Chapter 1

Sitting in his cupboard Harry finished re-reading the letter for the 3rd time that morning before folding it reverently and putting it with all of his other treasures behind the support for the third step. Needing to make the breakfast for his Relatives had forced him to stop panicking after the first time he struggled through the letter, especially after Uncle Vernon destroyed the letter that came for him and now he's had time to calm down his excitement started to build. He has magic, and so did his Grandparents! There's a magical world out there, and he's going to join it soon! He might disappear at night! That thought brought his thoughts to a grinding halt, as excitement turned to fear in an instant. He might not have the best life, but he didn't want to disappear. Ruthlessly tamping down on his excitement and fear just in case his Aunt picked up on it, he crawled out of the cupboard into the living room where she was enjoying her morning Tea while watching Crime Watch on TV. He couldn't hear Dudley, so he must be out somewhere.

"Aunt Petunia, I've finished the cleaning, may I go to the Library please?" he asked politely when there seemed to be a pause in the program.

"Go on then, be back by 5 as we're cooking for guests tonight." She huffed back.

Grabbing his worn shoes and a ratty backpack he hurried out the house as quietly as he could before she decided that the garden needed weeding today. Taking a circuitous route to the High Street avoiding the park, he made his way to the small library. As he enters he sees the Librarian glare disapprovingly over her glasses, and shrinks away from it. It's not his fault that his Aunt and Uncle will only buy him one set of new clothes every year, and when Dudley inevitably tears them, he has to wear Dudley's castoffs. After searching fruitlessly for ½ an hour he timidly walks up to the Librarian.

"Excuse me, would you be able to help me find a book please?" he asks fully expecting to be told to get out.

The librarian turns her stern gaze to him and replies in a surprisingly kind voice "Of course, what book are you looking for?"

"Erm, I was, err, trying to find a book on meditation, I was told it might help."

The librarians face turns kind as she sees the person rumoured to be the local troublemaker asking for things to help. "Sure, we don't carry much, but what we do have will be over here in the section on Religions." Taking a copy of Mahāyāna Buddhist Meditation: Theory and Practice off the shelf and handing it to him saying "This might be a little hard to read, but it's about Buddhism talks about meditation, if you want to read it over here you can ask me if you get stuck." She led him back to a table near the front desk.

Several hours later he's struggled through half the book, and the Librarian has praised him for his perseverance a few times, even though he had to ask her for help all the time. He also found out what Aether and Quiescent means, although he's not sure what a debunked scientific theory has to do with magic, or what it meant either. He's brought out of his reading by a persistent beeping coming from the Librarian. Looking up he sees her look down at her watch.

"I'm afraid that it's 4:30 so I need to send you home as I need to close the library." She says while fishing a set of keys from somewhere behind the counter. She then picks up his book and puts the library index card in the place that he got to "You can always come back tomorrow and I'll keep the book here for you."

Panicking slightly, Harry grabs his backpack and rushes out of the door, he knows he doesn't have the time to take the long way around, so he chances going through the park rather than run the risk of being denied dinner because he was late.

20 minutes later he gets to the park and he can see that the Dudley gang are monopolising the swings as he expected. Unfortunately, there's no adults around, so he's going to have to skirt past the wood and hope they don't notice him. A couple of nerve-wracking minutes later he's almost at the exit when he hears a shout behind him. Not even pausing to look back he breaks into a sprint and runs for home, the sound of pounding feet and laughter echoing behind him. Just as he is getting to the end of his stamina the house comes into view and the sound of feet fades to nothing. He thinks he hears Dudley say "He's too close, Mum'll kill me if she sees me…" before he gets to far away. Reaching the front door, he pauses for a count of ten before opening the door calmly and walking in.

Once he gets inside he sees his aunt ironing the tablecloth as she looks up at the clock. "Just in time, go and get washed up and then start peeling potatoes, we're cooking for 5. Oh, and I moved all of your stuff into Dudley's toy room. I spoke to Vernon at lunchtime and we decided that you needed to move as you're getting a little big for the cupboard. You'll be eating up there as you've got no good clothes for the guests.". Looking carefully at his aunts face he can't tell if she's angry at him or not so he quietly heads upstairs and gets washed and changed before going down to help with dinner.

Later, after he finished eating he put his plate on the three legged desk that leaned against the wall and sat on his bed thinking about what he'd learned at the Library. It was nice having an adult praising him, odd but nice as not even the teachers at school did that, and the Librarian even said he could go back tomorrow. But he could see that she got annoyed with his questions, so maybe he shouldn't… His thoughts spiralled out of control for an hour before his Uncle shouted "Boy, come down and do the washing up!". Jerking his head backward and hitting it against the wall, he hurried to get downstairs, quickly heading back to get his tray as he took a couple of steps down the stairs. Glancing at his Uncle he saw the slightly reddened cheeks that said he'd had a bit to drink, so he needed to step carefully otherwise he'll get a wallop around the ear for talking back. Using his hand under the tap to stop the water from making a noise as the sink filled even though it was almost too hot, he washed and dried the dishes and ovenware as quickly and quietly as he could. While he was doing the washing a barked laugh made him jump and one of the clean plates jumped off the drying rack heading for the door. Scrambling quickly, he managed to catch the plate before it landed without knocking anything over, and apart from a shout to be quiet nothing came of it.

Once he finished he could hear his Uncle laughing at the TV with that exaggerated laugh he has when he's drinking, so once he finished and all the surfaces were wiped down he headed upstairs as quietly as he could, taking care to avoid the creaky steps, he made his way back to his new room.

Sitting on his bed he tried to start the meditation that he read about earlier in the day, but thoughts of Dudley kicking open the door and beating him up, or Vernon deciding that he needed some discipline kept intruding. Especially when he heard the meaty thwack and the sound of his Aunt crying again when the beer ran out. At that point he sat shivering on the bed thinking of all the things that could happen to stop him from going to sleep and making him disappear at night. The heavy footsteps of his Uncle coming upstairs followed by the toilet flushing twice came and went, and still he couldn't sleep. So, taking his blanket, he crept downstairs and let himself into the cupboard under the stairs and curled up with his back to the wall shivering. Eventually sleep claimed him and the night passed uneventually.