Harry threw himself into his summer homework in an effort to escape the guilt and grief he felt for what he suspected that Jet Jaguar was going through. The Shobijin had done their best to reassure him that Jet Jaguar had fought the forces of evil for almost as long as he'd existed, and knew that there were occupational hazards to such a career, but Harry still couldn't help but feel bad about what had happened. Who knew what kind of horrors his robot uncle was being subjected to? No one on the island really knew how to (or even if someone could) torture an android, but that just meant Harry's imagination ran wild in the worst possible ways.
Harry spent most of his time during his first month at home in either Mothra or Godzilla's shadow. It made everyone feel better. Mothra was confident that if bird or man showed up again she could blow them away, and Godzilla wanted to find out if the firebird was immune to the atomic ray… but after a month of nothing happening, they realized that there would be no further attempts to abduct Harry and let him get back to his routine of wandering the island.
He was beginning to regret telling his friends that they wouldn't need to contact him, but he felt that his reasoning at the time had been sound. Both Neville and Hermione lived much too far away to be sending owls. He wondered why there weren't easier ways to communicate in the magical world, especially considering that they had near-instantaneous travel with things like portkeys. He'd heard of live-broadcasting, so he knew that muggles had some instant or near-instant communication methods, and he expected that wizards had something similar. It would be quite a let down if they didn't.
He wondered why he hadn't asked more questions about the way that the magical world worked, but guessed that he'd probably expected to learn all about it during history of magic… what a mistake that had been.
Living on the island was also becoming more stifling. There were more and more outsiders coming to Monster Island, and while they usually stayed away from the village, that meant he could not wander around as much as he used to, and even if he did he had to stay under the invisibility cloak to avoid discovery.
It also didn't help that everyone he spoke to about that feeling – human, fairy, or kaiju – all replied that Harry was just experiencing the beginnings of adolescence. Manda, in his great age, was the most eloquent about it, saying that Harry was like a fledgling bird experiencing the first urge to leave its nest.
In the end, Harry stopped complaining and embraced a new role in the village: roasting meat and fish with controlled bursts of his fiery breath.
Meanwhile, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had a rather large problem. His plans for Harry Potter had gone terribly awry.
First, the boy hadn't been raised by his aunt and uncle as he'd hoped would happen. He still did not know exactly how, but the Dursleys hadn't ever seen Harry until just days ago. Apparently he had grown up on a place called "Monster Island," and that would not do at all.
He did not know for sure, but Dumbledore had always had a sneaking suspicion that Tom had used horcruxes to survive that night in Godric's Hollow, and that his soul had been so unstable that a piece had been blasted into Harry.
Dumbledore, as one of the greatest wizards alive, had the terrible burden of almost always being right. If Harry did indeed have a horcrux inside him, then he needed to grow up in a certain way to prevent disaster.
First, he couldn't be too attached to the muggle world. Dumbledore knew that there would be very little love lost between Harry and the Dursleys, but it would be enough for Lily's protection to keep the boy safe, albeit not happy.
Second, he needed to be in awe of the wizarding world and to view it as his true home. He'd sent Hagrid to fetch Harry rather than anyone else because Hagrid still had that almost childlike awe about many aspects of the wizarding world, but that had been a bust. Hagrid was now enamored with the beasts of Monster Island, and based on what the half-giant had told him, Harry was too to a lesser extent.
His plans could still be salvaged during the boy's schooling. The most important part of the plan was that Harry be self-sacrificing – willing to die for his new home.
That had been a mixed bag.
If Dumbledore's plan had gone off without a hitch, Harry would have been a rather passive boy, but one who craved adventure after so many years with the Dursleys. It would not have been any kind of magic that saved him from the possessed Quirrell, but the power of his mother's love.
As it was the boy still had the zeal for adventure, albeit tempered by the common sense of Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, but could not be called passive by any means. He had a natural knack for the practical side of magic, and Miss Granger kept him up to speed on its theoretical aspects. Rather than the middling-to-poor student that Severus insisted he was, Harry was near the top of the class in most subjects.
But it had not been love that stopped Voldemort at the end of the protections. The boy could apparently breathe fire. How was that possible? More worryingly, he hadn't been the least bit disturbed by Quirrell's death. Dumbledore had expected to swoop in and offer comfort and answers to appear grandfatherly, but it hadn't worked or been needed; the boy hadn't been angsting about killing a professor, but ecstatic that he'd been able to master breathing fire. Worse still the boy considered the monsters of the island his family rather than his relatives. Vernon and Petunia had been vocally clear on that, but their fear of wizardry kept them in line. Dumbledore never once threatened them; if they drew unfortunate conclusions, that reflected on them, not on him.
A loud clatter followed by Fawkes screeching indignantly interrupted his thoughts and Dumbledore briefly turned around, waved his wand to repair the damage, and reflexively stunned and bound the captured robot once again. When he'd first returned to his office, it had been in shambles from Jet Jaguars struggles, and it had taken the old man quite a few spells to determine that minor lightning hexes could temporarily stun it.
It seemed that this muggle golem experienced something akin to pain just from being surrounded by magic, but was still able to function. That was worrying for the Statute of Secrecy, but fascinating in its own right. Still, Harry considered the mechanical construct to be his uncle. Perhaps he could use that, but before any of that could happen the robot needed to be able to function in the presence of magic.
Having yet another brilliant idea, Dumbledore approached his fireplace and contacted the Burrow.
"Hello Molly, is Arthur there? Ah, good. I know how much you like tinkering with muggle machines, so I hope that I am not imposing by asking you for a favor…"
Author's Note: There's nothing really to say about this chapter in particular, but I feel like I should let everyone know that I'm going to take a day or two and correct all the typos I can find in the previous chapters, so you may get a bunch of notifications about new chapters that aren't really new.
Also, 11,035 views!? You people love this story. Thank you; it gives me warm fuzzy feelings to know that my work is appreciated.