Harry Potter - Superhero
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter works belong to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 02: Every hero needs a guide
Arabella Figg was concerned. As a squib there were only a few magical things she can do. One of them was communicating in a sort of way with her Kneazles, which looked like large house cats. Very few people think twice about a squib in the magical world. One of those few was Albus Dumbledore. When he asked Arabella to keep an eye on Harry Potter, she readily agreed.
And over time she kept an eye on the lad, if not overtly. She knew there was no love for Harry within the Dursley household. She saw how he stayed silent whenever she was asked to look after him for a few hours. There was no curiousness that one can expect in a child and he accepted whatever she gave him. She told Dumbledore that Dursley's were no good for someone like Harry. But he said the same thing he always did. As long as he wasn't abused, it was the safest place for Harry.
And so she kept quite and made sure the lad was safe from external and internal threats as best as she could. But recently in the last few months, something has changed with Harry. He developed a keen friendship with the local librarian and her boy friend. They were clearly muggles and obviously cared for the boy, if the many hugs the woman gave the child were any indication. And recently he had been spending time at their place, though he always came back home to sleep. That was until today. He saw the woman, Jessica Smith, arrive in a taxi with Harry and drop him of at the Dursley's doorstep.
Arabella had been awake all night to make sure Harry got home safe. She was about to call Dumbledore in another couple of hours, when she saw the taxi. She was pleased with the way the woman looked at Harry. It was that of a mother looking at her child. If anyone deserves happiness it was Harry. Dumbledore told her to let him know if any new adults were to come into Harry's life. She smirked as she got back to her home and closed the door. It wasn't her fault if she thought he only meant wizards or witches. Why would 2 muggles matter really? Indeed.
By the time Mike was out of the hospital and back on his two feet it was mid June. Harry spent few hours every weekend in the hospital helping Mike get better. It took him a whole three days to get his full energy back after saving Mike. On the first weekend since the accident, he made sure that he was alone with Mike and Jess. He developed a skill for just this occasion. He let his power flow around the door and windows of the room Mike was in, creating a protective layer against overhearing. He called it the Silencer. To that, he added another layer of forget-me and he was good to go. Now, even while people walked by the room, they won't hear a thing. After that he explained to a wild eyed Jess and Mike about his powers and how he helped Mike. Then he showed them by fixing Mike's broken leg ever so slightly. Both the adults agreed that such a power needs to be kept a secret and anything more than what Harry did in a single day might be suspicious.
So Harry took his time and helped Mike get better slowly. He still reduced his recovery time by 50%, which impressed the two adults and made Harry very proud and happy.
Mike and Jess lay in each other's hands after finishing up with strenuous and enjoyable bed activities.
"I want to adopt Harry."
Mike who was stroking Jess' hair stopped for a second, surprised. "You want to adopt Harry?"
"Yeah. He's such a great kid. Those relatives of his don't deserve him."
Mike didn't answer at first and Jess pinched his hand. "Ouch! That hurt." She pinched him again. "Okay… okay… I got the point. You know I don't mind. He saved my life. The least I could do is give him a decent life. But what about him? What would he say?"
"I don't know," responded Jess slowly.
And so Harry was happily surprised when both Jess and Mike asked him that same question on his weekend visit to their home.
He hugged Jess and cried in her arms. This was something he always wanted. "Thanks Jess. I really love to. But the Dursleys will never go for it."
Jess pursed her lips in anger. "Oh! I will make them pay if they don't. One phone call to social services about your sleeping arrangements will do the trick."
Harry shook his head. "No Jess. I might not like it there, but getting them in trouble will only make it worse. And I don't want anyone poking into what's happening around me. You are the only two people who know about my power and I would like to keep it like that."
Jess tried to protest. "But Harry, what they're doing…"
"It's nothing Jess," said Harry cheekily, "and with my powers they forget about me most of the time."
After a few more arguments, both Jess and Mike gave up on the adoption topic.
"So little hero, what other things can you do?"
Harry smirked. He took a step and disappeared with a soft pop appearing behind Mike instantly. "Bloody Hell, mate!" exclaimed Mike, while Jess stared at him with wide eyes.
"So can you go anywhere like that?"
Harry smiled. This was the first chance he got a chance to show his skills in other than curing people. "Only to places I have been before."
"Can you take me?" asked Mike.
"Umm… I never tried. You two are really the only people I told about my powers. Want to try?"
"Sure!" shouted Mike happy about being involved with super powers.
So Harry took Mike's hand and concentrated for a second, asking his power to take Mike as well and he successfully teleported a few feet. Mike looked a little unbalanced and pale upon entry, but he shrugged it off. "Felt like I was being squeezed through a tube."
Harry nodded. "Takes time to get used to it."
"I want to try as well." And so Harry took Jess for a trip across few feet.
And later on he showed them all the things he could do, including making Mike forget about them. Every time he tried to find them, he remembered something else, which amused Jess.
After a while, Mike got a thoughtful expression on his face. "You know, Harry, your power resembles something like magic. I remember ready comics and later novels on Merlin and other wizards."
Harry nodded. "I thought about it, especially since my relatives always said that there was no such thing as magic. But all the wizards I read about always needed a staff or some other thing, including Gandalf the grey, so I thought my power was something else."
"Good point. So what else are you planning to try?"
Here Harry smirked. "I want to fly."
Jess laughed aloud. "Only you Harry can say something like that and make it happen. Have you tried it?"
He shook his head. "Most of the stuff I have been doing other than Teleporting only needs my hands. But for flying, I need my legs. I am done though. I can hold my power for three hours in both my hands and legs." Then he smiled shyly. "I was hoping you guys would be there to watch me take off for the first time."
Bothe the adults smiled lovingly at the wonder kid. "In this case, I insist. But I have a question. Won't everyone see if you take off into the air?"
Harry nodded. "I can put a forget-me on myself and they won't see me."
"But then what about us?"
Harry thought about it. "I have to ask my power to let only you and Mike see me. I never tried that before."
"Why don't you try it in the house, Harry?" suggested Mike. "See if you can do it safely first and then we can figure out what to do outside. Remember there are many more dangers like birds, planes, and electric cables. And if others can't see you, then you need to look out for things in every direction."
Harry felt a little disappointed, but Mike was right. There were so many things that could go wrong outside. So taking Mike's advice, he started working on it in their home after Mike closed the windows and shut the shades.
He pulled the tendrils to his arms, legs and mind. Then he gave a vision of slowly raising from the floor to his power. And slowly he did. He smiled at the adults as they clapped in appreciation.
Then he slowly stretched out his hand and sent his power a vision of flying horizontally like superman. He wasn't able to get it exactly horizontal, but it was slightly diagonal and he was able to move around the house without any problem, though he kept bumping into stuff. He kept an eye on the energy this skill was taking him, and he could probably keep it going for half an hour before he got tired.
He promised Mike and Jess that he would not fly outside until they gave him their permission. In a way Harry accepted them as his guardians and they accepted Harry as their charge.
Before he left for the day Mike suggested Harry think about ways to combining his skills.
"What do you mean, Mike?"
"Like, you apply a forget-me every time you teleport right? So see if you can combine that, so when ever you teleport, you will always have the forget-me on you."
Harry thought it was a brilliant idea and agreed to work on that.
Over the next few weeks until summer holidays, Harry worked on his flying skills at Jess's home everyday. Jess had a brilliant idea of asking Petunia if Harry, who seemed to spend a lot of time in the library, could help her as she was under staffed. When she agreed to pay Harry 5 pounds a day and even provide him with Dinner, she finally agreed. So for the last 6 weeks, Harry was spending most of his time in either school or at Jess' home. He only went back to #4 to sleep and in the morning to cook and have breakfast. The Dursley's were pretty happy with the arrangement and didn't complain.
Mike introduced Harry to many of his favorite fantasy books and movies including star wars. Harry simply loved the Jedi mind trick. He really enjoyed using it on Dudley to make him walk away whenever he tried to bully someone. It was hilarious when Dudley punched Piers Polkiss for saying he was a coward for not bullying a first year girl. Harry had nothing to do with that. He simply suggested that Dudley leave the girl alone. Piers took that as one too many offenses by Dudley and called him on it and got his just reward.
Harry laughed all the way to Jess' house and when he explained what happened the couple joined him as well. But Mike reminded Harry one of his favorite quotes. "With great power comes great responsibility." Harry understood and agreed with that. He promised not to use his mind trick to harm anyone.
And so the third year of schooling ended on a high note for one Harry Potter.
It was the 29th of July and his ninth birthday was only 2 days away. Jess and Mike had something special planned for him, though they wouldn't tell him how much ever he begged them. And secretly Harry really enjoyed this suspense. Harry smiled to himself as he lied on his mattress in the cupboard. For the first time he wondered if his parents would have been like Jess and Mike. He hoped they were.
He tried using his power to see what his parents looked like. According to Aunt Petunia, he lived with his parents for fifteen months before they died in a car crash. So he must have had some memories of them. But whenever he tried accessing them, he felt a severe pain where his scar was. All he could see was a brilliant jet of green light and maniacal laugh. In his younger years, he woke up to that nightmare a few times. But since he started working with his power there have been no nightmares. He simply asked his power to protect him from them and it did. Since then every night he slept, he always had a pleasant dream and never a nightmare.
He outlined his scar with his finger and wondered if this might be his superhero symbol when he grew up and had his own costume. He had to have a costume, every superhero did.
That gave him an idea and he wondered why he never thought about it before. He sat in his meditative position and sent the familiar tendrils to his hands and mind. Then he placed his hand on the scar and asked his power to show him why it pained when he tried to access his memories of his early childhood with his parents.
And for the first time, his power failed him. It wasn't able to show him what he wanted, but instead it gave him a feeling of anger, hate and malevolence coming out of the scar. Harry paled and nearly threw up at what he felt like drowning in a black inky substance. But what worried him was the tendril of power that was connected from his energy ball to the scar. He never saw that before.
He got back into the sitting position and went back into his power vision. This time he also envisioned what he got a glimpse of. The lightning scar with a tendril of power connected to his energy ball. He stared at that particular tendril and asked his magic to show what is happening with his energy and that scar. That's when he saw that his power was being channeled out to some other place through that scar. He couldn't have that.
He asked his energy ball to stop giving that scar any more power and to pull that tendril out of it. His energy ball pulsed a brilliant green and he felt crippling pain from his scar. He cried out loud and grabbed his scar. It was bleeding. He knew at that moment, something nasty was in it and he wanted it out. And so he gave his energy ball a firm command. Short of killing him he wanted that thing destroyed and he also threw in a command to protect him from any harm.
And as his power went to work attacking the tendril and slowly pulling it back, Harry lost consciousness through sheer pain. That was the first night in the last year that he experienced the nightmare of the green flashing light and the maniacal laughter.
While Harry was lying on the bed sweating and bleeding from his scar, his energy ball pulled the last piece of the tendril out of the scar. It was at that moment that thing inside the scar tried to attack Harry's mind. But the energy ball followed Harry's command and protected him from it, fighting it and finally crushing it with everything it got.
If not for Harry's Silencer spell on his cupboard, the other three Dursley's and even the surrounding houses would have heard the dying wail that lasted for more than 5 seconds. As it were, no one heard the death of a disgusting soul piece.
In a far away land, a malevolent soul, which possessed a snake, woke up. Something had changed. It felt weaker. It was only in the last year it gained enough power to understand who and what it was. Now, it felt weaker again. But the memories remained. He was once a powerful wizard, a dark lord. Now he was nothing but a wandering spirit, all because of a miscalculation. But why did he feel weaker? Did something happen to his anchors? He needed to check on them. But first he needed a human body.
Back in Harry's body, after that thing that was attacking Harry's mind was gone, the energy ball started putting layers of protection around the mind so that it could protect him better as Harry commanded. With these layers also came a permanent tendril that was attached to the ball. After that it started healing Harry's body automatically as it had done many times when he was wounded.
Finally after it was sure Harry was safe, it started to find the one thing it wasn't able to do before. Find him memories of his parents. When Harry started talking to his energy ball, something wonderful and extraordinary happened. The energy ball started developing a certain level of sentience. It couldn't come up with new ideas on its own. But within the scope of Harry's commands it can think and perform to the best of its ability. And so it went to search.
When Harry regained consciousness in the morning, it was to a fierce headache. He groaned and rolled around trying to get his thoughts straight. He put his hand to head and asked his energy ball to cure it. But then he felt something different than expected happen. Instead of power flowing from his hand, he felt warmth flooding his head from his very center. He wondered what happened as his head cleared from the pain.
He got into his power vision as he decided to call it. He saw the tendril and scar were gone and now layers of power, which were connected to his energy ball, protected his mind. Even the energy ball was looking bigger and stronger. Harry was very pleased with this and sent a heartfelt thank you to the ball, which pulsed once as if in acceptance.
Harry smiled and came out of this vision. He looked down at himself and saw that he was covered in blood. He scowled at it and vanished the blood. He created a mirror and was pleasantly surprised to find that he accomplished it, much easier than before. Either he was getting really good at it, which he didn't think changed that much since yesterday, or his power was responding to him much easier. He wondered if it was because of the thing in his scar being gone or because his mind had a permanent link to his energy ball.
He shrugged. Whatever it was, it was brilliant. He looked at his scar in the mirror and smiled. Where before it was a prominent scar, now it was a thin almost invisible lightning shaped scar. He frowned, as he felt something else in his mind. His power is pushing something for him to see.
He closed his eyes and brought it up to see a short memory of who could only be his parents holding him as a baby. Unknown to him he started crying. He asked his power to give him another memory, but he got a vision of his power destroying the scar and fighting it over his mind. He understood then that most of his earlier memories were destroyed during the fight and his power saved the earliest possible memory it could, the day he was born. He thanked it again. His power did exactly what he asked it to do. He loved it. It was the greatest power in the world. He wiped his eyes of the tears and created a photograph of his parents with him from the memory.
He wondered how he could store it. He remembered seeing a present Aunt Petunia gave Dudley for his birthday this year. It was a chain with a locket on it. The locket had Aunt Petunia's and Uncle Vernon's photos in it. Harry scrunched up his face as he concentrated on what he wanted exactly. He created a simple steel chain with a square locket on it. He shrunk the photo he created to fit the locket and placed it within. He put the chain around his neck and put a spell around it so that no one can see it except him. He looked at the small time piece and saw it was about time to get up and cook breakfast.
Just as the Dursleys and Harry finished breakfast the doorbell rang.
"Get it, Boy," said Uncle Vernon.
Harry opened the door to see Jess standing outside. She smiled at him and whispered, "Play along."
"Who is it, boy?" bellowed Uncle Vernon from inside.
Jess stepped inside. "It's me Mr. Dursley, Jessica Smith from the library."
"Oh! Hi Ms. Smith, what can we do for you?" Aunt Petunia asked in a false cheery voice. "Do you need Harry again?"
Oh! Jess wanted to strangle that woman right then and there. But for Harry's sake she put on her best game face. "Yes please. My fiancé had an accident recently and is still recuperating. The doctors suggested a change of scenery and we decided to go on a holiday to France. I would be spending most of my time taking care of Mike and I can use some help."
Petunia grimaced. Seeing that Jess hurried. "Of course I would be paying for his time. How about Hundred and Fifty pounds for the two weeks?"
Harry scowled at Jess' back like he didn't really want to go, but inwardly he was jumping in joy.
Vernon's greedy eyes lit up. "That's a generous offer Ms. Smith. We were planning on going to a vacation ourselves. My sister invited us to the Caribbean and unfortunately she had only three tickets left. We were planning on leaving Harry with Mrs. Figg. If you can keep him an extra week until we come back, I think we can have a deal."
"I don't see a problem Mr. Dursley. Can you give me Harry's birth certificate so that I can get his passport? I will bare the costs as well. I really appreciate your help. We plan on leaving in 3 days."
Vernon gave Petunia a nod and she reluctantly gave the birth certificate to Jess.
Jess turned to Harry, who was still scowling at her. She raised an eyebrow at him and gave him the tiniest of winks. "Harry, can you please take me to your bedroom so I can see what kind of clothes you have?"
Vernon and Petunia blanched. That's no good. "That's not necessary Ms. Smith. I'll make sure he's packed adequately."
"If you are sure Mr. Dursley?"
Seeing their eager nods, she gave them a nod and left. After the door closed, Vernon rounded on Harry. "Boy, take all your stuff from the cupboard and put them in Dudley's second bedroom. Now that you are earning your keep, we decided that you should have it."
Harry happily put his clothes and other stuff in his new bedroom. Dudley protested and threw a tantrum. But Aunt Petunia promised to get him a new videogame and he accepted the offer reluctantly.
Soon after settling down in his new bedroom Harry put a forget-me on the door and teleported just outside Jess' apartment. He made a mistake of teleporting directly into the apartment once and was witness to some close intimacy from Jess and Mike. Thankfully they didn't see him as like always he had a forget-me on him.
He used Mike's idea to successfully combine some of his skills. He had to convey the idea of combining these skills to his energy ball. It was difficult for Harry to explain the idea in a way the ball would understand. A plus sign didn't work. So he tried sharing with it images of what he wanted to get done. It took a few hours to get the first idea across to the ball. But after that it was significantly easy to implement new ideas. He was happy that his energy ball seemed to be learning every time he taught it something. Now whenever he teleported he automatically had a forget-me on him.
As soon as Jess opened the door, Harry flung himself at her and gave her a fierce hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Jess laughed and pulled him inside. "Don't mention it Harry."
"So is this the birthday gift you and Mike planned?"
She ruffled his hair. "Just one of them. You will have to wait until tomorrow for the others."
"Oh, I can't wait to go to France."
Mike walked in from the bedroom at that moment carrying the passport application. "Hey Harry. You ready for the trip?"
Harry nodded eagerly. "You won't believe what happed after Jess left. The Dursley's gave me Dudley's second bedroom. They said I am earning my keep. I bet they were afraid Jess would see where I was sleeping."
Jess gave a stern nod. "Good. I was hoping something like that would happen."
"I can't stay for more than a few minutes. I need to help make lunch."
Jess scowled but didn't comment. In her opinion Harry was still a little thin. But he didn't look like the malnourished and small kid he was the first time she saw him. In the one year she knew him, he grew a few inches and filled up a little. She made sure than he had ample healthy food with him all the time. On her suggestion he had worked on creating a small cardboard box, which would preserve food. So whenever Jess gave him a packet of healthy home cooked food, he would shrink it and put it in the box.
The next day Harry made breakfast for his family. They, like always, didn't even acknowledge his birthday. But every year he was allowed the rest of the day off without any chores. So as soon as he finished breakfast, Harry ran outside to a nearby alley and teleported to his second home.
When Jess opened the door, he was surprised to see her wearing a party hat. She smiled and opened the door wide and Harry saw the entire living room decorated with party wrappers and there was a huge sign saying "Happy Birthday Harry Potter."
Harry was stunned at first and then Jess gave him a hug. "Happy birthday, Harry."
Harry couldn't help the emotions that welled up inside him. This was the first time anyone wished him a birthday. "Thanks Jess. This is great," he said in a soft voice.
Mike came in with the birthday cake and Harry laughed on seeing him wearing an apron. Soon he blew out the candles and made his first ever birthday wish to a real cake.
Then both Jess and Mike gave him a few presents. Most were clothes and shoes. Then, Mike gave him an envelope. Harry opened it curiously. It was a letter accepting him into a martial arts school in London starting the first week of September.
"I thought it would help with your super power stuff."
Harry grinned and nodded. Then he remembered what happened a couple of day ago. "I have so much to tell you." Then he told them about his scar, showed them how it was nothing but a thin line now and also showed his Parent's photo. Both the adults agreed that the people in the photo could only be Harry's parents as he looked much like them.
Jess scolded him. "Don't ever do something like that again, Harry. At least not without telling us first. What if something happened to you?"
Harry ducked his head feeling a little shameful. Mike decided to help the boy out. "So you are saying there was something in your scar that was sucking your power and you destroyed it?" Harry nodded.
"But how did it get there? That's not the kind of scar you get in a car crash. And what about that green light and the laughter you said you heard?"
Harry shrugged. "I have no idea. The Dursley's said that's how I got the scar. They could be lying. But why would they?"
No one could come up with an answer for that. Mike raised another issue. "You know I have been working on a screenplay for a movie, right? So one of the books I read was Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand faces. It had great insight into the different phases of a hero and what it means to be one. But what got me was that every time there was a hero, who was ordinary or extraordinary with super powers, he had a villain who was equally stronger if not more. So why do we think that Harry here is the only one with super powers? Maybe it was a super villain who gave him that scar."
"Huh! You really think so? I never thought about it like that." confessed Harry.
Jess nodded. "Mike's right. Maybe there are people out there with powers like yours Harry. Maybe like you they stay hidden…"
They left the topic at that point but not before deciding to keep a lookout for others. That was really the only thing they could do.
Soon it was time for his first ever vacation, which also meant his first time on an airplane. To say the least, Harry was excited. If not for Jess, he would be spending his time with Mrs. Figg. Though she was a good woman and gave him enough food, she always talked about her cats and that drove him crazy.
She in fact stopped him the other day and asked if he would be staying with her like he always did when the Dursleys went to vacation. Harry told her he was going on a vacation as well and that he would be back in three weeks. For a second Harry thought she frowned at him. Then she smiled and wished him a happy vacation and to be safe.
Harry enjoyed his first flight in the airplane. He couldn't wait to get into the air outside and fly himself. He had been working with Mike and jess for nearly two months to get that skill right. They agreed that he was doing great. He tried many things on their suggestions. He observed that whenever he tried to rise higher from the ground, more of his power was consumed. He thought about it long and hard with the two adults and they decided that he could use better visuals to give the right intent to his energy ball. So after many failures, instead of his power expanding from his feet to the ground, a bright green halo of power surrounded his legs up to his knees and his hands up to his elbows. After that it became much easier to control his flight and he used much less power to fly. He couldn't explain it, but he felt like he had much lighter body mass.
He also worked on making his power invisible instead of showing the green halo whenever he was using it. If one were to look closely, they could see a slight shift in air around his legs and arms. Jess and Mike promised that they would take him to his school grounds after they come back from vacation and he could fly to his heart's content within the grounds.
Harry enjoyed his first vacation. Their first trip was to Paris and they stayed at the Plaza hotel. Mike got a huge settlement for the accident and he decided to put that money to good use to enjoy the vacation and especially treat Harry to some good things in life.
Harry stared at Parisian streets and buildings in awe. He was blown away by the Eifel tower and he loved staying at the Plaza. He called it a palace. He was impressed by the art collection in the Louvre, though sometimes he spotted a couple of weirdly dressed people walking alone in a section. He didn't bother with these sections as Jess and Mike didn't seem interested in them. They later on visited the French Riviera and Harry got his first close up at the ocean. They spent a couple of days enjoying the beach, before visiting other historic French cities. Against his protests they took him on a mega-shopping trip, where they loaded him with some fashionable wear, cool electronics and even a couple of eyeglasses, which were photo something. They got darker in the sun and stayed normal in the shade. He liked them.
But soon like all vacations it came to an end and they flew back to London and then to Surrey.
Note: Thanks for all the reviews and support. I loved this genre where Harry learned magic before going to Hogwarts. But most of those stories made it too easy for him to learn and showed him as more mature than what a young boy would be, even someone who grew up in a challenging environment. Throughout the HP canon series, we saw that magic can become quite powerful with emotions. And so I gave Harry a goal, which would be his obsession, and which in turn will fuel the emotions needed to take the first step. I'll try to make this story as non-canon as possible. I am not a big fan of fan fiction repeating the canon with just a few changes. But that said there will be numerous elements of canon in it. Thanks again for the support. I will open a forum on Yahoo soon, for those who want to discuss this story. I don't like to answer reviews in story chapters. Thanks.