September 1989, 4 months Later

Harry stood across from Ciri, holding out his wooden sword as they circled one another slowly. Harry knew he could just wait patiently because Ciri was the opposite and couldn't wait long before lashing out.

Sure enough, Ciri moved forward and swung her blade down on him. Instead of him trying to take the strike head on, he used his own own blade to deflect it by almost gently swatting it away. He tried to take a few steps back to put some room between them but Ciri wouldn't let up as she moved in quickly and tried to slash at him. This time, he dodged back before immediately going forward and trying to stab at her while she was still slowing the force behind the slash. He managed to get the stab to connect and a red glowing dot appeared on her where he made contact.

"One point for me." Harry called out as she scowled at him but moved back into their starting position across from him.

"It'll be the only one you get." She called back.

"We'll see." Harry said with a playful smile before getting back into position. They stood across from each other in silence before once more trying to circle each other. Harry moved his sword up and by his right shoulder while still keeping the point aimed at Ciri. He waited for a moment to see if a she would do something he could take advantage of but nothing appeared.

It was Ciri, who was once again lunging first. This time, she came at him with several slashes. He dodged the first and moved back, but she kept pushing forward. When the slash missed him, she immediately curved it back around to come at him from the opposite direction, saving time in not having to stop the force from the previous slash and saving some of the force to bring into the next slash.

Harry couldn't move fast enough to dodge the second one so moved his sword in to block it instead. He felt Ciri's sword smash into his and felt himself wince at the power of it. His arms were already whining at him and when Ciri pulled away, the 'pain' caused him to be too slow to raise his blade to deflect the stab she had coming towards him which hit directly into his chest.

He looked down and grimaced at the sword that was now partially buried in his chest but looked more like it had simply phased right through it. As she pulled it out a glowing red dot appeared where it had stabbed.

"I believe this round goes to me then, which means next round wins." Ciri said with a smug grin as she moved back into their original position. Harry sighed before shaking his head and doing the same.

"Yeah yeah... You're not going to get me this time though." Harry said determinedly.

"We'll see." She parroted back his early words to him with a smile. Harry rolled his eyes before growing serious once more and getting into position. Then once more, the dance begun and they started circling each other. Harry, this time, kept the blade in front of his chest as he waited for Ciri to decide the attack. She did the same which meant any move she did, she would have to pull it back into position before she could bring it down on him which would telegraph how she was trying to hit him… hopefully.

They waited for a moment as they once again evaluated each other. This time though, as soon as Ciri moved to prepare for a strike, Harry zoomed in to close the distance between the two of them and moved to make a slash.

Ciri managed to recover awkwardly just in time to smack his sword away but Harry knew she would and brought the blade back quickly and over his head to come with a downward slash at the girl. Ciri met him head on and moved her sword in a horizontal defensive position over her head. The two swords clashed but Harry wasted no time as he brought it back again and made to slash at her. Ciri met his attack with her own causing their blades to cross between them where she moved her sword up along the length of his blade with reflexes and speed he couldn't match. As she made it to top, the hilts of both their sword were now next to each other. She lifted her hilt up a little as if to pull away from the block before smashing her hilt down on his hands causing him to drop his sword.

Before he could react, a sword came rushing right into the side of his neck and went all the way through in a maneuver that would have easily beheaded him in real life. As soon as it finished going through, a horn went off from nowhere signaling the end of match.

Harry sighed as the two swords they were using faded into nothing right before his eyes. He reluctantly looked up into the Cheshire like grin on Ciri's face. He rolled his eyes as he saw it before holding out his hand for her. She took it happily and shook it.

"It was a good fight." He begrudgingly said to her.

"It was indeed a good fight. You did pretty good, you even got me on the first one." Ciri told him. He shrugged.

"Only because you weren't fully ready since it was our first round of the match… You really need to stop rushing in right away."

"It's not rushing! I'm trying to hit you so fast and hard that you can't respond. That's being smart." She insisted.

"It is if you had done so by waiting for an actual opening rather than simply attacking me while I'm in a solid defensive position. Maybe try to draw the opponent away from such a stance with a few basic strikes before going hard into some more complicated ones to overwhelm them. But you have to draw them out from their protection first." Harry told her repeating the words he had heard the teacher in class give almost verbatim. He found it strange that he was basically giving her advice on how to best beat him more efficiently.

"Hmm. I'll keep that in mind. That was a pretty impressive move you pulled in the last round. I didn't expect you to move in like that. It really caught me off guard for a moment." Ciri praised. Harry shrugged in response as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Yeah well… You're the one who told me I need to be more assertive in combat and can't always just wait for my opponents to do what they want and respond right?" Harry shot back. Ciri nodded proudly.

"And you listened, and it almost worked. Had you been a little faster, it probably would have worked to." Ciri pointed out. It wasn't a secret that Ciri was actually both faster and stronger than Harry was. It wasn't his fault, of course. He had been malnourished for most of his life until relatively recently. While, after four months, he was much healthier, he still wasn't at the level of Ciri who had been healthy her whole life.

Even ignoring that fact, Ciri's battle sense also seemed to trump Harry's easily. The only way that Harry ever won was when he caught her off guard or by surprise. Even then, it usually wouldn't work a second time within the same match. Ciri was quick to learn and adapt to best her opponents.

"That was a good move you pulled at the end with hitting my hands with your hilt to cause me to drop my sword." Harry brought up. The way his illusion worked, the swords only interacted with each other and simply phased through the people in the illusion. The only part this wasn't true for was the hilt of the blade which they grabbed on to. So, it was actually rather ingenious to use that loophole against him.

"I thought of it in the moment. You were really going at me hard and I could only manage to block your hits. It was actually more luck that I thought of it than anything." Ciri told him.

"That's still good. You think of things on the fly which is probably good for fights. I don't think I'm nearly as good at that." Harry admitted.

"You need to trust your instincts more."

"I figured that but… It's hard. Like… When I'm with other people… I still tense up and feel my body telling me to run away. I have to fight to make sure to stay calm all the time. So, when I get into these actual fights, it still feels natural to fight my initial feelings because I usually have to normally." Harry explained to her softly. Ciri nodded looking down at the explanation.

"I guess I get that. And I'm sure it's easy to tell yourself to just do your best to move past it and a lot harder to actually do it. Well, as long as you keep on working on it, that's all that can be done." Ciri finished. Harry nodded slowly in agreement.

"So… Anything new in your life?" Ciri asked him, clearly wanting to change the subject.

"Not really. I'm still just working on protections and improving on my illusions."

"Based on the illusion we're in now, I would say you're improving. Have you had any luck with finding on making an illusion so complex it becomes real?" She asked him.

"No. I've tried a few things but so far, none have worked."

"You would think it wouldn't be that hard. I mean, the swords you made felt pretty real." Ciri pointed out.

"I don't think they're anything alike. The sword is not actually there, as you know. I am just tricking our senses into thinking that it is there. Our brain sees it and can feel it and therefore it thinks it real. But its really just a trick. To make an illusion that is so complicated that it becomes real means that the feeling is not fake and that everything your senses perceive must be real to some degree." Harry told her. She gave him a funny look when he was done.

"That sounded very complicated. Did you make that explanation up on your own?" She asked.

"Well, no. I was trying to read up about such things at a library and a man was there who gave me some help. Although he wasn't talking about illusions, he was talking about something called virtual reality. Which he believes will be a huge deal someday.

"Virtual reality?" She asked.

"It's kind of like illusions but made with technology instead of magic, I guess. Anyway, he was trying to explain the diiferences between the virtual world and the real one and how interactions in the virtual world would likely one day progress to the point where you could touch and feel things as if they were real. I asked him then what the difference would then be between that and the real world. He then gave me the explanation about tricking the senses and making something that was pretty much real."

"It sounds complicated."

"It is. He talked to me for over an hour and I still don't understand a lot of what he was saying." Harry said. He would like to think he was rather smart for his age. Especially because he didn't have to sabotage his own grades anymore but he was still only a 9, almost ten, year old.

"So, no luck then. You're getting better at making complex illusions, though, right?"

"Yeah. I made a new one. It's my most complicated one and certainly one I'll likely be using the most in the future." Harry explained. Ciri rose an eyebrow.

"Really, what is it?" Ciri asked.

"The spell is Miran Taz. It's a combination of Miran and Docilitan. Miran because it puts the target in an illusionary environment, either one that looks like where they already are or anywhere else I want them to see. The second part is to then have the environment react like they expect it to. It works similar to how my Docilitan works as well.

"So… It can basically be used for anything then?"

"Pretty much. That being said, it can't be used indefinitely like my other spells because it requires too much magic to use. Although, I could probably keep it up for a long time with no issue." Harry told her.

"Nice job. Well, what about protections then?" She asked as she moved over to sit next to him. Harry winced.

"That's going less well. I have only managed to make one type of protection. It's a basic shield that I can have appear around me. I believe it would block physical damage but I can't be sure unless something attacks me. Even further, the shield is mobile, which is useful but I want to put it stationary on a location like I do with Miran. I'm having some trouble with that part…" Harry told her.

"Well, I can't do anything about the stationary thing… But I can help with seeing if it can block attacks. Why don't you make it hear and I'll see if I can get through?" Ciri suggested while hopping up. Harry thought for a moment before nodding.

"Sure, I guess that can work." Harry said as he joined her standing.

"How far away do I need to be?" She asked.

"Just like five feet. The shield can change size but I'm only going to have it be around my body." Harry said.

"Do you have a spell word for it yet?"

"No. It's pretty simple. It's just magic hardened in a shell around me. I can pull it out pretty fast even without a word so I don't really feel the need to assign a spell name to it. I'll do that for something a little more complex in design." Harry told her as he held up a hand and summoned the shield. It was a transparent light blue in appearance and seemed to have a hexagonal pattern on it. He wasn't sure why that was the case but as long as it didn't affect it, he didn't mind.

"Well, it looks pretty cool at least." Ciri told him. Harry gave a small smile at where her priorities seemed to lie.

"I'm glad you think it looks cool. You ready to try and attack it?" Harry asked.

"Sure… Should I just punch it then?"

"Yeah, I guess that'll work. I'll see how this works… the shield is still connected to me so I assume it'll use my magic to keep up its health to protect me. Go ahead." Harry called out. Ciri nodded from outside his little bubble. She balled up her fist and slammed it against the shield. She then pulled it back and looked at her hand with confusion.

"Something wrong?" He called out.

"That didn't hurt…"

"Should it have?"

"I punched it with all my strength, so yes. I felt my fist connect but as soon as it did, it felt like all the power behind it just disappeared… Did the shield take any damage?" She asked back. Harry shrugged.

"I couldn't tell. Why don't you hit it a few more times and I'll see if I can notice any change?" He called out to her. She nodded and did exactly that as she started to wail on his shield. Harry simply sat back and tried to see if the magic was draining. It took a few minutes but Harry finally noticed something.

"Okay, that's enough."

"Well?"

"You're doing damage but barely any. It took a while before u did enough damage for me to even notice the amount of magic it would drain and that was because of how tiny it was." Harry said, finally dropping the shield.

"Hm… I wonder if it has to do with the way it seemed to absorb the power behind my attacks?"

"It could very well be. I will need to test it against other things but it may be difficult. I could possibly pick a fight with my uncle and get him to try and hit me for practice. I also still need to figure out a way to make it stationary."

"I'm sure you'll get it. You're pretty smart and I think you're a quick learner when it comes to magic." She told him encouragingly

"Like you're a quick learner when it comes to beating people up?" He teased. He got a solid punch in his arm for that comment causing him to flinch in 'pain'.

"Oh, Harry, don't you know? The only person I beat up is you. Don't you feel special?" She asked in an overly sweet tone.

"Oh, yes. Very lucky Princess Cirilla. Forgive my tongue." Harry replied back as he rubbed his sore arm.

"Call me Cirilla again and I'll make sure your eye matches your arm." She hissed. Harry just nodded, not trusting himself not to push his luck.

"Good. So, what else do you wanna do today?" Harry finally asked.

"More sword fighting?" Ciri suggested with excitement. Harry sighed before recasting the illusion for the sword fighting lessons.

"Yes!"

A couple of hours later

Harry sat once more on the ground and sighed as the swords seemed to dispel around them. Harry was happy he could help Ciri get better at sword fighting but… he didn't really consider that meant that he would also have to get really good at sword fighting too. Well, he knew he would on a logical level but that was different from actually having to do it.

Ciri had made him do twenty matches with her. Twenty. Matches! Before today, he hadn't even known it was possible in this dream world to feel tired. Harry sighed as he laid down on the ground and untensed his body to relax. He was stopped from doing so however when something heavy landed on top of him, knocking the air right out of him. He gasped for a moment before looking what had landed on him. Ciri was looking down on him from on top of his chest.

She started laughing as she looked down on his stressed face. She rolled herself off of him and laid on the ground next to him. She continued to laugh at him for like a solid minute before calming herself down.

"You really enjoyed that didn't you?" Harry glared. Ciri looked at him and smiled.

"I did very much, thank you for asking." Ciri told him.

"Pain…" Harry said back to her before calming down and actually relaxing now that there was nobody to fall down on top of him.

"Today was a fun day." Ciri said calmly from next him as she put her hands behind her head as she gazed up at the fake afternoon sky.

"Fun for who exactly?" Harry said back rhetorically.

"Me, of course. And that's all that matters."

"To you maybe… I suppose it wasn't such a bad day. I got to hang out with you and I guess that's all that matters." Harry said forlornly as he thought back to the time before he had Ciri in his life.

"Mm. We've been friends for quite a while at this point. Still not tired of me huh?" Ciri teased.

"I could never be tired of you Ciri. You are the best thing in my life. I would give up everything, including magic, if I knew it would mean I could continue this friendship for the rest of my life." Harry told her seriously. Ciri's face became bright red and she looked away from him. It had been a while since that had happened.

"And here I thought you had finally gotten better at not staying things like…" Ciri murmured.

"I still don't know what you mean when you say that." Harry pointed out. He was just being honest. And if he couldn't be honest with Ciri, then he couldn't be honest with anyone.

"Oh yeah, well what about Olivia?" Ciri pushed. Harry just raised an eyebrow at the mention of his sword fighting partner. He still saw her about once a week or so except when she didn't come for one reason or another. They got along well enough though he hesitated to call her a friend

"What about her?" Harry asked.

"What if being my friend meant you had to give up your friendship with her?"

"Do you not want me to be friends with Olivia?" Harry asked curiously. It wasn't the first time he had that thought. Ciri didn't seem to like Olivia. She had tried to hide it from him but he had noticed. He just wasn't sure why was all.

"No, that's not what I meant. I just mean if you had to make a choice?"

"Then I would choose you." Harry said easily. Ciri's face went red again as she buried it in his shoulder so he wouldn't be able to see it. He just watched her do it still not quite understanding her reactions.

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why would you choose me? She lives in the same world as you. You can actually do stuff with her outside of this room. She doesn't bother you about things or hit you when you say stupid things, or…"

"But she's not you. She's not my first and best friend. I like Olivia. She's nice and doesn't judge me or ask me questions I don't want to answer or anything like that. But she's not you and she never will be. She hasn't done half the things you have for me. I mean, you taught me about magic and gave me a way to not get hit by my relatives and so many other things. Sure, I don't care for sword fighting nearly as much as you but I would become a sword master if I knew it would make you happy. As far as I am concerned, you're the only thing I need. You're my world." Harry told her earnestly. He didn't know why Ciri was asking him such strange things but he wanted her to understand how much she meant to him.

"You big idiot…" She muttered at him, though, he didn't hear any heat in her voice so he assumed she was saying it just to say it.

"Okay."

"Don't just agree with me because I say it!"

"Hahaha. Sorry. Though you're probably right. I feel like I don't understand a lot of things still. Everyone and everything around me often seem confusing." Harry admitted.

"You understand magic." Ciri pointed out.

"Well, that's because magic makes sense. It responds to my thoughts and is pretty much just energy I push in different ways." Harry said back. Ciri chuckled at that.

"Well, you understand me, don't you?"

"Is that a joke? I still don't understand half the things you do or say. I just go along with it." Harry said back with a smile. Ciri smirked at him.

"Well… Boys ARE pretty dumb and you being friends with me doesn't seem to make you an exception." Ciri told him while she poked him several times in the chest. Harry said nothing at that seeing as she had calmed down.

They relaxed like that way for a while again in the silence.

"It would be nice to have some place to sit in here." Ciri commented. Harry chuckled at that.

"Yes. It would indeed." He agreed.

"… You wanna get on that?" Ciri pressed.

"I'll do my best Ciri." He answered passively.

"Hmm."

Ciri stared down at him for several minutes. After the first minute though, Harry closed his eyes so he didn't have to keep staring at her deadpan expression.

Several Hours Later

Harry opened his eyes and looked up in his cupboard before sighing in annoyance. He moved his head p and lifted himself into a sitting position. The first few moments after coming back to reality we're always the hardest. Mentally realizing he was back in this awful place instead of with Ciri always did a number on him.

He sighed one more time, before pushing the cupboard door open and exiting his small little room. Once out, he quietly moved to the kitchen and got to work on cleaning the dishes of the previous night's meal. He did the task with a practiced and bored ease from years of having to do it almost every day. When it was done, he got started on cooking breakfast. A simple meal of eggs, ham, and toast. It didn't take long which was good since it sounded like his uncle was on his way down the stairs a little early today. He put the food onto four different plates before moving them on to the dining table at each place where the normally sat.

He then silently sat down and began to eat his food as he waited. His uncle was in the living room and it sounded like he was watching some tv while he waited for the rest of the family to come down. Harry ate slowly as he didn't have anything to do except take a shower before eventually leaving to school.

"Boy! What do you think you're doing!" A voice yelled loudly. Harry felt every cell in his body freeze as he recognized that tone. He looked up with fear and saw his aunt staring down and scowling at him. He looked down again at his almost empty plate that sat on the table. Oh. He forgot he needed to reapply the illusion before they saw him for the day. There goes that.

"Vernon, get in here. The freak is eating at the table!" His aunt yelled in to the other room.

"What!" He heard someone yell back from the living room. He suddenly heard loud stomping approaching before his uncle suddenly appeared in the doorway looking red face and furious.

"What the hell do you think you're doing boy?" Vernon screamed at him. He felt himself shrink into his seat as he looked at his towering uncle.

Then, a thought struck him. A thought he had never had before. A thought that felt so foreign in his head that it felt almost wrong to even think it. As he looked at his uncle, he felt himself still and become calm as a single thought pressed forward

Why was he concerned about this?

His uncle… could literally only hit him if he let him do it. Even further, he had several ways he could deal with the man. He could put him an illusion where he beat up a fake Harry. He could put him in an illusion where he was actually getting beaten himself and feel as helpless as he made Harry feel like. Or, he could use this opportunity to practice his new protection magic. Well, if he was going to do that, he might as well make sure his Uncle was really going to go at him.

"Uncle… Why don't you like magic?" Harry asked as calmly as he could manage. He knew any use of the M-word was instant trouble. It seemed to work too as his aunt gasped and his uncle's face was now resembling a tomato.

"What did you say?" Vernon finally managed to get out though he looked to be wheezing.

"Why don't you like magic? Every time its brought up you get extremely angry. I was simply wondering why?" Harry pushed. He already had the magic shaped at this point, he just needed to cast it. He would wait though since the shield was pretty noticeable.

"That does it!" his Uncle Vernon yelled as he charged at Harry. As soon as he did, Harry finally cast the spell and a blue shield sprang up around him. Harry sat silently as Vernon slammed in the shield and got knocked to the ground.

"Vernon!" His aunt yelled in shock as she moved to her fallen husband trying and struggling to get the hefty man to his feet. Harry simply sat within the shield awkwardly as he watched the scene. Not sure what else he should do he started picking at the remainders of what was left of his food. He still had some ham left and he decided to eat that while he waited.

He just realized that with his relatives now knowing about his magic, they could try to tell somebody. Though that seemed dumb. What could they possibly tell someone to convince them that he had actual magic? He could always just use illusions to make anyone think that the Dursleys were crazy. And he wouldn't lie, some part of him, some small part wanted to get back at them. He wanted them to pay for making him suffer for so long. He shouldn't have to hide the fact that he was getting proper nourishment or that he got better grades then his cousin. He wanted them to leave him alone without having to cast an illusion on them.

"You freak! What the hell have you done. Get rid of this thing now!" Vernon demanded as he finally got to his feet and started pounding on the shield. Harry simply watched him do it and noticed that despite their difference in strength, his uncle also couldn't seem to make a scratch on his shield.

"No. If I did, you would just try to hit me." Harry pointed out. The more he watched his uncle get worked up by slamming on his shield, the more he no longer felt afraid of this man. He just kept pounding and at some point, Harry idly noticed his cousin had come down the stairs and was staring with confusion at him. He stared back at the boy for a moment before looking back at his uncle who was breathing hard and had his hands on his knees.

"Are you done?" Harry asked still keeping the shield up.

"This is impossible. It's too early, this shouldn't have happened for another year or two at least…" His aunt seemed to be muttering to herself as she paced back in forth with noticeable fear. Harry frowned at hearing her say that and diverted all his attention to her.

"What do you mean by that? Did you expect me to start gaining powers at some point?" He questioned. His aunt turned and just glared at him though there was some other feeling in his eyes. One he didn't recognize and hadn't seen on her face before.

"I don't have tell you anything!" She yelled back at him. Harry debated it. He really didn't want to hurt his aunt in anyway despite his dislike for her. Perhaps he should employ something instead that Ciri had taught him about. Something those in politics would sometimes do, a bluff.

"You just saw me make a shield of pure energy. Do you truly want to witness what else I can do?" Harry asked. As he finished his sentence, he held up his hand and silently thought the word 'Miran' on the spot just above his hand. A flame suddenly appeared to almost be hovering above it that all in the house could suddenly see. Harry didn't bother to look though, instead he didn't break eye contact with his aunt.

Suddenly, that strange look in her eyes grew until it dominated them. Her face all seemed to go slack and her eyes couldn't seem to leave the fake fire hovering in his hands. It was then that Harry recognized what it was in her eyes, fear. His aunt feared him. Despite how nice it should be to finally be the one in power, seeing that look in her eyes only made him feel like a monster.

"There… there are more like you…" His aunt finally said. His eyes widened as he processed those words.

"More like me? What do you mean?" He couldn't help but demand.

"More people who can use that freakish magic. It appears in children when they're young and when there eleven they go to school to learn how to use it." She told him still not looking anywhere but at the flame.

"Tunia, don't tell the little freak anymore." Vernon yelled though Harry looked at the man and thought 'Miran Taz'. Suddenly a glossy look came over his uncle and he went both quiet and still. His aunt saw this and it seemed to snap her out of her mesmerized look. She rushed to her husbands' side and knelt on the ground by his unresponsive body.

"Vernon. Vernon, answer me! What did you do?" She yelled as she looked at him with even more fear. Harry frowned at seeing it but he would soldier through.

"Nothing harmful yet, though, if you don't tell me what I want, that could very easily change." He said trying to sound menacing. Though, he had to admit, with his young voice, even to himself it sounds bad. Luckily, he had just effectively knocked out the woman's husband with just a look so he still managed to come off as plenty intimidating.

"Alright, just please don't hurt him!" She started crying. Harry simply waited as he looked at her to continue.

"They… they have their own society, hidden away so us normal people can't find it. There's thousands of them." She finally said.

Harry felt his blood go cold at that. Thousands? There were thousands of magic users and he hadn't noticed yet? He had been casting magic around thinking himself invincible and yet there was apparently a whole society out there with people who were probably a lot stronger than him and he hadn't even noticed! This was a nightmare. Then he blinked and looked at his aunt.

"How do you know all this?" He asked her. She suddenly looked like Harry had forced her to swallow a lemon.

"How!" He demanded no longer having patience to let this be a long process. He was possibly in very real danger.

"My… my sister was one of them. She got a letter after she turned eleven and she went away to that freak school and left her family behind. She married your father right after school ended and was soon knocked up with you. A whole family of freaks!" His aunt spit out. Harry blinked at that.

"Why did she get one and you didn't?" Harry asked with confusion. Now, it looked like the woman wanted to bite her own tongue.

"I didn't have any magic!" His aunt finally said. Harry blinked at her for a moment. He felt something in his head click and it finally felt like he had discovered some long-lost ancient secret.

"You were jealous… That's what this has all been about hasn't it? You were jealous that she had magic and you didn't so you decided to hate her! That's why you hate me too isn't it? Because you knew that someday, I would also be able to use magic." Harry accused as he looked down at his aunt. She cowered at his words which was all the confirmation he needed.

"It's true! I should have known! I can't believe you, of all the reasons I could think of for why you hated me all this time…"

"She left us! She betrayed all of us to go run off in her little fairy world! She had no problem forgetting about us. All she cared about were her freak friends, and her freak school! She forgot about us and then got herself killed!" She yelled at him. Harry felt something warm and wet near his eyes and he could feel his hands starting to shake as he became hung up on one particular thing she mentioned.

"She died… How did she die?" Harry whispered as he looked at his aunt. He was always told his parents died in a drunk driving accident. His aunt just stared at him but said nothing. At this point he stood up and stared at her. He could feel heat all around him and it almost felt suffocating.

"Answer me." Harry yelled at his aunt.

"She and your father were killed by some sort of Dark wizard…" She finally said while looking down. Harry felt like he had just been slapped in the face as he fell back in his chair and reeled from the information he just received. He had spent years… Years! Believing that his parents had died from being drunks only to learn this. And all this because his aunt had grown to hate her sister out of jealousy.

"I hate you." Harry whispered as he shut his eyes tightly trying to get the raging inferno that was begging to be released all around him under control. It wasn't working to well. He looked up at directly at his aunt. It wasn't so long ago that he hated his Uncle the most but compared to how he now felt about his aunt, he might as well have mildly disliked his uncle this whole time.

As he looked at her all he could see was red in his vision and it was growing stronger by the second. All he could think of was how much he wanted her to pay.

"I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. IhateyouIhateyouIhateyouIhateyou. God, I hate you!" He screamed. As he finished, several ceramics and glasses near him seemed to explode though he barely noticed.

"I curse you. I curse you from the bottom of my heart. I want you to pay for everything you ever did. I hope you rot and suffer and lose everything you care about. I hope you're alone until your last day. I hope for every beautiful thing my mother brought to this Earth that it does something to you to balance it out. I curse you Petunia Dursley to the very depths of hell where you belong." He told her through gritted teeth. In truth he didn't even know what he was saying. All he knew right now was anger and a heat that felt like it was trying to consume him.

And suddenly, as soon as he finished his last word, it vanished. The haze around his mind and the magic building up around him disappeared. His vision returned to normal and all he could see in front of him was a frightened middle-aged woman who thought she was about to die. And once more, Harry felt like he was a monster. He walked slowly past her, not even sparing her a look. As he went through the doorway, he saw his cousin now hiding by the stairs looking terrified. With everything that had happened, he hadn't even thought of the boy after first seeing him. As he got to the door though he stopped.

"I'm leaving. As of today, you're not my family, though, I guess you never really were. You're just the people who tortured me for years. I pray I never see you again because if I do… I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from killing you." Harry admitted before walking forward again and opening the front door. He walked through it and closed it behind him. As he did so, he couldn't help but look up into the morning sky.

Today… Was going to be a long one.