Sorry to anyone who got an update notification and expected a new chapter, this isn't it. I've gotten a beta reader for this story, and he's helped me go back through what I've written and fix a lot of the pacing issues, as well as slowing down the pace of the story. To that end, the first chapter has been split in two, and the second part should be up in a few days
The day was akin to any other. The weather was unusually warm and sunny, practically begging for everyone to go out and enjoy it. Despite the early hours, the warmth already spread through the air, as the people started to enjoy the day.
"Boy!" The voice of Vernon Dursley echoed through the house. "Get down here at once!"
Maybe, too much enjoyment. The eyes of one Harry Potter fluttered, as he woke up from peaceful slumber. His uncle's voice registered by his brain, and Harry quickly scrambled out of bed, dressing himself quickly, as he prepared himself for what awaited downstairs. He entered the living room, seeing his uncle on the floor opening a large cardboard box.
"The new computer has arrived!" Vernon exclaimed. "Just think of what we'll be able to do with this! Finally we'll be able to design parts without having to sketch them ourselves and then manually program the CNC machines!" This idea excited Harry, who had already developed calluses on his fingers from making so many technical drawings.
"That's wonderful, uncle!" he replied cheerily. "This should massively speed up designing things." Vernon didn't let Harry to design parts on his own yet, telling him that he needed to finish learning maths and physics, at least up to a GCSE standard, before he would be trusted not to break any of the machines that Vernon owned. That didn't stop Harry from working as Vernon's unofficial assistant when it came to Vernon's hobby.
"Do you two really have to be so boring?" Dudley questioned, a hint of humour in his voice. "The summer holidays are supposed to be a break from school, but you two make it seem like I never left." With that he went to grab Harry, but he was too slow as Harry ducked Dudley's grab and landed a hook to his much larger cousin's side, starting a commotion loud enough for Petunia to hear.
"Boys, if you want to fight, do it in the garden!" Her voice echoed through the house.
"Sorry, Mum/Aunt!" was the response of the two boys. Dudley grabbed a kit bag and turned to leave the house, announcing he was leaving for boxing.
Harry just waved Dudley off, earning a smirk from the bigger boy. Dudley and Harry had a strange relationship. Sure, they were blood-related, and Dudley didn't pester Harry, nor did he bully him, but at times Dudley practically forced Harry to spar or train with him, and those training sessions were rather brutal.
While Harry, Vernon and Petunia were all eating breakfast, a bell sounded, an invention that Vernon and Harry had been very pleased with, announcing that a letter had been delivered. Petunia and Dudley never did see the point in the crazy designs of Harry and Vernon, but they had learned long ago not to question the two engineers in the house about the necessity of their work. Harry pressed a button on the wall, activating a suction device that would suck the letters in from the letterbox on the front wall of the house and deposit them on the kitchen table via a tube running through the walls.
"That looks just like the letter Lily got when she was accepted into Hogwarts!" Petunia cried in excitement.
"Looks like you'll be able to go to school where your parents went. Not that learning magic is any excuse to slack in your studies." Vernon announced gruffly. "Show them what an engineer can do."
"I will, Uncle," Harry replied, nodding.
Since finding out that Harry would be attending Hogwarts, Petunia had spent a lot of time in the loft. She knew that some of Lily's school stuff that she didn't want anymore got left at home when she moved in with James, and when their parents had died, that stuff ended up with her, scattered around the loft.
"Here you go, Harry, I've found out all your mum's old school supplies she didn't want when she moved in with your dad." Petunia told Harry, after spending a few days sorting through the loft.
"Thank you, Aunt!" Harry replied excitedly, before beginning to sift through the pile of school supplies. None of the books were on his list of first year textbooks, unfortunately: either those books got lost, or they may have changed the first year textbook since that time. Most of the other stuff was a bit old and damaged, such as the cauldron that looked like something had burned a hole in the bottom, or the quills which either snapped, or simply fell apart when he tried to pick them up. Other than the books that may or may not help in his studies, the only thing that was useful in the pile was the shiny, almost brand new looking telescope. The acceptance letter said that telescopes would be provided in astronomy class to those who didn't have their own, but that it was strongly recommended that students brought their own telescope, since the school has a limited number of spares.
The rest of the week, even Vernon's new computer could hardly catch Harry's attention. Harry was devouring all of his Mum's old textbooks, trying to learn everything he could about the secrets of magic as well as trying to ensure that he'd be at the top of his class even if some of the other students had been learning about magic their whole lives. Many of his Mum's notes were very helpful to Harry, explaining some of the theory that it was assumed the reader would know going through the books.
A week later, Hagrid turned up at the Dursley's house to take Harry to buy his school supplies in Diagon Alley. Most of the trip was without any fuss, collecting some gold from Gringotts before purchasing his wand, a snowy white owl named Hedwig, his robes and his potion supplies, his first time visiting the bookstore would be something he'd never forget though.
"Come on, Harry, just your books left to buy, then you'll be free to head home until term starts." Hagrid grunted at him. As they entered the store caught a glimpse of his childhood crush and next door neighbour, long black hair beautifully framing her face before falling over her shoulders. Not that he'd ever caught her name, the one time he'd tried to talk to her, he'd been shooed away by her father as if he wasn't worthy of breathing the same oxygen as them.
"Wouldn't bother looking at her if I were you." Hagrid whispered, breaking Harry out of his trance. "She's a Greengrass. The eldest too if I remember right, set to inherit the lot. Those types are best to stay away from. Not going to take a second look at a half-blood like you she won't."
"That's hardly fair!" Harry replied. "I've never even spoken to her, how would she know if I'm worth taking a second look at or not?"
Hagrid thought for a second, struggling with how to explain it to Harry, before an idea popped into his head. "I s'pose the Potters were a rich and fairly well off family before all their holdings were wiped out. Very long history too, only thing they'd be able to complain about is that your Mum's a muggleborn, Mr Greengrass wouldn't like that though."
By this time the Greengrasses had left the bookstore and, with nobody left to distract him, Harry purchased his books before heading back to his Aunt and Uncle's house.
In Harry's neighbourhood, some of the families were friendly with each other, the parents getting together for drinks while their children were outside playing together. The houses were however, the type of house where you could avoid all of your neighbours should you so choose, with large driveways and big gardens surrounding the house. This led to families like the Greengrasses, a name Harry had only just learned, simply keeping to themselves, and avoiding contact with their neighbours wherever possible. Harry's crush on his next door neighbour had developed simply from occasionally noticing the beautiful girl, whether that be because he was leaving the house at the same time she was, or from noticing her in her garden from his bedroom window.
The wait between collecting his wizarding supplies and the start of term at Hogwarts was driving Harry crazy. Vernon did his best trying to keep him distracted with new inventions, but Harry's mind was stuck on magic. He'd read all of his textbooks front to back and could only dream of the day he'd be able to start learning magic.
Finally the wait was over and he was on his way to the station. Following Hagrid's instructions on how to reach platform nine and three quarters, Harry made it to the Hogwarts Express without any trouble. He quickly found a cabin and put his trunk above him in the racking.
Almost like clockwork, people kept coming into his cabin, excitedly introducing themselves to the Boy Who Lived, and leaving again once they realised that he wasn't particularly interested in talking to them about how his parents died, not that he remembered it at all. This annoyed Harry to no end, wishing he could just be left alone to read his books rather than have the fact that he was orphaned when he was only a year old shoved in his face over and over again.
That was until a door to his compartment opened, revealing a blonde-haired boy, flanked by two more muscular boys.
"I heard Potter was in this carriage, and seeing as it's just you here that must make you him," a boy sneered at Harry. "Draco, Draco Malfoy." He stuck his hand out and Harry shook it. "I can help show you the right sort of people to hang around, make sure someone as esteemed as you is in the right circles. You may be a half-blood, but the Potters are a very old family, and you are The Boy Who Lived, so exceptions can be made."
"Thanks for the offer, Draco, but I'd rather get to know people myself if it's all the same to you." Harry replied politely. "Very well then, Potter, the offer's open." Draco scoffed, in disbelief that Harry Potter would turn down his offer, leaving the compartment.
Over the course of the train journey, a few more people entered the carriage, like a ginger boy wanting to talk about Quidditch and chess, as well as a girl looking for someone's pet toad. After a brief conversation with each of them, Harry simply read one of the textbooks his uncle had bought him until the train arrived.
Once off the train, Harry felt comforted by the magic in the air, a feeling that only increased as he walked along the platform towards the boats that Hagrid was leading the first years to. Once each boat was full, it began to move all on its own, taking the first years across the lake, giving them their first sight of the castle proper. For Harry, seeing the castle emerge from the mist was what really allowed it to sink in that he was a wizard who would now be learning actual magic at a magical boarding school.
Upon entering the Great Hall for the opening feast, Harry was wowed. The candles floating in the air and the ceiling enchanted to show the night sky. The sorting process was very fast, naming a house almost before touching the head of the student in question, this is why Harry was caught off guard when the Hat was placed upon his head.
"Hmmm, I see, interesting," the Hat spoke straight into Harry's mind, making the boy startle. "You would do well in any of the four houses, though some I'm sure you'd do better in than others. While you do display loyalty to your family, that isn't what drives you, and while you are cunning and certainly don't lack ambition, I don't think you'd thrive in the snake pit. So which to choose. Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?"
"I want to be wherever I can learn best." Harry thought in response to the voice in his head.
"Then it'll have to be RAVENCLAW!" The Hat announced with glee. This caused a sigh of disappointment amongst the Gryffindors, who were expecting to count the Boy Who Lived amongst their ranks.
Thankful and relieved Harry took off the Hat and hurried to the table of blue and bronze, his heart excited to be accepted in the house of knowledge.
Once he sat down, Harry quickly found all of the first years in his new house introducing themselves to him, before asking him a lot of questions about how far through his first year textbooks he was. It was nice talking to other students who wanted to learn just as much as he did. Out of his new housemates, the two he got on best with were Anthony Goldstein, who he learned was a distant relative of famous magizoologist Newt Scamander, and Terry Boot, who he found out was absolutely dreading potions despite it being his favourite subject, purely because of everything he'd heard about Snape.
Having finished sorting all of the students, Professor McGonagall took her seat at the head table, before gathering the attention of the students. With the attention of all of the students now firmly on the head table, Dumbledoor stood up, and made one of the strangest speeches Harry had ever heard, about avoiding certain corridors if one didn't want a most painful death, as well as staying out of the Forbidden Forest, and not breaking the rules that could be found outside the caretaker's office. With this all out of the way, Dumbledore allowed the students to begin eating.
After the feast, the prefects escorted the first years to the dorms. When they arrived, Harry fell in love with his new room immediately. His bed had a curtain that could be charmed to be soundproof and rigid, like with the press of the button, providing him his own space in which to study undisturbed.
Once he was on his own, Harry could finally try out some magic himself. He took his first year textbook, flicking through to find the spell that seemed the most simple, before attempting to cast it.
"Lumos," he intoned, making sure to pronounce each syllable exactly as sounded out in the book. His wand let off a very dim light, barely enough for him to notice anything, but Harry could tell that he was casting a spell, it felt as if some part of him was being sucked out down his arm and through his wand. The problem he had with this was that it felt as though he was trying to drink through the smallest straw he'd ever come across. No matter how much he focused on visualising the spell, the light simply would not get brighter. He did find however, that he was able to keep the spell up for much longer than the textbook said a first year should be able to. He wasn't sure if this was something to do with transfer of energy, his spell being weaker than described causing whatever magical power he had in him to be drawn out more slowly and therefore lasting longer, or whether this was simply something unique to magic that he could not yet understand.