Wow, I got this done sooner than I thought I would. I am currently drowning in ideas for this story and therefore Chapter two is already here. Now, to answer some questions. Yes, I have read sakurademonalchemist's drabble that had the chemistry incident and, no, I didn't copy it. I was surprised to read it, considering chapter one had been sitting on my hard drive for half an hour or so before said chapter popped up and I did PM the author in question with my observations. As for Harry looking 'feminine', that was a little unintentional. I, myself, am male and I have fairly long hair. I like it that way, and I guess that I was subconsciously projecting onto my characters that I am writing. As for him looking like Hel, you'll find a few references to Norse and Egyptian mythology popping up throughout this story, that was just the first of them.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 2 – A Little Time Passes

"Bloody Dagger."

Around Harry, three small red daggers appeared, before they flew off and impaled the tree he'd been aiming at. He flopped down onto the ground with a tired smile. He had finally managed to create three daggers from his own magic alone, something that he'd been trying to do for several weeks now.

Harry felt a hand on his right shoulder and he looked up into the gently smiling face of Reinforce. Of course, only the right side of Harry's face was visible, he was using his now longer hair as a curtain to cover his disfigured left side, the part of him that he really didn't want anyone to see.

The hospital had not been able to do much for Harry, so he would have to wear his injuries forever more. Also, seeing as there was no evidence other than Harry's word, Dudley had not been punished for what had happened to Harry. That didn't mean that nothing had happened at all though, because there had been several changes in Harry's life.

Now, because the Dursleys had 'concerned adults' looking out for Harry, he now slept in Dudley's second bedroom. This was a nice change, it was larger than his cupboard had been, and Reinforce could separate from him and teach him things when he had spare time.

Also, because the hospital had sent a list of dietary requirements to the Dursleys, and the school nurse was keeping an eye on him, he was also eating properly now, even if they did give him as little as they could get away with. It was nice, and Harry had decided that his favourite food was rice, it was just so versatile and it was a staple food as well.

At school, the teachers were now keeping an eye on Harry and Dudley both, so the bullying had gone down a fair bit as well. Oh, it hadn't disappeared entirely, that would be asking too much, but now Dudley and his gang could only get him outside of school hours.

Of course, Harry didn't exactly hang around much if he could avoid it. He went everywhere, looking for isolated and hidden places that he could just be with Reinforce, the only person he really trusted, the only one he could really call a friend.

Reinforce had taken to teaching Harry everything she could, which turned out to be an awful lot. It turned out that her Collect and Use Rare Skill was more inclusive than merely stealing people's spells, she also retained the memories and knowledge of everyone who had ever been absorbed by the book.

Languages, mathematics, physics, magic, everything. She taught Harry everything that he asked for. A lot of stuff was far beyond his current capabilities but, while not a prodigy, he picked things up quite quickly. As it so happened, the magic that Reinforce knew, Mid-Childan and Ancient Belkan style, both required quite a bit of knowledge about maths and physics.

One thing that Reinforce and Harry had in common was a desire to fly. When Reinforce had shown Harry her flight spell, her black wings emerging from her back, Harry had pretty much begged her to teach him how to do that himself. As it turned out, flying was not going to be something she could teach him for a while.

You see, the physics of flight were quite complex, and Harry just didn't understand all of the forces involved at present. There were the vertical forces involved, gravity, air resistance and so on, as well as horizontal ones, the wind for example, as well as thrust and so many other forces that it was quite ridiculous.

A stable flight spell required at least three 'nodes' as it were. One node would allow someone to move up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards, but all of the forces would be concentrated in one area. In that case, the person who was flying would likely be flipped end over end and be quite dizzy.

Using two nodes, turning would also be possible, but it still only allowed for balance on a flat plane which mid-air wasn't. Three nodes in a triangle formation was the bare minimum, but more would help make everything more stable and controlled, but also more complicated.

For now, Reinforce had Harry doing exercises that would allow him to focus his mind, while also making him capable of defending himself in an emergency. As shown by his use of three bloody daggers, he could probably hold off one or two ordinary people, but any more would give him problems, as would going up against a mage of any kind.

Harry could currently cast a weak Panzerschild, three Bloody Daggers, a Bind Break and a half dozen Photon Lancer shots. Still, that was actually pretty impressive, especially as he didn't have a device. Oh, she herself was a Unison Device, but that was only useful when you wanted to pour massive amounts of power into something. For control, you really needed something like a Storage Device or an Intelligent Device.

Reinforce frowned a little as she contemplated what she had been learning about Harry's linker core. To be honest, it only partially resembled any kind of linker core that she was familiar with, there was a more raw, wild and primal part to it that didn't really make sense.

Magic, to the best of Reinforce's knowledge, was just like a science. You could calculate things, attach numbers to it, heck, you could even channel it with technology! Harry's core, however, seemed to respond to emotions as well as what variables Reinforce already knew about.

When he was experiencing a strong emotion, whether that be joy, anger or something else, his spells tended to be more powerful, if a little unpredictable. When he was gloomy, downcast or just plain sad, his magic tended to be a little lacklustre as well.

Reinforce had set him to meditating in his free time, to try to learn to feel and control his linker core. She, when he did that, examined a few things that she personally found interesting. One of those interesting things was the force-field around Privet Drive that she'd found.

From what she'd been able to tell about the force-field, it was tied into Harry himself and was sustaining itself off of his magic. The only reason that she hadn't destroyed it yet, and this stop it leeching off of Harry, was because she only had the most vague of ideas about what it did.

It seemed, from what she had gleaned in her examinations of it over the past few months, to connect Harry with one other particular individual. Who this other person the force-field was connected to, she didn't know, but she could tell that the force-field would react aggressively towards that person.

Reinforce sighed and sat down beside Harry. He had taken out the small lunch he had been given and began to eat it. It was Dudley's birthday today, he was being taken to the zoo, and Harry had had a boxed lunch shoved into his hands and been told to not come back until the Dursleys had returned home themselves.

Harry, of course, had used just such an opportunity to practise what magic he had learned from Reinforce. Harry used every spare moment he had practising what Reinforce taught him. These days, he completed the chores he had been given as quickly as he could and disappeared to practise some more.

The Dursleys weren't complaining about this, the chores got down and they got Harry 'out from under their feet and away from mischief' as it had been said. There was this small clearing in some trees in a park near the Dursleys that Harry often used for the small magic spells he knew.

For larger spells or those that needed more space, like when he was practising his control of his Photon Lancer shots, he went to an abandoned skate park that no one ever went to for them. There were no skaters there, as there were broken bottles and things all over the place, so it was somewhere quiet for Harry to practise alone.

When he was out of the house, and Reinforce had deemed it a bad idea to practise for one reason or another, Harry spent his time at the local library. Since the acid incident with Dudley, Harry had begun to really get interested in various mythologies, primarily the Norse and Egyptian ones.

Reinforce well remembered when Harry had first returned home after the hospital visit. Half of his face, most of his upper body and his left arm had been bandaged, where acid had either eaten away at him or dribbled down his body and caused more damage. She had hugged him as comfortingly as she knew how, but because of how tender he was that had only caused him pain and he had cried more.

Reinforce then leant over, pushed Harry's hair aside and planted a small kiss on his forehead, half on his normal skin and half on his corpse like flesh. She was the only person that Harry would let do that, anyone else would have gotten a very bad reaction from said boy.

Harry didn't say anything at her random action, merely looking up at her in surprise, before going back to his food. Another change in Harry was how little he now spoke. Reinforce was sometimes an exception, but Harry had become extremely introverted and wary of other people, never initiating conversation if he could help it.

Reinforce was slightly reminded of Fate Testarossa Harlaown, the red-eyed blond girl that she had absorbed back in Uminari City. Reinforce had absorbed the girl's memories, along with her repertoire of spells, when she had been going berserk, so she knew things that Fate probably wasn't comfortable with other people knowing.

The both of them had grown up in less than ideal circumstances, both of them having abusive relatives and, now, both of them had one person they could rely on. When Fate had been younger, that person had been Arf, her familiar. For Harry, that had been Reinforce herself.

When Harry was older, maybe fourteen or fifteen, Reinforce might consider permanently getting him out and away from the Dursleys. As things were, he was simply too young, and he could only just look after himself. Yes, when he was older, the two of them would scram out of here.

xxxxx

CRASH!

Reinforce winced as she saw Harry catapult up into the air and slam back into the ground with a great deal of force. Harry had tried a flight spell for the first time, but he wasn't able to utilise more than one 'node' at present and had been disorientated when he'd started spinning and flipping in the air, leading him to smash into the ground.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Reinforce asked hesitantly as said boy shakily got to his feet.

Harry nodded his head as he rubbed his now bleeding temple. It was probably a good thing that Harry no longer required glasses, his vision having recovered over time after his first unison with Reinforce. Reinforce herself didn't know why his eyesight would heal like that, but it had, maybe it had something to do with that lightning bolt scar that had disappeared after that time?

"As long as you're sure." Reinforce said. "How about we take a break from magic, let's see how well you remember the German that I've taught you." Harry looked up and Reinforce smiled at the eager gleam in his one visible eye.

Since Harry wanted to be shot of the Dursleys just as much as she wanted him to be rid of them, he'd thrown himself into studying everything he could that might be useful to him. He believed that, to be successful and to become his own person, he needed to apply himself and reach his maximum potential.

That work ethic really helped when he was learning something brand new, and Reinforce had decided that languages would always be useful. She was teaching him Japanese, the language that Hayate had spoke, as well as German, which was weirdly identical to Belkan for some reason.

Two things that Reinforce couldn't help him with, as she didn't know them herself, were Norse runes and Egyptian hieroglyphics. She learnt them alongside Harry as he studied them in the library and online on the computers that were available for them to use.

Reinforce lamented the fact that Earth was so behind the technology that she was useful, and England seemed to be not as advanced as Japan was too. From what she had read though, that was understandable. After World War Two, Japan had not been able to rebuild its army, and had instead invested its money elsewhere.

That meant that Japan tended to have the best technology available while the rest of the world tried to play catch up. Really, denying Japan an army and saying that they would defend it if it ever came under attach had possibly been the worst decision made at the end of the war.

Reinforce stopped questioning Harry on what German he knew when she saw his focus wasn't on her. She followed his gaze and was curious why a common garden snake had snatched Harry's attention as completely as it had.

She was incredibly surprised when Harry hissed at the snake. Not the childish hissing that kids would do when playing a game that involved a snake, but actual hissing. The snake reacted to it as well, focusing quite intently on Harry when it heard him.

Reinforce watched as Harry and the snake hissed at each other for several minutes, trying to understand what the two might be saying to each other. Snake body language wasn't something that Reinforce knew, so she only really had Harry's reactions to go off.

It looked like quite and intense discussion from what she could see, one that went on for several minutes. She settled down to watch, deciding not to interrupt and only ask Harry what had been said when the two of them had finished their little chat.

Eventually, the snake slithered off and Harry's attention returned to Reinforce. Seeing her curious look, Harry blushed, having realised that he'd pretty much just been ignoring his one and only friend to chat with a snake. He looked at her again and saw the small smile on her face, indicating she wasn't mad at all.

"What was all of that about, Harry? I didn't know you could talk to snakes." Reinforce asked, her tone light and without any hint of demand in it.

"I didn't either." Harry replied quietly, his voice hoarse and rasping due to lack of use. The fact that his throat also had some damage from the acid incident probably didn't help matters much either. "It was... interesting. He called me a 'speaker'. That implies there is more than one, or at least that there had been 'speakers' before."

Reinforce nodded her head. "Maybe it's a Rare Skill. You know that I have Collect and Use as my Rare Skill, perhaps Snake Speech is yours. Do you know how far it reaches, maybe you can talk to dragons and things as well." Reinforce closed her eyes in thought for a moment. "Maybe having such a skill could help you with learning a summoning skill."

Harry looked at her curiously, his head tilted slightly to one side. "The most recent summon spell I used was Summon Scarlet Dragon. If my memory serves, that particular spell is AA rank in power, but only requires E rank control. With your ability to communicate with snakes, you may be able to talk to them and get them to agree to assist you, rather than having to force them into obedience like others would."

"I see. Reinforce, could you teach me summoning and control magic?" Harry asked after a moment.

Reinforce shook her head. "Unless you're naturally skilled at it, summoning magic is a bit too complicated to try without a device. If we could get you one, it would open up all sorts of spells and skills that I could teach you. For now, though, we can only stick to what you can do without a device."

Harry nodded his head before another question occurred to him. "Reinforce, because a device is essentially a weapon, wouldn't it be illegal for me to possess one? I mean, I'm not military or police or anything like that after all, and Earth is an unadministrated world."

Reinforce smiled. "While it is true that I've only given examples of combat type devices, the primary use of any device is to augment their master's magical abilities and assist them in casting spells. They take over tasks that the human brain can't handle efficiently, such as recording and reproducing spells that the mage casts."

Reinforce sat up and gave Harry an impromptu lesson the different devices that existed. "Storage Devices have the lowest artificial intelligence of any device, but they also have some of the fastest processing speeds as well. This is the kind of device that would suit you the best, if you needed intelligence then you could use me."

"After that, there are Boost Devices. These are a bit weird, because their primary function is to give other devices a power boost. They are also often used in conjunction with summoning magic, boosting the stats and abilities of the creatures a mage summons." Reinforce explained.

"Armed Devices are the ones that I'm more familiar with. They are combat-oriented, most often linked and associated with Belkan magic and the cartridge system. They have a more sophisticated AI than Storage Devices, but they aren't up to the level of Intelligent Devices." Harry nodded his head in understanding.

"Intelligent Devices themselves, are the second most intelligent ones around, as you may have guessed from their name. These devices are capable of acting independently of the mages they are synchronised with, casting shields when their mage is distracted or unconscious for example. They also possess their own personalities, making them rather sought after amongst the more powerful mages." Again, Harry nodded to show his understanding and gave Reinforce a significant look which made her smile.

"Finally, of the main devices, are those like myself, Unison Devices. Now, Unison Devices aren't usually the same size as me, being more likely to be around the size you would expect a 'fairy' to be, sometimes as large as a young child. Our AIs are so advanced that we are treated like fully self-aware and sentient individuals. As you know, we are capable of 'uniting' with suitable individuals to provide mana control and assistance depending on the circumstances." So saying, Reinforce unisoned with Harry, making his hair turn fully silver, his right eye turn red and he also seemed to gain a little height as well, but that might just be their imagination.

Reinforce cancelled the unison and smiled at Harry. "If we ever do end up somewhere that you can purchase a device, I would suggest you do so. There is nothing illegal about owning one, but the owners of Intelligent Devices must be registered with the TSAB. Do you have any further questions?"

The two of them continued to talk, discussing everything that both of them wished to. Before Harry went home, Reinforce returned to her place inside Harry's body and their conversation turned from a verbal one to a telepathic one. Reinforce would never say this, but Harry's mental voice was so much better than his real one, probably because his mental voice wasn't affected by how rarely he spoke, nor his damaged throat.

When they returned to Number Four Privet Drive, they found that Dudley was being a nuisance, banging his Smeltings stick on everything he could reach. The young, round boy had been accepted to the same school that Vernon had attended and the uniform, for whatever reason, had included said stick.

Dudley tried to whack Harry with his stick, but that didn't work. Harry cast a single Bloody Dagger into his hand and stopped Dudley's Smeltings stick with the flat of the blade, keeping the blade partially hidden in his sleeve, before dodging around his cousin and disappearing upstairs and into his room. It had happened so fast that Dudley had seen nothing but a flash of red and was left stupefied, not really understanding what had just happened.

The room that had been Dudley's second bedroom looked a lot different now. Before, it had been full of all of Dudley's broken and unwanted toys, things that he no longer touched and would have gathered dust if Petunia allowed such a thing to exist in her house.

Harry had fixed all of the broken things he could, thrown out everything that couldn't be fixed, and kept what things interested him. The books, which looked like Dudley had never even touched them, were some of Harry's prized possessions.

The walls had been painted as well, the carpet was a deep purplish black and the walls had symbols of all kinds painted on them by Harry. There were Norse runes, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Japanese kanji, all kinds of things there. The personalisation of the room was something that Petunia and Vernon hadn't cared about, staying out of the room and not caring as long as he did his chores.

Sometimes, he almost felt invisible at Privet Drive, but he didn't mind it much. Harry didn't care about what Petunia, Vernon and Dudley thought about him, he didn't even think of them as family. No, Harry cared solely about what Reinforce, the one person who showed she cared about him, thought.

He'd listened to her stories, about Ancient Belka and everything she'd ever experienced. He had paid a lot of attention when she talked about Nanoha Takamachi, Fate Testarossa and Hayate Yagami, who were all the same age as him, and Harry wondered if he would ever get to meet them.

Reinforce had once gotten a personal teleport for him and her to work and had shown him an uninhabited planet where she'd let loose with some of the more powerful magic she was capable of. Of course, without a device, Harry wouldn't be able to pull off the same things, but he had been in awe of her tremendous power.

When he was older, Harry wondered if he would ever be able to join the TSAB. Of course, Harry was wary of any organisation, saying nothing of one that recruited ten year old children, so he would check things out before he joined if he ever got the opportunity, but the whole idea behind them appealed to him.

xxxxx

It was one day, a few weeks into the summer holidays, when something arrived for Harry. He'd been up early, like he always was, and had made breakfast for the family, still surprised that he got some himself, when the letterbox had rattled.

Knowing that he would be sent along to get the mail anyway, Harry had immediately gone to see what was there. Three letters were laid on the mat, one of them a postcard from Vernon's sister, Marge. Another letter looked to be a bill or something like that, while the third made him stop and stare.

Mr H. Potter

The Smallest Bedroom

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

Harry slipped the letter with his own name on it into his pocket and took the two other letters back to Vernon to have a look at. The large man grumbled at the bill, before turning his attention to the postcard from his sister. He called through to Petunia that Marge was apparently ill, something to do with a funny whelk.

Harry wasn't entirely sure if that was really true. Marge Dursley was a very... robust woman, so it would take a lot to make her sick. Anyway, Harry wondered what she was doing on the Isle of Wight, she usually couldn't stand to be away from her dogs for very long, and he knew that she would have at least taken Ripper with her, the most vicious of her dogs.

While this conversation was going on, Harry collected the breakfast dishes and washed them, before retreating to his bedroom to read the letter sent for him. On opening it, both he and Reinforce were stunned by what they found. For Harry, it was more about finding that he was being accepted to a school of magic.

For Reinforce, it was more about there being a population of mages on Earth. As far as she knew, and the memories she had stolen from Nanoha, Fate and countless TSAB mages agreed, Earth didn't have an organised magical community. The next thing that had her curious was the list of things a student was required to have.

She almost felt like laughing at the list, it was just so medieval. It sounded nothing like any magic system she'd ever heard of, but then again, maybe it would explain why Harry's linker core was so different from what she was used to. It was a possibility at least, if nothing else.

The two of them fell into a quick mental debate about what to do next. The answer they arrived at was to ask Petunia what she knew about all of this. Harry's mother had been her sister, and if he had inherited his magic from her or her husband, Petunia was far more likely to know than Vernon was.

xxxxx

Harry had waited until it was just him and Petunia in the house. Dudley had gone out with his gang and Vernon had gone to work, leaving the two of them alone in the house. Harry had done all of his chores but, instead of going off and practising his magic, he found Petunia in the living room.

"Aunt Petunia, may I ask you something?" Petunia jumped, having not heard her nephew enter the room. She looked over at the boy and, at the sight of the hair that covered the left side of his face, she felt an ever so tiny jolt of shame. Her Dudley had done that and, no matter how much of a freak he was, the boy probably hadn't deserved it. As a gesture of good will, she decided to allow the question for a change.

"Yes, boy, what is it?" She nearly snapped. Just because she was allowing the question, that didn't mean she had to be nice about it.

"I received a letter in the mail today. Would you know anything about this?" He asked, holding up the letter so that the Hogwarts emblem was clearly visible. Petunia paled and her skin took on the colour of old porridge. "I see, I guess you do know what this is about." Harry muttered.

Harry took another look at her before speaking. "I'm guessing that you don't like this. So, as not to bother you, if you could tell me how to get all of this sorted by myself, I could get it all done without bothering any of you. As I understand it, this would mean that you don't have to see me until next summer at the earliest."

Petunia narrowed her eyes at Harry, considering what her answer might be. "Very well, boy. Listen closely, I won't be saying this a second time. On Charing Cross Road in London, there is a pub that normal people can't see, it's called the Leaky Cauldron. That's the entrance to Diagon Alley, where you'll find all the shops you'll need. Your father was from an old and rich family, the bank there will probably be able to sort you out."

Harry nodded his head in thanks but Petunia wasn't finished. "Now, because I've told you this, all I can remember from when your mother was eleven, I want you to spend the rest of the summer at that pub place and rent a room. This will be the last time we see each other until next summer, is that clear?"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry said, bowing his head. He raced upstairs to fill a bag with everything he might need to take with him. He stuffed all of his clothes into it, along with some toiletries and the like. Before he ran back down stairs. Petunia shoved a few pounds into his hands 'for the bus' and he left.

Harry caught the bus into London and then made his way to Charing Cross Road. He soon found the pub that Petunia had mentioned, the Leaky Cauldron, and Harry was fascinated by the way that passers by seemed to miss it completely, their eyes sliding off it without even noticing it was there. Reinforce took note that the magic she felt from the building was similar in structure to the force-field around Privet Drive, but they were both different in their own ways. She began to try and puzzle out how the magic here worked, so she could use her Collect and Use skill to add it to her reportoire.