There is so much Dark HP fanfic on here that I feel get's close to the mark of what I really want to read but falls just short that I thought I'd give it a stab myself. Canon up to the point of the start of chapter 2 of Book 1. Trying for a more realistic reaction to the abuse suffered by Harry at the hands of the Dursleys and perhaps a truer (as I see it) interpretation of the nature of Harry as a Horcrux. I'm not taking any great liberties with the story or altering any of the stuff prior to where my story starts.

All of the characters except for my own handful of originals, as well as locations, names, titles etc are and remain the property of JKR and I hope you like it. Review please, this might well be a LONG work in progress.

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We start off in Chapter 2 of HP1 which I have included for the sake of completeness.

"Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I ... don't ... want ... him ... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

Just then, the doorbell rang-"Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically-and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy-any funny business, anything at all-and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly..."

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have carried him up, but couldn't understand how that could be.

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There is now a brief interlude where my story takes over.

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Then there were the snakes. Harry liked snakes because they were friendly and would talk to him whenever he needed to run away from the Dursley's for a few hours. They seemed drawn to him to the extent that some scientists and television people had turned up a few years ago and made a great deal over how the 'population-density' of both native and foreign snakes was higher within a few miles of Privet Drive than anywhere else in the country. Harry had been locked in his cupboard when all the excitement was going on but was let out when the television vans. That night he was 'treated' to watching the news reports where he saw Uncle Vernon being interviewed about the 'Serpent Menace' as he called it, wearing his best suit and his absurd moustache waxed into curls. Aunt Petunia and Dudley had been there too, Petunia looking like a preening bird in a canary yellow-sundress and Dudley wearing a tuxedo and a smile that was more of a grimace which looked like it was carved into his paunchy face.

The Dursley's hated snakes, hated pretty much everything that Harry liked and Vernon instructed that any snakes found in the garden should be killed on sight. Dudley took to this chore with uncommon vigour and enthusiasm for something that required him to leave the couch which forced Harry to get up early every morning to go and warn any newcomers that it wasn't safe. They usually obeyed him but from time to time he would find the small, coiled ribbon body of an adder or grass snake in the large grey wheelie bins. Snakes were pretty much the only friends the Boy Who Lived had.

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JKR's story resumes until Hagrid collects Harry from the hut on the island. Then it's all mine.

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Chapter 5: A Den of Friends.

'Hagrid, is there any chance we could pay a visit to my aunt and uncle's house before we go to London?' Harry asked while the countryside whizzed past in blurs of greens, yellows and browns.

'Of course, Harry,' Hagrid replied brightly, 'but whatever do you want from there?'

'I just... want to say goodbye to some friends.' Harry said, reluctant as ever to discuss his few friends.

Hagrid saw the nervous expression on Harry's thin, worried face and didn't press the issue.

The motorcycle hit the road of Privet Drive hard and bounced twice before deciding to stick. The rain that had hammered the hut on the island seemed not to have touched the place and the sun was bright and hot. Hagrid lifted Harry from the sidecar and deposited him on the pavement. 'Right Harry, you be quick now, don't know if you've noticed or not, but I do tend to stick out among the muggles.' He said through his thick beard which had been blown into a mane by the wind.

Harry chuckled, staring up at the giant with admiration then nodded and bolted into the house, using the spare key that Aunt Petunia kept hidden under a small decorative concrete pony that stood next to the front door that looked uncannily like her.

Harry took the small handful of money that he'd manage to secrete away over the summer, hoping it would be enough for his school things. Knowing that it wouldn't he went into the kitchen and clambered onto the counter with agility born of years of running from Dudley and nimbleness from avoiding slaps and objects thrown at his head by Petunia and Vernon. From there he could reach the highest unit and a small cookie jar that belonged to Petunia who believed it and its contents to be a secret. Inside, Harry found a small, tight roll of ten and twenty pound notes. With thoughts only for the last time she had given 'Duddykins' two pork chops and Harry none, he shoved the notes into his pocket.

He jumped down from the counter, pulled open the fridge, grabbing a handful of Dudley's favourite chocolate bars then ran into the garden.

He stopped short before he'd even left the patio.

On the grass, gleaming like short metal tubes, were dozens of snakes.

They were all of different sizes and all perked up at the sight of him.

'Wow!' Harry shouted, skidding to a stop. 'What're you all doing here?'

There were many that he found familiar including the family of adders from the fields nearby and a small cobra who disliked his owner in the adjacent Picket Way and spent most of his time wandering the neighbourhood looking for mice. 'We came to see you, Harry.' He said, rippling forward over his fellows, we became concerned when your denmates stopped you coming to speak with us.'

Harry nodded, 'I'm sorry about that, I was getting letters, you see.'

The cobra, whose name was Salatin waved his head from side to side. 'Letters? You mean the things that other two-legs put through the snake doors in the two-leg doors?'

'Yes, that's it,' Harry said, laughing despite himself. Snakes, it turned out, had a simple system of classification for all creatures in the world: No legs, two legs and four legs. Generally speaking they considered no legs to be snakes, anything with two legs was to be avoided unless sleeping and four legs were food unless significantly bigger than themselves. It was a classification that made a great deal of sense to Harry. 'I've been asked to go to a special school for... for...' the words wouldn't come to him for a few seconds. He swallowed hard, 'for Wizards.'

A short, high chorus went up from a hundred serpentine throats . 'Hogwarts-s-s-s-s.'

Harry started, taken aback. 'How do you know about that?'

A large shape moved among the rows of coiled bodies and a very familiar Boa Constrictor emerged, lifting its huge wedge-shaped head toward Harry.

'We snakes know a lot of things...' it said, drawing its huge length through the piled, weaving body of its fellows. It was larger since Harry had seen it last in the zoo, like being free of its enclosure had let it stretch itself out. Its scales were cleaner and more glossy, giving it a faintly shimmering quality. '... you will go, Harry Potter, son of three parents, you will go to Hogwarts and become great.'

'What do you mean, "Son of three"?' Harry asked, dropping to his haunches.

'That is something for you to learn in your own time, Harry Potter.' the great snake hissed, accompanied by the soft susurrations of the other snakes.

'But I'm scared, what if it's the same there as it is here? What if they just lock me away like the Dursleys?' Harry could feel panic rising up, overwhelming any excitement he'd felt for Hogwarts. Memories of the first time he'd been locked into the cupboard under the stairs after trying to run away flooded him and he lost his balance, dropping hard onto his bottom. 'What... what if...?'

A hot, smooth body wound itself around his torso and a sleek, glossy head appeared in front of his eyes. It was Assanassi, an adder that he had known for several years. 'Be calm, hatchling...' she said softly, 'you will have nothing to fear at Hogwarts for several moons. It is a place of learning and power for one such as yourself; you will be among others of your kind.'

Harry nodded, Assanassi's hot weight around him was comforting. 'Really?'

Assanassi nodded and the movement was mirrored by every snake in the garden. 'You will go and be happy there, you will face challenges, fear and, in time great danger, but you will have friends and help.'

'Friends?' Harry asked. The word was almost alien on his tongue. The snakes were the nearest to friends he'd ever had due to Dudley's hobby of beating up everyone who said more than a few friendly words to Harry.

Assanassi nodded again. 'Two legs friends and...' she paused, turning her head from Harry and spoke to another snake that he couldn't see, 'come, small one.'

There was the faint shushing across the patio followed by a small weight sliding across his left foot. Harry looked down to see a tiny adder, no more than six inches long looking up at him.

'This is Nidhogg, the youngest of my own brood.' Assanassi said, running the tip of her tail under the tiny snakes head. 'He will go with you to the house of the four teachers if you would like, he will care for you if you care for him.'

Harry's eyes lit up, all fear vanishing from his mind in a second. 'Really, truly?'

Assanassi and Nidhogg nodded in unison. 'He is very small, but already wise in the ways of our kind.' the brood mother said as Nidhogg twisted his way up Harry's leg and up under his left sleeve where he coiled himself tightly about his wrist.

Assanassi's smooth face became blurred as tears pricked Harry's vision. 'Thank you...' He said thickly.

'You are most welcome, Harry Potter.' Assanassi said, squeezing his midriff tighter for a moment before sliding back to the rest of her kind.

'You should be leaving, Serpentmouth,' Salatin said, eyes flashing, 'but go with a word of warning: do not be arrogant with your power, that is what bought about the fall of the one that came before you; follow your heart but do not give it away too easily and finally; do not assume that those who also favour the serpent are like yourself in thought or deed. Now go to the great half-blood that bought you here and away.'

Harry, more than a little confused nodded, stood then felt a strange compulsion that he had never imagined before and bowed at the waist to the great bed of snakes and the hundreds of gleaming, glowing eyes that were fixed upon him. They bobbed their heads in return and Harry, stroking Nidhogg still coiled snugly along his thin wrist, bolted back into and out of Number four Privet Drive.

'There y'are Harry, I was beginning to think you'd got lost.' Hagrid said, scooping Harry up and depositing him back into the sidecar.

'Nah, just saying goodbye.' Harry said, settling into his seat.

'Well then, if y'ready, we'll be off.' Hagrid said, showing white teeth through the black bush of his beard as he kicked the motorcycle to life. 'Next stop: Diagon Alley!'

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Right, that's the first bit I've worked on, there are many plans in my noodle for

All the major plot points that happen beyond Harry's control in the first story

And who knows, some events might take place much earlier than they

Did in the JKR books!

Read and review please, don't pull any punches.