Chapter 1
"Boy! Get down here NOW!" The high-pitched, shrill voice of Aunt Petunia practically roared from downstairs.
Harry Potter sat silent in his room, only the scratching of his quill on the parchment scroll in front of him disturbing the peace and quite that reigned after his aunt's cry had died down.
The late afternoon light streamed in through the window behind him, falling lightly on his back, making the deep inner light of his eyes all the more apparent.
No worry could be seen on his face as he lazily scribbled the last words of his 7 feet long Transfiguration essay, though those who knew him well would have been able to see the deep pain and grief that lay well hidden beneath the surface.
He knew that the Dursley's wouldn't be able to punish him for taking a while to finish up just as well as they did.
There were guards. At the moment only one of them, but that was a rare occurrence.
He rolled up the essay in advanced fifth year Transfiguration and placed it beside the ones from the other subjects. He had finished his assigned homework on the first week of summer and had then proceeded to read endlessly, burying himself in the books from his previous years (carefully avoiding the books written by Gilderoy Lockhart), doing a kind of re-schooling of himself, learning everything anew. After finishing them, at the end of week two, he compiled all of his newfound knowledge into advanced essays in each subject. The essays were purely for his own satisfaction at the moment; if he were to send them in to his respective teachers at Hogwarts they would know something was wrong.
The strange thing wasn't even that he, who usually took quite a lot of time doing his homework and only read a little bit quicker than his friend, the homework-inept Ron, had read all this in less than a week, but that he remembered it.
Somehow he seemed to have memorized everything after just reading them through once, though he usually would have needed at least three times to remember it, and even then his memory would have lacked the detail with which he could now memorize.
He figured it was just a fortunate side-effect of wizarding puberty or something, as he had been growing stronger these past two weeks as well, even though the change wasn't huge. Maybe the puberty had caused his magic to help him along the way a little, what with the freakishly good memory he'd so suddenly acquired. He knew this couldn't be the whole truth though, he wasn't stupid. He hadn't exactly been the most tedious student of all time these last few years but now he found that he actually wanted to study. He'd wanted to improve before, yes, but not study.
It was likely that this was also what had caused his Legilimency ability to develop. He'd read a chapter on the subject in his fifth year magical theory book, where it was used as an example for so called "mind magic", which basically meant wandless magic, and then he had begun doing the exercises the book described while going about his daily routines. His mind-gift had then continued to grow at a surprisingly high pace the last few days until not even his guards were able to shield themselves from him sensing their presence.
Not that they knew of his Legilimency, mind you; he'd been very discreet while his power developed, so as to not alarm anyone, but it was obvious why they would want to shield people from sensing their presence. There could be an attack at any moment, even though the blood magic was supposedly preventing such an occurrence, and they were supposed to be hidden guards. The keyword being 'hidden'. He wasn't supposed to know where they were and neither was a would-be attacker.
It wasn't as if he was able to read their minds anyway, see their memories and stuff like that, just sense their presence and immediate intentions. He wouldn't even qualify as an intermediate Legimens at his current level, but his extra-sensory ability was definitely unusually strong from what he could derive of the text.
Still not in much of a hurry, Harry slowly made his way out of his room and down the stairs, registering the presence filing in behind him from where it had stood hidden behind the door to Dudley's room. It was not a very pleasant one.
As he stepped down into the hallway a punch flew at him from behind, heading directly at the back of his head and, he could tell, intending to wound seriously.
Sidestepping it, Harry whirled around and elbowed Piers in the back, just hard enough for him to lose his balance and fall a face-first into the floor with a loud thump.
Piers Polkiss; Dudley's busy little helper. With not much real strength himself he's the one to sneak up on people to hold their arms behind their backs while Dudley and the rest of the gang take turns punching. So pathetic.
"If you're going to sneak up on me, can't you at least do it properly Piersey-boy?" Harry taunted, a small smirk working its way onto his face as he watched his opponent trying to stand up but not quite succeeding due to a foot pressing down on his back.
"Shut your mouth, Potter." Piers hissed venomously. "I'll get you for this!"
"Sure you will, Piers. Just remember this the next time you think of trying to hit me from behind, won't you?" Harry replied, chuckling slightly, before relieving the pressure from Piers back and walking away.
"Screw you, Potter… If you think I'll be alone next time you've got another one coming…" Piers muttered before calling goodbye to the Dursley's and leaving.
Even in his current rather unfit state Harry could have caused some serious damage to Piers, as he knew what he was going to do almost before Piers himself did, but had decided not to. He knew that Piers would not have spared him had the tables been turned, but felt it would be wrong to harm him unless he really had to. Well, harm him severely at least.
'
"What took you so long, boy?" Vernon asked as he stepped into the kitchen.
"I was finishing up on an essay, Uncle Vernon." Harry replied, his voice steady and his face the epitome of calm. "And I believe that was Piers tripping in the stairs."
Vernon's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"You better not have done anything unnatural, you little-" Vernon began, whispering threateningly, but was cut short.
"Or you'll do what, uncle dear?" Harry mocked him, his voice so thick with sarcasm that he could almost match Snape. "Get upset? Because we couldn't have that, now could we? But to still your worries, no, I did not do anything unnatural." He pronounced the last word with feigned disgust.
Shock and a faint, almost nonexistent, hint of fear was evident on each of the Dursleys' faces.
Harry was extremely aware of this fact as he sat down at the table, filling his plate fully with food, yet another insult to their so-called authority. He smiled silently to himself. They wouldn't do anything about it.
After a few seconds Aunt Petunia once again started nervously sipping her post-dinner cup of tea and the ever-eating Dudley excused himself from the table, even though there was still food on his plate. Vernon just sat there, trying to suppress his rage in fear of doing something that he'd regret.
The Dursley's feared him, for his magic and the magic of everyone else of his kind. They always had, he knew that now, that's why they always treated him like dirt and only fed him enough to survive.
'
"I'm going out for a while" Harry stated in the general direction of his aunt and uncle as he headed for the door, after finishing his meal. He was acknowledged only by an absentminded grunt from Uncle Vernon.
Earlier in the week Harry had decided he would start working out as an addition to his studying. It would be good preparation for whatever the future held for him, for no matter what that might be, he thought, it was bound to be tougher than anything he'd ever been faced with before.
He was going to go see if the local gym was open in the evenings.
As he left the garden he knew that his current babysitter was following him closely, and he knew why. He hadn't left the house much these past weeks, so him doing so was considered an oddity and was, as such, treated with caution.
It was a cool evening considering the time of year, not unpleasant but rather a nice break from the heat that plagued the area during the day. There were more people than usual walking the streets on Little Whining. He decided to start his workout early. Scaring the shit out of the guard on duty would be a welcome by-product.
Without warning he set off at a fast sprint down the street, towards the park, dodging people as he went. He had left the guard a fair bit behind, but whoever it was the person in question was once again catching up to him.
He's fast. Harry thought. But if there was one thing Harry had going for him physically, it was speed. He accelerated, and jumped clear over a hedge, behind which he knew there was a picket fence. A skilled pursuer would notice this as well. His guard did not and instead stumbled forwards on the fence having barely made it over the hedge. He landed with a thud.
Harry took another few steps and swung himself up in one of the nearby trees. Then he waited. The guard had not yet noticed where he'd gone off to.
Probably right terrified by now.
As the guard passed beneath him, Harry silently dropped down behind him.
The crack of a twig. The guard heard it and spun around, casting a stunner at Harry still mid-movement. Harry had seen this coming though. To the guard he seemed to move with unreal speed, but in truth he was aided greatly by being able to foresee what the guard would do.
The sweeping kick hit the guard from out of nowhere. It was as if Harry had countered even before he attacked. But no one could be that quick. Right? His legs where knocked out from under him and again he hit the ground with a thud.
Standing up from the kick, Harry picked up the wand from the ground and pointed it at the guard. "Aperio"He whispered quietly, cancelling the Obscuro charm that had been put on the guard.
Guess it wasn't a he, then, after all, Harry thought.
"Wotcher, Tonks!" He said, grinning widely.
End Chapter
A/N: This is the first draft of my first attempt at fan fiction. I wouldn't dream to ask you to take it easy with the criticism just because of that though, but I do prefer constructive criticism. Please tell me what you think, make suggestions, report mistakes, OOCness and such. If I continue it I will probably lengthen this chapter to include his visit to the gym. By pure coincidence I'm thinking Dudley probably works out there too. Hmm...