Harry Potter 1. Harry Potter's Dilemma

Author's note: This is my first Harry Potter fanfic. Actually, it's my first fanfic that I've published, so please be gentle in your reviews. :)

The inspiration for my story comes from all over the place. Obviously JKR has inspired me with the HP Universe she has created in her books. Some inspiration comes from other fanfiction stories I have read. Most of it comes from my own overactive imagination. If I use ideas from other stories I've read, I will try as best as I can to give proper credit where it's due. The spark that got me going on this story was a story I read on called "Harry Potter and the Harem of Honeys". I used the general idea, but not the specifics, as a basis for this story. I will probably also use some stuff from "Harry Potter and the Power of Time" since I absolutely love that story, but these will be VERY VERY general. Hopefully Ross will eventually come back and continue his awesome story. The parallels of this story to his story are that I also intend to make Harry stand up for himself, and not be such a wimp. I don't plan at this time to incorporate Time travel, though.

This will NOT be a super-power Harry Story, though I fully expect that Harry will be both powerful and wise. He will not be manipulated as he is in canon. This story will try to follow canon rules as much as possible.

My story has no beta, but I do try to proofread them pretty thoroughly, so there shouldn't be many errors. I am American, so everything is written with American speech patterns and such. Hopefully I don't anger the brit-pickers. Updates will likely not be on any schedule, as I get spurts of inspiration, followed by sputs of writers block. I don't plan on abandoning the story, but I have absolutely no idea when it will be finished. As of this very moment, I have up to Chapter 12 written, and will upload them if people start reading and reviewing... My current vision is that this is book one of probably four. I expect this book to cover up until school starts, but I don't know how the books are going to be afterwards. I do know that at least some of book four will be post-Hogwarts.

Disclaimer: JKR owns everything you recognize. I own nothing but my own ideas. I make no money on this story. I have no money anyway either, so don't sue me!

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Chapter 1: Harry Potter's dilemma

Harry Potter was not an average boy. At the age of seven, he looked to be about four or five years old. He was very small for his age, and looked even smaller than he really was due to the fact that he wore clothes that were battered and clearly two to three times the proper size for him.

You see, Harry was forced to wear his cousin Dudley's old clothes, and Dudley was a whale of a child. Dudley was shaped like a beach ball with a basketball on top of it, with no neck to speak of. Dudley was a spoiled child, who was given everything he wanted by his parents, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, and Harry was only given the most hideous remnants of Dudley's past clothing.

But at the moment, Harry was sleeping relatively soundly, dreaming of a large man with lots of hair, flying a motorcycle over the city. Unfortunately, the dream was cut short by a shrill voice that cut through his sleep like a hot knife to butter...

"UP! Get UP! NOW!"

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing..."

Dudley's birthday -- how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. As expected, it appeared that Dudley got all of the things that he had asked for. There had to be twenty-five presents on the table, all wrapped in brightly colored wrapping paper with huge bows on top of them.

Harry sighed inwardly, and a part of him was a little jealous of his large cousin. In all of the years that Harry had lived in this house, he had never once received any presents on his birthday. In fact, the only thing he got on his birthday was a beating, and they seemed to get worse and worse every year. It was for this reason that Harry never looked forward to his birthday. Sure, he'd get a slap here or a backhand there, but it seemed that on his birthday, he always got smacked around even worse. Last year, Harry had tried to be strong as his Uncle was smacking him around, and actually asked why he was getting this abuse, which only caused his uncle to get even more red in the face, and hit him even harder. Even as he heard bones breaking and a searing pain shot through various parts of his body at the hands of his uncle, he refused to scream. This, of course, enraged his uncle even more, and by the end of the day, he was thrown back in his cupboard under the stairs, broken and bruised, and left for the night. As Harry had passed out that night, a strange warmth flowed through his body, and he lost consciousness.

The next morning, Harry was almost healed. There was some lingering pain left over from the events of the previous day, but the bones that he had thought were definitely broken didn't seem to be broken anymore. The various cuts and bruises that he had seemed to not exist anymore, and his vision wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when he was put into the cupboard the previous night. His glasses were still broken, and the clothes he wore were still covered in blood, but his body seemed to be in pretty good shape. Fortunately, it appeared that neither his Aunt or Uncle expected him to be in any kind of shape to do the cooking, as he had done every morning since he was tall enough to reach the stove, so they left him be without even so much as checking on his wellbeing. This was fine with Harry, and he spent the day resting and recovering. It was during this time that he was able to give thought as to how his body had recovered so fast. For a time, he believed that the pain that he remembered from the previous day was imagined, but after seeing his glasses and his clothes, he realized that something was different. He was somehow different... It would be almost a year before he started realizing how true that statement was...

As Harry's mind returned to the present, he realized that he hadn't really thought about the events of his birthday almost ten months ago since that time. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he noticed Dudley enter the kitchen. Harry was almost done the bacon and sausage, and had just started with the eggs and toast. As expected, Dudley immediately threw a temper-tantrum about the fact that his breakfast wasn't ready, which immediately caused Vernon to get up and backhand Harry, knocking him off of his stool in front of the stove, and making him crash to the floor.

"Why isn't breakfast ready?! Get your lazy-ass up and get our breakfast cooked!" screamed Vernon.

"Yes, sir." was Harry's only response. He picked himself up off the floor and got back on his stool and finished cooking the breakfast. Harry had learned at a very early age that any response other than 'yes, sir' or 'yes, maam' was begging for more harsh treatment, so unless absolutely necessary, those were usually the only two words that Harry said to either his aunt or uncle.

After serving breakfast to his 'family', Harry took only two slices of bread and left the kitchen to eat 'his' breakfast in his cupboard. Harry knew from experience that if he had attempted to take any more than that, that he would be severely punished.

Later that same afternoon, Harry found himself in the local playground. He often came here to get away from everyone and everything. He knew that what his aunt and uncle did to him was wrong, and he knew that they knew that Dudley did the same thing to him on a regular basis. In fact, the only physical exercise that Dudley seemed to get was when him and a gang of his friends would get together to beat up on Harry. Fortunately for Harry, this didn't happen too often because Harry was pretty fast when he needed to be. It is for this reason that the only time Harry got beat up by his cousin were when Dudley and his friends cornered him. As Harry became aware of his surroundings, it appeared that Dudley's favorite gift for today would be to beat up on Harry relentlessly. As soon as Harry saw his cousin and his gang coming, with menacing looks on their faces, Harry took off like a rocket, and his cousin gave chase. It seemed that Dudley wanted Harry really bad today, and the chase lasted for quite some time, but eventually it seemed that they had Harry cornered just outside the local school. As they approached, Harry suddenly disappeared with a sharp "crack!"... Dudley and his gang were confused, and looked all around for Harry without finding him. Eventually, they gave up and left, headed back towards the park hoping to catch Harry back there and get him this time. Harry watched his cousin and his gang walk away from the rooftop of the school, and he stayed there for quite some time before climbing back down to the ground.

Harry sat down against the wall of the school trying to figure out what had happened, and how he had got up on the roof. He knew that he did not climb up there. The only thing he remembered was the feeling that he was going to get hurt really badly, and then he felt a warm tingle flow through his whole body, and next thing he knew, he was up on the roof looking down at his previous position.

For a seven year old, Harry was pretty smart. Much smarter than his cousin Dudley, though he could never show that when he was at school. After the first couple beatings and being called a "cheater" by his aunt and uncle, it was very clear that he was not allowed to outshine his cousin in any way, so he intentionally kept his test scores low, but that didn't change the fact that Harry was exceptionally intelligent for his age. He had excellent problem solving skills, and an excellent grasp of common sense and logical reasoning for his age. As he sat at the base of the wall at the school trying to figure out what had happened only an hour earlier, he realized that none of his problem solving skills would help him here. He knew that he had done something that nobody else would be able to do. In the course of trying to figure out how this could happen, his mind was brought back to the events following his last birthday beating, which got him thinking about all of the little things that had happened to him over the past year or so...

Of course, this had all started with his miraculous recovery from his beating, and during the course of this school year, other small strange things had happened, usually when he was scared or stressed in some way. Things like being pushed off of the top of a slide, which was probably fifteen feet in the air, and falling all the way to the ground without getting so much as a scratch or bump on his body. That was at the beginning of the year.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) -- The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

And then there was the disaster with the snake at the zoo. Dudley had wanted to go to the zoo a few weekends ago, and because Harry's aunt and uncle could not find a babysitter, Harry was forced to go with them. During this trip was when Harry realized that he could talk to snakes, and could understand when they spoke back. Though, with all the little strange things that happened to Harry, he had cast it into the back of his mind. When his cousin, Dudley, realized what Harry was doing, he quickly ran up and shoved Harry out of the way so he could get a good look at the huge Boa Constrictor, when all of a sudden, the glass between Dudley and the Boa disappeared and Dudley fell right over into the boa's cage. Two things happened at once. Dudley screamed in fear of being in the cage with the boa, and the boa decided it didn't want to be caged anymore... By the time anyone realized what was going on, the glass was back, and Dudley was locked inside the glass cage, and the boa was nowhere to be found. Harry had been forced inside of his cupboard for the rest of that weekend, and for three days after school for that fiasco.

And, as if his life wasn't strange enough on it's own, he had no friends that he could talk to about these strange things happening to him. When these things happened, everyone seemed surprised, so Harry deduced that these things are not things that happen to everyone. Early in the year, he found that he was pretty good at meeting people, but once Dudley's gang came along and decided that Harry was not allowed to have any friends, all of a sudden, nobody would talk to Harry. This mean that Harry had a lot of time to himself, and, returning again to the present, he decided that he would use that time to figure out what was causing these things to happen to him, one way or another...


	2. It's just like Magic

Chapter 2: Magic...

Harry sat at the base of that wall for hours. It was getting dark now, and Harry was getting a little bit hungry. He had spent the afternoon and early evening thinking about all that had happened. During this time, he realized that every time something strange happened, he had felt that tingling sensation coursing through his body just before it happened. Dudley and his gang had not returned that evening, so Harry was left to his thoughts.

As the grey sky turned to dark, Harry headed back to his 'home' at number 4, Privet Drive. As he entered the house, it appeared that his aunt and uncle were in the living room watching television. They paid him no mind as he entered the house as quietly as he was able to. There was also no sign of his cousin, Dudley. Harry figured that they were either still out looking for him, or they had found someone else to beat up on. Either way, Harry slipped into the house, and slipped very quietly into his cupboard. He remained there for what seemed like hours. He heard his cousin come home and head directly upstairs to one of his bedrooms, and some undeterminable time later, he heard his aunt and uncle also head upstairs, presumably to go to bed. Harry waited in silence for awhile, and once the house was quiet, he snuck out to the kitchen to nick some food from the fridge. He had not eaten anything that entire day except for the two slices of bread at breakfast time, but this was nothing new for Harry. He very seldom had more than one meal per day, and it was usually a meager meal at that. Harry often snuck into the kitchen after everyone went to bed to grab some food from the fridge. He suspected that his aunt and uncle were aware of this practice, but never said anything directly to him about it. The only evidence that Harry knew that his aunt and uncle noticed anything were offhand comments about something being missing. Most of the time, his aunt and uncle assumed it was Dudley having a midnight snack, and it was left at that. Harry was always very careful about not getting caught, as he knew that if he were caught with his hand in the fridge, that he would surely be punished for it. It was a fact of life. Dudley could do what he wanted in the house without a second glance from his parents, but Harry could get away with nothing...

The following morning, Harry was woken up in the usual way, with his Aunt screeching to him to get out of bed and cook breakfast. Fortunately, Harry was able to get up and get breakfast ready completely before Dudley came down to eat. Finding no fault with Harry's cooking, Harry was able to complete the cooking, grab his two slices of bread, and get out of there without any trouble from his aunt and uncle. After showering and changing his clothes, Harry immediately headed outside and towards the school. He was determined to figure out how he got up on the roof the previous day. Since it was a Sunday, Harry knew that there would be nobody there to bother him.

Harry returned to the same spot that he was in the previous day, and concentrated hard trying to get himself up onto the roof. He had stood there for almost an hour trying to get it to happen again before giving up and sitting down again against the wall that he had spent the previous evening against. Harry then closed his eyes and thought back to each and every time something odd happened to him, trying to figure out how or why it had happened. After a short time, he realized that every time something had happened, he was either scared or angry. Only during those times did he feel that tingling sensation through his body, and only after that would things happen.

Excited with this new revelation, Harry stood up again, and concentrated... He knew that with nobody around, it was unlikely that he could honestly get scared, but there were plenty of things in his memories that could get him angry. He focused on his birthday last year, and he felt the anger flow through him. As his anger increased, he started to feel that tingling sensation, and at that moment, he wished that he were up on the roof again. With a loud "crack", he opened his eyes to find himself up on the roof. He threw his fist up in the air and yelled "Yeah!" in triumph. After a minute, he used the same technique to get himself back down on the ground. After about twenty times of going up and down from the roof, Harry had become pretty adept at getting that tingling sensation to flow through him almost immediately on command.

By this time, it was early afternoon, and Harry was lucky enough that nobody had come onto the grounds all morning. Now that Harry knew how to get that tingling sensation to flow through him, he started to wonder what else he could do with it. So far, in the past ten months, he had seen it bump him up on a roof, protect him from a fall, healed him from a beating, regrew his hair (he assumed), and vanished a pane of glass. Thinking back, though, he didn't remember the tingling sensation when he was talking to the snake, but that was something to think about at another time.

During the course of the afternoon, Harry had discovered that this tingling couldn't just get him onto a roof, but could get him anywhere he had previously been. He was aware of the crack that happened every time he moved himself, so he was careful about where he moved himself to. He had gone between the school grounds, to the school roof, to the local park, to the Dursley's back yard, and back to the school. It seemed that he could go anywhere, as long as he knew where he was going.

Also, in his experimentation, he found that he could make things come to him, and send them away from him using this tingling feeling. In fact, when he had this feeling flowing through him, he could move things around in any direction he wanted. He started experimenting with small rocks, then larger rocks. He found that the bigger (and heavier) the object he was trying to move, the harder it was to actually move it. He also found that he had a hard time making multiple things move at one time, even if they were all small things. Inevitably, one or more of the things he was trying to move would simply fall to the ground if his concentration was lost. His final surprise was that the farther away from the object he was trying to move was from him, the harder it was to get it to move at all.

By late afternoon, Harry was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. It had been a very warm May afternoon, and Harry hadn't had anything to eat or drink since breakfast time when he had a glass of water and a couple slices of bread. He had retreated to the school's rooftop to relax and rest a little. As he sat up there, he thought about going home to get something to eat and drink, but quickly dismissed that idea, as he had no desire to see anyone that he lived with if he could help it. Though his mind did start to wander, and he seriously considered at least going home to get some water, when that tingling ran through his body again, and a glass of ice water appeared with a soft pop in front of him. Amazed, but thankful, Harry picked up the glass and took a long drink from the glass. It was just what he wanted. The water was nice and cold, there were plenty of ice cubes in it.

When Harry finished his water, he got to thinking about food, and wondered if he could make food this way as well. He brought up the tingling feeling and thought of a hamburger. A moment later, a hamburger popped into existence with a soft pop in front of him. He quickly picked it up and took a bite, immediately spitting it out. Sure, it looked like a hamburger, but it tasted like cardboard, and had no discernable texture. He decided to start smaller, and wished for a slice of bread, just like the one that he had that morning for breakfast. A moment later, a slice of bread popped into existence. Harry picked it up and tried it, and it tasted just like it should. Confused, Harry put his bread down and thought of toasted bread with butter. A moment later, a piece of toast with butter appeared. He took a bite, and again it tasted like cardboard. Harry thought for a minute, trying to figure out what was different between the bread and the toast with butter... It took him a few minutes but eventually he figured out that when he was thinking of the bread, he was thinking about everything that had to do with the bread. The texture, the taste, everything that he had remembered from his breakfast that morning, but when he thought of the toast, he just thought of a piece of toast, not taking into account the taste and texture of it. Concentrating harder than he had before, he brought the tingling sensation back and thought about the toast with butter, along with all the tastes an textures he could think of, and a moment later, another piece of toast appeared in front of him. He hesitantly picked it up and took a bite. It tasted perfect. The texture was perfect. Harry sat back and enjoyed his toast and wished for a glass of milk, again thinking about the taste and texture. When it appeared, he took a sip, and found it perfect.

By this time, Harry was even more tired, but was not hungry or thirsty anymore. Having been nearly starved for all of his recallable life, he could not eat much more than a couple slices of toast and a glass of some kind of liquid, especially milk, which is much heavier than the water that he was used to. Content, Harry (still being on the roof of the School) decided to take a nap. As he slept, a small smile crept upon his face, and he dreamt of the many things that would be changing in his life now that he could use his new gift.

When Harry awoke, it was after dark, so he used his gift (that was what he was calling it when he brought forth the tingling sensation and made things happen) to go directly back to Privet Drive. When he walked up to his house, all of the lights were out. Knowing he was locked out for the night, he gave the front door a try anyway, and found that he was correct. He started to walk away from the house to go find somewhere he could sleep before he had to go to school the next morning, when it hit him. He could use his gift to get into the house. Thinking of his cupboard under the stairs, he used his gift, and with a "crack", he was standing in front of his bed in his cupboard. A moment later, he was laying on his bed, and ready to go back to sleep.

Over the course of the next week, Harry experimented with his gift at school. He found that he could do just about anything he could imagine using his gift. He had used it to trip a couple of Dudley's gang members, much to his amusement. He had also used it to create a sign saying "Kick Me" on the back of the shirt of another of Dudley's gang. During recess on Thursday, Dudley and his gang had decided that Harry was going to get his "missed" beating from Dudley and his gang, and they cornered him in the playground at the school. Harry, far from being scared now, waited for the first punch. He immediately used his gift and put his hand up to block the punch, earning a scream from Piers Polkiss, the meanest of Dudley's friends. That day he was sent home after school with a note for his aunt and uncle, letting them know that Harry had been in a fight, and had broken Piers' hand.

Up until this time, the only fights Harry had been in were with Dudley and his gang, and until now, the only person that was ever hurt was Harry himself, but since he had now hurt another child, and Harry was suspended for one day from school, his Uncle Vernon was fuming mad when he read the note. Harry, fully expecting a beating (since he wouldn't need to be seen by anyone at school for a full four days) used his gift to simulate the injuries that he would have normally received from his beatings, while he himself felt no pain and took no actual injuries. It was an excellent test of his acting skills, and he pulled it off without a hitch. That night, Harry was locked in the cupboard and was told that he was going to be in there until Monday morning, and that he would be let out once per day, in the morning, to do the cooking, have his breakfast (still bread), bathe, and would immediately go back in for the rest of the day.

So, for the next three days, Harry would be awakened by his aunt to do the morning cooking, he would eat his bread and drink his water, bathe, and go back into the cupboard. He used his gift to still show some injuries, but also show that they were getting better. That first day, Harry intentionally walked with a slight limp.

As he re-entered the cupboard each day, he'd hear the click of the padlock making sure he didn't come out. Once Harry heard that everyone was gone for the day, he'd use his gift to get out of the cupboard. The first day, while Dudley was at school, Harry spent his day watching the television. This was the first time that Harry had been able to actually watch it, as it was not something he was allowed to do. But, since his aunt and uncle believed him to be locked in the cupboard, they had no problems leaving him there for the day while they went about their normal day.

On Saturday, during breakfast, Harry was told that they (uncle, aunt, and Dudley) would be going out for the day, and that Harry would be staying in his cupboard. After they left, with Harry securely locked in the cupboard (or so they thought), Harry used his gift to get out, and decided that he would play with Dudley's toys. As Harry got upstairs, he entered Dudley's second bedroom and found a huge pile of broken toys. There were all kinds of action figures, a couple old computers, an old TV, a couple VCRs, a DVD player, a stereo, a couple Video game systems, among many other things. All of them were broken.

This did not surprise Harry in the slightest. Harry had heard Dudley's temper tantrums and heard him break things for stupid reasons. Dudley had broken a couple of different video game systems when he lost his temper after he was beaten by the game. He'd get all mad, and pick up the video game system and throw it across the room. Of course, within a week or two, Dudley always got a new one, and the old broken one was left in his second bedroom.

Harry went into Dudley's first bedroom and tried playing with the latest and greatest video game system that Dudley had yet to break. It took him quite a while to get the hand/eye coordination down pat, but once he did, he found that he was pretty good at a couple of the different games. Harry had lost track of time, and before he knew it, he heard the Dursley's car pulling into the driveway. Very quickly, he turned off the video game system and the TV, and used his gift to put him back inside the cupboard. Less than a minute later, Dudley was banging on his cupboard door, teasing him for being locked in there all day, simply to try to annoy him. Harry thought to himself, 'Boy, if he only knew...'

Sunday was much like Saturday. Again, Harry was informed that the Dursleys would be gone for the day, and just like the previous day, he was locked in the cupboard. Once they left, Harry used his gift to get out of the cupboard, again free to roam the house. Harry had thought about going outside, but decided against it, just in case the neighbors noticed and mentioned it to the Dursleys... Harry would have a hard time explaining why he was seen outside when he was supposed to be locked in a cupboard. Harry was sure that he didn't want the Dursleys to know about his gift yet.

However, on this day, Harry decided to go up into the attic, just to see what was up there. It was one of the only two rooms in the house that he had never been in since he'd been there (the other being his aunt and uncle's bedroom). When he got up there, he found all kinds of boxes and things, most of which looked like they hadn't been touched in years. There were a few boxes that looked recent, but looking inside them, Harry found that they were filled with more of Dudley's old broken toys. However, at the far end of the attic, Harry found the most beautiful wooden trunk he had ever seen. It was covered in dust, but once the dust was cleared off of it, Harry saw the name "Lily Evans" written on the front of it. However, the 'Evans' part of it was crossed off and just below it, the word "Potter" was carved into the wood. Harry's breath caught in his throat.

The Dursleys had never told him anything about his real family, nor had they ever answered any questions about them, so Harry had no idea who Lily Evans/Potter was, but he quickly deduced that it must be someone related (considering them having the same last name). Harry also knew that his mother was his aunt Petunia's sister, and that her maiden name was Evans, since his grandparents on his aunt's side had the last name of Evans. Based on that information alone, it was a pretty safe bet that Lily Evans/Potter was his mother, which means that this wooden box belonged to her. Harry was almost shaking with excitement as he sat down and opened the trunk.


	3. Meet the Family

Chapter 3: Meet the family...

In Harry's entire memory, he couldn't recall ever being so excited about anything, ever. As he opened the trunk, he saw all kinds of things inside. Lots of books, some thick paper, a few small writing notebooks, bottles of ink, things that looked like wierd feathers, clothes, pictures. All in all, he didn't know where to start, so he decided to take it all out and organize it to find out all the things that were in there. As he started pulling things out (starting with the books), Harry realized that there was WAY too much stuff in this trunk than should have fit inside of it. The stacks of books alone should have taken up two trunks of the size of his mother's trunk. Putting this out of his head for the moment, he pulled out the rest of the things. The notebooks appeared to be diaries that his mother wrote, and Harry decided immediately that he would start there. He desperately wanted to know his parents, and what better way than to read the things that she wrote?

Once he had collected all of the diaries, he put the rest of the stuff back in the trunk. As he put the things back inside, Harry noticed that there was definitely something wierd about the trunk, in that it did indeed hold about four times the amount of stuff that it should have held. Harry hoped that the diaries may help explain it.

Harry looked at the covers of the diaries, and it appeared that there was one for each year, starting from when his mother was about ten years old. Harry held out the first diary and put the rest of them back in the trunk in order by year, so he would be sure that none were lost or misplaced.

So, with some hesitation and lots of excitement, Harry opened the first diary and started to read. Harry very carefully read each page, soaking in all of the information that it contained. Harry found out that his mother and her sister were the best of friends, and pretty much inseparable. This struck Harry as odd, as it seemed that his aunt had hated Harry's mother, based on her reactions every time Harry had asked about his parents. But, this diary told a very different story, or, many stories in fact. The more Harry read, the more he wanted to read. It seemed that Harry's mother wrote in the diary about every two days or so. It took Harry only a couple hours to get through the first diary, and by that time, Harry was very eager to read more. A couple of the entries had peaked his interest, as his mother explained a couple of "strange happenings", but had no idea what had caused them. Harry was all excited about the possibility that his mother had the gift as well, and hoped that the other diaries helped to explain it.

After finishing the first diary, Harry carefully placed it back into the trunk and pulled out the second one. The first few entries were just like the ones in the first diary, but about halfway through summer in this second diary, there was an entry that Harry had to read about a dozen times, trying to understand. This particular entry seemed to be a random collection of thoughts and Harry got the impression that she was very excited when she wrote it. It talked about magic, and witches, and a school called Hogwarts, and wands, and a place called Diagon Alley, and various other things, most of which Harry couldn't understand. However, one thing that Harry did understand was Magic and Witches.

Thinking to himself, he started asking "Am I a witch? Is it magic I'm doing? Is that my gift?" After a moment, Harry laughed to himself. He couldn't be a witch, weren't they all old women with warts on their noses? He decided to continue reading through the diary, and hoped that some of the things that were confusing Harry would be better explained in future entries.

A few entries after the one mid-summer, there was another entry that did not seem nearly as happy as the magic entry was. It described in detail a huge fight between Harry's mother and her sister, Petunia. It seems that Petunia was very mad that Lily was able to do magic, and would be going to a special school, but Petunia could not, and would be staying at a local school.

"That might explain a few things..." thought Harry as he read through it.

The next few entries went on to talk about more fights, and from the descriptions, they seemed to get nastier and nastier. By the end of August of that year, it seemed that the once inseparable sisters weren't even speaking to each other. From the entries, Lily was very upset about this, and really missed her sister dearly, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn more about magic.

At the end of August, there was another entry explaining all about a place called Diagon Alley. It was apparently an all magic community where all kinds of magic things can be bought, including all of the schoolbooks, cauldrons, potions ingredients, wizard clothes (Hah! I'm a Wizard, not a Witch!), and other such things for this Magic school. It explained in detail how to get in, as well as all the places that his mother went to and what she got. It explained that magic folk used a different kind of money. It went on and on about these creatures called goblins (Goblins are real?!) who ran the magical bank, which she called Gringotts. She talked about her wand, and that she wanted to learn all about it right away, but was saddened that she was not allowed to use the wand until she got to school. This one entry was a plethora of information for Harry, who was so excited about all of this that he was literally bouncing as he was reading it. A part of him wanted to go to see if this Diagon Alley still existed, but decided against it until he learned as much as he could from this trunk first.

At around 1:00 in the afternoon, Harry decided to take a break and have some lunch. He used magic (since he now knew what it was) and attempted the hamburger again. Since that first day, Harry had been practicing as much as he could at creating food, as it was one of his biggest problems. He wasn't given much food, which was probably why Harry was so small for his age. He had progressed enough to make sandwiches and things, but still seemed to be stuck on cooked foods. He had almost given up, but decided to try again anyway. This time, when he pictured the Hamburger, he tried to picture each individual part of it. The bun, the Lettuce, the tomato, the Mayonnaise, the beef, and how it was cooked, what it's texture should be, and how it should taste. Thinking about all of that, he brought forth his magic and created the hamburger. A moment later, a hamburger appeared in his hand, and he hesitantly took a bite, and a smile crossed his face. It was perfect. It became clear to him that when creating food, he must think about every aspect of the food he was trying to create, and then bring forth his magic to make it happen. After a very hearty lunch, he went back to the diaries.

Harry read the diary straight through the afternoon and into the evening. His mother's entries were very detailed, and explained quite a bit about magic in general, as well as Hogwarts, the magic school. Because of the level of detail, this diary was much longer than the first diary. One thing that confused him was that everything she wrote about seemed to require a wand, usually a specific wand movement, and an incantation, but some of the things that were described in the book, Harry himself had been doing without a wand or an incantation for weeks already. By 6:00, Harry was only about halfway through it when he heard the car doors slam outside. Quickly, Harry checked to be sure that everything was in the trunk, and closed it. He kept the diary he was reading with him, and used his magic to go directly back into the cupboard. Immediately, he hid the diary under his cot, and waited for the Dursleys to get into the house. It was only a few seconds before he heard the key in the front door's lock.

Within a few minutes of the Dursley's arrival, the normal routine had been followed. Dudley had again started banging on the cupboard door, teasing Harry for being locked in the cupboard all day, and the family had gone off to do other things. Once it seemed that everyone was wherever they were going to be, Harry pulled the diary back out and started reading again. He read straight through until his aunt and uncle went to bed, at which point his uncle banged on the door and told Harry to shut off his light and to go to sleep, as he had school the next day.

Over the course of the next several weeks, Harry read through as much of the diaries as he could understand. After the first year, the entries describing the magic became a little less detailed, and Harry often found himself confused, since things weren't explained as well as they had in the First year of Hogwarts diary. Harry did, however, learn quite a bit about his mother in general. She seemed to be friendly with just about everyone, and it seemed that she was very popular in school, including with the teachers. She spoke highly of the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, as well as Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. She spoke about a boy named James starting in her fourth year, who she really didn't like too much. She thought he was arrogant and egotistical, but she did comment on a number of occasions that he was persistent. She also mentioned a number of other names, including Severus, Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

Also starting around fourth year, there were some entries about a Dark Lord who called himself Voldemort. Nobody seemed to know anything about him, except that he fought for pureblood supremacy, and people were scared to say his name out loud, instead calling him you-know-who or he-who-must-not-be-named. This seemed silly to Harry, but there it was. The entries went on to explain what pureblood, half-blood, and muggle-born meant. There were a couple of concerned entries about Voldemort getting more direct in his attacks, specifically directed towards muggle-borns and their families. Lily's concern was that she was a muggle-born witch, which meant that she was a potential target.

The second half of the fifth year diary was all about something called O.W.L.s, which were Ordinary Wizarding Levels. It went on to explain that these tests, and their results, would determine what courses you can take in sixth and seventh years, and were the first real step to determining your possible careers. The beginning of her sixth year diary contained her OWL results, and though it didn't mean much to Harry, from all appearances, she seemed to pass all of her classes, and if he read it right, his mother got mostly all O's, which meant Outstandings...

Somewhere around the end of her sixth year at Hogwarts, the entries about James seemed to change somewhat, and though the reason for the change wasn't written down, it seemed that Lily had finally had a change of Heart about James. It was also the first time that Lily had written down James' full name. James Potter. Harry realized that this James person that she had been writing about for two years was (at that time) his future father. Apparently James was their house's Chaser on the Quiddich team (what that meant, Harry had no clue). Thinking about some of the entries, he found it mildly amusing that Harry's mother really didn't like his future father much at all for the first couple years.

After the first changed view entry of Harry's father, the entries started to include more details about Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Sirius seemed to be quite outspoken, and suave with the women. Remus was more reserved, but very intelligent and studious. Peter was very quiet and shy, and seemed to follow the other three (James, Sirius, and Remus) like a lost puppy. She mentioned that they called themselves the Marauders, and a few entries included details on a few pranks that sounded quite hilarious. It seemed that the favorite pranking target for the Marauders was this other person named Severus. Apparently James and Severus never got along, and both antagonized the other relentlessly.

Starting with the seventh year diary, it seemed that the pranks against Severus had almost stopped. Harry's mother commented a number of times when James and Severus crossed wands, but the planned pranks seemed to stop. Harry was happy to find out that his mother was "Head Girl" and his father was "Head Boy". About halfway through Lily's seventh year, an entry was written stating that James had asked her to marry him, and that she had accepted. Harry had tears in his eyes as he read that entry. The rest of seventh year's entries seemed to only be about James and NEWTs, or Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. The final tests of her school career, and the ultimate deciding factor on what jobs you would be able to get once you were done school.

The First year out of Hogwarts diary started out containing Lily's NEWT scores, which, like to the OWLs, she seemed to also do well with. It also contained details of his parents' wedding, in which Sirius was the Best Man. From the sounds of it, It was a grand wedding, with lots of friends there. The names Longbottom, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Slughorn were mentioned specifically. After the wedding, they moved to James' family home, which she referred to as the "Potter Castle". The next two diaries contained all kinds of stuff about day-to-day things, as well as the fact that both James and Lily were part of the frontline against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. In November of 1979, an entry was written about Lily being pregnant, and seemed very happy about it. Further entries described in detail the stages of the pregnancy. Harry was again in tears when he read about him kicking, or when they found out he was a boy... Things like that. The diary also contained all kinds of entries about Harry after he was born. Lily was amazed that even at such a young age, Harry was already showing signs of being magical. Lily believed that Harry would be a very powerful wizard when he grew up.

There was also an entry dated December 1979 stating that because of the pregnancy, and ultimately the need to stay home to raise baby Harry, that Lily was going to use the time to write a book or two that she had been thinking about during her schooling. The basis for these books would be her thoughts on how to better integrate muggleborns into wizard culture, as the current system was sorely lacking. She also had a lot of thoughts on better ways to learn about magic, and better ways to teach it. Her goal was to eventually use these books as a basis to teach Harry about Magic. Harry made it a point to look for these books in the trunk at some later time.

The last entry in the last diary was dated October 15, 1981, in which Lily spoke about the fact that Voldemort had specifically targeted them and the Longbottoms in response to a prophecy that Voldemort believed to be related toone of the families' children. It went on to further explain that all of her school things and all of her diaries would be placed in her school trunk and put in the Potter vault, with a charm on it to move itself to wherever Harry was living on his 7th birthday just in case something happened to them while they were in hiding. It was further stated that a charm was placed on the trunk so that only a selected few people would be able to move it and open it.

As Harry finished reading the diaries, he was being pulled in a bunch of different directions emotionally. He was as happy as could be that he finally learned about his parents, and was happy that he got to learn some things about them, even if it was only through his mother's diary. He was sad, though, since he now knew that his parents hadn't died in a car crash, as the Dursleys had insinuated, but that they were killed by Voldemort. It was the only logical explanation. How else would two adult wizards die and leave a baby with only a single scar?

And with that came the questions. If Harry and his parents went into hiding, and both of his parents were killed, how is it that only he survived? How exactly did he get that scar on his forehead? If his parents had so many wizard friends, why is it that Harry has never met any of them? And, the one that burned in his head the brightest... If his mother and her sister were still not speaking to each other, why would Harry be placed here after their death? Surely, knowing a dark lord is after you, you would be sure that your child would have a loving family to grow up with. They HAD to know that the Dursleys are spiteful people!

These were questions that Harry had no answers to. Maybe in the future he would be able to find someone who could answer them, but until then, he would learn as much as possible about magic and how to use it. He knew that he didn't have a wand, but he seemed to be able to do magic without one so far, and he hadn't found anything that he had tried that he wasn't able to do, so it can't hurt to go through the school books and learn what he can, could it?


	4. Rewritten: Learning and Preparing

A/N: I've had a couple people question a statement I posted in my author's note in Chapter 1 about updating if I get reviews. I guess I didn't mean it the way people are taking it. My only point is that I'm more likely to update if I know that people like and read the story, and my only way of telling that is if people review. Hit counts are all well and good, but they don't tell me if someone actually read the story, they only tell me that someone clicked a link and loaded the page. Reviews are an author's lifeline. Also, though I have 12 Chapters written, I don't have 12 Chapters proofread-and-ready for publishing. That is why only the first three chapters were posted, because those were the only ones I felt comfortable posting in their current form. I expect the next 8-9 Chapters will go up over the course of the next week or so, and then updates will be slower, as I'll have to write, change, then proofread each chapter before I post it.

I also like reviews, as it gives me an idea of what my readers are thinking, possibly bringing up things I had not considered so far. Reviews help me create a better, more accurate and more thorough story. I'll also accept flames, as long as there's a useful piece of criticism in there as well. If I screw something up, and you yell at me for it, then it's my fault. Posting a flame containing something like "YOU SUCK, YOUR STORY SUCKS, AND YOU SHOULD JUMP OFF A BRIDGE" is not something that's useful to me. If I suck, and my story sucks, tell me what sucks about it and I may be able to either fix it or write better in the future. I'm also not likely to jump off a bridge no matter how many people tell me that I should, so... Well... There you go...

For those who have not read my profile, this chapter is the first largely-rewritten chapter of this story. I had originally wrote up to chapter 12 and posted it, but found that I had written myself into a corner and couldn't figure out how to get the story back in line with my outline, so I had to go all the way back to here to make it work. I made some minor changes in Chapter 3, which led to the changes in chapter 4 here. From here on out, a lot of the story will be new (while still using the ideas of my previous chapters)...

Now, on with the story...

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Chapter 4: Learning and Preparing...

By the time Harry had finished reading through the diaries, school was letting out for summer. Normally, Harry would not be looking forward to the summer, as it means that he's available to be Dudley's punching bag 24/7, but since his fight with Piers, and the broken hand, Dudley and his gang seemed less enthusiastic about beating up on Harry anymore. They still tried to intimidate him, but Harry was no longer a scared little boy. He now exerted an aura of confidence, and that confidence unnerved Dudley and his friends somewhat. They had decided to find other kids to beat up.

The other reason he normally didn't look forward to summer was that meant his birthday was coming up, and no doubt another beating. Harry was not scared of his uncle anymore. He had already proven to himself that his magic can protect him from his uncle, and that his acting skills were up to par to fake out his yearly beating.

In actuality, this year, Harry was very happy that the summer was here. This meant that he could spend all of his time learning all he could about magic. One by one he planned to go through all of his mother's school books and learn as much from them as he could. Since it was summer, that also meant that his favorite spot on the roof of the school would be readily available and private. Nobody would bother him up there, and since he could create his food, he would continue to eat well without the need to see the Dursleys at all.

And so it began. Every day, without fail, Harry would leave the Dursley household as soon as breakfast was finished, and would not return to the house until after dark. Initially Harry was worried that if he was out too late that the Dursleys would report him missing, but it seemed that the Dursleys didn't care one way or the other. Harry was always awake early enough to cook their breakfast, and was home just after dark, and well before his aunt and uncle went to bed. Conversation between Harry and his aunt and uncle was minimal, just the way that both of them liked it.

The first book Harry searched for was the one his mother had hinted to in her diaries. Turns out that she had managed to put two books together. The first one was titled "So you've found out you're magical: A muggleborn guide to the wizarding world". The preface explained that the book was written by a muggleborn, and intended to be read by a muggleborn. The goal of the book was to explain the wizarding world in such a way that a muggleborn would understand. It went on to say that there were many books on wizarding etiquette, wizarding laws, traditions, and such, but all of them seemed to be written by purebloods and written with the assumption that the reader has a basic understanding of the wizarding world.

The second book was titled "The next generation of Magic: A radical approach to teaching the next generation of Magic users". The preface explained the book was written with the sole intention of changing the way that magic was taught so as to make a stronger, more capable Magic user. It went on to say that as a recent graduate of Hogwarts, she understood what was taught, but believed that if things had been taught differently, or in a different order, or even if some things that weren't taught in school WERE taught there, that it would make the student much more capable in the end.

Harry started with the first book. The structure of it was easy for Harry, even as a 7 year old, to understand. It wasn't very technical, but gave a broad understanding of how the wizarding world worked. It started by explaining that most modern muggle technology did not work in a magic heavy environment, and that this was the hardest part for a muggleborn entering the magical world. From there it went on to explain how the magical world did the things that muggle technology did. It then followed with the Statute of Secrecy, and explained what it was, what the rules were, and why it was in place. This section also explained why the wizarding world and the muggle world were kept separated. Following that was an explanation of the Underage magic laws, and the reason for those as well. It then explained wizarding currency, and by extension, Gringotts bank. From there, it went on to explain the most common species of sentient beings likely to be encountered in the magical world, and where/when you are most likely to encounter them.

From there it went on to less interesting topics. It gave an overview of the Ministry, Major Ministry departments, and licensing information. Harry was interested to note that what he was doing was called apparition, and was not something that was supposed to be done until one was 17 and licensed. He made a mental note to be sure not to let anyone know that he could do it. He also noted that you could be licensed for other things he hasn't even considered. Long distance apparition, side-along apparition, portkey creation, animagus registration, and ward-building. Harry made it a point to look up the specifics of all of the licensed and registered abilities.

Next was the basic everyday laws, and by extension the DMLE (Aurors). That led into information about the Wizengamot and it's rules for court proceedings. That led to a quick blurb about Azkaban, the wizarding prison.

The final informational section of the book explained things like oaths, life debts, and unbreakable vows. She cautioned the reader about what they say, and how they say it, because unlike the muggle world, an unbreakable vow is just like it says. Unbreakable. Even if the vow was made unintentionally, with nobody else around, if it is made, magic will force you to keep it.

The last section of the book was common mistakes and misconceptions that muggles make about magic. This was more of a myth vs fact section, and was quite the interesting read.

Overall, it took Harry about a week to read the book front to back. He then took a couple days to absorb it, and then skim over it again to make sure he didn't miss anything important. Now that he had a fairly decent understanding of the wizarding world, he moved on to the next book, which was the one he was most interested to read.

The second book turned out to be a very interesting read. The first chapter was mostly the author's (Lily's) opinions on magic and how it was taught. It started out by stating her opinion that magic was being taught backwards. As a graduate of Hogwarts, her later years and private study led her to believe that because a typical 11 year old is impatient by nature, and wants to see and use magic immediately, that the teaching of magic itself was done in such a way to give instant gratification. Incantations and wand movements are ingrained into the students' heads, and results are seen, without an understanding of why the results happened. It also stated the opinion that magic was taught for 5 years, then during the students' 6th and 7th year a lot of what was taught has to be un-learned so the student can learn more advanced ways of using magic. It was also thought by the author (Lily) that if meditation and occlumency were taught at a young age when a child's mind is still under development, that most of the impulsiveness in a typical 11 year old could be curbed enough to allow for early teachings to focus on theory. Theory, or the understanding of "why" magic works, makes magic inherently stronger. And by teaching occlumency starting at a younger age, a child's mind develops into a more organized adult mind.

The book went on to explain that wands were used to focus magical energy, but that constant use of the crutch made the user dependent on it. This opinion is based on a young child's use of 'accidental magic', and that accidental magic is done without a wand or incantation. As a child enters school and learns to use a wand, accidental magic all but disappears except in the most extreme cases. It is thought that since a student is taught as a first-year that a wand is needed to perform magic, that a student believes that in his or her mind, and subconsciously doesn't allow themselves to perform wandless (accidental) magic anymore. Lily's opinion on the subject was that if the student had enough power, that anything that could be done with a wand could also be done without one. Though it was noted that magic cast without a wand was not as powerful or focused as magic cast with a wand, but was more than sufficient for most day to day magic. This is also another place where meditation and occlumency would be important, as occlumency not only helps organize the mind (making it easier to learn and understand, and easier to retain and recall information), but also helps the mind focus, block out distractions, detect abnormalities and intrusions, and protect itself. The extra retention and recall of information, along with the focus gained, would both be crucial to the learning of wandless magic.

The next major opinion of the first chapter was that magic was just that, magic. While the magical world in general separated the different kinds of magic into curses, hexes, jinxes, charms, transfiguration, shields, wards, light magic and dark magic, etc, the long and short of it all was that it was all just magic. It all comes from the same magical core. The difference is in your mind, and how you USE that magic to get the desired effect. Hexes, curses, and charms in general required you to focus your mind on the effect you want the magic to have, while transfiguration required you to not only focus on what you want, but what you're starting with, and all the changes between what you have and what you want. Conjuring required precise details in your mind. Light magic required positive emotions, while dark magic required negative emotions. If your mindset is proper for the magic you want to use and you have enough raw magical power, incantations and wand movements (or wands for that matter) are largely unimportant.

The final opinion of the first chapter was that a healthy body was better able to channel magic than an unhealthy body. A body in shape could channel more magic, and could last longer in a duel.

The chapter closed by stating that she believed that a child should start their magical education by use of tutors earlier than 11 years old. If a child started around the age of 9, then occlumency, meditation, and some basic magical, potions, and herbology theory could be taught before the child officially started their formal education at age 11. This early tutoring would give a student a huge jump start on their magical education, which would result in a better magic user.

Harry read this first chapter twice while thinking of the implications of it. If it were true (which he believed – who doesn't want to believe what their mother says?), then this could be huge! Having read through his mother's diaries, he has a pretty good idea of the early teachings at Hogwarts, as the first couple years' worth of journals documented the things she learned pretty thoroughly. While he had mostly skipped the technical stuff when reading through the diaries, he did pick up enough to note that incantations and wand movements seemed to be important. At the time it struck him as odd, since he didn't seem to need either of them to do his magic, and the first chapter of this book seemed to give him a pretty good reason why.

The second chapter of the book started with the basics of meditation and the first step towards learning occlumency. Both of them go hand in hand. The ability to focus inward while clearing your mind of outside influences and random thought was the first step in learning occlumency. Harry read through this chapter twice as well, focusing on what he needed to do, and the different ways that he could go about doing it. He spent 4 days getting to the point where he could go into a meditative state on demand. While in a meditative state, he noticed that it was just blackness with random thoughts floating around, seemingly randomly. He spent another full day going into and out of a meditative state, just to be sure that he was proficient in this first step before moving on to Chapter 3.

The third chapter of the book focused on organizing your mind, your thoughts, your emotions, and your memories. It gave several examples on how to create your 'mindscape' or 'storage location', and how to organize his thoughts, but stated that each person is different. The book went on to theorize that the older a person is when learning occlumency, the longer it would take, as an older person would have more memories to sort through. The book also warned that this shouldn't be done for more than 2-3 hours at a time, as headaches were common.

So Harry's days were started by doing some stretching exercises, followed by a slow jog around the neighborhood. He'd finish up by doing push-ups and sit-ups. He then spent a couple hours in the morning sorting through his memories. When his head started hurting, he'd take a break and practice moving objects around using his magic. It was tiring, though not in a physical way, but the more he did it, the easier it became. His magic seemed to work like a muscle, the more you used it, the stronger it becomes. When he was magically tired from moving objects around, he'd go back to sorting through his memories for another couple of hours. After that he would take a break and relax, eventually returning to the Dursley's residence. He'd spend another hour or so before going to sleep going through his memories. Even at just 7 years old, this process took almost 3 weeks to go through each and every memory in his head.

His 'mindscape' resembled the only place he had ever seen information organized, his school library. In his mind, he created a room with plenty of light, with a table and a chair in the middle of it. Around the table were sections of bookshelves. There was a single door on one side of the library as an entry way into his mindscape. One section of his mind library consisted solely of books he had read, and organized them the same way that a regular library would. The other main section of his library was his experiences and observations. As he went through each memory, he filed anything important away in the appropriate section of his library. It was a very tedious process, going through each and every memory, many of which were painful to remember. But muddle through it he did. When he had gone through all of his memories and experiences, everything that was unimportant (what he ate for breakfast, the walks to and from the school, his morning jogs, etc) were shunted outside of the library to float around outside, leaving the inside of his mindscape clean and tidy.

The fourth chapter of the book consisted of creating alarms and traps, guarding from outside interference. This chapter gave a quick blurb about legillemency, what it was, how it was performed, and the different levels of it. Harry was intrigued about the idea that simply looking into somebody's eyes could give a legillemens flashes of surface thoughts. He was more disturbed about the idea that a proficient legillemens could cast silently and read deep into your thoughts and memories without anyone being the wiser. He vowed that at some point he was going to learn to do this.

At this point, Harry was a little stumped. He wasn't sure really how to set alarms and traps that would effectively alert him of a legillemens attack. He decided that for the moment, he was just going to build a fence around the outside of where his inconsequential thoughts floated around outside of his library. This fence was to be rigged with a silent alarm to alert him should anything try to cross it. As an afterthought, he also put a regular alarm on the door to enter his library so that one way or another, he would know if somebody entered it.

The fifth chapter of the book was all about building shields to protect his mind from a brute-force assault. The book warned that this would be very time consuming, taking as much as a year or more to build shields that would repel even a medium level assault. The recommendation from the book was that the person learning occlumency spend at least 30 minutes each night before going to sleep strengthening his shields. The book said that the mind would get used to strengthening the shields regularly, and after about a month of doing it every evening, would instinctively start doing it during down time during the day as well. Harry chose to take it one step further, and spend 30 minutes on it around lunch time, and 30 minutes before going to bed every evening.

The sixth and final occlumency-related chapter of the book was an overview of advanced occlumency techniques. It did not go into details, but did inform Harry about some ideas on advanced ways that the mind can protect itself. Things like training the mind to evade an incoming legillemens attack instead of relying on shields and traps. Or the idea of the mind making itself invisible so that an incoming legillemens probe has nothing to attach itself to. Finally the ultimate goal of creating a "fake" mindscape and being able to "fake" memories in such a way that a legillemens thinks he has found your mind and has read your memories. There was also a blurb on a theoretical idea of setting traps that would hurt a legillemens if they attempted to access whatever it was protecting. This chapter also referred it's reader of a number of books that could help him in these areas, but warned that most of them were restricted or outright banned by the Ministry of Magic.

-- HP --

The next seven chapters of the book started in on actual magical training. They focused on basic magical theory, an introduction to charms and transfiguration, an introduction to arithmancy and ancient runes, an introduction to herbology and potions, an introduction to magical and muggle defense techniques, an introduction to healing, and an introduction to astronomy and divination. It was explained that these seven chapters introduced the reader to the main branches of magic taught at every major magical school around the world.

The theory chapter was long and boring, but helped Harry start to understand how magic is performed. During his meditations, he had seen what he believed to be his magical core, but didn't really have anything to compare it to. After reading the magical theory chapter, he now understood that his magical core determined how much raw power he had access to, and that if his observations were correct, his core was approximately the size of a normal second or third year student, though it appeared to be more dense and brighter in color than was described in the book. He also understood why he felt "tired" without being physically tired after doing his levitation exercises. It was because he was draining his magical core, and taking breaks from using his magic and doing other things (like his mental exercises) gave his core time to recharge. He also found out while reading this chapter that the constant draining and recharging of his magical core was the reason why his core was larger and brighter than it should be. His core, or magic "muscle" was growing larger, stronger, and more dense because he was exercising it regularly.

The charms and transfiguration chapter was interesting in that they were introduced together. The author (Lily) believed that they were the same magic, only cast differently. The spellcasting part of Defense against the Dark Arts was also lumped into this category. It was simply broken down into a general "spellcasting" category, in which you expel magic outside of your body to get a desired effect. It mattered not whether you wanted to levitate something, bind somebody in ropes, or change a pincushion into a teacup. All of these actions require you to focus your mind on what you want to do, sent out magic towards the person or object you wished to affect, and maintain your focus on that person or object long enough to be sure the intended change was made. Even inanimate to animated transfiguration boiled down to focus. Sure, it was harder to transfigure a live animal, but it was only because it was harder to focus on all the aspects of a live animal. Most people only pay attention to the outside looks of an animal, but what makes an animal alive is so much more.

Arithmancy and Ancient Runes were the topic of the next chapter. Again, these two subjects, which are normally taught in separate classes in formal schools, work hand in hand. Arithmancy is the study of magical numbers, and Ancient Runes is the study of magical pictures. The combination of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes is the basis for Ward casting and ritual magic.

The next chapter was an introduction to Potions and Herbology. Again, separately taught subjects in formal schooling that go hand in hand in reality. A mastery in one almost always means a mastery in the other. It was also noted that Care of Magical Creatures and Healing are also very closely related to these two subjects, as potions ingredients are primarily made up of either the plants studied in herbology or parts from magical creatures. The use and application of said potions are primarily used in healing, though there are other uses for potions outside of healing.

The magical and muggle defense chapter focused more on fitness, dueling tactics and martial arts. Since the spellcasting part of it was already covered in the charms and transfiguration chapter, this chapter focused on being aware of your surroundings, identifying threats, and responding to them. It also touched upon one-on-one duels, as well as group tactics, fight-vs-flee decisions, and the like. The author recommended picking at least one form of martial arts to study.

The healing chapter focused mostly on the muggle subject of Biology, specifically human biology and physiology. Understanding how a body works is key to understanding how to heal it should it become damaged in some way.

And finally, the astronomy and divination chapter explained that these were two subjects that are typically taught separately, but though not identical, are very similar in reality. Divination focuses on different ways of seeing the future, or possible future as it may turn out to be, while Astronomy is the study of how the alignment of the stars can affect current and future events.

The first appendix of the book gave a quick overview of many magical talents. Animagi, Metamorphmagi, Parselmouth, Seer, and Beast Speaker. It also touched upon proven cases of magical ESP, which is the ability to augment your normal senses through the use of magic.

The end of the book also had a second appendix that gave a list of books that could be used as references for many of the subjects. Potions had many reference books and charts that could be used to quickly look up interactions between different ingredients, as well as general properties of both the plants used in herbology and the parts of magical creatures. There were also quick reference books listed for Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, dueling, astronomy and divination.

-- HP --

About a week before his birthday, Harry had decided that it was about time that he found this Diagon Alley, and checked out all that it had to offer. If his mother's descriptions were anything to go on, then he was in for a real treat. Having finished the books written by his mother, he had also decided on a short break from the books, and used that week to go through the rest of the stuff in his mother's trunk. He found tons of letters, class notes, and (MOVING!) pictures inside them. For the first time, Harry saw a picture of his parents. He recognized them right away, even if he had never seen them before. He recognized his own eyes on the face of a beautiful girl that could only be his mother. She had long, beautiful red hair. He also recognized his facial structure, and especially his perpetually unruly hair on top of what could only be his father. It seems that his father wore glasses as well, but none as gaudy as what Harry himself was wearing. He also found pictures of the Marauders, and based on the descriptions from his mother's diary, be figured out who each of them were. Sirius was easy. He was handsome and was always in a picture with Harry's father. They always seemed to be goofing off in the pictures. Remus and Peter were a little harder to tell apart, but after a few pictures, Harry believed that he had got them right. Remus almost always seemed to look tired in his pictures, which seemed strange for a school-aged child. Peter always seemed to be just poking his head into each picture he was in from a corner or from a shadow. Harry recognized the shyness portrayed in the pictures. And, though there were plenty of pictures of people Harry didn't know, he was unable to identify any of them based solely on the descriptions that were in his mother's diary.

Harry had decided that Saturday, July 29th was going to be the day. As the day approached, Harry was a little nervous, and having second thoughts. Though he had read all of his mother's diaries, and learned quite a bit about magic itself, he really didn't know anything about witches and wizards themselves. He knew from the clothes in his mother's trunk that witches (and presumably wizards) wore cloaks over themselves instead of a normal coat. This, Harry felt, would make his life easier. He had every intention of making himself look older so he wouldn't be questioned about why he was roaming around on his own, but the cloak further helped hide him. Basically all he had to do was make himself taller, and he could probably pass for an almost fully grown wizard.

The morning of the 29th dawned clear and relatively cool, considering the heat that had been the norm for the bulk of the previous week. Harry had already pulled out a cloak from his mothers trunk. It was a basic black cloak, and didn't seem to be tailored to his mother specifically. He dressed quickly in his best clothes (which were still rags by other people's standards), placed the cloak inside a bag which he had grabbed from his cousin's room, and headed out the door with a pocketful of collected change from around the house. He intended to take a bus to London, and would find the Leaky Cauldron from there.

Once Harry emerged from the bus on Charring Cross road, finding the Leaky Cauldron was pathetically simple. On his first walk down the road, Harry immediately spotted people who were also dressed in cloaks headed into and out of what looked like a small pub. Harry was amazed that nobody had noticed their strange attire, but eventually dismissed it as another strange facet of Magic. Ducking into an alleyway, he called forth his magic and used it to make himself taller, and put his mother's cloak over himself, making sure that he was covered as well as possible. He still didn't know much about witches and wizards in general, and felt the need to be cautious, since it would stand to reason that the person who killed his parents could still be around, and it would not do any good to be noticed. Harry then took a deep breath and headed towards the Leaky Cauldron. He followed what could only be another wizard into the Leaky Cauldron, and continued to follow them when they went out back into the alleyway, towards what Harry already knew was the entrance into the alley. As he passed through the tavern, he noticed a few different areas. One area looked like a pub, while another looked like a small restaurant. There also seemed to be rooms for rent, if the signs above the bar were to be believed. Sure enough, a moment later, the wizard he was following used his wand to tap the bricks, and Harry watched, silently amazed, as the bricks moved into a beautiful archway. The beauty of the archway was nothing compared to the sight that he found on the other side. Harry stood in awe of what looked like a small town full of the strangest stores he had ever seen. As the archway started to close again, Harry came to his senses and stepped through it. After a moment, Harry thought to himself, "Yeah, I think I'm going to like it here..." Harry then headed off into the town, blending into the crowds that were already filling the streets.

At the other end of the street was the most awe-inspiring building he had ever seen. It was huge compared to the many little shops that lined each side of the street. It looked like it was made from white marble, and had a pair of huge bronze doors on the front, and over them was an overhang supported by four pillars. Even from this distance, Harry could see that there appeared to be statues on top of the overhang and next to the doors. Harry had seen this building described in his mother's diary, but nothing could have prepared him for the real thing. Right away, he recognized it as Gringotts, the Wizarding bank. Immediately Harry headed towards it. He figured he would start at the top and work his way back.

Harry approached the wizarding bank with more apparent confidence then he really had. On his way there, nobody paid him any mind, so he was happy about that, but as he approached Gringotts, he noticed two goblins standing outside of the open doors to the bank. Again, Harry had seen descriptions of them in his mother's diary, but those descriptions didn't hold a candle to actually seeing one in person. Putting his acting skills to full use now, he strode up to the front doors with a perceived air of confidence. As he approached the door, he nodded once to each goblin, and after a moment, they each bowed back to him. He then proceeded inside.

Once through the set of Bronze doors, Harry was facing a second set of doors, silver this time from all appearances. These doors had words engraved upon them.

_Enter, stranger, but take heed,  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there. _

A pair of goblins bowed at him as he passed through the silver doors into a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. "If the outside of this building is impressive, then the inside is absolutely breathtaking..." was the only thing going through Harry's mind. After a moment, Harry realized that his mouth was open and that he was dangerously close to drooling on himself. He closed his mouth quickly and slowly strolled through the large hall.

On a hunch, Harry decided to go up to one of the tellers to find out if his parents had an account here. As he approached a teller, he became a little more nervous. Goblins didn't look mean, per se, but they did not really look friendly either. Putting his acting skills again to full use, he walked up to the teller.

"May I help you?"

"Yes, please. I have come to inquire if my parents had an open account here when they died." Harry responded.

"I am sorry, Sir. I cannot disclose account information to anyone but the vault holders. If they have passed, and you were intended to have any of the contents of their vaults, then it would be in your name, and not your parents. If you would like, I can check on accounts belonging to you." The goblin sounded almost (almost being the key word here) apologetic.

"Forgive me. I am unaccustomed to the rules and ways. Please, could you check to see if I have an account here please?"

"Yes, sir. Would you happen to have your key?"

"Key, sir?"

"Never mind. What is your name?"

"Harry Potter, sir"

At this, the goblin startled, and took a close look at Harry. The goblin then snarled slightly and informed Harry that he could not possibly he Harry Potter, as Harry was much younger. It seemed strange to Harry that a goblin, who from what he could tell, always seemed to be unfazed by anything, would be startled by his name alone. It also seemed strange that the goblin would know right away how old Harry should be. This was filed away into the back of his mind for later review.

"I apologize, sir. I have changed my appearance to avoid being questioned about walking through the alley alone at my age. I am Harry Potter."

"I see." said the goblin. "If you could step this way into a more private setting, then we should be able to get this resolved quickly."

The goblin then placed a "Next Teller" sign in his window and stepped to the side, beckoning Harry to follow. After a moment's hesitation, Harry did so, and both the goblin and Harry stepped into a small room off of the main hall which contained a small couch, a desk, and a couple of comfortable chairs in it.

"Please wait here for a moment. I must contact a manager so that we can confirm your identity and get you a replacement key, as it appears that your old one is lost to you." And with that, the goblin left, and Harry took a seat on the couch to wait.

Less than two minutes later, the same goblin reentered the room, followed by an older looking goblin that was carrying a small wooden case of some sort. The older goblin sat in the chair at the desk, carefully placing the case on top of it. "Good morning, sir. My name is Glabtrap, and I am a manager here at Gringotts." As he said this, he opened the case and removed a small bowl and a piece of parchment, placing the bowl on top of the parchment on the desk.

"Good morning, sir. It is a pleasure to meet you."

For the second time that morning, a goblin seemed startled in Harry's presence. Harry didn't know what to think about this. Was something wrong with him?

"Yes, well. The pleasure is mine, sir. I will need you to place your thumb inside of this bowl for a moment. You will feel a slight sting in your thumb, as your blood is checked to confirm your identity. Once that is taken care of, we can get you a replacement key and can discuss your accounts here at Gringotts."

Harry did not miss the plural form of account that the goblin used. Apparently he had more than one account here.

Harry placed his thumb in the bowl, and just as the goblin warned, a quick pinch and a slight sting emanated from his thumb, and as his blood pooled in the small bowl, red lines started weaving their way out of the bottom of the bowl. After a moment, the red lines started forming into words on the parchment.

Name: Harry James Potter, Esq.  
Sex: Male  
Date of Birth: 31 July 1980

Birth Mother: Lily (Evans) Potter (Deceased)  
Birth Father: James Potter (Deceased)  
Siblings: None

Current age: 7 years, 363 days, 4 hours, 23 minutes, 14 seconds

Legal Guardian:Sirius Orion Black (Imprisoned)  
Acting Guardians:Unknown (Muggle)

Active Vaults: Potter Family Vault - HS19  
Trust Vault - 687  
Other Vaults - 423, 2320, 8367  
Unnumbered Vaults - 2  
Linked Vaults - 9220 (Alpha Bank London)

As the words formed on the page, Harry put a great amount of effort into not looking astonished at what lay before him. Most of the information he already knew (Name, sex, Birth date, and parents), but some of it he didn't. Sirius Orion Black? Is that the same Sirius that was in his mother's diary? And, what does it mean, imprisoned? Why was he imprisoned? Five vaults? What could he possibly need five vaults for? What was an unnumbered vault? What was a Linked vault? Harry did recognize the name of "Alpha Bank London", though. Another interesting tidbit is that the bank's test couldn't identify the Dursleys, presumably because they were muggles (a term Harry had learned to mean non-magical)...

"Well, Mr. Potter, now that your identity has been confirmed, we can discuss your business at this bank. As you can see, you have a number of accounts here. Are there any questions you have for me before we create you a new key?"

At this point, Harry was so overwhelmed that he couldn't maintain his act. "I'm sorry, sir. This was a lot of information to take in in such a short time. I don't even know what I am doing or what all of these accounts are. I only came to check for account information on a whim. Until two minutes ago, I didn't even know if there were any accounts here, and certainly none in my name."

It took a moment, but the goblin's features softened a little (as much as a goblin's features can soften) and asked what magical training and knowledge Harry possessed. Harry didn't really understand the question, but tried to answer it anyway.

"Honestly, I had an idea that something was different about me a little less than a year ago. Strange things kept happening to me, and over the course of this year, I discovered Magic. I didn't really know what it was, but I found that if I could concentrate properly, I could make things happen. It was less than two months ago when I discovered my mother's old school trunk, which contained her diaries and old school books. It was only then that I learned that what I was doing was actually magic. Since then, I've read all of the diaries and tried to understand all of the things that she was writing about, and I have read through a couple of introduction to magic books. Other than that, I didn't even know the magical world existed, let alone Gringotts or Diagon Alley."

"Hmm. That wasn't really what I meant when I asked the question, but your answer still managed to tell me what I needed to know. I take it from your answer that you have been raised completely muggle, and have no idea about the Potter family heritage? I do assume also that you do not know how your parents died?"

"I know almost nothing about the Potter line, or my heritage. The only thing I know about my parents deaths is that sometime after October 15, 1981, my parents went into hiding because Voldemort (the goblin flinched) was after them. I sorta guessed that the plan didn't work, and he somehow got to them anyway. I do occasionally have dreams of a confrontation that ends with a green flash, and I wake up with a headache, but that's about it."

"Well, I would say that you are ill-prepared to step fully into the wizarding world. You, Mr. Potter, are a hero in the eyes of many magical beings of this world. On Halloween, 1981, you are correct in that He-who-must-not-be-named did find you and your parents in your cottage in Godric's Hollow. That night, both of your parents were murdered, and he attempted to do the same to you. For some reason that nobody knows, the curse he tried to use on you backfired on him, leaving you with only a lightning-shaped scar on your forehead. Some say that you-know-who died on that night, but others now say that he is not dead and will be back someday. As for your heritage, it is a very long story that dates back to before the founding of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I would suggest that you maintain your disguise while you are in this world until you learn about all of it's intricacies and stories. Only then will you be able to show yourself properly in this world."

As the goblin explained these things to him, a flurry of emotions crossed over Harry's face. Sadness, Anger, Surprise, Awe, and just about everything in between. Harry was happy to finally understand what happened to his parents, and to get a straight answer as to how he got the scar on his forehead, but saddened to know the truth about his parents' death. Knowing somehow made it more real. More permanent. If he was overwhelmed with the information he had received earlier, he was in mental shutdown mode now.

"I can understand that this is a lot of information to take in in such a short period of time. If you would like, I can get you some recommendations about books you can read at your leisure that will help you to understand the magical world. Then, once you have completed them, I would be happy to help you with anything else you need to know."

Harry agreed, and they went through the process of making Harry's replacement key, since the original one was in an unknown location. Glabtrap also explained that for the moment, he would advise not going into any of the vaults with the exception of the trust vault and the Linked vault. The trust vault is for Harry's unlimited use until he becomes of age, and the Linked vault is a vault that is connected to the Muggle bank Alpha Bank of London. The primary function of the Muggle linked vault is so that the muggle bank can be used as a source of an ATM/Charge card for use in the muggle world. Glabtrap also created an ATM/Charge card that is connected to the muggle bank account. Glabtrap explained to Harry that only he would be able to use the ATM/Charge card, and that his age would not be questioned when he used it. Glabtrap did warn, though, that the card could not be used to purchase age restricted items that Harry was not yet old enough to purchase.

Another surprise that Harry received was when Glabtrap handed Harry what looked like an ink stamp. "This, Mr. Potter, is a stamp that can be used for Owl Order Catalogues. This stamp is self-inking, and is only usable by you. The purpose of this stamp is to allow purchases through owl order catalogues without disclosing your name. All you will need to do is put in a delivery address and stamp the order form with this stamp. The only connection between your name and this stamp is housed within the walls of Gringotts, and we are VERY serious about confidentiality. We only give these stamps to valued customers, and, at this moment, there are less than 100 of these in circulation. This stamp will allow withdrawls from one of the 'unnumbered vaults' listed on the paper we created using your blood earlier. The 'unnumbered vault' that this stamp authorizes withdrawl from is connected to your trust account. The use of this stamp is just like any purchase from your regular vault, except that by using this stamp, you are guaranteed anonymity at the store you are purchasing from". Harry wasn't quite sure what that meant, but the ability to order without disclosing his name was definitely a good idea, since it appeared that his name was well known in the wizarding world.

Once this was completed, Glabtrap called in another goblin, Griphook, to bring Harry to his trust vault, number 687. As Harry left the room, thanking Glabtrap for his time, he was told to stop back on his way out for a list of recommended books to pick up to properly learn about the wizarding world. Harry's mind was still in shutdown mode and had completely forgot about it, but promised that he would before he left.

The ride in the carts were quite fun for Harry, who had never been on so much as a rollercoaster in his life, but it ended much too quickly for Harry's liking. As Griphook stepped out of the cart, he asked Harry for the lantern and his Key, both of which Harry handed to the goblin. Once the vault was opened, Harry was again in awe. The huge piles of Gold, Silver, and Bronze were impressive to say the least. After picking his jaw back up off of the floor, Harry grabbed one of the many velvet moneybags that were in a container just inside the vault's door, and filled it with handfuls of coins. Harry was pleased to note that though the bag was getting more and more full, it was not getting any larger on the outside, nor was it getting any heavier.

When he was finished, Harry and Griphook went back up to the lobby area, and Harry went to meet with Glabtrap to get the book recommendations. When he looked at the book list, he was a little surprised at some of them. A History of Magic, Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, Introduction to the Wizarding way of life, Hogwarts: A History, and Ministry of Magic: Then and Now were pretty straightforward. However, there was also some books that surprised Harry. Magical Beasts and Where to find them, Introduction to the Languages and Customs of foreign beings, and Wards for protection and detection 101 all seemed like strange books for someone who wants to learn about wizards and wizarding ways. After a moment of thought, he decided that the last one wasn't such a bad one, but the first two seemed like odd books for what he needed. Ultimately he decided that the goblin knew best what he would need to learn, since he had no real frame of reference to go on.

After handing Harry the list, he also reached in a drawer and pulled out two books, which he also gave to Harry. "These books are for your eyes only. This first one, Eye of the Mind, is a book on reading other people's thoughts, and protection from others reading your thoughts. It is not available anywhere for sale to my knowledge. This second one, which has no official title, is a book that tells similar stories that would be included in the 'A History of magic' and 'Ministry of Magic: Then and Now', but are told from a Goblin's point of view. This book is normally not to be shown to any human, and is used to teach our own kind about our ways, as well as our point of view of our history with Wizard kind. You, however, strike me as a wizard that does not hold the typical wizard kind prejudices, and because of that, I wanted to give you a way to view both perspectives of our rather shaky history with Wizards. It should be enlightening for you to read, and may also give you a better perspective of some of the other stories that are in the history books that were written by Wizards. Also, when reading any history book about any kind of conflict, remember that the 'official history' is usually written by the victors...

And with that, Harry used his magic and recreated his 'alter ego' and pulled the cloak back over his head, and headed out into Diagon Alley...


End file.
