Chapter Two - Unlocked

Awakening early then next morning, before the first of the sun's rays had pierced the cloud covered horizon, Harry showered and noted as he exited the shower that he was way to thin, putting a mental note at the back of his mind to begin working out, Harry went down the stairs in to the kitchen. After fixing himself a quick breakfast of dry toast, he started upon The List Vernon had set out for him.

The List mostly consisted of yard work, which Harry didn't mind much, he was outdoors, with manual labor to distract him from the torments of every day life. His chore today was to build a terrace of sorts, The List had left a lot to his imagination as to what it should look like. As he moved heavy ornate rocks from the front yard to the back, Harry envisioned what it was to look like. He smiled and didn't even notice that he had already moved almost all the rocks, with renewed vigor he set about his task and had finished moving the rest of the rocks within ten minutes. Hunger hit Harry like one of the rocks he had just moved, but as he moved towards the kitchen door, he heard a ruckus in the front yard and went to investigate it.

Lo and behold, when he rounded the corner, Harry saw none other than his esteemed Potions Master, Severus Snape. At this point in time, Snape seemed to be getting into some kind of arguing match with Harry's Uncle Vernon.

"... will be coming with me, you man, have no say in the matter whatsoever," sneered Snape as Vernon's face turned a lovely shade of puce as he saw Harry enter their presence.

"What are you doing boy, get back there, you can't possibly be done yet." Uncle Vernon bellowed in Harry's direction, spittle flying everywhere.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yes I am Uncle dearest," he said sarcastically, "Sn...er...Professor, what can I do for you."

"Potter, I am here to take you to Hogwarts for the remainder of the summer holidays, your beloved Uncle wants to keep you here for some reason."

Vernon interjected, "He has not finished all of his work yet," At Snape's puzzled look Harry handed him The List and watched in satisfaction as Snape's eyes got wider and wider as he realized all Harry was made to do.

'I'd imagine his perception of me as the spoiled little prince will have changed significantly with this revelation.' Harry thought to himself, and silently laughed as he saw Snape sputtering, attempting to regain his composure.

"Potter, come here, we'll be leaving, do you have your things?" At the shake of Harry's head Snape nodded and intoned "Accio!" and all of Harry's things burst out of his room, taking the window and the entire side of the house with them. Harry thought, as he grabbed a hold of the rock they were using as a portkey, that he saw a small smile on Snape's face as the pale man watched the Fat One attempt to run after them as they disappeared in a whirl of color and a flash of light.

Harry stumbled as they landed, his descent to the ground only prevented by the swift reflexes of Severus Snape whose arm shot out like a serpent, latching onto the back of Harry's robes. An unspoken understanding passed between them before a booming voice called out,

"Oy, ther yeh are Arry, "Hagrid said,

"Ha, it's good to see you too Hagrid," said Harry and Hagrid beamed at him. After a few more remarks to catch up on things, Harry bid Hagrid farewell and began the trek up the grounds with Snape. After about five minutes Snape desperately broke the uncomfortable silence that had ensued.

"Potter, have your Aunt and Uncle always assigned you that much work over the holidays?"

Harry grinned inwardly but put on a seemingly nonchalant face, "Oh no sir...that workload is much lighter than usual considering how Moody threatened them at the end of last year." Snapes general facial expression didn't change but his eyes widened and Harry could tell that he was outraged but didn't want to show it.

"Well, erm, that's quite a bit of work," Snape seemed to run out of words and they finished the walk to the castle in silence. Snape took his leave in the entrance hall and walked away hurriedly in the direction of the dungeons.

Harry barely noticed his feet moving as he trudged up the 8 flights of stairs to Gryffindor tower. The first thing he wanted to do was write a return letter to Ginny, but before that even he was going to take a look at the book that Hermione had given him.

It looked like it had seen some better days, the letters in the title were peeling off, and the pages had been unceremoniously glued back into the binding. Harry could barely make out the title, "Magick", Harry wasn't sure what this could be about, but if Hermione had sent it to him, it must be important in some way, so he resolved to read it later.

His favorite place in the whole castle, the common room, even without all the normal people in it, held an air of familiarity. So many things happened in this room, all of which drastically helped shape Harry's experience at Hogwarts.

He made his way to the back of the room, the window that overlooked Hogwart's vast expanses of grounds, Hagrid's hut, and the Forbidden Forest. This was the window where Ginny always sat, with that thoughtful look on her face, eyes unseeing, mouth shut almost too tightly. It was a position she was in often, Harry didn't want to ask himself how he knew that particular fact. Taking out a piece of parchment and a quill, he let his thoughts wander.

Ginny had been there since he had made his first trip to Hogwarts, he remembered it as though it were yesterday, her feet pattering down the platform, chasing the train with him on it. He remembered her as a first year, nervous and frightened. The thing that stood out the most about her in Harry's mind however was his fifth year. Ginny had the choice of whether or not to follow Harry to the ministry, she did so with no hesitation, such unfaltering friendship almost brought tears to Harry's eyes. Harry looked down at his page, unaware that he had been writing while reminiscing.

Dear Ginny,

I was very excited upon receiving your letter and would also like to continue writing each other. The first thought that struck me while reading your letter is how much older you sound, the wisdom of your words moved me very much. Ginny, I'm scared, more so then I have been at any other point in my life. I feel like a huge burden has been placed on my shoulders I have no choice but to bear it to the end, his or mine. Dumbledore told me something at the end of last year, it's important, I can't tell you through post in case these letters are intercepted, I'm going to begin working on a more personal mode of communication tomorrow.

Yours Truly,

Harry.

'Wow' , Harry thought, 'I'm being more open with her than I am with Ron and Hermione.' This fact surprised Harry less and less the more he thought about it. Ginny was the only person he'd ever had that he could turn to unconditionally for sound advice and consoling .

Harry tried to think of what Ginny would look like when she opened his letter. Where she would be, probably out in the garden the first rays of summer sunshine creating a rosy halo over her gleaming hair. Harry shook his head firmly, he shouldn't be thinking that way about one of his better friends. It was time to get to work, Harry fixed his letter to Ginny onto the leg of his first friend in the world, Hedwig and watched as the snowy owl glided out the window and out of sight.

Harry made his way out of the common room dressed in some of Dudley's old sweats, Hermione's book tucked under his arm. Harry walked through the labyrinthine halls of Hogwarts, his destination the library. After arriving at the library Harry found himself standing in front of the roped off area that was the Restricted Section. 'Well,' Harry thought, 'Desperate times call for desperate measures, if Bumble-Fuck wants me to vanquish his dark lord then he is not going to have a say in how I do it.'

Harry boldly stepped over the rope separating the restricted Section from the rest of the library and found himself treading into new territory. Within what he had previously thought to be a single set of shelves Harry found the equivalent to an entire new library. With numerous desks in the middle of the room surrounded by at least 30 bookshelves, this area would prove exceptionally useful.

Going around just the first row of shelves Harry found that they did not have any apparent order or organization. 'Oh well I guess it'll just take a little longer, it won't change the outcome." Harry started pulling down books that he thought would be useful, and some that looked to interesting to pass up. Some of these titles included , "Aura Reading", "Magical Structure", "Most Potente Curses", "Battle Magic", "Magical Classes" and "Animagi, in Practice and Theory."

Some of these books Harry didn't think he'd read in depth, just take bits and pieces from here and there. Harry's goal for now was to absorb as much information as humanyly possible, perhaps along the way he'd find a way to make that goal easier to achieve.

He started with Aura Reading which looked fairly informative. For the next three hours, he learned about how anything even remotely magical had an aura and if one could see that aura, or even read it then they could tell a lot about that thing. Harry thought this would be useful in determining whether someone was trustworthy, the book also mentioned telling how powerful something or someone was. The book said that in order to read the aura of something magical one had to become accustomed to how magic looked smelled and even tasted, one had to know everything about how to recognize magic. To do this the book reccomended casting a single spell enough to know what it was without a second thought. Harry bypassed this and went straight to the practical section, how to actually do it. In order to read the aura of something you had to open your sixth sense, which was the one that sensed magic. You had to look deep into yourself and find it and unlock it. The book said that after achieving this unlocking you should probably start with something small like one's wand so as not to over load your senses on the first try. Something like a magical dwelling would rend the reader mindless if attempted on the first try, the book cautioned.

After finishing that practical section of the book Harry thought he was ready to try. He sat down on the floor and crossed his legs underneath him as the book instructed, breathing deeply

Harry shut his eyes. Blackness, nothing but the insides of his eyelids. Harry delved deeper, imagining that he was looking toward the center of his body. He traveled forward and a blazing white sphere came into view. This sphere reeked of power, wild, undirected magic. Something drew Harry toward this brilliant ball but an even stronger compulsion told him not to go near it. Harry went around the shining orb and deeper into the recesses of his consciousness. Coming to a small door he opened it and upon entering saw the oddest thing. At the center of this very plain room Harry saw what he was pretty sure was a muggle television set with six sides. This box had pictures on each side depicting Harry doing different things such as smelling eating, and touching various objects. 'This must be where the information for my senses is stored,' thought Harry. One side of the television was covered with what appeared to be a black shadow, Harry tentatively reached out to touch the shadow. It was cold to the touch but curiously palpable, Harry grabbed a handful of the stuff and ripped it off. At this seemingly simple action, Harry's world exploded.

He was torn from inside his consciousness and violently thrown into his body. Upon reentering his body he took a second to collect himself and after making sure that everything was ok proceeded to open his eyes...big mistake. Harry's mind began to burn as it attempted to process all that it was being sent by Harry's senses, or rather the new one that he had unlocked. Looking around the library, Harry "saw" a multitude of colors, surrounding everything but Harry wasn't focused on the colors, just making this burning stop, in an attempt to stop the burning in his mind ,Harry focused on tuning to colors out, getting them out of his head. Something stirred within Harry and instead of the colors going away, all of them began to slowly "flow" off of the objects that they were surrounding and into Harry. Harry screamed as an immense pain filled his chest and promptly passed out as his nerves overloaded.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office sanguinely sucking on a lemon drop as one of his many sensors alerted him to a problem. In response, the old man tapped his wand to his desk and out of its wooden surface rose a map, not unlike the Marauders map in that it showed everyone in the castle but it also showed magical movement. The map was streaked with different colors, unmoving except for in one spot, the library. All the colors were running slowly toward a spot in the restricted section, a spot devoid of color. Dumbledore was fascinated by this and immediately hastened to library to investigate.

Harry was in hell, his muscles seemed to each have been subjected to separate Cruciatus curses, he felt as if he were on fire, and the abruptly, it stopped. Harry opened eyes he hadn't even realized were closed and looked up from his position on the floor. He seemed to be covered by a sort of translucent purple dome. Albus Dumbledore's serene face peeked over the edge of his peripheral vision. 'Fuck, I did not want to have to deal with you right now.' thought Harry.

"Well Harry, been digging in the restricted section I see," the old man said calmly, picking up "Aura Reading" from the table where Harry had sat.

"Not that it is any of your business sir, but yes I have been." Harry said cooly, stressing the "sir" just enough to be disrespectful. Dumbledore's eyes flashed momentarily angryu, but then returned to serene.

"I see, can you describe to me what you did, before you felt the pain you were so obviously feeling before I arrived." Harry grudgingly explained the incident, feeling that it was wise to, in order to get Dumbledore to help him. "I see," Dumbledore said thoughtfully after Harry had finished, "very interesting, you appear to have, excuse the muggle term, rewired your magical core, so that instead of magic passing through it and into your wand, it has begun to absorb magic. This is a very interesting prospect. The shield I have erected is preventing magic from entering it and thus, entering your body. Harry, you must consciously control the flow of magic into your core, force it back to the way it was."

"Yes, an interesting prospect indeed," thought Harry, he continued his train of thought, "Let me see if I understand this correctly, our bodies slowly absorb magic until our cores can no longer hold any more, then we direct that magic using our will and our wand. So our wands absorb the magic from us, what if I could utilize myself as a wand of sorts, and absorb magic that way. This is going to be a one chance kind of thing, if I end up not being able to do this, after the old man removes the shield the magic will come flooding back in and I'll not be able to stop it."

"Ok I'm ready, let down the shield." Harry braced himself as the purple dome receded and the colors assaulted him again, this time however, he welcomed them, he invited them into himself and concentrated on expanding his core, that orb where the magic was quickly flowing, he concentrated and it grew, it double, tripled, then quadrupled in size. Harry felt amazing, magic was flooding his body, hyper awakening each and every nerve. Harry again opened his eyes and Dumbledore shrank back, they were no longer the cool emerald green they had been, they were a raging writing sea of electric green color. For the first time in his entire time at Hogwarts, Harry thought he saw Dumbledore gulp in apprehension.

Dumbledore gulped, Harry's eyes were glowing, so brilliantly that Dumbledore mused that they might be able to light up a dark room, but now was not the time for such musings. The boy had done what he had been afraid of, had conciously absorbed the magic and was now in control of it, Dumbledore was not un-aware of Harry's animosity towards him, and he did not think that even he could stop the boy now.

The power was now flowing off of Harry in waves as he studied Dumbledore. "I'm sure you are aware, old man, that I am not altogether happy with the way you have manipulated me, the way you have treated me as a weapon, an asset to be protected, but not nourished. I was not allowed a childhood thanks to you. I now take my leave, from you, and from this school, I will kill Voldemort, as it has been ordained, but I will do it as I see fit, wage war against him as I see fit. Not under your direction, if you choose to attempt to stop me, then so be it. Harry turned his back on Dumbledore only to feel a ripple of magic accompanied with the word Expelliarmus! Harry almost laughed, 'Bad idea old man.' Turning around, hand outstretched, Harry stared at the oncoming orb of magic, concentrating, Harry reached out, using magic he had just absorbed, Harry consciously reached out with it. Tendrils of white energy extended from Harry's palms, latched onto Dumbledore's spell, and slowly brought it to Harry. To say the least, Dumbledore was surprised, never had he witnessed such a display of raw power, nor had one of his spells so nonchalantly looked upon. Harry chuckled, "As I said, a very bad idea old man." Holding the spell in his hand, Harry manipulated its structure, and it shrunk slowly dissipating in his hand. Once it was the size of a marble, Harry concentrated on the raw amount of magic within it, he doubled it, and acted as though blowing Dumbledore a puff of air. The marble floated through the air slowly at dumbledore, and then proceeded to hit him with the force of a steamroller, he had not thought that Harry would be able to do that, the old man's last thoughts before hitting the wall with force enough to crack the stone behind him was, 'The boy will never cease to amaze me.' Then his world went black.

Harry turned from Dumbledore's limp form, and concentrated on the wards surrounding Hogwarts, mentally tearing a hole in the anti-apparition barrier, Harry concentrated on Diagon Alley, there were a few things he'd need now, the first one was money, and there was only one place to get that. Not really knowing how to apparate, Harry just did what he though it entailed, he focused on not being in Hogwarts anymore and instead on being in front of Gringotts, then he unleashed a small amount of stored magic and willed it to take him there. A second later, Harry Potter ceased to be in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, leaving behind him an unconscious Albus Dumbledore and a cracked library wall.