Harry Potter had a troublesome life. His parents died when he was but a baby and when given to his only living relatives, the Dursleys, they took him to the nearest orphanage. They knew full well who the boy was and what took him in entailed. The orphanage in question was none other than the newly rebuilt Wool's Orphanage.

But the strangest things were the random happenings. Harry got angry at dinner once and made all the cutlery fly up into the ceiling. During one particular incident, which involved some extreme bullying by a new member of the orphanage, towards Harry. It had ended with the boy going flying out of the top window and dying on impact with the floor. After that, there were no more incidents of bullying.

Two months after Harry's first murder, a snake appeared and, as there are a lot of kids, it was attacked by the orphans. Bad idea. They were all thrown fifteen feet back by an enraged Harry.
Harry was very fond of snakes and went straight to it.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh! A speaker! Yes, I am okay."

"Speaker?"

"Yes. You are talking in the ancient language of snakes, Parseltongue."

By now the kids all looked absolutely terrified.

"What's your name, snake?"

"I have none. You may name me if you'd like."

Harry pondered for a moment, taking in the reptile's appearance. It was a black snake with bright green eyes, like his hair and eyes. A Northern Black Racer?

"How about Onyx?"

"Onyx?"

"It's the shade of black your scales are."

"I like it. What is your name speaker?"

"Harry"

"Well Harry,  would you like to be my master, or rather my owner?"

"Ok, then Onyx."

"Hold still then. I need to create a bond between us."

"What?"

"A familiar bond. We will be able to speak telepathically and will have a sense of each other's whereabouts. I create the bond by injecting you with a nontoxic variant of my venom, which will complete the bond."

"Will it hurt?"

"No."

"Ok then, do it."

Onyx then bit Harry's hand and a tingly feeling was in his fingers, slowly spreading through his whole hand.

"Now I am your familiar."

Harry picked up onyx and let him curl around his shoulders, glaring at the terrified orphans.

A year later, it was Harry's 11th birthday. He had a small celebration of sneaking into others' rooms and taking objects for himself. He has a collection of some buttons, a few pins, two spinning tops and a rusty old key. He put them in his trophy box, which he kept locked away in the wardrobe in his room. Harry was a kleptomaniac and he didn't care. The other kids knew this but didn't dare go near him in fear of his snake. This was his birthday celebration every year since being eight. He took stuff as 'presents' from the other kids.

--

At one o'clock in the afternoon, a man came to the orphanage in search of a boy. He wore a deep purple suit with a pointy hat.

"I'm very surprised. In all his years here, Harry has never had a family visitor." The young owner told the man.

"I am not family, but a family friend." The man replied.

"Well then, I'll show you the room he is in. It's room 27. Be careful though. The other children tend to avoid him. There was an incident around a year ago, which involved a new orphan who, sadly, isn't with us today."

"Ok then. But I must say, he sounds very interesting."

"Before I take you to his room, I must ask. What is your intent with the boy? Your letter only explained so much."

"Ah. Well, I am a professor at a school in which his name has been down for since his birth."

"Well, I'll take you to his room so you can tell him this."

The lady took him to an oh-so-familiar room. For it was once the room of a boy called Tom Riddle.

The man knocked on the door and a quick "enter" was sounded.

The lady said, "Harry, you have a visitor. This is Mr Dumberton - sorry, Dunderbore. He's come to tell you - well, I'll let him do it."

"It's Dumbledore please."

Dumbledore walked in and surveyed the room. It was a small bare room with nothing in it except for an old wardrobe and an iron bedstead.

A boy was sat upon the grey blankets, his legs stretched out in front of him, holding a book.

"You're the doctor, aren't you?" Harry said, not looking up from his book. "They want me looked at. They think I'm different."

"Maybe you are," Dumbledore replied.

"I'm NOT MAD!"

"Hogwarts is not a place for mad people. It is a school. A school of magic."

Harry hesitated for a moment, putting his book down on his bed.
"Who are you?"

"My name is Professor Dumbledore. I work as headmaster of Hogwarts - your new school if you accept. You can do magic too. Can't you Harry?"

"Magic? It's magic what I can do?"

"What is it you can do?"

"All sorts" Harry breathed. "I knew I was different, ever since I was five."

"You are Harry. You are a wizard, just like me."

"Prove it" Harry demanded.

Dumbledore paused for a second and the wardrobe burst into flames. Harry jumped up and was about to tell when the flames died and something started rattling around.

"I think there's something in your wardrobe trying to get out."

For the Frist time in a while, Harry looked very pale.

"Open it, Harry."

Harry, slightly shaking, walked over and got out his box of trophies. He dropped the contents onto his desk.

"Thievery is not tolerated at Hogwarts. You are to return them to their owners."

"Yes, sir."

"Now, how about you tell me some of the things you can do."

"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want without training them. I can make bad things happen to people if I want. I can make them hurt."

"I think you will fit in well at Hogwarts boy. Here is your acceptance letter."

Dumbledore gave Harry a letter with a dark purple seal. Harry opened it and, when reading the item list, asked how he will get any of the stuff.

"Go to the leaky cauldron, on Charing Cross Road and ask for Tom. Will you need help getting there?"

"No. Charing cross road is close to here."

"Well, then I'll see you at Hogwarts."

"One more thing sir. Will I be able to bring a snake to Hogwarts? I have one as a familiar." Harry called onyx to him and saw his familiar slide through the window onto his lap.

"Of course Harry. We will never stop a student from bringing a familiar. As long as he doesn't reach over 12 feet in length."

"Thank you, sir."

Dumbledore left the orphanage and, before apparating away, thought something...

"That was too similar to my visit to Tom Riddle..."

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter