Author's Note:

Thanks for all the reviews guys. I still was not expecting them. And sorry for the delay as well! I had difficulty with this one, as you'll find out.

Chapter 3: Strange Workings

The next day Harry felt a sharp nibbling sensation on his earlobe. At first he tried to brush it away with his hand, but the source of the nibbling pecked at his fingers sharply and gave a cry, or moreover, a hoot, of indignation. 'Hedwig?' Harry wondered, beginning to open his eyes, but he quickly clamp them shut. Rubbing his eyes furiously Harry wondered why they stung and itched so much, having never felt such feeling in his eyes before. Then his thoughts turned to questioning why he was on the floor and why his body ached so much. He pushed himself off the floor ignoring the furry in all his muscles and stumbled towards the right. He reached out with his arms to prevent himself from walking into anything and soon came into contact with his bed.

'Well, I am in my room,' Harry concluded, 'What the hell happened? Wait, what day is it today? Ah! My head!'

Rubbing his temples, he continued stumbling around in his room and made his way to his desk. He reached out and grasped his calendar and ran his fingers over it.

'The 26th? That would mean Christmas was yesterday? What the hell? Blast! Must've gotten real wasted last night. Strange, Mum and Dad would never allow me to get drunk, and I'm not too particularly fond of alcohol so I wouldn't initiate it. Could it be that memory charm I read about a few weeks ago? But who would do such a thing, or even why? Plus, I don't think a memory charm would make the body ache so much.'

Bringing himself out of his musings Harry made his way out of his room and into the washroom. While the tub filled with hot water he brushed his teeth and tried to wash his eyes with cold water in attempt to stop the stinging feeling in his eyes. It was then that he felt brittle dried blood, crusted onto his cheeks. He frantically rubbed them off his cheeks with soap and moved to lay in the bath tub to relieve some of his aching muscles and ponder over the developing predicament:

'This is getting stranger and stranger. Did I cry? Well from the blood it would be obvious. But why had it dried? Sheryl and Dad really get upset over the whole crying issue so I would've immediately washed it out. Unless, Dad was really angry and locked me in my room. But hang on, I don't cry for that long, and I definitely do not cry myself to sleep! I am a bloke for heaven's sake! Wonder why Dad would've been that angry, that is if he was.'

After 30 minutes of relaxing and pondering over the issue, Harry got out of the tub, feeling a bit more physically relieved. He went to his room and opened his closet to pull out something to wear, when he came to an abrupt halt. Raising his head and craning his neck forward, Harry sniffed the air, and realized the day was getting more and more confusing. 'Blood? Probably mine. In my closet? I see. Dad would never lock me in my closet. Something odd definitely happened yesterday.'

Pushing away the thoughts of his new discovery Harry concentrated on getting dressed and combing his long hair back. After pocketing his new wand, which he hid under his bed, he began walking out of his room when his thoughts turned to the girl he had met two days ago.

'Ginny sure was a nice girl. I should write to her today. Too bad I can't send her anything. Maybe I'll convince Mum to take me to Diagon Alley and help pick out a late Christmas present for her. Wait! Presents? I bought everybody presents! I would never forget –'

With a sudden, Harry fell on one knee rubbing his temples furiously with his finger tips. His eyes snapped open wide, strange scenes flashing in front of his eyes. He was looking through some boy's eyes. He could feel the boys fear, mental panic, and intense pain. He could feel some sort of restrains on the boy disabling him from moving, yet he was still twitching occasional. He could see, and as strange as this world was to Harry it contained a hint of recognition in it. However, as suddenly as this strange world came, darkness engulfed him.

"No!" Harry screamed, stumbling back on to his feet, "Show me more! Show me this world!"

He grabbed his head forcefully trying to will himself to be able to see the boy's world again. Shaking his head forcefully he hit it against the wall hoping to relieve whatever pain he had felt before just so that he could see for a few seconds again. Distracted, Harry lost his footing over the first step and fell downwards his arms outstretched to protect himself from the first impact when he suddenly stopped. To an onlooker it would look like Harry pulled a muscle half way through a Michael Jackson dance move and was content on staying in that awkward position until he felt better again.

"What the fu - " Harry began but was cut off when he started falling again and hit the steps palm first and then toppling over and making his way down the entire set of stairs. Harry was used to falling down the stairs over the years so the pain was not alien to him. Pausing halfway through the fall definitely was. At the bottom, he picked himself off the floor and brushed his clothes checking himself for any injury.

"What the hell is going on? How did I stop? Was that magic? Accidental magic? I thought Dumbledore placed a charm on me preventing me from performing any accidental magic. I feel strange too. It feels like my blood is rushing twice as fast, not just in my heart but in my arms and legs, chest, everywhere!"

Harry did not want to continue talking to himself out load even if no one was there. After calming himself a bit, he moved into the kitchen to find the customary note his mother would leave him:

Harry,

We've all gone to Uncle Sirius's house for a late brunch. Don't expect as back till midnight. I've left some lunch in the stove for you, and the dinner is in the fridge. Heat them up for about 5 minutes each. See you tomorrow.

Love,

Mom

Fixing himself some cereal, Harry began pondering once again about the strange day, 'Who the heck was that kid? That poor guy was in so much pain. But why did I see it? Are we connected in some way?'

Being the patient type that Harry was, he decided to seek out some aid. Dumbledore was the one to place the charm on him, thus he may be the one to clarify some of the strange workings of the day.

Gathering a fistful of floo powder Harry threw it in the fireplace. As the fire began to roar he realized in horror that he did not know Dumbledore's full name, "Er – Dumbledore?"

Harry panicked as the flames stopped roaring indicating that the connection to the requested person's fireplace was made. Reasoning calmed him down, after all, how many people can be named Dumbledore. Surely not any muggle, and he was not aware of any siblings The Great Dumbledore may have had. All Harry knew from stories was that Dumbledore was the present headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and that his fiancé was slain in one of the final attacks against in the Dark Ages of Grindewald, whom he defeated at a later instance.

"Yes child, how may I help you?" asked a voice.

"Mr. Dumbledore, sir?" Harry asked, uncertain.

"Yes?"

Relieved Harry smiled and mentally laughed at himself for worrying, "Sir, I am Charlie Potter's older brother Ha- "

"Child I care not of your siblings. Proper etiquettes demand that you introduce yourself first before making any parallel's to your family," Dumbledore gently chided.

Harry began to stutter until he realized that the old man was being polite in making the correction and was simply doing what he had been doing all his life, teaching.

"I'm sorry sir, I will remember that for the future. Sir, my name is Harry Potter. I do not know if you remember, but you placed a charm on me to prevent any accidental magic irregularities from me due to my condition."

"I did now did I? If you would be so kind to refresh my memory on this condition of yours."

Harry inwardly frowned at the odd emphasis Dumbledore placed on the word condition, but outwardly resided on playing the old man's game, "I am blind sir, remember?"

"Ah yes! I apologize my boy, my age seems to be catching up to me. I believe this must have been to prevent you from potentially damaging something, or moreover harming someone."

Shifting in his seat Harry replied, "Er – I would like to believe that it was to prevent me from hurting myself."

Dumbledore's eyes darkened and said, "Yes yes of course. Please continue."

"Thank you sir. This morning I experienced a few strange things. To begin with, I woke up in a very odd condition, on the floor, but that is not very relevant. When I was about to go downstairs for some breakfast, images of some boy in a lot of pain flashed in front of my eyes. Now you can only imagine my surprise, for as far I can remember I have been unable to see. Would you have known what may have caused this?"

"Hmm… Flashes you say. Were these random, or were they caused by something you were doing or thinking about?" asked Dumbledore stroking his chin in thought.

"Er – yes. I had the most splitting headache imaginable and I couldn't remember what happened the day before. Then when I was thinking about a girl I met the day before yesterday," Harry blushed.

"You don't say… Please continue my boy," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

"Ahem yes! Well I recalled her helping me buy Christmas presents for my family, my first presents to them. The fact I couldn't remembered giving it to them yesterday surprised me, when suddenly the flashes came."

"I see. Is there anything else?"

"Yes sir! Those flashy thingies caught me by surprise. I lost my footing on the stairs, but just when I thought I was done for I suddenly stop in midair. I was like, WOOAA, what is going on? Then as suddenly as I had stopped falling, I started falling again. It's crazy I tell you. Either I've started going bonkers or something definitely messed up, if you know what I mean." Harry said, flailing his arms wildly while regurgitating his strange experience.

"Quite the adventure you've had today boy."

"Yes sir!" Harry nodded.

"Well here's the plan," Dumbledore began, "Why don't you floo over to my house, right now if you are not busy with anything else. We can have a nice warm cup of tea and some biscuits and then I can test out my theory whenever you are comfortable. How's bout that?"

Just the thought of The Great Dumbledore wanting to share a conversation with Harry over a cup of tea elated Harry. The fact it was going to be in Hogwarts simply blew him out of his mind. He was dying to smell the air and the trees in the Forbidden Forest. He was in love with it the first time his younger brother had described it and it was that first time when Harry desperately beg to God to let him see that site. It was with much excitement that Harry began:

"You mean at Hogwarts sir! Oh I would love to sir! I've always dreamed what Hogwarts would feel and smell like. Just the thought of me getting that chance is stupendous."

Dumbledore arched his eyebrows in surprise. A magical boy of England that had never been to Hogwarts, why that was unheard of. Something told him that this boy was quite the find that suddenly contacted him in Ireland. Not wanting to disappoint the boy when he would reach his destination, Dumbledore decided he would come clean, however still not reveal the boy's mistake in identity:

"No not Hogwarts my boy. Although I'm quite surprised your parents have not taken you there yet. I am at my personal residence right now, in Ireland. How about you come over in an hour so I can make the place a bit more presentable? My place is called Alberforth's Shalimar."

Deflated at not being able to go to Hogwarts, Harry still felt quite honored to be invited at the personal residence of Dumbledore. To a greater extent, Harry was surprised that somebody wanted to make the place more presentable for blind ol' him.

An hour later found Harry dressed in his most respectable clothes, as picked out by Sheryl for an earlier occasion, eagerly waiting by the floo fingering his wrist watch every two seconds. Soon as the time was precisely an hour after he had talked to Dumbledore, Harry tossed some floo powder in the fireplace and said, "Alberforth's Shalimar!"

Wicklow, Ireland

The moment Dumbledore, laid his hazel blue eyes on Harry he knew he had found one who understand him, or so he thought. Harry Potter was clad in a silk shirt composed of bright blue, pink and yellow colors, black jeans that ended just before his ankles with the words Fo Shizzle In Da Houwe stitched along the side, pink socks, and red dragon boots.

'The boy has lost his mind,' Dumbledore though, 'But then again, most people say I have as well.'

"Ah Harry my boy! So nice of you to drop by. How can I be of assistance?" he asked after guiding Harry to the couch.

Surprised, Harry began uncertainly, "Er didn't you say – "

However he was interrupted by a deep hearty laughter from Dumbledore, "Come now my boy, I was only yanking your chain. Why don't you tell me about yourself over a cup of tea? Then we'll decide how to proceed once our bellies are full and satisfied."

Over the next hour Harry joyously told Dumbledore about himself. How he learned to move around and help out around his house even without eyesight. How wonderful his family was. All the whilst, Dumbledore heartedly agreed with Harry, inputting a joke here and there, but deep down quite sadden by the child's story. In Dumbledore's mind the boy had suffered and neglected his entire life and yet he knew none the better.

"Harry, I would like to test out my hypothesis which I mentioned earlier," Dumbledore began, "You will feel a light probing in your mind. Do not fight it, it will not harm you. I am simply going through your memories. Do you think you can do that?"

Harry nodded nervously.

"Brace yourself Harry. Legillimens!"

Dumbledore was not one to pry in another's thoughts and feelings for too long, unlike his brother. He disliked knowing what another was feeling at a certain stage in their life, what kind of a person did they think Alberforth was, whether they were lying or not. Knowing too much takes the mystery away from life, makes one old and a person sought after when a conflict arises. Constantly listening to others' problems, offering them advice and guidance, had made his brother, Albus Dumbledore, old and narrow minded. His brother, although under good intentions, would seek solutions that would act positively for people as a whole, not individually for the person seeking guidance. Furthermore, his brother would save his memories in a penisive such that he may be able to use information later in the future. The human mind is a complex muscle, however it has its limitations. Sometimes, it is best to forget. Under such a mindset, Alberforth peered and sorted through Harry's memories, confirming his suspicions of the neglect and abuse.

Regardless, he was under the opinion that some people were simply born to be neglected, for that was their very niche in life. Their experiences would serve as a lesson for others in dealing with these situations. Harry's purpose was to serve that role. Alberforth felt the torture that Charlie, the so called savior of the so called light, inflicted on Harry. Unemotionally, he let Harry relive that pain temporarily. Unemotionally, he removed all the memory blocks, save one, that were naturally or magically placed on his mind, potentially giving birth to a raving psychotic monster that would challenge the likes of Voldemort.

Harry collapsed on the ground, sweating, droplets of blood beginning to form in his eyes, and bile coming up to his throat.

"Ch-ch-charlie?" Harry croaked in disbelieve, on all fours panting in exhaustion.

Author's Note:

I feel this chapter is quite fast paced. I have some good ideas for the next chapter, I simply could not figure out how to get there. This worthless of a chapter seemed best to me.

Forky Forkinson out!