20141031

"It seemed so easy when I read others'" whispered the wannabe writer. "In fact, it's hard to find some inspiration without being cliché." At that, he closed his laptop and got up to fill himself a glass of orange juice before heading off to bed. People often told him that drinking orange juice before going to sleep was stupid, that it was too full of sugar and that it prevented sleep. He shrugged at that and took a sip of his juice. Why should he care? This never prevented him to sleep before. He finished his glass, put it on his table and got to bed. "I'll try again tomorrow after work, I couldn't possibly be less inspired than tonight." He never noticed the intricate pattern of runes drawn under his bed.

And that night, despite his habits, it took him long to sleep. He dreamt about the world of Harry Potter, in a way far more real than he ever had. His own world seemed dull and distant in comparison. This was not his phone alarm that woke him up the next morning but the strong and angry voice of someone ready to burn up. "Fucking neighbours, always pissing everyone off." That's at the sound of his voice that he noticed something was wrong. Something was really wrong. Before he could have anymore time to think about this, his eyes hurt from the sudden light diving into his room. And then a plump hand grabbed him and roughly pulled him out of his bed. Or that's what he thought. His 'chamber' and 'bed' were actually a dusty cupboard under the stairs and an old and shabby mattress. In front of him was a gigantic, obese man whose large moustache would make any 20th century dictator proud. "IT'S NEARLY HALF PAST SEVEN AND THE BREAKFAST ISN'T READY YET, YOU'RE IN FOR A ROUGH TIME BOY!"

19901101

Harry was back in his cupboard after making breakfast and enduring a much too long list of threats from Vernon Dursley. But wait, his name wasn't Harry of course. For 21 years he'd been called Dan, at least as far as he could remember. And yet, here he was, in Harry Potter's body. How could this be possible? He wasn't dreaming and pinching himself hadn't been necessary for him to realize that. It had begun with the rude awakening of being pulled from his 'bed' and yelled at by the mastodon that was Dursley Senior. At first he thought that the man was somehow a giant but then he realised where he was. How could this be possible?! Changing from the perspective of a 21 year-old man to the one of a 10 or 11 year-old boy was very disconcerting.

And how odd to have to pretend that everything was normal and to cook for the Dursleys. The Dursleys! Shit! He didn't have to be a genius to realise what troubles he'd be in if he didn't play along with the Dursleys. Even being sure that he, himself, wasn't Harry Potter. He could be beaten to a pulp by this aggressive idiotic man that was Vernon Dursley in no time. No, he couldn't do anything they could consider weird. If this family was the same as the one he had read about so many times in J. K. Rowling's books, being weird at 4 Privet Drive was a one-way ticket to hell.

So there he was, in his cupboard. How could anyone in any real world inflict this to an innocent child? The Dursleys were really obtuse people who were just stupidly denying the facts which bothered them. Again, that was something quite recurrent in The Harry Potter universe. The wizarding world seemed to be full of people just burying their heads in the sand. But there was plenty of time to get to know the people of this world if he remained stuck here. After all, that could be the adventure of a lifetime. Supposing everything from the books he'd read again and again since he was a child was true.

At this point, this was the most important thing for him to verify. Was everything written by J. K. Rowling facts or was he in some kind of alternate universe only similar to it? And in any case, was he in some sort of illusion? In an alternate universe? Or was he in the same universe he lived in until today as a young man called Dan? This at least could be easily confirmed, he'd just have to check in a phone book if his family existed. If not, then he couldn't be in the same universe. That was certainly undeniable.

After hours locked in 'his' cupboard, Dan, — or Harry — should he get used to calling himself and being called Harry, now? had finally been allowed to get out: to mow the grass. Yay. He hated doing it to help at home when he was a teenager and he surely hated it more in the early 90's with the outdated — for him, at least — lawn-mower of Vernon Dursley. That was something else to check, he hadn't been able to do so for the moment: when exactly did he arrive? It was beginning to be quite a lot of things to investigate and he wondered if he should write them down. If so, he guessed he would have to be careful about what he wrote. He souldn't write down anything that would allow someone to know too much about the future of this world (assuming again that all J. K. Rowling's writings were true).

After finishing mowing the grass, Dan shyly asked if he could go somewhere outside the home, careful not to cross any of his adult relatives. He was rewarded with a grunt from Petunia he assumed was permission to do so. He quickly left 'home' to go somewhere in Little Whinging and find the information he needed. The fact that Little Whinging and Privet Drive — he had seen the street sign —, were supposed to be a fictional place should be proof enough that he was in an alternate universe. But he just had to be sure. After half an hour wandering in Little Whinging, he managed to find a public library and went inside.

First news: today was 1 November 1990. Wow. That meant he would have to wait almost an entire year to go to Hogwarts, an entire year enduring the Dursleys. Bad news. He had to find a way to be in peace, free of this horrible family's hindrance. He wasn't going to spend his time doing chores.
Second news: Dan found a phone book and to his surprise, was able to find his parents address and phone number. What did that mean? How could this be? What should he do with that? Should he even interact with his family? Or should he just avoid them in order not to provoke a paradox or something? But more importantly for the moment, Dan was pretty sure he would not be able to get back to Privet Drive before lunch. Again, bad news.

Anew, Dan was locked in Harry's cupboard. He expected that. That didn't change the fact that he was hungry. Vernon Dursley had obviously yelled at him for being late and deprived him of food. That gave him time to think about what to do next. He was not in an alternate universe. That meant magic had always existed in our world and it was kept hidden from muggles. That's insane! Muggle scientific progress had been phenomenal throughout the 20th century, and even more in the 21th century. Muggle scientists were capable of finding thousands of animal species every year in every part of the Earth. Capable of making tonnes of iron fly to transport people overseas. Capable of sending probes and men to space. And yet, a whole magical world with wizards and witches, magical species such as dragons and unicorns was hidden from them and remained that way. Even with the rise of the Internet and global technology allowing anyone to share information in no time with anybody. In the heat of the moment, Dan could only think of two possibilities for this big secret to remain that way.

The first one: The wizards were able to Obliviate anyone to keep the statute of secrecy. This seemed very unlikely to Dan. Even if the wizards weren't the slouches described by JKR, they couldn't possibly control the Internet or all the existing phone networks. Maybe they could put wards or stuff like that obfuscating all wizard sensitive information, but it shouldn't be that simple.

That left the second possibility he could think of: there was some kind of world wide secret conspiracy, like the Illuminati or the New World Order coordinated by wizards and important muggles which somehow managed to keep the secret. This theory was either frightening or laughable with how cliché it appeared and Dan wasn't sure if he should cry or laugh.

For the moment however the biggest problem for him was the Dursleys. Nevertheless, an idea began to form in his mind. He had ten months to kill before going to Hogwarts and the best he could do was to read as much as he can about magic and magical society. What if he didn't have any powers? Yes he was in Harry Potter's body but if the powers were linked to the soul and not the body he was screwed. In any case, the next step was clear for him: he must take a trip to Diagon Alley.

Author's note: So... First chapter out. Please feel free to tell me what you think here or on IRC to talk directly with me (Yam`) on: www.tinyurl.com/ihps-chat

Don't hesitate to tell me if I've made some mistakes or anything else, I'd be glad to fix it. :)