Alter Forte: Chapter 2

Despite what many might think, returning to your toddler years sucked. From the moment his father left his mother refused to let him leave her sight. Throughout the day as she finished up chores and eventually made him a simple sandwich and fruit for lunch, she kept a close eye on him. He wasn't even going to discuss the awful bathroom situation that he had to deal with as a toddler, aside from saying this. No one, no matter who they were, would be helping him wipe his own rear. It had only taken one absolutely massive temper tantrum to hopefully solidify that lesson to his mother.

Playing downstairs while she was trying to do chores around the house was relatively boring but it did help in one small way. After she left the room for a minute in order to go put some laundry she'd been folding away, he managed to retrieve the newspaper his father had thrown away from the trash can. A quick scan of the paper revealed that none of the articles were anything he recognized, but thankfully the date on the paper confirmed his estimation of the date, the paper reading "March 10th 1980." His mother's approaching footsteps forced him to throw the paper away without looking any closer, and unfortunately she didn't leave him unattended again, forcing him to play with his toys in order to avoid drawing attention.

Thankfully, his mother eventually seemed to run out of chores to do and so, she took him up to his room to play with him for a while, pushing his trains along the track with him and smiling widely at him as the two played together. He found the various toys she tried getting him to play with mind numbingly boring, but he played with them anyway, not wanting to draw her suspicions. It wasn't long before he started growing oddly tired, a yawn escaping his lips that took him by surprise. He'd only been awake for five or six hours.

"Oh my! Look at the time, you were due for a nap a couple hours ago!" His mother exclaimed, after a quick glance at her watch. She picked him up as she spoke, gently placing him onto the bed.

"But I don't want to take a nap mommy!" Brian protested weakly. If he was being honest a nap actually sounded quite nice with how tired he was but a child would hardly admit that. He hadn't even considered that toddlers often needed a nap to help tide them through the day, though it explained his fatigue.

"I know sweetie but you still have to take one, I can tell you're tired," She said sweetly, "Now, would you like me to read you a story first?"

"Yes please!" He answered, doing his best not to wince. While he loved books with a passion, he had a feeling the tastes he'd had in his previous life probably didn't match up with whatever picture book his new mother picked out to read to her child. She smiled and left the room, returning moments later with a book titled The Lorax, that only proved his fears weren't unfounded. The book certainly had its place in the world, and it was actually pretty important in giving an entire generation a newfound sense of environmentalism but it was beyond boring for Brian to sit through the book as his mother read it. Still, as his mother sat on his bed, reading the book to Brian softly, he could tell just how much his new mother obviously cared about him.

"Perhaps my years before Hogwarts won't be as unbearable as I first believed," He thought internally, outwardly pretending to fall asleep as his mother finished reading him the book.

"Sweet dreams my little prince, I'll come get you during supper," She whispered, planting a soft kiss on his forehead before turning off the light and exiting the room quietly. Brian laid in his bed, contemplating what he could do in the coming weeks, months and years, now that he realized he was in the wizarding world.

"Voldemort managed at least a small amount of wandless magic as a child, though nothing too impressive, and Dumbledore demonstrated small amounts throughout the books, but can I really compare myself to them? I can certainly try and use magic, but I doubt I'll make much progress on that front. That aside, what else can I do to prepare myself? Meditating will definitely be necessary, I need Occlumency shields as soon as possible, in the meantime avoiding eye contact with anyone that knows legilmency is key. Learning Latin… might be worth it, the spells used mostly pig Latin but it might help at least some to understand the language. It's not like I'll have a whole lot to do before I can buy actual wizarding books…" Brian thought to himself, barely noticing as he drifted off to sleep, just like he'd been pretending to for his mothers' benefit a few moments prior.

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Brian awoke later that day to the sound of his door opening, jerking upright as he scanned the room and found it unfamiliar for a moment. It wasn't until his eyes locked onto his mother who was standing in the doorway that he calmed down again as he remembered what had happened just hours previously.

"You ready for some supper Brian?" His mother asked from her position in the doorway.

"Supper! What did you make?" He asked, sounding more tired than excited for once with his reply, still half asleep as he stepped out of bed. He tried to shake off the last remnants of sleepiness he was feeling as he walked towards the door.

"Spaghetti, your favorite," She told him happily as he walked past her, moving out of his way to allow him past.

"Eh, spaghetti isn't too bad. It doesn't have anything on a good grilled burger though. Hmm, I wonder, do things taste the same in this body? Bacon and eggs tasted pretty similar, although not quite identical to how I remembered them. I figured it was just because someone else made them, but my taste buds could be entirely different," He considered for a moment. It would be something interesting to investigate once he had the chance. Instead of letting his mother catch on to his internal ponderings though, he opted to smile widely and proceeded to start running down the stairs, making sure to grab the rail on his way down this time. His mother followed after him, albeit at a more unhurried pace.

"Go ahead and sit by your dad buddy, I'll get you some food dished up," His mother told him, gesturing towards the table as she walked into the kitchen.

"So, how was your day Sport?" His father asked as Brian sat down beside him, a small smile appearing on his face despite how tired he looked. With that, supper began, his mother dishing them all up food as he animatedly told his father all about his day, down to the pointless nitty gritty details, with his mother interjecting occasionally to correct him on something he said, or to fill in on some detail he left out. After the meal was over, his parents took him into the living room, where they all sat together on the sofa, where his mother brought out a board game Brian was familiar with from his past life, Connect Four.

Both his parents took turns playing against both him and each other while Brian watched, the family enjoying the time spent together. Eventually though, Brian grew tired, his toddler body unable to keep up despite his second nap, and his parents took him up to his room for bed. After a few moments of temper tantrums as they tried helping him get dressed into his pajamas, he was tucked back into bed once more.

"Alrighty, what story do you want us to read this time?" His mother asked, cheerfully. Brian froze, his mind whirling through possible books.

"Shit! I don't know what stories they have, how am I supposed to name one?" He thought, desperately brainstorming for possible children's book titles from the 1970s or 80s that he could list. Sadly his mind came up blank.

"The Lorax!" He answered, doing his best to sound excited at the idea of having the same story read to him twice in less than twelve hours. He knew from experience that children often wanted the same story to be reread to them to the point that they had it memorized, so at least it was believable. He didn't exactly actually want to sit through it a second time but what choice did he have? He'd need to investigate what other books the family had in the future.

"Again? I just read that to you earlier today!" His mother replied with a smile.

"Please? I wanna hear it again!" Brian told her.

"If that's what you want, I'll go get it," His father said gently, quickly leaving the room and returning with the book in hand. A few moments later his parents were sitting on either side of his bed, taking turns reading the pages until Brian felt a reasonable enough amount of time had passed that he could pretend he'd fallen asleep. He let his eyes slowly start to droop, eventually closing them completely as he attempted to slow his breathing to a level that resembled sleep.

"Goodnight Brian," His parents both whispered quietly, tucking him into bed as they both walked out of the room. Brian waited until the door shut softly behind them before he sat up again, listening intently to the sound of his parents footsteps heading back down the stairs. Once they were safely out of earshot, he climbed out of bed.

"Hopefully they didn't discuss the cup incident during my nap earlier, I need to find out what they know, or think they know at least, about me being a wizard, if they're about to call for an exorcist then I'm getting the hell out of dodge," He thought, tiptoeing over to his door and opening it a crack. Not seeing anyone on the other side, he snuck out of his room, creeping down a couple of the stairs until he could hear. Once he got a few stairs down, the sound of his parents talking in hushed voices reached him.

"I've been trying to be patient by Brian's in bed until tomorrow now and I need to know Thomas, just what happened at breakfast today? We both know this isn't the first time something weird has happened around Brian either! Last year he somehow managed to get his toy off the floor from his highchair without ever moving, it just appeared in his hand!" His mothers voice carried up the stairs towards Brian. He faintly heard his father sigh for a moment before replying.

"I'd always thought she was crazy if I'm being honest. My grandmother, I mean, she told me stories growing up, told me that I needed to know so I could know to watchout for the signs," He began.

"Stories? Signs? About what? What's happening to Brian? Is he going to be okay?" His mother asked quickly.

"Stories, my love, of a world intertwined with ours but hidden away from us. A world of wizards, dragons, goblins and so much more, she told me about magic, and how wizards were using it to hide their world from ours out of fear, a world she was cast out from for being born without magic," He answered. Brian just barely managed to makeout his mother's laugh from his position on the stairs before she responded.

"Wizards? Dragons? Goblins? Are you joking right now?" His mother asked, starting to sound angry.

"I never believed any of the stories before now, but Amelia, she warned me about this. I shrugged it off last year when it happened, I figured that we might've just been going crazy, and then it happened again today! She told me that when wizarding children are growing their magic could reach out in strange ways, that it could make unexplainable things happen right before our eyes!" His father defended, explaining quickly.

"That's what's going on then? He's a wizard? Even if that's true, what do we do about it?" Brian's mother's voice replied, sounding significantly softer, her tone less angry and more worried instead.

"If my grandmother wasn't just crazy, then yes, it's what's happening with Brian. Assuming my grandmother was telling the truth about everything, and I'm right about that being what's going on with Brian, he'll receive a letter from other wizards when he turns eleven, and he'll be invited to attend a boarding school called Hogwarts where he'll learn to control his magic," His father replied, sounding slightly uncertain for the first time since the discussion had begun.

"Let's assume your grandmother was telling the truth, what else did she tell you about this hidden world? Will Brian be okay there?" His mother asked.

"Quite a bit actually, luckily for us," His father started to reply. Brian had heard enough though, he'd heard what he'd sought out to learn. As stealthily as he could manage, he slipped quietly back up the rest of the stairs and retreated into the safety of his room.

"So, I'm not quite as muggle born as I suspected at first? If my father's words are any indication she was probably a squib. Or is it just that all muggleborns are really descendants of squibs? I guess I don't really know enough to make a guess either way yet. At least I know my parents aren't about to go crazy and try to murder me for witchcraft or try to perform an exorcism on me. Then again with me only recently consciously inhabiting this body would an exorcism actually be appropriate given the circumstances?" Brian pondered to himself as he climbed back into his bed, trying to settle into what he hoped counted as a meditative pose. Focusing as intently as he could, he tried feeling for something he didn't recognize, hoping to draw on his magic actively. Unfortunately trying for what he was reasonably confident was about an hour, he had no such luck. Part of the issue was undoubtedly his new body's incessant need to constantly shift and move around, but despite his best efforts to quell any such desires, they just steadily built until he gave into them.

"I'll try again tomorrow, I need to get some rest," Brian decided, laying down and falling asleep, his mind awhirl with the possibilities his new life offered him.

The days slowly began blending together for Brian, each being fairly similar to that very first day Brian had spent in his new life. He steadily did his best to display a growing sense of independence and intelligence in front of his parents, and used any alone time he got to attempt accessing his magic. Despite trying at every opportunity, Brian had little luck in consciously controlling his magic. Time passed and as March turned to April, and April turned to May, Brian started to worry he'd never make any progress on controlling his magic. Halfway through May though, the daily pattern he'd grown used to changed for the first time.

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Brian sat on his bed as he always did for a while before attempting to sleep, doing his best to feel for his magic. This time though, was different than the others. As he sat there, focusing more intently than he'd managed to during any other attempt at meditation, he finally managed to feel it, his magic. Describing the feeling wasn't easy, it felt almost as if there was a ball of warmth in his core, slowly pulling out and flooding the rest of his body. But at the same time, warmth wasn't quite the right word to describe it either, it felt energizing, alive almost. Sadly, almost as suddenly as he'd felt it, the feeling faded away and he'd lost it, falling out of the meditative state he'd managed to put himself into.

"I felt it! I did it! Finally! I found out how to sense my magic!" Brian thought, ecstatic at his success. It might've been only for a moment, but he'd done it, he'd finally sensed his magic and he wasn't going to let anything discourage him. He took a minute to think over what he'd learned so far.

"From what I managed to feel, while the magic is all throughout my body, it felt centered somewhere near my chest or stomach, the magical core fan theory might be true, but I'm not sure yet. That said, if I can feel my magic without using a wand that means I should be able to learn at least a little bit of wandless magic. More importantly though, I need to develop occlumency shields, and asap," He thought to himself, going back to meditating after thinking for a while. Sadly, he had no success in replicating his feat that night.

It wasn't until almost a week later that he managed it again, once more meditating on his bed as he felt the familiar feeling of his magic filling his body. It was odd to him, because once he managed to sense it, it stood out like a sore thumb, yet whenever he wasn't meditating it might as well have not been there at all.

He tried opening his eyes slowly, doing his best to maintain his conscious notice of his magic as he did so, but it slipped away once more, leaving him frustrated and tired. He wasn't about to give up though. He'd been gifted superpowers and unlike most of the wizards he'd read about in the books, he fully intended to push those powers to their limits, no matter how long it took.

Throughout the next several weeks he kept trying each day eagerly awaiting the end of the night where he could meditate on his bed and try to call forth his magic. Each night he got progressively better and better at finding the magic in his body and calling it to the forefront of his mind until he reached a point where it took only a few moments of concentration to call it forth. He even managed to have his eyes open while still feeling his magic, although actually making it do something was beyond him for the moment.

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Eventually, a day finally arrived that broke up the monotony that was Brian's day to day life so far. Unfortunately, it was just to introduce a new form of boredom to his life, one he knew from experience was far worse than anything he'd experienced in his new life thus far, preschool.

"Please Mom! I don't want to go! Please don't make me!" Brian begged his mother, desperate to avoid the torture he knew awaited him. School had been boring the first time around, and that was back when he was actually learning something. Going through it a second time when he already knew what they were teaching? He didn't know if he could handle it.

"Brian, honey, I know you don't want to go but you need to go to school here. I'll be back to pick you up in just six hours. You're old enough that it's time you start getting used to some time away from your father and I, and that's final. Now off you go," She told him, laughing slightly at the look on his face as she gave him a gentle push towards the door as she followed behind him.

"It's not being away from you that I'm worried about! It's being around an army of these morons!" He thought in annoyance, glancing around the preschool as he opened the door. All around the room toddlers were running around as they chased each other, playing with toys and coloring. Brian held back a sigh. It was going to be a long, long day.

"Hi there, you must be Brian! Your mom here has told me all about you! I'm Ms. Amy!" He heard an obnoxiously sweet voice greet him. He held back a sigh as he took in the woman that was his new teacher.

"Hi Ms. Amy! Yep, I'm Brian! It's nice to meet you!" He replied, doing his best to keep his reluctance to be there off his face.

"Aren't you precious! Give me just a minute to talk to your mother, little guy," She told him, smiling widely. The teacher and his mother quickly exchanged a few words before his mother left, abandoning him to his fate.

"Go ahead and put your stuff in one of the cubbies along the wall here and then you can go play with the other children for a bit Brian, class should be starting in just a few minutes but in the meantime you can have some fun!" Ms. Amy told him, gesturing towards the cubbies along the wall behind here before gesturing towards the children all around the room when she suggested playing.

Recognizing a dismissal when he heard one, Brian took the opportunity, quickly storing his bag into one of the cubbies before searching out a corner of the room by the books where no-one seemed to be and sat down. He did his best to stay unnoticed as he sat in peace, practicing more at calling on his magic. He'd gotten good enough at it that he could call on it even in a loud environment like the one he found himself in, though it took longer than it would've otherwise and he had to keep his eyes closed whereas normally he'd gotten past that particular roadblock already. He was unfortunately shaken from his meditation rather abruptly when he felt something flying into his stomach from his position on the floor.

"Alright, which little one of you little-," Brian thought in annoyance, opening his eyes as just in time to see a little girl running towards him

" I didn't mean to hit you! Me and my friend were playing catch and I'm a really bad throw! I'm so sowwy!" She apologized profusely. Brian offered her a small smile from his position on the floor, doing his best to keep his temper in check.

"It's okay, no harm done," Brian said, trying to sound cheerful as he picked up the ball from where it had fallen into his lap and handed it to her.

"Okay, see you!" The girl said happily, running off once more. Brian laughed slightly at the girl before closing his eyes once more, intending to go back to his meditation. Unfortunately, the world had other plans.

"Alright children! Now that the last of you is here, lets get class started," He heard Ms. Amy yell, breaking through the general clamor of the room. He looked around the room and saw her over by a small area of the room that had a chair, surrounded by foam on the floor for the children to sit on. The children slowly made their way over to where she was waiting, Brian.

"Now then, do any of you know the ABC song?" She asked the assembled children cheerfully. Brian suppressed a groan as he mentally corrected his earlier belief. A long, long day was a severe under exaggeration for the hellscape he found himself in.

AN: Wow! The reception for this story so far has been absolutely amazing and I'm completely blown away! I know I promised another chapter within 7 days, but I was feeling pretty damn motivated with all the support I've been receiving so I wrote a lot more than usual and I finished it in two. Towards the end of this chapter you might notice the scenes got shorter, this is because I want chapter four to be his letter arriving. I plan to write short scenes showcasing important moments of his childhood years and then slow things down a bit once his letter arrives. If you're able to, please leave a review telling me your thoughts. I personally respond to all of them, and hearing feedback, both positive and negative, helps me to improve as a writer.

Next Update: Sometime around January 15th