Prologue

It was hot.

Dani was adaptable, really. But it wasn't just hot, it was blazing hot. Sweat poured down from her face in buckets and her shirt was soaked with it. Her hands were slippery and some hair strands had escaped her ponytail. Her head, face and arms were gleaming with the perspiration on her skin. Her lips were dry and chapped, her pants folded to make it look like baggy khaki pants because it was too bloody hot.

Dani Lily Potter was tending to the flowers in this condition. She gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain from the sunburns and the strain from the wounds the Dursleys inflicted on her. She focused on her work, because her aunt had said that was the last outdoor chore for the day and she wanted to be inside. Dani didn't put it past them to add another chore to the list, though, but she could sneak in and lock herself in her room before they come for her. Her trainers were filled with mud, so it'll take a bit longer to get inside. It'll probably blow everything, and Dani scolded herself for not thinking to keep her shoes clean. Sighing in resignation, she fixed up the flowers that "Petunia herself" had "planted". Yeah, more like bought them for the extra misery of my niece.

Dani wiped some sweat off her brow and watered the soil. Satisfied, she hurriedly cleaned her trainers with the rag beside her and darted to the door as noiselessly as possible. Practically throwing herself in, Dani tugged on her emerald green, "ten sizes to big" long-sleeved shirt and sighed with relief as the cold air from the air conditioner cooled her. She lightly crossed the hallway and located her cupboard door, opened it quietly and shut it without a noise. Draping herself all over her blankets which covered most of the floor, she cursed, making sure they were muffled by the hard pillow.

Good thing there are no beatings today, Dani thought dryly. Ruffling her hair, she sat up to look at the injuries the beating yesterday caused. Poking a rather mean-looking bruise, she winced as pain immediately shot from her wrist to her whole arm. She hissed a bit in agony, but she managed to cover up the rest.

Actually, she was having a bit of trouble breathing. It came out fast and a bit too loud... almost like panting. Her chest area was in pain, probably because of a few fractured and/or broken ribs. Her arms and legs were probably filled with multiple wounds and bruises, and maybe her stomach had the same condition. She winced.

Actually, wait no, she thought. Definitely the same condition.

Moving up to face a random spider, she stared at it silently, pondering on the things that had brought her here, at the Dursleys, being beaten to a pulp almost daily and always put down. Oh no, she deserved it, she knew. She was a Freak after all, but she was stuck on wondering how did she end up in her personal hell.

Immediately after her mental whining, her stomach grumbled. Dani once again groaned, and she threw her pillow to who-knows-what direction. She hadn't eaten in two days, and if she was going to starve to death here in her hellhole, she'd break the window of Dudley's second bedroom and jump out first.

Actually, wait, the plan had its merit. The two effects would both lead to something she had been yearning for as far as she can remember: freedom. Either freedom from the Dursleys, or freedom from life. That was a last resort, though, Dani decided. That move was the lowest of the low, only if she hit rock bottom would she even consider that. No, that thought had to be locked away tight where no one can trigger it. She couldn't just run out the door because whenever she tried, she would run around for hours, but always sees the brass number four on the Dursleys' door shining brightly. When that first happened, her jaw had gone slack, the backpack she carried with her dumped on the floor. She had tried again, this time just running straight north. She felt slight fear when she saw the house again. She knew just how big the world is, but she knew something was intervening with her plan.

But moving on.

She was actually thankful she was only eleven, but she would gladly turn eighteen so she could leave this dump. Puberty hadn't hit her yet, and outside Privet Drive where they thought she was some sort of abomination or juvenile wretch, she could still play the innocent part very well. If she was eighteen, it's possible, but harder to achieve. She had to enjoy life a little bit more as a child; age certainly did things to people's perspective.

You see, the reason why she was known as the most unworthy to live in the too normal-bordering on abnormal, actually- was because she could do things that no one else can. She can make things suspend themselves in the air and follow her hand. She can talk to snakes and she can disappear from once place and appear in another. She can make her hair grow longer when her aunt forced her to cut it.

Those were just a few things in what she can do. The list goes on and on, but she need not specify.

Dani sighed. Drabbling away in her mind won't do anything, so she just lay back down and closed her eyes, dreading the day she would be attending Stonewall with Dudley.