Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. This version of Aleister Crowley, along with 1,083,092,867 others, was created by Kamachi Kazuma.

Chapter 01: Getting to Know You

Part 4

"Elly, where are you from?"

Harry asked one day while he was asleep, the both of them in Elly's room. At the question, Elly sighed internally, and turned to face her host and ward.

Well, she had been expecting this question for quite some time now, and had an answer prepared.

"I'm from…somewhere else, Harry."

Yes. She really should have been more careful from the start, now that she knew forced telepathy existed in this world, and that highly practiced wizards could read your thoughts by glancing into your eyes. Before long, Harry would receive his Hogwarts letter, and would have to re-enter wizarding society.

She had to make preparations, to keep her own existence secret, to keep her host as safe as possible.

That aside, she also wasn't even sure how to broach the topic of parallel universes and alternate timelines. Sure, she could explain it theoretically, with Everett and a catbox and how flipping a coin would make another world, one more of many, but that was drastically different from having a living example in your head.

And we'll be covering quantum mechanics eventually in any case, once I start teaching Harry about Esper abilities, Elly thought.

"Where is somewhere else, Elly?"

"It's…it's complicated, Harry. I would rather keep it a secret."

"Elly," Harry whined, "you're…you're in my head. You can see everything that I do, and I can't keep anything from you. This isn't fair."

The other point Elly was concerned about was that while Harry was a bright child, he was still a child nonetheless, with limited understanding of nuance and consequence. Already she was beginning to worry about how much he actually understood about his decision to leave the Dursleys forever, and whether she had unknowingly sacrificed some ridiculously overpowered magical protection for what would be mere moments of solace in comparison.

There had been no choice, she thought to herself. She thought about Lilith, and Lola, and success and failure. No, I made the choice. And now I–and Harry–would have to live with it. But that doesn't mean that we should restrict ourselves from evaluating those choices.

"You never stopped yourself from explaining complicated stuff to me either," Harry added to his complaint.

"Many things in life aren't fair, Harry." Elly said, raising an eyebrow. "To be honest," she continued, seeing as Harry was about to protest, "I don't even know how I ended up in your head in the first place."

"Oh."

"Well, if you must know…" Elly threw out a crumb, "you can think of me as being…from Japan. Yes."

The roots of Crowley the magician would always lie in London, but the Superintendent of Academy City's curiosity about the eastern country had developed into a special fondness over the years.

"Japan?"

"Surely you've learnt of other countries in school, Harry."

"Yeah, but…"

"Remind me to find a map," Elly said with only mild exasperation. "In the meantime, get some rest. You're going to be moving somewhere else tomorrow, in case you forgot."

"Yeah, yeah." Harry opened a door, traipsed into the room beyond to lay down on a metaphorical bed.

Elly simply shook her head and went back to reading. A faint smile was on her face.

~~[a]~~

The lessons for the day ended, and for once, Harry didn't rush out of the classroom. A strange tension hung in the air, an oppressive cloud of foreboding.

Instead, he slowly packed his things into the hand-me-down backpack, and turned his head to look somewhere behind him.

His eyes met Sally's, and her gaze was as hard as he expected. He stood.

Today, nobody stuck their legs out to trip him, or called him names.

He left. Returning to his own room, he put his schoolbooks carefully to where they belonged, and changed out of his school uniform into gym attire. From the secret compartment in his wardrobe he took out the stolen glove, and looked at its palm with its now completed mechanism.

Then he thought about what the kids might say he used a weapon, and put it back.

"Harry." Elly's voice sounded from inside his head, full of concern.

"I'm fine, Elly." Harry thought, his mind strangely calm.

"I know you are. Don't lose. I'll be watching."

~~[a]~~

The carpark was filled with kids playing in an extremely unsubtle I'm-definitely-not-here-to-watch-anything-happen manner, and there was an obvious sense of anticipation.

"You're late." Sally said. Her teeth were bared, and it was clear she was eager to fight. "Finally, I'm going to beat you, and you'll stop being so annoying."

"No. I'm tired of you, Sally." Harry ground out. "You should have just left me alone. Now I'm going to hurt you, and I don't like hurting people."

"Such a good boy you are, Harry," Sally taunted. "On the other hand, I really, really want to hurt you."

"I know you were crying in your room, Sally!" Harry raised his voice, and Sally's eyes widened, flashed in anger. "Stop acting so tough, you little crybaby!"

And that was it. With a scream of rage, Sally launched herself forward.

It was probably fortunate that St. Ursula's made sure that the nails of all their wards were always trimmed, else the two children would probably have clawed each others' eyes out. As it stood, though, the fight was still messy and brutal–as much as two children could be brutal, in any case.

There was no fancy jab-and-counter, no measured and calculated actions; both of the children would have been screaming non-stop at each other if they weren't saving their breath for more aggressive actions. Sally's fist struck Harry's face, and Harry grabbed and shoved her to the rough ground, the both of them falling and tumbling. Somehow Sally managed to get on top, and was now whaling on Harry, repeated blows to the face that Harry brought his forearms up to block.

With a sharp twist of his stomach, Harry turned to his side, dislodging Sally, and landed a blow to her cheek. Sally let out another snarl, and sunk her teeth into Harry's forearm, biting down, down, drawing blood, and only Harry's left arm, swung in a wide arc which ended at Sally's temple, stunned her long enough for Harry to shake off.

He disengaged, stumbling backwards.

Meanwhile, Elly was watching dispassionately. Harry's magical, so there shouldn't be any lasting damage, she thought. But for the girl–ah, wandless magic. Of course.

The reason for her last comment was clear. Sally was now staggering, barely upright, but the air now felt heavy with some supernatural pressure.

Either the product of sheer instinct, or a skill that she managed to develop. It certainly explains how she dominated the other children. Unfortunately for you, little girl, I don't think that's going to work on Harry here. If anyone had heard Elly at this point, they would have thought her voice was full of paternal pride.

Harry glared back at Sally, his own breathing ragged. "Is that all you got? IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?!"

Inside, Elly sighed. He certainly has a flair for the dramatic. Then again, I don't think I of all people should be judging him.

Sally surged forward once more, force of magic behind her movement. The supernatural component was noticed by Elly, but not Harry, who brought his hands up in a fighting stance–

–only to somehow be blasted backwards towards the bins. Harry's arm landed against an edge, and there was an audible and sickening crack. Face pale, he slid down, collapsed in a leaning position against the hard plastic.

The crowd, which previously had been egging them on, instantly quietened, before the hubbub resumed in subdued murmurs. Sally's face had taken on an expression of stricken horror.

"Harry!" Elly roared. "Stay still. Your arm's broken."

"It hurts." Tears were streaming down his face, but he did not cry out. Instead, he was now making incoherent noises–or rather, his mental voice had grown incoherent. In the physical world, he was staring at Sally vacantly, mouth unmoving.

Sally took a step back.

Evidently, someone had gone to call the adults, because a loud, authoritative voice was now telling everyone to return to their rooms.

Dimly, he noted that someone was helping him up. "My right arm's broken," he heard himself say calmly, in a too-adult voice. Hearing the person give assent, he drifted off.

~~[a]~~

Naturally, there was an inquiry. Strictly internal, of course. Even a relatively nice institution had to maintain their reputation.

"I started it," said Harry simply. He gave a long and fluent account of the actions that had transpired, beginning from the first days at St. Ursula's when Sally had accosted him. He talked about how she seemed to be the ringleader of the kids that bullied everyone, and how she would control them with fear and shame.

"I was angry. I thought I had escaped my aunt and uncle, but then everything turned out to be the same."

The adults were too busy paying attention to the words to realise that they were much too well-thought-out to have come from an ordinary nine-year-old.

Naturally, since the adults thought that Harry had instigated the fight, both children were harshly punished (as opposed to just Sally), especially when the same two children had just broken the rules a mere few days earlier.

Back into Reflection the two of them were sent, again with bland food, no recreation, and only a Bible and schoolbooks for company. Harry's forearm was in a cast, and while the adults were initially concerned, Harry had insisted on getting things over and done with, and was deemed mature and independent enough to take care of himself even while one-armed.

(And Sally was not the only one who could exert pressure on others.)

~~[a]~~

Looking around in the bathroom, even though he knew he was alone, Harry only hesitated a moment before levitating his towel in midair to better dry himself with only his right arm.

The doctor had said that it was only a greenstick fracture, that the bone hadn't broken all the way through. That was the greatest of his injuries, apart from the several bruises that now dotted his arms and upper body.

I lost. That was all Harry could think about, after everything was over and done with. I had Elly in my head to teach me stuff, and I still lost.

"Harry."

"What is it, Elly?"

"Do not be too harsh on yourself." The magician spoke matter-of-factly. "That was your first real fight, wasn't it?"

"Yes. But!" Harry scrambled for a reason.

"And that girl, Sally, had magic." At Harry's lack of reply, Elly pressed on. "Why do you look so surprised? Didn't you outright say she was doing witchcraft?"

"I…didn't think it would actually be…" Harry began sheepishly.

"Your intuition was correct this time. I would reprimand you for not being prepared for possible magic in that fight, but I myself am not sure what else you could have done, especially against such…wild magic, for lack of better words. Still, you should have considered the possibility."

"Yes, Elly." Harry said, a bit gloomy.

"Like I said, do not be too harsh on yourself." Elly reassured her ward once more.

Harry still could not stop thinking about the events of the day, though, even as he went to bed after that conversation.

The next night, after finishing his homework (and receiving extra lessons from Elly), he got out of bed and put his eye to the slit in the door. Seeing that nobody was around, he stuffed a pillow into the blankets, unlocked the door with a tap of his finger, and quietly crept out.

Elly refrained from commenting. I hope this doesn't become a problem when puberty comes, she thought to herself. She shuddered at the prospect of teaching Harry about the birds and the bees. Ah. Much more difficult when you're actually teaching your own kid, I suppose.

Looking into one room after another, Harry finally found the person he was searching for.

It was exactly like last time: the crying girl curled up on her bed, except that she didn't seem to be making a sound.

"This will be a good time for an impromptu lesson." Elly spoke up suddenly, and Harry jumped, stuffing his fingers in his mouth to muffle his yelp of surprise.

"What-I thought you were asleep!"

"I never need to sleep, though sometimes I choose to not bother you or pay attention to what you see, to give you some semblance of privacy and so on." Elly expounded. "But I saw an opportunity to teach. Do you sense the barrier?"

"What?"

"The barrier that Sally Perks put up, instinctively or otherwise." Elly said. "Rest your fingers on the door and reach out to your sixth sense."

Harry did so, but felt nothing.

"Go to the place that you go to when casting a spell. But instead of withdrawing into yourself, reach out." A terrible butchering of figurative language, Elly thought to herself, but it would have to do.

Harry pressed his fingers harder against the door. "I don't sense anything. And my feet are getting cold." The indoor slippers given to those confined in here were thin.

"Oh, never mind. Just do what you need to do." Harry felt Elly recede, and raised an eyebrow. Schooling his expression, and once again nervously looking from left to right, he brushed his knuckles on the door, the lightest of taps.

Instantly the girl's eyes snapped wide open even as her body remained still. They scanned the room before settling on the slit in her door, which Harry could barely look through by tiptoeing. Wrapping her blanket around her like a shawl, she got up and walked to the door's other side.

Harry felt 'something' disappear, before he heard Sally's voice through the metal, low and rusty. "Why are you here...Scarhead?" The insult felt tacked on, almost obligatory.

"Because I want to talk, obviously. Do you mind if I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." Even in her state, Sally retained her sarcastic harshness. "If you ever get this door open."

"I'll take that as a yes. Alohomora." A traced letter 'S' with his finger, the wand movement for the Unlocking Charm, and the door's lock clicked open. With a push, the heavy metal swung inwards, and Harry stepped through-

-finding himself in a headlock, Sally's arm around his neck.

"Let...me..go.." he croaked out.

"I'll kill you." Sally said simply. "It might be all over for me, but I can still kill you!" The exclamation was hissed into his ear, not breaking the quiet of the night, and Harry struggled more.

"And lose...the only other person...who knows magic?"

The choking stopped. With an effort, Harry used both of his hands, casted and uncasted, and yanked Sally's arm off him, before gently closing the ajar door and sliding down to sit with his back to it.

They stared at each other, the boy on the floor, the girl that remained standing.

Harry broke the silence first. "I want to be friends."

"Are you an idiot?" Sally said immediately.

"Okay, you stupid girl." Harry shot back. "I take that back. How about 'if you ever feel like you need a friend, I'll be there'?"

"Why?" Sally demanded. "I know I did a lot of mean things to you. I broke your arm, for heav-for goodness' sake. And you're just going to say 'let's be friends'?" She hesitated. "Wait, I know. You just want revenge, don't you?"

"I don't need it." Harry said from where he was seated. "Anyway, I've already seen you at your weakest. That's enough for me. Oh, and when you get out, probably nobody will follow you anymore."

"You're so sure of yourself." Sally said. Her voice was still croaky.

"I know what you do. I know how you control everyone. You…find someone's shame, and you hold them by it." Harry summarised. "You gather everyone's secrets, and play people against each other, keeping them in fear."

Yes, that was what the girl did. Harry knew the tactic, knew it from somewhere deep within him in a place he didn't even know existed.

"But that won't work anymore." he continued. "Not when you've been punished by the adults to this extent. Not when you've been away this long. And once the spell is broken, it's hard to get it back, and it probably won't hold that strongly ever again."

Sally could not give a reply, not to a true answer like that-an answer that thoroughly dissected her methods and laid them bare. To be fair to her, she could not have matched Harry in this verbal battle, not when the boy had access to over a hundred years of life experience through a spiritual advisor in his head.

The girl simply staggered backwards to collapse on her mattress, wrapping her arms around her knees.

For a while, the two children simply sat there in silence. The moonlight shone through the window, casting stripes of light and shadow above Harry's head.

"When did you know?" Sally spoke.

"Only recently. Only when...I ran away." Harry said. "But you've read my file, haven't you?"

"It didn't say much." Sally said. "Only that your Aunt and Uncle treated you very badly. But when I said they didn't want you, you didn't care."

"Yeah, I didn't. If they didn't want me, then I don't want them, either." Harry didn't meet Sally's eyes, but instead stared up at the moon, a semicircle of light in the sky, perfectly balanced.

"I wish I could be as strong as you, Harry." The honest words spilled from the girl's mouth, tearing Harry's gaze back down. "I wish I didn't have to want people...that didn't want me."

To this neither Harry (nor Elly, if Harry had asked) knew what to say, and so he did not speak. "How did you get into the cabinets?" he asked instead.

"I sneaked in when nobody was looking, and made sure nobody saw me." Sally's mouth now quirked upwards as she recalled her own mischief.

"That simple?"

"I 'made sure'." Sally made air quotes. "I'm good at that, making people see what I want them to see."

Perceptual magic, Elly thought to herself. And so proud of it, too. I don't even think that schoolboy had this kind of mastery at his age.

"Hmm." Harry hummed to himself. "And how do you remember everything in everyone's files?"

And now Harry's fishing for more. He's certainly developed a touch of deviousness.

"I just can." Sally said it, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "I never forget anything, even if...I want to..." Her voice trailed off, became more uncertain, as if she was sinking-

"Sally." Harry's sharp voice cut through her thoughts. "Look at me."

Sally looked-

-and was promptly met by a sharp right cross to the cheek that sent her sprawling to the mattress.

"You know when I said I don't need revenge?" Harry said, standing over her. "It's true. I really don't need it. But I find myself still wanting some." He waved the arm that was wrapped in a cast. "Having this broken bloody hurt-"

"No! I didn't mean to!" The shriek cut across Harry's words, and Sally crawled into the corner. "I won't do it again!" The girl, curled into a ball, was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Harry took a single step forward, and she flinched, cowering further. The air was beginning to be filled with an ominous pressure, and he felt an unnatural weight settle on his shoulders.

Howling wind would have suited the situation, but as it was, there was only the silence of the night, both natural and that instilled by the girl hiding her most vulnerable self.

Magic, Harry realised. She's keeping me out. I thought...I didn't know it would be this bad.

"Be careful." Elly spoke up again, and Harry started in shock. "She's unstable. One wrong move and you might be blown backwards into the walls."

"I know, I know." Harry replied. "I just need to-"

-show her that there's nothing to be afraid of, right?

Every step closer the air felt heavier, and by the time he was right in front of her he had fallen to his hands and knees. But he still was able to reach out his hand and-

Stay away from me!

-graze her forehead with his fingers in a light pat, before the hard wrappings of his casted arm sank back down to the floor.

It had been like pushing through a thick layer of jelly.

"Sorry, Sally." Harry quietly chuckled to himself, low and self-mocking. "I probably shouldn't have hit you. But I'm human too, you know. That'll be the last time I see you as an enemy."

(Some cynical part of him had thought that it was unlikely that the broken girl would turn against him, not after her 'defeat' at his hands.)

"So stop this." He reached out, laid his hand with the unbroken arm on her own, and kept it there.

And kept it there. And kept it there.

"Why am I even trying, after everything you did to me? I don't know. But I don't care as well."

Slowly, the pressure began to subside somewhat until it reached a manageable level, at which Sally glanced through her crossed arms timidly. "You really don't care?'

"Idiot." Harry said. He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. "What's the point of the question? Do you expect me to just tell the truth like an idiot if I really wanted to hurt you?"

"I suppose you're right." Sally looked back down. "I don't deserve this, Harry. Your niceness."

"Then maybe you should be nice as well. Especially to me."

"Heh." Sally gave a dry chuckle, which turned into a cough. "Okay. But you're still a freak. And a scarhead."

"So are you. Freak." Harry retorted, and saw the girl shudder out of the corner of her eyes.

"Stop calling me that." Sally said. She was apparently returning to her usual self.

"I'll call you that until it no longer hurts you." Harry said casually. "Then you won't have to beat up everyone who says it at you until they stop saying it."

"Yeah, yeah." The girl waved a hand.

When Harry didn't reply for a while, Sally brought her hand down on his shoulder sharply.

"Ouch!"

"You better not fall asleep here," Sally said seriously. "Or the adults will seriously, seriously, punish you until you're dead. I've heard of what happens to older kids."

"Oh, fine. See you in the morning, I guess. Or tomorrow night. Whatever."

"Whatever."

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Next chapter: we see how quickly two wizard children take over an orphanage.

Review please!