The Gate

Harry Potter's first seven years on Earth could be summed up in two words. It sucked. He lived with his relatives the Dursleys and he didn't have any friends to speak of. The Durselys peddled the story that he was a social delinquent and a menace to the neighbor hood so no one would take the time out of their day to speak with or check on him. They never hit him but they yelled and ranted at him for his freakishness.

This freakishness only happened when Harry was scared or angry so there was always a delicate balancing act with the Dursleys and Harry, push him too far? Something in the room gets broken, shout at him for too long and Petunia's favorite china would be shattered. So to rectify this, Petunia and Vernon would instead send Harry out into the garden to tend to it. And then once he would finish with the garden he would be allowed to do whatever he wanted to do as long as he was back by dark. Now this curfew was not out of concern for Harry's wellbeing. Rather it was to maintain the Dursley's image of being a healthy normal family.

Harry would be hard-pressed to escape from this monotony, if not for running into a very peculiar card and an even stranger world.

-HPTHEGATE-

Harry groaned as he bent over at the waist to grab another weed. He'd been out in the garden working on these dang plants for most of the day. The sun had already past overhead and was working it's way down to the horizon. He felt a shiver working it's way up from his toes to his head as a chilly Autumn wind breezed down the dreary Private Drive.

He hated this neighborhood, every house looked the same, every lawn was maintained in a way that made even the grass look the same! It was enough to drive him up the wall! Or make him pull harder at this next weed.

I don't want to do this anymore, My hands hurt, the rest of my body is sore and I'm tired. I would do anything to not do this anymore!

As Harry was thinking this, a curious accident happened. Because of how young he was and how focused a child's mind could be on one thing, his magic picked up on his wish and looked at the best way to fulfill it's partner's wish. Quickly rifling through the various possibilities, Harry's magic decided on a course that would eventually lead to Harry being strong enough for what his destiny required of him. Quickly giving a hard surge, Harry's magic materialized a red plastic card.

Harry jumped as he felt the feeling that always preceded something "Freakish" happen and quickly looked around to see if anything had broken or changed in some way. Looking back towards the house he noticed a distinct lack of screaming and shouting so that feeling couldn't of done something in there. Quickly giving one more glance of his surroundings, Harry noticed a shiny red plastic card face down on the ground. Looking around and making sure that no one was watching he grabbed the card and flipped it over. On the front of the card there was one word.

Psyren

Scratching his head at the unfamiliar word, Harry shrugged his too thin shoulders and hid it in his trouser pocket. Feeling tired Harry yanked up one last weed and walked back inside the house. As soon as he entered Petunia was in front of him yelling "Boy what took so long to weed MY garden!" Her faced reached deathcon red "Don't you know how much we sacrifice to let you live here!"

Harry successfully resisted the overwhelming temptation to roll his eyes at his Aunt's proclamation. He had heard the same variation of this rant for the past five years. And it had begun to lose its effectiveness on bringing him down. Nodding his head and doing his best to look hurt by what she said, Harry kept his head down and mumbled his responses, slowly and methodically making his way to his cupboard. Reaching the door, he grasped the handle, turned and pulled.

Turning in the doorway to face his aunt Harry murmured "I'm sorry Aunt Petunia, I will try harder next time I promise."

Her face turning into a grimace she gave him a curt nod and said "You better. Also, we are going into the city tomorrow for Dudley's birthday and we are taking you with us. We can't have any of your freakishness destroying the house while we are out."

Hiding a thrill of leaving the dreary Private Drive, Harry nodded morosely. "Yes, Aunt Petunia." Stepping back into the room and letting the back of his legs hit the mattress Harry sank into his bed. He tilted his head as he heard Petunia slam the door shut and lock it. He rolled his eyes again and moved the rest of his body onto the small bed that somehow managed to fit into the tiny cupboard space.

Rolling around and trying to feel comfortable he felt the hard bit of plastic in his pocket and took it out. In the darkness of his cupboard Harry could almost make out the word Psyren. It almost seemed to glow in the dark. A soft reddish light coming from the outlines of the letters.

Closing his eyes and hugging the card to his chest he repeated his wish from earlier. Please get me out of here, please help me get away from this place.

Letting out a soft sigh as he balanced on the edge of sleep and consciousness, his face twitched into a smile when he felt the card warm and thump along with his heart beat.

-HPTHEGATE-

"Ageha-Kun, it's time for you to choose. To leave this place you must give up your gifts."

"All of them?"

"Yes. Ageha, you sacrificed much to defeat the W.I.S.E and your body and mind couldn't handle it. You need to give them up and they will be given to the next one who shall be fates chosen"

"I'll see everyone again? Kyle? Shen? Van? And Marie? All of the friends that that I lost?"

"Yes… Yes you will Ageha-Kun."

"Alright take them, take my Gate. I just want to go home"

"It shall be done, goodbye Ageha-Kun"

"Goodbye… Nemesis Q"

-HPTHEGATE-

As Harry laid in his bed, the red card on his chest let out a harsh red pulse. The word Psyren morphing into a different word. As the word began to change, the card lost its red color. With each pulse the card slowly began to be overtaken by a darkness that seemed to curve the light at the edge of the card. As the darkness began to over take the red, a new word was coming into focus.

Melchsee's Gate

As the darkness blotted out the card, it seemed to lose its connection with reality and started to phase into Harry's chest. Black tendrils slowly made their way out from his chest to the rest of his body. The tendrils moving in concert with his heart, each beat of his heart the tendrils would spread further out until they reached every part of his body.

Once they fully enveloped Harry, the tendrils merged together and slowly sunk beneath his skin. A black whirling mark tracing its way from the middle of his palms up to his shoulder and down to his chest.

While all of this had been happening, Harry had not noticed a thing, his sleep remaining undisturbed. In his mind a pleasant dream of finding his friends after losing them.

In the dream Harry felt that it was weird to miss people that he had never met, but looking at the group standing together in front of him, he felt at home. Their faces were hard to make out and he could feel them drawing further away from him. Their figures becoming more and more indistinct as time passed. Eventually he could barely make them out against the light in the background.

As Harry was fading back he felt himself pass through someone, the sensation sending chills down his spine. The person turned back to look at him and Harry gasped as he saw the persons bright grey eyes.

"Harry-kun I entrust the Gate to you. My friends are waiting for me and I can't stay here any longer. Always stay by your friends side unless they turn out to not have your best interests at heart and betray you. I know you won't ever really know me but it's good to meet you." The person let a thin wide grin pass across their face. "My name is Ageha and I wish you the best of luck."

The figure raised his right hand and pushed at Harry. A snaking tendril of black lightning left Ageha's hand and raced towards Harry. Just before the tendril hit Harry, the lead end of it turned back and 'looked' at Ageha.

Slowly the tendril waved it's front end as if to say goodbye to Ageha and when it completed it's wave it raced forward and entered Harry chest.

Harry grunted as he felt the tendril smack into him and a strange buzzing feeling started to overcome his body. Feeling himself pushed even further away from Ageha, he closed his eyes and relaxed his body as the buzzing feeling started to get stronger. But instead of turning into pain, the buzzing feeling felt comforting and warm.

-HPTHEGATE-

Yawing as he woke up, Harry rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and glanced around him. A hollow sense of loss hurting in his chest. Quickly shaking it off, he glanced down at his body and was stunned by what he saw. The card from last night was gone. No trace of it was found even after he tore through his meager belongings. And even more astonishing was the whirling black marks that ran from his palms to his chest.

Looking at them, Harry was reminded of the dream he had last night.

Maybe… That wasn't a dream… Who is Ageha, and what is this Gate he left me with?

Harry spent a minute searching his mind for an answer and when nothing popped up he shrugged and focused back on the black marks on his body.

Staring at them now, Harry found it hard to concentrate on them. His eyes straining to focus on them. It felt like he was trying to look at something and focus on it, but the volume of the marks was deeper than he could see. They seemed to stretch on infinitely into a sea of darkness but that infinite darkness was constrained into the marks on his arm.

A feeling of trepidation shot through him. What the actual bloody hell was on his arm? Weird things had always happened around him but this took the cake. Firming up his resolve Harry slowly reached out and dragged his fingers through the mark. A frigid feeling immediately assaulted his finger as he drug it through. He watched as the top portion of his finger sunk into the mark with no resistance. Shaking his head in wonderment Harry continued, his finger marching its way past the crook of his elbow and moving more towards his shoulder.

The cold feeling had subsided the longer Harry kept his finger in the mark and now it was almost warm.

Hearing a loud thump, Harry jumped and yanked his finger out of his mark, a trace of the darkness following his finger like an obedient puppy. Looking on in wonder and the slash of darkness hung in the air in front of him, Harry just sat there as the bit of darkness roamed around his cupboard. As it neared the corner of his room, it seemed to stop in statement. It moved forward cautiously and as it's lead end touched the wall, a smattering of red sparks shot up from the floor to the ceiling. Show as much surprise as a small bit of darkness could, It dashed back behind Harry and hugged itself close to his arm.

Watching on in amazement at the sparks Harry shook his head in exasperation.

I've about had it with all of the weird stuff that's happened already… And I haven't even left the house yet.

Letting out a soft sigh, Harry slowly reached out and scratched the darkness, seeing it lean into his scratched he shrugged and kept at it.

Suddenly remembering the footsteps Harry frantically looked around at some place he could put the darkness. Nearly slapping himself in the head he remembered where it came from.

As the footsteps got closer to his door, he frantically pushed at the thin slash of darkness towards the markings on his arm. Seeming to understand what he wanted, the darkness gave off a feeling of warm contentment and faded back into his arm. Hearing the footsteps right outside his door Harry quickly and quietly laid back down and pretended to be sleeping.

"BOY wake up! It's Dudley's birthday and I won't have you messing things up!" Petunia yelled shrilly.