AN: Not a proper first chapter but a collection of snippets to show the concept. I got this idea based on how Harry doesn't often act like one would expect from someone growing up abused like he had. The craving of affection makes sense but one would also expect him to be a much better liar, much more cautious, and to have actually experimented with the powers he openly notices in the books. He sees a sweater shrink from Dudley size to hand puppet size, he teleports, and his hair 'poof' grows back overnight yet he never thinks twice. Then there's the parsletongue incident.
So here it starts with him being sneakier and more observant and the snowballs that would occur before and during Hogwarts.
Shaped by the Shadows of the Cupboard
-Harry-
Gritting his teeth, Harry yanked out yet another weed growing under the shadows of 'Aunt Petunia's' rose bushes. It didn't matter that they were behind a privacy fence. It didn't matter that they were under the rose bushes and therefore out of sight. All that mattered was that they existed, and that she could happily order him to go fix things and get cut up by the thorns while she went off to go have tea with her 'friends', leaving him locked outside.
"You are a very strange human." A soft hissing like voice appeared in his ear, "Why do you care so much about the tiny plants under this big sharp one?"
"It wasn't my choice." Harry grumbling, wondering if the sun had fried his brain as he didn't see anyone around to talk. At least if he went crazy maybe he wouldn't care about going hungry in the cupboard as much?
"You're a speaker?!" the voice sounded startled as a little grass snake poked their head out of a hiding spot.
"…You're a snake?" Harry blinked, processing yet another weird happening.
-H-
Grunting, Harry slipped down into a small corner of the yard. With the shed at his back, the rose bushes around him, and the fence it was a nice blind spot where he was still expected to work but nobody could see him.
"Friend speaker, you are hurt again!" the familiar voice his little snake friend spoke up as they slithered out of the bushes.
"Just give me a moment." He hissed out a grunt back as he focuses, the bruises and other injuries slowly healing. After the incident of his aunt hacking off all of his hair but the bangs and it growing back he'd experimented and found he could alter his body. Through trial and error he'd managed to use it to start patching himself up after his 'family's' beatings, fake skin deep bruises left so they wouldn't realize.
"Want a snack?" Harry hissed as he held out his hands, food appearing in them. That had taken ages to figure out how to do. He tended to eat out here so that way no crumbs were left as evidence in his cupboard.
"Sure, thanks friend speaker." The little grass snake slithers over to enjoy what Harry offered as the serpent shared more stories with Harry about the life of a snake and the legends of the King of Serpents, the basilisk. Including how one was made.
-H-
"I'm going out!" Aunt Petunia snapped, "Clean those filthy rags in your cupboard while I'm gone and don't even think about touching the food in the refrigerator. I've taken stock of everything in there down to the last grape so if you steal even a mouthful I'll know!" with that she slammed the door shut, the lock clicking into place as Harry sighed.
'Those Filthy Rags' being his few blankets he was permitted in the cupboard that had blood on them from being hit with a frying pan, again.
Holding out his hand, Harry used the magic he'd slowly been figuring out in secret as he made the red liquid start to vanish, replaced by small traces of iron that were carefully collected. His snake friend, who didn't seem to understand names all too well, had been telling him more about what little they knew of magic. Apparently most wizards used some sort of focus to do their spells? So harry was making something small and easily hidden. The books in the library he was able to read without the Dursleys notice often showed magic rings so he was making one of those. He'd also read about how there was iron in blood and so if he had his magic then the iron in his blood was magic iron. It was slow going but he was making progress.
-H-
Hearing a terrified shriek, Harry rushed over to the yard to see his aunt with a garden shovel standing over the decapitated body of his snake friend.
"Eugh!" Aunt Petunia shuddered as she threw down the bloody spade and saw him "You, boy, get rid of this disgusting…thing!" she barked out an order before going inside and happily pouring herself a tall glass of sherry. Fighting back the tears, refusing to let the Dursleys see him cry, Harry collected his friend's corpse.
He refused to let this stand.
-H-
Standing by the hidden area he'd set up, Harry watched the toad and waited. The Dursleys were away for a long summer trip and while he slept at Mrs. Figgs he was still expected to come over and maintain the yard. It gave him plenty of time to do this without them noticing.
His snake friend had told him about basilisks and familiars, saying he should hatch a basilisk as his familiar as to match 'the impressiveness of a speaker'. It hadn't been easy getting his hands on a live chicken egg but he'd done it, the toad thankfully being easier.
He'd taken the process further though. The nest for the egg included his friend's shed skins and he'd let some of his friends blood onto the egg, having read that moisture and liquid could pass through egg shell. If magic was real, then maybe this would let his friend be brought back to him.
Hearing a crack, Harry's head snapped over as the egg shell started to break apart.
"Come on, you can do it!" Harry urged as the egg shook more and more before breaking apart. The toad, no longer tied to a solid egg, frantically hopped away. But Harry was only focused on the small snake that fell out of the shattered egg.
They weren't the mottled green that he'd expected from his friend's stories but instead a dark shadowy black apart from the bone like markings on their body, their eyes the same shade of green as his own.
"Friend…speaker? Is that you?" the familiar voice hissed out as they adjusted to their new form.
"Yeah buddy, it's me." Harry gave them a watery grin as they slithered onto his hand.
-H-
Focusing, Harry used magic to follow the steps he'd found in a science book. Iron and carbon into steel, and then steel shaped into a ring. He even included an inscription in the written 'parsletongue' his now basilisk familiar had been helping him learn. This ring was made from iron that came from his and his familiar's blood, both before and after their transformation. The carbon was from his friend's old body.
The ring slipped onto his finger and gave him a sense of completion.
-H-
Sitting in his compartment, Harry flipped through one of the extra books he'd gotten at Diagon Alley. It had taken a bit of sneaking around Hagrid but he'd gotten the extra reading he wanted. But after the fiasco that trip was and how everyone reacted to his face and scar he'd taken precautious with the train.
Arrived early and slipped into an empty compartment before using his body altering magic to change his hair and eye color. He'd even fixed his need for glasses over the years so with the useless frames removed he didn't look in any way like Harry Potter.
"I am excited, Friend Harry." The basilisk living in his shadow hissed out eagerly, a head extending from the darkness to nuzzle him before retreating. The changes Harry had made to try and restore his killed friend's memories had granted a few altered powers to the basilisk that they theorized were caused in part by the basilisk being supposed to have death magic eyes. Perhaps that tie to death had allowed the miracle?
"Me too buddy, me too."
AN: So, yeah, a quick look at concept and what magic Harry figures out. As for the food, before anyone says 'you can't use Magic to conjure food' he isn't conjuring it, he's using transfiguration to turn air into food. Does he understand what he's doing yet? No, but that's what Hogwarts is for, to learn more and refine what he can do.