Harry Potter and the Broken Starlight

Chapter 1

Number Four Privet Drive, was an unassuming three bedroom, detached house. With terracotta roof tiles, and sash windows. Built in the economic boom surrounding the end of the second world war, nestled amongst an estate of other such houses for a growing population in a period of new hope. What had once been a symbol of hope of prosperity and new beginnings, was now the picture of model suburban living, being only an hour from the centre of London where people often needed to be, and about the same distance from several areas that epitomised the English countryside, where people wanted to be. All in all it was a very normal place to live.

Yet, at this house, amidst all of its suburban normalcy, something was different. It wasn't the door, that was normal enough, clean and brown like all the others in the street. It wasn't the garden, with its well-maintained grass and neatly organised flower beds. It wasn't the car on the drive, slightly newer than the others in the street, a recent model silver estate. It wasn't even the family that lived there, a horse faced woman with a long neck and shrill voice, or the porpoise of a man, with beady greedy eyes and a ridiculous moustache, even their whale of a son, more apt to roll out of the house than walk. It was however the boy who lived with them.

They said he was a delinquent, a thief, a natural criminal. They called him a thug, a bully, a monster waiting to happen if he was to appear one day on the news, the neighbours would be there to say that they knew he was trouble all along, after all they had heard the worst things about him and more. The boy himself was actually rather unassuming. He was a small child, barely looking six or seven, belying the fact he would be nine this year. He had messy black hair, a true rats nest, some would say it was black as the soul he didn't have. His most striking though were his eyes, those shocking vibrant green eyes that showed the world an intelligence that was all too often overlooked by many. From his eyes people would be drawn to the scar, an unsightly thing, shaped like a lightning bolt, red and raw, barely covered by his messy fringe. One must wonder what misdeeds earned him such a brand, as the one marking his brow.

At six in the morning Harry James Potter, woke up to begin the first of his days chores. It was a Saturday, that meant that he had to do collect the laundry, sort, wash, and dry it. Then make sandwiches for lunch, maybe tuna today, then fold the laundry, mow the gardens, then weed the flower beds, finally he had to prep the food for Sunday lunch tomorrow. He actually quite liked the gardening part, it often got dark as he was finishing and he liked to look at the stars. He liked to count them, and knew a lot of their names. He liked to count a lot of things and did math in his head often to make his chores go faster.

First though, breakfast. Going to the kitchen he gathered the pan and a bowl from the cupboard, and the ingredients from the fridge. He then began to wash up with the cold water from the sink. At half past, the post arrived, so turning the heat down on the hob he went to collect it. Checking for any junk mail he placed the letters on the table for uncle Vernon to open at breakfast. As seven 'o'clock his aunt Petunia arrived down stairs, poured herself a tea and sat down to eat. Ten minutes later uncle Vernon came down the stairs, and pouring a coffee, also sat to eat, a larger pate of food than his wife as was natural. Finally at half seven Dudley arrived taking the largest plate of food and a glass of milk, began to gorge himself. After washing up Harry sat down with a small plate of leftovers, as Vernon began reading the post.

"Bill, bill, bank statement, new credit card, wait, it can't be, I never thought I'd get it though." He mumbled in surprise as he turned over the last letter in the pile.

"What, is it sweetums?" asked Petunia.

"do you remember that promotion I put in for, an opportunity in the head office of the company that owns Grunnings." He said, as a frown of thought crossed his face.

"Wait, the one in Japan, what about it?"

"Well, I got the job, I thought I did poorly in the interview. I was just applying so that they knew I was looking in case something more local came up." A small frown crossed his face, "they only want me there for a year, but they already made arrangements for my replacement. Now I can't just say no or I'll be out of a job. Their offering good money, and are covering our housing for the year. Actually we could rent this pace out for the year and probably get enough to spend on a nice holiday for the next few years." He thought greedily planning a way to make the most of what had happened.

"What's a Jahpen?" interrupted Dudley, his mouth full of food.

"Japan, didumms is a place, very far away, I think some of you toys are made there." Answered Petunia a note of concern in her voice.

"Now, Pet, it's only a year, it'll do the boy some good to see a bit of the world, make him thankful for what we have."

"It's not that , what are we going to do with him." She said a note of distaste in her voice.

"I suppose we'll have to take him with us, their expecting two children at the school over there. It would look odd if he didn't come. You better be grateful for this boy, if it were up to me you'd be out on the street, not eating the food of my table, under the roof I work hard to keep over our heads." He finished threateningly. "Maybe, maybe…" he trailed off the beginnings of an idea forming in his head.

This was how a month later a small boy who liked counting the stars found himself in an airplane bound for the other side of the world, with all his worldly possessions tucked into a worn backpack under his seat. For the past month, Harry had been working hard, learning about Japan. On the Monday after Vernon's announcement he went to the school library and checked out all the books on japan he could. Upon discovering that they spoke a different language he tried to learn as much of it as he could. He got a English Japanese dictionary, and all the learning tapes he could find at the library, salvaging a player from Dudley's second bedroom. While he was learning his desire to learn the language reacted to his own burgeoning magic, causing the magic to form a basic level of occlumency letting him process languages very easily, when he had gotten to a decent level with Japanese he tried to learn from some of the other language tapes in the library, and finally he got quite a bit of conversational German, as well as a good grasp on French.

When they arrived they were quickly whisked away by a chauffeur to an apartment building in a town near Tokyo called Uminari city. The apartment itself was nice, a three bed flat with a kitchenette diner and living room as a central hub with a bathroom off to the side. With it being a company property and with cleaners coming once a week as such, Harry was given his own room to keep up appearances. Closing his door he unpacked his bag taking out all his worldly positions, a few packs of broken crayons, his school stationary, and his salvaged player, he'd convinced the librarian to load as many language tapes as she could onto it before he left. She'd even put some music on there saying that everyone should have a chance to experience some classical music in their lives.

A week after they arrived it was March, and schools in Japan were just starting a new school year. For Harry and Dudley this meant they would be joining their new classes, and because of the defence in the school year here, for the first time they were in different classes and school years. When they arrived they were whisked to different parts of the school, only when the teacher got to the class did he realise a mistake had been made. Harry had been placed into the wrong class, the class he had been placed into was a normal Japanese class full of local students, when Harry first arrived, as he had been in the same year as Dudley in his old school it was assumed he would be in the same class here, an English speaking class for the children of foreign employees. However as there was nobody else his age here this year the class he should be attending had been cancelled for this year. When the teacher tried to explain this to Harry he was surprised when he received a reply in clear Japanese.

"I can speak and understand Japanese at a conversational level," Harry said in a clear way, "however I will require some assistance with reading, if this can be done I should be able to stay in this class."

The teacher overcoming his shock thought about this for a moment and said "I shall assign you to sit next to Bannings-san, her family is half English so she can use the language quite well, I will ask her to assist you in class for the while."

Upon entering the classroom Harry was asked about himself. Smiling to cover his nervousness in front of so many new people he took a deep breath and said "Hello my name is Harry Potter, I'm new here and I hope we can be friends. I like gardening and watching the night sky, I don't like being chased about, and in the future I would like to see the world."

"Thank you Harry-kun. Please take a seat next to Alisa-san there, and Alisa-san if you could help Harry-kun in class that would be much appreciated, thank you."

Once Harry took his seat next to the pretty brunette girl with greenie blue eyes, the teacher began the lessons, at first break Alisa took him to one side to ask what it was that he needed help in. Harry then explained that he had mostly taught himself Japanese through language tapes, and he had gotten good enough in the language to understand everything that was said well enough, though he still had trouble if people were talking to quickly, or with slang or some accents. His real problem is nobody had taught him how to read Japanese so while he could read the basic texts, he couldn't read much kanji and would need someone to help with them. Alisa said she could help with this and said she would like to introduce him to her other friends at lunch.

At lunch she dragged him to the roof where he was introduced to Tsukimura Suzuka and Takamachi Nanoha. The first was another pretty girl with long black hair held back with a white Alice band and blue eyes. The second was also pretty, with her brown hair in two tails at the back tied with white ribbons, her eyes were also blue, but more of a blue grey colour he had seen many people in the area had. They were also really friendly to him. They asked about Brittan and where he lived before, they asked how he learned Japanese. Suzuka told him about her family and her wish to be an engineer, Nanoha told him about her family and the Midori-ya café, the talked for a while trading recipes for all sorts of things when it became apparent that he could cook.

When the day ended the teacher approached Harry about whether he wanted to join any of the after school activities clubs. With a thought he asked if they had any that would help with his reading, or possibly something like self-defence, admitting he had suffered some bullying at his old school, saying that it was because he was the smallest in the class, afraid to mention Dudley or the other Dursleys in case they heard about it. The teacher suggested calligraphy and kendo, saying they were on alternating days, as they were ran by the same teacher. He agreed saying he would check with his guardians about it, thinking on how to get them to agree to the idea.

With a thought he decided to just tell them a teacher was keeping him behind each day to catch up on work. That wouldn't even be a lie as he would be working and a teacher would be keeping them there. It just be for different reasons than he would admit to them. So from that first day Harry left school with a spring in his step because, all in one day he had been separated from Dudley, made what could be his first long term friends, and been offered a way to keep himself away from the Dersleys until nearly bed time six days a week. Yes things were indeed looking up for one Harry James Potter.

In the weeks that followed Harry would get up every day at six as usual, he would make breakfast and prepare lunch for the Dursleys and eat his own breakfast of leftovers. He sometimes experimented with the recipes that Nanoha gave him, but the Dursleys didn't like what they called that foreign muck though only really eating the curry he had made. How Dudley had still managed to gain weight was almost a total mystery to Harry, but he suspected it was something to do with the amount of sweets he ate.

After breakfast he would leave at half past seven to walk to school and arrive five minutes before eight and be in his seat ready for class. In classes he would work as hard as possible, before he would limit himself so as to not outshine Dudley, but without him there he could do well in classes without fear of much reprisal. In classes he got the highest grades in maths and language classes matching Nanoha for the first and Alisa for the second, he was in the half of the class for most subjects, though he only got average scores in Japanese language and history. Though the first was creeping up as he got more proficient with reading, and he had a good head for facts he just didn't grow up learning the history of Japan like the others did, but even here he was showing some improvement. At lunch he would meet with the girls and they would eat lunch then either talk, play, or work on their homework. The school provided lunches and Harry was grateful for them, this meant that he could keep his packed lunch for later.

When class ended for the day he would avoid Dudley on his way home and head to either the classroom where calligraphy was taught on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or to the kendo hall on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Both clubs were taught by Goudou-sensei, an older teacher in his late fifties, with grey hair and a stern gaze for any he caught messing around in his classes. He had been teaching for most of his life and had been a kendo instructor for longer still, in short the old man was as tough as nails and half again as stubborn often covering for the PE teacher while she was off on maternity leave. Goudou-sensei was considered to be a good teacher because for all his sternness he cared for all his students.

Club activities ended around half five in the evening where Harry would eat the bento he had made and start to walk home. When he got home he would try to sneak past the Dursleys, if he could he would get to the bathroom and wash up both himself and his cloths, get a cup of water from the sink and go to his room, where he would water the plants he had hidden on the windowsill outside. If he was caught he would be asked where he was to which he would reply that he had stayed behind after school with a teacher to get some work done. Petunia assuming this meant he was struggling in class would then smile in glee before berating the boy for being so stupid, "why couldn't you be more like my Duddeykinns, he doesn't stay after class, the smart young boy. Now shoo you freak." Before he could rush to his room having to wash his cloths and water the plants in the morning, meaning he would have to run in the morning or be late.

On Sundays Harry would try to meet up with his friends. This was both more and less difficult than one might think, most weeks this would mean going to the midori-ya café. To do this Harry would wake up at his usual time and make breakfast, while the Dursleys gorged themselves on sausages, bacon, eggs, and other greasy foods, Harry would make a sandwich for himself and sneak out of the front door and down the stairs. He would then walk the two miles to the shop, after getting the directions from Nanoha he had realised that the two of them lived close enough together that they could meet easily enough. If they were meeting with Alisa and Suzuka they would get a lift of Nanoha's brother Kyouya, and they would visit their houses, the park, or something like that. Otherwise they would stay at the midori-ya or Nanoha's house. On the days they didn't meet up he would help out in the café, cleaning dishes, or helping prep the food, and in return, Nanoha's mother Momoko taught him how to bake and cook the recipes in the café, they would also give him some pocket money that he mostly tried to save away, it was usually only 1000 yen a time but he would keep it hidden away stashed in a shoe box he hid behind the incinerator at the apartments.

Far away in dreary England the Jones' family, were congratulating themselves on so much going right in their lives. The Jones were both squibs that had decided to elope together when Annabell Smith, had fell in love with Thomas Goyle. The pair had both ran away from overbearing pureblood families at a young age, and were placed into the same foster home at the age of 11 when they never received a Hogarts letter. Both had been picked up by the police for shoplifting in muggle London. Both thrived without the presence of their oppressive families, attending university and becoming a nurse and a lawyer respectively. The each did well for themselves, until they were found by their families again.

The Smith family wanted to force Annabell into a marriage with her uncle to try to continue their family line after, her young nephew Zacharias had an accident around a potions experiment, that according to the healers at St Mungo's had left him sterile. The Goyles wanted to kill Thomas, erasing the blight on their families name, and he had been hiding from them for years. They had met in a bar and recognised each other almost immediately they fell in love immediately as what started as a one night stand became two, and then a week, then another. The last passionate throws of two lost souls, soon to be gone from the world. All was at an end when Annabell discovered she was pregnant, Thomas immediately proposed. Upon finding a house to rent in sleepy Surry, the two snapped up the years tenancy agreement, the house would do fine for the year while they got together the money for a deposit for something better.

Over the course of the year the wards over the house, placed unknown to all its occupants fed for the first time on as they were meant to. They fed on the magic of the bond between the unborn child and its parents, and on the unrestrained magic of the unborn squib child. As Andrew Jones grew in his mother his developing magic was constantly drained forcing his core to grow to compensate. His parents stayed at home as much as they could to hide from their respective families, never knowing the wards on the property were doing just that for them causing them to be completely forgotten by their families never to be bothered by them again. Years later Andrew Jones would receive a letter to a reformed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he would study hard for the sake of living his parents dreams, getting straight O's in his O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's, get a desk job at the ministry for magic and go on to become the minister of magic. However this is not his tale, but something that would come to be in the distant future.

In a high tower in a bustling castile hidden away as near as the top of the world as a person could comfortably be, and old man turned to make his ritual check on a series of various whatsits and deodars, placed hidden from view in a cupboard in the corner of the room. Taking a cursory glance over the various baubles on the shelves, dismissing most as superfluous to his needs, the wizened old man looked at the most important two. The first showed the man the life force of its intended target, in this case one Harry James Potter. The second showed whether a specific set of wards over a house in Surry, had been charging that day, indicating that, as the only person with even a smattering of magic on the property Harry was still there that day, living with his only living relatives. Closing the cupboard, one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sat at his desk, comforted and secure in the knowledge that the boy he would mould into his champion was safe and secure, just where he wanted him to be.

Half a planet away Harry could scarcely believe that the last month had happened. Since arriving in Japan, he had gained almost everything he had ever desired. At school he was learning well and he had made several friends, he barely saw the Dersleys anymore. He was feeling happier and healthier than he ever had before. He'd even been given an old pair of glasses by Momoko that had belonged to dear friend of her grandfather Doumeki Shizuka, they had apparently been given to the man in case they might come in handy in the future. They helped his eyes much better than his old ones and he kept them with him at all times safe and hidden away from the Dursleys. Unknown to Harry his magic that had kept him alive, staving off his malnutrition, helped him grow very strong very quickly. With all the exercise he was getting and with eating three healthy meals a day, and supplemented by the nutrients that a concerned Goudou-sensei had asked the dinner ladies to slip the boy when he saw how worryingly thin he was in practice, he had gone from the smallest in his class to just slightly taller than his friends, with compact unseen muscles.

As Harry went to bed that night a month after he started school in Japan, he had no idea how the simple events of the next day would shape the rest of his life to come.