Alter Forte: Chapter 1

Whatever Brian had been expecting he went to bed last night, this certainly wasn't it. He'd realized immediately upon waking up that something was wrong. The room with bright baby blue walls completed by the little clouds on them and bright light shining in through the windows was a pretty stark contrast to the dark gray walls of the room darkened by blackout curtains that he'd gone to sleep in. That being said, it took him a few moments to understand just how much of an understatement of his situation that was.

"My body is too small," He realized, jumping into an upright position in the bed he was in as the implications of that sunk in. He glanced down at his body, inspecting his hands that now looked far stubbier and smaller than he remembered, before he took another look around the room he found himself in. It wasn't even close to his bedroom, even excluding the bright windows and blue walls he'd already noticed. A child's toys were scattered across the room, a train set off in one corner while a fairly impressive collection of stuffed animals resided in the corner closer to his bed. A dresser and a small play table that was clearly meant for a young child were the only pieces of furniture in the room aside from the bed he was sitting in. Noticing a mirror attached to one of the two doors in the room he got out of bed, his legs struggling to reach the floor as he jumped down. Walking over to the mirror its reflection only confirmed what he'd been considering ever since he'd realized the size of his new body.

Staring back at him was a child that looked to be around three or four. Not himself as a child at that age mind you, but an entirely different child with bright blonde hair and blue eyes that was a stark contrast to the dark black hair and brown eyes he'd had even as a toddler in his childhood. To make matters even more strange, he was dressed in a fuzzy red onesie as pajamas. There was no question about it. Somehow, though the specifics of it certainly escaped him, he'd ended up in a different body.

"What the fuck!" He yelled, wincing slightly at the rather irritating squeak that his voice had become. Unfortunately for him, right as he started speaking, the other door in his room swung open, revealing a short woman with hair a similar shade of blonde to his own.

"Brian! What are you doing up already? And more importantly, where did you hear those words?" The woman asked, her tone becoming falsely sweet at the end in a way that Brian was intimately familiar with from his past life. Well, at least that answered his question of who the woman was. He needed to stay calm, he couldn't let her find out anything was wrong, especially until he figured out exactly where it was he'd ended up.

"She's definitely my mother, at least my name's the same in this life too," He thought to himself with a mental snort at the realization that even wherever he was now, that falsely sweet tone that promised danger if he answered in the wrong way hadn't changed. More interestingly though, was the fact that her accent wasn't American like he'd been during his past life. It sounded distinctly British. He hadn't really been paying attention to his own voice, the annoyingly high pitch of it had distracted him, but his mother's voice had made him realize the difference.

"Hi mommy! I thought I saw a monster in the mirror, so I got up to go look!" He answered, trying his best to deflect her second question.

"Uh-huh, and those words I heard you saying mister? You wanna explain those too?" The woman asked, walking closer and narrowing her eyes as she crouched down beside him. Well, there was nothing for it, he had no other choice.

"Daddy taught me! He stubbed his toe and yelled it reallllyy loud!" He explained happily.

"Oh is that so?" I'll be right back to help you get dressed and get you some breakfast sweetie, just wait right here and play with your toys," His mother said, the false sweet tone back in her voice as she turned around. Brian winced slightly as she walked away.

"Sorry Dad, I tried not resorting to this, it wasn't anything personal I swear," He apologized mentally. He took a moment, doing his best to calm the inner turmoil he was feeling as he tried to think through his situation. He just needed to stay calm and figure things out from there. First of all, just where the hell was he? His mother's voice had sounded British which was the only real clue he had aside from the modern setting. He could only think of a handful of novels he'd read that took place in a fairly modern setting. Any of them could potentially fit wherever he seemed to be now based on the lightbulb he could see in the middle of the room, so he didn't really have much to go on. That was assuming he'd actually been reincarnated into an environment he was familiar with. For all he knew he might've ended up in some random world he'd never even heard of before. He didn't know how he'd ended up here, so he had no real idea where the hell he was either.

"For the time being there's not much I can do but wait and see I suppose, I'll do my best to prepare either way. My mother said she'd be back to dress me but if it's all the same to her, I'd rather not have someone looking at me naked, mother or not." He pondered to himself, shrugging himself out of his thoughts and opening his closet door. Reaching the shirts was a difficult task with his rather limited height but he managed. Noticing a hamper hidden away in the closet, he quickly stripped down, taking off the onesie someone had cursed him with as quickly as possible and chucking his pajama clothes inside. Easily finding the rest of his clothes in the dresser sitting next to his bed, he dressed himself, frowning slightly as his hands struggled to do as he told them.

"Great, I should've expected this, my coordination is shot to hell now that I'm a child again," He realized with a frown. That was something he was going to need to work on. No matter what world he's in, coordination would probably help. Right as he finished putting on his socks, his mother came back into the room, freezing as she saw him fully dressed already.

"Brian! I told you I was going to help you honey, when did you learn to dress yourself?" She asked, surprised. Brain smiled up at her, running forward and giving her a hug.

"Just now mommy! I'm a big boy!" He said happily. Internally, he winced again. Acting like a toddler was going to be a trying process. Hopefully, with some careful acting on his part, he could just slowly act less and less like a child over the next couple years until it seemed he just matured faster than the normal kid.

"Yes, well, I suppose you are, if you managed to get dressed by yourself, I'm proud of you," She said with a smile, "Are you ready to go eat some breakfast?"

"Breakfast? Yummy!" He replied, allowing a wide grin to appear on his face as he ran towards the door with what he hoped seemed like childish excitement. He was quite hungry at the moment after all. That leaving his room and exploring the house a bit might help him to discover more about wherever the hell he was? Merely a happy coincidence.

"Okay then buddy, lets go," His mother answered with a laugh, following after him. Luckily for Brian his room was at the top of the stairs, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to assume the kitchen would be on the ground floor. Racing down them, he managed to get about halfway to the bottom before his mother finally reached the top of the stairs.

"Brian! How many times am I going to have to tell you to hold the rail when you're going down the stairs? If you keep doing this you're going to have to go back to having me carry you down. I don't want you to fall!" He heard her call down after him as she saw him.

"Well that's hardly fair, I've never once been told that, even if you've told child me before," He grumbled to himself internally, grabbing the rail as he did so. Though that thought did raise a question that he hadn't considered until that moment.

"What happened to the child whose body this is, did I replace them or was it me the whole time and I just don't have my memories of those years for some reason?" He wondered, doing the mental equivalent of a shrug. Either way there wasn't much he could do about it for the moment. Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, he took a proper look around the ground floor.

Off to the left was what looked like a living room, complete with a couch, small end table and even a large reclining chair. What drew his attention though, was the TV in the room. It was a large blocky style that he'd never seen in person before, though he'd seen pictures in the past. Wherever he was, the time period looked to be somewhere in the 1970s to 1990s, if the style of the furniture and the television was any indication at least. To the right, was the cozy little kitchen and dining room with a fully wooden table with matching chairs as well as a highchair. At the table, a man sat reading what looked like a newspaper with a cup of something sitting in front of him on the table.

"So this is my new dad huh? Could be worse, I suppose," Brian thought to himself, scanning over the man. He was tall, probably six foot two or three if his estimations were correct, with broad shoulders and a shade of blonde so light it looked almost platinum. With any luck, he'd inherit the man's height, finally blessing him with a height above the five foot range that he'd been cursed with in his past life.

"Good morning Sport!" The man greeted Brian cheerfully, pulling Brian from his thoughts.

"Good Morning Dad! Watchu reading?" He asked, craning his neck in an attempt to read the paper the man was holding. As a newspaper, it should've had a date somewhere on it that would've finally told him the exact year it was.

"Just the daily paper, probably a little boring for you kiddo," He said with a smile, his eyes glancing behind Brian for a minute, his smile faltering slightly as he did so.

"Hello there darling, ready for some breakfast?" Brian heard his mother's voice from behind him, her tone slightly cold, no doubt still mad at him for the frame job Brian had masterfully set up.

"Of course dear, just talking to Brian here about the paper a bit!" The man said, ending his sentence with a smile towards where Brian was standing.

"Oh? Anything interesting?" His mother asked his father, trying to lift Brian into the highchair next to where his father was sitting as she did so. Brian, caught by surprise, struggled slightly as she lifted him.

"I wanna sit in the regular chair like a big kid!" He yelled, kicking his legs slightly to get the point across. He'd be put in a damn highchair over his dead body. Having to be picked up just to sit at the table was beyond annoying, it was downright demeaning and it was best he tried to nip this in the bud.

"Oh my! Brian you haven't complained about your highchair before, is there something wrong with it?" His mother asked, setting him back down on the floor as his Dad looked on in what looked like amusement.

"I just want to sit at the table like Dad and you," Brian explained in a small voice, looking up at her and activating the one ultimate weapon every child possessed, puppy dog eyes.

"Oh- well, I suppose if that's what you want-" His mother said, smiling slightly at him before his father interrupted.

"Here Brian you can sit where your highchair normally goes, but in a regular chair instead," His father finished, moving his highchair out of the way and replacing it with one of the other wooden chairs he'd seen around the room.

"Anyway honey, to answer your question, there's not anything too important in the paper today, though apparently Spain and the United Kingdom are discussing potentially reopening the border between Gibraltar and Spain," He answered, sipping on the cup he'd had resting in front of him as his mother watched Brian climb into the chair beside his father with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Oh? That's been closed for just over ten years now hasn't it?" His mother asked curiously, moving into the kitchen as she did so. She began scooping what looked like eggs, bacon and toast onto the plates, at least from what Brian could see from where he sat, listening to his mother and father's conversation with not a small amount of interest.

"Damn, I wish I was more of a history nerd, I have no idea what the hell they're talking about when they say Gibraltar and Spain's border. To be honest I don't even know what the hell Gibraltar is. Would it be too terribly out of place for a child to ask about it?" Brian pondered to himself, considering the question. In the end he decided not to, he could always just read the paper later if he could get a hold of it out of sight from his parents later.

"You're correct darling, according to the paper it closed in April 1969, so this next month it'll be eleven years that it's been closed," He said with a smile towards her as she walked over to the table, managing to balance all three plates in her arms. Brian barely paid any attention to his mother though, processing his father's words.

"11 years next month, so that makes the date March of 1980? That means the Cold War is still in full swing! Hell the Berlin Wall is still up at this point in history. What worlds do I know of that took place during this time period? I can't think of any off the top of my head, but that doesn't mean there weren't any… just where the hell am I?" Brian wondered to himself, so deeply lost in thought, he didn't register his mother setting his food down in front of him until he suddenly heard her calling his name.

"Alright Brian, what do you want to drink today?" She asked cheerfully, smiling widely at him as she pulled him from his thoughts again. What wouldbe the best drink for him? Assuming he wanted to grow better than he did in his past life probably…

"Milk!" He answered, making sure he put the annoying enthusiasm into his response that he remembered children having.

"Okay then give me just a second sweetheart," She told him, walking back to the kitchen.

"Don't worry Sport, we'll get you drinking some good old English Tea one of these days," His father spoke up from beside him with a wink, setting down his newspaper as he started to dig into his breakfast with relish,

"He'd better not be! You put so much sugar in yours that it's a miracle all your teeth haven't rotted away," Brian's mother spoke up, walking back towards the table with a cup in each hand.

"Here you go Brian," She said, starting to set one of the cups down in front of him. Before she could though, she tripped on something on the floor, starting to fall and causing both cups to fly out of her hands. Brian reached without thinking, flinging his hands out to catch the cups. To his shock, without even being able to touch the cups, they froze in midair, the liquid that was partly spilled out and on its way towards the table flowing backwards in midair as it reentered the cups.

"Am I levitating something!?" Brian thought to himself in utter shock as he watched the two cups slowly levitate and set down on the table. He'd been considering that he was in a potentially made up world but it was another thing to see what pretty much had to be super-powers of some form in action. His parents though, both froze as they watched his display of powers, his father glancing towards his mother who had frozen part way through attempting to catch the cups when Brian had caught them for her. The two exchanged a look as his father quickly hurried to his feet and rushed over to his mother.

"Are you alright honey?" He asked loudly in concern, almost causing Brian to miss the words he mumbled into his mothers ear right afterward, "We'll talk about it tonight."

"I'm alright Darling, just tripped on one of Brian's toys," She said with a smile, crouching down and picking up the offending object, a small toy train from the looks of doubtit. She never once gave any indication she'd heard her husband's words. Brian though, couldn't exactly pretend he hadn't just levitated two cups and the liquid inside them. Even a kid wouldn't shrug something like that off.

"Mommy? Dad? What happened to our cups?" He asked curiously as he thought over what had just happened. He wondered if they had any clue what was going on with him. He could think of only a handful of books with powers of some form displaying themselves in childhood.

"Though even out of those books, there's not many that take place during the 1980s… I didn't really consciously control whatever it was I did either, it kind of happened on its own when I wanted it to," Brian considered, thinking rapidly.

' "What about the cups Brian? Yours is right in front of you? Be sure you eat up so you can grow up big and strong like your mother and I," His father explained, a forced smile appearing on his face. It took him a few more moments of thinking through each of the worlds he knew of before he realized just where it was he had ended up. His parents both utterly refused to acknowledge what had happened with the cups, so Brian was forced to drop the topic. He continued eating his breakfast, doing his best to go through the motions of eating with the family all whilst trying to solve the puzzle he found himself in. It was 1980, eight years before the events of the books, he was somewhere in Britain, and he had some form of power that seemed to do whatever he wanted it to…

"Holy shit! I'm a wizard!" He realized, doing his best to keep the realization off his face as he put the pieces together. The wizarding world's setting fit perfectly into the puzzle of where he was. Still, that raised problems of its own. He had a lot of planning to do if he wanted to be ready for the events of the books.

"Lets see, assuming I'm three now and it's 1980, that puts me… three, years above Harry, maybe two depending on when I was born, I'll need to use those years in Hogwarts as best I can," He thought to himself, planning in his head as breakfast continued.

The rest of breakfast was a relatively subdued affair, Brian enjoying his mother's hot homemade breakfast while his parents talked, carefully avoiding any mention of the incident a few moments prior. He'd grown up in his past life consuming large quantities of cereal for breakfast so the change was a welcome one.

After his father finished eating he quickly told them both goodbye and left for work. Still, one thing was clear from his parents' complete denial of the incident with the cups, they knew something about him having magic, and Brian intended to find out what. There was no doubt in Brian's mind where he was after the incident with the cups a few moments before, he was in the world of Harry Potter and he needed to do everything he could to prepare.

AN: Hopefully those of you who made it this far enjoyed the first chapter! Whether you enjoyed it or not, if you made it this far please leave a review and tell me what you thought and how I could improve, it would mean a lot to me. I have the major arcs of the story up until the ending planned out, though I have yet to write all of them fully, this story should be around 100k-150k words long by the end. The next chapter will be posted within seven days. Hopefully I'll see you there. Edit: A reviewer pointed out that Brian realized where he was rather quickly given the circumstances, I agreed and so I've revised that a bit.