car. As she walked away and got in the car which she had already packed, she snarled one last comment out her window. "This will be the last you ever see of me Vernon, and may you rot in hell! " `

And with that she and Dudley were gone. A pin drop could be heard from within that house, the last two occupants of number four Private drive stood/sat in stoney silence. One couldn`t believe she figured it out and had the nerve to leave him, while the other wondered why she hadn`t taken him with her. Time seemed to drag as both of them tried to wrap their minds arrounf what had just happened. And with each second that passed, Uncle Vernon`s face got redder and redder, until he lost it and whipped around to glare at the cupboard that contained his nephew.

`Boy this is your fault!`

Yep, Harry thought as his Uncle started to stalk towards his cupboard, he really, really wished he had never even found that piece of cloth. As he tried to press himslef into the wall behind him, the only thing he could think of before the closet dor was riped open was: stupid girls`slingshot.

hey guys, this is my first chapter for this story. for legal purposes i have to make a note that shouldn't be needed, but in any case: I do not own Harry Potter. That is to say that it is not mine, i do make money from this...

Anyway, with that out of the way, this story is going to get AU fast. i'll try to keep the updates short but there are no promises, university has taken over my life and free time...

- Payton Hale