A Harry Potter fan fiction

Started 20 October 2011

Completed – pending - - Reason – first draft

Author's note: after 9 years of writer's block I give up continuing this story as I have no idea of where to go with it.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated characters are the property JK Rowlings and are used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to the Harry Potter universe.

.o0o. .o0o.

Awakening By Cloud Dreamer

.o0o. .o0o.

Prologue - a birthday

.o0o. .o0o.

The bloodied and beaten six-year old child shivered from the effects of delirium as he lay on the floor of the cupboard he had been carelessly tossed into after he had been 'rewarded' for living six years today. This birthday present had been brutally administered and boy's heart slowed until it finally stopped. As the child's pure soul gratefully began to rise, the bindings on his magical core dissolved in an iridescent sparkling that held the soul entranced from awe in place for the moment. The abrupt release of the bindings caused the boy's magical core to explode outward, shocking the nervous system and heart back into function. He lived again but the body's connection to his soul was still tenuous.

The massive surge of magic released by the near death event and removal of the core bindings hit the barely functional blood wards and rebounded like waves in a bucket disturbed by a dropped stone. Each rebounded raw magic ripple caused the blood wards to strengthen and then affect the child again and again as each additional surge of magic from the child's freed core added to the strength of each rebounding ripple.

The magical signature on the bindings was absorbed into the blood wards as an identification of cause of harm to their focus and resulted in baring that individual and any that supported him from approaching within a 10,000 feet of the house. The child's injuries activated a dormant protocol embedded within the blood wards that diverted a significant amount of the surging magical energy into healing their focus; a child named Harry James Potter. This protocol had barely functioned in the past due to lack of available magical energy.

As the raw magic splashed and rippled within the blood wards, it had almost contradictory effects on the lad. The blood wards strengthened the link between body and soul as healing progressed while the successive and rebounding waves of raw magic pushed the soul further into the astral plane.

Harry had been aware of his death and the absence of pain had been greeted with a broad smile. However less than a half minute later he had grimaced when he was reconnected with pain as his heart resumed beating. He cocked his head in curiosity as watched himself heal and silently sighed as the pain receded even as he was pushed further from his body.

Harry was hardly the first person to visit the astral plane but he did have a few attributes none of the others had been gifted with simultaneously. There had been others with pure souls, souls that did not color their astral perception with anger, hatred, fear, lust or ambition. But there were very few. This flawed perception limited what they could see.

There had been other souls with some bit of seer talent and many had more of this talent than he did. There even may have been a few that were younger and perhaps one or two that were children of prophesy as well. But Harry was the first to have all these gifted attributes simultaneously. Because of this, Harry was able to stand on the astral plane and look at all the paths of fate he could walk.

He didn't understand at first what he was seeing until he happened to glance 'behind' himself. He saw the path connecting to him but more telling he also recognized a few alternate choices/paths he had recently made. Understanding dawned on him as he connected this to a few science-fiction concepts his limited reading had introduced him to. He turned forward again to study what he now realized were possible paths he could take.

As he turned to study what could possibly be his futures, he noticed that it was in flux. When he'd first seen it, it was a jumbled blur of millions upon millions of lines spreading out like propagating cracks at his feet. As he watched, entire possibilities of realities nearly vanished leaving only faint traces. Others gained thickness as they absorbed nearby alternates though the differences could still be seen if one made an effort. The more detail he picked up about possible futures, the more these changes surged forward into the far distance.

He cocked his head to one side and then the other as he studied this before it came to him. He was now forewarned about some things and thus those potential paths nearly vanished while others became more likely.

Harry may have spent three days locked in the cupboard and unconscious, but on the astral plane he spent a lot more subjective time as he experienced almost a thousand years there. He was still just a six-year-old boy and no amount of time on the astral plane would make him an adult when he woke up. But with each passing year he did gain a little bit of insight and maturity and by the time he did wake up, he was mentally decades older than before his birthday beating. The mental maturity did bring a measure of emotional maturity as well, but he was still an abused child nonetheless. Fortunately he had enough childhood remaining that he could recover if allowed.

Harry had spent a lot of time studying the improbabilities. Oddly enough, some of the more impossible paths had very, very useful information. Information he could graft into his carefully chosen/sculpted path without having to tread the otherwise tortuous path to get it the first place. This was one the major advantages of walking the astral plane. Harry's mother had had a minor talent as a seer, which he had also been gifted with. But despite the minor amount of talent he had, no other seer had been able to walk both as far into the future and as broad afield into the improbabilities as he had traveled. Still he was limited to seeing only those events which potentially directly affected him.

For what had seemed to be years, Harry had been feeling a tug upon his soul. This tugging was trying to pull him back into his body and it was gradually growing more insistent. Harry glanced one last time around the astral plane and the firm path that spread out before him with only a slight blurring of the edges hinting as other possibilities. This path represented the choices he had decided to pursue. He sighed silently to himself and relaxed and allowed himself to the pulled from the astral plane into his healed but still body.

He smiled as he woke. His face may have had a look of determination but there was still a hint of a mischief in his smile.

Harry pushed the cupboard door open. It had resisted at first but a slight push with his unfocused magic had overwhelmed the lock. He stood up and glanced down at himself a bit surprised. He was taller, more muscular and better filled out - in what would be termed 'perfect' health he guessed. He grimaced as he realized that his clothes and skin were still stained with blood, his blood.

Hearing a roar of anger he turned to see his uncle charging him with an out-thrust fist, his face purple with rage. Harry instinctively defended himself by thrusting out both palms and screaming "NO". The burst of accidental magic tossed Vernon out the front window. Unfortunately, his legs hit the sill and snapped causing his body to flip over end and impact the sidewalk harshly. Vernon lay there unconscious, legs, pelvis and many ribs broken. He would recover but he finally learned why child abuse rarely happened in the magical world. Frightened 'freaks' can kill even when still little.

Petunia was out cold on the kitchen floor. Her husband's fist had swung wide catching her in the face and breaking her jaw. She lay tits up on the floor with breakfast scattered around her.

Dudley had gotten the worst of it. He had been behind his father slightly to one side when one of Vernon's legs had hit him. It had catapulted him into an end table. The impact with the edge of the table had damaged his lower spine and temporarily paralyzed his legs. He would eventually recover but his legs would always be weak. As he grew older he was on a constant diet if he wanted to be able to walk at all.

At the ministry of magic (MoM), alarms were blaring as the huge burst of accidental magic identified a potential problem for keeping the statute of secrecy. Minor bursts were usually ignored but this was not minor. A reversal team of several oblivators attempted to respond but were bounced off the blood wards as every wizard on the team either believed in Dumbledore or was a blood supremacist and thus banned by the intent of the initial ward.

The burst of raw magic three days earlier had not been detected because it had no structure. Despite its strength, it had no overt purpose and just blended into the background which was filtered out by the detectors. Harry's defense effort was focused or structured magic even if accidental and served as a homing beacon to the MoM personnel despite the normally masking effects of the blood wards.

Shortly after the MoM team bounced off the wards, Dumbledore did as well when he was stripped away from his phoenix in mid-flight. Fawkes scream of irritation was heard widely as he lost the tail feather that Dumbledore had been holding at the time.

Amelia Bones was the first to discover that some adult magicals could approach Harry's home safely. Disillusioned, she did a quick survey of the incident and decided that those on the scene were doing a well enough job of convincing themselves of what 'logically' happened; Vernon had obviously fallen out the window by himself and crawled to the sidewalk seeking help before collapsing. That she was the only one in the MoM presently able to approach Harry's home bothered her immensely. Enough that she didn't reveal that she'd been able to enter the blood-warded area.

The second magical to approach Harry's home successfully was solicitor Ted Tonks at Harry's request some month's later. He was not surprised at this simply because he didn't know he wasn't supposed to be able to according to MoM experience to that point; not that the MoM was telling anybody about the situation as only a few even knew whose home it was.

The ambulance team that had responded to the Dursley home had summoned investigators as soon as they had suspected that Harry was a victim of abuse based on his appearance. Only the fact that Harry no longer had any scars or injuries prevented prosecution despite Dudley's comments and the evidence under the stairs. Knowing that they would now be subject to periodic review and fearing Harry's accidental magic curbed all future action against their nephew.

The stage is set, now begins the story.

[a/n] { I realize that the story could go in almost any direction at this point. Harry could leave or stay safely with his relatives; go to Hogwarts (any house) or go elsewhere; with foreknowledge there is power and path diversity, where and how much, who knows. - So if someone wants to use this prologue as a springboard to their own story, go for it; just credit me with what I've written please.}

Cloud Dreamer

.o0o. .o0o.

Chapter One - First Steps.

.o0o. .o0o.