GAME CHANGING SUITCASE

A Harry Potter story. Starts at the summer before 3rd year. 1st and 2nd years mostly canon with flashbacks showing the differences.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"thoughts"

"spells"

CHAPTER 1

It's been 4 days since Harry Potter returned to #4 Privet Drive for the summer holidays.

"60 days or so till I can returned to Hogwarts and whatever new madness I will have to deal with" said the emerald eyed boy, his tone turning sarcastic towards the middle of his monologue. "I really can't decide which is worst, living here or being targeted, ostracized and more or less forced to face mortal danger; all because of a scar that can't seem to heal even after more than a decade since I got the damn thing".

Now if Harry Potter was being truthful, the last couple of years or at least the last 2 summer holidays (AN: the summer he got the letter and the next one) in #4 Privet Drive hadn't been as bad as the years before. He was finally given a room of his own, even if only to escape a possible "child endangerment" lawsuit and even the beatings had stopped, though granted that was mostly him figuring out he actually did accidental magic (not that he knew that's what it was called back then) and trying to control it or at least not do it in front of his relatives, or anyone else for that matter. Heck last summer his aunt and cousin didn't even called "freak" even once. Not only that but they tried to be somewhat accepting of him and his "freakishness" as his uncle still called it. It was almost enough to make him question whether he slipped into an alternative universe or something. What magic exists why can't multiple universes exist too?

"Anyway in just a few more hours, uncle -and I'm using the term as loosely as possible- leaves for his week long business trip. Now what kind of weird business trip that is I don't know and frankly don't care. All that's important is that I'll have a week free of the only relative that still looks for an excuse to hit me whenever he can." thought Harry as he watched his beautiful snow white owl sleep in her perch. Alas Morpheus refused to take him to his realm too. So he watched as the darkness of the night slowly gave way to the first rays of the morning sun; a little while later noises started coming from the master bedroom.

His uncle, in all his "delightfulness" tried to convince aunt Petunia to make him breakfast and probable a little something for the rode, he spectacularly failed if the angry, high-pitched scream was anything to go by. After grumbling his way to the front door and that annoying taxi driver that seemed determined to wake the whole neighborhood with the car's horn, he was off.

It was midday now, just after lunch and Dudley had left for his friends house where they would waste the weekend away playing videogames and whatnot. Harry was on his bed, contemplating how to spend his time since he doesn't have any chores to do, haven't had any for a couple of summers now, when a knock on his bedroom door drew his attention.

"Yes?" he answered not really expecting his aunt to actively seek him out regardless of her more neutral stance towards him.

Petunia enter the room with a suitcase that had seen better days, walking and looking about, her expression a mix of struggling and unwillingness.

"Pott….. Harry" she finally said after sitting in the chair in front of the desk and putting the suitcase on it.

"OK weirdness alert. Aunt Petunia hasn't called by my name for as long as I can remember" Harry thought before Petunia continued

"I know I haven't done right by you"

"This can't be good"

"It wasn't intentional, it's just….." she paused struggling, looking for the right words

"I lost my family to… to… magic" the last word uttered with such hate that Harry wouldn't be surprised if it had been used during the witch hunts. But he was also perplexed. Why did she say family? Wasn't only her sister, his mother, that died from magic causes?

"I don't" he started only to be caught off

"You see Harry my parents, your grandparents and my youngest sister"

"Wait… what"

"were killed by it" she finished.

"I don't understand" Harry said waiting, hoping his aunt would elaborate so he could begin to try and make sense of what she was talking about.

"I had 2 younger sisters Harry. Your mother, Lily, was the youngest sister." she continued "Rose, the middle sister, was killed along with my father when he was taking her to the hospital, she had a fever that just wouldn't go down. While I stayed with my mother who was 8 months pregnant with Lily." tears started falling from her eyes, while Harry listened, transfixed.

"You see my father was a well mannered man and he loved his family. So when a policeman showed up in our house say my father suddenly went racing down busy sidewalks hitting everything he could, with my sister on the back seat, I naturally didn't believe a word of it. Even with eye witnesses, photographs even recordings I knew something was wrong. But I had no way of finding out. Then came the fact that my very pregnant mother and I found ourselves with no way of providing for ourselves. Sure father left us with a small inheritance but with the baby on the way we knew it wouldn't last. And it didn't, 4 months after Lily was born there wasn't any of the inheritance left; my mother and I found jobs as waitresses in the same restaurant, shuffling our time-tables so that one of us was always with Lily. It was hard going but we made it work and then 11 years later came the letter." Petunia took a deep breath and continued "Magic. It took me a while but I finally connected the dots. I had heard Lily speaking with that boy and found out that there was a war going on in the magical side and how it was spreading out to our side. Disappearances, unexplainable deaths the police was stamped. I guess that's when dislike started. Lily and I were slowly growing further apart but it was 4 years later when I came home one day after my shift to my mother's defiled corpse and above our house was some kind of symbol in floating in the air; a skull with a snake coming out of it's mouth. The police or whatever they have didn't do anything other than remove that symbol. Probably the onl reason I remember it is because they knew one of them was living in the house. Their blatant disregard for a life made me mad yes, but I didn't hold it against Lily; what finally put an end to any kind of relationship I might have had with Lily was that when she returned home it was only to get some stuff she had left, tell me neither of us were safe while she lived with me and that I should forget her." Petunia stopped, took another deep breath and continued her tale.

"Like that she left; I was already heartbroken, I had already lost my father, my sister, I was still grieving from our mother's passing and then my sister, the only other person who could understand what I was going through just up and left; disappeared like I wasn't worth the effort of at least explaining what was happening, why we were targeted, anything. And that was the last I heard or saw of your mother until 5 days after you were born."