I dont own anything you recognise, writing this story for a summer challenge of which you can find the details at Huge thanks to my Beta and i hope you enjoy.
As a car pulled in number 4 Privet Drive the neighbours all had a look around there curtains to see the wayward nephew of the Dursleys come home from another year at the centre for criminal boys where he spent most of the year. As usual the boy was left to take in his large trunk by himself, although they noticed he didn't have nearly as much trouble as usual with this, in fact he would looked positively healthy if it wasn't for his downtrodden image and haunted eyes.
Mrs Wallace had been a neighbour of the Dursleys for many years; she even remembered them moving in, a nice enough couple, Petunia heavily pregnant at the time and Vernon in the process of growing a moustache. Many a time she had tea with Petunia over the years, and still to this day, she never could understand why the young nephew, Harry, was at a centre for criminal boys, he always seemed like a polite enough young man.
Mrs Wallace was cut off from her musing when the boy locked eyes with hers, her own eyes widened at the swirl of emotions that lived within those eyes and she saw that this was not the young boy down on his luck that he once was but rather a young man determined to right a wrong.
Harry himself had the whole car journey from Kings Cross Station to evaluate his life so far; it sped past him like a movie. He saw the good and the bad, memories he never knew he had and other he wished to forget but deep down knew had shaped him to be the person he was today. Slowly over the journey his eyes lost most of the anger and pain instead gaining a resolve and determination to do what he must.
Harry nodded to Mrs Wallace, she was always nice enough to him, and lifted his trunk into the house before heading upstairs and laying at the end of his bed. 'New sheets' he mused as he set his trunk down, once he looked around he saw this was the only change and on closer inspection were very much worn, just newer than his old set. He didn't care really; he wouldn't be here for long as it was, come his birthday he was out.
Harry slowly walked back downstairs for dinner, he had been told in the car it would be ready soon after they got home, and sat himself at the table. It was a quiet affair, Dudley still being at Smeltings for some summer courses and to train for his boxing. He again used this time to think, he came to the conclusion that he needn't mourn the people lost so far to the war, he either didn't really know them like Cedric and to a point Sirius, although he felt the mourning for him came more from the idea of a family and less the loss of a man he hardly knew.
Dumbledore he felt was a loss more to the light side and the hope of a nation more than his own. During the year he had found himself doubting the old man's choices more and more, ever since he told him the prophecy in fact. He was a manipulator, a puppeteer of the people; he didn't hate him for this, if Harry lived to be his age he was sure he would think he knew better than most too. Harry tapped his pocket once more, feeling the letter and package McGonagall had gifted him after Dumbledore's funeral, apparently left to Harry in his will.
Harry dropped down onto his bed; the meal had been tense yet oddly at peace, 'much like the meal after a funeral' he thought ironically. He decided that he might as well open the letter now he had some privacy. Harry dug the letter and package, which was around the size of a deck of cards, out of pocket and sat at his table. Ripping open the letter he began to read the letter that would change his summer and eventually his life.
Dear Harry,
I know that I have made many mistakes in my decision towards you and your life, I realise looking back as I write this I made many a wrong decision and hope you can forgive me sometime in the future, I truly did believe everything I did was for the best.
With my apology out of the way I move onto the main reason I wrote this letter and the reason you should now have a package in your possession, if not speak to professor McGonagall and she should be able to give it too you. In side the package are books which I wish for you to learn, they are a variety some of which I hoped never to have to pass onto any student of mine, alas that time has come anyway.
Read the books and practise the spells for someday they may save your life, as well as aid you in what is now your quest to find and destroy Voldemort's horcrux's. I trust in you enough to know you will not fail or run from this mission unless you are dead with many Death Eater's lying around you and this gives me hope for the future.
Another topic is your magical power, you are an incredibly strong wizard Harry, you know this deep down, and also a smart one when the need arises, and hopefully you will see the need has arisen now that you must concentrate on studying the arts the books hope to teach.
The magical blocks placed upon yourself by yours parents and also myself will dissolve on your seventeenth birthday, most magical children have these blocks placed upon them to protect from severe accidental magic as toddlers however yours are stronger than even those my parents were forced to place upon myself.
Destroy Voldemort Harry but do not lead him to suffer, he is still a human under the ritual induced madness he has become and nobody deserves to suffer. Please take this as our final lesson.
AlbusPercival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
As soon as he finished reading the letter the package, currently sitting beside said letter on the desk, began to expand in all three dimensions and only Harry's quick thinking in moving it to the floor saved the desk from being reduced to splinters. Once it finished expanding Harry was left with what looked suspiciously like a wardroom. Upon opening the newly expanded 'trunk' he found seven shelves six of which were stacked with books probably totaling one hundred in all. Some of books looked more like journals while others like they would fall apart the moment he touched them.
On the top shelve there were however no books, instead there were items Harry had seen in Dumbledore's office the last time had been there. Some of these were still spinning and puffing smoke and all of them had a note or letter explaining which each of them did. Godric Gryffindor's sword was also there along with the diary he destroyed in his second year and the ring Dumbledore had procured before the start of his sixth year.
Having decided that enough was enough for one day he headed off to bed in the hopes that things would be clearer tomorrow, but not having much hope that his dream would become a reality this time, much like the rest he mused as sleep overtook him.
Harry was awoken the next morning by the sounds of squawking owls, quite obviously having a fight over something. Cracking an eye open he saw that there were two owls in his room, one carry what looked to be quite official and the other carry a normal letter. He also noticed that Hedwig was looking quite amused with goings on from her cage but was in no hurry to split them up. Quickly glancing at the clock to see it coming up to nine o'clock he decided to get up and settle the argument.
Once he had wrestled the owls in giving him his letters he sat down once more at his desk, only giving his new furniture a quick glance and deciding it was next after the letters and dressing this morning. After a quick shower and change he ripped open the more official looking envelope first, finding an invitation to Bill and Fleur's wedding. While interesting he still wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to go, it would lead to a lot of questions and as much as Ron and Hermione had said at the funeral he still really didn't want them to come with him. The other letter that morning however was incredibly interesting.
Dear Harry,
My name is William Ollivander and I am the only son of the man who sold your wand, I am also the man to take over the business since his rather unfortunate end. In my fathers notes he made special mention that your wand would need some adjustments come your seventeenth birthday. Apparently the core was almost perfect for you however the feather needs to be sat in a different liquid and encased in another wood for it to become a perfect match for you.
If you would pop into my father's old shop (now mine) I would be happy to do this for you.
William Ollivander
Harry was a bit flabbergasted at this, mostly because Ollivander was such a good wand maker he spotted even the smallest differences and knew that he would need the changes and apparently what they were from the sound of the letter. A trip to Diagon alley looked to be in order soon anyway; this just gave him an extra reason to do so.
Harry spend the rest of the morning going through his new library finding out many important features including how to shrink it and that Dumbledore had included a list of the books to read first. Once Harry has removed the spinning devices from there shelve and set them up properly, they were never done like this in his office, causing too much suspicion if indeed he were to have a visitor such as Minister Fudge, he found a map of Europe appear with 5 locations highlighted in blue, these were roughly 25 miles in diameter but gave a rough location of Voldemort's horcrux's. Harry also noted that the area in Britain where they had gone to the cave was still blue, thus there must still be one nearby there.
Deciding he would have his trip to Diagon alley tomorrow he picked up the first book on Dumbledore's list, a book on Occlumency, and began to read. Harry was soon deeply engrossed in the book finding the actual theory of the subject fascinating. Occlumency was much more than a simple way to stop people using Legilimency but rather a advanced magical technique used to help with spell casting/learning, wordless magic's and wandless magic. Spell casting and learning along with wordless magic were all helped by instead of saying the spell it was visualized with in the mind causing a direct link to the wand firing the spell. Wandless was totally different however, the basic fact being it couldn't be used to fire spells but rather to cause the affects to happen upon ones self, an advanced technique Harry recognized was Dumbledore's ability to turn himself invisible.
After Harry had finished the book in around two hours he headed down for something to eat, after making a sandwich and getting a can of Pepsi from the fridge he packed everything away and headed outside to the back garden where he sat in the sun and started the initial process of his Occlumency training.
The trick was first to find which element you were most in-tune with, Harry was surprised to find his was Thunder. Dumbledore had mentioned that his was fire and Voldemort's was Earth, although how he knew this Harry wasn't sure. Harry then created a landscape using his element in his mind, a thunder storm, and began adding clouds around his 'core' of thoughts. Each cloud was created for a certain type of emotion, spell type or anything he could think of at the time. Once he was complete he concentrated of making his memories and knowledge float to the respective clouds.
Intense pain suddenly hit Harry as lightening bolts fired down to his 'core' and started absorbing his core into the clouds, with each thought, memory or piece of knowledge that was absorbed the clouds grew until he could not see where his core once was, instead all around him was a raging thunderstorm with lightening flashing between clouds trading knowledge and separating it to the right cloud. Harry also noticed in his pain induced haze of memory that some clouds were splitting and moving into the denser parts of the cloud formation, becoming more protected and well hidden. This was his last thought as he passed out from the pain.
Harry awoke later that day to his Uncle poking him in the head with his foot, opening his eyes and looking up Vernon soon backed off.
"So your not dead then, pity" Vernon said to him as Harry raised to his feet. "Dinner is on the table, been shouting for ages Petunia has, we thought you might have committed suicide or something similar"
"No such luck uncle, I'm still alive and kicking for now" Harry replied cheerfully. A quick check once in the kitchen found Harry gasping that it was seven o'clock, he had been out the for six hours. Harry scoffed down his meal, hearing muttered insults about no manners, then excused himself and sprinted up to his room. Harry submerged himself once more into his mind to find it much larger than it had been, the process had obviously finished and once he thought about it he could remember spells and everything else clearer now. This looked to be a god send.
Harry decided to explore his new mind format for a while and came across an interesting sight, his magical core. On first glance it looked like a ball of pulsing yellow light, under closer inspection he found that it was in-fact a ball of lightening sparking and crackling like nothing Harry had ever seen before, it was truly beautiful. Harry went as close as he could to the core only to fins that a lot of it was wrapped in fire ropes and thick vines. He was puzzled but pulled out of his mind for the moment, deciding that he had a lot of books to read through.
A quick check of the list and Harry found the next ten books were on magical theory, with a note beside them saying that he dare not miss these out as he could not use magic till his birthday anyway and these would help tremendously. Sitting down for a long night Harry began to read, and read he did.
Harry awoke early the next morning; he had stayed up late last night but was finding a lot of things much easier these days. He had actually come across what he thought was the answer in the book he had almost managed to finish that night. Apparently nearing the wizard or witches seventeenth birthday there magic would be at a huge excess of magic which would charge the body; often if a wizard or witch was powerful enough this would continue for life.
Dumbledore had left a note beside this part of the book, along with many others, they were all helpful little knickknacks which usually helped Harry along with the topic. Dumbledore himself found that he would only need to sleep about once a week and suggested that Harry would be the same after his birthday and probably less for the first few months. After his initial Occlumency breakthrough he also found his reading speed and comprehension had increased a lot, he still needed to build his proficiency at the art however he had made a good start, if a little painful, and had spent half an hour last night to start the process. He would probably have to do this everyday for the rest of his life but it was worth it for a safe mind.
Deciding that he would rather just get breakfast at Diagon Alley he set off around half past eight, it would take a couple of hours to get there and he wanted to get all his jobs done before the midday rush. Harry knew he was taking a risk in going to the Alley but what was the point in fighting for everyone else lives if he didn't have one of his own.
Upon leaving the house he noticed a slight shimmer beside the tree in the front garden, Harry began to stare at the spot knowing it would be someone under an invisibility cloak but having no idea who it was. Moments later Kingsley Shacklebolt emerged from under the cloak, looking rather miffed with himself that he had been caught, but also rather surprised by the person who had been caught by.
"Morning Harry, nice spot there, I don't suppose you would mind not telling Moody about this?" The tall Auror asked with a grin. 'Excellent' Harry mused, starting to grin himself, he could defiantly use this to his advantage, and a guard being with him at Diagon would be nice.
"Certainly not Kingsley, as long as you wouldn't mind escorting me to Diagon Alley for some messages I need to pick up" Harry replied. Shacklebolt looked distinctly uncomfortable with this, obviously having orders to the contrary.
His pride won out in the end and they were soon winging there way to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry told Kingsley he only really needed to go to three places; Gringott's, Ollivander's and Madam Malakins. Harry had decided to get a few robes and other clothes since he would be travelling all over Europe in an effort to find and destroy the Horcrux's and he really was sick of Dudley's hand downs.
Once Harry got to the Alley he quickly made his way through the crowd, his guard closely behind him, to his first destination of Gringott's. Upon entry he walked up to an open teller and handed over his key to which he was handed off to another goblin to be taken to his vault in the cart. The ride was uneventful and Harry was once more in the sunlight of Diagon his pockets slightly weightier although the money bag did have a rather nice feather light charm.
Deciding that Ollivander was the most important stop of the day and that clothes could be bought in the muggle world if anything went to pot they headed off to the shop he first collected his wand, fingering it slightly and feeling nervous for the first time. His wand had been like a mate for six years, did he really just want to throw that away, then again it was more like trading in for a newer model, and with that he entered the dingy shop to find a much younger man sitting behind the desk whistling a tuneless number.
He looked surprising like the old man; then again he was his son so Harry let it go and coughed loudly to get his attention. William, as Harry knew to call him, broadly poked his head round the side of his magazine, almost hitting the roof when he saw who it was.
"Sorry Mr Potter, been a rather quiet day you see, with the announced return of Voldemort and all" He said grinning sheepishly. "Now then I do believe we need to make adjustments to your wand? Yes?" It was obvious to Harry that he was getting quite excited. Never the less Harry handed over his wand to the wand maker with a glance at Kingsley who nodded to say that yes this was William Ollivander and that he was trustworthy, obviously having been checked out by the ministry when he tried to reopen the wand shop. William then pulled out his own wand and ran it from the tip to the base of Harry's wand splitting it in two and allowing him to remove the feather which he quickly put in a jar. He then led Harry through the back of the shop while Shacklebolt waited through the front saying he would tell anyone who came in he was busy and would be along in a moment.
"Now Mr Potter I am afraid you will have to go without a wand for a couple of weeks while I craft your new wand, will this be much of a problem?" He really didn't like the idea of being without a weapon for any amount of time but this needed to be done, he would maybe ask Kingsley to add an extra guard for the two weeks just to be sure. Nodding his consent he followed the wand maker's direction and stood before what looked like cupboard. William quickly entered with the feather coming out moments later without it.
"Inside this room is the wand making supplies that my family has gathered over the years from wood to stone casings and any number of cores from around the world, when you go in close your eyes and you should feel a pull towards the feather you have used for the past half dozen years" William was explaining with wild hand gestures and Harry had to duck a couple of times just to not get hit. "once you find this pull pick up the jar and hold it in front of you, this will cause you too feel up to three possibly four pulls pick the two strongest and retrieve the jars for them as well then return to the door"
Nervously Harry walked up to the door, replaying the instructions he had been given over in his head time and again. Taking a deep breath he pulled open the door and walked in hearing it close behind him. Moving to the centre of the shelved space he closed his eyes, immediately feeling a pull almost directly to his right, skimming his hand along the jars he got a jolt from one as his hand passed over it signalling that this was the one. Harry picked up the jar and held it in front of him as instructed. Two pulls immediately hit Harry and it made him feel slightly queasy in there intensity. The other two jars were totally dissimilar to the first; one was about a metre long yet only about ten centimetres in diameter where the other was a tiny jar, just about fitting in the palm of his hand. Once he had retrieved these he quickly exited going to find William.
Upon exiting the shop William took the three jars off of him and laid them on the table, he quickly looked over them before looking at Harry and starting to give his explanation.
"Phoenix feather suspended in basilisk venom in a casing of wizened oak, quite the combination mister Potter, both light and dark in a completely neutral casing, I see now why my father expected great things from you. Now if you would please place your wand hand on this piece of parchment?" William showed him a blue piece of what looked to be blank parchment but when Harry placed his hand upon it a flash echoed around the room and on the paper was a drawing of the shape, length and overall design of a wand. William then took the materials plus the paper and shooed Harry back through the front, while insisting that no payment be given as the wand had been paid for once before. As Harry looked back he saw William start to remove the block of wood from its jar, obviously about to start the two week process.
The rest of the time spend in Diagon alley involved getting some clothing, Madam Malakin was very helpful and Harry was assured that they would be delivered to his home address as soon as possible and with that they left, the time being just before half eleven.
After explaining his dilemma about having no wand to Kingsley, and was told under no circumstance to tell Moody or he would kill him, he lent him one of his spare wands, being a auror he had more than one and would rather that Harry had something to defend himself with even if it didn't work as well as it should.
Harry arrived back at Privet drive by one o'clock and with a thank you to Shacklebolt, who was just in time for the guard change, he headed inside to see the Dursleys all sitting down for some lunch, he decided to join them and all in all had a great lunch. On his way up the stairs afterwards he couldn't help but feel that once his true wand was back in his hand the start of the rest of his life would truly begin.