When Harry died after being hit by Voldemort's killing curse it was not the scene of King's Cross and Professor Dumbledore that he got treated with, but instead the Hogwart's Great Hall and the sorting hat atop his head. The eyes of the students all around him were focused on him again, as if judging what sort of person he was, but this time they were still and silent, like a memory that did not quite have enough to render them moving, and all Harry felt was the stillness of the world around him and the hat on his head and shoulders as he sat on the stool.
Gryffindor eh? You had ambitions of being the hero and savior the wizarding world wanted but yet you did not do it alone. You sacrificed people, friends, family of friends, order members, who died for your cause... A voice said inside his head.
There was no feeling more bitter than disappointing the sorting hat.
No. Thought Harry, a little desperately so. They chose to. It is their story they played the hero of. I would be robbing them of giving their life fighting for a cause they believed was right if I didn't work with them. I did the right thing. They were...meant to die. I was still the hero the wizarding world wanted. I was still the brave Gryffindor who defeated Lord Voldemort...
Meant to die eh? If you remember what Professor Dumbledore said, Lord Voldemort had no friends and preferred to work alone. He attached the baby from the prophecy he thought was most like his equal. You were supposed to work alone and defeat Lord Voldemort just as he had risen to power - alone. You were not supposed to risk the lives of others who may have felt like they wanted to be part of the cause. Because that's not the ideal ending to the prophecy Potter...
It is. I worked hard. Let me come back. I need to come back and defeat Voldemort. Just one more curse. I can kill him. The war will be over.
Lord Voldemort discovered the secrets of magic on his own. Great knowledge of the wizarding world that ancient hands and minds have kept from him. He sought all of it alone, journeyed to the depths of magic alone. He created himself. He rose to fame through risking his own life, his own physical body in some of his experiments, his own self. The wizard that must defeat him and be his equal in every way must also rise alone. Your mother's protection is something you must use to defeat him, but alone. You have not done so, and death is quite punishing to heros it sends forth on it's prophecies who do not fulfill them Harry. Are you sure you want to go back in the world you have created? Are you sure you wish to die and meet death once again?
What other choice do I have? You didn't let me go back the first time I wanted to and it doesn't sound like me meeting death will help the world I left or myself meet a happier ending. What other choice of happiness or fulfillment do I have?
Death has given you one last chance. With ancient magics that you know not and perhaps you shall discover what allowed it so if you are truly to uncover the secrets of magic in this world as Lord Voldemort did and ultimately defeat him. You shall return to life as an 11 year old boy, this time risking no one's lives in the process, no unnecessary deaths, and becoming the Ravenclaw that you always had the potential to be. You shall uncover the secrets of magic down to the deepest depths, figure out how the world works, and defeat Lord Voldemort by outsmarting him in the way he has risen...
The candles in the Great Hall burned brighter until Harry could see them no more...
He woke up with the sun streaming through the cracks in the cupboard under the stars. His scar was throbbing and the faint remnants of a dream he couldn't remember haunted his dreams. He woke up fully, shaking the sleep out of his eyes and slipped on his glasses, only to realise there was a rusty old brown hat lying on his head. Harry grinned to himself. In all his 11 years living in the cupboard under the stairs due to his parents dying in a car crash before he could even remember as a young boy he had felt alone and lost in the world; unsure of which direction to go in his life, but the old hat had always been there for him. It was large enough to house a baby, apparently he had arrived on the doorstep in a pile of blankets slipped into the hat. Aunt Petunia theorised it had been for extra warmth as it was a chilly night and his parents had passed away so quickly there was no time to grab anything more appropriate for a bit of warmth to wrap a baby in other than an old hat lying around. She'd tried to throw it out several times but it always came back somehow, sitting on the only shelf he had in the cupboard under the stairs as if grinning at him like an old friend.
Indeed, the old ceases on the hat looked like a grin. Harry had plopped it on his head many times but words had never matched the clothy grin, the hat hadn't grown wings to transport him out of anything, and nothing magical happened. But he liked it all the same. Perhaps it was because it was the only thing that came with him to this otherwise unfriendly world of the Dursleys, that it felt like some part of him, something of his own, and he'd liked taking it of it's shelf, putting it on, if only to feel the familiar comfort of fabric around his ears again, and the simple acknowledgement that just like the other times - nothing magical had happened at all.
Sensing the end of his respite from awakening, Harry slipped it of his head and stuffed it under the covers. Although Aunt Petunia couldn't throw it out and Uncle Vernon couldn't destroy it their tempers were always higher from seeing it around and if he wanted a peaceful day today it was not a good idea to let them catch a glimpse of it unnecessary. Harry got dressed, then threw a look at the one and only other item that had come with the hat - a long brown stick which he had found himself when he reached into the hat one day at the age of seven and kept ever since, and then bade goodbye to them both before opening the cupboard door and closing it with a creak.
"Hurry up you. Breakfast is waiting. Don't want to keep Dudley waiting on his birthday-" Uncle Vernon rapped Harry sharply on the head as if he had woken up late.
"How many presents are here?" asked Dudley.
Harry managed to tune them out as he fried some bacon on the pan.
"Does the boy have to come?" Aunt Petunia's sharp voice drifted out from the kitchen table, "Ms Figs was too busy but surely the boy is old enough to stay home by himself a few right? I know we could get in trouble otherwise, but really, he's just as old as Dudley, and Dudley can stay at home without a babysitter? I know we wouldn't want him to, but he's old enough to do so isn't he Duddeykins?"
"Yes? I'll cancel his ticket. No more funny business okay?" Uncle Vernon said, tweaking Harry's nose sharply as if to remind him who was in control around here if there was.
Harry's joy at their departure was short lived however, when he went back to the cupboard under the stars and put on the hat as if to celebrate.
Get out your wand, we have a journey of our own to take.
The hat said in a voice inside his head.
Harry almost jumped a foot in the air.
He suddenly felt very scared.
He had been happy to stay home alone, perhaps hoping to sneak on Dudley's computer and play some video games, but he did not anticipate himself going crazy so fast. Having voices inside one's head was never a good thing, and Harry didn't need to be an expert to know this.
He reached up to take the hat of his head.
For all your life you have wanted to get away. Now's your chance. What are you waiting for? Cowardice Potter? This journey could make you a better person for all you know.
I don't want to. He thought to the hat atop his head. I'm comfortable living at the Dursleys even though I sometimes dream of better. I don't want to leave. Not so soon.
I'll let you in on the secret of the hat and the wand if you do so. I know you have been curious about that and many things. Isn't knowledge the greatest thing in the world? And how little of it you possess over your own situation. I know you are curious Potter...
With that Harry found himself grabbing his wand and wearing the hat atop his head.
Good. Said the hat before it began giving him instructions.
Author's Note: This is basically a story that prevents many character's deaths and attempts to explore how magic is really done in the wizarding world. Harry explores almost everything that's mentioned in the series in great depth here. So if you're ever wondered how magic really works or wanted to theorise along with the story as it's updating, this is the right one for you!