I don't own Harry Potter.

Any names in italics are the projection type things.

Chapter 5 Memories

Harry found the memory with the youngest projection of himself on the front doorstep and hoped no one else had noticed. He made his way back to the living room with quick, nervous steps. He really didn't think his parents, grandparents and honorary uncles would react well to his home life. Oh well; it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it. Sigh.

Lily sat in her living room with James Potter, something she had always thought was impossible. He also wasn't being a prat, another thing she hadn't thought was possible. The thing that really took the cake, though, was that Sirius Black, notorious prankster, actually had a reason for the fact that he acted like a two year old.

All of this was mind boggling, but none of it was even close to the strangest thing that had happened that day. That title defiantly had to go to her future son, who had showed up at her house randomly in the middle of the summer. Yes, this was going down in history as the oddest day she had ever had. And to think it had been perfectly normal when she woke up.

She was distracted from her thoughts by said son reentering the room, looking very nervous and dejected. Her heart immediately went out to the little boy. This surprised her because she had never thought she could feel anything but hate for something that was part of James Potter.

She didn't even bother to pause and consider what she was doing before she swooped down and picked Harry up. She ran her free had through his hair soothingly as the other wrapped around his waist.

Surprise ran through his emerald eyes for a second before it was replaced by such joy that Lily was almost stunned. She thought Potter was right (for once) and that their son might not have grown up in the best conditions. Why else would he look so surprised and happy to be shown the small bit of affection she had given him?

"Did you find it?" her mother asked softly, as afraid to spook the boy or interrupt something private.

Harry gave a small nod. "It's on the doorstep," he replied.

The whole family got up and trooped out of the room to the door. As soon as they were all out on the front lawn the 3D images started moving.

Lily watched as the front door was opened by a much older version of her sister who had milk bottles in her hands. Petunia suddenly shrieked as she spotted the small bundle of blankets right in front of her. She swooped down and snatched the bundle before running back into the house, glancing behind her the whole way as though she was afraid someone was watching.

"Vernon!" she called loudly as the real version of herself and the rest of the group followed her into the house. "Vernon get down here!"

The real version of Vernon seemed surprised at how rude she was.

"What!" Vernon grunted as he made his way thunderously down the stairs.

"That's not me, is it?" real Vernon asked horrified. He probably couldn't imagine becoming that fat. Honestly Lily would probably kill herself before she allowed herself to get that much out of shape. Not that she was suicidal by any means, but still.

Petunia violently tore a letter out of the bundle (which started crying) and roughly tore it open. She scanned the letter's contents for a few seconds, her face becoming more stormy the longer she read. As soon as Vernon entered the room she thrust the letter at him with the instruction "Read," in a tight voice.

Vernon looked affronted, but his 3D counterpart simply grunted and scanned the letter.

"What do you want to do with him?" he asked. He looked down at the bundle and caught the baby's eye. His face softened and he softly picked up the still screaming bundle. He gently shushed baby Harry with soothing noises and gestures.

Harry's face went to absolute shock, his eyes opened as wide as they would go. Uncle Vernon had actually cared! It didn't matter that it had been for maybe five minutes right after Harry had arrived; just the fact that he cared in any sense at any time was stunning to Harry, who had always known him as a heartlessly cruel man.

Petunia slapped Vernon and Vernon gave a cry of anger. "Don't comfort the little freak!" Petunia yelled at him. "Throw the thing in the closet!"

The group of people watching gave cries of outrage. Harry winced, having heard the sentence many times and knowing nothing good ever came out of it. Lily was incensed at the small indication that Harry had heard this sentence before, but before she could say anything the projections continued.

"But, Tunie," Vernon tried, "he's just a baby, we can't be sure he's going to be….freakish, like his parents."

Petunia gave him a look. "That's how these things work Vernon. If the parents are freakish then the child will be freakish. Now go put it in the cupboard."

They watched as Vernon reluctantly walked out of the room and to the cupboard under the stairs.

"You were the one who insisted on that cupboard?" Harry asked in a very hurt whisper. "That's why I lived in that thing for ten years!" His face was set in an uncharacteristically ugly scowl. "I can't believe you." His voice was almost sad and disappointed.

Petunia turned to him with an ugly expression on her face. "Don't talk to me like that you little freak. I would've thought you would learn better as you got older. I guess all freaks are stupid though."

Lily stared at her sister in stunned betrayal. She had known Petunia didn't like her, but she had never thought it would run this deep.

A hand suddenly swung out of no where towards Harry, who flinched. The hand was caught in mid air just as Lily was giving a cry of surprise and twisting away.

She looked up to see that her father had her sister's hand in a tight grip and was speaking very sternly in her ear. Petunia's eyes got wide and scared. As soon as their father let go of her hand she scampered away up the stairs.

Brian Evans was practically steaming from anger; anyone could tell with a simple glance at him.

"I apologize for her again. I swear she will not be getting away with this, but now does not seem to be the best time," he said stiffly. Everyone else nodded, throwing anxious glances at Harry.

"Do you know where the next one is?" Sirius asked Harry. The little boy shook his head.

"I didn't look for it before. I think I saw another really small looking version of myself in the kitchen though," he added quietly.

Sure enough, when the family moved into the kitchen there were various projections all around the room. The youngest was a three year old Harry, standing by the stove and looking rather confused. He looked hardly bigger then in the last scene, but he seemed to be in much worse shape. His clothes were rather torn up with small spots of what looked like rust in a few places.

Petunia stood next to him with a severe and faintly annoyed expression.

The projections started moving .

"You need to start earning your keep boy, and Vernon and I have found the perfect way for you to do it," Petunia informed the small boy nastily.

She thrust a heavy pan into the tiny boy's hands rather more forcefully then was needed.

"Watch me closely and follow what I do. If you can't do it then can forget about food for the next week," Petunia instructed nastily.

Harry's eyes widen considerably in panic. Lily caught Harry wincing and wondered at it. Her son (her son) ad been starved by her own sister! Someone was going to pay. Come to think of it, whoever put her son with her deranged sister was going to pay too.

The rest of the family was also not used to this kind of treatment towards their youngest and newest member, and was suitably outraged.

James seemed distraught and had wrapped an arm around Lily's waist. Lily wasn't complaining (for the first time in her life) because James didn't seem at all interested in the fact that he was touching her. He didn't even seem to notice. He was completely wrapped up in their son, running a hand through his hair and just generally comforting the poor child. Who was taking more comfort from it was hard to tell; James seemed to need the contact as much as Harry did.

Not that Lily blamed him, of course. There was no way come Hell or high water that she would let go of her son at this moment in time.

She knew both of them were going to have to sit down and talk sometime about how they were going to handle this, but right now wasn't the time to bring it.

"Yes Aunt Petunia," the voice of the little Harry brought them all back from their angered states enough to pay attention again.

Petunia then proceeded to try to teach Harry to cook.

"Excuse me," Lily said in a voice of feigned calm, "I must be mistaken; I thought I just saw Petunia trying to teach you to cook."

"And failing," Harry said laughingly. "I'd forgotten I was ever that bad," he said as his younger self managed to burn water. This seemed to be a surprisingly easy feat for the three year old.

"What do you mean 'used to be'?" James asked. "She appears to be getting frustrated; surely she'll leave you alone and not try again."

"It isn't appropriate for children so young to be doing any house work beyond making their own beds," James's mother added.

"Oh she did leave me alone after I managed to pretty much ruin dinner. That doesn't mean she didn't try again the next day. And the one after. And the one after that. And every day until I finally managed to cook something edible. And then she had me cooking every meal until I was almost eleven," Harry answered.

"You stupid boy!" Petunia yelled, smacking the three year old around the head. "You just ruined your Uncle's dinner! Go to your cupboard!" she screeched.

The tiny boy whimpered and ran out the room, only to vanish at the doorway.

Outrage filled Lily. Her own sister had treated her son this way? And her own son had had to deal with it? And he hadn't come out a complete bastard? Lily could freely admit that if she had been raised that way she would not have turned out as well as her son seemed to have.

"If she was cooking something that needed to be eaten why did she have a three year old do it?" Rose asked, outraged. Where had she gone wrong with her first born?

"I quite honestly think Uncle Vernon told her to give him an excuse to punish me. I don't know why though; he never needed one as I got older," Harry answered nonchalantly, as though he had not just watched his three year old self get slapped around the head. Lily noticed that he did look rather pale, though. She wondered if it had anything to do with his uncle.

Said uncle was looking utterly and completely shocked. "But…but I wouldn't do something like that, would I?" he asked unsurely. He looked somewhat devastated.

"Are you kidding me?" Harry snorted. "I used to think maybe you were put on earth by the devil to torment me for a terrible crime I had committed in a past life or something. There was just no way a human could be that cruel and heartless." His eyes took a vacant look that Lily didn't like.

Vernon hung his head in what seemed like shame, and the family moved to the next projection.

This one showed a tiny boy who looked the same age as the last one.

"I thought you said there was one for every year you were alive?" Remus half questioned.

"I did," Harry said, throwing Remus an odd look.

"Then why is this one still three?" Sirius asked.

"That one's four," Harry said, somewhat indignantly.

"Dude, do you grow at all?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Obviously, I'm bigger now then I was then," Harry explained with a grin in an overly patient voice.

"Just barely though," James said darkly. Their son could do nothing more then shrug, not being able to deny the truth in that statement.

And so they watched on. Watched trough years of horrible physical and mental abuse.

Harry flinched every time a particularly horrible insult flew from his aunt, uncle, or cousin.

They watched through his first Hogwarts letter and his blowing up of "Aunt" Marge. There were roars of outrage from all present at the insults spewing from the horrible woman's mouth.

They watched his uncle wish for him to receive the death penalty. At this point Vernon excused himself to throw up and then go home. He asked Brian to tell Petunia that he wouldn't be back; he didn't like what she turned him into.

The final memory was of Harry departing the house for the last time at seventeen years old.

The last memory fell silent and faded away, leaving them in stunned and horrified silence.

Harry could only wait for the fall out he was sure would soon occur.

I'm sorry this took so long, but I got behind in my school. I got sick and literally slept for a week. That put me a week behind in school.

So; Vernon. I was originally going to have Petunia putting him under a compulsion potion, but I decided against it. It didn't fit with cannon. But I still wanted him to be punished, so I made him an actual human being who is disgusted by what his future self did to an innocent child.

Petunia's punishment was to lose the man she had meant to marry. Plus I doubt her father will be exactly pleased, not to mention her sister. I'm currently trying to find a suitable punishment for her. I was thinking her father should disown her and leave her on the streets, but I think that's kind of extreme for what she's done in the current time. Ideas are welcome.

I'm so grateful for all the wonderful support in this story. I really do love it myself. That's how I always tell if I wrote something well. I write it, wait a few days, and then read it again. If I wrote it well it will hold my attention and when I get to the end I'll be going, "wait, that's it?"

This wasn't my favorite chapter. I had some trouble writing it, so any comments would be doubly appreciated.