Chapter Text
A week has passed since Harry’s arrival. He’s been given his own room. It’s not much just a bed, wardrobe and a desk, but it’s much more than he had in his 6 years. Of course since his relatives abandoned him with nothing Mrs.Barbara gave him pajamas and hygiene products.
Anyway life in the orphanage was nice. Of course all children had chores and work, but their effort was treated better than Harry could have imagined. At the end of the day for their work caregivers give some money(from 1 to 5 pounds) to spend on themselves. It was hard for Harry to accept his reward, but he quickly realised that if he wants to survive he needs everything.
As there are pros there are also cons in his new life. Firstly, stealing. Harry heard from some older kids that stealing is the main skill for them to survive here. It sounds funny because the orphanage is in decent condition, but its rules are strict. They get a new product once a month or even later. You can get food only at the appointed time, if you miss one of the meal times you won't get food. These are a few examples which Harry has already seen.
Second, this institution, as he understood, is supported by the church, so religion. Punishments related to religion, if you are caught breaking the rules, you are forced to pray until you realise what you did wrong, after that you pray for forgiveness. Of course there's lessons about religion and how God is our savior. Harry doesn't understand, never understood how this works. He didn’t understand why God didn't save him or his parents. At least it’s summer and Harry doesn't need to combine school and these lessons
Of course there are more cons but for Harry these were the worst, also including the bullying. It wasn't the problem for him since his cousin and his friends bullied him all the time, but here it seems to be worse. In a week he saw a dozen fights which ended up in blood. Seeing this he learned a valuable lesson, if you want to survive you need to be ready to kill…
***
“Agrh shit.” Harry cursed standing in front of his wardrobe, some shit stole his toothpaste. Yesterday he saw some greedy eyes who looked at his half-full tube. “I need to get some..”. He quietly left the room. It is good that he wakes up at 6:00 when most kids are still asleep, no one will notice him.
“hmm..” Harry walks down the corridor. “Michael has a half tube of paste and he’s a heavy sleeper”.
He stops in front of Michaels room. Harry takes a deep breath, looks around and quietly sneaks into the room. It’s good that all rooms are the same. Harry looks in the wardrobe, nothing, just some clothes. Well I guess he’s smarter, what if.. Harry crouches down and looks under the bed. Bingo, he sees a box.
He quietly tries to take the box when suddenly Michael starts moving. Harry freezes. What, no nononono, just keep quiet, slow your breath. Some seconds later moving stops. Harry wants to exhale in relief, but it’s too early for that.
He reaches to the box and grabs it. Inside were all Michael products and some personal things, but Harry took just a toothpaste. He placed the box back and quietly left.
When he left the room, there was still no one so Harry was safe. He breathed a sigh of relief and ran to his room, his first stealth mission is a success. Hmm, breakfast is at 8:00 so I could go for a little walk.
Harry went to the washroom, brushed teeth, cleaned his face, tried to brush his hair, but it’s too messy with half of a brush so he didn’t bothered and went to the playground.
It was a sunny morning. Harry walked around the playground when he heard something in the bush. He looked at the bush where he saw a small black bird. Harry walked towards. It was a baby crow.
“Hey buddy, how did you get here?” Harry took it in his hands. “You were kicked out of the nest, right?” .He chuckled “We are similar in a way.. We both are abandoned by our families. You don’t look hurt are you?” Harry inspected the bird. “Well I hope you are alright, are you hungry?”. Baby crow looked at him like he understood and squeaked or cawed, but Harry took that as a yes and snuck it to his room.
“Hmm I’ve read a book about birds so I think you're a boy, I hope the book is correct, now what should I name you?” Harry was sitting on the bed, his new friend sitting on his pillow. “Hmm, Jack.. no, umm… maybe Atlas, hm you don’t look like Atlas much. Maybe this would help me” Harry took a book from his nightstand and opened a random page. “Oh Sebastian, side–kick of the villain, they both had a difficult past, but they found each other and took revenge on everyone who hurt them.. heh, so Sebastian it is, maybe in the future we will be like them, not villains of course, but strong, powerful and… free”
20 minutes later
“Okay Seb, I’m going to breakfast, please stay quiet. I’ll bring you some food too” Harry looked at his crow like waiting for him to agree. Sebastian just looked at him. “Okay, see you” Harry said and ran to the dining hall, I need to go faster if I want to be first in line.
At the dining hall there were already some kids, but Harry managed to come second in the line. Today's menu was quite nice: plain oatmeal, one egg, a slice of bread and a cup of black tea with a strange taste. It wasn’t much, but for Harry, from years of malnutrition, it was like gold on the plate.
He quickly sat down and started eating. Harry ate everything except an egg which he left for Seb. When no one was looking Harry quickly rolled it up in a napkin and put it in his pocket. It was good that it wasn’t Harry's day to clean the dining hall after breakfast so he placed his plates at the dirty plates cabinet and went to his room.
He gave Sebastian an egg, played with him for a bit and left to his lessons. It was really boring, so Harry for most of the lesson was drawing for which he was punished with two days of dining hall cleaning.
After a long day, the kids had a couple hours of free time. It was a warm summer so practically everyone went to the playground.
With his punishment Harry forgot about Seb and wanted to go and get him when Michael with his friend cornered him.
“Ey Potter! You know that stealing is bad?”
“What do you mean Michael?”
“Don’t play dumb I know that you stole my toothpaste!”
A crowd started to gather around them. Some were snickering, some were sending worried looks.
“I don’t know why you assume that I stole your things, you are just delusional thinking that I care about your things.”
A crowd gasped. In this orphanage Michael was the one of the strongest and violent ones and Harry just signed his life sentence.
“delusional… huh.” Michael took a step closer. He took long, orange hair for his pocked.“You’re the only one in this orphanage who has long orange hair, you think I’m that stupid?!” Michael roared.
And why I said that. Like I just needed to get beaten up by some bully with anger issues. “Oh I am sorry your highness that your anger issues and intelligence don’t mix up together.”
Everything fell silent, literally everything. It felt like time had stoped.
“what did you said.”
“I said it outloud?” Harry now felt panic rising.
“WHAT DID YOU SAID WORM!??” Michael was red from anger.
Harry knew that this fight he caused would not be on his side, so he sprinted towards a nearby tree. It was easy for him to climb, he always climbed when Dudley was chasing him. Michael ran after him.
“COME DOWN HERE YOU COWARD!” Michael yelled. He was too big for climbing a tree so he and his friends started to shake the tree.
Harry tried holding with all his strength, but it failed and he fell onto Michael, knocking both of them to the ground. He tried to beat Michael, but he was stronger. Michael grabbed him and punched Harry in the face breaking Harry's glasses.
Harry tried to fight back, slashing his face, kicking him, but then he was punched in the ribs and he felt like he was going to pass out. But then Michael made a mistake, he grabbed Harry by the hair, letting Harry have access to it, gathered the last of his strength and bit into the Michaels hand like a dog and punched Michael.
Harry closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind and think how to escape, when suddenly he heard Michael's terrified scream. Harry instantly broke free out of Michael's grip, but when he opened eyes in front of him he saw Michael screaming with a bleeding hand.
He looked at terrified Michael and grinned, I did it, I beat you. Then he spat out a mouthful of blood and something like a chunk.
Some kids who watched this spectacle started screaming, including Michael.
Harry found his broken glasses and looked toward the boy. His hand was all bloody but Harry saw where he had bitten. There was a missing chunk of hand.
Harry came into horror when he realised what had happened.
D-d.. did I..I just bit off a chunk from Michaels hand…