Steps Too Far

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own any part of the Harry Potter or Naruto franchises or universes; so all rights belong to J. K. Rowling, Masashi Kishimoto, and affiliated companies.

Rating: M – Violence (child abuse), INCEST, language, and sex-related themes.

Plot: The 'boy' didn't know his name until five years old, didn't know his world was not normal until he attended school. Harry Potter didn't know a lot of things, but once the Dursleys allow him even the slightest freedom in the world the consequences are astronomical in proportion. A story about death, betrayals, darkness, hate, love, and finding oneself no matter the consequences.

Pairing: Harry/F!OC (Sister)

Warnings: INCEST! Just thought I'd reiterate that for all the tosspots that decide to flame because of it, violence (child abuse, neglect, and a torture scene that will have its own warning for those that wish to skip), AU (I thought that'd be clear by now), OOC (also duh)

Initial Notes: Well this is my rewrite of Eye of the Beholder. For those that read this, the original will be finished sometime in the future, however it will be a wee ways away. As for this version… well, it's a lot darker. Harry's abuse affects him hugely, and I've really turned the Dursleys into horrible monsters that do essentially torture him until he's broken at one point.

Harry will be dark and hating for a very long time. He will not get with his sister within weeks, months, or even years of meeting her for the first time. For those that don't like that… bugger, because when it does happen it'll be good, I assure you that it'll be worth the wait… but I'll understand.

This will be a long story, and I won't be skipping shit like I did in the original. Likewise this will not be a simple retelling of the books, and the differences I make at the beginning will have butterfly-effect-like consequences upon the rest of the story, so no long, same-old-same-old repeats of the school years.

I hope you all stick with this story, because while it will be dark and painful for a long time, I think it adds some real depth to the plot by developing the characters and giving them some substance and realism. Likewise, the best things come to those that wait, and when the romance comes it will be very touching.

Cheers for your continued support!

Tags: Light bashing; Lily/James alive; WBWL, wrong boy who lived; VeryDark!Harry; Sharingan!Harry; Incest

Key

§Parseltongue§

'thought'

It was routine.

He would awaken early, one of the few things he had learned quickly during his short life. Despite his limited understanding of the world's concepts it had quickly become apparent to the small child that to do otherwise would simply increase the risk of it ending just as short as it was. Or as short as he was.

The expected sounds came from above him in the darkness, and minutes later, a concept the young boy had only just managed to grasp by listening carefully to the words spoken around him and then looking at the clock, so too did the loud thumping and muffled boisterous laughter as dust rained down upon him while the pounding repeated itself on the step directly above his head.

The spiders that fell into his hair were equally as unsurprising and expected to the boy curled up on the rug laid on the floor. Their painful bites on his scalp as he shook his head to dislodge them only served to wake him further and increase the weakness imbued deep within his frail body.

Suddenly the world turned blinding – the small sliver of light bursting into a ferocious sun from the door. The boy had heard from the television once that the sun was the first light you saw in the morning. Vernon always made the sun come, and the darkness.

He was dragged into his life by the meaty fist, and understood by the tone of the man's voice that his situation was potentially very dire. The man wasn't happy, and even though the boy's understanding of the English language failed him he understood just from the small growl at the end of whatever the man was saying that if he did anything wrong he would only see darkness again – and feel the pain in his stomach and the thumping in his head and the overwhelming thirst, and the pain in his bones would come again.

And it wouldn't leave until Vernon made the sun come up again many times.

After he had cooked the food he left his owners to eat. He knew that he wasn't allowed near them when they ate. He hoped that Petunia would give him a crust today for cooking breakfast so well. It had been a long time since he had had such a filling meal. A glass of water would be nice too. He didn't dare drink from anywhere else lest he was caught.

He struggled to carry the huge basket of washing from his younger owner's room. It smelled bad again, so the boy assumed that he would have to hand wash the brown lump away before he washed it with the rest of his owners' clothes. He remembered that too. Vernon had been very unhappy when he hadn't.

By the time he had finished gathering all the baskets and putting their contents in the wash, after cleaning the smelly lump from Dudley's hamper in the sink, he took a moment to rest. When he didn't rest he usually fell down the stairs leading back up to the kitchen to clean up, and that meant that it took too long and then it would be the darkness again.

The boy shivered involuntarily. He didn't like the darkness. He heard his name, Freak, from the kitchen, so he hurried up the steps – stumbling once but managing to catch himself before any injury could occur. A wave of relief flooded through him as he scurried breathlessly into the kitchen, it was very lucky he hadn't been late because then Vernon would make sure he remembered again.

He heard the words 'clean' and 'useless' and 'freak' and 'Vernon', and nodded before quickly hurrying to put his world back the way it had been when Vernon let him into the light. At the end he waited, head down, twisting his fingers nervously as Petunia narrowed her eyes and inspected all the surfaces.

He knew that he had done something bad when she smirked and called Vernon, but the boy waited like he had been taught. He managed to get a glimpse of a fingerprint on the side of the toaster before Vernon's fork pierced his stomach, and then he felt that familiar white hot pain roar through his body.

He couldn't believe he had forgotten again, and just cried as he was stabbed again before being thrown into the cupboard under the stairs. An almost deafening crack broke through Vernon's screams of anger as the boy collided violently with the wall, and the pain increased before everything went dark again.

H's fading consciousness hoped that Vernon made the sun rise again tomorrow.

Harry didn't like the dark.