He woke up with a jolt and felt the pain course through his body. Something was wrong. He instantly knew it. He squinted his eyes through the pain searing through his back and his right hand and found himself in an unknown place. In a small room he had never seen before.
Where was he?
As his thoughts registered the fact that he was in a strange place, he realized that the room was not only small but way too small. And so was his bed. He looked at his hands and almost yelled in shock.
His hands were small. Not only his hands, but his legs, his arms, his everything was small. And he came to the stoic realization that he was not his own body but in the body of someone else.
A body that was badly wounded at that. But before he could even go into shock, he felt a burning sensation rise at the back of his head and soon his whole head was burning as new memories were planted in his brain and he clutched in head in pain and fell back on his pillow.
After a few minutes of going through excruciating pain, he finally finished seeing all the memories of the boy whose body he was currently occupying. The boy whose name was Harry Potter. As in 'The Harry Potter' from the books written by J.K Rowling.
Not just some bloke named Harry Potter but the real, genuine one.
As he registered this information, he brain went into an overdrive as went through many emotions at once before shutting down altogether and he lost consciousness.
—————
When he woke up the next time, he felt strangely calm and the first thing he did was look for a mirror. The memories told him that he had no mirror in his small room (read cupboard) under the stairs but that there was a plate under his bed in which he could see his reflection.
He took out the plate and his heart almost skipped a beat when he saw a younger version of Harry Potter looking back at him and he had to pinch himself to make sure that this was all real and not just a figment of his imagination or some kind of dream.
It took him some more time to calm down and make peace with the situation. And soon after the initial shock wore off, he felt enthusiastic. He was a wizard. Fuck yes! He could do so many things now that he was never able to do in his past life.
Wait! Past life?
He concentrated and tried his best to remember his past life's identity but it was all in vain. He had the memories from his past life and his personality as well but his identity was lost to him.
What was his name? Why couldn't he remember it?
Did he had a family in his last life?
Try as he might, no answer came to his mind.
He just knew that he was a person living in a modern world and the year was 2019 when he was suddenly dropped in this fictional world in the year… 1987. According to the original Harry's memories
Well, that made his sad and happy at the same time. Sad because his original identity was lost to him. Happy because now he won't have any burdens from his past life. Thank god.
Now where was he? Oh yes. Wizard. That's great. He could do so many things as a wizard that the characters in J.K Rowling's book never did or thought to do. If he could ignore the bipolar magical community that loved him one moment and hated him the other and the Dark Wizard that would inevitably try to kill him in the near future, then his life was going to be awesome.
But then he realized that he was only seven years old and that he would have to wait four more years before he could start learning magic.
Fuck that. He would start on his own and learn wandless magic until he was ready to go to Hogwarts. But before that…
He winced at the pain coursing through his arm. The handiwork of one Vernon Dursley who had hit him because he had better grades than Dudley.
That fucking fat bastard would pay for what he did to the past recipient of this body.
So in the dark room under the stairs, the new and changed Harry Potter schemed to bring the demise of his muggle relatives.
—————
Abused children develop a fear and scepticism toward higher authorities. So much in fact that they never tell anyone that they have been abused.
That was probably the reason why Harry Potter and so many abused children never receive any help.
The new Harry Potter was anything but an abused child. He was in fact a proactive mature adult who knew how to get what he wanted in his life.
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So the next day, he went to one of his teacher who seemed the most sympathetic among the staff and told her everything. The fact that he had created even more injuries on his body before going to her was never noticed by his teacher or the headmaster or the cops.
That evening, Child Protection Authorities arrived in his home along with the cops and arrested Vernon Dursley for violence, abuse and neglect of his seven year old nephew and after a long trial. He was thrown in Prison for 15 years.
Petunia Dursley was let off with a warning that if she didn't want to follow in her husband's footsteps then she would treat her nephew like how she treats her son. She nodded in fear and watched with tears as the cops took her husband away.
She was devastated but she had to take care of her little Duddikens who was bawling his eyes out in his room. And she also have to take care of her sister's spawn who was the reason behind her husband's imprisonment.
But as much as she wanted to shout at her nephew, slap his face and wrung his ears, she couldn't do anything for the fear of following after her husband's footsteps. If she was gone as well then who will take care of her baby boy.
So she gritted her teeth and quietly went to her her Duddikens in order to clam him down.
—————
Harry punched Dudley in the stomach and dropped him on the ground along with his two cronies, put a foot on his throat and reveled at the fear he could see in the fat boy's eyes.
Chubby little Duddikens had thought that he and his friends could bully him and take revenge for his father.
By the time they realized that the new and changed Harry Potter knew martial arts, it was already too late. And this new Harry was neither interested nor willing to play 'Harry Hunting' with them.
After putting the boy to the ground, it became relatively easy to threaten him and after that day, they never bullied him again.
—————
Learning magic was a slow going for the new Harry. After a month of practice, the best he could manage was push and pull small objects like pencil and eraser.
He had no idea what the reason for his abysmally slow progress was. Maybe his magical core was small and immature. Maybe his intent was just not that strong. Or maybe wizards were never very powerful without their wands.
Whatever the reason might have been, Harry refused to accept them and continued to focus on his wandless magic. If he could achieve simple telekinesis within a month then surely he would be able to do more if given enough time.
And he certainly had more time given how he was just 7 years old and had 4 more years before he could join Hogwarts.
So he took out a water bottle, kept it in his bed and willed it to come.
—————
Three months into this new life and Dudley was now a shell of his former self, forever cowed by his younger cousin who beat him into submission over the past few months.
Petunia had tried to protect Dudley and showed dominance over her little nephew but he was not the same person who had been sleeping under the stairs some three months ago.
She may not be able to prove it but she knew it deep in her heart that the boy may look the same but there was someone else occupying his body now.
A monster who put her husband in prison and someone who Dudley feared greatly. She would not admit it but even she was quite afraid of the new Harry.
She did not want to leave her Dudley alone with the freak in case she was sent to the prison like her husband so she never physically abused him like she used to in the past but the verbal abuse continued. Within limit of course. She may feel contempt for the boy but she didn't want him to lash out at her either.
That verbal abuse came to an abrupt end when one day her nephew brought back a poisonous snake from somewhere and started walking around in the house with it wrapped around his shoulders at every single moment.
But it was not the snake that frightened her the most. Oh it did frightened her and filled her with worry but what frightened her even more was the fact that her nephew or whoever was possessing his body could talk with the snake.
She had no idea how such a thing was possible but the freak was able to speak with the snake. And the language, the hisses, they filled her and Dudley with great dread. So much so that when her nephew warned her not to harm the snake in his absence, she simply nodded and meant it.
—————
7 year olds, Harry realized, were a nuisance. That was why when the next semester started, he asked to be advanced another class.
Considering how he got full marks in all of the subjects last year, his teachers were inclined to agree and without any preparations, he passed the exam and was promoted to the next class.
Where he found that 8 years old were not much better than 7 years old after all. So he asked to be advanced once again.
His teachers were reluctant this time but a five minute talk with the boy convinced them that he was even smarter than they had initially assumed.
He gave the exam and was advanced to another class.
Where he found himself in the company of 9 year old kids and realized that no, he was not going to connect with them either.
By now, he was starting to get a reputation as the 'genius child' in the school. Someone who didn't show his knowledge because he was being suppressed by his devilish uncle.
When he asked to be advanced once again, his teachers didn't raise many questions and soon he was among the company of 10 year old children.
He was not very impressed with them either.
So he jumped classes upon classes until he sat with 13 year old kids and realized that if he went up any more classes, then he might raise one hell of a shit storm.
There were already pictures of him being circulated in the newspapers as the 'wonder kid'. The names these foolish people come up with.
He found that 13 year old kids were a bit tolerable but he was never really able to connect with them because of the age difference. They thought he was too young. He thought they were too young. So both party treated each other like a child and both party were enraged at the other's behaviour. So after a few interactions, he stopped trying at all.
—————
Over the months, Harry became more proficient with his wandless magic to the point that he was easily able to push and pull a bag filled with books.
He was strangely reminded of the character Pain from Naruto series and wondered if he would become as strong as that character when he grew up and when his magical core matures.
Most likely not, but a boy could always hope.
His telekinesis had grown to the level where he could now make a stack of card fly in the air according to his wish. Something that he usually did to impress the beautiful girls from his class.
Yet he was not satisfied with only this much improvement. Now that he had a taste of magic, he wanted more. Not just simple telekinesis but the more complex tricks that could be done with magic.
And once he started thinking in that direction, he realized that he had been performing one such complex magic for some time now.