Harry Potter and the Destruction of a Home

6

The next morning Harry was the first to awaken. He didn't recognise where he was and felt his body stiffen upon realising that he was not in Potter Manor. Hearing footsteps outside, he scrambled into the furthest corner from the door, where he curled up into a ball, pressed up against the wall, that protected his vital organs and broken arm.

The door creaked as it was pushed open from the other side, allowing a shadow to spill out onto the floor. It had a long pointy nose and looked to be twice the height of a man. Harry felt his heart race. The shadow was coming towards him. It's long scaly fingers were reaching out towards him. He couldn't breathe. He had been in this position so many times before that he knew he was being irrational. His father wouldn't leave him alone, in fact it would be worse. He could almost feel the sting of the belt on his back. Hearing a grunt of pain, his eyes flicked up and saw that the shadow had been thrown across the room. Blinking back the tears that threatened to fall, Harry looked around the room. He tensed as he saw the man who had allowed them entry the night prior, crumpled next to the shadow. He wasn't home - he remembered. He was safe.

"Good morning Harry, is Charlie up yet?" The man asked.

"Yeah, I'm here," Charlie called, "Can you turn the light on?"

William turned on the light, causing the boys to blink as their eyes adjusted to the light. "Breakfast is ready."

Charlie and Harry followed William as he turned to lead them towards the kitchen for their meal. When they arrived, William introduced them and told them to sit somewhere. After breakfast the other kids left for school leaving Charlie and Harry alone with William and the other worker - Chloe.

"You have a busy day today boys. First we will be spending the morning doing schoolwork and then after lunch we'll be finding some clothes that fit you. Okay?" Chloe told them. Harry nodded while Charlie made an affirmative sound in his throat. "Literacy or maths first?" She asked.

"Literacy?" Charlie asked,

"Writing," Harry whispered,

"Alright then, Harry here is some paper. Practice your writing. Charlie can you read this book to me?"

While Harry wrote, Charlie stuttered his way through the first half of a book with help from Chloe. After ninety minutes they stopped for a drink before the boys swapped over. Harry ended up reading 'The Witches' by Roald Dahl in a whisper without making any errors. When Harry reached halfway through the book the twins were each handed a page of simple addition and subtraction problems to solve before being left alone. Within a few minutes Charlie was bored of the work. He pinched and prodded his twin to entertain himself. Harry was finished soon after Charlie started hurting him. Charlie seeing his brother was finished, pushed him as hard as he could off the chair. The younger boy, startled, fell backwards, where he hit his head hard against the floor, knocking him unconscious. This served the purpose of creating a large bang, which alerted Chloe and William to the fact that something was wrong.

When they arrived in the kitchen, where the twins had been left, they found Charlie crying silently next to his brother who was unconscious and bleeding. With practiced ease Chloe dialled the emergency number - 999 - while William bend down to check Harry was alive.

When the ambulance arrived, bringing with it a crew of paramedics, they carefully placed the unconscious boy on a stretcher where they applied head and neck braces. Harry was rushed into the nearest children's hospital, were he was quickly checked for a cause of his unconsciousness other then his head wound. Finding nothing, they treated the head wound and placed him in a bed where he would be closely monitored.

Three days later Harry was still unconscious and Charlie had made friends with most of the orphanage, turning them against his twin. He had been heavily questioned by William, Chloe and Hetty but they had been unable to discover how Harry had come to fall. Charlie was acting the concerned brother, which caused him to remain unaccused by the rest of the orphanage. In reality, while it seemed he missed his twin, he was really missing his parents and would do anything to get back to them.

* * *

In the hospital, Harry groaned pulling the attention of the doctor of the ward in his direction. "Hello Harry, I'm Doctor Grey and I'm the doctor of this ward. How are you feeling?"

"Good, how are you?"

"I'm fine thank you, are you feeling at all dizzy, tired or sick?"

"No, I'm fine." Harry said as he sat up in his bed, "When can I leave?"

"You will be under observation for the next 12 hours and you can leave after that."

"Thank you. What day is it?"

"Sunday."

Harry spent the rest of the day reading and when Chloe finally arrived to take him back, he was ready to be released. When they got back, Harry was given some spaghetti bolognese for dinner before being sent straight upstairs to bed so he would have energy for school the next day.