AN: A little something that came to mind while I was playing my Guild Wars 2 mesmer character, and I thought to myself, "What would it be like if Harry could create illusions to manipulate the senses of others like the mesmer?" and so this was born.
If Petunia had known, years ago, that the school had had a performing magician do a show for her son and nephew's class, pull rabbits out of a hat and the like, Petunia would have screamed the buildings to the ground till all that was left was rubble.
This…performing artist, sleight of hand and whatnot, had mesmerised her nephew, Harry, in total bewilderment, and had taken up the goal of replicating the effects that he had seen.
The biggest difference however between the magician and Harry Potter though was huge, while the magician had no real magic and relied on tricks of the eyes and sleight of hand to do his tricks, Harry had actual magic.
At the very impressionable age of six, Harry had developed a fascination for optical illusions, an enthralment that would explode within the following years to completely one eighty the Dursley family's oh so perfect life.
It started 2 weeks after the show from the magician, Harry was in the playground bouncing a ball against the wall back to himself, for due to Dudley and his gang of mean spirited friends Harry had no one that wanted to come near him to play with, so he played by himself.
If one were to watch the lone bespectacled boy they would note that he had exceptional hand eye coordination as Harry bounced the single tennis ball, borrowed from the sports storage room for recess, from one hand to the other, one throwing and the other catching, his green eyes tracking the balls trajectory through the air so his opposite hand could catch it.
Dudley, as he approached his cousin, saw none of this, intent only to take away the one thing that Harry had that gave him and semblance of happiness.
"Hey freak," the stocky little boy called out, using the usual euphemism that he had heard his parents call Harry time and time again. "Give me that ball! Freaks like you aren't allowed to play with stuff like that!"
Normally one to bow down to his cousins demands, today Harry was feeling quite different, he was testing out a different way to throw the ball and was trying out how the different throw effected how it bounced, and after that if he could catch it.
"Tell you what Dudders," Harry began making Dudley go still, his mother's pet names for him were not something he liked his friends to hear as they were mightily embarrassing. "I'll play you for it, you catch the ball and you can have it. Just you, me, the ball and the wall."
Dudley was a little dumbstruck, this wasn't how it went, Dudley would tell Harry to do something and Harry would do it, this was off script!
Caught off guard, Dudley stammered out an acceptance, quickly thinking that this would be easy, all he had to do was catch a ball, how hard could that be? Besides it gave Dudley the perfect excuse to be close enough to Harry for a little…push, for having the ball in the first place.
Dudley took a step or two from Harry facing the wall and as Harry threw the small green sphere Dudley darted at him, bowling him over like a block of polystyrene, his chubby hands moving to catch the ball that had bounced from the wall and was heading right back to him.
Very upset at being shoved to the ground, something that Harry should have expected to happen, Harry felt a minute burst of anger course through him as he tracked the tennis ball with his eyes, silently wishing as a consequence of being shoved Dudley shouldn't be allowed to get the ball.
An instant later Harry starred at Dudley as he cheered giddily, at having pushed Harry over and beaten him at his own game again.
"There you go Freak, I beat you again." He bragged.
"Umm, Dud, there's nothing in your hand." One of his gang said making Dudley stop in his whooping.
"What are you talking bout mate, it's in my hand!" Dudley retorted shaking the ball in his hands in front of his friends faces.
"Maybe you need glasses too, the balls in Harry's hands." Another of Dudley's gang said making Dudley go still, looking at his, shocking to him, empty hand to Harry's hand which had the ball in its grip.
Harry too looked a little startled, he was sure that he'd seen the ball go into Dudley's hand, but then why did Harry put out a hand on reflex to catch the ball then?
'I did bounce the ball differently, maybe that was it…but then why did Dudley think he caught it when he hadn't, had he imagined it or something?' Harry thought for a moment before the quickly colouring face of his cousin got closer to him. 'I did feel a little funny too.' Harry absently thought.
"You'll pay for that Freak!" Dudley spat before he began to waylay into Harry, raining kicks into Harry's prone form on the ground.
Minutes later when Dudley's energy was spent he stomped away, his gang following behind leaving a quivering Harry on the ground, whom whilst silently crying from the kicking he endured, looked at the ball with a sense of wonder as to how that had happened.
AN: not very long, i know, it was just a basic concept of Harry using magic to create illusions like the mesmer.
and before anyone says it, i know it wasn't very detailed, it's part of the reason i only write for fun, i cant flesh things out in text from my mind the way i want them to.
if anyone interested in the idea feel free to take it and expend on it