Chapter Text
Neil woke up to the smell of mould and dank wood, a sheen layer of sweat sticking to his forehead.
He had been having a strange dream before he woke up, and he lay there in the quiet peacefulness that morning always brought at number 4, Privet Drive.
He heard the faint sound of birds chirping and he cracked open his eyes, glancing over towards the door. He saw sunlight filtering through the bottom and let the calmness wash over him.
He shut his eyes again, and tried his best to recall what the dream had been about.
He remembered a woman screaming and a flash of odd green light, remembered the blurry outlines of a man’s face - sharp, blue eyes and thinning, red hair.
A shiver ran down his spine at the thought. He opened his eyes fully and reached up to pull on the light. He yanked the string a few times and eventually the single lightbulb screwed to the roof slowly flickered to life.
In the dull lighting, Neil rubbed his eyes of sleep and pushed himself up, stretching and popping his sore muscles. His back ached with a dull throb and he silently cursed the thin mattress he had been sleeping on his whole life, wistfully thinking of the soft, plush beds that lay right above his head.
Suddenly, there was a sharp series of banging on the cupboard door and Neil flinched, the short lived peacefulness quickly disturbed. All memories of the strange dream disappeared in an instant.
The ear-splitting banging ceased and he heard a screeching noise as the metal grate on the door slid open.
William’s mop of straw coloured hair could be seen on the other side, his brown eyes and pudgy face struggling to reach the height of the grate.
“I want eggs. If you don’t hurry up I’ll tell mum you- that you…um… I’ll tell her something real bad!”
William didn’t wait for an answer before his heavy footsteps could be heard thumping back down the hall.
Neil sighed and slowly pulled on yesterday’s pair of jeans. They were much too loose around his malnourished frame, and with the belt he used to keep them in place he looked considerably daggy and unkempt.
He pulled on a grey t-shirt that he snatched up off the floor and staggered out of the cupboard on unsteady feet, trying not to hit his head on the doorframe.
He had quite frankly become much too tall for his little cupboard under the stairs, having been subject to a merciless growth spurt on his 11th birthday.
But, every time he had the courage to bring it up, Rupert had just laughed meanly and told him that it was what ‘wastes of space like him deserved,’ and to be ‘lucky he wasn’t sleeping in a dog kennel outside’.
He made his way down the hall and into the softly lit kitchen, the early morning sun bouncing warmly off the pale yellow walls and dust mites floating around aimlessly.
Neil yawned deeply, and with his mouth wide open mid yawn, caught the eyes of Rupert who was sitting at the dining table with a newspaper, sipping a glass of orange juice. Rupert pursed his lips in disgust, droplets of the juice caught in his frizzy moustache. Neil quickly looked away, turning towards the stove and pulling out a suitable pan.
“Three eggs, 6 pieces of bacon. You can have cereal,” Rupert grunted in Neil’s direction.
“Mmkay,” he mumbled back, still half asleep.
“What was that boy?”
“Yes sir,” he corrected, rolling his eyes behind Rupert’s back, cracking open the first egg. He watched dazed as it began spitting and hissing over the heat, poking at it with his spatula.
He heard Mabel enter the room while fussing loudly over William’s hair, her stilettos clicking against the tiled floor.
How she managed to walk in those shoes at her age, Neil never quite figured out.
“You want to look your best today pumpkin!” She preened over William, “Just let me comb your hair a bit-“
“ugh- no, woman!” He whined, “god! get off me you hag!”
Mabel laughed in her shrill, high pitched voice, “Ah, just like your father you are! So stubborn! Fine, I’ll leave off the gel, snookums”
Neil placed the now cooked eggs to the side and moved onto the bacon. Risking a glimpse over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but let out a snicker as he caught a glimpse of William’s appearance.
Mabel had dressed him up in a little navy suit, with loafers so polished and shiny they nearly hurt to look at. His stout build didn’t help his image at all, either.
His usually unruly and straw like hair was gelled back and was so slick that Neil almost felt bad for him. Almost.
“What are you laughing at you nob?” William scowled over at him from across the kitchen, “at least I have something to be dressing up for. Have fun eating cabbage stew at Ms. Lenz’s house all day while I’m having fun with my friends!”
Neil’s heart sank a little at the thought, and he turned back to the stove without a word. Ms. Lenz was a nice enough woman, but her house reeked of old person and cats, and her signature cabbage stew frankly made Neil want to gag.
William was going to the zoo with two of his friends today, (Neil didn’t know and didn’t want to know their names) to celebrate the end of the school year.
Neil just hoped a zoo keeper would mistake William for one of the gorillas and keep him locked up there for good.
“Um, actually pumpkin pie, there’s been a bit of a change,” Mabel started, a sheepish smile creeping onto her face that said what can you do?
“…What?” William ground out. The word ‘change’ didn’t often sit well with him.
“You see, Ms. Lenz actually phoned this morning. One of her cats is sick, and she won’t be able to sit for Neil today. I tried the Oliver’s down the street too, but no luck. Neil will be joining us for the day.” She said that last bit with little enthusiasm, her right eye twitching.
“What?!” William shrieked, “Wha- but- dad! Don’t tell me you’re okay with this? He’s going to ruin the entire day!”
Rupert looked up from his newspaper and shrugged, though he didn’t look overjoyed at the thought either, a sour expression on his face.
“Sorry bud, but it’s final. If there was any other option, trust me, we’d take it. Don’t worry though, it’ll be like he’s not even there.” He shot Neil a meaningful look, and William relented in his bickering, knowing his father’s word was final.
After breakfast, Neil was sent to the bathroom to ‘clean himself up’ as per Mabel’s orders.
He certainly didn’t have anything as spiffy as William’s suit (he snickered again thinking about it) but he picked out a reasonable button up shirt - one of William’s hand-me-downs - to replace the t-shirt he had been wearing.
The button up had a mysterious brown stain on the front, and Neil had never managed to figure out what it was, but he thought it would do.
He also tried to neaten up his hair a little, making an effort to comb back the brown locks from his eyes the way he usually wore it.
The purple bags under his eyes much too visible for his liking and were only made more abundant by his hazel eyes, but he didn’t dwell on them too long - he had gotten used to the ever present dark circles.
And of course, there was nothing he could do about the scar that ran down the length of his face, from the top of his left eye to his right cheek, trailing over his nose.
Mabel and Kastor said it came from the same car crash that had killed his mum eleven years ago, the reason he was living with his aunt Mabel and uncle Rupert (and of course their brat of a son - his brat of a cousin).
The kids at school constantly made fun of him for his scar, and he was known as ‘scar face’, (a very creative name courtesy of none other than William), and the constant bullying did nothing good for his social life.
Everyone was too scared of William (which was ironic because he was four feet tall) to try and befriend Neil, as it was common knowledge he hated him. Nobody wanted to get on William Hatford’s bad side.
“Hurry up boy!” Bellowed Rupert from the bottom of the staircase, and Neil quickly finished up in the bathroom.
He made his way downstairs, pulled on his beat up trainers and went outside to the car.
—
2 hours later, Neil found himself trailing behind William and his two chubby friends along the Zoo’s winding paths.
William and his friends all held fat, dripping ice creams in their pudgy hands, while Neil had been offered a plain ice lolly or nothing - which was actually quite a treat for him. Rupert must have been in a good mood.
They found themselves in a park-like area and settled on the edge of a large fountain to eat, Neil staying a safe distance away from the others.
He was content to watch the comings and goings of passers by, absentmindedly munching on the ice lolly.
Soon, Neil and William would both be starting at new high schools as they had just graduated primary.
For the first time in his life, Neil would be separated from William, as William would be attending a fancy private boys school that his parents had blown all their money on. Neil would be going to the local public one, of course.
Although Neil had never been one to have any friends, he thought it might be nice to give it a try after the Summer break was over. There would be no William around to ward people off, after all.
He was pulled suddenly from his thoughts as he felt the force of impact against his right shoulder. The last things he saw before he fell backwards into the great fountain was William’s laughing face.
He landed in the water with a great splash, the air knocked out of him and cold water soaking him to his bones.
Neil sputtered and thrashed around in the water for an embarrassingly long time, his baggy clothes not at all helping him reach the surface.
However unassuming the fountain looked from the outside, it was actually considerably deep and as Neil dragged himself up onto the edge, he was met with William’s pudgy face up in his, smiling meanly.
Neil caught sight of William’s two ugly friends standing behind him, guffawing with laughter, and Neil scowled at him.
“What the fuck was that you pig?” He snarled, grabbing William’s collar and dragging him forward. Neil was considerably taller than him, and he towered over the smug boy with unchecked rage.
For a second, Neil thought he heard a rumbling noise behind him but before he could turn to investigate, William opened his mouth.
“Calm down scar face. It was a prank,” he snickered. Neil could practically feel heat radiating off of his body, and just as he was lifting he left fist to smash it into William’s face, the rumbling grew louder and Neil turned around just in time to watch, shocked, as the fountain exploded.
Well, exploded wasn’t really the right word.
Neil stood in shock as it arced over his head in a dazzling show of crystal blue waves.
He let go of William and took a step back, following the waters direction with his head, craning it up above him as the water rose high into the sky like a rainbow, before crashing down in the direction of William and his two friends.
And just as quickly as it had started, the rumbling noise died down, only great puddles of water left on the ground.
Civilians and school holiday groups were screaming and running away from the fountain, but it seemed all their fears were in vain because when Neil looked over in the direction the water had landed, the only people affected were the three boys.
But that was impossible. Neil had seen the fountain explode. The park wasn't what you could call empty, and plenty of people around William would have had to have been caught up in the flow.
But Neil watched, stunned, as William rolled around on the floor like a bug, a seeping mess of wet clothes and waterlogged shoes.
Mabel was screeching her head off as she frantically hopped over in her stilettos to where William was now getting up from the ground. Rupert wasn’t far behind.
“Sweetie what ha- oh my darling pumpkin pie, come here…it’s okay now, shh.. mummy’s got you.” William had begun wailing into his mother’s arms as his friends stood awkwardly behind them, being blatantly ignored by the Hatford’s as they did their best to squeeze water from their shirts.
Neil thought that would probably be a good idea, considering his own recent dip in the fountain, but when he looked down he found himself completely dry. His shirt was ironed neatly and the mysterious stain had even vanished from the front.
“What…?” He breathed, running his hands through his - dry - hair. This couldn’t be possible. Mere moments ago he had been sopping wet, and now he felt as though he had been lying in the sun for hours.
“Mummyyyy!” Neil heard William wail unpleasantly, “it was Neil! It was his fault, I saw everything! He was going to hit me - he called me a pig too,” Neil rolled his eyes, “- and then before he could punch me, the water- the water- “ he began crying again, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Mabel looked over at him and their eyes locked. Her expression was one of blatant horror.
“No…” Neil thought she whispered, before Rupert was on top of him, pulling him by the collar of his shirt.
“Car. Now.” He grunted.
It was an unpleasant walk back to the car park to say the least.
Rupert’s grip on Neil’s neck was sure to leave a bruise, and with three soaking wet boys leaving a trail of water in their wake - one of them still wailing loudly - they were quite the spectacle.
William’s friends were shortly picked up by their respective parents, whom Mabel had phoned at the Zoo’s cafeteria. Neil was then hauled roughly into the car.
As soon as everyone was seated, Rupert looked back at him with rage in his eyes.
“What the hell did you do back there?” He demanded, his face a red-ish purple-ish colour, his beady eyes watering and wild.
“What the hell do you mean what did I do? You think I made that Fountain explode?” Neil spat back angrily, in disbelief that they were finding a way to blame him for this.
“Well it damn well didn’t happen by itself. And that’s not even mentioning-“ He was sent a pointed look to his bone dry appearance, “- that.”
“How could it have possibly been me?” Neil was yelling now, his anger from before returning in full swing, “It was like- like- like magic!”
“No…no… it cant be…” Mabel was muttering. She had been shaky ever since the incident, and was currently grappling onto Rupert’s arm. “Rupert… Rupert do you think- Mary-?“
Rupert slammed his free hand down on the steering wheel and triggered the horn, making Mabel jump.
“No, Mabel, don’t say her name.” He looked at her with disgust in his eyes. “It’ll only bring about bad fortune.”
“Mary?” Neil asked hesitantly, “You mean…my mother?”
“We don't-“ Rupert roared, “say her name!”
Neil sighed angrily at his show of dramatics, annoyed and much too tired to keep arguing.
“Whatever. Are we going home now?” He muttered spitefully, looking out his window.
Rupert turned around in his seat with contempt in his eyes, taking a deep breath. “Listen carefully, boy. You have no home. Not with us, not with your parents, not with anyone. We are not your family, so don't go running your mouth like you think you have a place here! Understood?”
The car went silent. Neil was astounded. He had been in trouble plenty of times, sure, but Rupert had never blown up at him at this extreme.
He looked over to William who was sitting beside him. As someone who had only ever been spoiled rotten by his doting father, his eyes were blown wide at the show of such rage.
“Understood.” Neil mumbled, wondering what he had said to warrant such a reaction.
“Understood…”
“Understood,” Neil spoke louder, “sir.”
Rupert turned back around and started up the car’s engine.
The ride home was silent, and only the occasional sounds of Mabel’s scared whimpers could be heard.