Harry Potter and the Guilds of Magic
#01: Guilds and Masters
Surrey, England
April 1987
"Impressive," a voice said from behind the youth.
The young boy yelped in surprise and slight fear as his concentration was shattered. Spinning around, the green eyed boy tried to hide what he'd been doing by jumping slightly in front of it and trying to futilely block it with his small body. His entire demeanor and expression those of a child caught doing something he knew he shouldn't have been.
The old man just smiled down at the boy's deer-in-the-headlight's look. With just a slight shift to the side, he saw the small sand castle that the boy had been building in the park's sandpit. Though that wasn't any cause for concern, the fact the boy had been building it without using his hands was. Responding to the boy's clearly powerful imagination, the sand and various discarded toys had begun floating about, shaping the sands into a magnificent replication of a Middle Age's castle. There were even small sections of glass in the windows and tiny flames burning on the torches fireplaces.
Smiling down at the terrified look in the kid's face, the old man said, "That is quite a special ability you got there, young one."
"I'm sorry!" the boy sobbed. "I didn't mean it! It won't happen again, I swear!"
"Why should I care if it does or doesn't?" the old man asked, quite confused to the boy's reaction. "If anything, you should keep on practicing how to do that. Learn to control it."
"But I can't!" the boy said, his fear and slight hysteria fading slightly as he saw that the old man wasn't going to hurt or yell him. In fact, his own confusion was quickly rising as the old man seemed to be trying to encourage him to continue. "My aunt and uncle say that bad things'll happen if anyone sees me doing freaky stuff! They'll get mad ad not feed me!"
The old man just smiled benevolently at the boy. "All the more reason to keep it a secret, eh?"
"Huh?" the boy squeaked as that idea made itself known to him.
"What's your name, child?"
"H-Harry, sir," the boy answered hesitantly. "Harry Potter."
That was the moment for which the fate of the wizarding world was forever changed.
Summary and Miscellaneous Information
Instead of Hogwarts, Harry joins a magic guild (age 9) to learn magic and take jobs to earn money and renown. He likes to take dangerous assignments, mostly theft, smuggling, and assassination because he gets a thrill out of combat. He robs pureblood manors, Ministry, and Hogwarts.
Through the guild and his peers within it, he learns of the two different types of wizards. There are the common Holder-types, who use magical items to channel and control their magic (wands, rings, etc). And there are the rare Ability-types, who use their bodies and mind to create and control magic. Holder-types are capable of utilizing a wide variety of spells and magic that are easy to learn and use, but suffer a severe lack of power. In contrast, Ability-types focus on learning only one specific brand of magic and are capable of using it at much higher levels of power. But what they gain in power, they lose in control and finesse, which is why most Ability-types are combat-related.