1 Were my sorrows so insignificant?

Life was a beautiful journey for many, but mine was a nightmare. I was Alex Smith, an orphan. I was intelligent, but this brilliance soon became a curse. At the age of 10, I was diagnosed with brain cancer, and my world shrank to a small hospital bed.

A wealthy couple sponsored my treatment through a charity. They looked at me with pity, which I despised. My life was a daily battle, and at night, I often contemplated giving up.

My solace was stories. Tales of heroes and villains. I spent hours immersed in books and movies, which provided an escape. When I turned 18, I stopped hoping for a second chance.

For a long time, I was in a state of lucid dreams, watching my life and promising myself that if I lived again, I would never give up. I found a light and followed it, leading me to something akin to my soul entering a body.

I spent hours observing the memories of a young boy. He was stronger than me. I watched his dreams, his fears, and his will. His life was a nightmare compared to mine. I saw him question his existence, beg for his parents or anyone to save him, and his last memories as he starved to death.

I saw his broken soul and decided to merge with him. As I did, I felt his essence leave. I didn't know how, but I knew he was embarking on his next adventure. His body became mine, his dream too. What was left of his soul merged with me, and soon I lost consciousness, but not before promising the child to fulfil his dream and live life in his name.

From that day, I became Harry James Potter, a child in a cupboard under a staircase.

Soon there was banging on the door. As I opened my eyes, I felt pain in my body, and my head hurt. What I saw filled my eyes with rage. Vernon Dursley was standing in front of me. At that moment, I felt a strange power and used it with all my rage, flinging the fat pig into the living room.

I left my weak body howling with pain, pushing this feeling to the back of my mind. I ran from the house as Petunia shrieked. I ran until my body collapsed in front of a police car.

The next moment I opened my eyes, I found myself in a familiar hospital setting where I had spent years in my previous life.

Soon a tall lady with blond hair introduced herself as Ms. Isla Allen from Child Services and gently asked me about my home. I told her everything the Dursleys had ever done to Harry, and her face turned pale. She moved forward and hugged me as I started to cry while telling her.

Within a few hours, the police took the Dursleys into custody and found evidence of a small child living inside a cupboard.

Many would wonder why Harry never did this before. He was an abused child who never knew that what his relatives did was inhumane. Harry used to think that he was the reason and due to his accidental magic, he felt like a devil's spawn.

Both adult Dursleys were charged with abuse and were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Meanwhile, Dudley was given to Aunt Marge, who had never abused the 8-year-old Harry.

I was moved to an orphanage on the outskirts of London known as St. Mary Orphanage. Soon I was given various medicines and diet plans to reverse years of malnourishment, which might have caused major problems if it had continued for a few more years.

As I was taking a bath, I looked in the mirror and saw a smooth forehead. At that moment, I knew that I was not the boy who lived.

I sat on my bed as the matron gave me my medicine and food. I was trying to sleep when I felt my magic coursing through my body. It was very easy for me to feel it because I never had it before.

It felt foreign to me, but at the same time, I knew it was a part of me. It was like a blind man suddenly gaining sight or like an arm that I had never used before.

I spent days trying to push or pull my magic but to no avail. I was very frustrated, and suddenly the book started levitating.

I knew then that I had learned one of the major lessons: magic works on my deep intentions, not just my desires but needs. It requires a combination of will and emotion. My magic is an engine, while I will drive it, but emotions are like a spark plug that turns the engine on until I learn sufficient control over my magic, I can use emotions to skip it.

I also learned why children were not given wands before the age of 11 as the magic is too wild and too chaotic to even use. Every 9 out of 10 times, I never got my desired effect, but my magical core was expanding very fast as I spent my energy to discharge it many times a day, and each time it increased a little. What Tom Riddle used to do was use hate to cause damage, as it did to Vernon.

Soon days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and my 9th birthday came. Now I was quite pleased with my progress as my magic grew almost 10 times. I knew then that magic grows most in the age of 7 to 11 and soon it steadies out its growth curve. My magic was quite strong even before training as it was the thing that my subconscious mind used to keep me alive.

The difference between normal wizards and wizards like Dumbledore and Voldemort was the time they practised magic before Hogwarts, which made them into magical prodigies. There were many examples like my mother or Snape.

I was a different case. My soul was twice as strong as theirs, and I practised it a lot more until I dropped to exhaustion. Soon I was told that my malnourishment had been removed, and I started school.

I was doing well in school and never showed myself as a genius. If I did, it would be harder to show that fool the Hogwarts teachers.

I made some friends and played with them. It was very fulfilling for me as neither I nor Harry had any friends, but I kept some distance as it would be hard to meet them when I joined Hogwarts.

Now I can do levitation and some spells like Lumos and Accio, which was good, but it was not more than tricks as I felt most of my magic was wasted, and it took almost a minute. Now I knew why wands were required, but I would keep on practising my magic this way as it would improve my control and magical capacity.

Soon the years passed, and my training kept on increasing. Within the next year, I was able to control multiple books and was able to use spells without any delay. Also, during meditation, I found that a magical shield was forming over my brain with my magic, and I knew it was an Occlumency shield, so I spent hours each day to improve it.

As winter approached, I was getting excited as within a few months, I would fulfil my childhood dream of going to Hogwarts. My day was good until I saw the newspaper. It was written - "The World War Hero and CEO of Stark Industries Howard Stark Released new weapons for the USA and Its allies."

I knew at that moment this was not as magical as I thought it was.