Even as a young boy living with the Dursley's Harry knew he was different. Special if you will. Three years before his acceptance letter for Hogwarts is even being written he discovers his magic and can quickly control it. What will happen to the boy with too much power?

Okay, this is my first fanfic for Harry Potter, I've been flicking through the archives for a while now and felt it was about time I wrote some of my own, I don't know what you'll think but I can only hope that you'll like it. This is just an idea that's been burning on my fingers for a while, the basic idea was that i was wandering what would happen if Harry learned about magic before going to Hogwarts and as such was able to make up his own mind about certain things as well as being greatly more powerful than his other classmates on entry as he would have mastered wandless magic by that point. I was really just toying with the idea of Harry being as aware of his own powers as Voldemort was at the same sort of age, after all, if Harry's supposed to be more powerful than Voldemort, surely it would have shown at an even younger age and I reckon he's clever enough to master general magic in the rough conditions of his home life when he actually wants it much better than in Hogwarts at the start.

I'm not going to promise regular updates as my life is anything but regular but I can certainly try for once a week. Reviews are always greatly appreciated.

So here we go,

Sitting on his mattress in the cupboard under the stairs, Harry ran a hand through the stubble on his head that just hours ago had been long, soft hair. With all of the passion that an eight year old boy can feel he cursed Aunt Petunia and her scissors for ruining everything. Muttering under his breath about hating her and wishing that she would sink to the dead man's chest and never return, he laid back, pulling his tattered blanket around him, and hoped with all his might that his hair might somehow have regrown by the time he woke up in the morning.

"Harry? HARRY! Get your lazy ass out of bed this second!" Harry groaned sitting up to the sound of his Uncle pounding on the door to his cupboard. Running a hand through his hair he stood up and put his watch on, taking note of the fact that it was only five in the morning. He hurriedly pulled himself up and shrugged on an old t-shirt that although had fit Dudley two years ago, was still too big for Harry. Opening the cupboard he was met with the sight of his cousin jumping excitedly up and down in the kitchen as Aunt Petunia bustled around making coffee, it was clear that breakfast would be left to Harry again. Uncle Vernon was sat at the table as usual, glaring at the newsreader who was yet again reporting sightings of extraordinary amounts of owls.

"Good, you're up, fetch the post and then I want you to make breakfast, it's a big day for our Duddykins, he's having his first visit to the zoo. Isn't that right my little Duddy-poo" Aunt Petunia said, returning to Dudley before she had finished speaking to Harry. Turning he walked towards the door where a large pile of post lay on the doormat. Flicking through the pile of letters he noticed an unusually heavy one that said it was from 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". Pocketing it he took the rest of the post to his uncle then proceeded to pull out pans and food from the fridge.

Once breakfast he slipped out of the kitchen with an apple, knowing that it was perhaps the only foodstuff in the house that would not be missed, and returned to his cupboard. Pushing hair out of his eyes he turned to the letter, as he delicately opened it, making sure that he didn't tear it, a thought occurred to him. Pulling out the pocket mirror from his small pile of belongings he examined his reflection and sure enough, his hair was back to its previous length before Aunt Petunia had so viciously attacked it with her scissors. Before he could fully ponder the fact that his hair had apparently magically regrown itself overnight and before he could read the letter he had swiped he was distracted by shouting from the kitchen.

"What do you mean you can't look after him?!"

"A broken leg you say, and you're sure?"

"Fine I guess we'll have to find someone else, goodbye" Harry could hear the receiver being slammed down, followed by his uncle finishing the rant with and ever pleasant,

"I hope you rot in hell you bloody cow!"

"Boy! Get in here right now!" Harry quickly stashed the letter under his small pile of Dudley's hand-me down clothes and practically ran out of his cupboard.

"Yes Uncle?"

"You'll be coming to the zoo today as Mrs Marsh has apparently 'broken her leg' and there's no one else around so you're going to have to come" He paused before leaning down to Harry's height and in a deathly whisper finished with "And there will be NO funny business, you will be on your absolute best behaviour you hear me?"

Harry gulped and nodded quickly. Uncle Vernon straightened and patted Harry's shoulder in what would have been a nice gesture had it not been so hard that it was obviously intentionally painful. Aunt Petunia shot Harry a look before returning to filing her nails and he left, silently hoping that she wouldn't notice that his hair had regrown until after the trip to the zoo, as although he had no particular wish to spend an entire day with his 'family' he really wanted to go to the zoo. He spent a good few minutes trying to make his hair lie as straight as possible and the results were almost passable so he pulled on a jumper and returned to the kitchen where the others were already in their coats and locking up the house. Thankful that he wouldn't have to spend the day with Mrs Figg yet again as she was in Bermuda or any of his other horrible baby sitters he tugged on his trainers and tried to make himself as discreet as possible as he slid into the back seat of the car. Dudley got in shortly afterwards and after glaring at Harry for a few minutes promptly fell asleep, Harry following shortly afterwards.

Had he remained awake, he would have seen the owls flying through the sky outside his window and perhaps wondered at the letters attached to their legs but as it was, the thoughts would have to wait for another day.

The grumbling sound of the car on gravel woke him up and he smiled to himself at the sight of the zoo on either side. After a short queue for entrance and a quick warning to behave himself and that they would meet him in exactly the same place in two and a half hours, Harry was left just outside the reptile house watching the retreating figures as they hurried away from him. Shrugging, he turned and headed into the reptile house. Pacing along the length of the cool building he watched the snakes and lizards as they dozed or slithered about looking for something to eat. On his seventh lap he came to rest leaning on the barriers in the middle of the path and looked at the snake in the container in front of him. He thought about looking around the rest of the zoo but was put off by the possibility of running into his 'family' whereas he knew he was safe in here dut to Aunt Petunia's phobia of all things slimy.

Sighing to himself he voiced his feelings to the empty room

"I'm so bored"

"Tell me about it, kid" A voice hissed back sounding equally bored. Harry's head quickly span around on his shoulders looking for the source of the sound. Confused, he tuned back to look at the snake in front of him and it seemed curiously like the snake was looking at Harry.

"Wait a minute, was that you who said that?" Harry said, adressing the snake. It seemed to look at him as though to say 'duh' before it opened its mouth and a "Yes" hissed out. Convinced that he was in fact talking to the snake he stared at it.

"How come you can speak English?"

"I can't, You must be speaking snake"