Disclamer: I do not know the rights to this charecter or world that this story takes place in

Chapter 1 - Taking the Plunge

Breathing hard Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived had just awaked from one of many reoccurring nightmares that he has been having over the summer so far.

Grabbing his glasses Harry looks over at his alarm clock next to his bed. It read 12:01 am. July 31. Harry sighed.

"Happy Birthday Harry." Harry stated quietly.

"And happy you should be my boy... You don't turn 16 every day you know."

Startled Harry frantically looked around his dimly lit room looking for the source of the voice.

"Look up my boy," said the voice in a rather cheerful way.

Harry's head snaps up seeing an elderly man wearing navy robes and floating above his bed.

"Ummmm... hello? Who are you, and why are you floating up there? ... Never mind. I must still be sleeping... Goodnight sir." with that Harry rubs his eyes, takes off his glasses and lies back down. 'The boy thinks I am a dream. Hmmm odd, I should wake him and tell him a bit of what he needs to know. It is my responsibility.' though the man as he proceeded to float down from the ceiling to a chair by the desk in Harry's small room.

Casting a silencing charm on the room with a flick of his wrist then with another flick summoning a bucket of ice cold water above Harry's head the old man gave a sly smirk. Lowering his arm, the bucket disappeared leaving the water that was in it to fall on Harry's head.

"AH COLD!" screamed Harry jumping out of bed, now soaking wet and very much awake.

"There good to see you out of bed Mr. Potter."

Harry looked over to where the voice came from. Shivering from the cold water that had awoken him.

"Here let me warm you up." With a flick of his wrist, the elderly man sent jets of warm air to attack Harry from all sides at once.

"There Mr. Potter feel better?" Harry nodded confused by why a wizard he did not know but was radiating a friendly aura was in his room in the middle of the night.

"Good now sit down. I am sure you have a lot of question but please hold them for the moment, and I will tell you why I am here. Of course that is only if you would be so kind as to not interrupt me as I know youth tends to do when they are frustrated and/or confused." Nodding Harry proceeds to sit on the edge of now wet bed.

Smiling much like an old fool the elderly man starts with, "My name is Merlin. And yes this is no joke." Harry's jaw hit the floor and was speechless. Thoughts and questions assaulted his mind. 'Merlin ... that is not possible Merlin is dead.' 'Why would such a great wizard be visiting me?' 'I hope I am not in trouble.' 'I wonder if I am still dreaming?' There were just a few of the many thoughts that were now running through around in Harry's head.

"OK. Now first please close your mouth, you look ridiculous. Second put those questions and thoughts forming in your head away for now." Chuckled the elderly man who had just pronounced himself Merlin. Doing both Harry just stared in awe at the elderly man in front of him. Still trying to get his head around the fact, he just proclaimed himself Merlin, the greatest wizard of all time.

"OK. Now Mr. Potter whether or not any one has bothered to tell you, usually shortly after their 16th birthday witched and wizards have a drastic jump in their magical power. Now normally the only thing that happens because of this is a lot of accidental magic. Like that of what young wizards and witches experience when their powers first begin to make themselves know. Also normally, this only lasts about a month or so depending of how much of a power boost the wizard gets. Yet, in rare cases something else happens. You Mr. Potter are much like me and many others throughout history. You are one of these rare cases. This the reason I am here." Merlin smirks at this last bit of information. "For you this will be a great time of change. I believe it will be greater. Greater then any one else you have ever known. Yet, for all I know you Mr. Potter may meet some one else who is like yourself... A rare case ... on your time, But anyway to the real reason that I am here. For every one of these rare cases, I had the pleasure of tutoring and warning them as to what is happening to them. As well as what they can expect from all of it." While speaking of this, Merlin peers deep in to Harry's eyes to gain a glance at his magical core.

"Sir?" "Call me Merlin my boy." "OK. Merlin, please call me Harry then. What is the reason you are here for then?" Looking away from Harry's eyes with a surprised look on his face Merlin begins to speak again, "Harry my boy, I am here to lead you through the process to connect your mind to your magical core as a means to help you through your change."

'I have never seen anyone - even my self with this level of power at this age before. Even with out this occurrence. If things had been normal and we was given time to learn and gain experience he would have been able to be at lease equal with that of Albus Dumbledore or even Tom Riddle. So why was he chosen?' Merlin pondered this to himself as Harry formed his next question from the rampant thoughts plaguing his mind at that moment.

"Merlin sir. How do you go about that? ... And to what purpose would it be?"

Startled out of his pondering Merlin responds, "Two very good questions, and I will answer the second one first." states the friendly old man. Taking a deep breath he begins, "The purpose of aligning your magical core with your mind is to allow you better control over your magic and to give you a better understanding on how it effects your body. As for how you do it, that is a rather easy task. You simply close your eyes and feel inside yourself. Search for the core of your magic. Once you do just jump into it like you would a pool of water."

"OK. I will try." Harry states rather dryly. Wondering if this is all just in his mind and he is just having a vivid dream, but decides to try it all the same. Harry closes his eyes and proceeds to try to find his core.

After some time, Harry's inner self find himself standing at the edge of a magical pool that was his core. If some one had called it a magical reservoir, they would have been correct. For that is what it appeared to be to Harry. It looked much like a Muggle reservoir that he has seen in a book from school before he went off to Hogwarts.

"Well here goes nothing." and with that, Harry dived into what is his magical core. Merging his mind and magic as one.