To Be Free, h. granger

owl's, letters and angry uncles.

Number 4 Private Drive was a small house, similar as every other on the street. Home to the Dursleys and the Potter boys. Their house had a large garden, enough to fit two sheds, one normal and full of typical garden tools.

The other was tucked away in at the corner of the garden, hidden under a tree, it's inside walls reinforced with thick concrete and a second metal barred door, a small rectangular window at the top of one of the walls, the same metal bars covering it. Inside sat young Michael Potter, slumped against the wall, hugging his bruised knees close to his chest and staring blankly up through the window. This is where the Dursley's would keep him for his transformations.

Micheal was a normal looking boy, taller than his brother by a few inches and not quite as skinny as Harry. The boys at school were bigger than Harry and would always try and push him around, but Micheal would often fight them off for him. He always enjoyed a bit of rough and tough fighting, and wasn't bad at it either.

His eyes were a lovely mixture of brown and green, his hair a messy mop of brown curls that framed his freckled face. Michael often liked to read, liked the passage it gave him to escape from this world, felt good to have someone, even if not in this world, that he could relate to in someways.

A happy boy when with his brother, the two never getting tired of each other, smile always bright when it was just the two of them. But the Dursley's didn't much appreciate their laughing.

However, since he could remember, Michael Potter has had to put up with painful, gut wrenching transformations. He doesn't know how or why, only that something bad happened when he was still with his parents and now every month, the night of the full moon, Aunt Petunia takes him out here.

It was cold and dark and Michael hated it, but it was all they could do to keep everyone else safe. Michael disappeared from his own mind when the full moon hit the night, he became an angry beast that longed to attack, so much that it would end up clawing at his own body in rage of being locked away. Scarring him for life, never letting him forget.

A soft thud against the door pulled Michael's attention back from the early morning sky, he didn't move over, just watched as his aunt Petunia opened the outer door before pulling out another set of keys for the second one. "Come on, quite a bad one this month..." she said, her voice oddly soft— it always was these mornings, a way in which Michael only got to hear on these special occasions. The boy nodded and tightened his arms around himself.

Petunia nodded and stepped forward, holding out a blanket to wrap around him, he held the soft material around his shoulders and walked with her to the bathroom. Michael sat on the edge of the bathtub with Petunia pulling out a stool to sit behind him, as they always had done.

Michael hissed at the first touch of a wet cloth against a cut, hand gripping tightly around the edge of the bath, "I'm sorry..." Petunia whispered into the air quietly and Michael wasn't sure he was meant to hear it at all, so he kept quiet and let himself have it secretly. Her next touch of the cloth was lighter as she wiped off the blood, carful as she used antiseptic next. Tears were threatening at the boys eyes when she finished, his body wrapped up with bandages as best at his aunt could do so.

She left and brought back a pile of clothes for him, a near sad expression on her face— though Petunia didn't let Michael see that as she quickly left again. He pulled the white t-shirt over his head then the red knitted sweater, ragged jeans and ripped socks. Two pills and a cup of water sat on the counter, this was all a routine after the full moons that the two had adapted since Michael could remember.

A cackle rang terribly through the air, Michael brought his hand up to grasp at his head as he gulped down the last painkiller. Dudley was awake now and Michael really couldn't be bothered with him today, he stalled for a few minutes longer in the bathroom but left as he heard Vernon shouting at Harry.