2. Harry started to act

Seizing the opportunity, and under Dobby's guidance, Harry used Vernon's order to fix the shed at the back of the house to feel and transfer most of the spells on him and his things to the objects stored there. Willing his magic to spread to all his body had Harry's health in a much better state. He no long needed his glasses, he was in an amazing shape, still slim but with solid and powerful muscles, high stamina and, as he was now testing, concentrating a little magic in his eyes he was able to see magic's presence everywhere. He could now see the wards around the house, and the magic radiating from himself as a glowing aura, and the spells put on him and his things as luminous globes or surfaces.

Being able to see magic turn out to be essential to the kind of magical manipulation he was now doing. He could will his magic to involve the foreign magic and act upon it, being it to move it, to change it or to destroy it. He was simply transferring them from one thing to another, and was happy to see that it was a matter of careful control, not requiring too much power.

Some of those spells on him he couldn't properly identify. Even Dobby couldn't say more than they were there to cause some confusion on the boy's thought processes, but not exactly in which way or to what finality. Coming the new school year he would be on alert to identify who cast spells on him and why, and defend himself properly. He would live his life to his full potential and will not admit any more interferences.

.o0o.

Freed from the tracking spells and with the help of Dobby to transport him, Harry now have the possibility to know some new places and things he had long wished for. The first place he chose was Runswick Bay, in North Yorkshire, considered by many as the best beach in Britain. Some days later he visited Stonehenge, but was disappointed with it: only weak traces of what he was sure to have been a great magical site were still there. After some research they found Godric's Hollow, and Harry could visit his parents' tombs for the first time.

His personal library was still small, but contains some rarities of great value. Dobby was very patient and diligent in his searches, and had investigated several small second-hand shops and found some treasures between the piles of bad fiction and old school texts. Harry was specially interested in ancient magical history, magical theory and the kinds of magic no longer teached at Hogwarts, like alchemy and rituals, and his library reflected such preferences.

He had thought about his electives, and decided he had made a bad choice, influenced by Ronald's lazyness. He wrote to professor McGonagall and she let him change them to Runes and Arithmancy. She even congratulated him for choosing such challenging but useful subjects!

.o0o.

Harry was also making great progress with his new theory of magic, which he called PVD, from Power, Visualization and Determination. To perform magic, he needs to collect the necessary power, visualize the result he wants and then force the power collected in realizing what he had visualized. It seems simple, in theory, but was really hard if what he wants is complex or affects objects of considerable size.

He was happy to discover how easily was now for him visualize what he wants, and determination was something he always had plenty. He have a good level of power, but now dividing it between his core and the rest of his body he was having some difficulties making use of all his potential. He was working on how to increase the magical power he could store, but the progress here was coming slowly.

Nevertheless he was happy with his overall progress and was now thinking if he should help his friends to also achieve such progress. Without exposing his theories, he started to put in his letters some advice about the basic exercises he had done in spreading his magic to his entire body, and was reading with great interest the feedbacks he was receiving from the girls. He was anxious to see them in person to evaluate who he could count as allies and help evolve further.

.o0o.

"Great Harry, would you consider taking other house-elves?" Dobby asked him a few days before his birthday.

"Why, Dobby? I don't have much work to provide them right now. Do you know of elves having difficult founding new masters?"

"Good masters as Great Harry aren't common, sir. And yes, Dobby knows of four elves in need of new master."

"And would they accept the same conditions as you or would they require some different deal?"

"Oh, no, Great Harry. They think Dobby has too much. They don't ask for pay nor free time. They just asked for common elfin servitude."

"Uh, I would prefer if they accept the same conditions as you, Dobby. Do you think they would accept?"

"Dobby can try and ask. Can Dobby take them in if they accept?"

"Sure, Dobby. You can do it."

.o0o.

Next day Harry was the new owner of four elves, the old male Borkh, the old female Gemma, and the young female twins Milly and Willy. By Dobby's suggestion, the twins were assigned to infiltrate Hogwarts, befriend the other elves and make a complete map of the castle, with special attention to unused areas with specific purposes. They would also keep the staff on surveillance for any comments related to Great Harry. After all, information is power.

Borkh was designated to perform Harry's chores. He went beyond and was keeping the house in such a pristine state that his uncle was having great difficulties to find new chores for Harry. But this was for the better. As Harry was keeping himself in his room and didn't interfere with the house and the Dursleys except for his chores, Vernon decide to keep his nephew on his own most of his time, which allowed Harry to keep up-to-date with his mail, exercises and magical training.

Gemma had served a St Mungos' healer for decades, and learnt a lot with her master. She was delighted to see how advanced Harry was in his control of magic, and started to teach him the basic healing methods she had developed seeing her old master treating her customers. By the time Harry needs to return to Hogwarts, he was quite proficient in dealing with bruises, cuts and even mending bones. For this, they had used a run-over dog in the vicinity as their patient.

Gemma also helped Harry to identify the spells he had found on him for altering his mind and thoughts. They were of several types, including loyalty, confusion, memory blocks and even a block on some of his capacities. She did a full exam of the boy and went in panic at discovering the real nature of his scar. With use of a large mirror, she and Harry both expended most of a night working on it and were able to transfer the soul fragment to an unbreakable jar that they filled with psilocybin, a potent hallucinogen. Harry initially wished to simply destroy it, but Gemma had pointed out that any chance of extracting information from it should be used.

.o0o.

The visits continued. Harry was enjoying the opportunity, as Marge would come soon and he knew he would have no rest while she stay here. Dobby had enough magic to transport him all around Britain and some near countries as Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands and the north of France. He found the Netherlands specially beauty and the Orkneys specially magical. There was some kind of really ancient magic there that he wants to explore deeply.

He thought about visiting some of his new friends, but gave up as bad businnes. It would be inappropriate to visit them without their parents' knowledge and consent, and quite strange for a minor to be travelling alone, specially with his status of celebrity.

.o0o.

Harry was stupified on the morning of his birthday. There was a huge pile of gifts waiting for him. He would need to find the birthdays of his new friends to be able to retribute them all.

One of the gifts, a book on monsters by Hagrid, tried to bite him! He used the opportunity to exercize his new magical talents. He found that the book wasn't enchanted with spells, but with runes, and found their positions in the book. As he didn't know nothing about Runes yet, he just removed them, ending with a perfect inert book that he could read with no more troubles. And he read it with great attention, as after trolls, a baby dragon, acromantulas and a basilisk, he doubt he had had all his quota of magical beasts already. But seeing how runes could animate a book to act like a beast only reinforced the certainty he felt with his new choice of electives.

.o0o.

With Marge in the house, Harry's routine suffered a lot. The woman did her most to keep the boy near her, so he had no alternative but listen to her continuous flow of insults. She made the boy act as her personal servant. His free time was reduced from after dinner until the time he needs to start with breakfast, and most of this time he reserved for sleep. He kept his mail up to date, but couldn't do much more.

But the new and improved Harry didn't suffer much from such treatment. He was now conscious of his power and value, and of the many ways and plays people used to exert control over others. He saw Marge by what she really was: a bitter woman who never married, with no real social life and many unfulfilled desires well above her meagre means and abilities. Instead of anger, Harry's feelings towards her was of sadness by such wasted life.

He had avoided using his new abilities against his relatives until now. But he didn't consider Marge as a relative, so he used her as a target without any remorse. He found he could easily extend a string of his magic to her mind and be aware of her surface toughts. He used it a lot to gain knowledge of her intentions and having fun making each one of them fail. He also had fun causing little accidents, like cutting off the hot water during her baths, or causing her to fall on her bum while walking to the kitchen.

Finally she was gone, he had his permission for visiting Hogsmeade signed and had resumed his full routine for the last week before returning to Hogwarts. He was anxious but also apprehensive for the new school year. As a last act of preparation, he had arranged with his pen pals to occupy consecutive compartments in the second to last car of the Express.