Satanists?

It was another normal day, as in, Harry found himself being chased by Dudley and his gang of thugs again. Despite his frail body brought on by constant starvation and neglect, he'd learned to be fast enough to outrun them. If they ever got a hold of him, their beatings sometimes even reached the level of his Uncle.

He ran through the woods, deftly hopping over the occasional root and ducking under random branches. His small stature proved advantageous in this setting, and allowed him to move throughout the foliage without much issue.

Harry could still hear his pursuers, but with each passing second they got further and further away, they shouted taunts at him, insulting his dead drunkard parents, his glasses, his height, and anything else they could pick at. But he didn't take the bait, he didn't care about the subject of their insults, survival was all that really mattered to him, so who cared if his parents rightfully deserved the deaths they got.

It helped that everything wrong with him was due to the Dursleys... The ugly glasses, his height, his second-hand clothing. He snarls as a bought of anger overtakes him, but he quickly recollects himself and continues running.

Unfortunately, today didn't seem to be his day. As he was slapped in the face by a brunch and tripped over a root as his vision is obscured, falling into a clearing and landing on something... Hot.

"AHHRGHH!" He screams in pain, having never experienced something like this before. Quickly he rolls away as panicked voices erupt around him. The fire he'd apparently fallen into belonged to them, and as he struggled to put out the flames lighting his clothing, they assisted by slapping him with their heavy leather jackets and other black clothing.

Once the fire is finally out, Harry just lays on the floor twitching in pain, feeling around his body to check just how badly he was burned.

"Oh my god, oh my god! Look what we did! We need to get out of here!" one of the people, probably a teenager quickly says in a panic.

"We can't leave him! We need to take him to the hospital!"

Harry eventually lifts his head and looks over at them, squinting with a frown as he examines their peculiar looks... Multicoloured dyed hair, skull necklaces and rings, black eye-linger, metal-spike bracelets, and entirely black clothing.

A rather rotund girl notices his gaze and points, "Look! He's awake!"

The others turn towards him and all seem to sigh in relief. Harry ignores them for now and looks towards what they'd all been doing earlier, as well as where the fire had originated.

It looked like a campfire with many wooden dolls hanging from a branch and slowly burning above it. Nearby was a strange circle on the floor with triangular shapes within it surrounded by lit candles. In the center laid a board with many letters written on it, along with a see-through planchette sitting on it.

Harry, ignoring the pain, forces himself to his knees. His burns scrape against the deadwood and the leaves on the floor, but he'd experienced worse things at the hands of his Uncle so this was bearable. "W-who are you?" he asks, his breathing still slightly laboured.

...

"Er, us? We're just..." one of the feminine-looking boys mutters but is interrupted by the large girl.

"Look, we owe this kid an apology, no point lying to him now either... We're Satanists." she states simply, and Harry tilts his head to the side in confusion... He'd heard of Christians and Satan, but 'Satanists?' Why would you worship the literal devil.

"Satanists? I thought the devil was evil?" he asks, sounding innocent despite looking like a burnt and bloody ghost.

"Yeah, he's evil. But I'd trust a selfish god more than a supposedly selfless one." the girl scoffs before looking him over, "You want us to take you to the hospital?"

Harry frowns and quickly shakes his head. Sure, the hospital would treat him, but as soon as his Uncle got word of it he'd just get injured again. "I'm fine... Tell me more. More about this, Satanism." he asks, deciding that if all his prayers to god had no effect, then maybe the devil was the place to look...

The girl nods, doing his best to ignore all his injuries and going on to explain that they were trying to conduct a ritual to speak to ghosts... Harry didn't know why, but the word 'ritual' caught his attention more than it should have...

The teenagers offer to allow him to join in as an apology for burning him, along with giving him one of their books on Satanism. Using the Ouija board was fairly easy, just rest your finger on the planchette and let it guide you.

Once it started moving Harry was almost certainly one of the teenagers were responsible. However, none seemed to know why it spelt out 'Lily'. It continued, spelling out 'I love you', and the teenagers present started interrogating each other to find who Lily was, no one seemed to know so it must be someone who was messing around.

After half an hour of similar messages such as 'I'm proud of you', 'stay strong', and 'don't become them', Harry had had enough. Getting up and leaving with his new book in hand, giving a brief nod to them but not agreeing to meet up with them again.

As far as he was concerned, the group of teenagers were just imbeciles looking for attention via any means they could find. They dress weirdly, they act weirdly, and they publically worship an even weirder entity.

Not to mention one of the many messages written on the burning dolls had 'I hate my dad', and 'Please stop the bullies'. Harry just thought it was all pathetic, despite feeling similar sentiments.

Eventually, he made it back to his home, Petunia quickly shoving him inside to stop the neighbours from seeing his burnt skin and clothing. He didn't need her help to climb into his cupboard, but she gave him a kick in the back regardless.

Fortunately, she hadn't noticed the book of satanism he'd hidden under his shirt, the baggy clothes allowing him to easily hide it. His stomach growled as he hadn't eaten all day, but he ignored it like usual, instead hunkering down and beginning to read through the black book to see if there was any useful information contained within.