A/N: Ok pov shift towards si from now on. I did the historical pov for the prologue and I might include more chapters in that style later in the fic.
I remember waking up in this alternate world, it was a jarring experience. My body was smaller, people seemed huge and I was extremely uncoordinated. I quickly realized I was a version of Harry Potter in this life, yet I had red hair and no scar. The doctors called me Harry Evans so I wasn't sure what the situation was. I had none of Harry's previous memories or any clue what was going on. It took me about a week to get over my death, at the end of the day there was nothing to do about it. I clearly remember tripping at the top of the stairs before waking up in this world. While disappointing and sad, if I had to die, becoming a wizard seemed like an amazing outcome. I had loved the Harry Potter series and would enjoy the opportunity to see magic in my new reality. I didn't speak to anyone for a month after waking up because I wasn't sure if this was a Dursley abuse situation or if I would speak with a different accent or strange manner. I wasn't really worried about anyone finding out that I was reincarnated and stole this body because it was simply an absurd situation. No, I was afraid that my changes would be so noticeable that they would leave me longer in the hospital. Thankfully the situation turned out to be pretty great. Vernon was a rising middle class salesman at his drill company and Petunia was the traditional housewife. My bedroom wasn't the cupboard and Dudley's only problems seemed that he was a little chubby and a little slow on the uptick. It seemed like quite a fortunate setup as far as I was concerned.
Dudley was actually 2 years younger than me, so in a way he looked up to me. I would expect him to be jealous, but he seemed fine being his parents favorite. While they didn't spoil or focus on him, it was clear that I was a nephew and not a son. Honestly the situation worked out great for me, I would just be polite and we had a great working relationship. I had been 31 when I died, so I didn't need the support of a traditional child.
When I first realized I'd have to go to primary school again, I was extremely frustrated. I didn't want to sit around all day learning basic math, reading, and writing. Fortunately, I realized that this was an opportunity to learn things I never focused on in my previous life. I had graduated college with a degree in economics and worked a research position at a university. I had planned on doing a masters and phd but had still been saving the money when I died. Since I was confident that I already knew the content to graduate high school, I decided to focus on learning a couple languages and playing around with magic to see if I could figure anything out.
Being a child again didn't really sink in until I began learning languages. In my previous life, I had taken Spanish throughout middle school and high school and spent a summer traveling Mexico. I was nowhere near fluent, but I could get around. Once I started to learn, I quickly realized how easy it was. Before, I constantly struggled with pronunciation, but I quickly realized that my voice muscles were different and with all the language practice they were developing in a completely different way than it had in my previous life. I also saw a significant improvement to my memory and reading retention, which I thought was amazing. I was already a decently smart guy, but having the self awareness of an adult to realize the opportunity I had to grow up with significant improvements was something I couldn't miss. Until Hogwarts I focused on languages and came away with an impressive amount of linguistic skill. As a result of my study into languages, I had gotten into recreationally reading a significant amount. Growing up in the 80s was boring. That was a fact that I got accustomed to quite quickly. There was little entertainment that compared to my modern TV and movies along with social media and YouTube. As a result of sheer boredom, I began reading many hours of the day.
At the age of 11, I had expected a Hogwarts letter, but McGonagall showing up was quite a surprise. I was extremely excited to go to Hogwarts, but based off Petunias reaction to certain probing questions, I had figured out that my mother in this life was raped and obliviated, which led to my birth. As far as I was concerned, Lily Evans wasn't my mother but I felt I owed it to the body that I held to get revenge if possible. The person who did it probably deserved it anyway. The who of the matter was something I would look into once I was capable. It was pretty clear that Petunia believed that the wizarding world did nothing to Lily's attackers, which was something I definitely could imagine. As such it was hard to hide my true feelings towards the professors. I had little respect for these teachers that seemed to maintain no semblance of control over their students and had little in the form of ethics.
I'll admit after the initial glow of the wizarding world faded, I was quite scared of the possibilities that magic contained. In the 4 years since I was reincarnated, I had managed to consciously do magic for only one spell. It was quite important and versatile but I managed to learn Accio. I would summon smaller things to myself all the time, however it took nearly a year just to figure out how to make objects come towards me at a reasonable pace. I had little hope that I could get to Voldemort's level of wandless magic that he had as a child. By all appearances he had chaotic magic that he had forced to do his bidding, but my magic felt static. I didn't even know I had been feeling magic for a long time because I had thought it was just how this new body felt.
Arriving at Hogwarts was quite a special moment and I loved every bit of it. There was something truly magical about the place beyond what one would normally expect about a magical castle. The surrounding area was quite surreal and I doubt I had ever seen a more picturesque place. The lake and forest is quite amazing, but it was clear that further in the forest was quite dangerous. The castle itself seemed to want to surprise students, and that showed in numerous different ways. I had observed the obvious like trick steps and moving staircases, but passageways would randomly pop up and hallways would suddenly be larger or longer. There was an element of growth in the castle, which was quite a shocking phenomenon to see. When large groups of people would meet, the rooms would enlarge themselves to accommodate. The same principle worked the opposite way by closing space when you want a private encounter. I definitely wished to study the castle a bit more, but felt it would turn out to be a never ending mystery.
Throughout the years, I found that I was quite skilled at one subject which happened to be Charms. I was obviously advanced in every subject offered at Hogwarts because they paced the courses for an 11 year old. I would breeze through assignments and readings because it was all quite easy to understand. I would practice magic every night because I knew that this world was a much scarier place and I would certainly get into magical conflicts with people or animals. I also worked on an enchanted ring which I created with the purpose of acting as my secondary magical sense. Enchanting is a bit like rituals, except the focus in an object rather than a person. I would feed magic through runes over time in order to create an artifact. Then I would get ingredients that I would "sacrifice" in order to activate the entire rune network. My first creation was a silver ring with runes that linked together to say magic, sense and glow, then I sacrificed a unicorn hair wrapped around a paw from a mooncalf. Both these items were quite easy to find and both creatures had some of the best magical senses out there. Mooncalfs are amazing at hiding, so my leap in logic is that they have to know where everything is and the unicorn hair will focus the sensing towards the negative aspects of magic. It ended up working quite well, but I have still yet to run tests to identify the full scope of sensing abilities. The range of the artifact was extremely limited, which meant it had little use for sensing things not right next to my hand. However, it was quite effective for dark artifacts, cursed books, and potions.
This brings us up to my current point which is entering my fourth year at Hogwarts. I was quite shocked to see James Potted here to teach DADA. I had read about the boy-who-lived and knew James was alive, but I was expecting Quirrell to be the professor. Looking up to the staff table, I see Quirrell is still there which means he must've stayed as the muggle studies professor. I can't quite hold back the giggle when thinking Voldemort will be teaching muggle studies for the year. I get a few weird looks, but most just ignore my laugh, although I see a couple people gearing up to ask me. I go back to eating my food and tuning everyone out. This year I had a couple projects that I wanted to work on including a new artifact. Dumbledore mentioned the gruesome death on the 3rd floor while winking at Alexander Potter. He was quite obvious when looking at it from my perspective, however I could see how an 11 year old would get sucked into his influence. Pretty gross if you ask me. Another student catches my eye and that happens to be Neville Longbottom. I had heard that our mothers were friends and of course I knew the story of their torture. With the philosophers stone here, I plan on stealing it so I might as well try to use it to help the Longbottoms if I can. I'll call it payment of a debt to Lily Evans for stealing her kids body. As dinner ends I get up to leave for the common room when someone taps my shoulder. I turn around to see none other than Nymphadora Tonks fidgeting. Clearly she wants to say something but doesn't know how to start so I help her out.
"What's up Tonks?"
She quickly replies, "Hey Harry, how was your summer?"
"Quite enjoyable, I earned some money working so I can fund a couple experiments this year."
She is obviously interested and surprisingly asks, "What're you working on?"
I don't want my project to get out because it will have combat implications and having a secret weapon is quite useful, so I say "I'm working on a new enchantment, but it's still early days."
She replies a bit disappointed, "you sure you won't tell me?" When I shake my head she goes on and says, "I was actually wondering if you would be interested in dueling practice. I want to join up with the aurors after graduating and heard you were amazing with magic." All the while I'm staring at her changing hair colors.
She clearly notices I'm distracted and stops, which gives me time to respond with a quick, "sure, when are you thinking?"
"How about this Saturday at 4?"
I reply while pointing in the opposite direction we're walking, "sounds good, but I'm heading this way, so I'll catch you later"
I rush off, but hear a "see ya" as I'm leaving.
I finally get up to my common room and get settled in my room. Ravenclaw has private rooms which makes my decision on houses quite fortunate. I remember being under the sorting hat, it was an interesting experience for sure. I wasn't really scared by the hat revealing my secrets because then none of these snotty purebloods would put it on. However I couldn't help but be nervous when the hat lowered over my eyes.
Silence
Then I hear "interesting Mr. Evans, very interesting" "I wonder, where to put you?"
For some reason that sounds familiar, was that what he said to Harry in the movie or books. I quickly realize he's either making a reference to my memories or he says the same thing to a lot of people. The hat doesn't say anything for a while then asks, "got any preference?" I'm quite shocked that he offered, so I just think, "No" because I want the traditional experience and was curious where the hat would put me. After a couple more seconds he yells out "RAVENCLAW."
I'm not quite sure if the hat knows but it was certainly clear that he wasn't gonna spill any secrets. It seemed to not have a long memory built in, so it probably forgot everything when not on someone's head.
I felt quite fortunate to be in Ravenclaw because of the private rooms and an amazing common room. I will admit, Hufflepuff because of the proximity to the kitchens and closer to the ground floor seems like the only equal alternative.
As I get ready for bed I can't help but think about my lessons with James Potter tomorrow. I have a feeling he went after Lily in his Hogwarts days so I'm quite curious if he might know anything. He doesn't give off rapist vibes, but I won't eliminate him as a potential suspect. However I look nothing like him, but it seems that I have taken little from whoever my potential father in this world could be.
I was now at a point that I was quite confident and comfortable with my magic. The enchantment project I'm working on will make me significantly more dangerous than I currently am. I have already reached NEWT level in nearly all my subjects merely because I can study ahead during classes. It was surprisingly easy to get that far, but I'm now at the point where I can learn some really interesting magic. I need to come up with a plan to steal the philosophers stone as well. I would feel no guilt for my responsibility in the death of the Flamels. They've lived far too long and it goes against nature in every way. Who knows what they did to create the stone and what they had to sacrifice. Regardless, I have an idea of how to use it for my next project and I'll have leftover to try and create a batch of elixir of life to give the Longbottoms.
The last thought I have before closing my eyes is that this is going to be an interesting year.
A/N: So that's the pov change, let me know if you like it or hate it. I'm not sure how to write dialogue well tbh so I'm gonna look at some examples over the next couple days to improve. Let me know what you think in the comments and like/follow please
