This is a one shot about a little magic that happened to Harry before he found out he was a wizard. Depending on the response I get I will write more, hopefully you guys like it because I have a few more ideas that I would like to post! The POV will switch between third person and first person I hope it isn't too confusing! Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series (I wish!), it belongs to JK Rowling.


Birthday Wishes:

It was the 12:01am on the first of July on Privet drive. A young boy with a dark mop of hair and round glasses held together by tape and prayer was sitting on the floor of a tiny cupboard beneath the stairs. He was small for his age but remarkable in the fact that he had vivid green eyes and a scar on his forehead that looked oddly similar to a lightening bolt. According to the Dursleys he had gotten this scar when he was in a car crash that killed both of his parents, but the only thing he could remember about their death was a flash of brilliant green light. It scared him a lot so he didn't like to think about it often, even though it was the only real memory he had of his parents.

The young boy, Harry Potter, checked the watch that he kept in the corner of his cupboard (one of the many presents that Dudley didn't want) and realized that he had just turned ten years old.

The Dursleys were known for spoiling their child beyond compare and showering him with gift and cakes, but Harry wasn't their child, and he wouldn't be getting any of those things today. He doubted whether the Dursleys would even remember his birthday, and if they did it wasn't likely that they would acknowledge it. The Durselys weren't very fond of Harry and they had never hesitated to make the fact known. So Harry, unlike most ten year old boys, wasn't particularly excited to see his tenth birthday.

Despite Harry's lack of enthusiasm, he couldn't let the occasion pass completely unmarked, and that is where this story begins.

Harry POV

I sat on the floor of my dusty cupboard and tried to decide how I wanted to mark the coming of my birthday. I was turning ten years old today, I had been alive now for an entire decade. It seemed like an awfully long time to me. Unfortunately I didn't have much to show for it.

I didn't have any friends. None at all. My hair looked silly and my glasses were broken and I was small compared to my classmates, so none of them would play with me. Even if they did want to play with me Dudley made sure that they wouldn't. Dudley was a lot bigger than me and he beat me up outside school sometimes. The other kids were scared and they didn't want to make him angry at them too. Dudley hit a lot of people who were smaller than him (which was most people since Dudley was really quite large).

I understood but it made me feel very lonely. No one ever talked to me, I don't think most of them even know my name. I almost never hear my name out loud, people usually called me "you" or "boy".

"Harry." I whispered it to no one. I just wanted to hear it out loud, to prove that someone in the world knows my name, even if that someone is only me.

Suddenly I realized what I wanted to do for my birthday. I reached for the door to my cupboard and slowly opened it to make sure that it wouldn't creak. I didn't want to let the Dursleys know that I was awake. They would give me extra chores for sure. I crawled out and got slowly to my feet. I walked down the hallway making sure to avoid the creaky spots in the floor. I peered around the corner into the dinning room, just to be sure, and then snuck over to the dresser on the other side of the room.

The drawer protested loudly when I opened it and I stopped instantly to listen for the Dursleys. My heart was beating loudly in my ears and my palms were sweating. Luckily the Durselys didn't wake up. I heard Uncle Vernon give a loud snore and the bed creak lightly as he rolled over. I didn't move for what seemed like forever, until I was sure that they all were still in bed.

When the coast was clear I pulled a candle stick out of the drawer and a box of matches with only one match left that was wedged between two candle sticks way in the back. The drawer creaked again when I shut it and I ran quickly over to my cupboard avoiding all the creaky spots on the floor (I had memorized them a long time ago to avoid getting caught when I snuck food) and making sure that my door shut silently.

I set the candle on the floor and took the match out. I only had one so I had to do this right the first time. I was really excited and it was making my hands a little shaky. I hadn't ever gotten to make a birthday wish before and I wanted my first, and maybe only, wish to be right now. That would be a good birthday present to me. I knew that it probably wouldn't come true, there is no such thing as magic after all, but I wanted to anyways. There was something special about making a wish on your birthday.

I pulled out the match and pressed it to the side of the box. I jerked it quickly, like I had seen Aunt Petunia do before, and the end lit on fire. I jumped a little in surprise and moved my fingers further away from the flame. I brought it slowly over to the candle and touched it to the wick.

The flame extinguished.

I sat on the floor of cupboard with an unlit candle and no more matches. I felt my heart sink into my stomach and slouched over staring glumly at the wick. I guess there would be no birthday wish for me this year.

It was such a stupid little thing, but it was all I had wanted for my birthday, and all I would have gotten for it too. Now I didn't have anything. I stared at the candle like I could make it light through sheer will power alone.

A flame!

Suddenly the tip of the wick burst into flame all on its own. It was like… like… It was just like Magic!

I kept staring at it unable to believe my luck. How had it lit itself all on its own? There must have been a spark on it or something. I didn't care at the moment, for now I just wanted to believe it was a little birthday magic. I watched the flame dance happily for a moment before I remembered what I had lit the candle for in the first place.

My birthday wish.

I closed my eyes tightly and thought hard about what I wanted most in all the world. I couldn't wish for anything impossible, so I decided not to wish for my parents or that the Dursleys would wish me a happy birthday and take me somewhere like the movies. I ran through a couple more wishes in my head discarding them all. I wanted this wish to be special, I wanted it to feel just right.

Suddenly I knew what the perfect wish was. I opened my eyes and watched the flame flicker for a second longer before closing my eyes tightly again and blowing out the candle. Darkness swallowed my little cupboard again but that was okay, because I had gotten to make my birthday wish. For the first time in a long time I felt a little bubble of happiness resting in my chest. I hoped that maybe birthday magic was real, because I wanted more than anything for my wish to come true.

I wish I had real friends.

After making his birthday wish Harry curled up on the floor if his cupboard and drew Dudley's old comforter over himself. He fell asleep with a smile on his face that night, content that he had gotten what he wanted for his birthday.

The candle sat innocuously on the floor the wick long since cooled from the small flame that had been lit on it. It was quite curious that the wick had lit at all, there had been no spark left in the wick, it had been completely cool, not the barest hint of a flame.

As odd as this incident was it wasn't the first strange thing to happen around Harry, in fact there had been several odd occurrences in his life before this moment, and just like this one he had explained them all away. However Harry would not be able to ignore these strange happenings much longer, because unbeknownst to him they were about to get a lot more frequent.


What do you guys think? Bad? Good? Should I continue this?

Thanks for reading!