A/N:

updated 11/19/13

1991-

Eli sighed with exasperation. Sometimes he truly thought hexing the bloody muggles into the ground was the only thing he would ever be satisfied by.

But then he would recall fondly The Dark Lady and all her death had given him. It was a warm rush of feelings he could only associate with magic. Magic that he had. Just him, all the other orphans were filth.

Below him.

Less.

He accepted the title he had once hated, freak, after all it was true.

He was a freak of nature.

Not natural in the non-magic view these filthy catholic muggle bastards had. They had thought to 'fix' him as they called it. But with the death of his Dark Lady an abyss had opened, pouring forth a torrent of ability's once hidden. So he took their words and twisted it to make him stronger. Used the hate to build himself up and played on it.

A week after the Dark Lady died he began to notice sometimes the colors and smells lingering around a few people visiting the Church or Orphanage, or just walking down the street. He also noticed that some of the things he could do that the other children couldn't.

Sometimes when they pushed him down, the ground was cushioned, in a deliberate sort of way even if it was asphalt. Sometimes when he was so scared and wished to go back to his cupboard where he was safe he was simply there.

Other more mundane things occurred just as often. His hated, untamed mat of black curls were cropped more than once and yet...No matter what Sister Aggie did his hair refused to change style or length and while it infuriated The Sisters it made him giddy with power. To control even that one small thing about himself made him more than happy.

And one day, not a month after the Dark Lady died Eli saw one of the people with the pretty colors and strange smells do something like he did.

The woman was indistinct to his childish mind but he recalled her aura and scent so clearly.

She was covered from head to foot in what seemed to be a thin film, like a full body glove. It was transparent and a rippling torrent of pale purple and ivory white fluctuating sporadically with different levels of glowing light.

Her smell was of peaches, thick and cloying almost too heavy to breathe around.

And then she waved her stick in front of a door and whispered "Alohomora" quietly. The door in front of her simply sprang open. All on its own. She was like him!

After that day he watched. The Dark Lady's death had given over the once slightly optimistic and, despite all the cruelty, Child like boy he had been to a child with a mind full of brooding anger and indistinct need to understand. And now this happening, this revelation, gave him something to focus on. It was outside the disgust leveled at him daily. It was different from the through neglect he had for years ignored. It was something no one else at the orphanage could take and corrupt.

He watched for months until one day he had a spur of insight. These people wandered yes, but they had purpose. They were going someplace. And he wanted to know where. It was someplace special.

So he followed them that day.

He hid in shadows and followed after one of the glowing beautiful people.

The man he fallowed was a tall blond with an aura the shade of the glittering grass snake that was the cause for the words carved in his chest, the smell that was drifting so enticingly behind him was a delicate balance of citrus and spice, something supremely unique. What had drawn him to the man was the uniqueness of him overall.

He was tall and blond with delicate features and haughty silver eyes. He was one of a handful of people with a single colored aura, and a complicated smell. He was exotic and Eli wanted to know where he was going.

His was mildly disappointed when the man when to a common pub. It was dingy and rundown but even so, many people with scents and colors came in and out.

The green man sneered at some who passed and nodded regally to others. Everyone seemed to clear a path before him. Fascinating.

Eli couldn't bear to let the man out of sight so he fallowed as stealthily as he could manage as the man waded the crowded bar room and down to a garden out back. The garden was fairly plain, uncommon plants nowhere to be found. Just disappointing everyday occurrences.

Until the man brought out the stick. It was a high glossed polish, ebony wood with fine grains and a tarnished silver handle. It would have looked like a girly artifact with the rose vine pattern, with the one fine rose and a single leaf and thorn reaching up past the grip, except for the obvious air of solid masculinity. And that stick glowed. Oh how it shined. It was beyond comparison with the richest metals, even the ever-bright aura's around the special people was nothing in comparison.

The man tapped a sequence on the solid brick wall at the back of the garden and a new world exploded into being. Eli's eyes were beginning to water and sting with the glows hovering all around the colorful alley way the man was exploring. And yet he was drawn forward. He fallowed further into the world of lights and beauty.

And that was the beginning of a whole new existence for Eli.

At first he just explored.

Took in the apothecary, lined with what he soon found were potion ingredients. Wandered about in the Magical Menagerie with the wild menagerie of exotic animals and birds, he spoke to some of the most terrific snakes and met creatures he'd read of in story books. He saw the wizard bank, run by goblins.

Wizard. That was what they were, they preformed magic.

He listened to gossip as women shopped for potion ingredients and debated charms. He found out about the Dark Lord and Light Lord, he wondered if they had something to do with his Dark Lady. He heard about the politics and the rational behind it all. He heard of Muggles, what they called the normal scum, and the purebloods, which were all magic.

And he wanted to know more.

It took months, but finally, after many a mishap; he stole enough money from the Sisters donation trays, the muggles on the street, and even other older children in the orphanage. He reasoned that they owed him after all, it was his right as a wizard, and they had tortured him. He then made his way to the goblin bank and traded the English pounds for galleons, gold coins, sickles, silver coin, and knuts, copper coins.

His first stop was a shop that sold the magical sticks, wands he had heard from a red-haired plump witch with an endless array of children and a loud mouth. The best shop was Ollivanders, so he went there.

An old man, owlish eyes and an expression of utter fascination who looked not at him, but around him. It took him only a second to catch on, he was watching the aura, the glow, Eli's magic. After discovering magic it hadn't' taken him long to realize why only wizards glowed, he was seeing the physical showing of each persons powers.

Eli was intrigued, of all the people he'd seen none had seemed to see like he did, even among wizards, but this man did. He'd never seen his own aura, and it worried him, he also wondered, what colors could it be? Was it as bright as some? Was he to dim to perform some of the daring feats of others?

So he did as any child would in his place, he asked.

"What color is it? Can you smell me as well?" Eli's voice was eager and excited.

And somewhere in the depths of the Department of Mysteries in the Hall of Prophecy a sphere shattered and a destiny was found as this one question changed an entire path set before him at birth.

The old man's silver eyes widened and he looked honestly shocked.

"My dear boy, whatever do you mean?" he queried in a tone that bordered on respect. Eli swelled with it. Finally someone who could see that he deserved it. So he treated the man as though he were on his level, something he would not dare do at the orphanage, with the filthy caretakers and muggle brats.

" Well Mr. Ollivander you have a kind of throbbing bright glow of canary yellow and magenta, it doesn't swirl like some peoples, but pulse's. It expands far beyond your body as well, I have found older wizards settled with their magic tends to do that." He stopped and considered the pungent scent thoughtfully. "I'd say your smell was that of old books and leather, but I can't be sure, it's rather musky though."

The man had taken a step forward. "Indeed my boy? You, can you see everyone's light?"

Again the respect was most gratifying. "Yes. Well, no, I can only see people's glow if they have magic, and I can't smell everyone." He considered that thought, but pushed it away for later, this man deserved his attention, plus he really wanted to know his color, and smell hopefully.

Taking a dozen steps behind Eli the man closed and locked the door, waving a hand and shutting the curtains as well, instantly Eli was on guard. Ollivander turned and smiled at him, looking in his eyes this time.

"Come, let us have some tea"

Eli was hesitant but he needed his wand soon, before he could learn really, so he followed. Keeping weary as he went of the older man who now had him alone, with no one to miss hi if he never went back to the orphanage.

He was led into a back room with a desk cover in feathers and wood chips. The man snapped and a platter with tea and another chair were instantly on the desk.

Eli sat gingerly and watched the man pour the tea. "My name is Augustine Ollivander. Call me Auggie please" Eli nodded, taken aback by the familiarity this adult gave him.

"My name is Charlus Eli Arcturus James sir, Call me Eli"

The man grinned widely showing more teeth than necessary.

"Now Eli, before you asked what I saw, and smelled when I was watching your aura. Do you know what The Sight means?"

The old man went deep into the world of new and exciting and better that was just for Eli. It was the beginning of the discovery of his fate.

StarGuide2011