Harry Potter and the Magic Within                                                 (2/?)

Author:              Max LoneWolf

Contact:            waynemania@hotmail.com

Category:          Adventure/Mystery/ Romance

Keywords:         H/Hr, 5th year, H/H, Harry

Rating:              General

Spoilers:           All four books

Summary:         Ever notice how Harry's wandless abilities are evoked with his strongest emotions? This is the beginning of a struggle…. and the increasing developments of a deep relationship. The struggle against the Dark Lord continues…

Disclaimer:        This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N                   To all the FFN readers. I would just like to say go back and reread the Harry Dream part. It has been changed a bit, but quite significantly also. Please go back to reread and review if you haven't!                                           PLEASE REVIEW!!!

                        Many thanks to NAPPA for all his help!

Harry Potter and the Magic Within

Chapter 2: A Stranger

            The sound of Aunt Petunia's screaming woke Harry up from his much-needed slumber and a nightmare half forgotten. Harry tried to grasp all the remaining memories that he had of the frightful dream that he had just received to no avail. The memory of the dream easily escaped through the clutches of Harry's mind.

'Whatever it was, it couldn't have been that bad since my scar didn't hurt.' Harry thought.

            "Harry!!! Harry! Harry Potter! Get down this instance and make Dudley Wuddly his breakfast so he doesn't die from starvation!" Aunt Petunia yelled, she then continued, "I wouldn't want the neighbours to think I was malnourishing my son!"    

            'That's if Dudley could actually go out the door' Harry thought. This year Dudley has been harder on Harry then ever, maybe it was because Dudley sensed sadness and depression in Harry's heart or maybe its because since Dudley can't go out the door due to his width, Harry is his number one prey. Not that he wasn't before but now Dudley had more time to practice his favourite hobby. Degrading Harry.

Dudley worked Harry endlessly at every meaningless chore, he ordered Harry to get him his drink, make brunch, afternoon snack number 1, snack number 2 and 3. Pre-Dinner, Dinner, Desserts, midnight snack, the list was endless. He also decided to make Harry move furniture around then move them back just to make Harry miserable. If Harry didn't comply, the same scenario would replay itself.

"Dad!!! Harry won't help me move my desk! He says that I never do any work and that I'm fat!" Dudley would then do a pathetic act of blubbering and whining. This made Aunt Petunia scowl at Harry and Uncle Vernon roar at Harry, his figure always menacing as if he were about to attack Harry. In the end Harry had no choice but to move Dudley's oak desk over and over again, his bed, every possible heavy furniture was moved at least 5 times and they always ended at their original spots since Aunt Petunia would just order Harry to move them back.

            One day while Dudley was watching television, seeing that Harry was nearby Dudley decided to knock over his coke on the carpet to get Harry to clean it up. As soon as Harry spotted the suspicious smile that Dudley had on his chubby face he knew something bad was about to happen. When Harry saw the hand moving toward the glass he immediately knew what Dudley was planning to do. Out of instinct and reflex Harry immediately pointed at the glass and whispered softly "Wingardium Leviosa!" and the glass flew safely into Harry's hands. Dudley stared with wide eyes as he looked at the glass, and then at Harry then backs several times. A look of fear crossed his face and he screamed "Freak! You can't use magic outside of your Freak school! You're going to get in trouble! Dad!!! Mum!!! Harry was using black magic!!!"

            "What is going on here son?" Uncle Vernon charged into the scene eyeing Harry in a very impolite manner.

            "Harry, he, he used black magic to lift the glass!"

            "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT USING MAGIC? NONE OF THAT FREAK HOCUS POKUS STUFF HERE YOU UNDERSTAND? STAY AWAY FROM US AND GO BACK TO THAT FREAK SOCIETY OF YOURS AND YOUR STUPID DEAD PARENTS!" Uncle Vernon spat in Harry's face. It proved not to be the right thing to say. For as soon as Harry's mind registered the words 'Stupid' 'Dead' and 'Parents' his mind stopped thinking and his heart took over. Harry's green eyes burned with rage and his fists clenched tightly, he drew himself to full height from his hunched figure and even though Harry grew a bit, he now looked tall and menacing. Harry could feel his emotions building up and ready to explode, the ground shook a bit, and the lights blinked on and off, chaos was coming.

            'No I can't do this, I'll get in trouble' Harry suddenly thought. Slowly, Harry let his anger subside, it took him a lot of effort but he kept thinking, 'soon I'll be going back to Hogwarts and I'll see Hermione and Ron once again…' and that helped him get over his emotions.

            "I'm going to my room." Harry said promptly and left before the Dursleys could say another word.

            The incident was unmentioned from then on but Harry could feel a higher sense of loathing, if it was possible. The two parties kept themselves as distant as possible but the Dursleys never failed to pounce on an opportunity to annoy Harry. On Friday when the muggle mail arrived, Uncle Vernon ordered Harry to get it. Harry got up and went to the door to fetch the letters but he could not help but notice at the top of the parcels of letters one that was sent for 'Harry Potter'. Harry quickly took it off from the elastic that bound the stack of letters and put it behind his back, slowly slipping it into his baggy pant's back pocket. However unfortunately for Harry, Dudley was watching him like a hawk, the perfect opportunity to get Harry in trouble once again presented itself to the dimwitted fat boy, it felt like Christmas to him.

            "Dad! Harry stole out mail! Its in his back pant pocket!" Dudley pointed out quickly to Uncle Vernon and before Harry could escape, Uncle Vernon quickly seized Harry by the arm painfully and turned him around.

            "So now you're a little thief aren't you? Stealing our mail? Taking advantage of our hospitality and generosity? Why I aught to whip you with my belt!"

Uncle Vernon quickly grabbed Harry's letter from his pocket.

"I'm not stealing! The letter was for ME!" Harry screamed to no avail, as the Dursleys did not believe that anyone would send anything to him through muggle mail.

"Why you little liar!" Aunt Petunia scowled at him, as Uncle Vernon was busy opening the mail and quickly scanning the letter.

"Who is this Hermione? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU YOU CANNOT CONTACT ANYONE! I DON'T WANT YOU CONTACTING THOSE FREAKS! I FORBID YOU TO CONTACT THIS – THIS – THIS HERMIONE – THIS LITTLE TART!" Uncle Vernon snarled once again spitting all over the place and his face turning a distinct purple colour. Obviously Uncle Vernon hasn't learned a lesson from before because this time Harry really couldn't stop himself if he wanted to. Harry later suspected it because of all the stress, the emotions that he had bottled up exploding with this as the spark, the trigger. In a matter of seconds, the emotions once again built up at an alarming pace, overwhelming Harry like a Tsunami, Harry once again drew himself in full height, his eyes once again burning, raging. When the mysterious power reached its climax and Harry felt like he was about to explode, the power released himself like an explosion, the Dursleys were thrown back a few feet and the letter that Uncle Vernon held levitated to Harry's hands as if he performed the 'Expelliarmus' spell. Harry quickly ran to his room and shut the door, within a few minutes his doorknob was being rattled as the Dursleys tried to force their way in, Uncle Vernon pounded at the door and used quite a few colourful words to coax Harry out, but the strange part was that Harry was not holding back the door physically or with magic, Harry sat on his bed with his letters and willed with his mind for the door to stay shut, and amazingly, it worked.

            After what seemed like hours of struggles, the Dursleys finally gave up and left Harry alone but not before Uncle Vernon yelled in anger through the door, "You'll have to come out sometime! Don't expect us to feed you anything until you have personally apologized to all of us especially dear Dudley!"

            Harry told himself that he would never do such a thing, however death by hunger was not an entirely appealing idea, the food he received from Mrs. Weasley and Hermione could only last for so long. Harry suddenly remembered the letter and his curiosity quickly made Harry open the letter to read its content.

Dear Harry,

            How are you doing? You know that Ron and I haven't been able to contact you since Dumbledore thought it might be intercepted my He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I really wish I could owl you more often. Well since your birthday is coming up, I wouldn't want you to have all the fun at the Dursleys so I was wondering if you wanted to stay at my house for a while? Ron's house would be too suspicious and the Ministry has put protection and circle charms all over my house so you'll be safe here.

            I hope you can come.

Love

Hermione

            Harry's morale immediately soared to new heights at the revelation from Hermione. Then Harry suddenly had a bad thought, what if Dumbledore said no? It was then Harry noticed there were still a few words at the bottom of the letter.

PS.       I already owled Dumbledore to make sure you can stay with us.

            'Thank you Hermione' Harry whispered to himself, it was impossible for Harry to contain his excitement. Harry wondered to himself about how he would get his response to Hermione as Harry couldn't send Hedwig since Dumbledore warned Harry and his friends that the owls could be intercepted.

            'This is a great emergency though, its okay, Hedwig won't be intercepted." Harry scrambled quickly to scribble a letter to Hermione.

Dear Hermione,

            I know Dumbledore told us not to use our owls but this was an emergency, there were no other ways for me to send my letter.

            Thank you for the invitation. I will gladly accept your invitation; I just hope I won't be too much of a problem for your parents. I really can't stand the Dursleys anymore.

            When are you coming? How am I going to get to your house? Have your heard from Ron?

Harry

            Harry opened Hedwig's cage and beckoned her towards him, he attached the letter to the snowy owl and with a nip on Harry's ear affectionately, and she spread her wings and took off through the window.

            To Harry's delight, Harry did not wait for a long time for Hermione's response for when Harry woke up the following morning he heard Hedwig's tapping on the window and quickly rushed over to let her in. Harry did not waste any time to take the letter from Hedwig and barely remembered to give the owl some treats.

            'Help yourself to the treats, you know where they are.' Harry told the owl as he was busy opening the parchment not noticing the silence of his pet or its paranoia.

Dear Harry,

            I'm glad you can come! You sure need a break! I could really use some help in studying for Potions since it's my worst subject and yours as well, maybe we could study together! And you'll finally have time to read this very interesting book that I want you to read. 'Don't tell me its Hogwarts: A History'

            Hogwarts: A History. It's a very interesting book and it has all the details on the rise and ….Harry quickly skipped the paragraph and went to the next and last paragraph.

            Anyways, I will come by Floo powder on Sunday at 8 o'clock so be ready by then!

            See you soon!

Love

Hermione.

            Harry was ecstatic, he was going to spend time with his best friend, he was going to be able to his work without having to hide under the covers and he was going to leave the Dursleys. Nothing could take away Harry's happiness, well Harry could think of a few things such as Voldemort showing up at his front door or Snape in a tub, but the probability of such events were not likely, unfortunately not impossible.

            Harry spent the rest of the day working on the essay assigned by Professor McGonagall. 'How are animal forms of an Animagi determined?'

            The determination of the animal form of a wizard is broken down in two parts.

The first part is to drink the Animagi Potion, more properly known as the Aeris Potion. (Named after the great alchemist Aeris the Animal who discovered the Aeris waves and the inventor of the Aeris Potion) The purpose of the potion is to intensify and amplify the Aeris waves (which are small undetectable waves emitted by wizards containing their animal characteristics) since it is very hard to detect the Aeris Wave Signature of a normal wizard's un-amplified waves.

The second part is the contact of the Heguba Stone to the part of the body where the Aeris waves are emitted at the highest frequency and intensity, which is near the heart. (Which would usually be on the chest) The purpose of the Heguba stone is to decipher the A.W.S. (Aeris Wave Signature) and project the animal form to the wizard, the projection usually last about 15 seconds.

The stone can only detect wizards with high Aeris wave emission, those with weak or moderate AWE hence only those wizards with high AWE actually have the possibility of performing the Animagi training and maybe even the full transformation.

            Harry bit on the end of the Eagle quill that Hermione gave him for his birthday, Harry suddenly thought how amazing it was that he still had the same quill whereas Ron went through more quills than homework last year. Harry then wondered, 'What animal would I become?' and 'Would I be able to become an Animagi?'

Harry then groaned as he realized he still had a while to go and still had to explain the Aeris Theory.

'Aeris sure had plenty of time,' Harry thought, 'of course, he didn't have a dark lord who wanted him dead since birth did he?' Harry remarked dryly.

            The evening came and went without Harry going to dinner, Harry hadn't joined the Dursleys in any of the meals since the incident and he didn't plan to. Harry depended on his rations from Ron and Hermione, Harry had already finished all the sweets and cakes from Ron and he was well into Hermione's sugar-free granola bars, however nothing could make Harry eat the Rock cakes from Hagrid, they served a better purpose, for at the moment they were used as a coaster for Harry's only glass, in desperate times he could throw it at enemies as Harry was sure the hard weapon would cause plenty of damage.

            The following day was also passed silently as Harry tried to catch up with the rest of the work assigned, however it proved extremely difficult for him to concentrate as Hermione's face kept popping up in his mind. Harry really couldn't wait to leave the Dursleys, he had already sent Hedwig off to the Grangers in the morning and Harry packed only what was needed which was barely anything. The day went by slowly for Harry but evening and Hermione's arrival approached and Harry suddenly thought, 'I haven't told the Dursleys'

            Harry went downstairs with his suitcase to find Uncle Vernon reading a newspaper near the fireplace.

            "Come down to finally apologize Potter?" Uncle Vernon smirked.

            "No, just telling you I'm leaving soon." Harry replied wiping the repulsive smirk off his Uncle's chubby face. Uncle Vernon seemed split on the idea, his brain was trying to determine if letting Harry go or making him stay was more profitable. If he let Harry go he wouldn't have to see that Freak but Harry would be happy then. If he made Harry stay Harry would be unhappy and he'd have to put up with more mischief.

            "Actually, I think I'll write to my godfather, I haven't contacted him in a while." Harry taunted, clearly enjoying the panic registered in Uncle Vernon's eyes.

            "Ok, you can go, just hurry and get out of here with the rest of you ..your kind." Uncle Vernon added with fear since the mention of Harry's criminal godfather was still fresh on his mind, Uncle Vernon then got off his rather large behind and left so that he would not have to face the kind of people he despised.

            Harry made sure the fireplace was open and the surrounding was clear for Hermione to arrive. Within minutes, Harry heard the sound of the Floo powder's transportation and in an instant, Hermione fell out from the fireplace into Harry's arms.

            "Hello there." Harry whispered in her ears as she was still recovering in his arms.

            "Hello Harry! How are you doing? Are you all ready to go?" Hermione said all in one breath as she pulled back slightly from Harry's chest.

            "I'm fine, now that you're here, lets leave right now please?" Harry asked.

            "Sure Harry, just say 'Crookshanks Cave' okay" Hermione smiled to Harry as she extracted herself out of Harry's arms and handed him some Floo powder.

            "Got it." Hermione then turned around to face the fireplace once more. It was at this moment that Harry noticed what she was wearing, a simple short sleeved yellow shirt with plaid knee length skirt, simple yet elegant.

            Before Hermione reached for the powder, she promptly turned around to face Harry, joy written all over her face, "I'm so happy to see you again!" she revealed.

            "Me too." Harry replied with a grin of his own.

            "Me three" a voice spoke through the fireplace, by instinct Harry grabbed Hermione and pulled her behind him so that he could protect her. Immediately after that, three figures appeared out from the fireplace one by one. Harry recognized two of them but he did not know the third. The short scrawny balding man was no other than the traitor Wormtail, the other man Harry recognized as Nott, but the third man Harry did not know. The man was tall and looked powerful and strong, Harry didn't realize he was staring at him until the strange man took a step forward and lowered his hood to reveal a face that would be etched in his mind for quite some time. The man's face was half disfigured, scars and burns made his right side completely inhuman, monstrous while his left side still had human characteristics.

            After taking a look at Harry, the man sneered and said in a cold voice.

"Hello Harry Potter," he spat the name in disgust, "my name is David Lestrange." And he smiled mischievously.

A/N:      Did you like it? Tell me what you think. Please REVIEW.

Reviewers:

Heaven- Thanks for reviewing! Thank you thank you!

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            a) My Reviews (Please Review)

b) My lazyness

c) Combination of luck, chance, Badminton Schedual and Real Life…

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