Beta: FlyingLovegood123
Life at number four, Privet Drive was going pretty normally. Yep. An exemplary typical family with absolutely nothing out of ordinary - that is, if one didn't include the fact that there were two boys currently huddled in a room of the house, going through their school books. Nothing was abnormal in and of itself about that, of course, but the books were not ordinary school books, they were full of spells and instructions on magic.
Harry Potter was having the time of his life. School year was drawing closer and soon he would be far, far away from this house as well as its occupants. The sheer thought made him feel all excited. Finding out that he was a wizard was probably the best thing that had ever happened to him. He had never imagined that he could one day escape this place. For the first few days after his visit to the Diagon Alley, he had had trouble believing it was real, and he had dreaded waking up in his dark cupboard and realizing it was all just a dream. But when he knew he wasn't dreaming, his heart swelled with happiness. Nothing could possibly dampen his mood now, not even the worst punishment the Dursleys had used on him during his eleven years spent here. He wouldn't even mind being on the receiving end of one of Uncle Vernon's shouting match. Not that he would get one these days. The people living in this house seemed to have taken it upon themselves to play a pretend game where his existence here was just a figment of their imagination. They walked past without even giving him a glance, ignored his voice as if it was just the wind. Whenever he appeared in their line of vision, they determinedly acted like he was part of the wall and turned to the other direction. Only Dudley gave some sort of reactions, which included squealing loudly and ran out of a room whenever Harry entered it. Had it been any other person, this would have been a rather depressing treatment. For Harry though, it was quite an improvement. The Dursleys could go on ignoring him for the rest of their lives for all Harry cared. It wouldn't bother him, because he had one person to keep him company now. It was the first time he had a friend his age, and the one in question was sitting next to him, poring over a book titled "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi".
"Strangeā¦" said Edward, lifting his head from the pages "I've seen most of these herbs before."
"Really?" Harry looked up from his own copy of "Magical Drafts and Potions"
"You've read this before?"
"No, I don't think so. And I only recognize their medical properties." He put the book down and stretched his arms and shoulders "Anyways, I've had enough of reading. I'd rather try out a few spells."
"But we don't have our wands. The books said we can't really use our magic without them." Harry exclaimed. They were allowed all of their possession in Harry's bedroom, except their wands. Vernon Dursley had decided to lock them away in the storage. He seemed to think that the act would minimize the damage should anything funny happen. He had even worn gloves for good measure when he snatched their wands for fear that they would burn him or turn him into a toad.
"Seriously?" Edward seemed genuinely surprised "But look, I can do this."
He turned his gaze to the book lying beside him and as if grabbed by an invisible hand, it floated up into the air and made its ways to the table. Harry gasped
"How did you do that?"
"I don't know, I just think about it and it happens. See." Edward sent some other objects flying for demonstration. Harry stared in wonder at the sight. He then turned his eyes to the nearest thing to him, a sock, and tried to will it to fly. Nothing happened.
"I can't do it!" He said
The other boy stopped making things dance in the air and let them fall back to their places. He looked puzzled.
"But you only have to think of the object moving. It's easy."
Harry tried once more time, his whole attention turned to the socks and he imagined it slowly taking off. He gave the image all of his concentration, but the sock stubbornly remained stock still. He gave up with a sigh after two minutes. He wondered why Edward was able to do it but he himself couldn't. Was it because his magic was weaker than normal wizards? Perhaps moving things without wand was normal for most wizards and he was the abnormal one. He didn't know much about the standard of the magic world. But if judging by the standard of Muggles, then he was certain that Edward was the strange one. They had to share a room, of course, not that Harry was complaining, but the closer Harry got to him, the more out of place Edward seemed to be to him, as if he belonged in a completely different era. The first days of his stay, he looked like someone who had never seen the light of day. Harry managed to exhaust himself just explaining how the devices in the house work to his new friend, from the television to his ball point pen. He didn't understand much about amnesia, but he really doubt it could make a person forget as much as Edward, who even commented that the road and the houses appeared unfamiliar.
But memory problem aside, Edward was a decent and fascinating person. He knew how to listen to other and even though he had little to add, he always managed to make Harry feel better when he talk to him. It was a nice feeling, having someone to share your problems with. Edward also seemed to have taken a liking to chores. Even though they didn't have to do any since the Dursley didn't have the nerves to force them to, Edward still handled all the cleaning he could get his hand on. When asked by Harry, he just said that it just felt right to him and Harry had left it at that. He got the same treatment as Harry, which was being regarded as a ghost and was initially disturbed, but eventually got used to it. The food that Aunt Petunia left for them at the table was about the only sign that the two of them were in the house. Their ration was about the same as Harry had always received, which was meager and it made Harry doubt that the money Hogwart paid for Edward's stay was all used for its intended purpose, not that either of them really cared. But Harry noticed that the Dursley seemed more terrified of Edward more than they were of him. Maybe it was because he was a stranger that they knew nothing about and also because he was more at ease with his magic than Harry was. Harry had only ever been able to make strange things happen when he was extremely scared or excited. Edward, on the other hand, was different. Just as he levitated the things in Harry's bedroom, he could use magic whenever he wanted to. After he made the remnant of the teacup Harry had accidently dropped (neither Vernon nor Petunia yelled at him, to his amazement) disappear without a trace, his relatives had avoided the boy at all cost. And Harry had to admit, even though he was glad for the companionship, Edward was really somewhat of a mystery.
