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The Burner Harry.
By TimeTraveller-1900.
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Fire had always fascinated Harry Potter for reasons he had never truly understood before, but as the years passed he didn't care. In his mind, as a baby, he remembered hair, red, moving in waves like a fiery ocean, although when he would be older he would discover/realise, the hair belonged to his mother, Lily.
Anyway, back to fire.
When the Dursleys began saying he 'had to earn his keep,' he would cook their meals for them, and he would spend long moments just…looking at the gas fire, and he could feel the very real heat. Sure, occasionally the Dursleys had burnt him for spending too long watching the fire instead of their food, and his mental discipline improved well enough to make him know when he should be enthralled of the flames and when he shouldn't.
After that, he discovered he could do things with his mind, and it wasn't long before he could move things after he was extremely angry or frightened or could turn hair blue, or suddenly appear on top of a rooftop; those were moments where he was really at the mercy of the Dursley's abuse.
But then he began to practice his powers.
And once he did….oh, what a world of possibilities appeared for him.
He found he could unlock the door to his cupboard, and from there he could sneak around the neighbourhood and steal whatever he needed to survive. As he had grown older, he had realised that everyone was out to hurt him, so why shouldn't he pay them back for wrecking his own childhood? As far as he was concerned, it was well deserved.
It was that simple.
But while he had fun changing things like a pen into a pencil, and going from there, one of his favourite powers was creating fire from the thin air, or nestled within the palm of his hand. As he felt the heat from the flames warming his hands, Harry continued to practice. He would spend minutes learning how to focus on something, like say an old wall, and he would picture a fire growing from within, and then it would burst into flames.
At first, his earliest experiments were rather basic, but soon he quickly learnt how to create fire out of instinct, and he could soon create massive balls of flame and direct them like missiles at a target, where they would then explode outwards and spread the flames like a grenade.
One day he decided to flee the Dursleys. He did it in the middle of the night, burning the house to the ground. He did it for three reasons, the first because they'd abused him for years and ruined his childhood, for spite, and lastly because he knew if he didn't then the magical world would just send him back there.
He had found out about the magical world a few years back when he was trying to escape from the Dursleys again. Again? He discovered he had tried to escape no more than 14 times, although there was a chance he might have tried to escape many more times; it was hard to be positive about that, but one thing was clear.
He didn't remember those moments.
His memories were tampered with.
Harry secretly stole the letters, and he had made sure to keep them with him when he made his escape; he didn't want to forget the times, and he wanted to have something on himself to remind himself of his past should he lose his memories again. But he needn't have worried; When he escaped the Dursleys, Harry was unbothered. He went to a foster home after spending a whole year on the streets, learning how to survive there, and more than once used his fire powers, among his other abilities to get out.
When he went to Gringotts the first time with Hagrid, who'd come to pick him up, although he was stunned Dumbledore would send such a large, conspicuous lackey after him, Harry could not ask or learn anything substantial.
It wasn't until later when he managed to get away, did he learned more about Dumbledore's plans. And, desperate to get away from Dumbledore, Harry revealed he had received no letters from the goblins. They were furious, and soon they discovered many breaches; being sent to the Dursleys, how he was abused by them, how Dumbledore and his lackeys had been wiping his memories (when he got them back, he provided them even more proof of Dumbledore's crimes; the memories were gathered, and were then sent to the DMLE, which only made things worse for Dumbledore), but the biggest things that ruined the old wizard were how Dumbledore had conspired with the Weasley family to make him the husband of their youngest, a girl called Ginevra.
The contract was written 2 days after his parents' death, and it was illegal.
But the biggest case of line theft Dumbledore committed was his attempts to break into the Potter family library; the wards of the manor had been based on blood, and Dumbledore could not break through while he was still alive, and the wards were sensitive enough to know when the blood was willing and when it was unwilling. Harry didn't know how that worked, but it was good enough for him.
At the same time, Harry discovered that while he hadn't stolen any books, Dumbledore had taken a large number of heirlooms. That was enough for the goblins, who made sure to get them back from the old thief.
During the goblins' examinations, they found a piece of Voldemort's magic inside his scar, but since it wasn't doing anything harmful or malicious to his magic, they decided to leave it alone.
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In the chaos, the Ministry of Magic tried and failed to gain custody over Harry Potter. Thanks to the strong claims from his family living in the MACUSA, Harry went there, and they became his guardians. Quickly any ties to go to Hogwarts were revoked, and he was soon down for Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he had over a month to get to know his long-lost family.
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Ilvermorny was fun.
Sorted into Horned Serpent, Harry quickly soared to the top of his class. Dumbledore had placed many blocks on his magic and on his mind, to a degree, and the goblins had removed them quickly. The difference he got when he got to Ilvermorny were incredible. He developed a strong aptitude of DADA, Charms, Transfiguration, Runes, Healing, and several other subjects.
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But Albus Dumbledore would not leave him alone; over the years, the old wizard had only just managed to stay out of Azkaban, using numerous political favours to stay out of prison. But he was still on probation. And during all that time, Lord Voldemort was returning. During his trial, Dumbledore had made it clear Harry Potter was important for sealing Voldemort's downfall, but the Dark Lord seemed content with leaving him alone this time around. He had nearly died the last time and he wasn't in any hurry to repeat the experience.
Dumbledore, sadly enough, refused to leave Harry alone.
With a lot of work, the old wizard managed to find a way of kidnapping Harry, who found himself in a dungeon with Dumbledore standing over him, talking about using a dark potion to control him. With that, he wanted Harry to renounce Ilvermorny, his home in the MACUSA, and swear loyalty to Dumbledore, although how that would work out for him, Harry truly did not get it, but the old man had underestimated him. Harry used his fire powers to burn Dumbledore, burning his hands and his legs before he summoned a House Elf to take him away.
After that, he told the Potters what happened, and soon Dumbledore was prosecuted. While Lord Voldemort had returned and he took advantage to gain power over magical Britain and showed signs of moving on, he left Harry alone.
