The Broken Toy Soldier

Chapter 1

Six year old Harry Potter is going about his daily chores in early September, as he does any other day, when Aunt Petunia comes outside to collect him from his gardening.

"Come in, boy! Someone is here for you!" the horse-faced woman shouts, her blond hair reflecting the sun annoyingly into his eyes. He follows her inside after putting away the spade and gloves he had been using.

He followed his aunt into the living room where his uncle and another man sat. His Uncle Vernon, a huge whale of a man with an awful temper and even worse breath, sat on a recliner as far away from the other man as he could get. The other man had long white hair underneath a tall dark purple pointy hat. He had a long beard that went down to about the middle of his prominent tummy, and a moustache that enchanted Harry in the way it defied gravity and went along his cheekbones under his leaf-green eyes. He wore what looked like a dress, almost like what Aunt Petunia wears to bed, but somehow seemed more buisness-like. He held a tall staff with a bright green orb on top in his left hand, in the other he was fiddling with what looked to be a fancy stick.

"Hello, Harry," the man said. His voice was gentle and kind, making Harry's instinctual apprehension ease somewhat in his stomach. "I've been looking for you."

He looked back and forth between his aunt, uncle, and this man that had apparently been looking for him. "You have?"

The man nodded. "I have." He beckoned Harry closer, and he took the few steps to get within grabbing distance of him. The man grabbed his hand tenderly. "You are a very important child, Harry. You do not know why yet, but you will change the world one day." His eyes searched Harry's. "That is why you cannot stay here. You are not learning the things you need to know at this," he looks around distastefully, "place. You must learn things a very select few have the ability to teach. That is why I am taking you away, to some friends that will take care of you until you are eleven years old. When you are eleven, you will return. But we must leave, about now. Are you ready? Do you have anything you would like to bring?"

Harry struggled with the abruptness of what this man was saying. Where was he going? Who was he going to? What did he mean, he was important? So many questions swirled around in his mind that it was hard to think. Did he want to bring anything? He didn't have anything worth bringing. Except...

He nodded. "Be right back!" he exclaimed, running over to his little cupboard, which was in full view of the living room. He swung open the door of his room and reached under the pillow of his flimsy bed. He felt around until he found it, it's jagged edges digging into his hand. He uncurled his fingers to see his favorite toy. His soldier, that was missing an arm.

As he went back over, he saw the man looking at his aunt and uncle with icy cold eyes. He coughed to gain the man's attention.

"Ah," he said, his eyes crinkling at the corners as his mouth widened into a tight smile, "ready to go, then?" Harry nodded.

He took the man's offered hand, and was led outside. He clutched the soldier in his hand as he was led away from Number 4, Privet Drive.

After they had walked for a while, the man stopped and turned to Harry. "Are you ready?" he asked, leaning against his staff. Harry cocked his head.

"Where are we going?" The man sighs.

"That, my child, is a difficult question." He kneeled down in front of Harry so they were eye-level. "I come from the past. A very long time ago. We are going to four of my friends from that time. Their names are Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor, and Salazar Slytherin. They will be raising you." Harry smiled. They have such funny names.

"Okay." His eyebrows furrow together. "What's your name? And how are we getting there if it's the past?"

The man smiles indulgently. He pulls out his fancy stick. "Why, magic, of course. How else would you time travel?" He gave Harry a silly grin. "As for my name," he says, "my name is Merlin." Then he says something that Harry can't help but think sounds like gibberish, before suddenly there is a huge blue light around them, and it feels like his body is being stretched and pulled like a piece of Play-Doh.