Disclaimer: Still the same as in part one. I do not own anything you recognize. My English version of "Eine zweite Chance" by thales 85.

\ …\ thoughts

"…" speech

blabla spells

Chapter 3: Preparations and … more preparations

The first thing he did after entering the small room was to perform a wandless locking charm. Then he collapsed. While he lay panting he realized that wandless magic really wore him out. Harry thanked his lucky stars that he had not broken down in front of his relatives. He slowly turned on to his back and let his mind wander.

\That was an ok-start, if I do say so myself. I have my own room … seven years early. Well, what is the next logical step? Today I will probably have to sleep on the floor. I cannot do enough wandless transfiguration to create my own bed. I'm too worn out to even try to create a sleeping bag. I cannot use my wand because I'm underage that leaves wandless magic. Well, who cares? … I just want to sleep today, so let's get going.\

He picked himself up off the floor and used his last ounce of strength to enlarge his trunk. He was really tired. He took some robes and put them on the ground. He lay down on his clothes. He was almost comfortable and seconds later drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep that would last until the next morning.

Meanwhile his aunt and uncle were sitting in the living room und discussed the situation.

"Vernon, how could you give him the room?"

"What was I to do? Let the freak burn down the house? Should I have let him attack us? I am sorry, but I'm afraid we have to live with this …"

"Oh Vernon, how did it come to this? We have accepted him, given him a new home and how does the brat repay us? He threatens us!"

"Calm down, Petunia! He truly is his parent's son! He got it all from those worthless freaks. His father didn't even work. He was unemployed. Your sister wasn't any better. We will just ignore the little brat completely. Just wait and see how he will like it when we cut him off from our loving care."

"You're right Vernon. His parents were worthless and he must have inherited their unnaturalness. Let's ignore him and continue with our lives. Only time will tell … But right now we have to wake Dudley. It's his special day and he needs his presents. I just hope the clever little rascal doesn't notice that there are fewer presents than last year."

With a lot of effort they put on happy faces and went to celebrate Dudley's birthday. Of course, their clever son noticed the incorrect number of gifts. A minor temper tantrum later the family had to leave the house to buy Dudley some more presents. In the smallest bedroom a little boy lay completely forgotten, slumbering on to a new life, his second chance.

The next day he woke at dawn. He slowly opened his eyes and had a good stretch. He had to do a lot that day. He had planed to read every single one of his books before his eleventh birthday and to train a lot. Due to his age he had to wait with the physical aspect of training for at least a few years. That left him with books and magical training. He wanted to get his core to grow, and grow fast. The best way to reach this goal was to use wandless magic until he was completely worn out. He scheduled his core-lessons for the evening. This way he could sleep off the exhaustion without losing precious time.

He got up slowly and started a light morning routine. Stretches, knee-bends, push-ups und some more exercises were enough to wake him completely. After a quick shower he grabbed a piece of parchment, a quill and ink. He started to write down what he wanted to accomplish.

To-do list

- train my magical core

- learn legilimency

- learn occlumency

- physical training (postponed until I'm seven)

- weapon training / martial arts (put off as well)

- work through my books

- work through the Black library

- read up on some interesting rituals and carry them out

- visit Diagon Alley

- get a subscription to the Daily Prophet

- brew enough potions to store away for later use

- get in contact with some people (optional)

He regarded his list once more in satisfaction and started to look up light rituals. In contrast to dark rituals they demanded only one kind of sacrifice. Pain. In most light rituals the pain could compete with cruciatus pain. Most of the dark rituals however resulted in some kind of physical change. That was the reason why Vodemort no longer resembled a human being. But pain, even crutiatus pain, was a price Harry was willing to pay. He was particularly interested in the "ritual of wisdom", which would allow him to absorb knowledge much faster and to generally learn at a much quicker pace. Finally, after five hours of persisten research, he found the ritual and started to carry it out immediately.

According to the description he would have to endure pain on cruciatus-level for five minutes. All he needed for the ritual were a special potion, a little bit of wandless magic and an incantation. The potion-part of the ritual was easy. He had found the potion in a cupboard in Black Manor before, so he didn't have to brew it. He sat down cross-legged in the middle of the floor and placed the potion in front of him.

\Ok. Potion first, then the incantation … well, here goes nothing.\

It took a lot of willpower, but he finally managed to gulp down the potion. Then he quickly pointed both of his hands towards his own body and spoke the incantation.

"Eminem filen en athena."

The pain, that set in immediately, was nothing he hadn't endured before. The cruciatus was after all the favourite curse of the death eaters and he had experienced it quite often. Nevertheless, his muscles started to cramp and it felt like his heart pumped molten lava through his veins while trying to push a pin-cushioned glacier through at the same time. It took all his strength not to cry out. Time seemed to slow down as the minutes dragged along at snail's pace.

Finally it was over. Harry needed half an hour to recuperate. He didn't think that he could do much more that day. The ritual took too much of his energy, so he decided to call it a day. With his last energy he concentrated and transfigured one of Dudley's broken toys into a simple sleeping bag. He barely managed to stay conscious, so he just crawled into his sleeping bag. His eyes closed and he sank into a peaceful sleep.