A Wizard in Special Circumstances

*** May 26, 2022 *** see the "very important" [smile] Author's Notes - ADDENDUM - at the bottom of this page to understand the history of this "the founding" COMPLETING THE INCOMPLETE story - checkout the Community - there's an easy link on my Profile. This also happens to be a Crossover Alternate Universe. *** ***

ALSO - to the old loyal viewers/readers of the VERY OLD "lost (there's no sense in griping) originals" [ if you've never Faved, Followed or Reviewed THIS version - hint, hint, hint - please do - though I completely understand the (well documented) "why bother?" phenomenon that manifests when a story SEEMS to be abandoned (it honestly and truly wasn't - never) ] - so PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE (!) - tell me one way or a(measurable)nother THIS TIME AROUND that YOU ARE READING - pretend it's an alternate reality or a fresh fork in the timeline! - even so - I really CAN'T (not won't) be able to dedicate TIME to responding to PMs (thanks though everybody - but it's either "responding" or "writing" that I can manage, not both - so I choose WRITING!)

REMEMBER - it's only a lack of VISIBLE, MEASURABLE FEEDBACK that caused me to believe that there wasn't any worthwhile level of interest in this RENEWED story - but, quite clearly, THERE IS! - 1000s of you have viewed and read it - SO ENJOY IT NOW! - { I've made plenty of changes - naturally [smiley smile] }

Not JKR. Not IMB. Not Ruskbyte. Not7billion+ Other Muggles. (Nor 30trillion+ Other Pan-Humans for that matter.) Just li'l old moi. IamSA-C

[ ] are for Harry's unique Referer-type thoughts

A Wizard in Special Circumstances

"And Harry really wanted the Hat as a friend."

The universe of universes is an ever-expanding onion with a never-ending Big Bang at its heart - the very youngest universe at the very, very center and the progressively older universes as you move outward. In four dimensions. Of course. Harry had learned THAT when he was still toddling. He'd been taught about The Grid and its infinite energy layers (the ones BETWEEN the universes!) not too long after - and he'd come to understand (with only a little bit of help) many ways of accessing Grid Energy that no one else in the Culture could perform. He knew stuff!

But APOLOGIES? Yuck. Very limited experience. So Harry's first long march to see Hat hadn't been easy.

"Good afternoon, Headmaster. I did not know how to arrange an appointment, so simply coming to your office seemed best." Before Harry could continue, Dumbledore said, "I am always happy to see a student, Harry - especially one who must still have many questions, given a mid-term arrival. A chat may be just the thing."

"That's very kind of you, sir - and I would very much enjoy that (perhaps some other time?) - but I've come to speak with the Sorting Hat." Harry addressed it: "Have you been resting well?"

Dumbledore recovered rather quickly, though mercifully, he later thought to himself, he'd had nothing to say just that moment. It was the Sorting Hat that spoke.

"Were my instructions to leave me alone, on my shelf, somehow unclear?"

"I believe it was Professor Dumbledore that was enjoined not to bother you until next year's Sorting, Hat."

"You are correct." The tear that was the Hat's mouth formed a knowing smile. "You needn't give me the speech you've prepared. Just place me on your head, Potter." After it was situated, the Hat continued. "Hm. Hmm. Hmmm. Yes. You ARE thorough. And I have been resting well, thank you. I am quite recovered. Don't tell Dumbledore. Apology accepted."

Harry sighed within himself. Relief.

"Well," continued the Hat, "we might as well have ourselves a nice long chat. I haven't had many over the centuries and now's the perfect opportunity: Dumbledore wouldn't disturb us for all the lemon drops on-planet. Sit down. Make yourself comfortable. There. And let's even speed things up a bit with that amazing Gland of yours. Whoa. Not so fast. I can keep up, but I'd like to enjoy our time together. So - there. Just fast enough to see that Dumbledore's twinkling peepers are just barely moving while he blinks. Yes. Fascinating Muggle Invention. Rowena would've given up a wand finger to see how it works. Wonderful timesaver. And that's just as well. You and I have an enormous volume of data to review."

And so began, in earnest, the Friendship between Harry and Hat. Books would be written, Harry mused. Where do those silly notions come from, he pondered with a smile. It was a wonderful time together, that first relaxed conversation. Absolutely wonderful. English. Marain. Latin. Greek. And even the little bit of Vulcan and Klingon that Harry had managed to pick up from the airwaves and the odd fan magazine.

A Wizard in Special Circumstances

Far from fatigued, but refreshed and filled with new resolve - he and Hat had accomplished so much - Harry walked over to Hat's shelf at a relaxed pace and returned the amazing magical construct to its most preferred perch. (A spot that predated Dumbledore's First Year Sorting by more than two hundred years.) It wanted to meditate upon all that had transpired before they put their initial plans into action. And Harry had a significant issue to address before he departed.

It was evening. Harry had been in the Headmaster's office for most of the afternoon - though it seemed to him and Hat that they'd been heart-to-hearting for days. Dumbledore had simplt sat, shut out and still as a stone at his desk, while the two FRIENDS had their conversation. The old wizard couldn't know what they'd talked about, of course. But he'd felt the hum of magic between the Sorting Hat and The Boy Who Lived (he was, incidentally, DETERMINED not to spout THAT particular moniker ever again, as Harry clearly DESPISED it) and he knew that MUCH could pass between the Sorting Hat and a student.

"WHY? Why did you leave me - at that frigid doorstop, bloody and damaged - and bereft of my biological parents? Why?" It was not Harry's first occasion to address the travesty, but it was his most heartfelt to date. And Albus Dumbledore, no fool (despite his endless affectations) KNEW that "this was it" - his lone chance to speak TRUTHS that might just serve to diffuse the boatload of magical fireworks upon which this amazing (and, Albus now clearly SAW, justifiably angered) child was standing, like a king upon his mountain.

Deep breaths. Composed thoughts. Recall how very much you truly loved James and Lily. How much you love this admittedly incomprehensible child. Stern but genuinely kind countenance. This was no time for agendas. No time for masks. TRUTH.

"My dear boy, I cannot imagine how you came to know so much about that terrible night. But I assure you that you are not as well informed as you believe. You were indeed placed upon that doorstep on Privet Drive, but the basket in which you were bundled, the family home that was intended as your refuge, and in truth, your very body and soul were enchanted with some of the most intricate and potent magics ever known. I know this because I was a chief architect in your defense. And I was mentor, advisor and confidante for your dear parents."

"There at the threshold of Number 4, in your little wicker fortress, no mortal weapon could have snagged your blanket, let alone have reached your tiny form. Magic kept you warm and dry and satisfied until your next feeding. The letter, which you so lightly dismissed the last time we discussed this matter, was charmed so as not to be damaged or misdirected — and to ensure that its significance, veracity and clarity of purpose were unmistakable, yet without any dodgy magical compulsions. Even your slumber, after so much danger and hardship for one so very, very young, was enchanted to be as untroubled as magic could make it. The charm that I employed (though I am somewhat hesitant to share this - you seem so inclined to judge all our tender sentiments from that time as mere mawkishness) has been used in my family for many generations to secure a sweet and unblemished good night's rest. I have no children of my own - and students are so rarely tucked in for naps" - (an impossible-to-disdain tender twinkle showed itself in his eyes, then he sobered) - "I found great comfort and satisfaction in conducting you to the land of Nod. Of all the things you knew not of, I must confess, I have found that the most disappointing."

Harry was somewhat less agitated - the ring of truth will do that, for sure; yet he pressed on. "What about that awful gash in my forehead? It was deep and bloody and gross with filth. You must have known the horrible energies that it contained. And I had other injuries which received no medical attention whatever."

Dumbledore looked truly pained. "I am so sorry. But yet again, you are lacking important facts. Great care must be taken in the healing of infants: the potions and salves that are used work more slowly and delicately. I assure you that every one of your lesser injuries - every bruise, every abrasion - was properly treated and doubtless would have faded before the sun was high." (Albus knew well to have a care on this next point.) "Your mother's intervention and the powerful ministrations of her associates apparently circumvented some of those healing treatments. It's clear, now, of course, that they could not have known that they were working at odds with the magic that they did not recognize." More anguish. Then a necessary calm.

"Your forehead was a different matter entirely. The laceration was indeed quite severe. As you know the curse scar itself was so permeated with dark magic that any attempt to heal it would have had tragic results" - Harry nearly winced as he recalled the deaths of most of his surgical team - "and only the surrounding tissue could be treated, with the hope that your indwelling magic would protect you at the boundary where your healthy flesh met the cursed. The wound-cleaning potion that your healer prescribed (it was Madam Pomfrey who ministered to you, you might as well know) does have a tendency to smoke and sting and leave an unsightly mess, but it is altogether efficacious — and was not the cause of any harm to you. It was the curse (with its malevolent energies, as you so aptly describe) that did so much mischief to your young brow: dark magic wounds are contemptibly difficult to put right — in truth, they rarely are. You are incomparably fortunate to have suffered no permanent harm and to have only such a little mark remain upon you. And concerning that wonder, I am as mystified as I am thankful."

Harry sat for several minutes more. Then he stood, and addressed the Headmaster, "Thank you. I find great value in a precipitous transition from less informed to moreso whenever I get to experience it. There seems to have been an overabundance of misunderstanding in and from every quarter. And I honestly can't see how it all might have been avoided, things being what they are. However. Rest assured that, going forward, I am determined to give you the same thoughtful consideration that you have extended to me. I will be spending the night with my mother. I trust that you will not have any difficulty or objection. It has, all said and done, been an extremely long day. Good evening, Headmaster Dumbledore."

Harry vanished - in the sort of magical flash the likes of which only he could manifest.

What a remarkable Boy!

A Wizard in Special Circumstances

Author's Notes:

Now that the story is rolling again, I'll be revisiting some of the specific-to-Culture-Shock history as well as some Banks Culture trivia, so that everyone is up to speed - with a view to enjoying the story without every chapter needing to have a Wesley-Crusheresque-explanation monologue. But for now it's enough to understand that Harry (by virtue of Culture-level scientific awareness of the Grid, he can do magic that no one else can do - such as apparition in and out of Hogwarts.

A Wizard in Special Circumstances

*** Author's Notes ADDENDUM of May 26, 2022: ***

This "the founding" COMPLETING THE INCOMPLETE story [started long before I even had a thought of a C2 Community for Completers - there's an easy link to it in my Profile], A Wizard in Special Circumstances (if truth be told - which it will) has itself sat around long enough to be entered into the process of COMPLETION: it was Originally Published on Mar 11, 2016 and wasn't updated for more than SIX YEARS! (And that doesn't even touch on the underlying history of THE IDEA - which I've decided isn't worth discussing further.) [ It is the very first "Concept-Art-As-It-Were Completion Effort" for Ruskbyte's Culture Shock (a truly inspired and ORIGINAL, in the finest sense, creative work) which was Originally Published on Jan 1, 2008 and last Updated on Sep 30, 2008. "Thank you, thank you" to Ruskbyte. ]

I learned (only quite recently, while viewing its Legacy Story Stats) that A Wizard in Special Circumstances has many thousands more views than I would ever have imagined for an [ okay, I'll own it - it appeared to be - but it really wasn't ever ] "essentially abandoned" story! The Reviews, Faves and Follows (the only metrics that I've ever bothered to "favor" with a glance) had barely budged in YEARS - so I thought "Hey, why should I bother if no one's interested" - but apparently folks ARE interested! So I'm revving it back up - sorry, Sorry, SORRY if I left anyone "hanging" - but (in my defense) you can't know what you don't know, right? But I'm COMMITTED TO COMPLETION now. Enjoy!

Not JKR. Not IMB. Not Ruskbyte. Not7billion+ Other Muggles. (Nor 30trillion+ Other Pan-Humans for that matter.) Just li'l old moi. IamSA-C

A Wizard in Special Circumstances