Chapter 2 – Power Overwhelming

Harry was thrust back to the waking world. Thankfully he noticed that his wounds did feel a bit better already.

You must take hold of the coin within your palm, and no matter what happens do not let go. We need to complete our connection and solidify our bond. No matter what you feel, know that I do this for you, beloved child.

It felt extremely weird to hear an actual voice in your own head, let alone a beautiful woman that introduced herself as an angel, and not for the first time today Harry questioned his own sanity. Regardless, he did what Aliyah told him to do and reached into his pocket to grab the coin. He grabbed it with his fingers and pulled it out, then twisted his hand over and let it fall into his palm. He closed his hand into a fist, and then he felt it.

The pain was immediately intense, unlike anything he'd ever felt before. The burning in his palm wasn't entirely new, he had experienced burns before, but the smell of sulfur was unexpected. It wasn't that, though, it was more the accompanying feeling that he just simply couldn't describe properly that added a surreal quality to the pain. It felt like his very essence was being… invaded. Slowly the sulfur smell intensified and he could feel every inch of his body, or maybe it was his soul, react to the new sensation of having another entity in his mind. One that he willingly invited this time. It was close to agony, but he thought she had over-exaggerated how much it would actually hurt. Harry could definitely handle this, he thought.

Be strong, beloved, it begins.

Uh oh, Harry thought to himself.

He braced himself, grabbing his blanket and putting it in his mouth like she had recommended earlier before he came back from his mind. It wouldn't do to wake the Dursleys, he still remembered the threat Vernon had made. Just as he finished doing so, it began. It started with what felt like a thunderbolt in his mind, and he literally saw blue suffuse his own vision as Aliyah took over. If he had thought it had been agony before, this was something even further beyond. It felt like his brain was literally exploding, like his mind was being torn to shreds in the struggle for dominance.

Flashes of blue light were nearly constant as it arced across his body as the struggle continued, and Harry softly screamed into his blanket. Slowly, he felt like something was being torn from within him. Unfortunately this something had what he could only describe as mental thorns lodged into him. Roughly, he latched his hands onto the frame of his bed and squeezed with every muscle in his body to distract him from the overwhelming sensation of pain.

Slowly, very very slowly, the creature was torn from him and he could tell it began to not just hold on tighter, but to actively fight back. He could feel the righteous fury from Aliyah from within him, and he latched onto that emotional rock as the battle reached a peak. A veritable sea of pain washed over him and cleansed him of any coherent thought. Aliyah was strong; she was unbeatable, he repeated to himself over and over. As the struggle ensued, he noticed that as well as an increase in the arcs of electricity there were also occasional flames dancing along with them in his vision as his body was doused in what felt like incredible heat.

Rather than hurting, though, the heat was actually kind of pleasant. He felt the power of it, and he knew that with whatever Aliyah drew her strength from that she was simply unbeatable. The smell of sulfur suffused his nostrils and he could tell the battle had taken a turn in Aliyah's favor. The creature began to struggle in earnest at this point, refusing to give up its hold in his mind and soul where it had fed and gotten stronger for so long.

Within his mind he heard a scream of pain as memories of his past resurfaced. He saw a green light, and a woman with red hair beg for mercy. The memories shattered through the pain, but reformed and returned with a vengeance, showing to Harry all the horrors of his infancy.

No, not the boy, take me instead!

Harry felt a pang of sorrow, knowing that this woman had sacrificed herself for him. This was my mother, he realized with a start. A thunderbolt flashed in his vision again, and he heard another scream, this time he thought it was from the parasite.

Harry cried at the memory and at the pain, unsure of which was truly the more painful for him in this moment. More than anything, he knew that this… thing, this parasite, was the one responsible for his mother's death. With a fury he had never felt before in his life, he himself reached within him for strength, to not only expel the creature. To destroy it.

Feeling within himself he found what he could only describe as a river, or maybe it was a sun. He couldn't quite tell, but he knew it was him.

Beloved, no! You cannot do this! It will cause your body and magic irreparable harm if you try this!

Harry heard Aliyah, but the fury he felt was insurmountable. No words or force in this world could stop him, in fact it only made him want to do it even more. To take control of his own life, to destroy the things that harmed him, the thing that had harmed his family, the only people to ever love him.

He took hold of the energies within him and with a singular and clear motive he directed his energies towards one task; destroy. The electricity reached another crescendo, as did the hellfire, but they were both drowned out by the absolutely massive amount of power that was let out after being dormant for so long. It manifested as a green color, taking over the battle and taking hold of the parasite.

If Harry had to describe this he would say agony was an understatement, but at the same time it was also bliss. The power was intoxicating, as was the feeling of revenge. He felt the parasite scream, and then he felt it as it was torn apart by the sheer power swirling through him and he could feel and hear it scream even louder as it was sent to oblivion. To his surprise he felt what could best be described like… approval from Aliyah in his own mind.

As suddenly as it had happened, it was over. Some pain still lingered, but mostly it was just the after effects of his nerves being slightly damaged from the trauma. His body was not ready to handle as much power as he had released in such a short time. Nevertheless, he smiled a tiny smile, all that he could manage with his limited mobility. A few tears escaped his eyes as he remembered again the memory of his mother's death, but now he felt like he had avenged her.

He closed his eyes and let sleep take him again.

"Oh beloved… I am so sorry, I did not expect anything like that to happen," was the first thing Harry heard, and he knew it was Aliyah speaking.

Harry looked around his mind again, noticing that things actually looked a bit brighter than before, like there was an energy here that had been taken away from him. Harry looked to Aliyah and was shocked to see a single tear run down her face.

Angels aren't supposed to cry, Harry thought to himself.

Aliyah gave a small sad smile and then a short laugh at his thoughts. Her expression however suddenly turned very serious, "what you did was extremely irresponsible, beloved. You need to listen to me when I tell you what to or what not to do. Remember that when you get hurt, I get hurt as well, we share this body together now."

Harry looked down at his feet, embarrassed that he had lost control like that and done something so reckless, "I'm sorry, Ali, but I couldn't let him get away like that. I couldn't let him live after what he'd done," he said in a broken and sad tone, thinking of his mother and what he had lost.

Harry felt a hand under his chin that lifted his teary face up to gaze into Aliyah's eyes. She wiped the tears from his cheeks with soft and gentle hands, "Ali, huh?" she smiled at him, "I suppose it could be worse." She never lost her small smile as she spoke, "as much as I'm upset that you didn't listen to me, I want you to know that I'm also proud of you. Something I didn't tell you before is that all of the angels created by God had a general purpose to serve that was individual to us. I was the angel of justice, or sometimes vengeance."

Harry was shocked to hear this, how in the world had an angel of justice fallen?

Aliyah retracted her hand from his chin and ruffled his hair, adopting a pensive look on her face, "how indeed," was all she said, and then the smile returned.

"Luckily for both of us, you had so much power kept dormant that it didn't simply kill you to release so much at once. Unluckily for us, I have to heal your nerve endings so you can move and your magic will take months to be restored fully," she huffed in a very frustrated manner at the last part.

Harry smiled sheepishly, "so no permanent damage done, then? I'll call that a success. To be honest everything feels better already anyways. It feels like a shadow over my entire life has been lifted and the light is being let in now."

Aliyah smiled, "as much as I still think it was irresponsible and dangerous, I can't help but agree. The important thing is that it won't have any lasting effect physically, and emotionally you got to avenge your family. That is no small thing," she said, which made me feel immensely better.

Harry smiled at her, "so how long until you think I can move normally again?" He asked, afraid of the answer.

She tapped her finger against her chin in thought a couple of times, "it's hard to say exactly how long for sure, the real problem is that I haven't had the time to adjust to your neural pathways quite yet as that does take some time even for me. If you had done this a couple months from now it wouldn't have been a real issue. Frankly I'm impressed that you handled it so well, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what else we can train you to pull off."

"As it is, I think it will take about a week for everything to go back to normal except for your own magic, but you've lived without that your entire life so it probably won't be too difficult for you to manage without it for a couple or few months. In the meantime this also means that we can focus on different types of magic, and really drill in the basics for a solid foundation," she continued on to say, looking pretty content with the situation.

"However, there is still the issue of the Dursleys," she said.

Harry winced, not wanting to deal with them quite yet after such an emotionally and physically exhausting ordeal.

"You haven't eaten in two days and are severely injured, beloved. This needs to be addressed whether you want to or not," she calmly explained.

Harry was surprised to hear this, "it's already been two days? It feels like it's hardly been a single night," he said, surprised.

"Well I had to give you some time to heal before I put my plan into action, and time goes faster when you're practically in a coma," she replied.

Aliyah suddenly looked more alert, "someone is knocking on your door," she said.

"Like the door to my room? Or the door to the house?" Harry asked, Aliyah gave him a look when he referred to his cupboard as a room.

"The door to your cupboard," she said, strongly emphasizing the word and the difference between it and an actual room.

Harry began to look alarmed, thinking that maybe he had made too much noise during the struggle and had angered Vernon.

"Fear not beloved, even though you may be powerless at this point I am not. If need be I can and will protect you," her eyes arced as she said she would protect him, and Harry believed it.

Suddenly Harry was awake and back in his cupboard, as soon as he opened his eyes he heard another knock, but it was surprisingly soft.

"Boy, can you hear me? Are you alright?" he heard a soft voice ask him. He was pretty sure it was his Aunt Petunia, but she'd never spoken to him like this before. He was wary that this was a trap.

He cleared his throat as best he could, preparing to speak out loud, "yes Aunt Petunia, I'm fine," his voice came out extremely raspy, indicating that he clearly was not fine.

There was a pause on the other end and then a sigh, but she said nothing else and simply walked away. He heard the quiet footsteps as she left.

Harry sighed on his end as well, happy that he hadn't been too loud and woke Vernon. Petunia was absolutely rotten to Harry, but to her credit she never escalated to physical violence like Vernon had.

Slowly he started trying to move a bit, starting with his fingers. He wiggled them a bit as best he could, and was pleased that they did respond to his commands, albeit feebly. Harry lifted his arm up to lay across his chest and noted that while it did move, it felt almost numb, like he had just barely enough strength to move and that was it.

That's fairly accurate, beloved. My first and most important priority is to get you healed enough so you can get out and find some food. As it is I'm running low on reserves of energy that I can safely use stored in your body.

Harry wasn't that surprised, he was very skinny compared to other kids, with visible abs and rib bones.

Before he could really respond, he heard footsteps approaching again and then some fumbling with the locks. He froze in anticipation of what was about to come, and he also felt Aliyah go on high alert. He didn't know this but she was also releasing adrenaline into his body to prepare him for physical conflict and also pooling the energy she had left in case he needed it, as well as taking a hold of her unlimited reserve of hellfire.

When the last lock was removed, he stopped breathing and the cupboard door opened. Again he was surprised to see it was Aunt Petunia, and she gasped as she looked down at him. He was sure she smelled the urine as she opened the door, as her nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell. What he wasn't sure of was what the expression afterwards meant, it almost looked like… well it looked like pity.

Surprising Harry again, she handed him a plate that had two full sandwiches but into halves and a glass full of water. Harry mightily struggled to balance and maneuver the water over to the ledge next to his small cot as well as just resting the plate on his body. Aliyah noted that it was fortunate she had released the adrenaline, or that task might have not been possible in his current state.

Harry awkwardly avoided looking her in the eyes, and mumbled in his raspy voice again, "thank you."

Petunia was looking down at Harry with her lips pursed; her expression was currently unreadable to Harry. "You're welcome, I've left some clothes for you in the bathroom for after you shower whenever you're done eating and I'll wash the sheets for you when you're out of here. Vernon is out of the house and won't be back until late tonight."

Harry was shocked by this turn of events; Petunia had never done anything like this for Harry in his entire life that he could recall. He could count the times she had shown him kindness on one hand, and not raise a single finger. He was so shocked that he was sure he was gaping a little bit. She didn't wait for him to respond, however, and simply left him there with the cupboard door still open and the food in his room.

Well that went better than expected said Aliyah, who sounded very thoughtful.

"Yeah, now I just need to figure out how I'm going to eat this food," said Harry.

Beloved, be careful speaking aloud to me with people around, they will start to think you might be insane if they catch you, said Aliyah.

So can I just think and you'll hear me? Kind of weird to think that you can hear every one of my thoughts… Can you also see all of my memories? Asked Harry

I can hear every thought, but memories I can only see what you show me. I cannot dig through your mind into your past without some effort, and I feel it's not worth it to do so. Besides, learning about you the old fashion way is the most rewarding I feel. Said Aliyah.

Harry accepted the answer and then realized how hungry he actually was, but even more prevalent than the hunger was the thirst. With great effort and some help from Aliyah in bolstering his nervous system, he slid the plate down to his lap and used his arms to push himself up into a sitting position on his cot.

As soon as he felt like he could do so, he shakily grabbed the water and started drinking, starting with small sips. He was glad for Vernon being such a whale at this moment, because he owned the most massive cups. Not wanting to drink all the water before he ate, however, he sat it back down on the ledge and picked up one of the sandwiches. What was even more surprising is that the sandwiches Petunia had made were actually really good. Generally if they made him food, which they almost never did anymore, it was simple like ham and bread. This sandwich however was glorious to Harry. It had lettuce, ham, cheese, mayo, and mustard. It was practically the most delicious thing he'd ever eaten in his entire life.

Slowly Harry ate, he honestly felt full after the first sandwich because of how shrunken his stomach was, but Aliyah convinced him to eat the second one saying that he would need whatever nutrition he could get for her plans. She dulled the full feeling, and Harry happily kept eating.

Aliyah seemed very pleased with the turn of events, and Harry told her so and asked her why she seemed so pleased.

Well this way we don't have to steal food immediately and I can heal you far faster with food energy than by breaking down and transporting muscle that's already in your body. This drastically improves our situation, she said, seemingly very happy.

Harry smiled as well and agreed that that did sound good, although I can't say I like the sound of you breaking down my muscles for energy.

Well, it's not just energy. It's a much higher priority for you to have functional nerves than it is for you to have more lean body mass. We can work with smaller muscles, we can't work with damaged nerves nearly as easily, she responded.

That actually makes a lot of sense, so can normal people repair their nerves like this? Asked Harry.

Simplest answer is no, but longer answer is that nerves CAN regenerate sometimes, albeit at a rate far far slower than what I can achieve, she responded.

You mean to tell me that if I didn't have you, I would be this weak for the rest of my life? Harry asked, his eyes wide.

Hmmm, it's hard to say. I don't know if you would have ever fully recovered but being that you are still young it's likely that in a few years you would have grown back to be mostly functional, she replied.

A FEW YEARS? Man, well it's fortunate I have you then, how long until you can have me back to normal?

With this new development, I'd say we're on track for just another day for you to be completely normal, and then we'll start working on some improvements, she sounded kind of smug as she said this.

Wow, that's amazing, thought Harry, who genuinely believed that, what do you mean by improvements, though?

It's a lot to go over and the actual chemistry is something you'd need more of a background to really understand. I will teach you someday, but suffice to say for now that I will just be… optimizing the way your entire body works. You will be faster and stronger, you won't be Superman by any means, but you'll certainly have a distinct edge over others, she finished explaining.

Harry thought that sounded pretty good and was quite happy with the new developments in his life. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt happy, and it was a really nice change of pace. Harry finished the water and then decided it was time to shower since it seemed like that's what Petunia wanted him to do.

Already he noticed that he was feeling less numb and that he could move much easier, mentally he thanked Aliyah who accepted it graciously. Still, though, he was not at 100% by any means. He currently sat on the edge of the cupboard door, and finally took a step down onto the hardwood floors. It was cool on his feet. He made his way to the living room and didn't spot Petunia anywhere.

In the living room he ran into his next adversary; the stairs. With a small sigh, Harry took a first step and pushed himself forward and up the stairs. It was difficult, but he could manage. Step by step, he made his way up to the bathroom that he and Dudley had shared for their entire lives so far.

As soon as he made it into the bathroom he came to another embarrassing realization.

You can't be serious, beloved? I'm in your mind and I'm not going anywhere, there's no reason to be shy. She didn't actually sound angry, in fact she seemed more amused than anything, but this did nothing to curb the embarrassment Harry was currently feeling.

"Could you just like, not be here while I shower please?" he asked out loud, he noted his voice was now back to normal as well and was pleased.

Again, I am in your mind beloved. There is no truly escaping my presence, but if it makes you feel better I will pretend I am not here and mask my emotions better so you don't feel me.

With that, Harry felt her retreat and in a way he was actually kind of sad she had gone. As soon as he thought that he felt a warm and comforting probe, which quickly retreated again. He smiled and got undressed, feeling better. As soon as he was unclothed however, that good feeling was gone. His body was almost entirely covered in bruises, and as he looked in the mirror he could see his head and face were still covered in blood. Vernon and the river had really done a number on him, it was no wonder Petunia had gasped as soon as she saw him.

Again, though, he felt that comforting presence in the back of his mind. He made his way to the shower and turned the water on, testing the temperature to make sure it was quite hot. He didn't take hot showers very often because Vernon would yell at him if he saw any steam at all about raising his power bill, but he couldn't really care less right now and Vernon wasn't even home anyways.

As soon as he stepped in under the water it started to run down a dark brown with tinges of red from all the dried blood. He felt his scalp burning from the heat and the water, but knew it needed to be cleaned out regardless. He shampooed, used conditioner, and then rubbed himself down with a bar of soap. Harry didn't think he'd cleaned himself so thoroughly in a very long time, and it felt very cleansing.

Showering was one of his favorite things to do, it was a nice escape for Harry when he could just relax, and he did just that now. Sitting down naked with his legs crossed in the tub with the hot water raining down on him, he just relaxed. He must have done this for about fifteen minutes before he decided he didn't want Petunia to come check on him and got out and dried himself off.

As he put his clothes on, he felt Aliyah's comforting presence return fully into his mind and was reminded again just how nice it was to have her there.

I hope that you enjoyed that, beloved. We do need to start making some plans, though, she said to him.

Now fully dressed, he was combing his long hair and fantasizing about running away from this hellish place and where they could go or what they could do, much to Aliyah's amusement, when he heard another knock on the door. He froze again, an automatic reaction of fear.

"Harry a letter came for you in the mail today," said Petunia from the other side.