Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or plot created by J K Rowling. I'm only playing with the plot and characters for fun.

Authors Note: I'm terribly bored of all the stories where Snape, McGonagall or Flitwick come to take Harry for his shopping and in a few minutes give him enough knowledge to get out of Dumbledore's clutches, take him to St. Mungo's to heal his malnutrition, get his inheritance from overtly friendly goblins to whom Harry is the only respectful human in this century, get him to take part in a goblin ritual that gets rid of the horcrux in him, yada, yada….

Many of my reviewers have let me know that the previous chapters are too dry. I'm trying to fix that in this chapter. Hope it's more enjoyable.

I know Dudley's birthday is not a few weeks before Harry's. But this is fanfiction. So, what the hell.

Hope you guys and gals reading this chapter like the differences in this story.

"Normal speech"'

"Parseltongue"

Chapter 4: Into the Abyss

I was sleeping, a good deep sleep, the kind that one gets in the early hours just before its time to rise when aunt Petunia's shrill voice woke me up. It would turn out to be a very interesting day.

"Up! Wake up! Now!"

I woke up with a start just as my aunt rapped on the door sharply and said again, "Up!". The sound of her walking to the kitchen and placing the frying pan on the stove drifted in through the beaten up doors of the cupboard. Rolling on to my back I tried to recall the dream I had been having, one where I was on a flying motorcycle. That dream came quite frequently in my sleep, for some unknown reason.

She was back in front of the door a few seconds later, "Are you up yet?" she demanded. "Nearly aunt Petunia" I grumbled. It was time for my daily chores.

"Well, get moving you cretin. I want you to look after the bacon and you better not let it burn. Its Dudley's birthday today and I want everything perfect. Don't you dare spoil anything today." She said.

Of course today was Dudley's birthday. I remembered it quite well. He was my cousin after all. But aunt Petunia would be demanding perfection in everything I did today. That was a bother. I would have to make sure that no mistakes were made during the cooking. I got off the bed and rooted around for a pair of socks. Finding a pair and pulling off a couple of spiders (my frequent, but harmless companions in the cupboard) from them, put them on, followed by a pair of ratty shoes, got dressed and prepared for my day.

Getting out of the cupboard, I realized that it was getting a bit cramped in there. I was a growing boy and my access to a moderately healthy diet was showing some results. But I was not too bothered about it as I knew that there would be a letter to that school of magic soon. I never did get the name of the school from my aunt's mind through my probes. She hated the name so much that she only referred it to as 'That horrid school of freaks' the few occasions that I tried directing her thoughts to my future schooling.

I went down the hall into the kitchen. The dining table was almost hidden beneath all the presents that had been sent to Dudley. It looked like he had got the new computer he wanted along with the racing bike he'd dropped hints about to his parents. That was going to make it rather easy for him to chase me on the roads. Not that I would be on those for long during a hunt. Hmm…. Would he dump it and run after me or give up out of fear of losing his brand new cycle? That would be interesting to see.

At least it would see some good use these days. Dudley was getting into a relatively healthy humans shape these days. All that boxing training and running was really paying off. He could throw a mean punch. I snickered as the images of him trying to catch me a few days ago passed my mind. It really was easy to irritate him. He'd threatened to punch the shit out of me. But all the training and swear words he was learning in the gym was never good enough to catch me. Poor Dudley.

At least his decrease in size benefited me. His reduction in size had required purchasing new, smaller clothes. I no longer had clothes that were four times bigger than me. They were baggy, but tolerable. People seeing me did not wonder anymore what a miniature scarecrow was doing walking around in the street. I know that for sure as I checked the thoughts passing through the minds of new people who showed an interest in me.

I was turning over the bacon when uncle Vernon entered the kitchen. "Comb your hair!" he barked by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, he'd look over the newspaper and shout that I needed a haircut. I'd probably had more haircuts than those had by all my class boys put together, but it never made a difference. My hair simply grew that way, all over the place.

I was absentmindedly frying the eggs, thinking of ways to use the shield I'd developed through my crude blood and word powered magics. Star wars had been telecast recently on TV and had given me so many ideas that I was rather absent minded these days. Thoughts of other people showed me that I seemed to have a faraway look on my face frequently.

The words 'shield me', a drop of blood and sufficient concentration let me create an invisible shield around my hand for a few seconds as long as the paper was still in my hand. Watching a rerun of the Star Wars movies had paid big dividends. I could now punch walls as hard as I could without hurting myself. It was really fun. It was worth all the aches I had in my hands when I was experimenting with the shield.

By this time, Dudley had arrived in the kitchen and was counting his presents. He was a bit put out that he got only 37 presents when he had been given 38 the previous year. The old Dudley would have made a huge fuss about it, but the improved one did not. Uncle Vernon even offered to buy him a few more, but Dudley decided that what he got was sufficient. He was starting to impress me a bit with his improving maturity. It was good to know that the apple that fell so very close to a tree could roll off a distance given a few small nudges.

Hearing his refusal of more presents started off aunt Petunia. "Oh, my darling Diddydums, such a sweet and unselfish boy. I'm sure there is no better boy anywhere around. Always thinking of others…" That went on for a few more minutes when I zoned out and I thought back to the near disaster last week.

A week back I had been given the task of weeding the garden and instead had been trying to get a flower to bloom by my usual method of channeling magic through sheets of paper with words and blood on them.

I really should have known better than to try magic in my aunt's garden where the results would be visible.

My aunt came back from her shopping to find along with the carefully weeded garden, the wilted buds on her prize rose bush. For once she was right in blaming me for the damage, not that I accepted any of the blame. I was pulled be the ears in front of the bush and shouted at for almost half an hour.

Luckily, she had not realized that it was my conscious use of magic that had caused such a disaster. I don't even want to imagine the punishment I'd have got for that. Looking at her memories during her rant let me know that she suspected that my magic had done the damage. I was sent to the cupboard under the stairs without dinner for the next three days and more chores to keep me busy and with no time to get on with my usual shenanigans.

The destruction of her prize flowering plant had made sure that my relatives were loath the leave me alone in the house for any duration of time.

There was no way I was going to take any more blame if I could escape it. Making sure that the next week my behavior had been almost perfect had been a bit of a pain, but worth it at the end. The elder Dursley's had stopped looking at me as if they expected my clothes to suddenly transform into a garish multicolored monstrosity that would prove to them that I was a freaky and unnatural boy who did not deserve their kindness and generosity.

The younger Dursley had just stepped up the hunt for making his parents shout at me and ruin his TV time with the noise. The hunt had been waning for some time. It went back to the same level it was during my pre-magic discovery days for a couple of days. After that he got bored of it due to his repeated failure in capturing me and he proceeded to put more effort into his boxing classes and things got back to normal.

I was jerked out or my daydreaming by the shrill sound of the telephone ringing. Aunt Petunia answered it and grew more and more annoyed as she listened to the speaker on the other end of the phone.

The Dursley's had been planning a trip to the zoo on Dudley's birthday. They had not even considered taking me. I really wanted to go and see animals in reality. Pictures in books are rather boring. U can hardly get a feel of the animal from them.

Unfortunately for them and luckily for me, they found no caretaker to take me. Batty old Mrs. Figg, my usual caretaker had gone off and broken a leg and had called to tell my aunt that she could not look after me. My aunt and uncle had discussed leaving me somewhere else and realized that they had no option of doing so at that time. The Dursley's had no intention of leaving me alone in the house after the fiasco in the garden.

So off we went to the zoo with a warning form Uncle Vernon. "One unnatural act from you boy, and you will not see daylight for the next year. Get it?"

"Yes Uncle Vernon. I will be a very good boy. I won't be a nuisance at all. Thank you for taking me with you" I smiled at him happily for getting a chance to go to the zoo instead of sitting with batty old Mrs. Figg.

"I'll hold you onto that boy." The whale of a man promised. "Try anything like that stunt you pulled with the flowers last week and you'll get it from me."

"I'm not going to do anything. Honestly," I lied to him quickly. "I think the plants got too much water the week before. They just happened to wither away that day when I was gardening."

Piers had been dropped off at the house a few minutes before by his mother. He and Dudley were already planning on pushing me into the moat with crocks. Though I knew they would never do that, I made up my mind to not be anywhere near them during the trip.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." Uncle Vernon was turning an interesting shade of red and I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the drive. Not that his shouting mattered to me anyway. I was so used to it that it slid off me easier than a kid on a smooth slide.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursley's bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked me what I wanted before they could hurry me away, they bought me a cheap lemon ice pop.

It wasn't bad, either, I thought licking it. I'd told the Dursley's that I did not want to disturb them and after telling me to be at the exit at a certain time, they happily let me wander off on my own taking my unnaturalness with me.

I had a great time looking at different animals and brushing up on the thoughts of people looking at them. There was such a variety of interpretations of an animal by them. I even tried finding the thoughts of the animals. I could only get very vague emotions of hunger, anger, thirst, annoyance and contentment from them. Not a single true thought from anyone. The chimps were slightly better than the rest. The flashes of emotions were accompanied by a few very, very indistinct images. But it kept me happily absorbed till I realized that I only had half an hour more before the Dursley's would be expecting me at the exit.

I reached the reptile house and was happy to get into the cool and dark rooms. There were all sorts of lizards and snakes around. Long poisonous cobras, man crushing pythons and anacondas, vipers and corals were spread around the rooms in glass enclosures. Most were coiled around a tree branch or in a cool corner.

To my annoyance, I heard Dudley and Piers nearby. Turning around, I spotted them walking towards me. They caught sight of me and came forward.

"Hey Dudley," said Piers, "Think little Harry could run off if he had a Python crushing him?" and pointed behind me to the enormous Python curled up right in front of the glass that I had been looking at a few seconds earlier.

Dudley gave some answer that I completely ignored because I had turned around and was looking at the snake. I gave it a small nudge with my magic. The moment the feedback from my probe reached me, something stirred in my gut, something new and unusual, and something that I had not experienced before. The huge snake stirred and looked at me as if sensing the change in my magic. Snakes all around the glass house had started to move.

My magic was moving on its own…. Well, technically it was following the Dark Lord's imprints in me. Through preset channels, my magic twisted and turned till it finally settled down into a form that was not something that I was familiar with. The ability to change magical signatures my parent's experiments had instilled in me had awoken at last and shifted my magic to the feel of the snake.

The snakes all came up to the glass separating them from the others, raised their heads and turned their eyes towards me. People were exclaiming in surprise at the sudden, unexpected and uncharacteristic movements of the usually uninterested reptiles. Dudley and Piers looked on from behind me in shock as the python lifted its head till its eyes were level with mine. I sent another probe directly at it and two things happened very quickly.

I felt a sudden and terrific shift in my magic. It was as if I had been yanked sideways, yet the feeling was completely natural….it was wonderful. A surge of magic was rising from around my chest and spreading through me when Dudley roughly pushed me aside in an effort to get a good look at the giant snake that had locked eyes with me.

The sudden jerk made me loose balance both mentally and physically and down I fell. I heard a hissing voice say "How dare you harm him" and all hell broke loose.

The snake was now coiling out in to a seemingly unending length and moved towards Dudley who stood for a millisecond in shock till his instincts kicked in and he ran like the devil himself was after him. People all around in the room panicked and ran out. The shock of seeing the snake out of the enclosure completely removed my annoyance and anger.

The nine foot long snake had moved out of the enclosure and had turned towards me. I was alone in the room with a huge snake looking at me. It seemed to be waiting for me to do something. My instincts imprinted on me by the Dark Lord's soul fragment finally kicked in and I calmly rose up. A feeling of peace, power and confidence flooded through me.

I knew without doubt that no snake however poisonous that was in the room could, or would harm me. The original feeling of the shift remained and with it slowly, but surely, a detachment from emotion that the best master martial artist would give an arm and a leg for spread through me like an icy cold, chilling rush of water.

I could feel that the magic was still draining out of me at a rate that would have had me unconscious in any other case. I felt more powerful than ever before. I took my eyes off the snake and looked at the glass of the enclosure and found it still there. Trying to lay a hand on it showed it to have the consistency of a soap bubble. My hand passed through it easily.

My mind was working furiously and I turned to the snake and said "Get back in, you over sized piece of rope." I realized that there was something different with my speech, but did not at that moment understand the cause or that the speech was different. I only noticed a strong flow of magic through my mouth. It's quite a funny feeling. The flow stopped the moment I stopped speaking.

"Yessss…. Massster…" the snake said and calmly moved back into the enclosure and the moment it was fully in, I let the flow of magic from me slow down to a trickle and in a few seconds stopped it completely. The glass returned to its former solid state with a small flash of blue light.

The zookeepers would surely be terribly confused when they came here. But that was not what I was wondering about. I knew that there was no way to hide this from my relatives. I would finally have to confront them about my knowledge of magic. I could not deny my knowledge of it anymore.

This was a completely unexpected, but salvageable situation. I had hoped for contact and hopefully help from the wizarding world before confronting them, but would have to rely on what I had learned till now.

The emotional detachment was being slowly replaced with a rising panic and awareness of the situation from the perspective of a human rather than an unfeeling blob of highly ordered atoms.

I turned around and ran.

I later learnt that the Ministry of Magic had detected the surge and fixed the situation. They had used a tricky bit of magic to detect most of the people who had been in and around the reptile house and obliviated those of the memory of seeing or hearing of what happen in the reptile house.

My mother's protection, following the protection Dumbledore had sculpted with it had, like it did with all magic that searched for me and mine dissipated the ministry's probes and my involvement with it was never recorded. It had also made sure that Dudley and aunt Petunia who shared my blood was not detected and through them Uncle Vernon escaped detection.

I had escaped being noticed by anyone as I slipped out of the enclosure and run through the bushes near the door to the reptile house. I made my way to the gate and waited for the Dursley's to show up preparing for what would be one of the biggest confrontations in my life till now with them.

When I reached the gate, I found it crowed with people getting away from a zoo where snakes capable of eating them escaped from cages.

Dudley was cowering behind his parents who took one look at me and turned from concerned parents to scared and furious parents who wanted to protect their brood from the dangerous and uncontrollable villain who they harbored in their home.

"Boy….. let's just get home now. I'm going to whip your hide off. I always knew that you were a bad egg, but I'd thought that staying with decent, god fearing people would have shown you the good path." Said Uncle Vernon.

He shushed aunt Petunia who was about to add in her two cents and turned back to me. "Get in the car right now, you cretin. Let's get home before anyone connects what happen in the snake house to my family."

He rushed us to the car and we started back home. The entire journey was punctuated by curses from Vernon and hateful looks from Petunia. Dudley looked on, slightly fearful and curious about what was happening to his parents. His mind was trying to convince itself that the glass had just fallen off and he had not noticed it in fear and shock.

I was trying my best to be calm. I realized that I was just going from the frying pan into the fire and moving slowly so as not to alert the Dursley's, went through my pockets trying to figure out what papers were there.

I had taken to carrying around a few of my focus sheets around to use in interesting situations. I made a note of my resources and started breathing slowly in an effort to calm myself. After a few minutes, I calmed down sufficiently enough to take stock of the situation and it sunk in that the game was up.

A tentative probe let me know that the Dursley's were going to belt the hell out of me. I had put their son in danger and that was the limit. I thought back to the feeling of calm that had enveloped me in the reptile house and the memory of it gave me courage. I started trying to get it back.

We were pulling in outside the house when I realized that the strange feeling I'd got was related somehow to the snake.

The Dursley's were getting down when I concentrated enough to remember and grasp the feel of the magic I used when I commanded the snake. Uncle Vernon pulled me out of the car when I twisted the magic into the form I'd used.

We crossed the threshold of the house when the wards reacted to the change and feeling the need for more power, pumped magic into me.

We were all standing in the dining room when Uncle Vernon, who had taken a gulp of brandy from the cabinet, looked at me and said, "Dudley, go to your room. NOW!" And then he turned towards me. Dudley tossed one fearful look at me, turned around and reached the door when I'd completely recreated the feel and power behind my feat at the zoo. The shift happened. I said, "Stay, Dudley" and immediately got backhanded into the wall.

If uncle Vernon had hit me a moment earlier, things would probably have gone very differently. But my magic had already shifted my mind to a state of minimum emotion. I felt a sliver of shock that was ruthlessly quashed along with the surge of anger and fear.

"Who do you think you are, Freak? Telling my son what to do in my own house? I never thought it would come to this, but you've gone too far with your un-naturalness. I'm going to whip you to shape boy."

I calmly got up, ignoring the pain in my jaw and back, said, "I'd love to see you try Uncle. You can't touch me." My magic poured out of me with the fineness that most accomplished legilimences lacked and found nothing but rage in his mind.

Dudley stood stunned at the door, aunt Petunia started moving forward when Vernon's hand swung again. This time I was ready. I reached into my magic and the focus sheet for shielding apparently sprang out of my pocket on its own. It hovered out in front of me and by the time the Dursley's processed the fact that there was a sheet of paper hovering in their house on its own, received a rush of magic and the words burned...

My uncle's hand hit something before my face that gave off a sight glow at the point of contact. The reactionary force made him stagger. The sheet of paper with words burned into it slowly floated down to the floor as the glow from where his hand had hit the shield gently faded. I could feel the shield, still strong and vibrant to my senses dissipate the force of the blow a few scant millimeters in front of my face as it hugged my body.

The Dursley's stood in shock and I took a step forward and said in what was according to my mind probe, the calmest voice they had ever heard,

"My Name is not Boy….. I am Harry James Potter, son of Lily and James Potter. I am a wizard, and there's nothing you can do about it."

It took another four hours of talking, threats of violence, aunt Petunia crying, uncle Vernon shouting and Dudley whining before we all finally came to the ending of the episode. The Dursley's finally accepted that they had failed to keep me ignorant of magic.

Uncle Vernon was livid that I had decided to be a freak that goes against all their good religion and common decency. He was resigned to it, but despised me for making him loose to a ten year old boy. He never could take failure.

Aunt Petunia was distraught that she would have to see another family member go into the dangerous and despicable world of magic that had resulted in the death of her parents and sister. Even though she refused to accept it, she was also afraid of again feeling the crushing jealousy of being a distant spectator to the wonders of magic that she was incapable of and had ruined her relationship with Lily.

Poor Dudley was very confused and wished he understood why his parents hated the possibility of me being capable of really cool feats. He would in the future constantly battle with the fact that I was capable of altering the very fabric of nature while he was an ordinary human. He won some and lost some of those battles.

At the end of those four hours Uncle Vernon stood up and said, "Boy, we tried our best to keep you on the good path. You have failed us. I am terribly disappointed to see that you have decided to go on to a world of heathens who. I hope someday you will understand why we tried so hard to keep from you this evil that you can do. If you don't... May God have mercy on your soul."

"Petunia, let him go to his wretched kind. We are done with him. Let him come and go as he pleases. He has shown very clearly that he has gone to the evil path." He turned to me and said, "Do what you must boy, but never utter or perform your evil in this house. It is still mine and as long as you call this place your home, you will not pollute my family with your freakishness."

"I have never wanted to hurt you or yours Uncle Vernon. I will not trouble you. I know that I will be going to the school soon and I will be gone for the most part of the next seven years. While I am here, I will do my best to keep our worlds separate and expose you all to the minimum possible of it." The lies slid off smoothly from my tongue.

"Aunt Petunia, I know you think of me as a curse. I am sorry it has come to this. I will be in my best behavior while I am here and I hope in time to make you all realize that I am not the devil's disciple or anything like that."

I realized by the time that I said this much that they were beyond the point of truly listening to me. They just wanted me out of their face. So I complied and went to my new room. Oh, did I forget to mention that in between these four hours I had managed to convince them that it would be good for me to get Dudley's second room?

The shift had ended around two hours earlier. I was terribly tired and just wanted to rest. I told them that I was going to sleep and left. I reached my new room and tiredly cleared up the bed and crashed on it. I woke up almost fifteen hours later.

The next day I ached in places I didn't know on could have aches in. Point to self...channeling large amounts of magic will make one hurt similar to the way that a person who excessively exerts themselves physically hurts. It took two days before I tried to attempt any magic. By then, the pain had reduced to an ignorable level.

These two days were some of the strangest days of my early life. The elder Dursley's ignored me to the best of their abilities. Dudley occasionally sent a confused look at me. But that was it. I pondered if this must be how ghosts felt like. To be around and not be observed at all. The elder Dursley's had ordered Dudley to have no interaction with me. That suited me just fine.

I cleaned up my new room and settled in comfortably. There was finally a place in the house that could serve as a safe haven for me to try some of my experiments. At least a place where I could fine tune and refine the magics that I found would work without the possibility of it blowing up in my face and alerting the Dursley's that I was doing the very thing that I promised them I would not do in their home just a week back.

I did all my chores as usual and aunt Petunia kept a place for me on the table as usual. During dinner, uncle Vernon spoke to the others and completely ignored me. If I made any sound, there was a tense silence lasting a few seconds before they continued speaking ignoring me.

The days went by in this strange fashion for a week and then came the letter.

All the tension ebbed away from me soon as I saw it. A letter made out of some thick yellowish paper addressed in emerald green ink to

Harry Potter
The smallest bedroom
No. 4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey

Turing it over I found a purple wax seal with a coat of arms that had a lion, snake, badger and raven surrounding a large letter H. I stood for a few minutes in delight. At long last, time to go get my birthright.
On opening it a sheet of paper of similar material as the cover slid out which had the following written in green ink.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress

The first feeling that overcame me was elation at the fact that Dumbledore was still headmaster. I would finally get to meet the man whose magic had crafted the powerful wards around my home.

I know I sounded like a rabid fan of Dumbledore. But hey, at that stage my meager knowledge only had his wards and a few comparatively shoddy wards to check out. Like I said earlier, his word surpassed the others by miles.

Then the rest of the words registered and I realized that they were waiting for a reply by July 31st. Only a few days were left before they closed the registration and I had no idea how to send a reply by then. Owl?

I reluctantly went in, cornered aunt Petunia and after getting her to stop ignoring me got the information that the wizarding world used owls as carrier pigeons. I reminded her that if the school did not get a reply, they were liable to send someone to come and collect me. That spurred her to tell me the address of a post box that muggles could use to get letters into the wizarding world.

Further enquiry about the place to go buy items required for school, she shut up tighter than a clam and completely refused to tell me where to go. A mind probe let me know that she was hoping that I would not be able to school without the required items.

The only thing that I got out of it was the name 'Diagon alley'. Her memory of the place was very fuzzy. It seemed that she could not even see the place unless Lily accompanied her. She also had not gone there in almost fifteen years and had made a constant attempt to forget about the place. She did not remember the way there.

So off I went to my new room, flicking an envelop and stamp from uncle Vernon's desk on the way. Remembering that the Dursley's had refused to pay for anything related to the magical world or help me in anyway reach it stumped me for a moment.

I already knew that James Potter had been quite well off, but was not sure if any of that money had survived the war. Aunt Petunia knew that there was a bank run by goblins and that the wizarding currency was composed of gold, silver and bronze coins. Would I have any legacy left in the wizarding world? I thought for a few moments and composed the following letter.

Dear deputy Headmistress McGonagall,

My name is Harry Potter and I received a letter from you informing me that I have been accepted to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I would be very glad to attend a school of magic.

I was able to find out from my relatives that magic actually exists and some strange occurrences in my early life are now explained. They have very recently informed me of the hidden world where you all live and that my parents were part of it and that they were killed when I was one by some maniacs. They had let me believe till then that my parents died in a car crash. That is my extent of knowledge of the magical world.

Unfortunately, my relatives are very against me learning any magic and have refused to pay for any fees or the supplies needed. They are not aware of any money my parents left behind following their deaths. If there is any please let me know. If not, is there any scholarship that I can apply for?

If I am able to afford the fees and supplies, I am still ignorant about the place where I can shop for the requirements. My relatives are unable to recollect the address of the place where I can go and purchase the necessary supplies. My aunt was only aware of the address of the PO Box where I could send the letter so it would be routed to Hogwarts School.

I would highly appreciate you helping me out by answering some of these questions or at least sending me the address of a person who would be able to help me out with them. I would like to find out more about my parents and hope you would be able to put me in contact with a former friend or classmate of theirs that could help me understand better. I hope my parents had some friends in our world.

Yours sincerely,

Harry Potter

I was in no hurry to inform anyone that I had literally magicked information right out of my relative's heads. Even though I had no way of knowing it, I was sure that picking out thoughts out of other people's heads without prior consent was forbidden even in the magical world.

Hopefully the McGonagall lady would get just enough information out of my letter to believe that I was mostly ignorant of my heritage and put me in contact with some friend of my parents. Hopefully, that Black guy who seemed to be a very good friend of dad's.

The moment I finished writing the letter, I felt a tiny surge of magic near me. Turning around, I realized that it had come from the envelop that had only contained the acceptance letter from Hogwarts. Looking inside, there was another sheet of parchment. Opening and glancing at it, I found a list of school supplies.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (Black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The standard book of spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A history of magic by Batilda Bagshot

Magical theory by Adalbert waffling

A beginners guide to transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phylida Spore

Magical Drafts and potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Bears and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to self Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set of glass or crystal phials

1 telescope et

1 brass scales

Students may also bring an owl or cat or a road

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

Reading the list sent a thrill through me. The completely unexpected and strange list of items was fascinating. I hoped I would be able to go get the items soon.

I woke up every morning early enough to get the mail before my relatives and found a reply bearing the Hogwarts crest waiting for me three days later. Inside was the following reply,

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are rather surprised to understand that your relatives have so little information regarding your heritage. It is also quite shocking to understand that they are trying to prevent you from attending Hogwarts. Just as it is illegal for parents to prevent their children from having an education in the muggle world, it is also illegal to keep a magical child from attending school and gaining control of his or her magic. You will attend Hogwarts school. Your name has been in the registry from the time you were born.

Please do not worry about your finances in the wizarding world. Your parents left you sufficient funds for your schooling and the complete fees for the next seven years at Hogwarts has been paid in full.

There is quite a bit more than what you have mentioned you know that you will have to be informed of before entering the wizarding world. Someone will be coming on the morning of the 27th of July at 8 AM to talk to your relatives and answer your questions.

Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Then I realized that it was the 27th already. It was around 7 AM right then and in one hour someone would be coming to talk to the Dursley's. Oops. There was no other option anyway. I had to let them know that one of the people they regarded as devils was going to come and disturb their normal and utterly boring day to day life.

Thinking back to the contents of the letter, it was very interesting to learn that it was illegal to prevent a magical child from attending a magical school. It should not have been surprising, after all, even in the normal world all children had to be educated.

No reason the wizarding world should have been different. I wondered what happened when parents or guardians refused to let their children go to Hogwarts. Was there any social service department that took the children away and kept them? Another question to ask whoever it was who came.

I went to the kitchen and started helping my aunt prepare food as usual for myself and the Dursley's. We all sat down and started to eat. I waited till the last moment and casually mentioned,

"Someone is going to come today in a short while and pick me up."

"What was that, boy?" asked my uncle and I replied, "Someone is coming to pick me up for some time. They are coming to take me shopping for school supplies in a few minutes and inform me about my parent's world."

Uncle Vernon turned purple so fast it was fascinating to see.

"Just a few days back you promised us that there would be no strange people coming here. You little rascal, who on earth gave you the permission to tell them they could come here?"

.

.
And the doorbell rang.

We all turned towards it and the Dursley's turned white. Uncle Vernon turned towards me to say something but I was already gone from the table. I ran to the front door, wrenched it open and was immediately blinded by the myriad bright whites, purples, gold stars and shimmery boots that adorned the visitor.

I hastily stumbled back to see bright blue, twinkling eyes over half moon spectacles that were regarding me cheerily.

"May I please step in my dear child? We have a lot to discuss today" said a voice that was just as cheery as the smile that graced the wizened old face. A face from which fell a beard so long it was tucked into the individuals belt.

I stumbled back with shock at the sheer assault on my eyes and heard the thundering footsteps of my relatives who came behind me.

Turning around, I found uncle Vernon gaping at the strange old man standing in front of his house dressed more garishly than what all the hippies he had seen in his life combined. He started turning an interesting shade of red in anger and looked like he wanted to say something when a polite and slightly amused voice was heard coming from the old man.

"Good morning Mr. Dursley. My name is Albus Dumbledore. I am the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and have come here to answer some questions about young Mr. Potter's schooling. May I come in? It seems that we have quite a few things to talk about."

"What?... Who?... Why?... Boy... " He sputtered before realizing that in the presence of a grown up wizard there was little he could do. He then realized that there was a garishly dressed, utterly abnormal freak standing in his front doorsteps and that his neighbors could see him.

"Get in soon. Don't just stand there and make everyone think we associate with people like you." he hissed in annoyance and anger.

"Thank you . Ah, Petunia its been quite some time. I can see that your roses are growing very well. My congratulations on maintaining such an excellent garden."

I turned around and saw that my aunt had just stepped into the living room and was staring at Dumbledore in shock. A myriad of emotions crossed her face in a few seconds. Anger, fear, disgust and finally resignation.

"Just get in will you. Let's get it over it. The sooner we are rid of you people from my home, the better." She sniffed with her nose up in the air.

"Of course, Petunia. Shall we all move to the hall? I believe your husband would appreciate your neighbors not catching sight of me."

So off we all marched from the front door, me wondering how things were going to pan out the next few minutes.

As soon as we were all seated, uncle Vernon started off, "Lets get one thing straight Mr. Dumbledore, I never wanted this boy here. I had half a mind here to send him to the orphanage the day we found him dumped on my doorsteps like a bottle of milk. but, out of the goodness of our hearts and our faith in God we have kept him safe all this while."

"I'm sure young Harry here appreciates your sacrifices Mr. Dursley. He seems to have grown into a strapping young man."

"Thankful, my foot... Little cretin started threatening us with his freakishness the last month. We tried our best to remove the evil from his soul. It most definitely has not worked"

I saw Dumbledore's eyes widening. Seeing that my reputation was being tarnished, I just had to protest at this stage. "I never threatened you. I just informed you that I had realized that I was a wizard and that there was no way you were preventing me from being a good one. You never told me anything about my world until I found out on my own and proved to you that you would not be able to stop me."

Turning to Dumbledore, "What was I supposed to do? Get beaten up just because they thought they were preventing me from being a demon from hell? I never used magic on them. Only shielded myself when uncle Vernon tried to hit me for accidentally letting a snake out of its enclosure at the zoo."

"Ah, of course? I heard about that investigation by the Ministry. They were at a loss as to the perpetrator of that particular incidence. Its good to know that it was nothing more than a case of accidental magic."

He paused, the genial smile dropped off his face. His voice remained very cordial, but had a slight chill as he turned to Petunia and said, "Am I to gather from what you all have said and the letter that young Mr. Potter sent the school that he was not informed of his abilities beforehand?"

"Of course they never told me that I was a wizard. I guessed that I was different when weird things happened around me. I hid the fact from them. After the incidence in the zoo, we finally had a honest talk and I found out the truth."

"I see. It seems that you have been able to resolve a lot of issues on your own Harry. I will not interfere more than necessary with your family. You seem quite capable of taking care of your own."

He turned to the Dursley's and said, "The magical world will be very disappointed if it finds out that your nephew has been mistreated due to your lack of understanding of what we consider to be sacred. I hope that you will not take any undue action on Harry for his defensive action. I will make sure to talk to him about responsible use of his abilities."

"Harry, let us move out. We have a lot to discuss. This visit to your home has been most illuminating. It is time you learned something about yourself.", Turning to the Dursley's, "Vernon, Petunia, Dudley, I hope, to never trouble you with my presence anytime soon. Do take care." and walked out of the house with me trotting along.

He stopped outside the gate, turned around and looked at me over half-moon glasses.

"My dear boy, it seems that things have not gone as well as I'd expected them to. I will do my best to rectify certain oversights. But first, let us have an adventure. We are going to Diagon Alley, the best place to buy all items required by a first year student at Hogwarts. I will do my best to answer your questions during that time. Are you ready?" He asked.

A hundred different questions clamored for attention in my mind. I took a deep breath, calmed myself and after a moment's hesitation said, "Of course Sir. Lead the way, I'm ready."

On hearing my reply, Albus Dumbledore smiled. His eyes gained a mischievous twinkle. He extended his hand to me and said, "Grab hold then, let us proceed. We will be travelling by a method known as Apparation. It might be quite disconcerting the first time, but you will get the hang of it in time."

I practically grabbed the offered hand in my haste to experience some magic. The elder wizard practically beamed at my enthusiasm.

He slightly twisted his body away from me and with a squeezing sensation enveloped me as we popped away to the world of magic.

Author's note:

I am sorry for the immense delay in the story. I'm sure many of my readers gave up on me. I struggle with writing. I hope this chapter has improved since my first. Please read and review. Feedback and criticism is highly appreciated. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.