Disclaimer - I don't own Harry potter. This story is my own work but might draw inspirations here and there from the hundreds of fanfiction stories i have read. If anything seems similar it is not intended. I borrowed some of the cliches that i enjoy reading into my story though i intend to give them my own spin. Happy Reading.

Chapter 3 Hogwarts is it?

It is a good morning. Harry woke up early, finished his morning rituals, he went outside casually walking the neighbourhood, he sort of likes this girl, Claire that lives in the nearby house. Harry doesn't have friends, mostly because they don't really like him, yes some people do talk to him in his class but Harry always ends up scaring them somehow or other, be it his association with snakes, spiders and his sometimes angry outbursts. Of the few who can ignore these strange characteristics of Harry, Claire is one. Harry likes being with her and talking to her as she does with him. He went to greet her and talked a little with her, she hugged him happy birthday when he told her it is his birthday today. He came back to his orphanage home smiling like an idiot. On his way home everyone is giving him looks and there is no sighting of Bill, which only brightened his mood. Mentally making a note about thanking his little snake friends, he went to his room, planning to do a little bit of home work. He calmly worked on his homework for a hour and half, finished it satisfied with his work, closing the books, and just stretched and fell on his bed, Just as he was thinking that this day couldn't get any better, there is a knock on his door.

It was his warden, "Harry sweetie, there is someone here to see you" she said, Harry hated being called sweetie.

Mentally scolding his warden a few hundred times, Harry replied, "Oh".

An elderly man with long white beard and half moon glasses peered inside Harry's room. He is wearing a brown suit and a hat, with a pocket clock chain hanging. He is looking at Harry with mild concern and curiosity. He entered the room and looked around calmly, Harry waited to see if he'd say anything but he didn't, he contented himself with looking around the room nodding to himself and talking a seat on his bed.

"Hello" Harry said, wanting to know who this strange looking man is.

"Hello Harry" the man replied with a smile that seemed a little stressed, only a little though. He continued "my name is Albus Dumbledore, I work as headmaster for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry, I am here to offer you to join our school"

A few hours ago

Dumbledores thoughts are racing, this is completely unexpected. He just got the confirmation from the Dursleys themselves that Harry has not been staying at the privet drive, and is shifted to Little wings orphanage as is printed on his offer letter, he found out that Harry is weird ( he is surprised by the hatred shown by Vernon ) and is thus thrown out of the house, he is sorely tempted to use a little bit of legilimency to found out exactly what happened and to throw a small curse on them that would stress them just a little bit for the rest of their lives for the stunt they just pulled but 'Alas! The burdens of being me' he thought to himself. He underestimated petunias hatred for lily, Snape and Mcgonagall had warned him about this but he had hoped their hatred would not extend to Harry. He is thus lost in thought standing outside the privet drive, when a plane zooming past him atop in the sky woke him out of his stupor, 'Its amazing! flying without any magic, I suppose it is possible' he thought. His thoughts shifted back to Harry 'forgive me Harry, I made a mistake, I believed this is the best course of action and also I hope one day you will forgive and understand what I am about to do' he paused and sighed 'I am about to place a heavy burden on a 11 year old child'. He placed his hand in his coat pocket on the wand, and discreetly placed a notice me not charm on him and popped a lemon drop in his mouth, he shifted slightly and disappeared with a pop.

Back at Little Wings Orphanage

Looking at Harry now and his magic, Dumbledore is getting deja-vu vibes and not good ones either, he had stopped doing these initiations a long time ago, he thought of sending Hagrid this time to Harry to introduce the good gentle and innocent side of the wizarding world first but the address on his offer letter surprised him and he came to investigate it himself.

"Hogvarts is it?" asked Harry.

"It's hogwarts Harry. It is a school for gifted people like you and me." said Dumbledore, carefully repeating the same words he had used previously on another child in a similar setting.

"Gifted?" asked Harry a bit surprised himself, he knew there is something different about him from the rest of the children.

"Have you ever noticed unusual things happening around you Harry, something you can't explain, perhaps when you are angry or sad?" asked Dumbledore carefully, he knows if Harry lies and that is not a good sign.

"Yeah" Harry said hesitantly, suddenly wary of someone who seems to knows these things about him, 'how does he know?' Harry wondered. Harry has been using these since a long time, he can't explain it and he can't seem to do it each and everytime, but sometimes when his emotions are high, something or other always happens, and they almost always happen in his favour. He doesn't want this person to know that, just last night he had done something like that.

"That is because you are a wizard Harry. Someone who can do magic." Dumbledore finished, he noticed Harry getting wary from his question and the look of surprise quickly going to suspicion on his face.

"magic?" it dawned on Harry's face, Dumbledore could clearly see it written, it confirmed his suspicions, Harry has been able to consciously do magic since many years, to what extent he is not sure. He could sense Harry's magic, he is one of the strongest magical child he has ever met, and he had met quite a few of the children who had become powerful wizards including the last two dark lords of magical britain.

"You are saying there are people like me, I mean people who do magic, you can do magic?" asked Harry with curiosity

"Yes Harry I can do magic, so can you, when you join our school. At our school we teach children how to use this magic" said Dumbledore.

"Can you show me? magic that is, anything you can do " Harry asked challengingly trying to be as polite as possible

Dumbledore calmly looked at Harry and a bright blue flame erupted between them, it took the form of a bird, with a trilling sound that made Harry smile. He jerked back with surprise and his eyes shone bright at this display of magic. Harry fell in love with this. Dumbledore found that this kind of magic comes much more easily to him , perhaps because of his long association with fawkes. Dumbledore noticed Harry's reaction and found some of his worries and fears fading away.

"can you take me there? to HogWarts" asked Harry politely with the same curiosity and eager to learn how to do this. Dumbledore paused, it has been quite long time since he took a child on his first tour of wizarding word 'I suppose, i could do that, it has been a while for me , it would be refresing, and it gives me an oppurtunity to get to know Harry better, he seems much more closed off than tom had been' Dumbledore thought. Dumbledore has been satisfied with Harry's behaviour and reactions, yes Harry seems closed off and shy, but he didn't sense any real malice and irrational intentions to hurt others. 'I suppose that's a good sign' Dumbledore thought.

Meanwhile Harry's mind is racing with thoughts 'I can do magic?' 'So that's what it is, I know I am different' 'Can Dumbledore do what I can? I suppose he can, he said he could, he is old so he should know how to do it better' 'Can he float things like I did?' 'can he make others fear him' 'Can he talk to snakes and communicate with other animals like i can' He wanted to ask all those questions but stopped himself, he doesn't want to irritate him, he might leave 'No, I will ask him slowly' 'But wait-'

"But I don't have any money" Harry said with a sad face before Dumbledore can reply, his hopes of going to this school crushed.

"Don't worry about it Harry" Dumbledore replied, "Your parents enrolled you and paid your hogwarts fees in advance just few days after you are born, even if they didn't, hogwarts provide student loans and scholarships for bright students, so you don't have to worry in that regard"

"My parents enrolled me in this school?, my parents are different too" Harry asked unable to stop himself.

"you will find that it is not our ability to do magic that makes us different Harry but our personalities, yes, your parents themselves are magical people, they are two of the most powerful and strongest people in our world" Dumbledore replied, Harry has to understand that being able to do magic won't make us special but responsible.

"Of course sir" Harry replied, little embarrassed.

Dumbledore nodded his head and stood "Now, Hogwarts is a boarding school, so you can stay at your school for the year and come back to your home during summer holidays, But for now let me take you on your first journey to wizarding world, we could talk on the way"

"Its okay Sir" Harry replied, he stood up but hesitated to open his cupboard infront of dumbledore he doesn't like anybody going through his things. Mostly because most of them are old and worn out, and it is embarrassing for him, and also because he doesn't like sharing his personal belonging and likes being private.

Dumbledore smiled and didn't say anything, he looked around the room and found it cluttered, he wanted to show off in front of Harry by doing magic, but he had already noticed Harry is extremely private and closed off, it is not the best of things to offer him, he contented to just watching.

Harry noticed Dumbledore watching his things keenly and flushed a little, Dumbledore noticed this and said, "I shall go speak with your matron, once you are ready Harry, i'll meet you downstairs, okay?" he finished and went out of his room

Harry nodded.

Harry slowly finished getting on some reasonably good clothes, walked downstairs and waited. His thought are running, how surreal this all feels, this is not a prank is it, he wondered, No, he told himself, he saw the fire bird with his own eyes. 'My parents are magical too!, can they do what Dumbledore can do?' he wondered, 'Wait, my parents died in a car crash!, how can they die in a car crash, if they are so powerful, I mean there should be something they could do!, maybe they are not that powerful after all ,if they died in a car crash' His anger started bubbling at this and felt sad, his parents were unable to survive a car crash, 'if only they are more powerful' he thought. He noticed Dumbledore coming down and averted his eyes.

"Shall we Harry?" Dumbledore said and smiled joyfully.

"Yes" Harry replied shortly. Dumbledore looked at Harry, and noticed him averting his eyes, even his magic is giving off an angry aura.

"What happened Harry?" He asked.

"Nothing" Harry said, not wanting to admit what he is feeling.

Dumbledore didn't say anything, he looked at Harry for a few seconds and started walking , Harry followed him dragging his along

Harry couldn't help himself, "How can my parents die of a car crash, if they are so powerful as you say" he said finally.

"Ah!" Dumbledore said, 'so that's what the dursleys told him, oh petunia! what else have you done?' Dumbledore thought sadly.

"Your parents didn't die in a car crash Harry." Dumbledore replied after a pause.

"They didn't?" Harry asked now very surprised. "What happened then?"

"They are murdered by a terrible person, one who has gone evil and lost his way" Dumbledore said sadly.

"They are murdered!" Harrys face flushed unknowingly. Someone killed his parents and left him alone. "Who is that?"

"His name is Tom riddle, most people call him voldemort in our world, It happened a long time ago harry, somehow he too vanished the same day he killed your parents and is not seen again,but you survived that night. Your mother, somehow protected you, I have my suspicions but I myself am not sure how, Voldemort is able to kill both your parents but because of your mothers protection he is not able to kill you, instead he left that scar on you"

Harry rubbed the scar on his forehead, the scar he had since he is young. 'So that is how I got this scar' he thought. 'The person who killed my parents made this'

"Believe me when I say, your parents are two of the most powerful people I have ever met, it's just Tom himself is a powerful person, and an evil person at that, it is a miracle you survived" Dumbledore finished.

Harry didn't feel happy that he survived , instead he felt ashamed a little, he vowed to become powerful himself and never let anything like that happen ever again. "You said he vanished. Did he die?" asked Harry.

"Alas!. No one knows Harry, if you ask me, I will say this, he has very little humanity left in him to die a normal death," He finished with a single glance at his scar.

"So he is still alive!" Harry deciphered, his anger surfacing again. He controlled himself and stayed silent, for the rest of their walk to the open lane.

This is our stop Harry. He pulled out a old stick from his coat, with three beads at equal distances in the middle. "This is a wand Harry" Dumbledore explained "This is what you will be using when you are doing magic in school, you can do magic without this but, wand helps you do it better".

"Oh" said Harry, his face lighting up with excitement and curiosity.

Dumbledore put his wand forward in his right hand, sort of like asking for a lift, a tiny spark emitted from the end of the wand and..

BANG

A red double decker bus materialized out of nowhere and stopped just before hitting them, Harry jerked back but Dumbledore remained unfazed. The bus conductor looked out and said "Hello fellas, i am your conductor stan shunp- " he stopped midway, "Blimey!" he exclaimed "Dumbledore sir"

"Hello Stan" Dumbledore replied smiling.

"You will be taking the knight bus sir? " Stan asked

"Yes stan, me and young Harry here, would be joining you , Harry is on his first journey to wizarding word. Harry, meet stan a former alumni at hogwarts, stan, this is Harry potter" Dumbledore made the introductions

"Blimey!" Stan eclaimed again "You are Harry potter" he finished looking at Harry's scar. The day is officially the strangest day in Harry's life.

Both Dumbledore and Harry boarded the red bus and took their seats. The bus took off with a BANG, and with that Harry started his journey to the wizarding world with a BANG.