Chapter 8

For all intents and purposes, Harry was alone in the house. Not because he had been abandoned, but because his guardians had dropped him off at Mr. Lupin's for his usual visit (a schedule had been devised so they would see each other once a month, if not once a week). Mr. Lupin had been off on an errand, so Harry had let himself in using the hide away key the sandy haired man kept in the third vase on the left of the porch. While Harry had never been officially shown the key's hidey-hole, he had seen Mr. Lupin fish it out on several occasions. He also knew that his aunt would have waited until Mr. Lupin came home if he didn't let himself in to a more secure spot, and he would really rather not keep her waiting, people tended to get a tad grouchy when things like that happened. Besides, sitting out and waiting on the porch or in the car was just awkward.

The almost six year old boy had not taken into account just how boring a place could be without any form of companionship. The majority of his toys here he considered himself 'too old' for, and only inspected when he was feeling particularly curious. At the moment, he had not reached that crucial stage of boredom, and was therefore trying to think of something he could do other than homework. Not that he had a lot to begin with, but his teachers in his second year seemed to be rather fond of assigning projects that took up a bit more time than last year. Harry rather suspected that this would be a pattern, each year of school meaning an increased workload but also an increased knowledge base (to be fair, he didn't think of it in quite so many words). Because of this, he knew better than to complain, Dudley did enough of that anyway. No, Harry would keep his head down, and work on his words for phonics and all of the various rules that you had to memorize for just about anything. The more he knew, the more he understood, after all. And Harry's thirst for knowledge seemed to grow each day.

However, this did not mean he was in any particular rush to complete the money counting worksheet or his phonetics or anything of the sort. School had let out less than an hour ago, and Harry was rather keen on having a break of some kind.

Of course, his original plan of regaling Mr. Lupin with the story of today's events and trying to coax more information out about his parents was down the drain since the man wasn't here. So instead, he found himself out on the back patio, pushing a few matchbox cars around. Occasionally, he sent them wheeling off for as fast as long as possible with a single push. This however, meant he had to constantly get back up and retrieve them – or send them back from wherever they landed. While not a horrible sticking point, it certainly did not improve the 'bored out of my mind' mood.

A soft stirring in the grass behind him was the only indication Harry received that he was no longer alone. The raven haired boy was fairly unsurprised, having grown accustomed to having at least one if not two snakes in the vicinity of both his home, Mr. Lupin's, and even at school every once in a while. While he only saw the somewhat grouchy snake at school, everywhere else had at least two snakes in the area, which made for some rather interesting overheard conversations between his uncle and aunt about the growing population of snakes in the area. While Harry was by no means pleased with the options of either being deluded and insane because he thought he could speak to snakes, or actually being able to speak to snakes and having his guardians not tell him – he was willing to let it go. As far back as he could remember, there were things that did not add up, and this had never been denied, just put off. Well, he was 'older' now and it was about time someone let him in on whatever big secret there was.

Scowling, he sent the poor matchbox truck scurrying off the patio and into the grass with a particular vicious thrust. Unfortunately, given the amount of force he had applied, the tiny car had flown quite far. Mindful of his aunt's constant chidings to not track dirt into the house, he was slightly reluctant to fetch it as it would require quite a bit of stomping on the concrete to rid his shoes of the dirt and thus keep the nagging 'aunt' voice of his conscience happy. That was – until his silent watcher finally decided to chip in.

I always thought you two leggeds were a few shards short an egg.

Harry whirled to face the creature addressing him. Well, talking about him anyway.

What is that supposed to mean?

There isn't much point in throwing things just to bring them back, now is there?

Not all of us spend our time staring at others, was Harry's muttered reply, making a mental note that the snake at school was not the only one who was grumpy. Despite himself, Harry was curious though, finally mustering the courage to ask a question of the snakes that seemed to plague him.

What kind are you anyway? Harry thought it was a smooth snake, but it wouldn't hurt to check, right?

Kind of what?

Snake of course, what did you think I meant?

There was a moment of silence, and if Harry hadn't known better, he would have thought the snake had sneered at him.

I am as I was born, why should I know what you two leggeds call me? His tongue flickered out, tasting the air. Suddenly, his tone switched to something that almost sounded consoling. Of course, you are still a nestling. Why don't you look it up in one of those shredded dead trees your kind keeps? And in the meantime, if you insist on throwing and fetching things pointlessly, at least change things up. You'd think you only had hands, the way you act.

Giving the boy a look that could only be classified as disgruntled, he left the boy spluttering something about, 'what do you expect me to use, my feet?'

That had been the oddest conversation Harry had ever had with a snake. For the most part, their thoughts seemed fairly simple, although he had noticed that the longer they were around him, the more intelligent they sounded. This particular snake had visited him fairly frequently. And by frequently – he had seen it almost every visit he had with Mr. Lupin. Harry wasn't sure what to make of it. On the one hand, it could be his delusions were growing in strength; on the other hand, it was possible they were either opening up to him more, or the snakes actually became smarter for being exposed to him. Yet another question he would probably never know the answer to.

There was another puzzle to the snake's words though, and while he had snappily responded, he still wanted to know what else the snake thought he could use. What other method was there of retrieving something other than by hand?

Well, he supposed he could ask someone else to get it, but there was no one else here, and he had the impression it was something that could be done in the here and now. Besides, it was stupid to have someone else do something he could do himself, should do for himself, even. Otherwise any method was just plain lazy.

Focusing on the little toy car he could just make out in the grass, the young boy frowned in concentration. Fresh in his mind he studied all of the strange little inconsistencies that had been bugging him more and more of late, things that didn't make sense or shouldn't be possible.

Most prominently, he was trying to come up with something that involved calling objects to you. There was only one memory in particular that came to mind – three Christmases ago.

Feeling like an idiot, he tilted his head slightly, eyes still on the car and murmured a 'please'.

He was not in the least surprised when absolutely nothing happened. That would have been illogical; otherwise when anyone said please, things would come zooming at them. No, there had to be some element he was missing.

Squinting in concentration, he remembered all of the times he had ever been told to wait, that he couldn't know something, and he remembered all the questions that had led to that answer. They always seemed to occur when he was angry, upset, or scared or he really needed something.

He had no desire to work himself up into some sort of fit; although it would be easy to get upset, he rather thought it would end up having some peculiar and unpredicted reaction. So instead he concentrated on wanting the car.

There was a slight twitch, possibly from animal life.

Okay, that wasn't quite good enough.

Harry frowned, contemplative. He wanted that car and he *would have it. He could feel a slight tingle, perhaps of determination. Willing this mad idea to succeed, there was a strange sense of letting go, of believing anything might be possible, and believing in himself.

"Harry, what are you doing out there?"

The small boy whirled, a triumphant grin on his face.

'Perfect timing, Mr. Lupin', he thought to himself, tucking the toy car into his pocket and heading inside.

"Just playing around a bit."

"Hope we didn't keep you waiting too long," came another voice from behind Mr. Lupin.

"Hey Peter!" Harry gave them both a warm smile, laughing a little as Mr. Lupin pretended to sulk because he would call Peter by his name but kept forgetting to call *him Remus. There was just something more adult and mature in Mr. Lupin that was not there in Peter. Peter was the timid but friendly one who was always up for a card game or something silly. Peter was also the one who had convinced him that being a 'four eyes' wasn't all that bad. Harry had been put out when the nurse had informed him and his Aunt Petunia that he would need glasses. But the thought that having glasses made him more like his dad was actually a bit… appealing.

Fixing a curious gaze to Mr. Lupin, he almost asked about the snakes. He almost asked him about the strangeness that made no sense. He almost asked about the possibility of magic.

And then he thought better of it. If he asked now, he would probably be put off yet again. No, it would probably be better to come to a conclusion and then confront the adults about it. He just hoped Dudley would help. Two heads work faster than one.

Giving his minder a slight smile, he posed a different question.

"What are you showing me today?"

Dinner at the Dursley household always followed the same pattern. Dudley offered ideas and helped prepare, Aunt Petunia would cook, and Harry would carry the plates to the table. After all this, Uncle Vernon would regale them all with stories of his prowess at work as they ate (and make sure you boys are eating enough protein!). Then, after all of this was over, Harry would clean up as Aunt Petunia checked over their homework before letting them off to do as they wished.

Tonight was no different, no sooner had Aunt Petunia pat Dudley's head and praised, "Good job, Popkin," than Harry had whisked his cousin upstairs.

"Sorry D," he murmured apologetically as he closed the door to the toy room. He could tell his cousin was a bit upset by the rush but mostly confused. "I'm just so excited," he explained, "I think I'm close to figuring out what the big secret is."

"Wha – really?"

All was forgiven to Dudley with that one sentence. Harry had confided in him not too long ago. They had considered sharing with Linda at one point (Harry had categorically banned the mentioning of it to Piers), but had decided that this was a family thing. Therefore, it should be kept inside the family only. In retrospect, it was almost funny how they considered Mr. Lupin and Peter as family or honorary family members anyway, whereas they would not have dreamed of mentioning it to Aunt Marge.

Harry was nodding eagerly in response to his cousin's jumbled query though.

"Yeah, I saw one of those smooth snakes again. You remember the ones we looked up? Constrictors that look a little like adders but aren't venomous? Anyway, I was out just messing around and he said something about fetching the cars back without my hands."

"Well that's helpful," Dudley commented a bit sarcastically.

Harry just laughed, "Yeah, that's what I thought. But you won't believe it, Dud, I can do it! It was kinda tiring and it took a few tries but it was like… I willed it to me."

Dudley stared at him in shock for a few moments, and then whistled, "Wicked."

The raven haired boy smiled shyly. "Yeah, I thought so too."

The two boys say in silence for a little while, before the blonde spoke.

"Harry, do you… do you reckon I could do it to? M-magic I mean? Cause that's what it is, right? Or it might as well be…."

"I don't know," the smaller boy answered thoughtfully. "That's something else we have to find out I guess."

It was Dudley of course who asked the ultimate question.

"How?"

Fortunately for the two conspirators, Harry actually did have an idea. True, it was one he had only just come up with at Mr. Lupin's today, but it was a plan nonetheless.

"I've been thinking, you know how they always get all shifty whenever I bring up something strange or my parents?"

"They get sad when you mention your parents too."

"Well, yeah, but that's not the point. Of course they would be sad, my parents are dead. The weird stuff is still happening. Anyway, they get the same look about them, so I thought that maybe they might be related."

There were a few moments of silence as Dudley pondered this and Harry looked increasingly nervous.

"I suppose… maybe your parents could do this magic stuff. How does this help?"

"Maybe there are other people who can do it too, D. Maybe I can meet people, learn things. I don't think we should say anything until we are positive. We need proof."

It had taken quite a bit of convincing, but Dudley did manage to convince his mother to let him borrow some old family albums of when she was younger. Petunia had not really seen the point of course, but he emphasized Harry's point of wanting to 'get to know the family'. And since all of Petunia's relatives were dead, what better way?

Once the albums were secure, it had taken another little while to find anything interesting whatsoever. And interesting was putting it mildly. Trying to spot Petunia or Lily was an odd sort of guessing game. To the boys' disappointment, all of the pictures stored inside the relevant year brackets were perfectly normal. True, the redhead they could only assume was Lily was rather absent after the age of eleven or so (based on the years labeled lightly on the back), but other than that there was nothing out of the ordinary. All except for one photo, it was taken outside of a dingy area of London and Lily seemed to be in some sort of Halloween costume – complete with a witches' hat. The only other person strangely attired was an intense looking dark haired boy who seemed to be Lily's very antithesis. Where one was bright sunshine the other was night and moonlight. Still, they were visibly close, and would have to be to be brave enough to wear that sort of outfit around London in Harry's opinion.

As interesting as the image was, and as lovely of a clue, neither boy felt it was enough to draw conclusions from. The idea of magic made sense enough to their minds, but the idea of people wearing those stereotypical outfits? Well, as Dudley put it, he wasn't sure magic was worth having to wear a dress. Some sacrifices had to be made for dignity.

Still, they pocketed the picture when Dudley returned the albums to his mum. Harry would spend quite a bit of time over the next few days staring at the photo. He felt like there was some answer to the secret here, if only he could spot it.

Not that he had loads of time to look at it. Mr. Lupin had started to teach him chess. While Harry was not outstandingly great at it, he was learning. He had also slipped and asked 'Uncle Remus' if they could play checkers as well. Strangely, Mr. Lupin had not seemed to mind his lapse in the least, wearing an odd smile for the rest of the day.

The only other noted difference was that Harry was tired a lot more lately, something Petunia had noticed with a bit of concern. He'd come home from school looking bushed, but as soon as he had eaten something and taken a cat nap and he would be raring to go to practice football with his friends or to go play down at the park with Dudley. It really was the strangest thing, seeing as he had never shown signs of being sleepy after school before.

The two boys both knew why Harry was tired though. The cousins had both attempted to use magic at recess, and while Dudley eventually gave up from lack of results, Harry, however, had been practicing calling things to him and sending them away. It was rather difficult, but it seemed to get easier with practice – so practice was precisely what he did. He and Dudley had also been trying to come up with other tricks for Harry to try. If all else failed, performing actual magic would be as good as proof anyway. After all, the only thing they had found in the photograph was two oddly dressed people with three normally dressed folks, a blurred but dingy background, and a street sign that read Charing Cross Road.