Thanks to Silverly for proofreading. I own nothing.

Prologue III

July 25, 1986

It had been over a week since Waver's longtime suspicions had been confirmed.

The strange occurrences that Waver's life had been filled with began when he was five. He had been spending free time at school attempting to read in peace, when a group of other children much bigger than him started to harass him. Since he had been against a wall at the time, he didn't really have any means to get away (though he wouldn't have been able to outrun them even if he did). The three boys had only gotten a few remarks off before they had all been knocked back by something, as if some large, invisible, burly man had spawned from nowhere to defend Waver, and they fell unconscious. Needless to say, they did not try to bother him again after that.

Waver wasn't blamed for the students' injuries when he reported it, even if he wasn't believed when he provided the explanation "it just happened" and was suspected as covering for the "real" assailant in his report. Waver was glad the other students had ceased bothering him, however. Despite that, there was a feeling of empathy Waver had tried very hard to beat back, telling himself "they would have hurt me, they deserved it" over and over. The three bullies had been rather severely injured by the magic, and looking at them lay there, still and unmoving aside from shaking breaths, was not something Waver saw often. And it was something he'd very much rather never see again.

Waver had eventually realized that every one of the occurrences were tied to dealing with something annoying him, through some experiments involving his door locking itself depending on whether he "wanted" to let his mother drag him out. When he specifically told his mother that she could drag him out of his room, and he waited patiently for her to do so, the door did not seem to lock itself. Waver's mother always claimed the door was simply off-center when it refused to budge, but Waver believed that had that been the case, it wouldn't be so consistent in matching what he wanted. In the then nine-year-old Waver's mind, if he was the source of the occurrences, then that must mean he could control them somehow. He'd certainly tried, with a small amount of success. The most he'd ever achieved was replication of the fake lock on his door.

The one success was enough to convince Waver though. The bizarre luck set him apart from the masses that were his peers. The fact that he could control that luck in some way just put him further above them. More than his prized intellect already did, anyway. The feeling of self importance that defined Waver caused him to respond poorly if anyone or anything looked down on him. Which, unfortunately, had been exactly what happened in that robe shop, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

The mere thought of the conversation made Waver's blood boil as he poured over A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot. The older student had looked down on him, scoffed at him, for something as simple as his mother (and presumably his long-dead father) being non-magical? Why did that matter? Waver had, at the time, wanted very much to do something to exert control over the situation. But he was powerless. He was too frail and small-statured to land an effective physical strike, and being eleven and ignorant of the wider magical world until the prior day, he had essentially no proper magical training at all. Likewise, his ignorance about magical culture led to essentially no avenues being available of talking the boy down, though not for lack of trying.

Professor McGonagall's probing didn't help. When she asked, he wasn't going to humiliate himself further by admitting what happened. He had the impression that she realized anyway, given her line of questioning, which was bothersome. He doubted she meant any harm, and it even seemed more likely that she was trying to help. But to Waver, it just made him feel more humiliated.

Since buying the books, Waver had spent essentially all his time reading them cover to cover whenever he was not eating or sleeping. He'd already gotten through three, with A History of Magic being the fourth. Having these was a great comfort, in a way. Books wouldn't judge him like that boy had. Books shared their supply of knowledge equally.

Waver glanced at the sheet of paper he used to track the days until September 1st. Thirty-seven more to go. Time permitting, he'd be able to go through certain more confusing portions of his textbooks twice to make absolutely sure he understood them in full.

He truthfully wanted to try some of the things described in his textbooks, but Professor McGonagall had explicitly forbade him from actually trying anything before she left. It was illegal, apparently, to use magic outside of class prior to turning seventeen.

A banging at the door snapped Waver out of his thoughts. His mother had evidently just arrived home for the evening, and was once again determined to make him spend time with her instead of read. Waver had already eaten his dinner, and knew she'd likely give up if he simply ignored her enough.

It was annoying though. And according to Professor McGonagall, the accidental casting would likely settle down soon unless he got very angry, so the door sealing would, soon enough, no longer be reliable for keeping his mother out of his room.

He didn't understand why his mother was so… pushy. He read because he wanted to. Couldn't she just take the hint and leave him to it? Wasn't his thirst for knowledge a good thing? If he learned enough, he wouldn't have to live as they currently did. It wasn't the reason he valued knowledge as he did, but that alone should have convinced her in Waver's mind, yet in reality it didn't.

He glanced at his makeshift calendar again as his mother's banging at the door started to become more sporadic.

"This will be a long month," Waver sighed as he closed A History of Magic so that he could go to bed.

Not much to say about this. It's mostly just Waver's perspective on the last two chapters' events.

Review Replies:

Zentari2238: I'm sorry but... I'm not sure why you expected otherwise. He's eleven at this point, and has basically never left his hometown prior to Professor McGonagall showing up. Having him have his post-character development characterization right off the bat just... it wouldn't make any sense, and would be completely untrue to the character to boot. You can rest assured that he will get some development to be less of a... well, I can think of several words to put here, but for the sake of the rating I'll refrain. Just not in the exact same way as in canon because I can't think of a reasonable way to include Rider.

PasiveNox: Thanks.

-Glace