[AN: Fair warning, I'm occasionally going to be using a book that isn't available back in 1990 for cool items for Harry to get. I'm not even going to apologize for not keeping continuity, bwahahaha!]
Harry finished folding the blanket he had pulled out of a magazine, and stuffed it into the backpack he'd pulled out a different magazine. He had already washed off the plate, knife, and fork from the beef wellington dish in the bathroom sink, so he carefully placed them in the folds of the blanket before jamming the pillow down into the backpack as well.
Over the past half hour he had really thought hard about what he should do, and he decided it probably wasn't that smart of an idea to sleep overnight in the library. While he was pretty sure he could avoid the librarians in the morning, he wasn't positive. And any slight chance of being caught and sent to the police, where he would eventually be returned to the Dursleys, was unacceptable.
After wracking his mind for an idea, a conversation he'd overheard between Vernon and Petunia last week came to mind. They had been talking about someone named John who worked at Grunnings with Vernon. He had passed away, leaving his house in the neighboring town of Maybury empty until his relatives came back from abroad at the end of summer to inherit it.
Vernon, as usual, was complaining about how the world wasn't fair, and that such a "valuable property" being inherited should have gone to him. According to Vernon, only he could properly appreciate such a bounty, and he wouldn't be so daft as to leave it sitting all summer long when it could be making him money instead.
Harry had inwardly scoffed, naturally. He didn't want to get a slap upside the head by openly scoffing at Vernon's greediness of wanting to steal other people's properties. That conversation really made Harry wonder about what other kinds of theft Vernon might have gotten away with. Dudley's apple really didn't fall too far from the tree, since he was always stealing the lunch money of the kids at school.
But he still remembered the address because Vernon had gone on and on about what kind of neighborhood it was in, and how much money it could have brought him. Harry figured it was a good place to hole up for a few days while he figured out where he was eventually going to live.
Before leaving, Harry realized that he had no idea how he was going to actually get in the house. He certainly didn't want to go around breaking people's windows, even if they were dead. An idea popped in his head, and he looked through the card catalogue and found a book on locksmithing. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to find a book specifically on lockpicking in the public library, so locksmithing was the next best thing.
A short search through the stacks, and he had found the book. After staring at it for a few minutes, waffling back and forth, Harry decided to just shove the book in his backpack. He could pull the tools needed out once he got to the house, instead of carrying them with him. And once he was done with the book, he would send it back to the library, so it wasn't really stealing.
He figured libraries were meant to lend books anyway, he was just skipping a few steps.
With everything all packed up in a backpack so that he didn't leave evidence behind, and because he kind of wanted to keep the very first items he had pulled out of magazines, Harry made his way to the windows facing away from the road. It was pretty easy to unlatch and slip out the window to the ground.
Looking around, and seeing no one around on the roads, Harry began walking in the direction of Maybury.
While he was making his way to the address of the house, Harry's attention was half on the road and half on imagining what kinds of things he could pull out of books, and what he would do over the next few weeks and years.
A lot of the books he had previously read didn't really have any special items that would stick out as something he needed right now. Many of them were about normal people in the regular world, even if they were doing interesting things like solving murders or winning sports games. Even many of the fantasy stories usually only had people using regular swords and spears and stuff. As cool as swords were, they weren't exceptionally useful in modern day England.
As awesome as it would be to own a sword, what was he going to do with it? Especially as he didn't know how to use it! Even if he went and stabbed Vernon with it, assuming he could even lift the sword and succeed, what then? He would be carted away by the police and thrown in jail.
Most of the books were great to read to pass time, but not many of them he had read so far offered something more than what he could already get. He could already pull money and food out whenever he wanted, so he was pretty set to survive on his own. So Harry decided that he would have to expand his reading to more of the fantastical and science fiction genres, in order to find more interesting items.
It also wasn't like he could pull out cars, houses, boats, and other such big items that he needed now to get around and live in. And even if he could pull out a big item like a car, how was he going to drive it when the police would just pull him over for being a 10 year old driving a car? Or where could he put a house that the police wouldn't come knocking after neighbors reported a house appearing out of nowhere?
Another thing Harry was aware of was that he would eventually be reported missing, and then the police would be looking for him, and that's exactly what he didn't want. He didn't really expect the Dursleys to go out of their way to report him, but the summer would end soon, and then the school would no doubt report him missing.
And that was another thing. He really wanted to continue his schooling and education. Maybe even university! He had the money for it now, after all, or would have it soon enough.
Before he got his amazing magical powers, the idea of going to university had been a pipedream. He'd had no way to pay for it, so the only option he'd really had to make a go of it away from the Dursleys was to go to the Army, save up money, and then send himself through.
So his biggest need right now was to find some permanent shelter, figure out a way to keep himself off the radar so he didn't get sent back to the Dursleys, and find a way to continue his schooling.
Harry was well aware that, with his new book magic, he could live the rest of his life without one more day of school. He just needed to pull money out from books whenever he needed it. But he still had a dream he wanted to fulfill.
A few years ago, when Harry had first entered school, he had excitedly done his best in his studies in the hopes of impressing his aunt and uncle and maybe getting some affection from them, or at least making them proud of him. Seeing that he had perfect grades, he had cheerfully brought his report card home to show off to his supposed relatives.
But when he had been beaten by Vernon for "cheating" and getting better grades than Dudley, Harry had come to the rather difficult realization that no matter what he did, his aunt and uncle would never give him the approval and love that they gave Dudley. No matter how much he yearned for their love, no matter how hard he worked, they would always hate him and never be proud of him. That's when he stopped thinking of them as his aunt and uncle, and started calling them by their names in his mind.
As a result of that disappointment and estrangement, he had a growing dream over the years. One day he would make himself far more successful than the Dursleys. He would be rich, respected by all, and he would go back to Little Whinging and show the Dursleys just how wrong they were about him all these years. He would make them regret how they treated him, when they saw how successful and respected he was, and that they could have no part of the prestige he had.
Harry was aware that it was a bitter and spiteful dream. That it wasn't so much about getting love and approval, or enjoying his life by making himself better, so much as it was making them regret their actions, so that he could get revenge, basically.
But now he had magical powers! Harry had already won! He was already so much better than the Dursleys will ever be!
That didn't mean that he won't still carry out his petty little revenge one day, once he was grown up and had gotten the luxury cars and the suits and the sexy assistants and the spacious mansions and was a "respectable member of society". Oh, yes, he'll drop on by and rub it in their faces. And it will be a beautiful sight.
But now that he's got magical powers and was running away from the Dursleys to live his own life, it felt kind of useless to be so focused on them. They weren't a part of his life anymore, so why should he spend effort hating them or even thinking about them? He'd rather spend time thinking about what kind of awesome things he could pull out of books.
Harry finally arrived at his temporary base in a pleasant mood after an hour of walking. Looking around and not seeing any lights on in the houses of the neighborhood, Harry made his way to the back door.
Standing in the extreme dark, unable to see anything when he looked around, Harry frowned.
"How am I supposed to figure out how to open locks in the middle of the night when I didn't bring a flashlight?" Harry sighed out loud, realizing he'd neglected a key part of his plan. "Well, I guess one night spent out in the backyard isn't so bad."
It was summertime, so while it was a little chilly at night, it wasn't that bad. And he did have a blanket and pillow. He pulled out the pillow and blanket, wrapped himself up on the back porch, and lay down to go to sleep.
Despite all the excitement of gaining magical powers, he was a ten year old who had a long and exhausting day. He had a full stomach and was warm in his temporary bedding, so he fell asleep almost immediately.
Sunlight shining in his eyes woke Harry up early the next day. After a good stretch, he packed up his blanket and pillow, pulled out the book on locksmithing, and began reading through the book, only taking a break to pull out one of the magazines with food in them that he had snagged from the library the previous day in order to eat a nice meal of pizza for breakfast.
Another food that Harry had never tasted, except for left over crusts. Eating the rest of the pizza was even more delicious than Harry had imagined.
An hour later Harry had a pretty good idea of what he should do to pick the lock on the door. He soon had the tools pulled out of the book, and began. It took him another half hour to finally get the technique right.
"I'm gonna have to practice lockpicking more later." Harry muttered to himself as he hurriedly searched for the bathroom to relieve himself. "So that I don't take so long in the future." The last five minutes of trying to pick the lock had been torture!
Stepping out of the bathroom after washing his hands, Harry began looking around the house. It looked like it hadn't been changed much since that John person had died. All the furniture, clothes, and knick-knacks had been left behind. The only thing that looked to have been cleaned up was the perishable food in the kitchen, which still left plenty of canned and bottled food behind.
Harry found what looked like a guest room set up, so he decided he would use that room while he was there. After a quick look through the phone book, he had an address for a book shop that he could go look for some more useful books for items to pull out for his use.
After emptying out his backpack, he made his way out the back and was on his way. A short time later Harry was looking at the glass front of a book shop, the wood framing painted in a light blue. Stepping in, he saw the book shelves reached the ceiling, and there were stools and ladders here and there so customers could reach the books. Several narrow rows led off the main aisle, showing that the space for books had been maximized as much as possible.
"Morning there, lad." A voice to his left startled Harry. Looking over he saw an older man with graying hair sitting at a checkout counter with an old fashioned cash register, staring at him.
"Er…morning." Harry nervously replied, suddenly acutely aware that he was still wearing Dudley's old clothes. He really should fix that soon so that he didn't look so ragged, like he might steal something from the shop. He was really hoping that the old man didn't kick him out.
"Don't be so nervous, lad." The older man said with a smile. "I'm not getting after you for staring in awe at my gorgeous shop. I was just going to ask if you needed help looking for anything."
"Oh." Harry intelligently replied, relieved that the old man seemed amiable. "I didn't have anything in particular I was looking for, other than the fiction section."
"Living in flights of fancy during the summertime. Sounds grand. Follow the main aisle to the fourth row on the left. That's where the fiction section starts, lad. Let me know if you need any help."
"Uh…yeah, sure. Thank you, sir." Harry nervously walked off, mentally scratching his head at the odd things the old man had said. Shaking his head, he began looking for the section that was indicated, and soon arrived at the fiction section.
He had done quite a bit of thought about what he needed the most in his current situation. And he had come to the conclusion that he needed some way to blend into society, buy a house, get a bank account, register for school, and maybe even create a fake guardian for himself. But there were no normal methods to accomplish that without an actual adult to help him, and he didn't know any that he trusted enough to help him.
So the only way he could do so would be to either use some magic items or some super advanced technology that he could get from books. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to find a specific magical item that he needed, since his need was pretty darn specific. He doubted some author had written about the perfect item for his use that he could pull out.
But a technology item was a different matter from magic. He knew from Vernon's complaints a couple years ago about having to learn how to use new computer software programs for work that most of the businesses and the government offices were really embracing computers over the past several years as the best method to keep track of business and people's records.
So if he could find a cool science fiction book with a small enough super computer, Harry could pull it out of the book and use it to hack into the databases and create all the records he would need to get himself set up in his new life.
Over the next few hours Harry looked over several books, grabbing the ones that seemed to have interesting possibilities, as well as a few that he remembered reading before. He also picked up more magazines so he could keep pulling out food for his meals, since the ones he had were charring pretty badly.
"This is quite a stack you've got here." The man at the checkout idly stated as he eyed the stack of eight books and four magazines.
"Yeah, I like to read." Harry tried to casually say, while being prepared to book it if the man seemed to take too much interest in him.
"That's a good thing in a young one like you. It seems so many people now-a-days are completely neglecting the noble pastime of reading." The man sighed in a very dramatic fashion while ringing up the last book, causing Harry to smile a little at the old guy's oddity. "That'll be 63 pounds, then."
Harry pulled out a 100 pound note and passed it to the man while he was stuffing the three large hardcover books, five paperback novels, and four magazines in his backpack.
"Thanks." Harry swung the heavy pack on his back and collected his change, before waving and departing the shop.
"Enjoy your reading, and come again, lad." The man at the counter called out in a cheerful tone, causing Harry to wave once more.
He had just stepped out of the shop when an icy feeling of fear ran down his spine as he froze in place mid-step. Not more than a dozen feet away, Petunia was sitting at a table outside a tea shop with her gossip buddies. Harry stared with wide open eyes as Petunia daintily picked up a scone and bit into it.
The shock only lasted a moment, before Harry put his head down and directly turned away, walking quickly to get away before she could notice him. Thankfully she had been facing away from Harry, so she didn't immediately spot him.
Once he was around the closest corner, and no longer visible to the tea shop, Harry slumped against the nearest wall and took some deep breaths to calm himself. That had been a close one!
It was really the shock of seeing Petunia unexpectedly that scared him so much. He had been afraid that she would spot him and start yelling for someone to catch him. He would have ditched his books in a second to run faster if she had, since he had no desire to be caught. He could always buy more books later with money he pulled from the books.
Harry smiled a little bit at that thought, using money from books to buy books.
"The sooner I'm gone from anywhere close to Surrey, the better." Harry decided while wiping the sweat off his brow. He settled his glasses more firmly on his face, and set off for the house that he was borrowing for the time being, plans already floating through his head.
Harry carefully stacked the books and magazines he had bought on the living room table, a sense of anticipation growing in him. Before this point he had only pulled out normal mundane items. Things he could get in the real world. But at this point, he was going to be reaching into worlds beyond his own and pulling out wonderful items.
He hoped.
The existence of his magical ability to reach into books, as well as his earlier teleportationaway from the danger of being beaten by Dudley and his gang before he even got his book magic, indicated that he had plenty of magic, even if he didn't yet know how to control it to do much. And that was something that he would love to be able to replicate purposefully, being able to teleport!
Knowing that he had magic even before he got his book magic gave him hope that magical items would work for him. So he really hoped that reaching into a Dungeons and Dragons manual would allow him to pull out a magic item for his use, since there were so many useful items in those manuals.
Opening the book, he flipped to the page the index indicated and re-read the description.
Bag of Holding
A bag of holding was a small sack that acted as an opening to an extra-dimensional space. The space inside the bag could hold a huge amount of materials without increasing the weight of the bag.
A typical bag of holding could hold up to 500 lb (227 kg) of material that did not exceed a volume of 64 cubic feet, although other types with different capacities existed. The bag also allowed a few minutes of breathing air for creatures that would enter it. It could temporarily sustain a breathing creature for up to 10 minutes.
If a bag of holding was placed in an extra-dimensional space like a portable hole, both would be lost forever and a rift to the Astral Plane would be opened. If a bag of holding got overloaded or pierced by something sharp, it and everything in it would be lost forever.
Taking a deep breath while focusing on pulling out an extraordinary bag of holding, Harry felt the tingling begin in his hands that indicated he could use his ability. Reaching down into the book, he grasped a leather strap and pulled.
Coming into his view was a long leather strap with an adjustable clasp. Attached was a colorful blue, red, and yellow satchel. Once he'd finished pulling the item out Harry had a huge smile on his face as he ran his hands over the item.
A moment later, he glanced at the book, and noticed there was some charring on the edges, but it wasn't that bad. He could probably retrieve 7 or 8 more bags of holding before the book would probably be unusable.
Flipping open the flap that covered the entrance to the bag of holding, Harry noticed that the opening to the bag was extendable, so that it could fit much bigger things. He was quite pleased with that feature, since it meant he could store lots of things.
Pulling the opening apart, he stuck his head inside the bag of holding and looked around.
"I can't see anything at all." Harry muttered as he pulled his head back out. He immediately grabbed the camping / outdoors magazine from the stack of four.
It only took a moment of flipping pages until he saw a flashlight on one of the pages, and he spared no time grabbing the item out of the magazine. After checking that the flashlight worked properly, he stuck his head back in the bag of holding.
Shining the light around, Harry's jaw dropped at the sight in front of him. He could now see the edges of the extra-dimensional space, but it was obviously considerably bigger than the reported 64 cubic feet. Instead of a 4x4x4 cube, it was more like a 16x16x16 cube.
"This is amazing." Harry muttered. "But why is it so much better than the stated description?"
After fruitlessly thinking about it for a few minutes, Harry decided he would pull another bag of holding out of the book. But this time, instead of thinking of getting the best bag of holding he could, he thought of getting a normal bag of holding.
Idly noting that the charring effect of the second bag of holding was the same amount as the first, Harry looked inside the second one. The second bag of holding ended up having the 64 cubic feet that the description said it should.
"So if I don't focus on making the item better, it will be normal. But if I want the best item, I have to focus and really want it to get my magic to respond better. But it doesn't matter how good the item I pulled out of a book is, the same items will char the book the same amount." Harry nodded to himself, happy that he was figuring out the rules.
He pulled out a notebook and pen from one of the magazines that he had bought so he could retrieve writing supplies and began noting the various limits or rules that he had found with his ability.
A thought suddenly came to Harry that caused him to tilt his head curiously while looking at the notebook in his hands. Deciding to follow through on the thought, he turned the page and began copying the information about the bag of holding from the book into the notebook.
Once he was finished, he put the pen down and focused on that tingling sensation in his hands while focusing on the page about the bag of holding he had written. But after several minutes, there was nothing, and he couldn't reach into the notebook to pull out a bag of holding.
"So, is it because I wrote down the description that I can't do it? Is it because my notebook isn't a proper book? But a poster isn't a proper book either." After several minutes, Harry really couldn't figure out what the issue was. "I've got nothing right now. I'll try to figure it out later."
Because of the warning in the book about not putting one bag of holding into another extra-dimensional space, Harry was careful to keep the two bags away from each other. He had no desire to open a rift into the Astral Plane, whatever that was.
He was sure that the description was in one of the Dungeon and Dragon books he'd gotten, but he wasn't that interested in it just now. It was enough for him to know that bad things would happen. He was currently more interested in grabbing the other items that he thought would help him. He would look it up later.
Harry draped the leather strap of the first bag of holding he pulled out over his shoulder, fondly patting the satchel at his right side. He was undecided about what to do with the smaller bag of holding. It felt a bit silly to drape it over his other side, so he hung it in the coat closet for now, to keep it from causing trouble for him.
Picking up the Dungeons and Dragons manual, he placed it in the bag of holding and let go. Looking inside the bag, he didn't see anything except the empty space of the bag. So the book probably automatically went to the extra-dimensional storage area. But when he reached in and thought of retrieving the book, it came to his hand easily. Harry laughed out loud at this, extremely happy that he now had a method to store a bunch of his things.
And that was something he just loved about his new life, and what felt like the start of an adventure. He was away from the evil relatives. He now actually had things of his own. He had a power that opened up the world for him.
After finally calming down a bit, Harry pulled out the next book. It was a book by Terry Pratchet that he had read before called Truckers. It was the story of the Nomes, a race of tiny people who were only about 4-5 inches tall from another world that were living hidden among humans.
The item that interested Harry was what the Nomes called "The Thing". It was a small black cube that had been the symbol of authority of their tribe for as long as they could remember.
After accidentally being dropped next to an electrical cable, the Thing began to store power and charge up. It turned out that The Thing was the navigational computer of the Galactic Survey Starship Swan, which crashed due to an engine fault many thousands of years ago.
Harry figured that such a computer could definitely help him hack into the government computers and create files for him, as well as create a bank account that he could use, and probably even figure out a way to buy a home once he had enough money in the bank.
Pulling out items from books was beginning to be almost normal for Harry by now, so without further ado he soon had a small black cube in his hand. It was less than inch on each side, which caused him to marvel that this technological feat was possible.
Stepping over to an electrical outlet, Harry held it close and saw that lights were beginning to light in the cube. A faint grin could be seen on Harry's face as he eagerly awaited the navigational computer to "wake up".
[kdicolkoic98 9d0s0i]]
Harry scratched his head. Of course they would use a language he couldn't understand!
"Hello, do you understand me?"
[dkc0k dNI)*Hklxc0*]
The lights on the cube shut off, causing Harry to frown and poke it.
"Hey, are you seriously not going to talk to me? I'm sure you can learn English real quick from all the radio and television signals around here. Not to mention hacking into our computers."
Nothing but silence met Harry's question. The cube didn't even bother to light up and respond.
"Come on, don't be like that." Harry cajoled the cube. "At least tell me why you're not responding."
After several minutes with the cube doing nothing while he thought about the issue, Harry could only conclude it was because he wasn't a Nome, so the navigational computer had no reason to help him, or even respond to his queries. And since he had pulled the computer out of a book, there were actually no Nomes in this world for it to interact with. Probably. Maybe.
"Well, when I think about it, I've got awesome magical abilities, which I thought were fantasy just a few days ago. So how can I definitively say what is actually real or not? Maybe Terry Pratchet ran into the Nomes somewhere and wrote their story based on that? Who knows, right?"
With a shrug of acceptance that his first choice of computer wasn't willing to help him, which was a shame because such a powerful computer that was so small would be awesome to use, he tossed the cube on the table.
He had briefly thought about chucking it into his bag of holding to keep it for some unspecified future possible use, but decided not to. He had no idea if the computer could mess around with his extra-dimensional space in his bag of holding, and he didn't want to chance it.
Despite being rejected by The Thing, Harry was still cheerful because he had a backup plan. He pulled out his second choice for a supercomputer, the C Cube from Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer.
Artemis Fowl, the main character of the story, was a certified genius at the age of 11, and his inventing ability was top notch, for a human without access to intergalactic spaceships and other such advanced technology. Which was why Harry tried for The Thing first, because the Artemis Fowl book said that the C Cube was only at least 50 years more advanced than anything that Earth had at the time, while The Thing was a navigational computer of a galaxy traveling starship.
"But, hey. The C Cube should probably be more than enough to deal with current Earth computers, right?" Harry mumbled while he was sticking his hand into the book to retrieve the supercomputer that was a mix of fairy and human technology. He really wanted the best version of the C Cube that he could get, so he was focused in on that.
He soon pulled out a red metal cube that was about 2 inches on a side. Picking up the C Cube, Harry smiled. This was human tech, so it shouldn't have a problem working with him, right?
"Hello, C Cube. Can you hear me?" Harry gently stroking the C Cube with a finger.
[Scanning surroundings.]
Harry didn't see any noticeable changes on the C Cube's surface while it was running its scans. That was pretty good, since even if someone saw him carrying it, it would just look like a dark red metal cube, nothing special.
[Registering user. State user name.]
"My name is Harry James Potter." After clearing his throat, Harry hastily introduced himself.
[User Harry James Potter accepted. C Cube ready for use.]
Harry had an awkward smile on his face. He hadn't actually read the story yet, just read the description on the back of the novel and saw it had a supercomputer; so he really didn't know how to interact with the C Cube.
"Do you have a user's manual that I could read?" Harry asked, wondering if it had hologram technology or anything cool like that.
[Yes. Projecting hard light reader and keyboard interface now.]
Above the C Cube a rectangular screen lit up, as if Harry was looking at a computer monitor. But it was thousands of times better than Dudley's computer. The visuals and colors were sharp and extremely clear, not fuzzy at all. Just below the screen was a keyboard that was made out of hard light, according to the C Cube.
Harry set the C Cube down on the table in front of him, and watched as the screen and keyboard followed while hovering in the air.
"Fantastic!" Harry exclaimed, before he began to read the user manual document he found opened up on the screen.
Along with the instructions came a tutorial of sorts that had Harry practice different actions and methods of accessing the C Cube and the programs and information on it. He felt really awkward at first, but he soon grew used to how to navigate the system. The best part was that he could give orders just by whispering to the C Cube, since it could hear him no matter how quietly he whispered.
He learned that it was still a little inconvenient for the C Cube to project sound that only Harry could hear, so he would need to get ear phones, preferably wireless. Since he had pulled the C Cube out of the Artemis Fowl book, he started skimming the books to see if there was anything appropriate.
After a few minutes of flipping through the pages, Harry felt the tingling in his hands that indicated what he was looking for was there. Without further ado, he concentrated on pulling out the best ear phones he could, just like he had done with the C Cube.
Harry stared in confusion at the two very small plug looking things he had in his hands.
"C Cube, can you explain how I'm supposed to use these?" Harry asked.
[They are the most advanced wireless head phones available currently. Put one in each ear, and sound will pass through normally, except for excessively loud noises that will be muted. Audio can be transmitted from C Cube to user's ear phones, allowing only the user to hear.]
"Good to know." Harry muttered. "Here goes nothing."
He put them into his ear, and felt a little bit of a weird shifting from them before it went away and felt like he didn't even have anything in his ears.
"C Cube, is it normal that I don't feel the ear phones anymore?"
[Yes. They are not immediately visible to anyone else, and only the user can hear the audio.]
Harry got up and went to a mirror, and sure enough, he couldn't see them with a casual look. Only by closely inspecting could he sort of see the lump in his ear, and it just looked like a flesh colored bump.
"Pretty handy." Harry muttered. "C Cube, play background music please."
There were a lot of things that Harry never got to enjoy at the Dursleys that other kids his age talked about a lot. Music was one of the big things. Television shows, movies, games, toys, and many other things that Harry could only listen about enviously.
Now that he was on his own, and could grab whatever he wanted from books, he really wanted to start enjoying the things he had been missing out on.
[What genre of music would you like to listen to?]
"Hmm. Random sample for now. I'll tell you if I don't like any of the songs, and we can adjust my preferences that way." Harry stated.
A soft classical piece began to play while Harry picked up the next magazine and began pulling out some clothes for him to wear. Clothes that weren't Dudley's overly large and dirty castoffs.
"Eh, I don't really seem to enjoy that song, C Cube." Harry muttered. "It feels like its trying to put me to sleep."
The music immediately switched to a more contemporary song, with some synthetic sounding upbeat music.
"Not bad." Harry muttered while wondering where the singer wanted to lead some girl named Eileen, when he kept telling her to come on.
Not thinking about the song too much, Harry changed into his new clothes, which was just a normal pair of jeans and a red shirt. He actually had a belt instead of a rope, and some nice comfortable socks and trainers.
Now that he had a belt, he had a use for the clip on that came with the C Cube. He fastened it to his belt with his shirt hanging over it. That way C Cube would always be with him. Harry then draped his bag of holding over his shoulder before sitting back down.
"So while I'm going through the books, C Cube, I'd like you to get started on figuring out my situation." Harry spent the next few minutes explaining the Dursleys, his magic and ability to pull things from books, and what he wanted his supercomputer to do, namely getting his legal situation sorted so he never had to go back to the Dursleys. "Oh, and keep anything to do with my book power secret. In fact, be sure to keep everything about me secret."
[Of course, user Harry Potter. I'll get started on your Government documents now, then open a bank account.]
"Sounds good." Harry nodded before picking up the Dungeons and Dragons manual again. There were still some good things he had spotted that he would pull out for his immediate use.