Obscure Magicks
Magic is an odd and fickle thing. Capable of bending reality to its will with ease. Wonderous things can be done with magic, colorful spells streaking through the air, every one of them an art in their own way. But where there is light and wonder, there must also be darkness and despair. With great amounts of power comes even greater capacity for either of these. One such dark side to magic is a phenomenon known as an Obscurus. To those who do not know magical children are much less in control of their magic due to being immature this causes them to sometimes have bouts of 'accidental magic'. This happens more often when the child is under either emotional or physical duress but isn't dependent on it. An Obscurus, however, is a parasitic magical anomaly that occurs when a magical child is emotionally or physically abused due to the existence of their magic, causing them to actively suppress their own magic, therefore feeding the obscurus in a vicious cycle. Eventually it reaches a breaking point and the Obscurus consumes the child and manifests in the physical world to cause massive amounts of damage becoming then what is known as an Obscurial.
So now I take you to the hero of our story whose soul is in precarious balance between safety and destruction.
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Life had not been good for Harry. He was hated by everyone he knew (as few as they were) for as long as he could remember. He was the subject of regular beatings for egregious misbehaviors such as "Looking happy" and "Not getting dinner on the table quick enough". On top of all that he received verbal abuse as often as he was spoken to and hadn't even know his name till he saw it on an official document for his schooling to begin (The Dursleys having only taught him how to read at least so he could sort out their junk mail for them before bringing it to them. The beatings only got worse when he displayed his 'freakishness' so he tried his hardest to keep it from happening, unknowingly forming an obscurus within himself.
'Tired', That was the only thought on 10 year old Harry's mind as he forced his aching, raw hands to grasp and remove another weed from the front garden, his back screaming at him for having to stay bent over so long, and to top it all off he had a splitting headache and nightmares keeping him from getting any sleep. He had been so tired recently. Seemingly more drained from his normal chores than usual. Normally as a parent saw their child acting drained of energy all the time they would take said kid to the hospital. But the Dursleys just assigned him more work to do. Harry was in fact almost done with that flower bed when he was called inside by an angry looking Petunia. As he walked inside his head was foggy from exhaustion and didn't register the imminent danger. Standing there was a purple-faced Vernon Dursley holding two pieces of paper from his school along with a crying Dudley.
"How dare you boy" Vernon spat the last word with more venom than most racial slurs. Harry just looked at him confusedly not wanting to ask any questions for fear of setting the man off.
"What teacher did you bribe to give you better grades than MY SON?" He shouted causing Harry to flinch away on reflex. He had studied hard for the last semester thinking the Dursleys would at least be less angry. Apparently he'd been wrong.
"I'm sorry-'' He couldn't finish his sentence before the back of the man's meaty hand thundered into the side of his head making him fall down. His head was spinning but he still felt as a foot solidly connected with his ribs making them creak dangerously. He forced himself to curl up in a ball unconsciously having dealt with this kind of beating before. Vernon kept kicking whatever parts of him he could reach and even had Dudley start kicking his fingers to give them access to his head. Something the fat little boy took to with glee. Harry's body couldn't take the onslaught and eventually he was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness from pain and multiple blows to the head. It was then that the obscurus began attempting to seize control. Vernon backed off, pulling Dudley away, when he saw Harry's outline begin to blur. He didn't back off far enough however because a magical force seemed to explode outwards from Harry throwing the two of them into the wall cracking it. Dudley was knocked out but Vernon was still awake and dragged himself off the ground to see something terrifying. Harry was glaring at him with clenched teeth, spittle flying from his mouth in his all-consuming rage, but he was also floating about a foot off the ground with a gale of what Vernon knew to be magic surrounding him.
"No More" Harry growled as the gale grew in strength pushing Vernon against the wall while it also lifted the furniture off the ground and ripped the pictures and furnishings off the wall. The pressure on Vernons chest grew as he was lifted off the ground but still firmly pressed into the wall which was beginning to crack even more then where he impacted the first time. Black specks entered his vision as his terrified mind finally began to comprehend that he couldn't breathe because of the force being exerted on him. For a split second he knew, he was absolutely certain that this is where he was gonna die. That's why his mind blearily registered surprise at still being alive as he fell to the ground just before he sank into unconsciousness.
Unbeknownst to him all the furniture and pictures fell to the ground as did Harry. Screaming bloody murder holding his hands to his scar as he sank to his knees from the pain. It was split open and bleeding profusely. You couldn't see it from the outside but the Obscurus that was slowly consuming him even as it wreaked havoc on the outside had encountered another entity within the boy. The horcrux within Harry was NOT happy at the attempted consumption of its container. The two magical forces lashed out at one another so violently that it actually began harming the poor boy. Unfortunately for the horcrux it was only a remnant while the obscurus was one of the most dangerous magical creatures in existence leading to it losing and being consumed by the obscurus. Then one more unexpected thing happened. Upon taking in the horcrux the Obscurus also took on some of its properties and when it turned to consume its vessel another magic rose up in the boy's defense. A magic so ancient and powerful that even the Obscurus could not overpower it. Harry's mother used forbidden blood magic to protect him from Voldemort, and that magic now recognized the obscurus as the same entity. The two opposing forces clashed, neither one of them willing to give an inch. Eventually, both weakened severely from fighting off the other, they began balancing out. A tenuous give and take all within the fragile magical core of a child. With one more explosive burst magic Harry fell unconscious.
(Far Away)
Dumbledore was having a good day after yet another peaceful year at the school. He sat at his desk absent-mindely sucking on a lemon drop as he poured over some papers containing resumes for DADA teachers across magical Britain as Professor Quirrel had yet to return from his trip on the continent. HIs good day was rather rudely interrupted, however, by a loud explosion in his office making him jump in his chair. Initially he thought that Fawkes had just had a rather violent burning day until he saw the pieces of a magical instrument strewn across the floor.
It took him a few seconds to recognize what those pieces used to be before his face drained of all color and he jumped to his feet. Running to his fireplace with urgency rarely seen in a wizard his age he quickly tossed some floo powder into it and started barking orders through it. The instrument that kept track of Harry's magical well being had just exploded.
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When Harry awoke his whole body felt like it was on fire, he was vaguely aware of hearing sirens and some blurry shapes moving him into a vehicle. But he soon couldn't take the pain anymore and sank back into unconsciousness.
The next time he awoke things were much clearer. Wait… clearer? He tried to bring his hand up to his face to feel for his glasses only to be jerked to a halt as his wrist yanked against something. He looked down and saw a pair of handcuffs attaching his wrist to the rail of the bed. Panic slowly began to rise inside him as he tried pulling his hand out of them to no avail.. Thankfully, he was alone for the moment so he took a breath to calm himself and went over what he could remember. He was getting beat up by the Dursleys when he felt a huge surge of anger he started doing things. Things that shouldn't be possible. Then he recalled feeling a massive amount of pain before it suddenly stopped and he fell unconscious. With this information he came to the only logical conclusion that someone his age could.
'I must be a superhero' he thought to himself unable to suppress his grin at the thought before suddenly becoming somber again as he realized where he was again.
'They've probably turned me in to the police, it's only a matter of time before I'm being experimented on like in those movies.' He was worried. The cops had never helped him before and they had no reason to start now. He needed to escape. Thinking back to what he did, he tried to bring up that feeling of having control again. It was surprisingly easy, all it took was a look at the cuffs and a small amount of focus for them to seemingly melt off his wrist. Upon gaining his freedom he crept over to the glass door of the hospital room to peek through a crack in the door. He saw two men in official looking black suits talking to the nurse at the information desk. Thankfully it was relatively quiet outside his room so he could listen in.
"We're looking for the room of Harry Potter." said the first man, a large african american gentleman with a shaved head. "We need to bring him with us to ask some questions about the events leading up to him being here." The second man stayed silent but just looked around nervously like he was uncomfortable in this environment. Harry didn't even stop to listen to the nurses response before he ran to the rooms bathroom and locked the door behind him
He needed to think. Where could he go from here? Going back to living with the Dursleys wasn't going to work and he didn't want to go to prison or worse for defending himself so that only left one option. He needed to disappear. But first he had to get out of here and get some supplies. He strained his mind for anything he'd done with his super power before that could help him here when suddenly the idea came to him. He remembered one time teleporting to the top of a building while he was being hunted by his cousin and his cousin's gang. With this occurrence in mind he brought up that feeling again that he now thought of as his 'powers' and thought real hard about the location he wanted to go. He concentrated on himself moving from point A to point B and he stepped forward like he was moving through a doorway. Immediately he felt as if he was flying through a vortex for a moment when it all stopped. He opened his eyes tentatively to find himself in his cupboard. Not wanting to make a lot of noise (and also wanting to test out his cool new 'powers') he focused on his back pack and it flew through the air into his hands. He opened it and proceeded to levitate all his clothes and what few belongings he'd been allowed to keep before zipping up the bag and using his teleportation to go to the only place he'd ever felt truly safe.
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Harry appeared silently in a park not far outside London that he and Dudley had once gone too for one of Dudley's birthdays. He knew they only invited him so they could have fun beating him up when the adults weren't looking so he ran into the woods connected to the park. He lost his cousin and his gang in the dense trees and eventually stopped to rest. As he examined his surroundings he noticed a hole at the bottom roots of the tree and that's where he found it. The hole was actually much larger on the inside actually being a cave with only one room formed of smooth stone that was relatively round. The entrance was at the edge and could be accessed via a slope of rock with enough cracks to form foot and hand holds. This was going to be the place Harry called home for the foreseeable future. He reached out with his powers to see if there were any animals but there seemed to only be a few bugs so he swept the ground close to the wall and spread out his blanket to get some rest. It really was a busy day and it was already getting dark.
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As the new day dawned for the first time ever Harry woke up not to the shouts of his relatives, but to the chirping of birds. He took a deep breath and smiled at the feeling of freedom. Things were not so calm elsewhere however...
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"WHAT DO YEH MEAN HE'S MISSUN?" came a loud voice with a rather strong scottish brogue. Dumbledore's office was almost full to capacity with people and all the nervous energy they all had about tem at this turn of bad news. The man himself sat ashen-faced behind his desk.
"I said exactly what I meant Minerva," he replied tiredly, " It appears that young Harry has gone missing and we have no trail as to where he went." He once again lamented the destruction of his magical tracking tools. The same explosion that took the device responsible for tracking his magic also destroyed the blood tracker and the device to keep track of ward strength. As he said this another murmur went through the gathered audience. Poor Minerva and Molly seemed to be positively distraught.
"What do we do now?" Dedalus shouted from the back. Dumbledore steepled his fingers in front of him in thought. Finally deciding on a course of action he raised his hands for silence and began speaking when he had it.
"As bad as it seems all is not lost. He has been registered for the school so on the eve of his 11th birthday the school herself will reveal his location. We can then retrieve him in mass if he has not revealed himself by then. He raised his hand again as several people made to protest "I am aware that it is far from ideal but I do not see any other course of action we can take. The world is far too big for a small group like ours to scour every inch of it," This mollified almost everyone with the exception of Molly who had always been stubbornly outspoken.
"What if he's hurt? What if he's even…" Molly couldn't finish her sentence turning to cry in her husband's shoulder as she became overwhelmed with emotion. Everyone became somber as they took in the reality of her words. They had failed Harry. First with the loss of his parents and now with him being spirited away by an unknown party. Slowly people began to filter out leaving only Minerva, Severus, and the Headmaster. They talked for a small while making plans for when Harry was revealed. This is where we leave off.
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Welp that's the first chapter. I don't know why but it's hard to get motivated to write. Especially long chapters like this. But I've done my best. Please R&R. Follow me if you feel like it. Until next time.