My life - An adventure

Disclaimer: All Harry Potter works belong to J.K. Rowling.

AN: This story is an idea I got from "Harry Potter and the Memories of Old" by Snowy123. Some of spells are from the story "Harry Potter and the Unlocked Knowledge" by kmfrank.

Chapter 03

I stand outside #4 with my invisibility cloak around me. I ask Dobby to be near by, as I will need his help later on. Through my new warder glasses I see a red dome surrounding the house. A blood magic ward as I expected. Surrounding it I see a multitude of other wards covering the entire privet drive. Most prominent are the anti apparition and anti portkey. Again expected. I also identify a magic detection ward. Hmmm… This is most certainly not a ministry ward. No. It is layered with other wards. This is going to take more precision than I thought. But first I need to take care of the ministry ward, as it will undoubtedly covers more area.

I follow Dumbledore's wards until they end at the intersection of Magnolia crescent and Privet drive. I take a few more steps and look around to see if I can find the ministry wards. Hmmm… I don't see any other magic. That can't be right… I slowly walk around the block trying to see any distortions. I'm mindful of the invisibility cloak. It won't do to have a muggle see human feet walking around with no body attached.

There! Way up above I see a slight distortion. I concentrate on it. Yes, I found the ministry detection ward. But how far does it go? Damn. I wish I can apparate. Even if I was well versed in it, I can't. So I follow the ward slowly, but steadily. Don't want to double back because I missed the damned thing somewhere.

My feet hurt. My body is covered in sweat. It's been 5 hours since I started my walk and here I am on a hot summer morning at 11 AM and I can see where the ward ends. I want to SCREAM at all the injustice in the world. The damn wards overlap. I step out of my ministry ward right into another. Well there is nothing to it. I take out my personalized ward stones. I smile feeling proud of them, especially the primary stone. I needed to do a little artimacy to get the rune placement right for this stone. I dare say these rune sets are way more complicated than wand making runes. I had to design runes to capture my magic as well as my wand signature and then communicate with the ministries ward stones to ignore these signatures just like they are programmed to ignore magical creatures.

The one magic I can do all I want is rune carving. There is no magic involved until they are powered. And unlike other kinds of magic, which depend on magical power, finesse and wand proves; runes, potions and arthimacy are some of the fields that are not limited with age or power.

I approach the ministry ward stone. There are the standard notice-me-not and disguising wards. I again thank my ancestor for these wonderful glasses. I hope the ministry didn't change the rune schemes since Voldemort learned about them. A quick glance confirms that they are the same. I set the 4 stones on the ground and whisper. "Dobby".

And I nearly jump out my skin as he whispers back close to my ear. "Yes, Harry Potter sir."

Sigh. I guess you need to take the bad with the good. "Dobby, do you see the ward flowing from this stone?"

He scrunches his eyes and a smile breaks on his face. "Dobby sees it Harry Potter sir."

"Good. I want you to follow this ward line and identify where the other 3 ward stones are."

"Yes, Harry Potter sir. Dobby will be back."

And the little bugger did it. Within 5 minutes he came back bearing a smile.

Right. Now for the stone placements. I measure a foot, which incidentally is my wand's length. I snicker at what some of the boys in school would say to that.

I mark the spot and ask Dobby to dig a 1-foot deep hole with a 5-inch diameter. Then at the very bottom of the hole comes a three-inch underground pathway leading to the ministry ward stone.

I tell Dobby that he needs to dig a similar hole and pathway at the other 3 sites when the time comes.

Now it's time to make ready the ward stones. I poke my hand with a needle and put a drop of my blood on all four of the stones. They all glow softly and the blood and hence my magical signature is absorbed within them. I put my wand to the primary stone and let my magic flow into it. There is very little magic passing into the ambience to track anything. So I should be safe from the ministry.

After I charge all the ward stones, I give Dobby the three secondary stones and ask him to put them in the other three locations and cover the holes. As long as I connect my ward stones with the ministry ward within an hour, they should be protected from any soil disruption.

He comes back within 15 minutes. Now all I need to do is connect the primary stone to the ministry ward stone. If my rune scheme works, the primary stone will help connect the other secondary stones by communicating with the ministry stones. Once all four are connected to the respective ministry stones, my magic should be undetectable within this ward in a matter of seconds. I have just one problem; I still need to connect the primary stone to the ministry ward stone. It's a decent amount of magic, maybe equivalent to a stunner. Technically I should be fine. I'm far from #4 and am standing outside my ward line.

"Dobby, as soon as I connect the stones, I want you to cover the hole and pop away."

He nods and I take the primary stone and hold my wand to it. I ask Dobby to levitate it down the hole making sure the connection between the stone and my wand is not broken. As soon as the stone touches the bottom, I drag the connection with my wand down the pathway to the ministry stone. It's a perfect connection. I can hear the ward stone buzz as it receives the energy from the ministry ward. "Now Dobby."

He quickly covers the hole and pops away. I make sure I'm well under my invisibility cloak and hide behind a tree about 50 meters away. I'm going to wait and see if anyone comes by to check. And sure enough, an auror apparates in. A tall athletic black bald wizard. I don't recognize him from Volde's memories. I was right. The ministry sensed the magic but couldn't pin point it. He looks around and even casts a homenum revelio.

Hmmm… Must be one of the more competent ones. But I'm a bit too far for the spell to work on me. He tests the ward stone and finding nothing wrong, apparates away.

I wipe the sweat from my forehead. Time to test my ward work. I cast a cooling charm on myself. I wait to see if the auror comes back again. After 30 minutes I give myself a congratulatory pat. That's right. I literally gave the ministry the finger. It's one of the few things I agree with Tom Riddle. Children growing in wizarding houses have a huge advantage over muggle raised. I summon the knight bus for my journey back to privet drive. I get down at magnolia crescent and walk toward Dumbledore's wards.

I rub my forehead to get rid of the slight headache. I curse Dumbledore. I need to outwit him. I smile at the prospect of a great challenge. If there is one thing I learned about Dumbledore through Volde's memories, it is that he is one crafty bastard.

I walk back to #4 to think about the problem. I can't use the same solution as I used for the ministry wards. There are two reasons for that. One, he hid the ward stones underground like me. It works perfectly for such a small area. And two, I don't want to dig them up. I am sure that he had some kind of detection ward for that as well.

As I reach #4 I look up at the red dome surrounding it. Hmmm… Maybe if I construct a ward within the blood ward? Or better yet, just my room? Hmmm… I might pull one over the candy-loving headmaster after all. Yes! I know what to do.

I'll create a vacuum. In warding it means, a ward, which prevents any kind magic from entering or leaving the warded area. This is typically used in constructing a ritual or dueling chambers within a house. The ward has its limitations. It is meant to cover only a small amount of space. And for a room as small as mine, even with its expansions, it will only take a small amount of power. I head inside for a well-deserved lunch and to do my next warding scheme.

I wake up realizing that I start my training today. I successfully fooled Dumbledore's wards late yesterday night. I carved the rune scheme to create a vacuum using some left over ward stones. I need to buy more. I went outside Dumbledore's wards after the Dursley's went to bed. I transfigured a stone into a wooden box with the same relative dimensions as my room.

I put 4 ward stones at the 4 corners of what would be the ceiling and another 4 at the 4 corners of what would be the floor. I used a sticking charm to cheat gravity. Then, with two power stones at the center of both the floor and the ceiling to charge the ward, the runic assembly was complete. I charged the power stones with as much magic as they can hold. I had to drink a pepper up to do it the second time. I connected the 4 ward stones on both the ceiling and the floor to their respective power stones. And then finally the 8 ward stones with each other to create a perfect cube.

I covered the assembly with my invisibility cloak and then levitated it back to my room. Since I entered the wards with the spell already casted, it shouldn't register within the wards. Dumbledore's ward unlike the ministry wards does not identify the spell being casted. All it tells him is that magic was performed under them.

Once inside my room, with Dobby's help, I placed all the 10 stones in their respective places within my room. First came the two power stones, which went to the center of the ceiling and the floor. Then came the ward stones, which went to their respective corners of the room, while still connected to each other and the power stones. And thus came into existence Harry Potter's own training room. I just need to charge the power stones once every 2 weeks. In a proper home, where the room doesn't need to be a secret, the ward stones are generally tied into main power source of all the wards in the house. It's time to get ready and get cracking.

I sit at my desk making a list of things I need to learn. I decided to cast all my magic non-verbally. Silent casting requires a lot of concentration and initially more power than when you vocalize the spell. Of course when learning a new spell, it is always easy to learn it through vocalizing rather than silent casting. But I need to develop my concentration and my magic. So even though it will take me longer to perfect each spell, it's better to start of with silent casting. My occlumency will help as well.

Tom Riddle as an 8 year old was stronger magically than I am right now. He has been casting wandless or will magic since when he was 6. Nothing big. Levitation, summoning and finally a mild pain curse. He was also a natural legilimens. He was so good at it that he was able to implant suggestions into his fellow orphans by the time he was 9. That is the second stage of mastering legilimency. And by the time he was 11 and got his Hogwarts' letter, he was able to possess animals and was well on his way to mastering the mind art by achieving the final stage. Being able to fully possess a wizard or a witch.

I guess you can imagine how good he is after nearly 60 years of using magic consciously. Don't get me wrong. He's no super villain. He still can't cast any battle worthy magic without a wand. The only offensive spells he can cast wandlessly are the stunner, disarming charm and a powerful banisher. I guess that's what got him really interested in Atlantis.

I myself am decent at the first stage of legilimency. To be able to read other's minds. I don't think I'll even aim for the final stage. But being able to implant suggestions might be very useful.

I have little over 3 weeks before my birthday, which is when I leave #4. I plan on spending a day in Diagon and also do some muggle shopping before then. So to be precise I have 23 days. I finish the list of all the things I want to perfect by the time I leave. When I say perfect I mean being able to caste the spell instantly and as effectively as possible without expending unneeded energy. At first glance it might seem a little too much. But the fact is I already have the knowledge and saw Volde use it. Which means if I have sufficient power, I can cast any spell Voldemort knows of. But they won't be perfect, as my body and magic have never used them before.

Transfiguration

Inanimate to inanimate

Inanimate material expansion

Inanimate to animate

Switching spells

Vanishing spells

Inanimate to organic

Conjuring

Avis

Oppugno

Serpensotia

Stone blocks

Ropes & chains

Charms

All minor level charms like summoning

Glamour

Disillusionment

Homenum Revelio

Oblivate

Patronus

Offensive

A few minor hexes and jinxes to play with when Malfoy comes around

Impendimeta

Incarcurus

Stunner

Disarming charm

Banisher

Reducto

Diffindo

Confrigo

Expulso

Confundo

Deprimo

Defense

Protego

Contego

Absolvo

Protego totalum

Cave inimicum

Healing

Ferula

Episkey

Transportation

Apparation

Portkey

The most difficult of all these spells is the Patronus. And I must say I'm very excited to learn it. Especially as Voldemort cannot cast it. He tried during his sixth year, in case he was caught with the basilisk and had to escape from the dementors. I can only guess… that splitting your soul does have some disadvantages. Not that he is scared of dementors. I don't think they affect him anymore after so many horcruxs.

I designed this list around the fact that I will be traveling by myself and in to unknown territories after the 31st. There are dangers out there, not just from death eaters, but from many other sources as well. I aim to protect myself and attack if needed. To win a fight against an average wizard, you don't need more than these. Except for a handful of spells, most of them can be performed by any witch or wizard with OWLs in DADA, Transfiguration and Charms.

I gathered a lot of discarded junk from around the house. I need these for transfiguration. The few things I'm missing, I ask Dobby to get them. I take out my wand and smile again at how my magic churns whenever I touch it. With a normal wand, you need to push your magic into it. But it seems that as soon as I touch my wand, it is connected to my magic. I love it.

My feet pound the street as I reach #4. I just finished my morning jog. 2 miles under the morning sun after some serious spell casting. It's been 2 weeks since I started working out, both my muscles and my magic. I finished going through transfiguration, conjuration, healing and offensive spells. I'm pretty happy with my performance.

I still crack up whenever I remember the incident with the lion. I transfigured a broken table into a lion and was petting it, when Dudley opened the door to my room. He stood still, shocked out of his life staring at the lion that was staring back at him. I made the lion lick its lips and take a step toward my tubby cousin with a growl. And Dudley Dinkins took off screaming like the devil was after him. Or it could be a lion. That was two days back.

I asked Dobby to find me a deserted place outside Dumbledore's wards but inside the ministry ward. I can't really cast offensive spells inside the house. I could blow up a wall or two. He told me of a place, which is around 2 miles from here near the Gatwick airport. I setup a muggle repelling ward around a 20 meter circle. I first practiced my conjuring skills by transfiguring air into ropes and chains. Then came the birds through Avis and snakes through Serpensotia. I even talked to the snakes. I can ask them to do things for me if needed. Then I moved on to stones; brick, cement, granite and marble. I started with small stones and ended with slabs big enough to cover my height, which is around 5 feet 5 inches. I started taking a nutritional potion everyday since school ended. That combined with all the healthy serving of meals, gave my body what it needed and I'm now at a decent height for a soon to be 13 year old.

After conjuring the stones, instead of vanishing them, I use them for my offensive casting. When I first started doing this 2 weeks back, I could hardly do it for more than 10 minutes before I was exhausted. Now, I conjure for the first 15 minutes and in the next 15 minutes I blast them to kingdom high. Voldemort could have done this and more for hours and hours. I hope I don't have to fight him anytime soon.

After conjuring and blasting, I practice other offensive spells for the next 15 minutes. At this point I'll be sweating buckets. I relax and have Dobby get me some breakfast. After the breakfast I jog back to #4 and have a nice cool bath. I eat another snack for energy.

Then comes Transfiguration. On the first day I started with a single object and transfigured it into multiple items. Like a broken toy to a baby table, table to a mattress, an inanimate mattress to one with claws and fangs, and finally the biting mattress to a house cat. As I progressed further and further I was able to transfigure multiple objects at the same time. Now I can have 10 cats running in my room. The more complex the animal, the more power and concentration it will take. Especially with not verbalizing the spell. Maybe in a few months time I'll have 10 lions running around. That should be fun.

After transfiguration, I have my late lunch, which I eat with Dobby as he tells me his life story. Did you know he was over 100 years old? House elves normal life span is around 200 to 400 hundred years depending on the life they lead and how powerful their bonded master is. He tells me I was much more powerful than Draco, even before I started this rigorous casting. I'm nowhere in the same league as a 13-year-old Tom Riddle, but I dare say I'm probably more powerful than any 15 year old still currently in Hogwarts. I hope with enough practice I will be able to reach Tom's power as a 13 year old by this time next year. Looking back I thank god for gifting me with above average power to begin with. Or else, with the lack of food for the first 11 years of my life, I would have been a near squib.

After lunch, I generally practice speed casting. It's quite simply how fast I can release my magic through my wand repeatedly. I use a stinging hex against a wall for this. Two weeks back, I was able to cast around 15 hexes in 1 minute. Now, it has doubled to around 30. I want to take it up to 60. That's right, a spell each second. This will take me into chain casting. A continuous chain of different spells, molding their wand movements into one single chain. Into one single spell. Imagine if in one continuous wand movement you were able to send 6 different spells at your opponent. Deadly.

It's the precursor to professional dueling or for being a hit wizard. Or I guess to become a dark lord. Most people cannot do a chain with more than 3 spells and they have to vocalize them. Volde had his own spell chains with up to 5 deadly spells in it. And he never vocalized them.

It's the power and intention that matters anyway. The words are meant to act like a guide for those who are not in a position to concentrate. When you create a spell, you don't design the words, you design the wand movements. Why does one have to swish, flick, circle and so on? Why not just point and shoot?

It's because, when you move the wand, you are molding the magic within you into the ambience to follow your will, your intention. Given enough power and concentration, any spell can be casted with no wand moments. But in the process a lot of energy will be wasted. There are certain point and shoot spells which depend on a third factor other than power and intention. Emotion.

The three unforgivables are such spells. No wand moment is necessary. But you do need a good bit of power, a clear intention and the most important, emotion. To want to control, to torture and to kill, you need a good deal of emotion, which for the most is a negative emotion that is hate. Voldemort has a lot of that. That's why they are considered the unforgivables. Not because they cannot be stopped. All you need to do is summon or conjure a sold object in the path of the curse and you should be fine. I hope I never have to use them. Such hate can only lead to corruption.

But there is one other spell, which needs a lot of emotion. Another point and shoot spell. The patronus. But unlike the unforgivables you need positive emotions to make the spell work. In one of Volde's memories, I saw a duel between him and Dumbledore. And one sentence Dumbledore said stuck with me. He said, "Love is a powerful magic, which Volde will never understand". This makes me wonder if for patronus, instead of positive emotions, one can use love?

After speed casting for an hour, I walk around the park practicing my leglimency on unsuspecting passerby. I know, not a very ethical thing to do. That's why I use it only on strangers who I never met. That way I'm not using it to find out their secrets, but rather to practice my skills. After two hours, this starts giving me a headache. So I walk back to my room and relax for a few hours. Maybe carve some rune sets, which I find interesting.

Then, comes dinner, after which I practice my healing for an hour. I can do a decent field dressing and heal any cuts, which do not have magic in them. A typical cut from a spell like diffindo, will just cut the target. Any magical residue in the cut will dissipate after few seconds. I can heal such wounds easily with an episkey. But those wounds, which are caused by spells such as, say larcero, are very hard to heal as they leave a decent bit of magical residue behind. This prevents the wound from healing easily. It will need more specialized healing spells.

After healing, I work on arthimancy. Specifically on calculations for a permanent portkey to bring me, from wherever I am, to right outside Dumbledore's wards on privet drive. A regular onetime use portkey doesn't need any arthimancy or runes, just a clear picture of where you want to go and the respective coordinates. But a permanent portkey is something, which is on your body at all times and is charged with your magic.

I will cast the spell for it on the 30th right before my trip. That spell should take quite a bit out of me. I finish the day with 30 minutes of strengthening my occlumency shields before I sleep. And that's how I spent my first 2 weeks of training.

I enter #4 and head for a nice bath. Today is the 21st of July and I'm going back to Diagon alley and will also do some muggle shopping later on. I'm going to buy all the stuff I need for my vacation. After today I'll be concentrating mostly on charms, defense and transportation. I'll keep up with my conjuration, offensive and speed casting, as they will help strengthen my magic.

I enter Diagon alley with a ball cap covering my scar and walk in to Gringotts. I ask for Brimspear and was shown to his office. As I sit behind his desk I wonder why he's scowling at me.

"Brimspear, hope everything's well?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. Now what can I do for you?"

"I need a pensieve. Do you know, where I can find one?"

He stares at me for a few minutes thinking. "I can find one for you Mr. Potter, but it won't be cheap."

I nod. "How much?"

"A pensieve can go anywhere between 20,000 to 50,000 galleons depending on its size. As for my service, I want the goblin wrought silver goblets you have."

"Fine with me. How long will it take?"

"They are very rare, Mr. Potter. It will take time. I'll try to find one before you are due at Hogwarts."

I curse Voldemort. I'm blocking those damned memories for now. I guess I have to keep doing that until I reach Hogwarts. I get up to leave. "Thank you. Find me a pensieve and those goblets are yours."

I step out of Gringotts and head to the Quality Quidditch shop. And there I see a wondrous site. A beautifully sculpted broom. A firebolt.

I walk around the crowd and recognize a few of my fellow Hogwartsians. I walk into the store and approach the clerk. He looks up and doesn't recognize me. Which is good. "Yes sir, how can I help you?"

"How much is the firebolt?"

"It's only on request, sir."

I scowl at him. "Well, I'm requesting."

He looks down at my clothes and I guess I can understand his hesitance. I really need to buy new clothes. I'm too old to be wearing Dudley's cast offs.

"Are you serious?" He asks me.

"Yes."

"Come inside then, I'll show you to the owner Mr. Spink. He will take your order."

I follow him inside to a private room, where I see a man sitting behind an elegant desk. The clerk whispers something in his ears and he looks at me with raised eyebrows clearly surprised. He nods and the clerk closes the door leaving the owner and me alone.

"So, you want to buy the firebolt? I'm not sure you understand kid. It's a professional broom and is priced as such."

"I can assure you sir, that I can most certainly afford it."

He pauses and looks at me intensely. I sigh in frustration and remove my cap showing him my scar. He inhales deeply. I guess there are a few advantages of being a celebrity.

"I'm sorry Mr. Potter. I didn't recognize you."

I smile at him. "Well, that was the purpose."

He smiles back. "We only have two in stock right now. One is up on display and the other right there." He points to a broom case standing against the wall.

Even the case is beautiful. "May I?"

He waves me to go ahead.

I walk to the case and pick it up. I bring it to the table and set it down softly. I open the case to see the elegant and beautiful broom up close. I caress it. The one thing I enjoyed more than anything else in the last couple of years was flying. With the wind blowing in your ear and your hair flying around your face, it sets you free. I want this broom. I really want it.

"How much is it?" I ask him.

Mr. Spink shuffles in his seat. "Er… It's 6,000 galleons."

I whistle in appreciation. That's pretty steep for a broom. The Nimbus 2000 if I remember right was only 700 galleons or so. But still I can afford it. So why not? I need to spoil myself more.

I look back at him. "Is there any place I can test it?"

He smiles and asks me to follow him. He takes me to a room, which is as big as the great hall back in school. "We use this room for testing out the brooms."

I nod and I pull the broom from its case. I can feel it buzzing in my hand. I put down the case, when "Let go of the broom, Mr. Potter."

I look at Mr. Spink in confusion. He smiles and again asks me to let go of the broom. I shrug and drop it. And was I surprised. The broom stayed in the air by itself.

"It's one of its many features Mr. Potter. Like the other brooms, it doesn't need the flyer's magic to stay afloat."

I took hold of the broom again and get on it. As soon as I kicked off, I whooped in joy. The acceleration is out of the world. 0 to 150 in 10 seconds indeed. I fly around for a few minutes testing its features. Twisting, turning, breaking and even a wronski feint. I land back near Mr. Spink who is looking all excited at me.

"You are a brilliant flyer, Mr. Potter. The broom is made for you."

I thank him and we move back to his office, where I pay for the broom. I don't want to be mobbed by the crowd outside. So I call Dobby and ask him to take the broom back to my room.

I buy myself a 3 compartment trunk with expanded space. I also buy a 3 room tent. It's comfortable enough. I walk out of the jewelry store where I bought a simple gold ring with space for a stone. I'll put the stone I took from the Peverell vault in the ring and make it into my permanent portkey. I haven't gotten my book list to shop for them yet. I'll come back before the term is set to begin. I leave the Diagon alley just as some Aurors walk in briskly. I finish my shopping with a new muggle wardrobe.

I keep glancing at my new broom. Oh! How I wish I could rip into the sky with that. I sigh heavily and go back to reading the letter, which Hermione sent. She is on a vacation with her family and is all excited about starting her third year with more classes. I put it down and pick up Ron's letter. As I open it, a paper falls into my lap. I pick it up to see that it's a 10-day-old news clipping from the daily prophet. It seems the Weasleys have won themselves a lottery and are going to Egypt on a holiday to visit Bill, the curse breaker. They are good people and they deserve it. I see Ginny smiling and hope she's doing all right. It will be an interesting year with her. I'll send my replies with Hedwig later.

It's been 9 days since my second trip to Diagon. I'm pretty proficient in my shields. I transfigured a wall into a mirror and practiced shielding against my own stunners. There were a couple of times when I was slow enough to raise a shield and found myself being enervated by Dobby. That happened only on the first day. After that, I could pretty much raise all three personal shields, Protego, Contego and Absolvo with a single thought. Of the three personal shields Contego is the most powerful. There are of course many other personal shields. The most powerful personal shield commonly known is the Imprimis Patrocinor. It takes a good deal of power and can practically stop every curse other than unforgivables. I'll work on it during the year. Voldemort also created a couple of personal shields as powerful as the Imprimis. There are no incantations to them. Just the intention of protection and the wand movements to mould the energy. I also plan on developing my own.

Protego Totalum and Cave inimicum are wide area shields, meant to protect a larger area. They are not as powerful as personal shields. I was able to shield my entire room with both. It should cover my tent if in case I end up using it.

I have been practicing apparition during my afternoon walks. I asked Dobby to be near by in case I splinch. I am pretty good at both line of sight and memory apparitions. Long distance apparition using coordinates, will take more practice. But I should be able to do it soon. I already created a onetime use portkey from my training ground near the airport to just outside the wards on privet drive. The arthimancy and the rune work needed for the permanent portkey are finished as well. I'll carve the rune work on the gem and do the portus spell today after lunch.

The highlight though is my patronus. I smile at the thought. It took a lot of practice and I still can't do it non-verbally. There is too much emotion involved. I practiced for 1 to 2 hours everyday for the past 7 days to get a corporeal patronus. For the first 6 days all I got was a white mist. Finally I thought about how much I loved my parents and how brave they were in facing Voldemort. How they sacrificed themselves for me. I shoved all my power and yelled out Expecto Patronum.

The mist came, much much more than before and slowly it took form. First the legs, then the reptilian wings and then the head. It's a dragon. I swear I was gawking at it. It turned its head, looked around for a threat and finding now, it disappeared. While I was resting, I wondered why the dragon was my patronus. I know from Voldemort's memories that Dumbledor's was a phoenix and I guess Fawkes has something to do with it. The only explanation I could come to was the basilisk and the phoenix presence in my blood as well as my wand. A dragon is a fire creature like the phoenix and also reptilian like the basilisk. I do the spell again to see the dragon more clearly. I recognize the breed. It's a Swedish Short-Snout. Its about 15 feet tall and looks at me with her head bent below the ceiling. As I reach out to its snout, my hand passes through and the dragon melts away.

The rest of the charm work went perfectly. I can disillusion myself to near invisibility. I can change myself to look, older, younger and even change my gender using glamours. I can cast the revealing charm without any problem, though I learnt a lesson as to not cast it at night inside a house. I had to witness my uncle's vague shape on top my aunt. How she survived that, I do not know. Yaach… I wish I could oblivate myself. And that's the only charm I'm not too confident about. I only used it once and that too on a muggle who was feeling sad that she didn't win a lottery. I oblivated her memory of that ticket. I used leglimens to make sure she was fine and it was successful.

So here I sit after 3 weeks of hard casting. And all I can say is I'm ready for a nice vacation. I just have one more spell to do today and then its good bye to this place until next year.

I walk downstairs to have a goodbye lunch with my relatives. It's a Sunday so Vernon is at home. I join them at the table and serve myself some food. My aunt and uncle are watching the news and Dudley is stuffing himself as usual. My uncle glances at me.

"So you are going tomorrow?"

"That's right."

He nods and goes back to the TV. I shake my head. I guess I gave up on them. At least they didn't bother me these past few weeks.

As I lose myself in thoughts of what I'm going to do tomorrow, I hear a name, which sounded familiar. I glance sharply at the TV to see a fleeting glimpse of a picture.

"Whose picture was that?"

"Some criminal named Sirius Black."

Sirius Black… Where did I hear it? Ahh… That's right. He was one of my dad's friends. I remember the memory in which Voldemort marked Pettigrew as a death eater and asked him to spy on his friends and the Order of Phoenix members. I scowl in anger. He was also the bastard who sold out my parent's secret. If I remember right, he was a rat animagus. Hmmm… I wonder what this is about. Why is Sirius Black an escaped convict? I have a couple of memories of him fighting death eaters along with my parents. He was a good duelist. On par with any inner circle member. I need more information. Not today though. I need to cast the permanent portkey spell.

I go back to my room and get my rune kit ready. I pull out the gem from my backpack. I also spy the parchment with writing I can't read. Maybe I'll share this with Dumbledore. I also spy the box from the Domitus vault. I nearly forgot about that. I try to open it again, but with no luck. I set it aside on my study table. I'll check it out after the portkey spell.

So I hunkered down at the table. I attach a magnifying eyeglass to my spectacles and get ready to curve the tiny rune sets on the gem. It's a white ivory like substance I never saw before. The regular carving knife wouldn't do the job. So I took out a highly durable needle-knife and heated it until it was white hot. That worked. It took my 2 hours to carve the rune sets. Once that is done, I put the gem in the gold ring with a permanent sticking charm. Now comes the hard part. I keep my mind on the coordinates and location. I gather all the magic I can and cast the charm. Portus.

I can feel the magic leaving me and entering the stone. And it kept on absorbing the magic. I was surprised. A gem shouldn't take in this much magic. It's been going on for 15 minutes and it doesn't look like it's going to end. I let it go for another 10 minutes and then decided to cut the magic. I don't want to totally exaust my magic. I remove my wand from the stone and stare at it. What kind of stone can absorb so much energy?

I'll test it out later tonight. I set the ring on the ring finger of my right hand. I pull up the box and observe it carefully to see if there is any hidden latch. None. So I poke my finger and a couple of drops of my blood fall on it. That does the trick as the lid clicks open. It seems lot of old families depended on blood magic to keep there secrets.

I open the lid and all I see is a potion vial with a red and yellow liquid in it. I never saw, even in Volde's memories such a potion before. I uncork it and smell it. There is no odor. The only potion I know which doesn't smell is veritaserum and it's pearly white in color. I cork it back again and secure it back in the box. I'll test it when I'm at Hogwarts.

I look around my empty room. I packed everything including my tent and firebolt, inside my trunk. I removed the Vacuum wards. The room is back to its original size. No evidence at all. I decided to keep my ward stones attached to the ministry ward, as it is highly unlikely anyone will check them. And even if they did, they can't identify the magical signature of hand. I tested out my permanent portkey last night and it was working fabulously. It's my thirteenth birthday and I'm ready to venture out into the world. My first stop?

AN: Thank you all for your reviews. Yes, Harry and Ginny will be a romantic pair. But not until they see others. Harry will have a relationship with Fleur before he gets involved with Ginny. Harry and Ginny's relationship will be friends at first and then when they become lovers, it will be more like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This will be an action/adventure flick mostly. Romance is there, but not primary. I'll keep posting regularly for the next few days. After that I might take a short break before I start again. Please review. Thanks.