1 CHP 1
Completely new to writing but I loved the idea of a JJK and a Harry Potter fic too much to not try.
I went for a slower pace because it seemed easier for me with my zero skill.
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'I was sitting down, when did I stand up?' I'm not in my room anymore. It looks like I'm standing in the passageway for a small house. There is a joint kitchen and living space in front of me. Confusion grips me. I am not in my house.
There's a family seated at the dining table. A fat man, a thin woman, and a fat boy, opposite a fancy man and presumably his fancy wife. I don't have the mental capacity to describe them better. I am not home. There's cake on the fancy man's head, its dripping down onto his tailored suit.
"What the hell is the meaning of this Dursley?" fancy man shouts, "You can forget all about that contract. Who do you think you are to humiliate me? I'll make sure to pay you back in full for this. Come Marcy, we're leaving this buffoon and his buffoon house." Saying so, he gets up and storms out of the house while fat man -Dursley- 'where do I know that name from?' tries his best to apologize and grovel and smooth things over, despite how angry doing so seems to make him. He's not very good at it though, he's barely holding on to his temper even while apologizing.
I'm still out of it and panicking but I've recovered enough to try and grasp things, details around me. My last memory is of filling out a CYOA. I am not home anymore. The gaunt, thin woman approaches me. Maybe she can help me? I go to speak, "Ma'am, could you please he-"
"Shut your mouth, freak." She cuts me off.
'Freak? Rude. But why does it sound so familiar?'
"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be in this mess."
She comes closer and it's with startling realization I discover I am now short. 'My height changed? No, I did a CYOA then *bam* spontaneous transportation. She's talking to me as if she knows me, but I have never met this woman in my life. I'm shorter now and I didn't realize it before but my voice was different too. Fuck, there's no way, right? This can't be happening.' My body chills.
Thin woman grabs my ears and starts pulling none too kindly. Less pain than I expected from the way my body is jerking around. Just a weird tingling. Could it be a dream? But it's too realistic, I can't usually think this well in a dream.
Dursley is back. The rictus of anger and pain on his face screams at me. I am in danger. I try to move back, to escape, but my ears are still being held tightly. I can almost anticipate what happens next because it's happened to me before.
'When? Why can't I remember clearly?'
Dursley lifts his hand, fists tightly clenched and the world slows down around me. I still can't move though, so it only makes the incoming blow more painful in its approach. I clench my teeth and look around for something, anything to save me. I spot the fat boy from before standing by the table and looking at me in malicious glee. I can't give that any more thought because his fist lands, square on my cheek. I see stars.
My vision blurred momentarily as my brain rattled within my skull, and a metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. My ears rang with a high-pitched whine, drowning out the sounds of the world around me. More blows rain down on my body like a hammer. I can't think straight.
"Vernon, stop. Please stop! You'll end up killing him." The woman pleads. I can barely make out what she's saying. The blows stop, his hands move up to my neck trying to strangle me. The looming possibility of death cuts through my haze. I struggle harder this time. It's futile though, because his grip is too strong. My body is too small and his hands too big and I slowly start to fade into unconsciousness.
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I snap back to wakefulness with a start. I'm lying on my back on the ground. Am I dead? No, still alive, maybe. Does stream of thought transfer across death? Irrelevant. I look around and notice I'm in a forested area. Its early morning, and the sun is just rising. I must have been out for a few hours based off what I saw at the Dursleys. The Dursleys—a sharp pain lances through my mind, the first real hint of pain I've had since this all began. I don't enjoy pain but it puts to rest my worries 'hopes' of this all being a very strong hallucination. My problems don't end there though, the pain brings with it, memories, feelings, sensations of my current life. My name is Harry Potter, but I am not Harry Potter. I feel like a cosmic joke. I am a Harry Potter self-insert. Whoever did this to me left a mental voice note giving me the barebones of my current situation.
'Heya, saw your CYOA build and thought it was interesting. I've not followed your build exactly when I did this to you, but its close enough for it not to matter. I've held back the strengths of the powers to help you slowly acclimatize so instead of starting with 50% power, you'll get to 50% in about 2 days and then the rest will depend on your drawbacks and training. I've altered how your powers work slightly and the world is different from the one you know. To make things interesting for me and you, ya'know.
I won't interfere any further in your life because I'm sure it'll be exciting regardless. Just some advice, things might not be the same as canon and the world you are living in is not a story. Don't treat people like unthinking characters and try to have fun. You'll get your memories back, the ones related to your identity later, but your metaknowledge soon, and be able to go back home too, provided you don't die, so just relax and enjoy man.'
I drew in a shaky breath. And another. My body shivers and not because of the cold morning chill. The sheer powerlessness over my situation, it feels horrible.
I'm sitting in a ditch formed between the roots of two giant trees. There's not much grass on the ground, perhaps due to the shadows the big trees cast? I can't see any animals near me, but it's not like I'm particularly good at spotting animals in forests or identifying the dangers of being here either. Regardless, I'm not in immediate danger. I sit up comfortably and think about what has happened. My first life's memories are hazy now, no specifics, like trying to remember in detail the contents of a book it's been years since you read. I had a family, a childhood, not the happiest but it got better. A sibling, friends, people I knew from school, college. I don't remember how old I was, but considering I don't remember working a job at all, maybe my 20's? I recognize Harry Potter, my current life from a book series and movies and many, many fanfictions. But they're blended together so I don't remember what was canon and what isn't. My current situation seems to prove that the Dursley's are probably gigantic child-murdering assholes. My body shudders and my breathing picks up pace.
I must be in shock or something. I'm going to avoid thinking about that for now. Positives, positives, I have magic now! Isn't that nice. I try to let a childish glee come upon me. I have Harry's, my memories showing me what little magic I learnt in First Year of Hogwarts. The sense of wonder and amazement he experienced does a lot to calm me down. I don't have my wand on me now though, I don't have much on me at all.
Dudley's oversized old clothes held together by hopes and prayers, my battered spectacles, which are, huh, a new thing to get used to. I'm worried about my things and my wand and, ... As if summoned by my thoughts, my snowy white owl glides down to me and waddles into my lap. Hedwig!
I had let her out to fly to curb her feeling caged in and growing antsy. Even though I only know her through second-hand memories, I know I'll come to adore this bird. Harry had come to greatly appreciate her for the comfort she provided in Hogwarts as well as outside. The Dursley's didn't always physically abuse me, but I was always confined. Only let out for chores. I wish I could've been as free as a bird.
I remember the cupboard under the stairs, before Harry was let into Dudley's spare room after Hogwarts let out students for Summer Break. Having someone to care for and who loved you for it helped a lot.
Hedwig seemed to be worried for me, her feathers ruffled and her gait agitated. She swivelled her head this way and that way trying to make sure I was fine. It looked adorable, but I felt guilty too for worrying her so. I whispered words and noises of comfort and stroked her feathers to calm her down, which seemed to work.
I continued to think, how did I end up in this predicament? Wasn't there supposed to be some mad house-elf trying to make my life difficult right about now? Second Year in Hogwarts was the one with the big snake, a basilisk, I think. My metaknowledge was both infuriatingly vague and annoyingly specific. There is no use in knowing that the wizard Ekrizdis created Dementors but not knowing what's going to happen in the future.
I do need to come to terms with what has happened with me though. I'm angry and frustrated at being toyed with what is essentially a god. But what exactly can I do? I'm powerless, kind of, still need to review what powers I've gotten. But essentially powerless against the god that gave me those powers. I can only be grateful for coming out of it mostly fine. Hedwig's soft hoot brings me back from my spiralling thoughts, seeming to sense where I was headed. What a thoughtful bird I have. I keep petting her, which she seems to enjoy, giving out small chuffs.
Anyhow, powers, perks, drawbacks what kind of tools do I have at my disposal? Can't drink alcohol or do drugs until I'm 18, which is fine. Allergic to dogs and cows, slightly worse. I like dogs and I don't want to live my life without ever petting them again. Can't explain my powers to others, which is fine because a good magician never reveals his secrets. Can't tell others about my metaknowledge and have them believe it, which will definitely put a spanner in the works for future plans but my metaknowledge is shoddy and unreliable so I'll have to make do.
I have Death Eaters out for me which is nothing new, I am Harry Potter. And a debuff that basically makes it so I can never have debates without pissing the other party off something fierce. And lastly, an acclimatization drawback that'll hold back full use of power for at least three years, less if I grind. Surprisingly kind loadout, could've been a lot worse for sure.
My powers basically make it so I'm a weird mix of Wizard and JJK sorcerer with magic eyes, while also being an anime martial arts grandmaster. I can sleep better, navigate better. I know Kung Fu and a lot of other martial arts and I have altered pain sensations, which explains what happened at… the house. I can still feel the weird buzz on my neck and itches and fizzy feelings on my body, face, back of my head and my back. Sheesh, Uncle Vernon did not spare the rod, huh. Definitely spoiled the childhood though.
That's a status check done. Now I need to get out of this forest. It's been exactly 1 hour 23 minutes since I woke up... odd. Guess I have an impeccable body clock too. I don't know where I am right now. I used to live in Surrey. Hogwarts is on the other side of the country. Can't call a Knight Bus, I think they were called, because I remember them needing wands to be summoned. And money, of which I currently have none of. Or a close by road, assuming magic buses need roads.
Don't have parents to call to pick me up, the reminder causing my heart to hurt. No phone either. Phones? It's currently August, 2011, which is jarring because I could've sworn that Harry Potter was set in the 1990's. Then again, I was told that things wouldn't be the same as canon. My unease at not having reliable metaknowledge keeps growing. Even if I had a phone, Hermione is the only person I could theoretically call for help, but I don't know her number. Something to rectify later on.
Do I just pick out a direction and walk and hope for the best? Don't have magic, don't even know how to start wandless magic, cursed energy is useless right now and hyperspecialized on exorcism. I don't have the skill or knowledge to use my innate technique or anything else. My six eyes should offer me long distance vision to make out roads or some other identifiable detail, but they don't seem to have booted in yet considering I still need my soda glass thick glasses to see anything in front of me.
Vernon definitely is not the kind of man to put in much physical effort for anything, even hiding a body, so I'm definitely close by civilization considering he would have had to drag me here. It doesn't make sense though, he should've been able to tell that I wasn't dead. Why didn't he finish the job? My breathing starts to pick up again. Hedwig flaps her wings to get my attention.
Wait, Hedwig is a mail owl. Don't those birds come with built in magical GPS? I knew it, Hedwig best girl.
"Hey Hedwig, could you help me find other people? I'm pretty lost right now and I would really appreciate being able to reach somewhere I can ask for help." Hedwig being the amazing bird she is, seemed ready to try her best.
She sets off and flies overhead, circling above me in an expanding spiral before coming back down and flying slightly ahead in a direction and perching on a tree. Getting the hint, I got up and slowly made my way towards her, the movement setting of the itching feeling in my body again.
And so, I made my way through the forest following Hedwig, my beautiful, angelic saviour towards civilization. It took upwards of five hours and I must've walked at least 15 kilometres interspersed with breaks for me and Hedwig but we were in sight of a city. The burn of hunger was familiar enough that I didn't mind it, I had gone longer without food as Harry than the two meals I've currently missed.
My powers did seem to come in over that period, my magic feeling like happy sprinkles under my skin but more spiritually under my skin than physically, if that makes sense. Cursed Energy seeming like a dark subdued lake that responded by surging and receding in waves with my emotions. The Principle of All Things felt more like a change in perspective but not forcing itself on me, I could still think like I usually did and see things like I usually did but my brain seems to have expanded almost. There was a hidden dance of motion between the wind and the trees, between gravity and movement and the Principle helped me decipher it.
I could predict how the leaves would flutter and fall, I could tell when the wind would pick up and how the rocks I threw would ricochet with utmost precision. It helped me move in odd ways as to not exacerbate my definitely broken ribs. Finally, my Six Eyes, the hax eyes of Gojo Satoru. Over the course of my long trek, my spectacles got increasingly redundant to the point where they seemed more a hindrance than a visual aid, at which point I removed them and stored them in my pocket.
They seemed to give clearer vision and faster thinking speed, I had to stop myself from pondering too much because of how fast and easy thinking became. Didn't do much else right now though, which I am grateful for, because if I remember right, Gojo had to keep himself blindfolded or refresh his brain with Reverse Cursed Energy to prevent his brain from melting from sheer information overload. Even at 50%, I'm not looking forward to that.
In my musings, I seem to have reached the city proper though. People keep looking at me weird, because I'm carrying an owl with me, I assume, but I'm hungry, exhausted, and I love Hedwig. I can't do all that and care about their opinions too. I realized I was in London from a Barbershop's sign, 'King's Saloon, est.1977, London's Finest.' I decided against going to the police station because I simply don't know what would happen to me. The fear that they would send me back to the Dursley's or Dumbledore would somehow find out and make me go back there, was too strong.
I asked around for the Leaky Cauldron and tried to play lost kid, but a stick-thin, shabby kid asking for a pub seemed concerning to most responsible adults and so I had to shake them off and start again, this time by asking for Charing Cross Road, which is the road the pub was on, netting me better results and a helpful guide in a retired old man who walked me the remaining half a kilometre or so.
"Thank you for this, sir. I don't know where I would be without you." I was truly grateful for his help. "Think nothing of it, laddie, glad I could help ya. Make sure ya don't get lost again ya'hear. I'll be leaving now, gotta get my steps in, you understand." He replied and turned around and left.
Which led to me standing here, in front of the Leaky Cauldron. In many ways the first introduction to Magic Harry had before, and now once again for me. How lucky am I, to be able to experience this once again for the first time? And so, with light steps and an exhausted body, I head inside.
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