A/N: Hello and welcome to the second chapter of Hollow Inside!
I know some of the things mentioned here come a bit out of nowhere but I'm building towards something as best I can and some of the boring stuff must be passed before we can get to the fun things like Hogwarts and magic mishaps!

I hope the next chapter will be a little bit more interesting than this one and I'll start working on it as soon as I can (because the heat waves this past week have made it nearly impossible to properly focus and write).

I'd like to thank Infamous Storm for checking this chapter for typo's and such, it was much appreciated.

I hope you'll all enjoy and leave a review to let me know what you thought! ^^

Moira: I haven't read the books yet (I know, shame on me) and I don't quite remember Grimmauld becoming compromised or anything like that. Then again, I haven't seen the sixth year movie in a long time either. This is pretty much AU anyway so the location won't matter in the future regardless.

As for your concerns about the abuse, what about in the movies? The twins and Ron broke him out from bars and no one even blinks or thinks about Harry's life being crap. He's small and underfed and the only thing anyone does is Mrs. Weasley trying to stuff him with food once he gets away. I think wizards are a little blind to the things in front of them sometimes.

So she's more liable to just think the children are exaggerating, believes every word Dumbledore says like it's a bible and just sends Harry food because firstly it was his birthday, secondly she just thinks they don't have much food to spare so she sends some to help. It's not a huge ration, just a few small packs. But that's a lot to Harry in comparison. Second year proved that when the Twins and Run busted him out and she wasn't outraged at Harry being locked up and instead threatened to do the same with Ron. I don't think it's on purpose though.

The next few weeks were spent vigorously cleaning the house.

It was as if the Dursleys sensed Harry was cheerful about something and thus decided to retaliate by working him to the bone. His chores had become more numerous and intense and kept him busy all throughout the day, and that was without counting breakfast, lunch and dinner; all of which he was preparing by himself as well.

As time passed, the days seemed to become longer the more his chores intensified. His rations were thinning quickly and if he didn't find a solution soon, he was going to end up starving. Honestly, it didn't seem like things were going to get much worse at this point…

He was wrong. That afternoon Dudley and his gang advanced on Harry while the teen was weeding the garden and pruning the bushes. He hadn't even noticed them until they called his him, thoug not by his name. Dudley's friends had adopted the term 'freak' as well and he was a rather favoured target during summer vacation, when the boys couldn't find a ten-year-old to pick on. 'Oh great, them again.' He thought, remembering why the rest of the summer had bared a small reprieve from the beatings.

"I will not have that boy unable to do his chores during summer Vernon. I have a lot that needs to be done and it'll teach the freak to keep his head down and do as he's told. How will he do any freakishness if he's too busy to think about it?" Vernon had relented at her logic and ordered Dudley to leave the 'freak' alone for the remainder of the summer.

Well, apparently Dudley was tired of waiting. "What do you want Dudley, I'm busy." He finally replied when one of them was about to forcefully get his attention, he thought it was Piers but that didn't really matter. "We're done waiting Potter, you're not gonna get away that easy this summer." With that one of them rushed forward and punched him in the face before he had any time to react. He cursed himself for his stupidity by letting his guard down and hurriedly got to his feet. He was taller now but his speed was still just as good, if not better. All this work was giving him some actual muscles now as well.

Once he ran, the others came after him and by how well they were keeping up, it was obvious they had had practice. He vaguely wondered if they had practiced just so they could catch him but he honestly doubted it. Especially considering Dudley was far too lazy to put any type of effort into chasing Harry down. Though it might have to do with the boxing club the whale of a boy had been enrolled in…

'Please don't let them catch me, please don't let them catch me.' He prayed in his mind to no one in particular. If they caught him they would find the hole in his chest and he'd be in so much trouble. Not to mention that hole was pretty sensitive and he didn't want anything like that to happen. The Dursleys already had a rather big advantage over him, he didn't need to give them another.

The more he focussed on his wish, the more he seemed to be speeding up, even though his surroundings didn't seem to pass any quicker. Wait a minute… Were they slowing down instead? When he turned around and finally stopped he found out that they were in fact barely able to move, as if they were trudging through something really thick or something. "Well, will wonders never cease?" He asked himself aloud before grinning slightly and rushing back to Privet Drive to finish his chores. If aunt Petunia had noticed he wasn't working in the garden for even a minute she would certainly throw a fit…

Once he was done he was ushered into the kitchen to make dinner (after cleaning himself of course. "I will not have you dirtying the house, boy!") and found that the heat of the burner would set itself higher or lower without having touched it. He didn't think too much of it though, considering he didn't have the time. He was given a few scraps and told to clean up the attic until his 'family' went to bed. Couldn't have him being noisy while they were trying to sleep now could they?

It was there that he figured out what was happening to him, though it was the last thing he had expected. He was dusting the place off and found a few shelves lying in a corner as well as several piles of books that drew his attention. He set the bookcases up and cleaned them before thinking he should put the books into their spots now, rather than having them lie around. The moment he wondered how to put them in alphabetical order, the books started shifting themselves and lining up. "What the bloody—?"

That wasn't just accidental magic, that was wandless magic, wasn't it?

He tried to remember what was classified as wandless magic but could only remember that only children possessed accidental magic and that it was likely to occur in situations of distress and emotional turmoil. That reminded him of summer before third year, where he had blown up his aunt Marge by thinking she looked like a balloon of sorts. He hadn't specifically thought of her to become like that, and yet she had. It was obvioust that was accidental magic since he hadn't meant for that to happen, but the books? That was conscious thought being turned into reality through magic, definitely wandless. "How awesome is that?" He asked himself with a grin.

He looked at the books once more and focussed on how they would look if they were clean and no longer broken. Some of the bindings on these were definitely cracked or worse but they suddenly started fixing themselves with the materials available to them. The dust and grime vanished from the cover and the pages and regained a sort of new look to them. Even the faded letters on some of these covers were more legible now.

Speaking of legible… "Magic through the Ages? Wizarding Politics: Explained? The Wizengamot and Ancient Families…? What is going on here?" What were magic books doing in the Dursleys' attic? He looked to where the books had been and found the shape of a box with a white sheet covering it. No way… He ripped the sheet off and gasped when he found a trunk hidden beneath it, his mother's maiden name etched in a beautiful, flowing script on the nameplate above the latch. Why would Petunia keep anything belonging to his mother if she hated her so much?

He hated not asking questions but he knew that if they discovered this stuff was here and Harry knew about it… It would be burned without a thought. Good barbeque fire for the Dursleys in this fine weather, or something. They'd make up a reason to have a bonfire and burn it all, especially if it was magical. No, he couldn't ask about it. Instead he thought of the books making their way on the shelves before he opened the trunk, feeling his finger being pricked during the attempt. The latch glowed green for a moment before popping open. Recognition by blood? That was bloodmagic, right? According to Hermione, that branch of magic was forbidden now but it did explain why those books were beside it. Petunia would have been able to use her blood to gain entry to the trunk…

So why wasn't all of it thrown away yet?

"Boy, you have fifteen minutes! Better make sure there isn't any dust left, you got that?" The call from downstairs startled him and he hurried to reply.

"Yes uncle Vernon."

Now that the threat was over he looked around. This place was a total infestation of dust! There was no way he'd be able to— Or maybe there was a way… Couldn't he simply use his magic? If it was wandless the Ministry didn't seem to detect it, so he was safe from the decree against underage wizardry for now. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focussing on a clean version of this room instead of the dusty one over here. He imagined the dust being banished and a small breeze sprang up around him. When he opened his eyes again, the room was clean. Whoa, talk about weird and wicked at the same time...

He covered the trunk under the white sheet again and hurried back to his room where he was only given a harsh glare from Petunia before he was locked up for the night. It looked like he wouldn't have much else to do for the rest of the summer other than intensive cleaning and thus exploring this newfound wandless magic whenever his relatives weren't looking.

Later that night he could be found rummaging through his trunk for anything pertaining to wandless magic but oddly enough, nothing he had spoke about it. He supposed wandless magic would be something covered in magical theory but that wasn't a class they had in Hogwarts. They did have runes and arithmancy though so maybe he could learn from those books once he was back at Hogwarts. Who knows, right?

Harry hurried to stuff his things in a somewhat orderly manner into his trunk when the time to go to Diagon Alley approached.

Most of his chores had been done already had he'd told the Dursleys he was leaving with 'his kind' a day early to get his books. As usual they had looked glad to get rid of him and somehow attempted to double his chores in that last day, as if attempting to milk out all he was worth before sending him off. The magic made it easier to do as he was told though and the evenings had found him in the attic, examining his mother's books. There were a lot more here than the ones that kept strictly to the Hogwarts curriculum so the remaining topics were things that had interested her.

'This is more information about my mother than I've received in five years…' He realised with a start as he looked at one of the runes texts currently resting in his lap. The attic had been transformed into a well-lit chamber of sorts in which he could easily read and research his mother's interests under the guise of cleaning. The attic should have taken as long as he was in there each time yet it was already pretty cleaned up after only a week.

The rest of the month allowed him time to explore. He had also found out that his mother's trunk was far more advanced than his own and possessed several compartments and a room. "Makes me wonder why she wasn't a Ravenclaw with all these books…" He had mumbled to himself when he found the large amount of shelves down there. Each was stacked ceiling high with books and the ones with empty spaces in them were rather obviously the ones that were in the attic itself. Especially considering the various topics matched the ones around the empty spaces.

Two nights before his departure he had taken to stacking the books back into the trunk and shrinking it so that he could hide it in his own trunk until he was at Hogwarts. He didn't want to show his find to anyone but he did know that it was safer to look through at Hogwarts than it was here. So long as Hermione didn't attempt to take the books away and study them herself it would be fine. Or so he hoped.

The bell rang and startled him out of his thoughts. The trunk banged against the stairs as he dragged it behind him, the weight becoming a little noticeable now but he didn't have time to use magic on it since Mr. Weasley was in front of the house, waiting for him. He didn't spare the Dursleys a single look as he opened the door and stepped out.

Next to Mr. Weasley was a young woman he recognised to be Nymphadora Tonks. "Wotcher Harry!" Her hair was the usual bright bubblegum pink she usually sported as she greeted him. "Hello Tonks, Mr. Weasley. It's good to see you."

The Weasley patriarch somewhat rushed over the formalities and apparated Harry to Diagon Alley after casting a notice-me-not charm on the boy. Their shopping trip was going to be rather tense now that Voldemort was officially back. It would seem a few shops had already permanently closed as a safety precaution.

Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes was still brightly lit though, bringing some joy and colour to the otherwise sombre Alley.

A/N: I would like to thank the five people whom already left reviews on the previous chapter. I'm glad you guys liked the first chapter and hopefully everything to come as well. Who knows, I might make a few turns you weren't expecting, right? xD

Thank you all for taking the time to read my chapters and I hope to see you all in the next one.

Love,
~Lumina