Despite sitting in a class with peers that were several years older than him, Harry found the subject utterly boring and uninteresting. So instead of focusing on the class, he sat on a back seat and played with Telekinesis under the table.
At first the teachers had reprimanded him for not focusing on the class and only left him alone when he gave the correct answer to every question that they asked. After some time, they stopped bothering him and as more time passed, they simply started to ignore him.
At first he had thought that they simply thought him to be rude and not worth their time but when even his fellow students started to ignore his presence as if he was not even there, he knew that this was not normal. That there was something magical at work.
After some experiments, he found that his 'will' to be left alone and to be ignored by irritating teachers and childish teenagers had merged with his magic and taken form in creating a shroud of magical aura around himself that hid his presence from the others.
No, he was not invisible by any means but the shroud of magical aura made him seems so utterly boring in the eyes of others that no one even looked his way anymore.
Of course, the shroud had it's limits and could be broken if someone was trying to find him or if he did something that attracted attention from others. But otherwise, it was mostly impenetrable and a great boon for him.
Once he realized that he was left alone, he started to use more of his magic in the school with reckless abandon and tried to find new ways to use his magic.
The fact that he was ignored by most of his classmates still made him feel lonely but with some practice, he was able to remove the shroud from himself and talk with some of the studious girls and boys in his class who were more mature than their counterparts.
And during one such moment, when he was conversing with one of the studious girls in the class, he brought the attention of one of bullies to himself who had a childish crush on the girl he was talking to.
Such a pity.
—————
Harry was not surprised when he was suddenly pulled away with rough hands and then pushed in an empty storehouse meant for keeping broken chairs and tables.
He was even less surprised when he found that the perpetrator of this event was the bully with the crush who had cornered him here in order to threaten him to stay away from 'his' girl.
But the bully was indeed surprised if not shocked when the 7 year old boy, who was half his age and size knocked him to the floor with a single wave of his hands.
And he was downright terrified when found that he could not open his mouth in order to shout and speak and he almost pissed his pants when all the doors and windows of the storehouse were sealed shut with a single gesture from the little boy whom he had wanted to teach a lesson just a little while ago.
Another gesture from the boy and the ropes kept at the corner of the room seemed to come alive and wrapped around him tightly, making sure that he would not move, or try to run away from the storehouse.
Or struggle.
"It's surprising for you, I assume." Harry said as he took out a piece of cloth and filled the older boy's mouth with it in order to make sure that he would not shout or scream for help.
"If someone had showed me telekinesis in my past life then I would have been surprised as well." Harry said nonchalantly and reveled in the terror he could see in the eyes of the 13 year old teenager who looked very much his age right now.
"But it's not just telekinesis. No. There so much more to magic than simply moving things from one place to another."
"There's transfiguration, charms, runes, divination, potions, spells and so much more. Pity I can't learn most of them right now." Harry said as moved around in the room before he stopped and looked at the boy bound by the ropes "Do you know what I 'can' learn right now?"
The boy shook in fear and Harry grinned at that as he went closer to his face and whispered "The mind arts."
And before the boy could even understand his words, Harry said "Legilimens" and entered his mind.
—————
After half an hour of intense practice, Harry had learned the basics of Legilimency and Obliviation spell. Unfortunately, by the time he became remotely competent with the Obliviation spell, the older boy had already suffered a little bit of brain damage and would likely never be as smart as he once was.
Well, at least Harry had learned his lesson that Obliviation spell should be used subtly and in very delicate manner with as little magic power as possible. Otherwise the subject might suffer… consequences.
The first attempt had gone off the rails the moment he pushed all his magical power with the intent on wiping out the memories he'd read with Legilimency.
From that point onward, he had simply stopped caring about the boy's mind condition and did as he wanted in his mind.
But he would do better the next time, he was sure of it.
If a bumbling fool like Gildroy Lockhart could become a master in using this spell, then surely someone like him could definitely become good in it as well.
But for now, he needed to do something to cover up his mistake.
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After all, normal children didn't lose their IQ by 20 points in a single day.
So after shrouding both of them with his magical aura, he dragged the boy to the top of the school. Which was a hard task in and of itself even after using telekinesis.
'But it was necessary.' He told himself.
He did not want any unnatural events occurring around him as such things draw suspicions from unwanted people.
A perfectly fine teenage boy turning into a fool during lunch break was suspicious.
A perfectly fine teenage boy falling from a set of stairs, hitting his head on the way down and then turning into a fool was not.
So with that in mind, Harry pushed the boy off the stairs and made sure that he landed on his head when he reached the bottom of the stairs so that he would at least have a head wound to show for it..
The boy fell to the ground with a 'thud' and the unnatural angle of his hand and the bit of blood covering his head scared the dozen of girls who were sitting nearby and simply enjoying their meal. That one event would probably give them nightmares for the rest of the week.
The boy's parents were called to the school and his mother almost lost her footing once she saw the wounds on her child. People from the hospital came and took the boy to the hospital for operation.
The police came and asked some questions in order to know if the boy really fell off the stairs or if someone knowingly pushed him down but found nothing concrete.
Harry watched all of his with apathetic eyes that would have seem strangely suspicious to anyone who observed him but alas, the heavy injury of a fellow classmate was more attention worthy than the reclusive 'wonder boy' who never really talked with others.
Nothing particularly changed in the school despite the injuries suffered by the boy and the rest of the classes continued on like nothing ever happened.
And he realized that as long he was not caught by the ministry, he could get away with a lot of things and he found the thought strangely enthralling.
And things changed drastically from that point.
—————
At the next summer break, Harry decided that instead of remaining inside his house and practicing magic on his own, it was time to… expand.
Harry found that if he focused extensively on it, then he could make the shroud covering his body much more thicker and effective.
He also found that with such a thick shroud, he could effectively go inside a shop, take whatever he wanted and leave without any customer or shopkeeper taking note of him.
He was pretty sure that if he could somehow make the shroud even thicker, then he would be well equipped to rob a bank without anyone knowing about it.
But he knew that even though humans might miss his presence, the CCTV cameras would not.
So instead of robbing a bank, he settled himself with picking pockets for now.
He also came to realize that his shroud that acts as a lesser version of notice-me-not-charm and the power of telekinesis made his job of stealing things much more easier than it would have been for any normal pickpocket.
By the end of the summer, Harry had enough money to live on his own for years without any problems. He also realized that he learned more about magic when he was using it for something practical.
So for all intents and purposes, he had no need to go back to school anymore. Neither was he interested in going back to Privet Drive and living with his 'family'. But Harry knew that Dumbledore had setup some kind of Blood Wards at Privete Drive that might be disrupted if he leaves the house for a long amount of time so he made sure to return back there every month or so.
—————
Harry looked at the galleons in hand with a smile before putting it back in his purse. It took him some time to find the entrance to Diagon Alley since he did not know the exact location of Leaky Cauldron but given enough time, he was able to find it with ease.
And the first place he went to after coming to the magical world was the Gringotts bank.
He did not touch his own vault as that might alert Dumbledore who was his magical guardian but exchanged the money he'd collected (stolen) over the past few months that he kept in a bottomless purse.
Now he had more than enough galleon to buy the things that he needed for his plans.
A trip to the various books shops in order to buy books related to wandless magic, magical theory, etc. There were not many books related to such subjects. In fact, there were very, very few books even remotely related to those subjects and he was not sure about the quality of those books either but beggars can't be choosers.
Then he bought books that taught him the basic household charms among other things that he might be able to learn at his level.
After that, he went to the potions shop where he was finally able to buy something that he desperately needed. Aging Potion.
Unfortunately the old bastard only sold him five bottles but once again, beggars can't be choosers.
With one last look at Olivander's shop, he turned and left Diagon Alley. He knew that Olivander would not sell him a wand right now so there was not point in even asking about it.
—————
Harry looked at the slightly confused man with vacant eyes in front of himself with a satisfied smile.
It took him six months and countless people to finally learn how to use the Obliviation spell properly.
He was still no master at it but with enough focus, he was now capable of removing the memories of the last few hours from the brain of any muggle.
He had learned his lesson from the debacle in the school and made sure not to damage their brains when performing the spell on them.
Still, rumors about people simply 'forgetting' about important things in their life were starting to circulate in the streets. Thankfully, he had already mastered that spell and this was the last person he needed to experiment on.
Harry went back into the shadows and watched quietly as his victim's eyes finally gained some life after a few minutes after which he looked around with a confused gaze and upon not finding what he was searching, he simply got up, shrugged to himself and left.
Well, with the Obliviation spell in his belt, things would be far more easier for him now.
—————
Harry looked at his new flat with some pride. It was not technically 'his' as he had not really bought it but since the real estate broker who was tasked with selling this flat had conveniently forgotten that this flat even exists and he had removed it's evidence from her house, he doubt anyone else would buy it anytime soon, if ever. So Harry could essentially live in it with no problem.
He entered the door and upon noticing the dust covering every inch of his new home, concentrated on the dust and pictured all the dust vanishing in his mind before using all his will, intent and magic to make it happen and snapped his fingers.
He smiled at the now clean room before he remembered that he would have to go to each and every room and repeat the same process and groaned at that thought. But there was also a grim satisfaction in his heart. A few months ago the only magic he knew was the basic telekinesis but now he could do so much more.
He wondered how powerful and efficient his spells would become once he got a wand.
Unlike other wizards, he had no interest in being overly reliant on a wand and he planned to learn all of his spells and charms wandlessly before he moved on to the wand but he knew that his magic would become more efficient with a wand so he was still excited at the prospect of having one in the future.
However, he also knew that once he got his wand and went to Hogwarts, he would come under the radar of the Ministry and be registered as an underage wizard whose actions would then be monitored via the trace.
And truthfully, he was not very happy with the prospect of going to Hogwarts either as he did not had a good impression of the sheep living in that castle who would worship Harry Potter at one moment and then shun him at the other. Nor was he very comfortable with being famous. But without the resources in Hogwarts, it would be harder for him to become the great wizard that he planned to become. Plus there so many things in Hogwarts that he'd always wanted to see and do. So despite his dislike for the people living in there, he would still go to that school.