Chapter 1

"He's been very quiet, headmaster. Hasn't cried at all," said Hagrid while handing him the baby, nested in a little blanket.

Albus Dumbledore looked at the boy thoughtfully. His little forehead was still red around the raw lightning shaped cut, which had thankfully stopped bleeding a while ago, but he would most likely keep a scar for the rest of his life.

The boy slowly opened his eyes and looked back at him, his face calm and his lime green eyes focused on him with an unusual intensity for a child so young. 'The exact shade of the killing curse...' noticed Dumbledore. 'How intriguing. Is it perhaps a side effect of surviving it?'

He turned and carefully put the child on the doorstep of Number 4, Privet Drive, leaving a note inside the blanket for his family to find. The boy was still looking at him, and he found that it unnerved him in some way, as if the little orphan was weighing his actions, judging him. But that was preposterous. An infant like that couldn't be entirely aware of what was happening, and even less what would happen to him here... His subconscious was playing with him.

To say that Petunia and Vernon Dursley were scared of their nephew would be an understatement. They were terrified of him.

Some would ask why. Little Harry was calm and quiet, never bothering anyone, never asking for anything more than what he truly needed. He was brilliant in school, never got into fights, and would even help his cousin Dudley with his homework if asked very nicely. Yes, he did not have many friends, did not laugh at the silly jokes children his age said, and would rather keep to himself than mingle among his peers but that was probably because he was an orphan, and was more mature than the others on many levels, wasn't it? Nothing scary, just a really gifted child.

But that was because the others didn't really know him. They didn't live under the same roof as this... thing. This thing that would look at you as if you were the ignorant child, the pitiful insect struggling in the dirt, hardly worth his attention. Others hadn't seen that child kill a dog twice his size just by looking at it. They hadn't witnessed how apathetic, how utterly bored that boy was, no matter what happened. As if he had already seen everything this world had to show, and found it utterly lacking.

So the Dursley's did what they could, they cohabited with this creature, wary even in their own house. They interacted with him as little as could be, making sure whatever he would need was at his disposal, so they didn't have to interact any more than strictly necessary. They avoided him like the plague, and never questioned where he went when he disappeared, sometimes for days on end, happy as they were not to have him here.

Oh, it hadn't started like that. At first they had put his strange behavior on the fact that he was... different. Just like his parents. But they soon had to admit that even his parents hadn't been so... Inhuman. The first – and the last – time Vernon tried to hit the boy, because he had looked at him with such obvious contempt in his eyes, his hand had literally frozen solid before he could even touch the child. The boy was only five at the time. They had to go to the hospital right away and Vernon almost lost his hand. They had tried to get rid of the boy, put him for adoption, ask the social services… They had tried it all. And all of the employees who had been appointed to meet with them either met an untimely death or simply found the boy so smart and polite and peaceful that they couldn't see how anyone would ever want to get rid of him.

Sure, who in the world would want to get rid of a child who can kill them at any moment?

Near the end of August 1991, Albus Dumbledore apparated in Surrey to bring the young Harry Potter his Hogwarts letter and talk to him about his magical upbringing. He had sent several owls beforehand, but even if the letters had been opened by Harry – a spell on them had checked that – he hadn't received any reply, and Harry hadn't been sighted anywhere in Britain's magical community. It was now mere days before the start of school at Hogwarts, and he had decided that it was time to investigate the matter personally. He knocked politely on the door, and was soon greeted by a distrustful Petunia Dursley.

"You're one of them, aren't you? What do you want?" she snapped warily. But before Albus could answer, a boy's voice rang clearly behind her.

"Aunt Petunia, please let him in. It seems we have a few matters to discuss. You're free to occupy yourself elsewhere, I will entertain our guest for the duration of his visit."

The woman, whose hand was now trembling slightly on the edge of the half open door, eagerly complied and hastily disappeared inside the house. When she was gone, Harry turned to the puzzled headmaster.

"Headmaster. It's been a long time. Please, come in and sit down," said the young boy, his green eyes staring straight back into Dumbledore's as he gestured toward the sofa near the coffee table that sat in the middle of the living room. Dumbledore did so while studying the child curiously. He hadn't expected the child to act so... Mature. Neither had he expected the way Petunia Dursley had done just what he had told her to, without piping a single word. That was intriguing, but for now he would try the grandfatherly approach he had intended to use.

"Ah, Harry, you've grown quite much since we last saw each other. Though I didn't expect you to remember that night, you were quite young after all," he said merrily, his eyes twinkling as the child closed the door and sat down on the sofa in front of him, crossing his legs.

"I have a very good memory," stated Harry "But that is not why you are here today, Headmaster."

"Indeed. I am here to invite you to study at Hogwarts, as your parents wished. I sent you several acceptance letters, but I wasn't sure if you had taken them seriously, considering the fact that you were raised by muggles..."

"Yes, forgive my rudeness. I simply didn't want to make a fuss by officially refusing to attend your school," the young boy said, looking at him as if he was the most boring and ignorant person he ever had to see.

"So you do know about the magical world," the older man mused.

"Indeed. My aunt and uncle may hate it as much as they want, but they still know the most basic information about it." Harry's reply was rather condescending.

"Does this mean that you hold no interest in the magical world?" Dumbledore was quickly losing patience with this disrespectful child.

"I simply said that I do not wish to attend this school."

"You're perhaps a bit young to decide whether or not you will go to Hogwarts. You're still a child and as such you should follow your parents' wishes," the headmaster retorted with a slightly berating look. "We'll go together to Diagon Alley and I'm sure you will change your mind and find the wizarding world is wonderful after all. Much better than what your family must have told you."

"I highly doubt that you are in any position to decide what I would or wouldn't like, headmaster. And I know better than to listen entirely to anyone's opinion. Humans are too biased, wizard or not." The child's answer was simple and cold, his eyes never leaving the elder man's for a single moment, chemical green staring into ice blue. Dumbledore finally had enough of that act and decided to scare the child a bit.

"Harry, you have to go to Hogwarts. I do not know if you remember but the night your parents were killed and you were brought here, a Dark Lord tried to kill you. You cannot remain here with those muggles while that man is still somewhere out there. You need to learn how to defend yourself against him and his followers." Harry arched an eyebrow at the headmaster's outburst, hardly fazed by his words.

"If I remember properly, and believe me when I say that I have a very good memory, that man was blasted to pieces the instant he tried to kill me. I fail to see how his potential survival would be relevant in any way," the raven haired boy calmly replied. Dumbledore sighed.

"Your mother's love has protected you until now but you might not be so lucky the next time. The wizarding world needs you, Harry. You're the only one who can defeat Voldemort. The prophecy says so."

"This is hardly a matter of luck, or love, and you should know better than to listen to prophecies. Fate is ever-changing and capricious at best," Harry intoned. "Anyway, the wizarding world might need me but I don't need it, headmaster. You'll have to do better that that to convince me."

"You're a celebrity, Harry, your fate does not lie among muggles. The wizarding world nearly worships you for what you did. And your parents left you a huge amount of money. Does that seem appealing enough to you?" Dumbledore asked coldly, his grandfatherly pretense definitely gone. This child was definitely nothing like he expected, but if bribery worked he'd have to use that. For now. Harry smirked, green eyes glimmered knowingly.

"No."

The elder man finally had enough. He angrily rose to his full height and summoned all his magical energy around him, the room pulsating and humming with barely contained power.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, HARRY POTTER! YOU WILL DO AS IS EXPECTED OF YOU, WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT. THE GREATER GOOD STANDS ABOVE AN IGNORANT CHILD'S WHIMS."

Harry slowly raised his head and his acid green eyes pierced right into the headmaster's own. He did not show any sign of fear or acknowledgment of the headmaster's power. The next instant, the lights around them flickered before vanishing and everything went dark as silence engulfed the room. The temperature in the room dropped abruptly and all the magic, all the energy inside the headmaster disappeared, as if sucked away by the glacial aura around the boy. Harry's lime green eyes were the only thing glowing in the dark.

"Sit. Back. Down. Now." Each of his words was punctuated by a drop of the temperature around them, his voice was barely a whisper but it felt like thunder in the heavy silence. "We have not finished talking."

"What are you?" the headmaster breathed, trembling slightly against his will. He did not know if it was due to fear or to the currently negative temperature of the room. Perhaps a bit of both. The child remained silent so he continued. "You're not Voldemort."

"Of course not," answered the child lightly, as if nothing had happened. Harry looked at the headmaster as if he were a very dense child. "As I said, this is not a matter of luck. Voldemort met his better that night and paid the price for his miscalculation." He uncrossed his arms and motioned toward the couch with his right hand. "If you would, we still have matters to discuss. I hope that you will prove more open to suggestions now that a few misunderstandings have been cleared."

Dumbledore sat back down heavily. He suddenly looked much more aged than before.

"What do you want?" Breathed out the old man tiredly. Harry smiled and the room's atmosphere returned to normal.

"Freedom." He smiled politely, innocently, at the wizard, before his facial expression became serious again. "I will not suffer having to put up with dumb immature children, nor with pointless classes and boring teachers who will waste my time. I already went through that once, and I would rather avoid having to do it again."

"Would you rather have to put up with the questions and rumors that will spread if someone as famous as you are refuses a magical education?" Dumbledore had gathered himself together and was ready to bargain what he could from his interlocutor.

"I am not flat out refusing a magical education. I simply refuse to sit in a classroom all day long, surrounded by idiots. There is a difference, headmaster." Harry slightly angled his head to the side and watched the older man curiously, waiting to see if he would catch the bait. In that instant he looked more like a child studying an interesting phenomenon than the dangerous and calculating young wizard persona he had previously shown. Dumbledore filed that in a corner of his head for later study and considered his options carefully before replying.

"Are you suggesting correspondence classes, Mr. Potter?" A ghost of a smile flashed on the raven haired boy's face as he regained his previous aristocratic composure.

"Indeed. You can send me the same homework as the other students, and I'll send it back to you completed. I am quite certain you possess a great variety of spells to make sure students do not cheat. I will come to your school to take my exams at the same time as the other students, if necessary. You will have full proof that I am following the courses properly and I will be free to use my time as I please. Do we have a deal?"

"Will you concede to taking classes with your peers if your grades become too low?" Dumbledore carefully bargained. The child studied him intently before answering.

"Only if my work is graded objectively by at least 3 different teachers of this specific domain, each teaching in a different school, and found lacking by every single one of them." Dumbledore sighed inwardly. It would prove difficult to use this clause in his advantage if the child was as much of a genius as he let on.

"This seems quite fair. Do you intend to spend your entire year here, with your relatives? "

"Of course not. There is only so much of their stupidity I can suffer. I should be able to use one of my parents' estates; they must have had several if they were as rich as you say. If not, I will rent a place for myself with the money they left me." He stopped talking for a few seconds before continuing. "And I would appreciate if you could produce at least two paper copies of our deal that we will both sign, so as to make sure that neither one of us will try to ignore it."

Dumbledore wasn't very surprised at the child's words. Of course he wouldn't have made the mistake of forgetting to officially seal the deal after negotiating so mercilessly. That was still worth a try, though. He used his wand to produce 2 copies of their deal, as well as a quill and a bottle of ink. The boy read the contract attentively before signing it with the quill and handing back both items to the older man. His green eyes never left the headmaster's hand as Dumbledore signed both papers, putting one in his robes and handing the other back to the child, who watched it closely before nodding his head lightly, apparently satisfied with what he saw.

"Nevertheless, I must tell you that this house in which your relatives live is the only place in Britain, beside Hogwarts, where you will be safe from the Dark Lord and his followers. It would be unwise for you to leave it for too long or too often," the headmaster hedged, trying to make the child change his mind.

"I doubt your government would like to have me perform magic in the middle of a muggle neighborhood. Nor would they like to learn that I have lived the last 10 years of my live amongst a magic-hating muggle family," replied the boy dismissively. They both knew that this last piece of information could prove threatening to the headmaster's political influence and popularity.

"Fine," conceded Dumbledore, dropping the dangerous subject, before broaching another. "Do you wish for one of the teachers to accompany you to Diagon Alley to buy what you will need for your studies, and introduce you to the magical world?" asked the headmaster.

"If you must. Though I'd rather you just give me a few indications to find the place. The rest shouldn't be so difficult," answered the child while tucking the contract away in one of his shirt's pockets.

"I fear I must insist. I will ask Professor Snape to meet you here tomorrow afternoon, so he can show you Diagon Alley and a few practical things you will need to know to live among wizards. I am quite certain that he will be relieved to leave you as soon as he possibly can. Does that seem acceptable to you?"

"That arrangement should be acceptable. And it will probably prove less troublesome than making Uncle Vernon drive me there." Dumbledore inwardly rejoiced at this little victory. Severus might prove quite challenging for the boy. He did have a way around contempt and cynicism, after all, and could tame many opponents with a few carefully chosen words.

"Are we done, then?" The headmaster was getting tired of this battle of wits with a child more than 10 times his junior.

"I do believe so." The boy got up and escorted the older man to the door before offering to shake his hand, an almost mocking smile tugging on the corners of his lips. "It was a pleasure dealing with you, headmaster." Dumbledore didn't smile in return but still shook his hand.

"Oh, and, Mr. Potter, do not forget to send me your new address by owl before the 1st of September when you will have settled for the year."

"I will not," answered the child before closing the door after him.

AN:

Thanks to feral-kuga for co-writing and beat-ing that story. I surely wouldn't have advanced as much in writing this story without her ideas and help. XD

I hope you will all like this chapter that (hopefully) sets this story's bases a bit more clearly than the prologue. (I'm afraid I have a sweet tooth for mysterious dramatic openings. XD)

I'm already working on the second chapter, which might or might not arrive before the end of the month (Depending on how I fare with my upcoming exams) and might or might not contain more action than this one. XD

Any comments/critiques/ideas are welcome! :)