Chapter Two:
Harry woke up. It was cold. His face felt numb from the wind gusting over it. It was dark out, a very tiny amount of light was visible on the horizon as the sun was slowly rising.
He shrank into the blanket covering him in fear as a dog barked in the distance. Where was his mommy and daddy?. Was the night just a bad dream. He reached out tentatively for the bond that had always bound him to his mother. He panicked when he could not find it.
He screamed.
Petunia Dursley woke up to a lovely sunrise. Humming, she opened her window to let in some fresh air and took a shower. Afterwards, she walked downstairs and went out to get the paper and the milk.
She heard a scream from outside, thinking it was some of the kids playing she brushed it off and opened the door. She saw Harry, and gasped in shock. With trembling hands, she picked up the basket and brought it inside. Setting Harry down on the table she saw the letter and picked it up and opened it.
"Vernon!" Petunia screeched out, fainting.
Harry opened his eyes. He had managed to get a little bit of sleep after screaming himself raw and crying. It was bright; out of the corner of his right eye he saw two people arguing.
"We cant just keep it, unnatural – thats what it is!. I say we drop it off at an orphanage and be done with it!" Vernon said.
Harry blinked his eyes in confusion. What was going on?. Who were these people.
He reached out with his hand trying to grab onto Vernon's arm.
"Look!. Its awake and staring at me. I hate it already." Vernon said, making sure to keep his arm out of Harry's grasp.
Petunia huffed. "We cant get rid of him, I want to just as much as you do dear. Being dropped with my sisters freak son was not something I wanted to happen!. But you know as well as I do that Dumbledore fellow would poke around if he went missing. The letter was very specific you know."
Harry looked at the two in confusion. He couldn't understand them exactly, but he could feel their emotions. Hate, rage, fear. Among other things. Being the child that he was, he decided to try making them feel better.
He reached out with his magical core, concentrating on the emotions he felt. He decided to try "bottling" them so to speak. He concentrated on the various waves both of them were giving off. Each was a different color, pushing down hard he managed to suppress the red and purple.
Petunia screeched out. Vernon banged his fist on the table and started frosting at the mouth.
"What the.." Vernon stuttered out. His face turning red. "Going to do your freakishness on me are you!" he exclaimed. Vernon lifted Harry and struck him across the face twice. "I'll beat it out of you!" He growled.
Harry didn't notice. The two blows hurt. Instinctively, he tried healing the bruises. When his magical core came to his aid and healed him, Vernon got even angrier.
And thus, started Harry's life with his aunt and uncle.
When Harry was four he had one of the worst beatings of his life. Vernon was particularly angry for some reason. Harry didn't understand it of course – his uncle kept ranting about how his freakishness has caused him to be laid off.
He was left in his room, if you could even call it a room, for dead. Harry had multiple fractures around his body and internal bleeding. He was in to much pain to care for anything. Slowly, his consciousness faded in and out until Harry was completely unconscious.
Harry slowly, groggily, became aware of a dripping. Where was he?. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. A stone floor with a circular pattern spread out for what must have been half a mile. In the center of it, drip after drip of water; or something fell to the floor.
He got up. There was surprisingly no pain. He staggered and started walking to the center and as he got closer he felt a rumbling, the cracks of the stone started to glow purple spreading out from the center and continuing on until the stone ended. Another drip fell, and the floor shook once more.
Harry was curious, what was going on, where was he?.
He jumped as he felt the stone under his feet come apart and fall. He blinked and looked down at the hole. There was no end in sight. The rumbling became worse and multiple stones started falling.
It was worse around the edges of the stones. They were falling fast and hard, slowly moving towards the center. Harry felt fear to the core of his very being. He didn't want to fall. That was a long, long way down.
Eventually all that was left was maybe five to ten feet of stone from the center. It continued to grow closer and closer. Harry was running out of options fast as another stone fell under his right foot. He slipped and hung onto the ledge. Pulling himself up, he moved a little closer to the center.
He started to hear whispers. Echo's of the past. Maybe he was going insane during his final moments?. The whispers continued to grow, getting louder and louder as the blackness got closer. Faint wisps of black smoke could be seen coming from the stone around the edges. The darkness continued to grow closer. Harry shut his eyes. The whispers continued to get louder and he clutched his head as a stabbing pain went through it.
The whispers were vicious now, screeching at him. "Go away" Harry mumbled. The whispers, voices, seemed to get even louder. Harry screamed as the voices started to pound into his mind and the darkness, the edge started to get even closer. The dripping became louder, steadily going faster. The darkness seemed to slow down as the dripping got even faster. The dripping became a steady stream of what appeared to be water before gushing out. The darkness started to go away.
The water was actually magic. The magic had retreated when Harry was so injured, diverting itself so it could heal his injuries. Unfortunately, this diverted the magic from his mind-scape.
The mind cannot survive without magic. Even muggles have a very tiny bit of magic that allows them to continue to exist.
The gushing continued to pour out, flowing down the cracks in the stone and going over the ledge. Harry continued to clutch his head as the voices continued to screech at him.
Unknown to him, the knowledge in his mind had become active when it sensed the collapse. It continued to pound into him. Harry's mind could not assimilate it because it was far to young and unprepared.
Harry felt his sanity slipping, He just wanted the voices to stop. He wanted his mommy and daddy. Why did he have to be left with these mean people?.
His magic felt Harry's pain. It reacted to it. Pushing the knowledge into his subconsciousness. It blocked access to it, forming protective barriers to keep it at bay. Harry felt the voices leave him, he sighed in relief.
What was left of his mind-scape was now a circle of stone roughly thirty feet wide. Dust and small bits of the now worn stone broke off, becoming more stable as time passed.
Harry curled up into a ball on the stone, and slept. He slept for a long, long time.
When Harry was seven he knew there was something different. He felt stronger, more energetic then he had in years. Harry hardly slept anymore, able to stay up for days at a time before needing to sleep.
His ability to learn something increased quite a bit. Far, far more then the average even year old. His mind continued to strengthen and develop despite the traumatic events in the past.
When Harry did go to sleep and dream, he dreamed of a city on a island in the ocean surrounded by several smaller islands. The city was beautiful, white, and shiny. Harry wanted to actually be there one day – to see the city that haunted his dreams.
Harry had no idea why he dreamed of the city. But his magic did; the knowledge was large. Incredibly so, and it was difficult to maintain the barriers. When Harry slept his subconscious became far more active and because of that it became far, far more difficult to prevent the knowledge from leaking out.
Harry was driven out of his daydreams by a rough bang on his desk. "Pay attention" his teacher snapped at him.
Harry rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Now since you are paying attention, perhaps you can answer the question on the blackboard?." His teacher sneered.
Harry looked at the question. For him, it was easy. 5123 divided by 132. Cake. "5123 divided by 132 is 38.8" Harry stated, looking at his teacher for confirmation.
His teacher gaped. A first grader had answered that question!. And without a calculator!.
"Correct.." his teacher stated, gaping at Harry.
"Freak!" Dudley shouted out. Harry was running away from Dudley, he knew what would happen if he caught up with him. "Only a freak could answer that question. Just you wait till I tell mom and dad." Dudley threatened. Harry shivered... if his aunt and uncle knew he was doing better then Dudley in school.. well, he really didn't want to find out what would happen.
Harry ran into a ally. 'Dead end..' he realized, he looked for a way out. There was none. Harry panicked. 'No!' Harry thought frantically. 'I have to get out of here' Harry looked around for another way out, hoping he missed it. There was none.
A clatter drew his attention away from his thoughts. Dudley stood there grinning like a loon, a metal pipe in his hand. "Thought you got away from me, did you?" Dudley growled, moving towards Harry. "Thought you would be able to escape justice did you, freak.".
Harry backed away into the corner. Brick met flesh as he tried backing up into it, trying to go through it. No such luck unfortunately. Dudley was closing in on him now, a look of triumph on his face. Harry thought frantically, trying to find a way out of the situation.
'Anywhere but here.' Harry thought, getting more desperate. 'Anywhere but here... anywhere but here... let me be anywhere but here...' He continued, chanting in his head.
"Praying, are you freak?." Dudley spat. "Prayer wont save you now!." He exclaimed, raising the metal bar up above his head and getting ready to swing it down.
Harry felt something move within him, he had no idea what it was but he had a vague feeling that he had felt it before. His body suddenly felt like it was being squeezed into a garden hose. And the next moment, he was somewhere else.
Dudley blinked owlishly. 'Where did the freak go?' He wondered. 'The freak did something freakish again. I'll have to tell mom and dad!'.
Harry was looking around him wondering where he went. 'Where am I?' Harry questioned himself. He got up off the ground and went to look around. He walked up to what seemed to be a ledge and looked down.
'It is a ledge!' Harry mentally exclaimed, looking down in fear. He was afraid of heights for a reason. He spotted Dudley walking away and blinked. 'Wait, this is the school!. How did I get up here?.' He thought, thinking back on what happened. 'I remember feeling like I was being squeezed through a hose and wanting to be anywhere but where I was... and then....... I was on the roof.' He realized, grinning like a madman.
"I. Am. Awesome!" Harry exclaimed aloud. Before he could try anything else a sound behind him made him turn around.
It was the janitor. He was staring at Harry with a indistinguishable expression on his face. "You there" He called out, pointing at Harry. "How did you get up here?. The roof is off limits for a reason.".
Harry rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I came up here for some fresh air. Yeah, fresh air!." he exclaimed.
The janitor sweat dropped. 'Right...' he thought, staring at Harry.
"Anyway, I got to go now!" Harry exclaimed, running past the janitor and down the stairs. "Wait!" The janitor called out, but Harry was long gone.
Harry ran to the library as fast as he could. He just had to find out what happened to him!. The feeling; the exhilaration of knowing he had done something supposedly impossible. It was mind boggling!.
He saw the library growing larger in the distance. He didn't notice when he started running faster then possible, when the wind on his face got fierce enough to push his face back. When the scenery around him started to blur. He didn't know or care. His only thought was getting to the library!.
Harry rushed up the steps to the library before slowing to a walk. He staggered inside, panting. 'Wow, I didn't know a little run would wear me out this much' He thought. Walking past the counter, he went towards the books. 'Now, what to look under... fiction, obviously.' He decided. Walking into the fiction isle, he looked through the titles.
Magic for kids, he saw. 'Next' The witches of.. 'Not what I am looking for' Harry thought, scrunching up his nose cutely. More titles flashed by The legend of Atlantis.. wait, what. "Hmmm might be useful" Harry decided, picking up the book and sitting down at a table.
Atlantis, that name rung a bell. Opening up the cover of the book, he gasped. It was the city he kept dreaming of!.
Harry's hand went up to grasp his head as flashes rushed through his mind.
A girl dressed in a white dress picking up a fish and holding it out proudly at her father, smiling...
A dual between two powerful mages. One in red and the other in white, fire and water spraying out between the two battling for dominance...
The construction of the tower, the heart of Atlantis. People were raising the focus stone up to the top...
The construction of the jaggen, the creature that was designed to guard Atlantis from sea attacks...
A teacher teaching students the history of Atlantis...
A festival...
Two armies rushing at each other on the main content, battling for the freedom of Atlantis...
The flashes continued to advance. 'Not flashes' Harry decided. 'Memories'. As soon as it had started, it had ended.
Harry looked around, his head aching. Looking back at the book, Harry shivered. "Maybe another day.." he whispered, fearful of the book. As he put the book back, he swore he could hear a heartbeat coming from it. Harry had turned around, starting to walk out of the library. His purpose there forgotten.
Unknown to him, the book behind him pulsed. A eye opened up, staring at his back. The book seemed to move on its own, as if by magic and started to slowly slide after Harry.
When Harry got home there was much yelling. Apparently Dudley had told his Aunt and Uncle about what he did.
His uncle stormed up to Harry, foam at his mouth. "What do you have to say for yourself boy!. Performing such freakishness." His uncle bellowed in Harry's face, spittle flying out of his mouth.
Harry shrank back. "No-nothing sir. I don't know know!. I don't know how it happened. I swear it wont happen again!. It was like magic." Harry said, pleading. His uncle turned a even darker color, and Harry would have sworn his eyes glowed.
Vernon paled when Harry said the M word. He feared those freaks. A few moments later he got angry again and started to snarl at Harry.
Harry was thrown into his bedroom for the weekend. He was not going to have food at all this weekend.
"Meanie" Harry pouted, depressed.
He had a hard time going to sleep that night, as his stomach constantly told him he was hungry.
Outside the house, next to his wall the book sat waiting on the ground. It had waited for over one thousand years and it could wait a little longer... yes... yes, so soon... soon it would be able to fulfill its primary purpose.
Secondary objective completed... Locate the Atlantian Heir... Primary objective in progress...
The book closed its eye, biding its time... Very soon it would act.. Oh yes, the feeling was so wonderful.