Chapter 2:

Harry looked at the book Dumbledore gave him, this was the only thing he had which provided some form of information about his 'powers'. He needed to learn as much as he could as fast as he could.

So Harry quickly went through the entire thing like a man on a mission, because right now he was. Day turned into night and soon madam Pomfrey left to meet Rosmerta in Hogsmeade. Harry was only one with the first chapter when he finally decided to give it a break.

So far he understood only a few things about what Occlumency was. It seemed it was a way to prevent people from reading one's mind, it seemed it was some sort of mental discipline certain wizards practised.

It's opposite, legilimency, was the art of attacking a wizard's mind, something it seemed Harry was doing without even realising. But it was different, even a master user of the mind arts needed to want to read other's minds, Harry did it without even realising what he was doing.

Whatever his abilities consisted off it wasn't magical in nature, or at least not anything that was commonly know to society.

But so far Harry had a goal, well two actually. The first was to practise his art, he could read people's mind, he would a fool not to try it out more often. And the second was getting used to his powers. Because like Dumbledore said, the amulet was a crutch, Harry needed to learn how to control this new….'gift' of his.

Harry looked at the amulet Dumbledore gave him, 'for now this can help me. Dumbledore did say it was supposed to keep voices out...maybe it does actually do that, but if I focus hard enough it will allow me to hear the voices anyway. Meaning as long as I have this I can hear them if I want to, but they won't be able to assault me like before.'

Harry nodded, that seemed like a logical conclusion for his problem. He sighed as he put the heavy tome to the side, he still needed answers, he needed to research his powers more.

Harry looked outside his window, it was getting late. He had a late lunch and Pomfrey promised to get him dinner when she returned, but until then Harry was once again alone.

'Maybe a trip to the library is in order,' Harry thought to himself, 'after all Hogwarts does have one of the largest libraries in the world. If I'm going to be searching for vague unheard of powers there is no better place to start. Plus now that all the other kids are gone I have the entire place to myself!'

And with that Harry threw his covers over and got out of bed. He pocketed his wand and quickly set out into the familiar castle once more.

The hallways seemed strange being this...well empty. Usually there would be at the most one more person in the hall with Harry, at least during this time of the day. Now however everything just seemed so…..dead. It was like the life blood of Hogwarts was gone, but for Harry that was good news. He would have been bombarded with all their thoughts otherwise, sure the amulet was there, but he didn't really have much faith in it's abilities.

Harry quickly reached the library and the moment he did Irma Pince, the librarian spotted him.

"Potter," she hissed, "why are you here?"

"I ah… well I just wanted to get a head start on my summer assignments Ms. Pince."

"Really? I find that hard to believe," the woman snarled. Harry gulped, the woman towered over him, to be honest she somewhat resembled a vulture, what with her long neck and sharp hooked nose.

"W-well it's true, so can I...you know," Harry motioned to the empty library.

"Fine," Pince grumbled, "but not one word out of you boy. And remember, there is no one else in this entire castle, so anything, anything happens to one of my books, I will know it was you."

Harry gulped but nodded as he turned away the woman and ran into the nearest bookshelf. He looked back carefully and saw the woman grumble as she sat in her seat behind her desk. Harry narrowed her eyes as he focused trying to figure out what she was thinking;

[Stupid boy, no respect for books. Him and that red head friend of his, always so loud. I still don't understand why Hermione willingly chooses to spend her time with those two. Absolute waste of time for such a smart girl like her.]

Harry was surprised the woman had such a strong liking for Hermione, he always just assumed she hated everyone. But then again the muggle born did spend a lot of time here, so it stands to reason Pince saw her as kin, or whatever the vulture hybrid considered as a friend.

With that little curiosity satisfied Harry turned to the rows and rows of books that now stood before him. He had a job to do, and honestly he was excited to do it. After all this wasn't a school project or anything like that, this was him researching a new power! Obviously the excitement factor was very high.

Harry first went to the cue cards looking them over for any references of 'strange powers' or 'unique abilities'. Key words like that. In the first five minutes Harry had found four books on unique abilities, three of which were written by the same author, one 'Augustus Fleemingsworth'.

So Harry went out and got all four books, along with Fleemingsworth's autobiography. After all he must have spent a lot of time researching these special powers, might as well give it a shot.

Harry put the books on the table and quickly began looking through them all. The first book was basically crap. All it spoke about was unique skills owned by wizards across history. And these skills weren't even all that unique, most were just really good at certain things. One was a potion's master that invented something called Felix ah... Something. Etherway, that was a bust.

Then came the three books by Augustus and that was when Harry hit the gold mine, figuratively speaking.

Each book was a compact detailed analysis on advanced unique powers given to wizards around the world. For example there was something called a metamorphmagus, which was the power to change one's facial features without the use of a wand. The word itself was honestly pretty difficult to say, so Harry just took to calling it the power to shape shift. Much simpler.

Then there was also something called Divination, which apparently was a real thing, but very few had that power.

There was also aura manipulation, pyrokinesis, astral projection, bio location, vulnerability and so one and so forth.

By the time Harry had gotten through the third book Augustus's works started to read like a muggle fiction story more than wizarding fact. But then again he was currently inside of a magical castle in Scotland with a wand tucked into his pocket so maybe his bar of disbelief should be seat a little higher than the rest of the world.

But Harry still hadn't found what he was looking for, so he kept digging.

He turned to Augustus' autobiography for help. In it the wizard spoke of all the books he had ever writing and his feeling on them. It served as a sort of index for what to read next, after all if Harry could narrow it down, then all the better.

'Wait, what's this,' Harry wondered as he looked at the last page of the autobiography where the writer mentioned a book he had written a long time ago. Apparently it was the first book he had ever written and it was an attempt at getting younger witches and wizards to appreciate muggle culture.

The book was called 'Muggle fiction, magical fact', and something told Harry this was exactly what he needed.

He quickly found the book, luckily the Hogwarts library had a copy. Harry placed down along with all the others he had and began to read it.

The book mostly described about what muggles believed to be impossible but the magical world knew to be possible. It was just a list of skills included like 'levitation', 'transmutation', 'invisibility' and so on.

Harry then spotted 'legilimency' in the index, guess it deserved it's own chapter. He turned to that page and began reading;

Most common wizards aren't aware of this, but the mind arts is a very useful tool for any wand user's arsenal. The art of legilimency is a unique field as it involves high mental faculties and lots of will power on the user's part. Hence why most do not even bother with this art form, despite its various uses.

Legilimency is the art of launching a mental assault on the minds of one's enemy, this way the battle will be both a mental one and a physical on. Most common use of legilimency is done in the field by Aurors in order to interrogate witnesses or for the purposes of surveillance.

The muggle born of my readers will recognize that this ability will have a striking resemblance to the muggle fictional power 'telepathy', the power to read other's mind. For those not aware telepathy is a fictional ability that some muggles believe to be a real ability. It would allow for an individual to read other's thoughts, and while it may sound similar to legilimency it is far different as anyone can the practice legilimency while only those gifted can use telepathy. In that way it is much similar to the seer abilities how one has to be born with it.

Another difference is that legilimency is an expression of magic while telepathy relies on some unknown third party factors.

But back to legilimency, the reason the average wizard or witch…

Harry had stopped reading at that point. He looked further ahead and found no mentions of this telepathy ability Augustus spoke off. But one thing was for certain, this was definitely what Harry could do.

He looked over what was writing in the book over and over again, and honestly, it was not enough. It was just a paragraph describing his abilities, Harry needed more.

'Hm, Augustus said that it was an ability that muggles believed in…..maybe I could find more about it in a muggle library,' Harry sigh, if that was true the entire of the Hogwarts library, which was one of the biggest in Europe, was now useless to his needs.

Harry quickly started to pack up, he needed to put these books back where they belonged, or else the vulture that was currently glaring at him would kill him.

He went around putting the book back where he found them, luckily they were all located near each other. Harry now had only to put back the autobiography book, which was exceptionally heavy and also belonged on the fourth shelf.

Unfortunately Harry wasn't tall enough to reach it on his own, fortunately that was why God made the ladder. 'Wait, no, God didn't do that. Hm… who did make the first ladder? And did they name it after themselves? So was there a man named Ladder that invented the ladder?'

Harry shook his head, his mind had been going off topic several times that day. He found it harder to focus, it was always getting distracted. But at least when he was doing research or something important it stayed put, otherwise Harry feared he would never be able to learn anything.

Harry put the ladder on the book shelf and climbed it. He put the book back where he found it but as he was getting down his leg slipped sending him tumbling back onto the ground.

Harry fell down hard, he hit his head on the opposite shelf causing it to sway dangerously. Harry groaned as he rubbed his head, he really hurt it bad. Harry squinted his eyes open and looked up just in time to see a huge book from the top shelf falling down.

'Shit!' Harry said as he raised his arms up to protect his head. He knew this would hurt as he wished the book to not hit him. And suddenly something exploded out of his head, Harry couldn't feel it, it moved too quickly.

Harry waited and waited, but the pain never came. Slowly the young Gryff opened his eyes and looked up, and the moment he did Harry gasped.

The book was floating just a few short feet above his head. Harry could feel something in his head pushing the book up. It almost felt physical, like a wave of wind flowing outwards. Harry had seen levitation before, hell he had levitated things before, but that was always with a wand.

But now, now it was different, he could actually feel the book he was holding up. The 'wind' his brain was exerting allowed him to feel like he was actually holding the book up. He slowly moved it, altering the wind's patterns, and in response the book moved as well.

'This is so cool!' Harry exclaimed and in that moment of excitement the wind stopped causing the book to continue to fall down landing on Harry's open face.

"Bloody hell!" Harry cursed as he rubbed his bruised nose. He groaned as he looked at the fallen book, guess it was just accidental magic or something.

'No...no it can't just be accidental magic. That didn't feel like just magic,' Harry thought to himself as carefully put the put back in it's place, 'it felt real, like...like I was moving it, not my magic, me. And not just that I was also using my brain, which is also where I hear those voices.'

Harry quickly walked out of the library and to the hospital wing, Pomfrey would be back by now and he didn't wanted to be scolded for being out of his bed, again.

'Something strange is going on. I have all these new powers, and they are all related to my brain, somehow,' Harry ran his hand over his new 'X' shape scar, 'maybe this has something to do with it. Maybe not. But either way all these new feelings I'm getting, all these powers...I need to understand them.'

Harry quickly reached the hospital wing and found it empty, which was good. That mean Pomfrey wasn't back yet.

'So I'll start my research later...maybe I can sneak away from the Dursleys and try a muggle library for information about my powers. Btu something is funny,' Harry groaned, 'it's like I already know what these powers are, but I just can't seem to understand why. It's like deja vu, except it's for my whole life. I have definitely heard of these powers before, the ability to read minds, the ability to move objects with my mind, I assume. It's almost like….like I'm a psychic.'

Harry shook his head, 'no, no….yes? No….yes. No…..yes. Yes.'

It made sense, all these powers, it's was similar to the tricks those fake magicians Harry used to see. That is before he found out he was a wizard. Those 'illusionist' and 'psychic's'. When Harry first discovered the magical world he was surprised by all the things wizards could do, he chalked all the previous muggle magicians he saw to just fakes.

But now...maybe they were just fakes, but that didn't mean the things they talked about couldn't be done. After all everything they believe to be impossible, invisibility, spells, incantations, all of it was possible in the wizarding world. So why couldn't the opposite be true?

Harry took out his wand and looked it over. He needed to test his theory out...well not really a theory, more of a hunch.

Harry placed his wand on the side table and sat down on his bed. He looked at his wand intently, it was a good four feet away from him. Harry extended his arm and opened it fully. He focused on his wand, he focused intently.

He reached out with his mind, he tried to duplicate what he felt before. That feeling of 'wind' flowing out of his head towards the wand. It felt strange at first, almost impossible, but sure enough it was there.

It moved like slowly smoke as it surrounded itself around Harry's wand. Through this mysterious 6th sensation Harry could feel everything about the wand, it almost felt like he was holding it. Only now he could cover the entire wand, he wasn't limited to the size of his hand.

Harry then slowly pulled the feeling in his head back and sure enough the wand started to be brought back as well.

It was slowly dragged off the table and fell over, it nearly hit the ground when Harry stopped it. It felt stanger the way Harry ordered it to move, but sure enough it did move.

It slowly floated towards Harry who quickly snatched it out of the air drawing back the mental smoke his mind projected.

The young man sighed, he wiped the sweat from his brow. That took a lot of concentration on his part, it was like trying to fly with one's eyes closed. But somehow, Harry had done it, he actually had moved his wand with his mind.

This confirmed two things, one his powers weren't magical, they weren't even close. And two he was definitely going to enjoying using these abilities to scare the shit out of his cousin.

Later that night Madam Pomfrey showed up and brought Harry his dinner. He ate it in silence, which the healer found odd, and quickly went to bed. As he tried to sleep Harry's mind was filled with thoughts of the future. He needed to find out what he could do, he was so excited that his brain refused to let him sleep.

But eventually he did sleep and Harry dreamed. He dreamed of the chamber, of how he nearly died. He dreamed of Ginny dying and Tom being reborn, he dreamed of failing, he dreamed of dying there in that cold dark room next to the corpse of the basilisk.

Harry then watched as Voldemort destroyed Hogwarts from the inside out, going on a mad rampage killing everyone in sight. He cut off the heads of all muggle born students, hanging them around the Great Hall for all to see.

He killed Dumbledore with his own wand, he then feed Fawkes to a snake. The Dark lord then spread out as he slowly took over the entire of wizarding England. And soon he sat upon a giant throne of corpse, with Harry's serving as his foot rest.

Harry was horrified, but he couldn't stop it, he couldn't stop any of it. Slowly the red eyed monster looked at Harry, not that the corpse, but at Harry himself. He looked and smiled, "I win Potter."

"NO!" Harry screamed out as he snapped awake with his body covered with sweat. Harry looked around, h couldn't see anything, he didn't have his glasses. He felt his body, it wasn't hurt in any way, he was alright, he was alive.

"Mr. Potter!" Madam Pomfrey was at his side in seconds, "what happened?"

"I..I...I had a nightmare," Harry admitted as he slowly brought his breath back to normal.

"I see.. And what kind of nightmare?"

"The kind where Voldemort kills everyone," Harry sighed as he reached for his glasses, "why am I the only one who has these sort of dreams?"

"Well I hate to tell you this Mr. Potter, but you aren't," Madam Pomfrey spoke in a kind tone as she sat down besides Harry placing a gentle hand on his lap, "I was a healer during the war. I saw things that….that no one ever should see. People treated each other worse than animals. They threw away what made them human and became something twisted something…..monstrous.

"Back then I had nightmares, by magic, anyone who remembered those times had nightmares. We all dreamed of the day you-know-who would come knocking on our door and kill us and our family. We lived in fear, but eventually the war did end and so did the nightmare. But sometimes those nightmares….they still come back."

"How did you deal with them?" Harry asked, "how did you...you know, how did they stop?"

"You stopped them," Madam Pomfrey smiled as she looked at Harry.

"Me?"

"Yes, you," the healer nodded, "I imagine not many people told you just why you are so famous Harry. Yes, you survived the killing curse, and yes you destroyed Voldemort, but that isn't the reason why you are so loved by our world. You see, you are a symbol Harry, a symbol of hope. The day we all heard you stopped him….that was on of the happiest days in the memory of Britain."

"But I don't even remember doing that," Harry argued, "it was my mom and dad...they protected me. They are the real heroes."

"I know Harry, and so does everyone else. But you see….they sacrificed themselves for you, for the future. And they did so out of love. And in doing so they made you a symbol of something better, something the entire world could rally behind. You were seen as the child that protected us from the darkness. You were seen as the child that stopped Voldemort, it doesn't matter that you didn't, in the end that is how people will remember you."

"So is that why people care for me so much? Because they want that feeling of happiness to last?"

The healer nodded, "yes Harry, that is exactly why they love you. You are seen as the one who fought back the darkness, and through you everyone sees a better future."

"But what if I don't want to be that?" Harry asked, "do I really have to live my life up to the standards put up by others?"

"No, of course not. You can live however you want...but Harry you aren't normal. From the moment you were born you were a special child. You have a duty Harry, a duty to be the light of our world."

"But what if I fail?" Harry snapped, "what if I'm not good enough."

"You won't fail, and you are good enough."

"Really? Why do you say that?"

"Because every time you come here Harry it was because you risked your life trying to do the right thing," Pomfrey smiled, "you are a selfless boy Mr. Potter, you save people that don't others believe are beyond saving. You are a good person, and as long as you remain the way you will always be good enough."

"But what if I want to change?" Harry asked, "what if I don't' want to be this….this mess," Harry looked at himself, "I'm skin and bones. I basically have only a few friends in this castle of a school. I am pants at my subjects, I don't really have any talents except for flying and….and why would anyone care for me?"

"Harry if you really feel that way, then change."

"But you just told me not to."

"Yes, but if you don't' like that version of yourself, then change it."

"But won't people want me to be the same? To be their symbol?"

"Yes," Pomfrey nodded, "but you don't have to be. You don't have to do something you don't like Harry, no matter what everyone else want's you to do. Sometimes….sometimes you must stand your ground and do what you think is right. And if the world tells you to move or change you shake you head and you reply, 'no, you move'."

Harry's face slowly turned to one of understanding, "so….so what do you think I should do?"

"If you want to better than you are, if you are unhappy with what you are, then change."

"But what if my friends don't like me if I do?"

"Then that's their problem," Madam Pomfrey shrugged getting off Harry's bed, "besides if they truly are you friends they would accept the changes you made."

"Do you think I can do it though?" Harry asked unsure, "could I really change that much? And what if I become something completely different?"

"I don't think that's possible Harry," the healer smiled, "no one can ever change fully who they are. No matter who you become, that helpful little boy who saved Ginny Weasley will always live on inside of you."

Harry nodded as he looked at his hands. He was worried, he was worried about how his powers would change him, how he would change. He was afraid, he was before as well, but the discovery of his abilities distracted him from his fears.

Harry sighed, "thanks Madam Pomfrey, I needed that."

"Don't mention it dear," the healer smiled as she drew back his curtains, "now try to get some sleep, you will need it."

Harry nodded as he layed back on his bed slowly trying to figure out what he should do. The healer was right, he could change if he wanted to, there was absolutely no reason why he shouldn't.

Harry sighed as he rolled around, an hour passed by quickly and yet he was awake. Harry took his wand out and cast the tempus spell displaying the time. It was 4 in the morning, Harry sighed, he definitely wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. He couldn't sleep at all, his brain was way to active. He needed to do something.

Just then Harry remembered the dream he had, about how Voldemort was reborn in the chamber. Sure it was just a dream, but with all these new powers Harry had gotten it may have very well been a permission.

If was a chance it was true, a chance that Tom was still alive...well Harry couldn't risk it. He needed to check out the chamber, again.

So with his mind made up Harry quickly slipped out of his bed and looked outside his curtains. He could see madam Pomfrey sleeping in her room. He carefully snuck out of the hospital wing and walked to the second floor girl's bathroom.

It took some time, Harry mostly had to take care to avoid the ghosts. Usually he would worry about prefects or teachers monitoring the halls but right now school was over so there would be no reason for them to do that.

Soon Harry reached the second floor bathroom and carefully entered the room. He really did not want to wake up moaning Myrtle, if she woke up then the rest of Hogwarts would also be awak thanks to her screams.

Harry looked around and sure enough the entrance was sealed up. Guess Dumbledore or someone figured out a way to close it up, considering only a parselmouth could open or close the entrance.

Harry circled the basins until he found the right tap. He looked at the snake carved into it and like before, pretended it was a real snake.

"Open," Harry said and as soon as he did he blinked, 'wait...that was in english. What the hell?!'

Harry hock his head and focused again on the tap. He focused closely, he imagined it was a real snake. He readied himself and spock, "open."

'God damnit!' Harry cursed as he hit the tap in anger, only to cause his own hand further harm. Harry cursed he didn't understand why it wasn't working. Before whenever he tried to speak like a snake it worked but now...now it just came out in english.

'Could it have something to do with my scar?' Harry rubbed his forehead, once again it all came back to this. Maybe when he gained his new powers he lost his old one. It wasn't really a solid theory but it was all Harry had to go on.

But Harry still needed to get in. He groaned, 'hm...maybe I can just fake it. After all it's just a bunch of hissing noises right?'

And so Harry tired doing just that. He hissed in different tone and pitches. He even once tried biting his tongue as it sounded hissier, but alas nothing worked.

Finally it was around 5 in the morning, Harry had just spent an hour in the girl's bathroom hissing at a tap. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

With a heavy heart Harry quickly walked away from the second floor bathroom and back towards the medical wing. He couldn't open it, but at least that meant Tom wasn't back, because if he was that thing would have been open by now.

Maybe his dream was just that, a dream. So that meant he could now read minds while also moving objects with his mind. But it felt like Harry was just scratching the surface of what he could do.

He walked along the corridors of Hogwarts, it was still early, but Harry could see the sun rising from the east. It honestly looked very beautiful, it was enough to stop Harry and make him watch as it slowly came up past the horizon over the forbidden forest.

Harry leaned on the window sill and sighed. He wore a simple grey shirt and a pair of jeans, it was nothing fancy, and barely kept the cold bit of the early morning air away, but Harry didn't mind. He liked the cold sometimes.

The sun rise was honestly beautiful to see. So much wonder, so much beauty. Harry wondered why he never spent time to wake up early to see it before. He regretted that...in fact he regretted a lot of things.

He regretted all the time he wasted. Maybe it was because of his near death experience, but Harry couldn't care less of the things he called problems before.

Sure the Dursley's were bad, but Harry couldn't do anything about that. They were assholes and would continue to act like assholes, Harry couldn't make them change.

Harry realised he would have to change, that he would have to change and that was okay. He was allowed to change, he was allowed to become someone better, someone else. And maybe it was because of his powers, but right now Harry felt like he could do anything, that he could be anything.

And saw in that moment as he overlooked the sun rising over Scotland Harry Potter made a promise to himself, he promised to always live his life to the fullest, to never be bound by what others wanted him to be. To always do what makes him happy, and to not waste a single moment of his life again.

He swore to change, not because he had to but because he wanted to. With these powers of his...he could become great, he didn't know what the future held for him, but he didn't care. Be it Voldemort or homework, he would face it.

And it wasn't because he was the boy who lived or some sort of saviour for the wizarding world. It was because he was Harry Potter, the son of James and Lily Potter.

So this chapter was a little slower, but I needed to set up Harry's mental state of mind. You know, you can't just turn a guy's character 180 degrees with a snap of your fingers.

Anyway, yes, I also introduced a new power.

Please review and tell me what you think of the story so far. Next chapter will be about Harry in the muggle world trying to learn more about his powers.