Thanks for all the good reviews, they really made me realize some of the lapses in my story, HOWEVER, my only concern is that if you want to flame me, fine, flame all you want, but at least put comments that can help me instead of complaining about certain aspects of my story; that would be duly appreciated.
Chapter 4: Leaving Home, Practice, Revelations
"Mum, Dad! My Hogwart's letter is finally here." A happy, excited eleven-year-old Harry Potter shouted as he ran into the kitchen, the letter held firmly in his small palms. But his smile was short lived when he arrived at the kitchen to find that his parents weren't paying attention at all.
"Mum?" Harry asked in a small voice.
"Can you be quiet at least for a five minutes, is that too much to ask for?" Lily Potter said with a scowl at Harry. His father never even batted an eye to him. Then she proceeded with talking to Eric who was whining about wanting to buy a pet. With tears in his eyes, Harry walked out of the kitchen, sniffling as he went.
Harry sat in the yard with his acceptance letter on his lap, he had to get to Diagon Alley, with parents or not. That's when he heard a pop and his face lit into a huge grin when he saw his Uncle Lupin and Uncle Sirius appearing at the edge of the manor and their faces cracked into smirks when they saw Harry sitting on the grass.
"UNCLE MOONY, UNCLE PADFOOT!" Harry shouted as he rushed into Lupin and Sirius' embrace.
"Hello cub, how are you doing?" Lupin asked, his wearied face smiled gently.
"I got my letter today but mom and dad told me to go away." Harry said, sobbing onto his uncle's tattered robes.
Lupin immediately felt the wolf within him growl with fury, ever since that night that old fool Dumbies had proclaimed Eric Potter as the Boy Who Lived, his long time friends had changed and casted Harry away, not even caring if he was hurt or alone.
"C'mon cub, forget about them, Remus and I will take you there." Sirius said with a mischievous grin.
"Would that be okay…" Harry murmured.
"Nonsense…we came here for you anyways." Lupin said as he guided an arm around his godson's shoulder. Together along with Sirius they popped away from the yard.
Harry twisted in his bed as the scene changed.
"I really want to kill James and Lily right now. This is unacceptable, Harry will live with me after this year!" An irate Sirius hissed as he and Lupin along with Harry arrived at King's Cross Station.
"Forget about them Padfoot, brighten up, our Harry's first trip on the Hogwart's express." Lupin said with a smile after looking at Harry awe struck face.
"Ahh, so many memories, meeting you, Prongs and Snivellus." Sirius said dramatically which caused Harry to giggle.
"Take care of yourself Harry, don't ever let your guard down and keep practicing those jinxes we taught you. Dumbledore might be all powerful but still, Hogwart's is a big place. And be wary of the headmaster, he's not as simple as he looks." Lupin warned.
Sirius, couldn't help by adding his two cents in, "Anyone who calls you names or jinxes you, humiliate them with some of Ol Paddy's little tricks." Harry smiled widely gave his two uncles a crushing hug before sprinting towards the train.
The scene again changed before him
"Join me Potter, Unimaginable Power, Knowledge…Immortality, I can help you! Use my knowledge, give those who have mistreated you with what they deserved." A voice hissed. "YOU"RE MINE NOW!" The voice cackled loudly with insanity.
Harry instantly shot up from his bed, gasping as if he had ran a marathon. Realizing that it was just a flashback of his childhood, he dropped back down on his back and breathed deeply. Looking at his alarm clock, it was five o'clock, he had only two hours left before he joined up with the other squad mates for the U-17 World Cup for their first training session.
Now he was awake, Harry felt like it was impossible to fall back into the realm of Morpheus again so he got up from bed, and with a wave of a hand, the bed made itself. Then changing into dark blue jeans and a George Best T-Shirt, Harry made his way down the stairs.
Turning on the lights, Harry placed a pan on the stove and after mouthing a wandless incendio, began frying scrambled eggs with ham. He smiled while tossing the flawless golden colored egg in the air before catching it again like a professional chef. Satisfied, Harry found a plate and placed the lovely smelling scrambled egg and ham on it.
Turning around, Harry froze when he saw Lily Potter looking at him from the entrance of the kitchen. To say Lily Potter was shocked was a mild understatement, she had just seen her eldest child cook for himself, as if he had been doing that for his whole life. I
gnoring her presence, Harry sat down in an empty seat and began eating his breakfast quietly.
"Harry…" Lily started.
Harry looked up, Lily felt worried and scared that her son had absolutely no emotion on his face, Harry tilted his head, as if saying "Yes?"
"Harry, do you have any plans for the summer?" Lily asked, hoping that he would say no so that she will have a chance to talk to him more and care for him like any normal mother would.
Harry pondered for a bit, "Should I tell her about my recent development?"
"Umm….yeah, Elan's gonna invite me over and we're hanging out together. I'm leaving in a bit" Harry lied convincingly and with a flick of his palm, cleaned the plate and placed it on the dish rack.
"Goodbye mother." Harry said without a hint of emotion as he slowly swept away from the kitchen, even though Lily Potter was a novice at Legilimency, Harry still had his mental barriers active and his senses alert, it that was something one certain hardcore badass auror had taught him.
A twelve year old Harry was ready for his first dueling lesson, or so he thought. "I wonder who's going to be teaching me." He thought to himself as he stood in the dueling room.
Suddenly, a blur swirled in front of him, before he could comprehend what was happening, a red beam of light flashed before his eyes and everything went black.
"Enervate" A gruff voice barked.
"Ugggh" Harry groaned.
"First rule sonny, CONSTANT VIGILANCE." The voice shouted loudly. Finally out of his daze, Harry gulped, kneeling in front of him was a face containing the most horrifying scars he had seen on a man. It was as it was carved out by a child who had the vaguest knowledge of what a man looked like, the man had grizzly graying brown hair, one small narrow eye the other eye was vivid, electric blue and it was moving around independently, swirling around in comparison with his normal one which was fixed on Harry. Long grueling scars ran down the man's cheeks and Harry cringed as he saw that the man had lost a bit of his nose, there was only one man that looked like he had gone to the deepest depth of hell and returned, Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody.
"My nose? Rosier took most of it." The legendary auror said with a maddening laughter, noticing where Harry's eyes were looking at. Harry gulped, he was seriously going to beat the crap of Sirius for getting him to do this.
"Now CONFRINGO!"
Harry cursed before dashing away from the blasting curse….
Lily Potter felt tears rolling down her cheeks, she was sad that her baby was resisting her company but a tiny part of her was jumping with joy when she heard him address her as 'mother', there was still hope. Harry felt conflicted as he picked up his sports bag, which he had charmed to become bottomless, "Why did I call her mother? What's wrong with me today?"
Shrugging his head, he crept out of his bedroom and decided to take a last peak at his little sister, gently opening the door, a smile grew on his face as he saw a small red bundle wrapped tightly with a pink sheet. In the whole world, no one could get to him like Little Rosy can, Harry couldn't help but love and protect her. "Goodbye Rosy, be a good girl." Harry whispered before shutting the door and walked down the stairs and out the manor. Taking one last look at his home, Harry pulled out a golden snitch and commanded, "Activate!" With that, he felt the ground opening beneath him and soon he was sucked into a vortex.
"HARRY!" Three other voices shouted as Harry whirled into a fancy, spacious magical tent.
"How've you all been?" A smiling Harry said as three bodies tackled him.
"Good, we just got here, Davies here landed rather suavely with his portkey portkey." Elan joked earning a glare from said poor lander of portkeys. Harry noticed a few more people sitting on couches, some talking quietly, no doubt some other players, he thought.
"Neat place huh?" Cedric asked from his bed.
Harry nodded as he placed his sports bag next to an empty bed next to Cedric's. Then a man of medium height, broad shoulders with graying blonde hair and blue grey eyes stepped in the middle of the tent and said in a commanding authoritative voice, "All right lads, everyone is here I see, now listen up, you have been chosen to represent your nation because you are the best…don't take the U-17 World Cup for granted, it is no walk in a park, many legends have been produced through this tournament, who am I and why are you going to listen to me? I'm Raymond Anderson, former Puddlemore and England Chaser of the squad that won the cup way back then, seeing that England is in a crisis, I am taking the role of U-17 coach. Take it from me, the teams today are way more difficult to beat then they were back then…now lets go out to the pitch and see what y' all are made out of. Bring your brooms." With that the coach walked out of the tent, the teens filing out behind him.
Harry's eyes widened as he saw the Quidditch practice pitch, "This is it." He thought to himself as he clenched his Nimbus 2000 tightly.
"Alright, chasers, Peterson and Smalling heaped tons of praise on you, lets see what you got." Ray said gruffly throwing Harry a Quaffle.
Immediately Harry, Roger and Elan kicked off from the ground, immediately Ray let loose two bludgers, which he did with a wave of his wand and aimed them at the chasers, it shot at surprising speed and homed into their target.
Harry saw what the coach was doing as he shot up and smirked, gracefully dodging the oncoming bludger and passed it to Roger who feinted from the second bludger and threw the Quaffle at Elan who caught it and threw a swerving shot which flew passed the upper right corner of the top hoop.
Beneath them, Ray smirked and with a flick of his wand, conjured up three wooden dolls and animated them. The three now 'alive' wooden dolls each grabbed a Comet Two Sixty and kicked off the air, "This is going to be fun" Harry said as he saw the wooden doll speeding towards him with the Quaffle in its grasp.
The doll passed the Quaffle to its teammate left of it but was intercepted by Harry who already foresaw the oncoming pass and sped quickly towards the opposing team's hoops. He swerved passed the furious bludger and threw a fast left handed shot which flew passed the hoop right of the top hoop
"Ambidextrous player….interesting." Ray thought to himself as he surveyed the black haired youth.
Half an hour had passed, the dolls had yet to score on Harry's team. Harry, Roger and Elan worked flawlessly as a collaborative unit, attacking and defending as one, something which Ray was impressed with, teamwork and team chemistry was the most head aching part for all coaches. After one hour and seeing enough of the dolls getting pummeled by Harry, Roger and Elan, Ray cancelled the spells, the dolls immediately fell limp on their brooms and casted the bludgers who were still furious back into its holder.
"Good work." Harry said while waving a salute. He was returned by two salutes as they landed back on land.
"Wow, I have never seen you play this hard before…" Cedric said with awe as he handed his three friends towels and a bottle of ice cold pumpkin juice.
"We're not at Hogwarts anymore, all the matches are so boring save Slytherin." Roger said with a shrug.
"You got that right, the other teams would all stop trying to play if we gave 100%...and that would be no fun. Except when we play against Elan…we have a rep to protect." Harry said with a wide grin.
"Idiot." Elan teased while rolling his eyes. Then remembering where they were, the three teens turned around and saw their coach's calculating gaze,
"So, how'd we do boss?" Elan asked respectfully.
"Acceptable work lads, you three have the strongest teamwork I've ever seen. I've never seen three chasers working so hard to regain the Quaffle after scoring and moving together when attacking and defending. I can see why Jack and Frederick praised you so highly." Ray commented.
At this Elan grinned at his two chaser counterparts.
"I'm curious, did you all start playing together very young?" Ray asked, his blue grey eyes narrowing.
"Yes boss, we played together and against each other since we were in eleven, sir!" Harry said.
Ray cracked a rare smile and then barked, "Diggory, you're next…"
Cedric looked green as the coach released the golden snitch, he kicked off quickly on his Nimbus 2000 with two furious bludgers released after him.
Meanwhile back at Potter Manor, James Potter had just waked up and was eating breakfast with his wife, son and daughter. Then an owl with black feathers flew in and landed on a perch, with a Morning Daily Prophet in its mouth. He went over and the owl released the newspaper into its hand and in return got fed with some owl treats. His face turned blue as he got the biggest shock of his life when he glanced at the headline on the front page,
Changing of the Guard
Douglas Sherrifield
This morning a statement has been released from the U-17 England Quidditch Training Camp, for all you Quidditch lovers out there, our newest generation of players are unveiled. Many people, myself have been waiting impatiently for the next generation of players, this reporter has had the privilege of watching the lads perform a short demonstration. England, for the first time in its long history, now has given birth to three brilliant chasers. Our chasers, Harry Potter, the brother of the one who vanquished the Dark Lord has accumulated over a record five thousand points from his four years at Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His house, Ravenclaw has remained control over the Quidditch House Cup for four straight years. This reporter was lucky enough to be able to question young Potter and he had this to say,
"This all happened so fast, its like living in a dream…I have never, in my wildest dreams expect myself to be good enough to play for England." When questioned on whether he had special training at a young age, Young Harry Potter responded with this, "No, I didn't even own a broom until eleven, it was all thanks to Professor Filius Flitwick and Professor Severus Snape that I was able to earn enough money to buy my Nimbus 2000. I will always remember them encouraging me to pursue my dream." This reporter was shocked to hear that young Harry had nothing to comment on his parents, it is understandable that having the Boy Who Lived as a child can be complicated but not even buying a simple thing like a broom for a gifted child?
Potter's housemate and partner Roger Davies, son of Jonas Davies, Head to the International Magical Games Association, has also been called up by Scouts Peterson and Smalling. This striking young man as also amassed a stunning three thousand points during his four years at Hogwarts. Lastly we have Elan Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, a well respected figure in the British Ministry of Magic and a senior figure in the Board of Education of Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft ad Wizardry, young Elan Malfoy has also amassed a breathtaking three thousand points for Slytherin House and has remained as Slytherin's best chaser in its long and grand history.
As we interviewed Raymond Anderson, long time England and Puddlemore legend now coach of England's newest group of talent, he had this to say, "These lads are brilliant, I have to give all the credit to my scout staff, Jack and Frederick, they're real rare talents, I've never seen chasers who can change between defense and offense so quickly, we know that this will be one tough year, there's a lot of teams with many exceptional players but we've got good quality players here as well…"
Next up we have Cedric Diggory, son of Amos Diggory, Head of the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Young Mr. Diggory has maintained the perfect record of catching the snitch in his every match for Hufflepuff. On the topic regarding our young seeker, Mr. Anderson had this to say.
"Cedric's got good balance and dexterity, he's been absolutely brilliant, a bit camera shy." At this he adds with a polite chuckle, and adds, "He's a good team player also."
Seeing these statistics and these young men in action. This reporter is now more sure than ever that these young lads can lead our nation to victory on the upcoming U-17 World Cup, as well as the Quidditch World Cup that will be hosted in Glasgow, Scotland two summers from now.
Above the article was a huge photograph of Harry, Roger, Elan and Cedric with their respective brooms in their hands, already clad in the traditional white robes of England staring expressionlessly at the camera. James Potter felt nauseated as he lowered the newspaper, his eldest son had scored over four thousand points in just four short years, even he wasn't any where near that landmark.
Suddenly, guilt washed over him, he didn't even know that Harry liked playing Quidditch; he then decided that he would make it up to Harry, no matter what it took.
"James, what's wrong?" Lily asked with concern on her face.
Without a word, James handed her the daily prophet, instantly all color was drained from her face. Her son had lied, it was such a huge decision yet he didn't consult it with them first. Tears began to flow out of her eyes, she had not even bought Harry a single thing after his 4th birthday whilst Eric got whatever he asked.
Eric Potter snatched the paper away from his mother's hands and his face grew red with anger. "What is this? My useless brother's popular as I am, that glory hound, I knew it, he's always been trying to steal my spotlight." He ranted.
"You, Shut, Up, Fatty!" Little Rosy shouted loudly and threw her spoon, at Eric was struck on the forehead and fell out of his chair.
"YOU, YOU DARE?" Eric yelled as he got back into his chair and stared menacingly at Rosy who just stuck out her tongue at him.
"Settle down, Eric, finish your breakfast, your sister is just a baby." Lily scolded, still shaken from the article on the front page.
Meanwhile in Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, a man let out a dog like laughter, staring at the photograph on the front of the Daily Prophet, "My godson's a pro, what a lucky sod, all the chicks are gonna throw themselves at him...hope Moony would see this." Sirius said to himself in the large house.
Meanwhile at Spinnet's End, in a house, a hooked nose, greasy haired Potion's master's lips curled into a half sneer, half smile as he read the Daily Prophet on his comfortable chair. Snape still remembered the first day Harry entered his classroom, for an hour he mercilessly threw questions that would sent most sixth years into panic at Harry; to his surprise, the boy answered every single goddamn question correct. Harry didn't even whine nor question why Snape was doing this. After that class, Snape decided to treat Harry as a gifted student rather than a spawn of his arch-nemesis, which was hard to do but the boy was clearly gifted at potion brewing, as much as he hated it. Since then they had a mutual respect going on between them, when he heard that Harry didn't have money to buy a broom because his parents gave him none, he offered the boy jobs of cleaning cauldrons, brewing potions and being his personal assistant.
For the rest of the day, the team worked on aerobics and strengthening their muscles with muggle training machines at a training center in the camp. Harry got to know the other members of the team quite well, there were the two beaters and keeper from Salem Magic Academy of America: Jeremy and Jason Bale and Daniel Jones. They were thankful that the media paid no attention to them since they liked to stay low profiled and teased Harry and his Hogwarts teammates about the attention they'll get. Speaking of attention, Ray had announced that after their first game against Hungary, there would be a team and fans signature signing event, despite the quartet's loud protest, Harry in particular, he didn't need anymore fan girls. As night came, Harry fell on his comfy bed, which was situated next to Cedric's. Closing the curtains around his bed, Harry blacked out due to fatigue with a certain little redheaded girl as his last thought.
Plz comment, I plan for Harry to meet Fleur and Gabrielle in the next chapter