I've got a few messages with people telling me that the Harry Potter timeline occurs in the 90s. You can be assured that I am aware of this; I pointed out that I'm moving the timeline to the current year in my first chapter. Just clearing up the confusion.

You're right about the whole balance issue, though. Voldemort has been doing magic before Harry's own father was born, so I probably shouldn't add to it. I could possibly add more sides to this war, but I'm not too sure how that would work out. I've got basic plans for how the fifth year is going to occur, but not much else. This story is, of course, HBP and DH compliant, meaning the existence of Horcruxes and Deathly Hallows.

I've got a whole slew of ideas in my head; would help a lot if I had someone to speak to about this. As it is, my mind is just chaotic to the extreme.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

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Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2014
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Chapter 3: The Obligatory Dementor Encounter

"As a child, you would wait
and watch from far away.

But you always knew that you'll be
the one that works while they all play.

And you, you lay, awake at night and scheme
of all the things that you would change,

but it was just a dream!" I mouthed, my headphones blaring sweet music in my ears. It was a song that came out just a few hours ago, made by the company that created League of Legends in collaboration with Imagine Dragons, a band from the United States. I was quite familiar with the game, having reached a pretty decent rank. Platinum, if you were wondering.

I was currently in the grocery store, waiting in line behind Dudley and a few other people. I'd gotten myself some more batteries, some coke, and chips. Needed something to munch on and drink while I played games and surfed the web, after all.

It's been a week and a half since I had the bright— and successful— idea of trying to eat electricity out of a series of batteries. At first, I started with a low voltage/amperage, since I'd read somewhere that the human body can only take so much before the heart fails. Though, so far, I have not felt anything aside from an increase in my physical strength, and a sense of full-ness that I'd never really felt before. It was like my magical energy soared through the roof every time I exposed myself to electricity.

Regardless of the apparent lack of danger, I didn't want to risk things, so I worked my way up steadily. It was a boring effort, but the alternative would've been that I bit more than I could chew, and would end up dead. Within the space of a few days, I confirmed that I could eat high voltage/current electricity by feeding on the power given to Number Four Privet Drive.

With that done, I began to experiment with my powers, by going out, at night, with my Invisibility Cloak on. I would go to the local park, find a secluded spot, and practice my new magic heavily. I still referred to it as Lightning Dragon Slayer magic, of course. The same magic Laxus used in the manga.

Laxus' signature magic, over which he possessed great mastery, allowed him to produce, control and manipulate lightning and electricity at his will. Through its use, Laxus could not only generate lightning from his body, but also make it appear from almost anywhere to strike his opponents, taking them by surprise. By generating electricity on different parts of his body, he was capable of making his hand to hand attacks deadlier, and of propelling himself around to gain extra momentum. The bright light from his lightning can be also used to momentarily blind enemies. In addition, much like other Elemental types of Magic, the magic allowed Laxus to turn his own body into lightning, in order to evade enemy attacks and move around at high speed.

I realized it would probably take me some time before I fully mastered these powers. The fact that I've only been working on channeling the electricity around my body for the rest of my time was indicative enough of how difficult this was. So far, I managed to charge my body with electricity. Through thorough testing on the trees in the park, I noted that my attacks have gained a little oomph to them. I was much faster, and my reaction time had increased significantly. I could also make electricity fly in between my fingers, which was very intimidating, come to think of it.

I absentmindedly handed the items to the clerk, who quickly scanned the products.

"That'll be fifteen quid." The worker drawled lazily, holding out a hand expectantly. I fished out a twenty pound note from my back pocket, and handed it to the man. He pulled out a five from the register and gave it to me.

"Thanks." I said, and he gave a slight nod, before turning to the next customer.

Dudley and I made our way to Number Four in silence. It was night out. Dudley was giving me strange looks for a couple of minutes now.

"What is it?" I finally said.

"Oh, nothing." Dudley answered, flushing in embarrassment. "Must be seeing things, but I could've sworn you looked scrawnier. And I still don't get how you don't need glasses any more."

Ah, his looks made more sense now. To explain, a nice side effect of eating electricity was that body automatically corrected its flaws using the excess energy I'd absorbed into my being. I found I could run faster, jump higher, and tire less easily. My eyesight was being gradually corrected, as well. It was good enough right now, that my glasses weren't helping much. Hell, these days, they'd been causing more headaches than actually helping.

"It must be my... special gifts." I hedged around the subject, hoping he'd drop it. Dudley nodded.

"I.. Figured as much." Dudley muttered. "I'm kind of jealous, honestly."

"Jealous?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Dudley confirmed, looking away from me. "Do you know how long it took for me to lose my fat, and replace it with muscle? It was a lot of hard work, and you just did it in the span of a couple of weeks."

"Oh, I see." I gave a non-answer, not sure how to react to this. I felt bad that such things were easy for wizards, yet Muggles had to suffer to achieve results.

"Umm..." I hesitated as we turned a corner. "If you want, I can make a few, uh, potions that can help you out, and stuff."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah."

"Won't that get you in trouble? I thought you weren't allowed to use it out of school." Dudley argued.

"Oh, I don't need to use it for those particular potions. It's more like a mix of cooking and chemistry, honestly. You probably could do it if you had the ingredients." I answered easily. "Though, it's usually much easier to buy them off an apothecary. I'll look into it for you, if you like."

"That'd be nice. Thanks."

"No probl-"

I stopped suddenly, feeling a shift in the air around me. We were definitely not alone. Dudley kept walking ahead of me, oblivious of the danger. He stopped, noticing that I was not walking alongside him any longer.

"Harry?" He called out, before walking to me. The feeling of an imminent threat was getting closer and closer.

"Harry? Are you all right?" Dudley snapped his fingers in front of me, getting my attention. "Why are you just standing here? Let's go."

"Something's wrong." I said, looking around. "We're in danger."

It was starting to get cold now. The streetlamps around us began to flicker, before shutting off altogether. The air around us grew colder and colder, as frost began to accumulate on the metal streetlamps. I only knew one being capable of this.

"Shit. Shit!" I swore loudly. "Dudley, whatever you do, stay with me."

"W-What's going on? Why's everything dark and cold?"

What the hell are dementors doing here? Weren't they supposed to be guarding the Azkaban prison? Dudley and I were shivering now, the cold becoming incredibly intense.

"Whatever you do, Dudley, keep your mouth shut." I said quickly. "The monsters we are about to face are called dementors. They're like black wraiths, like the ones from Lord of the Rings. If they catch you, don't open your mouth, all right?"

"All- All right." Dudley's teeth clattered together as he stuttered out a response. I lifted my hand in the air, and channeled electricity to it. Lightning surged and danced in my hand, bathing the immediate area around us with a bluish-white light. I looked around, not seeing any dementors near us.

"You see anything?" Dudley asked. I answered in the negative, before hearing long, hoarse rattling breaths. I felt a jolt of dread at the sound of my mother's screaming. I also heard Voldemort's taunts ring in my head.

"H-Harry." Dudley said slowly, bringing me back to reality. "Did you hear that? Something breathing."

"I did." But how did Dudley hear it? Muggles weren't supposed to be capable of detecting the presence of dementors!

The sound grew stronger and stronger. I heard Dudley gasp, and turned to face the same direction he was. There were two of them at the end of a nearby alley, coming straight for us. They glided smoothly along the ground, not making any noise aside from their breathing. I grabbed onto Dudley's arm, pulling him roughly with me. We began running in the direction of Number Four, my electricity lighting the way.

We took shortcuts, evading the dementors as long as we could. My increased stamina and physique was a lifesaver, as I managed to keep up with Dudley's sprint and we were able to avoid the dementors for quite a while. But, we began to tire out.

Both of us had to stop.

"Can't go on..." I wheezed out, the lightning fading from my hand, and submerging us in complete darkness once more.

"Same... We've been in a full sprint..." Dudley took a long, shuddering breath. "For five minutes."

"How much further?" I asked, even though I knew exactly how much ground we needed to cover to get to the house.

"Couple more minutes... We can make it. Just need to rest for a bit."

Unfortunately, it was not to be. We felt the presence of the demon spawns as they glided closer and closer to us. Didn't dementors get tired, too? What the hell were they made of? What energy did they use?

"Fuck..." Dudley breathed hard. Was this how it was going to end?

"Agreed." I answered tiredly, pulling out my wand. "Lumos."

"I'm probably going to get in trouble for this."

I pointed my wand at the dementors, ignoring the bad memories their presence dredged up. I thought about Sirius, instead. I thought about the happy life we were going to have together. I thought about my recent friendship with my cousin. I refused to let us die!

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

Prongs erupted from the tip of my wand, charging at the two dementors with great fury. It slammed into both spectral beings, sending them flying away from us, into the night sky, which began to clear up due to the absence of the monsters I had to drive off.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and turned to Dudley, who was shaking from the stress.

"Dudley." I called out to my cousin. He didn't answer. "Dudley, you still there? Dudley."

"Huh?" Dudley looked confused, as if he didn't know where he was for a second, before his expression cleared up. "Sorry. I'm- I'm-"

"It's all right." I soothed. "You did better than I did the first time I came across these things."

"The first time?" Dudley shivered. "Why would you even want to come close these?"

"Wasn't by choice!" I laughed hollowly, as we picked ourselves off the ground. "They were always attracted to me."

We hurriedly made our way back to Number Four, looking around every few moments to make sure we weren't being followed by the dementors, or anything else. It was almost as grueling as actually facing off against the demon spawns, since our minds played tricks on us constantly. Thankfully, me managed to reach my aunt and uncle's house without further incident. Petunia was already waiting for us, looking slightly worried.

"About time! Do you both realize how long you were... taking...?" She stopped when she saw our pale, sweat covered skin. We looked like we'd been through a five day marathon.

"Wh-what's the matter?" She asked, moving closer to Dudley, who didn't protest his mother's fussing, for once. She jerked her hand away.

"Your skin's so cold! Come on, get in the house!" She led him in, and I followed with an annoyed grumble. I didn't expect any concern towards me, but it still kind of hurt. Whatever.

"Vernon? VERNON!" Aunt Petunia called out. The man in question, came out of the living room, his mustache blowing hither and tither, showing that he was agitated. He hurried over to Dudley, checking him over.

"He's ill, Vernon!"

"What is it, son? What's happened?" Vernon took in the sweat covered boy, wondering what could have occurred. "You haven't been mugged, have you, son?"

"No, no, nothing like that."

"Then—"

"That thing that was following us... It's like I could never be happy again. It was horrible..." Dudley shuddered and took a deep breath.

Vernon turned to me, anger in his gaze.

"What did you do, boy?" Vernon walked threateningly towards me.

"Nothing, I swear! We got attacked by dementors!" I protested.

"Dementors? What in blazes are you talking about! Make sense, will you!" Vernon looked confused and angry.

"Demons." Dudley cut in. "Demons. They were demons."

Vernon whipped his head so quickly towards Dudley it wasn't even funny.

"I saw them, dad. Harry drove them away. He saved my life, mum, dad."

Vernon froze at that, and gave me a long, appraising look. I glared back, daring him to challenge what was said. It was a long moment, before Vernon actually gave me a nod, and turned to Dudley worriedly.

"Come on, son, let's get you to bed." The man maneuvered his son up the stairs.

"Chocolate helps a lot." I called out to the duo, while Petunia looked on worriedly. She looked at me for a moment, before disappearing into the living room. She came out shortly afterwards with a box of chocolates, giving me a handful, before going up the stairs to follow her husband and son.

I gaped as I watched her leave.

First Uncle Vernon gave me a thankful nod, and just now, Aunt Petunia gave me chocolates to help me! Hell had frozen over. There was no other explanation. I'd been finally acknowledged by my family. It was a juvenile dream that I'd forsaken long ago, but now, it came true. I didn't believe it.

Yet it happened.

I began to munch on the chocolates, feeling better and better as the chocolate did its work to counter the effects of the dementors. A hoot brought my attention to the owl that swooped in through the kitchen window and dropped a letter in my hands. I had a feeling what this letter would say.

I ripped open the envelope, and perused its contents. I read it. Then I re-read it. Rage ensued.

"Expulsion...!" I sputtered angrily. "For defending myself!? Should I just roll over and die?" I spat out. So ministry representatives were coming to take my wand? Let them come. Every single one will go back to the Ministry empty handed— because they'd be lacking arms!

A few tense minutes later, another owl showed up. This time, it was a message from Arthur Weasley telling me that Dumbledore was running interference, and that I mustn't give them my wand. Like I planned to give it to them, anyway. Hah! Thus began a series of owls coming, with letters telling me to "NOT LEAVE PETUNIA'S HOUSE!" and that I shouldn't hand over my wand.

Vernon came downstairs, to complain about the noise, when he saw the stack of letters next to me.

"What's all this, boy?"

"Oh, nothing important. I've apparently been suspended from school for saving Dudley."

"Expelled for-" The man's face looked like a mix of glee and outrage. Someone's having trouble reconciling their feelings, I see.

"Suspended." I corrected.

"Why would you be suspended for saving my boy?" Vernon truly looked confused now.

"Cause I used magic to drive off the dementors." I said as if I were discussing the weather. "I've got a hearing with the ministry to sort this out, but it was a clear cut case of self defense. I'm not too worried."

"I see..." Vernon hedged, before giving a pained grimace. "Your sort has its own government?" He looked positively horrified at that revelation.

"Oh yeah." I grinned, showing elongated canines. "They control your government too. It's all a secret, of course. Most people get their memories wiped if they tried to blab about it. Have to keep it a secret, you know?" I had a fierce grin on my face. Uncle Vernon looked pasty white at my words.

I have to keep myself amused somehow, right?

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Done with that. I was thinking of having Dudley tag along with Harry to Grimmauld Place. I threw a bunch of hints that Dudley isn't a Muggle, but a Squib. I've already put the groundwork for it, making him interested in the magical world, if slightly wary of it. Completely ignored Mrs. Figg's appearance, in case you were wondering if I was forgetful or something.

The trial is going to be a sure shitstorm. Harry won't just let them walk over him. The question is, how should I go about it. Will he demonstrate brute force tactics, or use cunning? I'm thinking cunning, but would like your advice on it.