Chapter 2: Body Tempering and its Benefits

Coming out of his meditation was much different than waking from a long nap but also very similar. While his senses instantly were available to him some things just felt slightly off. Namely the fact that even though he was sitting in a location where the sun had been just moments earlier to his knowledge the sun had shifted greatly leaving him sitting in shade. A quick glance at the nearby clock left Harry in a panic. It was currently 6:40 and the library was going to close at 7:00. This thought was not what caused his panic however.

Harry had a specific set of chores that he was expected to do every day. At 6:30 he was to cook breakfast. While his relatives ate he was to take out the trash and make sure all the old flowers outside were pruned properly. Once that was done he was to go in and begin washing all the dirty dishes from his cooking. By this time the relatives were normally done eating where he would take any food they didn't eat for himself this was most of the time at most a piece of toast and maybe a bite or two of egg. Once this was done he was free for most of the rest of the day unless he had specific chores like mowing the lawn or other chores that would be only once every week or two. His next big chore he had to do was have Supper ready to eat when his uncle Vernon got home from work at 6:30.

As it was well past 6:30 his uncle would already be home and very likely building up to a massive temper eruption. As such Harry quickly escaped the confines of the library and ran to his house as quickly as he could. While it only took him 5 minutes in his mad dash to get back to Number 4 it still meant that he was 15 minutes past the time when he should have had dinner ready. Upon his entrance to the house he was met with a hard impact to the back of his head that sent him sprawling to the floor.

Trying to get up resulted in multiple repeated blows to his back and ribs from what he could tell from the corner of his eye was his uncles boot. Repeatedly he was kicked and hit over and over till he was laying in a pool of his own blood. Before Harry could even get up from the beating he was grabbed by the back of his hair and dragged through the room before being thrown into his cupboard.

"Miss my dinner freak? Well that won't happen again. You won't be going to that library any more and if I see you there I will make this beating look like a slap on the wrist." Uncle Vernon said before slamming the cupboard door shut. Harry could hear a large lock click into place from inside.

The pain was overwhelming almost to the point it drove him to unconsciousness. This had been the worst beating he had received to date. Yet even with the pain Harry could tell that none of his bones had been broken which was a small blessing. He was forced to lay there on his mattress as his blood pooled beneath him. Even then as he bled out slowly Harry could feel his Qi now that he had accessed it flowing through his body toward his skill slowly pulling it back together.

With nothing better to do as sleep would be out of his reach this night Harry forced his mind to relax as he pulled himself into meditation. The pain fell away slowly but steadily until it was but a footnote to his mind. In his state of heightened awareness of his Qi, Harry could feel his Qi flowing to his skin in small amounts pulling it together before knitting it slowly. Hoping to help it along Harry began cycling his Qi through his body towards his skin. Just like for his bones the increased Qi flow rapidly started repairing the skin.

Where once there was broken skin stitched itself together leaving no scars behind. Scar that had formed from previous beatings slowly started to soften and vanish as fresh new skin formed over his body. All over new skin was being built with no evidence of any previous marks showing up. All scars except for one. On his forehead a odd lightning bolt shaped scar seemed to resist the healing being done to the body. Even it slowly began to heal but the darkness within it wouldn't be erased so easily. While the scar erased itself left behind was what looked to be a lightning bolt shaped birthmark. If one looked they could tell the skin was perfectly smooth but the mark remained as a dark shape.

This process was not instant however and it was well into the next day before the healing was even complete. Yet even with his skin being completely healed it still seemed to absorb his Qi as long as he fed it to it. Slowly over the rest of his second day in the cupboard Harry's Qi was infused within his skin. Unknown to him this provided a strengthening effect making his skin near impervious from a normal mans blow. As his second day ended locked away Harry Potter broke through to the Second Stage of Body Tempering.

In the mountains of Scotland

Hundreds of miles away in the mountains of Scotland, in his office in Hogwarts we can find the man responsible for putting Harry Potter with his relatives. Albus Dumbledore was in a very important meeting with one of his most trusted supporters. Across from him on a chair that rested just a bit shorter than his own sat a small plump woman with red hair. This was Molly Weasley.

"Is everything going correctly Molly?" Albus asked as he sucked on a Lemon Drop.

"Yes Headmaster Dumbledore. I have been reading all the Harry Potter books to Ginny and she is so enraptured with his stories and Ron oh I keep telling him about how Harry will be such a dear friend to him. I also keep reminding him of how bad Slytherin is and how he should never trust one. They will be perfect by the time their ready for Hogwarts" The woman replied.

"Good, good my dear. From everything I have seen Harry is being constantly beat down and by the time he is ready to enter the our world he should latch onto Ron as his best friend. Anyway I just wanted to make sure everything was going fine on your end. Here. I got this from Harry's vault earlier and I am sure he would be glad you took it." Albus handed over a bag that rattled as Molly took it.

With a nod Molly took the bag before standing up and seeing herself out. Albus could have let her use his own personal floo to get home but he chose to with hold that privilege. As the Gargoyle reported her departure a dark sadistic grin appeared on Dumbledore's face. Turning around he entered a door that had been unseen before then. Inside pictures hung from the walls and Journals rested in bookshelves while tomes of forbidden knowledge rested on others.

Pulling on of his hand written journals detailing his younger years Albus read over what he had written. Inside was details explaining how he had talked Gellert Grindelwald into taking up his Greater Good. It explained how using the duel with his "Friend" he had struck down his damaged sister opening up his ability to travel again. It went further to document how he had used the death to craft himself a perfected Horcrux before he went out and gathered knowledge he could use later. It talked about how he had tracked down and beat Grindelwald in his sleep taking the Elder Wand for himself before taking credit for defeating the Dark Lord.

Another nearby journal spoke of how Albus had decided to make a new dark lord that he could use to cement his own rule. It spoke of Potioning a young Gaunt girl into loving a nearby Muggle and falling with child. After the child had been born and left at an orphanage, Dumbledore had layered the child with so many hate charms and other dark spells it was certain the child would grow up hating Muggles and anyone who supported them. Years later this child would grow to be Lord Voldemort Albus Dumbledore's next opponent. It would have been anyway if not for that stupid woman and her prophecy.

Dumbledore sneered as he thought of Harry Potter the so called Boy Who Lived. That should have been his title he should have been the one to step up but no. His plans fell apart slightly but knowing that Tom was still alive and how badly Harry's life was would likely make two dark lords he could beat truly showing everyone that Albus Dumbledore was the greatest wizard that ever lived.

Back in the cupboard

It had been almost five full days in the cupboard. After his skin had stopped accepting Qi Harry had moved on to using his Qi to repair his damaged muscles. At first it was going smoothly but after he had reached what he thought was the half way point of finishing all the muscles in his body the Qi he had slowed down. It didn't feel like he had less, it just felt like what he had was to spread out and no matter what he tried he couldn't seem to get what he had to flow faster into his muscles. It was flowing but it wasn't advancing nearly as fast as he had before.

Another 2 days passed before the muscles on his body stopped accepting his Qi. Each muscle while not massive like a body builders had gotten a lot of definition. Unknown to Harry the changes to his body had increased his size to the point he no longer looked like a 5 year old instead of the 7 year old he was. It also had the side effect of repairing his eyesight though Harry wouldn't realize this for a few weeks.

Harry had attempted to push himself further but his Qi was just spread to thin through his body. It hadn't become less it just wasn't enough for him to push more into anywhere. He had an idea as to what was wrong but no way to fix it. As thoughts of what he was going to do next traveled through his mind the lock that had been on his door for the past week was finally removed.

As the door to his cupboard was finally opened Vernon ordered Harry "Out, your stink is starting to smell up the house go wash yourself off and go make us breakfast." Without waiting for a reply Vernon left to go back upstairs.

His breakfast chores came and went he was able to get two pieces of toast this morning but there wasn't any eggs left that he could eat. Before leaving on his morning commute to work Vernon wanted to reinforce the lesson he taught Harry. His anger only skyrocketed when he saw Harry had no marks from his previous beating. Deciding he would really let the freak know that he wouldn't allow any more freakishness he grabbed the iron poker from beside the fireplace.

Without any knowledge of what was coming Harry was blindsided again by the attack upon his body. Unlike before however He had reached a point in his cultivation that would drive Vernon to do something extreme. The first strike which was aimed for Harry's back drove him to the ground forcing Harry to cry out in more shock than pain. Repeatedly Vernon swung and struck harry over and over all the while his face grew more and more purple. Not one of the blows even drew a drop of blood and after the first strike the boy didn't even yell.

Having enough Vernon decided he didn't care anymore and with what could only be described as a gold swing struck Harry in the side of the head. Fortunately for Harry and not so much for Vernon the only thing that broke was Vernon's wrist. With a scream of pain Vernon dropped the fire poker and looked down at Harry. Upon seeing a lack of blood or even any register of pain the purple in his face drained away to a splotchy white. Calling out to Petunia to take him to the doctor. Vernon had some plans to make and it would all start with his business trip to China along with his family. Vernon could only grin at the thought of finally being free of the freak.