1. Harry started to think

It was the start of his summer holidays, and Harry Potter had just reached a conclusion: if he want to survive his next five years of Hogwarts's schooling, he urgently need to take care of his life, because no one else was helping keeping him and his peers alive. In only two years at Hogwarts he had been in mortal peril a dozen times. At this rate his luck will not be able to keep him alive another year. He remembered with bitterness his first friend, Hagrid, saying Hogwarts was the safest place in all Britain. Sweet illusion!

Remembering those two years at Hogwarts Harry feel ashamed. He was lazy and didn't applied to his studies as he should. He was in danger since the beginning, but didn't try to learn more than what was required of him in classes. He was inserted in a new and different society, but made no effort in understand this society. He had forty other students in his year, and many more in the other years around his, but made just two friends. Why?

He promised himself to change, and to think each step carefully. First step: access his current situation and the resources available. Another shame on him! His parents had left him piles of gold coins and what more? He didn't know. He didn't know how much money he has in his trust vault, nor if there was more somewhere else, nor if they left him anything else, like heirlooms and properties. By Merlin, he didn't even have the key to his trust vault with him!

He sat on his bed and left his angry with himself boil for a while. He started to think about the many opportunities he had to ask about his parents, his inheritance, the magical society and so on, and a terrible thought came to his mind: what if he had been victim of foul play?

He had a thousand questions to ask Hagrid about his parents and everything else that first day they met, but they had too much things to buy and time wasn't enough, so he resigned to wait until he was at Hogwarts to ask, but he never thought again in asking after arriving there. Same way, he remembered he was thinking about going through the wagons introducing himself to his peers that first travel in the Express, but after Ron had entered his compartment not only did he forgot to make his pilgrimage, but he never thought about making other friends again.

Now that he had started to think about it, with all the fame of Hogwarts' rumour mill, a lot of his adventures and other strange facts never came out in the open, much less to the public via the Daily Prophet. First year a teacher had died, but no investigator from DMLE was seen at Hogwarts. And Voldemort himself was there all year, and nothing reached the Prophet, and again no signs of the DMLE investigating it. Last year, Lucius Malfoy and Minister Fudge interfered during the crisis of the petrified students, but again no investigation from the DMLE and no incident mentioned in the Daily Prophet, at least that he had heard about. The rumour mill had been active this last year, with all the accusations against him, but he hadn't heard about the basilisk nor about what succeeded in the Chamber, and it had remained silent most of first year. Was there a conspiracy to keep Hogwarts' problems hidden?

If it was, Harry was sure his headmaster was deep involved in it, if it wasn't him the leader and main agent of it. The same headmaster that was unable to perceive one of his staff was possessed by the most Dark Lord of recent times, the same that had put Harry in a loveless place and ignored his fate at their hands, the same one that was unable to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets more than forty years after it was first opened (and he was there at the time).

He had suspected that Snape was able to read thoughts the way he was always in the know of what the students had done. Now, he was almost taking it for granted, and if Snape know how to do it, he was certain the headmaster also was able. He was frustrated about his lack of knowledge about magic. But he was ready to bet that not only existed some magical form of mind reading but also some magical way of altering someone's memory or even someone's personality and intentions. He need to find out, and discover some way to protect himself against it. His resolution to change and do better would be for nothing if someone could change it all at will.

How could he proceed? He was alone and severely handicapped. He need allies, but who? Uncertain, he decided to try: "Dobby?"

.o0o.

Harry had lost his hopes and inclined his head in defeat when he heard the crack of apparition.

"Had the Great Master Harry Potter sir called for Dobby?" the elf asked shyly.

"Oh, thank you for coming, Dobby! I'm really happy to see you again. How are you doing?"

"Great Master Harry Potter sir is too kind to Dobby worrying about Dobby's well-being. Dobby being great, Great Master Harry Potter sir. A fortnight without punishment and proper rest and food had done wonders for Dobby! Thank you for freeing Dobby from bad master."

"Ah, good! But can't you reduced this title a bit? 'Great Master Harry Potter sir' is too much, my friends call me just Harry. Can't you do the same?"

"Oh, no, it wouldn't be proper, Great Master Harry Potter sir. But Dobby can shorter it to Great Harry, would this be better?"

"Well, it is shorter at least. Dobby, I'm really needing help. Are you willing to work for me?"

"Is Great Harry asking Dobby to be his elf, or is Great Harry asking to employ Dobby as paid servant?"

"Whatever you prefer, Dobby. Do elves need a master, or can they be free indefinitely?"

"Elves do need a master, Great Harry. Without them they will get weaker and live shorter. But Dobby likes to be free." The elf assumed a thoughtful posture and reflected on the proposal before deciding: "Dobby will accept be Great Harry's elf!"

"We can do better, Dobby. You can be my elf, but I will also pay you and give you some free time so you can also have your private life in addition to be my elf. What you say?"

"DEAL!" shouted the enthusiastic elf, hugging Harry's leg with force.

.o0o.

With Dobby's help, Harry now had a lot of free time at his hands, as his chores were done in a fraction of the time he would need doing them alone. Dobby also had checked Harry and his things, and found several spells, most of them for tracking and spying, but also some residues of mind-altering charms and potions. This really tested Harry's resolve to think before acting, so angry the boy got. In the end, Harry decided to keep the spells where they were to avoid alert his minders.

The worst was the realization that, if they were tracking him and his things, they must also have being tracking his trust vault for any unusual transactions. That seriously limited his access to new knowledge from buying new books. He also was in need of more food and some potions, to counter his health problems. The Dursleys still limited severely his access to food in their home, but except for this his current summer was the best he ever had here. He even had made a deal with his uncle: Vernon would sign his permit for visit Hogsmeade if Harry could support the presence of Marge and her beast of a dog for a fortnight later in August. That would be the most difficult test for his new temper management method. If he resists this test, he was sure he would be able to also resists Draco and Snape.

Dobby was a godsend! He solved his food problem taking it from Hogwarts. Dobby talked to the elf responsible for the stocking of food, and obtained permission to serve Harry good meals all summer in exchange of a reimbursement after September first. At least the meagre portions he was served at the Dursleys wouldn't do more damage to his growth. While he was thinking how to solve his financial problem, Harry started to exercise and to revise in detail what he had learnt (or should have) those first two years of school.

.o0o.

With nothing much to do at the Dursley's, Harry talked a lot with Dobby whenever they could do it without being seen. From these conversations a lot of good things came about. First, Harry discovered his rights to the carcass of the basilisk he had killed, and how much it could value: a fortune! Second, Dobby had checked and found that the mail-redirection spell over Harry was directing all his fan mail to an otherwise unused room of the school that hadn't been visited in a decade. So, the elf not only cancelled the mail-redirection spell on Harry as also brought to his bedroom the shrunken content of that Hogwarts' room. Third, listening attentively at Dobby's explanation of how elven magic was done, Harry had some insights that enable him to do some mild wandless magic. He only was successful after he started to use a trigger word for his magic. For this he chose the Latin word 'mutare', which translate to 'do change!'.

Every day, after doing his chores with Dobby's help, Harry answered any new mail he had received and then some of the older ones. Dobby had scanned all of them, and vanished the dangerous ones. He had thought a whole day if it was a good idea or not answering his fan-mail, afraid of attracting unwanted attention to him. While deciding, he was looking what he had received all these years. When he found a letter from then 7 years old Morag McDougal, a Ravenclaw student in his year, with a drawing showing him besides her and her sister, each one taking one of his hands and one hand of one of their parents, he cried. There was someone trying to make him fell better by adopting him in her own family, as he had lost his. And he had never taken the time to know her!

He wrote Morag exposing his heart to her. How much he would have liked to have received her letter when she sent it, how much he was sorry for not being able to receive hers and so many other letters until now, how he felt ashamed of not searching for more friends between his peers, and ending it begging forgiveness and a chance for friendship. After an hour with the letter finished, he decided to send it and hope for the best. He took the other letters he had already opened and start to answer every one of them.

.o0o.

With the use of 8 different standard letters that Dobby could replicate for him as needed, by mid-July Harry was almost done answering his fan-mail. This was another thing he had put on his list of strange facts to check: with all his fame as the boy-who-lived, how had he never thought how strange was he never receiving a letter from a fan?

But today he was too happy to worry about this list. He had another conversation with Dobby which result in an amazing insight. Now he have to discover how to cancel a specific function of his magical core, to check if his idea was right. How to do it? Or better, how to do it without hurting himself?

At least now he could bought some books to help. An old lady had sent him a donation of 5,000 galleons in the form of a bearer check against Gringotts. Dobby would have a lot of work tomorrow searching for books, he only hoped he could explain with clarity what he need.

.o0o.

Dobby made a wonderful job purchasing the books he needed. In doubt, the elf would pop to his room with several from which Harry would chose what to take after a fast evaluation. After extracting what he could of them, the boy thought he had now a clear view of what had happened and why his insight was a valid one.

The human magical core had changed since the use of wands and staffs had became usual. Initially it was simply the organ responsible to collect magic from the food, air and environment, then sending it to all the body. This is still its sole function for goblins and elves, although cores of elves are not able to collect all the magic they need, so their need to bind to a wizard for maximum performance and longevity.

Wizards were this way too, except that their bodies were usually unable to retain as much magic as the goblins, so they invented wands and staffs to increase their power so they had a chance to defeat the goblins. The use of a wand benefits from a concentrated source of magic. So, instead of having magic spread all over their bodies, humans started to concentrate it in their magical cores for easy use of their new tool. As with anything else, they paid a price in making their magic concentrated and more readily usable by the wands. Harry still didn't know how much was this price, as it was extremely difficult to find reliable reports of how was to use magic before wands, but he had some suspects and was willing to try and experiment with himself as his core wouldn't be fix until at least his fifteen birthday.

With the basic structure of a theory ready, Harry started to work on the practical side of wandless magic, trying to prove his theory and collect some benefits from it. Meditation and concentration helped him gain some control over his magical core. He was trying to find some natural equilibrium between how much magic he retains on his core for use with his wand, and how much he spreads to all his body, to enhance its functions.

He quickly obtained some promising results. Both his strength and endurance for physical activities skyrocketed as soon as he was able to keep some magic around his body. His mind also showed gains, with better memory and reasoning abilities and a capacity of staying focused for longer periods. And, as a side effect, one of his main problems seems to be solved naturally: Dobby has confirmed that his magic, now filling all his body, was acting as an occlumantic shield over his mind!

.o0o.

With Ron in Egypt and Hermione in France, Harry focused on his new pen pals. Morag had become a good friend and, between the people in his year at Hogwarts, he had added Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Megan Jones, Lisa Turpin, Su Li, the Patil twins and Fay Dunbar to the list. Some others were one year ahead or behind him, six would be starting Hogwarts this year and more than a dozen were still too young for Hogwarts.

He was astonished as how fast they started to confide him their secrets. It seems that people can put on letters much more than they are willing to tell you face to face. Su Li was the shyest person he had ever met but, by her fourth letter, she was telling him all her most intimate dreams and most embarrassing moments. He wasn't immune to this magic either: he had told these girls more than he had ever revealed to Ron and Hermione, which made he think why he hadn't reach such stage with his so-called best friends. He went through the stack of letters he had received from them these last two years, and confirmed that they always kept their letters quite superficial. They were always asking him about his feelings, desires and so on, but never offered some light about theirs. This had put Harry in a defensive state, refusing to giving them what they refused to give him.

For a while the future of his relationship with Ronald and Hermione worried him, but now he had put it behind. Whatever will be, will be. He wouldn't avoid them, but he also wouldn't change his priorities for them. If they were really good friends, they would accept the changes he was going through, if not, he will have other friends to count on. He really hoped for the best, but wasn't too confident in it. Ron has some really serious jealousy problems while Hermione has a strict sense of what is right and wrong and didn't deal well with differences of opinions.

.o0o.

Author's Notes:

If you want to know what near-death situations I considered, I counted the follow: the troll, his first Quidditch game, the first encounter with Fluffy, the detention in the Forbidden Forest, the fight against Quirrelmort, the crash against the Whooping Willow, the mad bludger, the Acromantulas, the attack by Lockheart down the Chamber, the fight against the basilisk and the basilisk's venom. Yes, they are eleven, not twelve, but who cares? Did you remembered any other in the two first years?

For this story, 1950 is a divisor: what happened before happened at Canon-time, what happened after happened 20 years later than canon. So, Grindelwald was defeated in 1945, but Harry Potter was born July 31, 2000. This is not only to make easy track of technology, but also so that Harry will be worrying about and interfering with current events.

My intention with this story is pure entertainment, both mine and yours. I'll try to keep it light with a satiric vein, avoid graphic descriptions of violence and create some hilarious situations. I know I'll fail miserely, but I promise to try. You can use reviews to keep me on track, I would really appreciate if you do.