Hey! So this is the real first chapter. A little background, Harry went a little crazy after his godfather died and did the ritual you see before instead of blowing up Dumbledore's office. As a result, he still doesn't know the prophecy, and he's still internally pissed at the Headmaster...yep its going to be a bumpy ride folks :)
Dislciamer: I don't own HP or make money off this
The summer had been pure torture so far, even if the solitude had been a good thing for his state of mind…probably. The Dursley's were as they always were, cold and distant until they needed a scapegoat for their problems, than verbally abusive and neglectful until they'd calmed down. Considering Grunning's was having a bad year and Vernon was close to losing his job that meant that he spent quite a bit of time being ignored or yelled at. The being yelled at was hard to deal with, as more rage than usual seemed to simmer from somewhere inside of him in response. It took him until he had a similar reaction to Dudley for him to understand what was going on, he had wanted to just punch the little blob instead of running way from his "gang" as he usually did. That's when he realized he was feeling more aggressive than normal. That was ok though, it was a side effect that wasn't too unexpected and honestly it was about time he stopped being afraid of his cousin…or at least afraid of what they'd do to him. In the situation anger was preferable.
There were a lot of other side effects to get used to though, and being away from anyone magical was actually a blessing in this case. His relatives already thought he was a freak and hated him, so his odd behavior was ignored or scoffed at than left alone because they'd been doing all they could in response to his "odd" behavior already. By contrast Wizards would have been all over him, asking what was wrong or examining his changes, than they might actually find him out what he'd done and that would be…problematic to say the least.
Back to the side effects. He'd noticed changes at first of course, immediately after waking up he'd been able to tell that he was stronger. He could feel it immediately, knew without having to check. Each and every limb, though sore, had felt like rusty joints freshly oiled, stronger and in working order after so long without any sort of real use. Not just the physical seemed to be working better though, his magic seemed so free and flowing, like before it had been clogged in a similar way to sink and though he hadn't known any different than, now that it was flowing so smoothly he could tell the difference. His magic rushing through him as if a river, unobstructed and free, felt glorious.
It had been exhilarating if not a bit scary when he'd first woken up, and as a result he'd hidden out from everyone in a compartment pretending to sleep in a corner instead of taking the risk of discovering something bad about himself in front of the others. It wasn't just because he felt stronger that he'd been scared though, his changed appearance had made him afraid of what he'd been, and immediately thinking he may have been a vampire or something. He'd spent the whole trip reading under his cloak in that corner as a response, doing his best to look up creatures. While he'd been able find that he wasn't a vampire, he still hadn't known what he was and that had made him wary.
He still was wary really, but at least he knew he could still control his temper and didn't go off on murdering spree's, which was his main concern truly. His research had been useless in the end though, as he couldn't find any sort of being that fit his description. Oh sure, bits and pieces here and there worked, but nothing was…exact.
He'd noticed some things were different though, like not only did he feel stronger but he physically was. When his aunt made him replant the garden it had been simple to lift the bag of soil he'd needed, when before he would have struggled with something of that size and weight. He'd been having growth spurts all summer too, to match his strength. He hadn't noticed at first, because he was in too big clothes to begin with, but while Dudley may be chubbier than his slight frame, the growth spurt up had eventually become obvious as inches of bare skin on his ankles started showing beneath the cuffs of his jeans. As a result he'd taken to simply wearing shorts or cut-off jeans and, when his torso lengthened and made his shirts into belly-shirts, he'd just gone shirtless instead of dealing with it. This plus the yard work had made him develop quite the healthy tan, and with that brought another discovery.
He'd been studying his arms at the time, amazed at how fast he was tanning this year, when he noticed that his veins seemed pale against his skin, not just discolored like they should be. Eventually he'd been so overcome by curiosity that he'd made a small paper cut like mark on the top of his hand, and while the blood had been red like he'd expected…it hadn't been the dark color he'd anticipated. In fact, his blood almost glowed once he'd gotten it out of his veins.
That had been a fun freak out to get over.
After that though he'd worked on getting an even darker tan, as he noticed from the pale skin left on his legs that his veins were beginning to stand out more there than on the darker portions of his body.
As time wore on though he noticed that he started to feel sluggish, a rusty feeling invading his joints and the flow of his magic becoming more lethargic, so it trickled one day and rushed the next. It was making it harder and harder to keep a reign on his temper like this as the randomly spiking pulse enhanced his emotions, especially the anger. He couldn't quite complain though, as he adjusted fairly quickly to the changes. Nothing in his life had ever been set in stone anyway, and he was fairly good at expecting the unexpected at this point.
Truly he was becoming a master at looking for the silver lining, like the strength thing and finally being tall, while ignoring all the other shite.
At first all of this had distracted him from the main issue, Sirius dying, but eventually he did have to face the reality of that fact. It took him a long time of grieving and just feeling a frustrated hopelessness before he shoved that into the back of his mind by starting a new hobby, going to the public library. He didn't actually have a card or anything, but he could read books there if he didn't try to take them out, and so eventually he would escape there every day, when the Dursley's so much as blinked he'd do his best to escape. It worked out for the best, as this way he also had less chance of killing them all in their sleep for having to listen to them whine and complain all day…among other things.
The library eventually turned out to be one of his better idea's, as it was there he figured out why he was tanning so fast. Or at least he thought he now knew why. He'd been looking through the science section when he'd come across a paragraph explaining how tanning was just a reaction to the sun, and that the pigmentation was a protection against the ray's. Considering he had quite a few traits of other creatures (mainly being vampire he'd found at this point) and vampires weren't exactly fans of the sun. Something to do with no flowing blood, so no cell reproduction…at least not in a normal way, and so they actually couldn't tan or have any protection from its ray's by normal means. With that information he hypothesized that the fast tanning was just his magic or body reacting to the new sensitivity by tanning him faster…it didn't all add up, as the reason vampires had trouble with the sun didn't apply to him. He chalked that distinction up to the fact that his blood wasn't normal either however, and decided to tackle it more deeply when he got back to the Wizarding world.
One other major thing he started to learn in the library though, was law and finance. There really wasn't a whole lot of information that he found in the regular school subjects that he could use in the Wizarding world…or at least wanted to use. So, he'd gravitated towards the area on media laws, his experience with Skeeter making him wonder if the muggle world had to put up with that crap too. It had been an enlightening experience to say the least, and made him wonder if there weren't some Wizarding laws that just were ignored because he was the "chosen one". This made him look even more into the law, wanting to have some sort of idea what the system worked like (in case he ever gave up on the Wizarding world and fled really) and that eventually led to finance. He'd wondered about Gringotts, and how it worked in relation to a muggle bank, as he had no real knowledge of either. This led to the discovery of investments and stocks and all sorts of other things he'd heard mentioned, but had never really known about.
To sum it all up he learned more about the world outside of Hogwarts or the Dursley's, and he felt better for it. He finally was seeing that there was more to the world than just the here and now, it was an eye opening experience to say the least. Maybe he was growing up? Or perhaps it was just him finally finding a thirst for knowledge, either way it centered him in a way revenge or anything else couldn't have.
Of course, once he'd established a routine and was content, something had to come up and disturb his solitude. His disturbance came later that evening, when he returned home to find the Order of the Phoenix waiting for him…bugger.
So what's the verdict? Good/bad? Review and let me know! :) As for the pairing it's pretty set in stone but I don't know if I should reveal it before it happens, do you guys want a little mystery or something to look forward too?
Till Next Time