AN: Chapter 2 is out. Please read and review. The previous chapter was bit lore heavy because I like to flesh out the history of the world, I am writing in. I gave East Albion a clear history to explain the Dursleys dislike of pokémon and reasons for pokémon not being found in East Albion, otherwise it would unreasonable to say that Harry had never experienced pokémon. It would make sense with magic as the wizards were hidden but with knowledge of pokémon outnumbering people who want nothing to do with pokémon such a plot wouldn't be feasible. I will explain more lore as I publish more chapters.

Proofread and fixed the typos and other shenanigans in the chapter on October 3rd, 2020. I had really underestimated the value of proof-reading. It really enhances the quality of writing.

Coverart by u/noisy_mime

Chapter 2: Of Letters and Ambitions

Harry Potter was always ambitious. He had to temper a lot of his ambition while living under the Dursleys but one could not say that he did not burn with the yoke of ambition. Once Harry had decided to keep the houndour, was when real problems started. His first problem was escaping out of the Wilsons backyard. The Dursleys had already spread rumours about him being a delinquent and a hooligan and him being spotted coming out a neighbouring backyard would only fan the flames. So, Harry quickly stuffed the houndour inside his newly acquired backpack. Thankfully the backpack had plenty of space, he left the zip open enough to let the pokémon inside breathe. Then he carefully trotted out of the neighbours backyard hoping nobody noticed him. He finally arrived at No. 4, Privet Drive to haphazard confusion and screaming. He took advantage of the situation to quietly slip inside and place his backpack in his cupboard. He advised houndour to remain quiet and quietly joined the Dursleys. Apparently, Dudley had spotted a ghost in an alleyway and was now inconsolable. His friend Piers had also lost his backpack which had all of Dudleys "homework assignments" and lemonade stand money. Harry wondered if Aunt Petunia really was gullible enough to believe that Dudley ever operated a lemonade stand.

Upon spotting Harry, Uncle Vernon loudly enquired "Where were you boy?". "I was helping the janitor clean the bathrooms, Uncle Vernon" Harry timidly replied.

"Good at least they are making you work hard in that worthless place. I can't wait for Dudley to go to my alma matter, Smeltings. This place is going to the dogs. Someone attacked Dudley in an alley and stole all his money. My son had earned the money through hard work just like father. Already a little entrepreneur."

While Vernon was mindlessly ranting to all and sundry, Petunia was busy trying to console Dudley. It was quiet a funny scene in Harrys opinion, Dudley wailing, uncle Vernon ranting, aunt Petunia simpering. Finally, Dudley stopped when uncle Vernon promised to give him double the amount of money he had lost to the "thugs and criminals". At least it was no sweat of Harrys back, if Dudleys parents wanted to put their heads in the sand regarding Dudleys behaviour who was Harry to complain. After all the ranting and raving, Harry was told to clean the kitchen counter tops and start preparing dinner. Dinner was of course to be Dudley's favourite, roast beef casserole. "Proper English food" according to uncle Vernon, "none of that wishy-washy foreign nonsense." As Harry was prepping and cooking dinner he made sure to set aside some cooked meat for houndour. Harry had become a deft hand at stealing food by now. He realized that if he was doing all the cooking, it was easy for him to steal food. All he had to do was place some food under a paper towel and keep it with the refuse and on his way to take out the trash, slip some under his cupboard. It was a problem when aunt Petunia cooked because she kept a close eye on the various portions and such, but these days Harry was mostly given the responsibility and he would go about the task single handed while aunt Petunia would lounge around drinking wine or spying on neighbours.

After dinner Harry went back to his cupboard to realize that Houndour was busy snoozing on his small pillow and was perfectly comfortable in the dark. Houndour was a dark type and such was born to be stealthy and blend with the shadows. Harry woke houndour up and fed him some of the beef. He then chatted with the houndour for close to an hour. The chatting mostly consisted of Harry whispering nonsense to the Houndour while Houndour yipped and played about in the small space. Harry realized that due to his small size and quiet nature Harry could effectively hide houndour in his cupboard at least for a few months or at least till houndour started getting bigger. Today had been a long and tiring day for Harry Potter, he would go to sleep tonight then he would wake and plan for the future tomorrow.

Next day was a Thursday. After waking up Harry did his morning rituals, proceeded to make breakfast for the Dursleys, stole some food for himself and houndour and finally set off to school with houndour in his backpack. Harry realized that even though Dursleys didn't necessarily starve him these days, stealing food was more a reflex action. Ever since Harry had started school and stopped talking about pokémon the Dursleys behaviour had become a lot more agreeable, the physical violence and food denial had toned down considerably mostly because they were scared that someone would discover the mistreatment and report them to the cops. Dursleys on the other hand felt that their harsh discipline had finally stamped the freak out of Harry.

His food hoarding habit would now come in handy now in order to feed little Houndour. Upon arriving in school Harry sat in the last row as far away from the teacher as he could. He quietly whispered to Houndour to remain quiet and to his surprise Houndour listened to him. It was almost as if he could understand Harry. Harry would occasionally put his hand in his backpack during lectures and pet little Houndour. It was easy to avoid detection as Houndour spent most of his time napping, which Harry thought was fine as Houndour was a baby and babies needed their sleep. After school was over for the day, and there were no pokémon classes on Thursdays, Harry made his way to the library to plan. He pulled out a planner he had acquired the day before and stated writing.

Step 1: Find food for Houndour.

While it was okay for Houndour to eat human food. According to Mr. Blackwood pokémon needed special food to facilitate their growth correctly. This step was easy though. Most marts sold food for pokémon pets. If he was extremely lucky, he may even find one specialized for Growlithes, the fire type dog pokemon some people kept as pets. Harry even had the money to pay for it. Thanks to his recently acquired fortune.

Step 2: Name Houndour.

Continually calling him houndour in his head was getting exhausting.

Step 3: Find a place for Houndour to live, till Harry got accepted into London Academy for Pokémon Training

It was okay for houndour to live in the closet for now but as he got bigger it could lead to possible problems for both Harry and the pup.

Step 4: Think of a training regiment for houndour and if possible, acquire a pokeball to capture houndour

Training would come a little later. It was not advisable to train baby pokémon at least for the first six to eight months of their lives. Now this varied with different species, starter pokémon, bug types, flying types and grass types matured much faster than other types so you could get started on training them early, but six to eight months was a good rule of thumb for most tier B above pokémon. Finding a pokeball on other hand would be impossible. Pokeballs weren't sold in East Albion and the only way to acquire one legally was through the London academy. And they only gave out pokeballs to students.

Step 5: Acquire a chew toy for houndour.

This step was relatively easy. The crazy meowth lady next door had plenty of chew toys and a few of them would be easy enough to swipe without her being any the wiser.

On the other hand, harry could simply ask her for some, she seemed to like him well enough. A bit too much actually she had baby sat him a few times before and she would always gaze at him intently whenever he would cross her by on the streets. Harry found it a bit creepy if he was honest about it.

Harry always wondered how no one seemed to mind the large number of meowths that loitered around her house. If the rumours on the streets were to believed she was either kidnapping children and turning them into meowth or she was breeding them. Harry wasn't sure which one would be more illegal in East Albion, probably the latter.

With his list complete Harry went to the nearest mart to get some pokémon food. A five kg bag of regular pokémon food was 10 pounds. There was no speciality growlithes food but the cashier assured him that if his parents requested, they would acquire some for the store, all Harry had to do was bring a signed note. Harry grinned at that thought, Oh! He would bring a note alright.

The next step was exploring the local deserted park to find a space for Houndour. The local park had been deserted for a couple of years now, because the police had caught some youths smoking marijuana. Now the parents were hesitant to send their kids to the park and even the rebellious ones stuck to the front end of the park and no one bothered going to the back. As a result of the neglect thick shrubbery had grown all over the park effectively dividing the park into two halves, a sparsely visited front end and a completely deserted and shrubbery filled back end. The back part of the park would be the perfect hiding place for Houndour, the vegetation was thick and there were plenty of shadows and nooks and crannies for houndour to hide if someone ever visited the park. But Harry doubted that other than high teenagers anyone ever went to the back. Harry would work on step 4 later.

With this plan in mind Harry trekked towards the park. He battled the shrubbery and made it too the back of the park. This place would be perfect, the vegetation was even thicker than Harry expected. Harry let Houndour go and they played with each other for a while. As it got closer to the evening Harry stuffed Houndour in his backpack and trudged back to the Dursleys. He put Houndour and his backup in the cupboard, jumped over the fence to No. 6, Privet drive, Mrs Figgs or the crazy meowth ladys house and acquired a few toys, there were two chew toys and a ball. Harry had a feeling that the cat lady knew exactly what he was doing but she let it slide. When Harry got back, Houndour was fast asleep.

After working his butt of for the Dursleys when Harry returned to his cupboard, he started thinking about step 2, a name for his houndour. Harry had been thinking the whole day and finally settled on the name Nero.

Nero, which is the ancient Sinnoh word for black, connects with Houndour's primary Dark type. It is also, the name of the infamous Sinnoh emperor, who loved fire types thereby establishing connection to Houndour's secondary Fire type. Harry of course did not know any of this. He had found the name in his world history textbook and found it to be pretty cool. With step 2 complete Harry and Nero snuggled together and drifted off to sleep.

The next few months fell into a sort of well-established routine for Harry. He would at times wonder where Nero came from. It was not exactly normal for a pokémon to appear out of nowhere in East Albion. He also wondered if he could live with heartbreak of Nero getting taken away. He was scared of how close he had grown to the pup in the last few months. Thus, life moved on. 5 months had passed since Harry had found Nero and he had grown into an almost full size Houndour. He would no longer fit into Harrys backpack, but they could still fit in his cupboard, albeit a bit reluctantly. It was one morning when in February when Harry realized that Nero needed to move out post haste. When Harry was petting Nero after giving him breakfast Nero belched out a fireball. This scared the pants off Harry. They were lucky that the house didn't burn down. This put things into perspective for Harry. Nero was not a pet, he was a pokémon and should be treated with the respect he deserved.

Harry gathered Neros things and decided that today was the day Nero would move out. Harry had been putting off the move for a while now but now there was to be no delay. They went back to the park they frequented. Harry had sort of set up a temporary shelter for Nero between a vine covered jungle gym and a rusted merry go round. He had put a tarp on the floor and covered the top with rusted metal sheets he had scavenged from the trash the past few months. It looked cosy enough now. Hell, even Harry could sleep in it. It looked a far sight better than his cupboard with the Dursleys. The only problem was the cold, but that was not something Nero would have to worry about, being a fire type, he was always hot, and the cold rarely bothered him. Nero looked happy enough with the shelter.

The last couple of months Harry had realized that Nero had started to say his name. instead of yips and growls Nero would just say Houndour-dour or hound-hound or some other variations of their name. Harry realized that the houndour species mostly communicated by barking and growling rather than saying its name like most pokémon species. Harry was also stunned by how intelligent Nero seemed. Over the few months it felt almost like Nero could perfectly understand Harry, not once had Nero not followed his instructions. He would be as quite as a mouse when Harry asked him to be, move silently when Harry required it and stick to dark corners when Harry asked him to. This startled him once again as he realized how intelligent a pokémon could be and caused his respect for Nero to go up a notch. Harry had of course been taking down these observations in his trusty notepad and he hoped that once he met an expert he could ask them about his queries. Harry let the Houndour get used to his surroundings and new home. Upon informing him that this was his new home Nero seemed almost sad but cheered up when Harry informed him that he would visit him everyday after school and play with him.

This was Harry was really looking forward to, training. Every pokémon trainers dream. Harry had thought up of a rough guideline for training houndour based on Mr. Blackwoods classes, and various pokémon books he found in the library, both fiction and non-fiction. Harry would focus on his speed and endurance as Nero was still young for strength training and then focus on his fire attacks. Harry knew very little about dark types so he planned on focus on Nero's fire tying for now. They had roughly about six months to get Nero up to a respectable level before Harry would leave for London.

Harry visited Nero for the first time in his new home. Nero was lounging about under his tarp and Harry could spot a few half eaten rattatas behind Nero's shed. Harry was almost proud of Nero. His boy had had gotten big enough to hunt! Sure, he felt bad for the rattatas but then did a half shrug. It was not like they were not pests. If anything, Nero should be paid for doing pest control. As Harry approached Nero, Nero dragged a half-eaten carcass and offered it to Harry. Harry had to scrunch up his nose to that. No thanks! Harry gave Nero a mix of the prepared pokémon food mixed with some speciality growlithes food and some red peppers. The growlithe food cost him a pretty penny (25 pounds for a 3 kg bag) but it was worth it in Harry opinion. Nero really seemed to like it and now that Nero could hunt his own dinner, Harry could make the food last even longer.

As Harry and Nero got down to training, they both did a few sprints along the wall of the park. Harry then did some stretching and some more physical training, while Nero continued running. Harry had read in a training manual that a physical fitness was very valuable trait for trainers. It would help him in his journey and also in battles. It seemed counter-productive because it was the pokémon doing the battling but the manual stated that, battling other trainers was a very intense and psychologically draining experience and physical fitness helped with that.

Harry had taken the words to heart and promised to train alongside his pokémon. He had not done much until this point, mostly because he couldn't make time or find space, but every little bit helped, right! After physical training Harry started training Nero on some moves. After some trial and error, he figured out that all Nero could use now were Leer, Ember and Howl. His ember was weak and wouldn't even burn a fallen branch but it did set a few dried leaves aflame. Harry decided that they would focus on improving the potency of ember in the coming months and possibly work on learning Bite. After training Harry fed Nero some more and made his way home.

The next few months passed in a haze of training, studying and chores. Harry barely had any human interaction and all his in-person communications were with Mr. Blackwood and the cashier at the local mart which Harry visited on more than a few occasions. The Dursleys mostly ignored Harry as long as he did his chores. Dudley also ignored him as according to him and his group of morons Harry just wasn't a fun target anymore because Harry could either outrun Dudley or he would just ignore them. Their training was also paying some sweet dividends, Nero had grown into a fulfledged houndour, he stood alost 2.5 feet tall and weighted around 10- 15 kgs, if Harry were to guess. His snout and belly were a deep burnt orange and his back fit and developed strong and hard bone ridges. His leer and growl attacks send bone chilling shudders through Harry and his ember could burn though a log if sustained long enough. Nero had also learnt smog, a move which sent a cloud pf poisonous smoke at the target. The local rattatas and furrets had become excellent target practice. The rattatas would mostly perish and then serve as food, but the furrets were intelligent enough and had both the brains and the brawn to know when they were beaten and make a quick escape. Harry was also impressed at his own physical progress. He could now run up and down the park 10 times without panting and do 20 pushups and 20 pullups without stopping. He could have barely done 3 when he had started. All in all Harry was very satisfied with his unsupervised and uninstructed training and wondered how fast they would grow when they had proper instruction. It was the 27th of July 1991, four days till his birthday and five till his freedom. He had done some mock tests with Mr. Blackwood and he assured Harry and his knowledge went above and beyond the standard requirement and he could snag a scholarship position with ease. Harry was very grateful to Mr. Blackwood and initiated the first human to human hug in his life. Mr. Blackwood had literally changed his life. He had given Harry a purpose and something to look forward to in life.

Mr. Blackwood had observed young Harry Potter over the past couple of years and he was surprised at the amount of growth the young man had experienced. When he first met Harry, he was a stuttering meek boy but had now grown into a fine young man. Mr. Blackwood had realized that Harry did not have the best home life and with his interest in pokémon Mr. Blackwood had subtlety encouraged Harry towards the trainer lifestyle. It was the only way for a young boy to escape his home and become independent. Mr. Blackwood aged 42 himself was in a similar position in the early stages of his life. 30 years ago, he was an orphan living in Gringey City in Kanto, arguably the most disgusting and polluted city in all of Kanto. He couldn't wait to get out. He had acquired a youngster license and gotten the hell out of the city. His starter, a meowth he got from a local nurse joy would soon evolve to a persian after rigorous training. His other team members were beedril, magneton, sandslash, growlithe and pidgeotto.

After 2 years of training and living out on the road and in pokémon centres, he had finally tackled the Kanto gym circuit. He and his team had defeated five gyms in 9 months namely, Pewter, Cerulean, Celadon, Fushcia and Vermilion. Only he toughest three Kanto gyms Cinnabar, Saffron and Viridian were left when he realized that he had no passion for pokémon training. He loved pokémon but he found that training and battling was not his speed. He was 15 and applied for a job as a junior assistant to Nurse Joy in Viridian City. His five badges were proof enough of his competency as a pokémon trainer and he was accepted.

After a year working under Nurse Joy, he had to substitute for Nurse Joy in a lecture in the Viridian Pokémon Academy. It was there he realized that his true passion was teaching and guiding these aspiring pokémon trainers. He was born to be a teacher. Rarely had one found their calling so early in life, but Mr. Blackwood had. He would go on to teach in various academies across Kanto and Jhoto and had even lectured at the prestigious Oak Academy in Pallet town.

After more than 20 years as a teacher at the age of 36, Mr. Blackwood received a letter from a lawyer stating that his distant granduncle had passed away, leaving him the sole heir to his modest estate, which included a decent amount of money and a good-sized house in Surrey, East Albion. This had surprised Mr. Blackwood as he was sure that he had no living relatives. He did not want to move to the pokémon less region of East Albion but the allure of a house was too much to put down. He had always been a nomad and the ability to put down some roots really drew him to accept the offer. His team could go with him, Beedril had long since passed on, Perisan and growlithes were indoor pokémon and they were acceptable pets in East Albion. Pidgeotto were pretty much independent creatures and could live wherever without raising too many eyebrows, Magneton were apathetic to their surroundings and didn't really care where they lived as long as there was a source of electricity for it to occasionally feed on. The only problem was Sandslash. He offered to release the pokémon but the pokémon was adamant about sticking with him. Anyways sandslash spent most of their time underground, and his uncles house had a good-sized backyard, some tall fencing and clever placement and no one would notice sansdslashs burrow. Thus Mr. Blackwood and his team moved to Surrey is East Albion. He lived a life of leisure for the first few months but soon got bored. He applied for a teaching postion as a geography teacher at the local primary and middle school. He was accepted and soon proposed an optional "Intro to Pokémon Course" after school. The school had been looking for a competent teacher to teach a couse on pokémon but they were hard to come by in East Albion, just because pokémon bigger than a rattata were rare in East Albion, that didn't mean that the school could turn a blind eye to the fact that they existed and dominated in the rest of the planet. It would be foolish to do so. His proposal was quickly accepted, he had more than enough credentials for it and a class was setup and Mr. Blackwood was given free reign over the syllabus. Of Course, some parents protested namely Vernon Dursley and some others about teaching hooliganism and hoodlumism in school, but their protests were summarily ignored. This was a public school and the class was optional. Still Vernon Dursley grumbled about people stealing decent tax payer money, but one thing Vernon did really well was complain.

Mr. Blackwood had realized that Harry Potter needed to escape his home life in order to be happy and set about providing all the tools the young man would require. He was even in talks with a friend who lived near the London Academy, who would house Harry for the weekends at nominal cost which he planned to pay out of his own pocket. Afterall pokémon trainers were a tight knit community and he hoped that later on Harry would help some other unfortunate soul in his life and pass on his legacy.

He had even noticed some suspicious behaviour in Harry in the past few months, shushing into his backpack, buying pokémon and fire type food at the local mart, disappearing into the wild part of the park, burns and singes around the rims of his clothes, similar to the ones he would get while training his Growlithe. He knew that Harry was keeping a pokémon and he was sure that Harry had adopted an abandoned growlithe. He did not want to dig too deep into it, growlithe were fairly tame and friendly pokémon and he was sure his digging would bring them more trouble than what it was worth. He was still surprised that the young man had managed to keep it a secret for so long. He was sure that Harry's loner attitude and rumours of his delinquency spread by the Dursleys aided his activities. He wished he could bring Harry home and let him meet his pokémon. Maybe he would after Harry got accepted in the Academy.

Harry was himself waiting eagerly for the last few days of his indentured servitude to pass. 4 for more day and he would be free. As he was cooking breakfast on the morning of the 27th of July, Uncle Vernon ordered Harry to get the mail, Harry grumbled but turned the stove off and went outside to fetch the mail from the mail box. There under piles of advertisements, flyers and bills, was letter addressed to him. Who would be writing to him, he had no relatives and no friends? The letter was heavy and the envelope was made of thick parchment. Behind in curly letters and bright green ink was written.

To,

Mr H Potter,

4 Privet Drive,

Little Whinging,

Surrey

The letter had no return address, no name of the sender but it did have a strange crest on the bottom right corner. It was a shield divided in 4 parts and each part had a pokémon an arcanine, an arbok, a linoone and a pidgeot. Maybe it was one of those pokémon trainer recruitment flyers, still it was a rather elaborate envelope. Before Harry was wondering whether to open it right now or wait he was at the kitchen and Uncle Vernon snatched all the mail from his hand including the letter

"What were you reading boy?" He grumbled.

"It was just a letter uncle Vernon" Harry replied. He had long since stopped being scared of his uncle.

"Ha, who would be writing to you. Are they ordering you clean more bathrooms at school? I swear I will have to meet this janitor one day and congratulate him on having such a bright idea." Vernon laughed at his own joke, as if he would ever speak to a janitor. As Vernon got to the letter. his eyes wandered to bottom right corner towards the crest and almost as if by magic his eyes bulged out of his eye sockets, his face became red and he started screaming for aunt Petunia.

"Petunia, Petunia, it's the freaks, they have sent him a letter. No this wont do, not at all, we promised that we would make him into a respectable citizen, not into a circus freak". Uncle Vernon spat out in his rage.

"Oh! My god Vernon what do we do, I can't let that nonsense back into my life"? Aunt Petunia seemed inconsolable.

"Don't Worry Petunia we will sort this out". Uncle Vernon said.

"Now out, both of you, go out in the backyard, your aunt and I have some matters to discuss" Uncle Vernon ordered Harry and Dudley.

"But Dad, I haven't had breakfast yet" Dudley cried out

"Can I have my letter back please" Harry asked

"Out, both of before I tan both your backsides" Uncle Vernon shouted.

Harry and Dudley hurried out of the kitchen. Both didn't want to deal with Vernon when he was in a mood.

"Oh Vernon, what should we do,? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —"

Harry could see hear Uncle Vernon's shoes pacing up and down the kitchen from the front yard.

"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer…"

"Yes, that's best…we won't do anything…"

"But —"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"

Meanwhile Harry and Dudley were having their own conversation.

"So, Potty what do you think has them so worked up"

"I don't know, I was in the room the same as you, why don't you use your superior intelligence and guess"

"Don't get uppity with me Potty, I can still grind you in the floor. But if I had to guess, maybe they want to recruit you for a circus, employ you to shovel shit. You would fit in right among all those freaks."

"Yes, Dudley very wise, your superior intellect shines again. I am sure, that is the case. I will even ask them to reserve a place for you"

As Dudley raised his arms to smack Harry for his sarcastic comments, his uncle came back out and dragged both of them back into the kitchen. He could see the letter burning in the fireplace.

"We got rid the letter and we will never speak of this again. Am I clear?"

Both Harry and Dudley nodded, both didn't want to test Vernons anger and boy did he seem angry. Harry got back to cooking breakfast wondering what all the drama was all about. So, he got a letter from maybe a pokémon related business. It wasn't that big a deal, there were tens of pokémon related flyers in the mail. God! Harry couldn't wait to get rid of this freakshow and they had the gall to call him a freak. But still what the letter was all about.

It was a Sunday and a slow Sunday at that. Vernon was reading a newspaper complaining about the state of the world. Aunt Petunia seemed to too worked up and was staring at him like a Fearow. He couldn't even escape the house to go train with Nero while being under so much scrutiny. So he slipped back to his cupboard after cleaning the kitchen, lest aunt Petunia assign him more chores and decided to take a nap. He woke up with a start when he heard a loud thud and Vernon screaming. He checked the time in an old beat up wrist watch he kept in the cupboard. It was 3 in the afternoon. He decided to go out to see all the screaming was all about. Uncle Vernon really had gotten a lid on his anger issues in the past few years, ever since Harry had started school and stopped mentioning pokémon around the house, but it looked like all the progress would become undone in a single day. As he stepped out of the cupboard into the living room he saw that Uncle Vernon was frothing at the mouth waving a similar letter and Aunt Petunia was wailing loudly, Dudley was sitting on the sofa hogging on biscuits straight from the box. As soon as Uncle Vernon saw him, he glared at him harshly and told him to get out of the house and not come back till dinner time.

Harry hurriedly rushed out of the house and made his way back to the park, guessing that he had gotten another letter. Damn the recruiters were persistent, if they kept this up Vernon would surely get a heart attack, Harry chuckled at the thought. He didn't hate the Dursleys, he didn't particularly like them. The past few years had come to be an almost reasonable experience, no place fit for a child but at least he had a roof over his head. Harry reached his secret spot in the park and Nero bounced upon him and Harry had to strain to catch him. He really was getting strong and heavy. He had almost learnt bite and his headbutts were very strong. Harry and Nero roughhoused for a long time. He had to kill almost 4 hours after all. When Harry got back to his house the atmosphere had almost settled down. Harry shook his head in amusement when he saw the mailbox sitting in the living room. Uncle Vernon had ripped the mailbox from the driveway and brought it inside. He seemed very smug about it. Harry got down to making dinner and then after eating the leftovers went to bed.

He woke up next morning to a hammering noise and his screeching aunt. He got out and saw that his uncle was hammering the mail slot in front door shut. The mail slot in the back door was already nailed shut. Apparently ten more letters five from the front door and five from the back-door mail slot had come in today morning. There was even a letter in the mail box in the living room. Now Harry really wanted to read the letter. Letters kept coming the whole day. Some would fly in from an open window. Or just sneak in whenever the front door was opened. Harry and Dudley were even exempt from school. Uncle Vernon was very diligent in collecting the letters and burning them. Harry had never seen his uncle so alert and active. By night time on the 28th July 1991, the whole house had been boarded up like the zombie apocalypse.

God, Harry hoped he wasn't living in some sort of an anime-adventure book hybrid. His family certainly seemed to fit the bill of clownish incompetent villains. However, with every letter that arrived Harry curiosity grew and by the night, Harry was so worked up he couldn't sleep properly due to his excitement.

The next morning on 29th July, Harry woke up to a relatively calm house. There were no letters through the night and morning. When Harry stepped outside, he spotted a few hoothoots sitting on the poles and wires outside. This wasn't in itself odd. HootHoots generally came out at night but a few could be spotted during the early morning hours. Harry got started on the gardening he had skipped out on the last couple of days due to the letter fiasco. As Harry worked through morning and the afternoon, grooming, weeding, cutting the plants in the front yard, the number of hoothoots on the streets kept increasing every hour or so and whenever he looked up it seemed as they were all staring at him.

Okay first the letters, now this, Harry was officially getting a little freaked out. By the evening there were more than a hundred hoothoots outside number 4 privet drive all the way up and down the lane. There were a few news channels reporting the incident. Apparently, they were swarming. Swarming was a phenomenon where a large number of pokémon would show up for a short time at the same place. But Harry was still freaked out, whenever he would step out, the hoothoots would stop doing whatever they were doing and start staring at him.

Now, one could argue that Harry was being paranoid, hoothoots with their large eyes always looked like they were staring at you, but Harry was sure that this was something to do with him. By night while the outside was crowded with hoothoots, Uncle Vernon was ecstatic, he had finally defeated and prevailed over the evil letter sender. Harry did a sarcastic clap in his head congratulating Vernon. Uncle Vernon was so happy that he didn't even seem to mind the large number of pokémon gathered outside the door. However, peace wouldn't last long.

Next morning, on the 30th of July, one day before Harrys birthday and two days before his freedom Harry woke up to an outrageous scene. The floor of the living room was filled with letters, and more letters were pouring out of the fireplace which Uncle Vernon was desperately trying to stop. On spotting him uncle Vernon held him by the collar and shoved him inside his cupboard and told him to grab a few clothes in a bag. Uncle Vernon waited for him right outside his cupboard and as soon as he came out Uncle Vernon grabbed his hands and dragged him out of the house to the front yard and told him to wait there and do no freaky business. Vernon rushed back into the house while leaving Harry wondering what the hell was going on.

"Petunia get some things together. We are getting out of here. You too Dudley" Vernon yelled

"But dad I promised Piers we would hang out together playing PlayStation" Dudley whined

"Get out here, Dudley, I will not repeat myself"

Grumbling Dudley came down the stairs from his room, holding a backpack, with some clothes stuffed inside. Petunia hurried behind him carrying a suitcase. All three of them stepped out of the house and then Vernon locked the front door.

"Put the luggage in the car boy" Vernon ordered Harry

Carrying the suitcase and bag to the trunk of the car, Harry questioned "where are we going uncle".

"Shut up and do as you are told. Get in the backseat quickly. No time to dilly dally".

After everyone was settled in the car, Aunt Petunia in the front seat and Harry and Dudley in the back seat. Uncle Vernon started driving. They drove for a long time. As Dudley was busy playing on his Gameboy, he didn't bother Harry apart from the occasional kicks in his direction. Harry was getting worried. He had to go to London in 2 days for the test. He hoped they would be back by then. It was nearly evening by the time they reached their destination. Harry had mostly slept restlessly in the backseat. He was missing Nero; he hadn't seen him for 2 days. They stepped out of the car by a lake. There was a dingy little boat. Harry and the family of 3 loaded themselves on the boat and Vernon started rowing the boat towards an island in the centre of the lake. If was funny to see uncle Vernon exerting so much effort. By the time they reached the island it was night time. There a dingy little shack on the island. The family went inside. Uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia took the only bedroom, and Dudley plopped himself on the only couch in the living room. The family ate some pre-packaged meal while aunt Petunia tossed a can of soup towards Harry.

As they went to bed, Harry was lying on the floor, he was getting really despondent, it would soon be his birthday and there was no one to wish him. Granted his birthday was never a lavish celebration like Dudleys but in the previous years Mr. Blackwood would get him something small like a handkerchief or a pen for his birthday. Even the Dursleys remembered and tossed something his way. Last year Uncle Vernon gave him a pound, the year before aunt Petunia gave him a pair of socks. This year as the clock struck 12, Harry realized that apart from Nero he was well and truly alone in the world. Harry drew a cake on the floor from the dust. He made eleven candles, and as he blew the dust cake, he promised himself he would free himself from the Dursleys and never be sad again. While Harry was still wallowing in self-pity, he heard loud knocking at the door. It was 12:05 am, who would be knocking at the door. Uncle Vernon came out from his room and yelled from inside the house.

"Get out of here, we don't entertain freeloaders and layabouts"

The loud knocking continued till Harry heard a loud deep voice rumble from outside "Sprinkles, get the door".

With a loud cry of Machamp! The door was lifted from its hinges and pulled clean out.

That's it folks. Ch 2 is done

Ch3: Of Scars and DarkLords Pt 1