Harry Potter and Merlin's Wand

-Chapter One-

Summer Solitude

There was a house in Surrey, more specifically number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging in which an extremely unhappy fifteen-year-old boy was living. He was a tall dark haired boy with a strange lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, resting just above green eyes filled with tears. The eyes were also red with the copious amounts of crying done since he had returned from school for the summer holidays.

Now most boys of his age looked forward to their summer holidays, not this boy though. The holidays meant he had to return home to his aunt and uncle's house and would be away from his closest friends for two months, before they all returned to school in September. However most boys his age did not have the troubled past that this boy had, nor did they attend the same special school that this boy attended, because this boy was a wizard and attended a wizarding school and his best friends were also a witch and a wizard.

The wizard in question was called Harry Potter.

The reason he was crying was he had just lost the closest thing to a parent he had ever had. His godfather Sirius Black had died a month ago, in the Ministry of Magic trying to save Harry and some of his school-friends from a group of Death Eaters. Death Eaters were the followers of the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort. Voldemort had tricked Harry into going to the Department Of Mysteries to save Sirius, who Voldemort had Harry believe was a prisoner there. Harry felt foolish in believing Voldemort's trap and with five friends had mounted a rescue attempt.

The real reason Voldemort had wanted Harry there was so Harry would retrieve a prophecy concerning the both of them, in order that Voldemort could hear the complete prophecy. The erstwhile rescuers where then trapped by a group of Death Eaters and had to be rescued by members of the Order of the Phoenix; a secret society dedicated to defeating Lord Voldemort.

During the ensuing battle, Sirius had been cursed by his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange and had fallen through a veil and not returned. Harry was grieving the loss. He had never known his parents who had been murdered by Lord Voldemort when Harry was just a year old. Sirius had given Harry new hope of a normal life for the past two years, ever since Sirius had broken out of Azkaban, the wizarding prison, Sirius had been fulfilling his duties as Harry's godfather. Even though he was a fugitive from the law, as everyone was believed he was guilty of the terrible crimes that he was alleged to have committed.

The crimes were actually carried out by a schoolmate of his, Peter Pettigrew, a loyal follower of Voldemort. Pettigrew was also responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents has he had been the secret keeper for the Potter's. After Dumbledore had helped them with the Fidelius Charm to hide them from Voldemort, but Pettigrew had betrayed Lily and James and Voldemort had killed them as they tried to protect Harry. Voldemort had tried to kill Harry believing he was fulfilling a prophecy Voldemort had been told about. Harry had learned of the prophecy only a month ago. The prophecy had foretold of Voldemort and the one who could vanquish him.

Dumbledore had told Harry after the trip to the Ministry of Magic, the prophecy concluded that neither could live while the other survives, meaning that he had to kill Voldemort or Voldemort kill Harry. All these thoughts kept running at full speed through Harry's head for the past month. Combined with the grieving for Sirius, Harry had been miserable for the past month.

The weather outside too not too much to alleviate his mood, for the whole time since his return to the Dursley's house it had rained. The weathermen on TV had described it as the wettest summer this century, a contrast to the last summer that had been ridiculously hot. Harry was stuck alone in his room with no one to talk to, he was forbidden to talk to Mrs. Figg, who he found out this time last year was a squib, so all his pent up anger, guilt and remorse had no where to go.

He certainly could not talk to his aunt and uncle about matters of the wizarding world because they had a very mediaeval view of magic. So with all the rage that a fifteen-year-old boy could muster he had shut himself off from the outside world.

Normally, it would have been the Dursley's themselves that locked Harry in his bedroom, however they were just as happy to see him do it to himself. The only times he saw his aunt, uncle and cousin were generally mealtimes. He scarcely let himself out his room at other times, partly in self-pity and partly in self-punishment. He believed he did not deserve to live with Sirius dead because of him. He had even started to ignore his friends.

Both Ron and Hermione had written to him several times since school had finished. Both were writing to tell him not to blame himself and that they would meet up soon during the holidays. Harry was ignoring them as he re-created the Dursley's attempts to keep him as downtrodden as possible and squash the magic out of him. He hoped that if he ignored Ron and Hermione that they would forget about him and he would not have to return to school in the autumn. Harry had just completed his OWL's (Ordinary Wizarding Level) and so was free to leave school if he wanted, but he was unsure whether he wanted to leave school. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been a dream come true to him, when he started there five years ago.

It felt like home to him, unlike living with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Pertunia. Yet whilst he was at the home he had to overcome the many challenges that life had thrown into his path.

In his first year he had stopped Voldemort from obtaining the Philosopher's Stone and delayed his return to life. In his second year, he had defeated an enchanted diary version of a sixteen-year-old Voldemort and rescued Ginny, Ron's younger sister, from him and killed the basilisk that resided in the Chamber of Secrets that existed deep below the school.

In his third year he had found Sirius, and had had the truth about his parents death revealed to him, he had helped discover Pettigrew and then overcome a hundred Dementors with a single Patronus that he had conjured. In his fourth year a faithful Death Eater, posing as a teacher, had set him up to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, which culminated in him aiding Voldemort's return to body and having fellow student Cedric Diggory murdered before his very eyes.

Finally, in his fifth year he had had to deal with a miserable Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, Voldemort's parleys in to his mind and lastly Voldemort's trick and Sirius' death, quite a lot for someone that was nearly sixteen to contend with. Of course, now he also knew that he must either kill or be killed by Lord Voldemort. Which left him with not a happy thought in his mind.

Harry Potter was depressed.

Harry had taken to watching television during his latest stay in Privet Drive. He had managed to persuade Uncle Vernon to let him have Dudley's old television when he received a new one. He had argued that it would keep him in his room and away from the Dursley's for the summer, Uncle Vernon had agreed though this was after some very girly tantrums from Dudley.

Harry was puzzled by the tantrums, as this did not fit in with the profile of a sixteen-year-old regional boxing champion. Dudley aside Harry had started to enjoy watching television, it gave him an escape from the real world in to the world of Muggle fiction. Apart from the news which Harry watched hoping that nothing was mentioned of Lord Voldemort and his activities, Harry had started to enjoy soaps and science fiction shows.

He loved the soaps as they gave an example of a generally idyllic view of Muggle life. It was something that Harry was secretly wishing he had, so he would be far away from his problems. He loved the science fiction because of the imagination involved; he especially loved fantasies involving witches and wizards, as these were generally a long way from the truth and how he wished that his life could be like.

Harry spent most of his days watching television, non-stop as a distraction away from the real world. However he also noticed that as he was doing nothing but sit in bed all day, he was starting to develop a potbelly. So in response to this Harry had started to copy exercises off the telly. He was now doing a workout of press-ups, sit-ups, star jumps, squat thrusts and cat-licks in the morning and the potbelly had soon disappeared. Harry had continued his work out hoping to avoid the belly returning and had soon noticed that he had started to develop muscles he did not know existed.

Letters from Ron, Hermione and now even Hagrid, the groundskeeper and Harry's favourite teacher at school kept arriving by Owl Post every so often but Harry had just stopped reading them, he had lost all care for the wizarding world at the moment. He even cancelled his subscription to the Daily Prophet, so he was unaware of anything from the magical world, it was also partly due to the fact that the Prophet had lead a campaign to ridicule him the previous year.

Harry felt lonely and isolated much like he had felt before he knew he was a wizard. Though with the knowledge that his godfather was a mass murderer, (the Dursley's did not know that Sirius was dead), and the threat of a group of wizards and witches from the Order of the Phoenix turning up at Privet Drive had lead Harry's aunt and uncle into treating him better. They also knew there was no chance of squashing the magic out of him now. Harry though still felt as unwelcome as a werewolf at a dinner party, however he had got to the point where he could not keep himself locked up in Privet Drive any longer.

So on the next Saturday afternoon Harry had got up and left the house and headed down to the local park. The park was a luscious area of green with a pond, benches and trees. Harry wandered over towards the pond. He sat down on a bench and stared out over the pond. The sun was shining today, it had stopped raining the other day and the warmth of summer was finally starting to show through. Harry sat there on the bench staring aimlessly at the duck swimming around the pond, chasing the bread that was thrown to them by the numerous little children who had been dragged out by their mothers for fresh air.

This made Harry stop and think, what is Muggle life really like? He remembered vaguely him being dragged to the park when he was younger with Dudley by his Aunt. Dudley had never seemed to want to go but had always enjoyed the experience, mainly as he bullied Harry whilst playing in the play area. Harry got up and started to head towards the swings. This is how Muggles get their enjoyment, no magic; maybe if I left school this would not be so bad. Harry sat on the swings and lazily started rocking back and forth on it.

He looked over towards a group of lads a similar age to him kicking a round ball around a stretch of grass with two jumpers at either end. Harry stared at them, the scene seeming that Harry knew what he was doing. Then he remembered the pictures that Dean had on his wall in the Gryffindor Dormitory. This was football.

He got up off the swings and started heading over towards the game. He sat down on a bench next to the pitch and watched in awe of how similar the game was to Quidditch. There were differences and Harry also had no comprehension of the rules of football. The differences he noted was that there were only one goal at each end; players used their feet not hands, except when in front of the goal.

It also seemed that you were not allowed to rough up your opponents. It also seemed that one team got more players than the other, though why this was Harry could not work out. That was until he was approached by one of the players, a tall thin dark haired boy, who looked a little older than Harry was.

"Excuse me," said the footballer, "would you like to join in. We are one short and wanted to know if you would like to even up the teams."

"I have never played football; I do not know how to play," replied Harry honestly.

"You've never played football?" said the youth looking slightly confused.

"Well we play a slightly different game at school. I do not think I would be much use to you."

"Nonsense, Dom over there cannot play that well, but he comes and gives it a go and has fun. Come join us."

"O... okay." Harry said tentatively. So he got up off the bench and followed the boy back on to the pitch.

"Right, you will be on my side with Adam, Tom, Callem and my self. I'm called Chris."

"Pleased to meet you Chris. I am Harry, Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you Harry, Harry Potter. Do you mind if we just call you Harry?"

"No not at all that's what my friends at school call me."

"Which school do you go to?" asked Chris.

"Oh, it's a special school, I do not want to talk about it. I am trying to forget about school."

"Don't we all over the summer." Chris replied curtly, "Right. Why don't we get going again."

So Chris dropped the ball to the floor and trapped it under his left foot and passed the ball to Harry along the floor with his right. Harry let the ball hit him, before he nervously poked the ball towards a blonde haired lad, Tom, having seen Harry's poor attempt at the pass, Chris came over and said, "Don't be scared of the ball. Use the inside of the foot to pass it," he said indicating where he meant. The ball came back to Chris from Tom, who had been rapidly closed down by another player. Chris showed Harry how it was down. Harry then started taking to football like a duck does to water.

He started to enjoy playing football and had pushed all thoughts of magic out of his head. The match went on for just over another hour, before Harry's team finally won 20 goals to 16. Harry himself had scored a couple. As the game finished and the players started to pick up the jumpers used for goalposts.

Chris came over to Harry and said, "Are you doing anything tonight?"

"No, I normally just watch television in my room."

"How boring, look come over to my house. I live at Number 10 Wisteria Walk. Me and the lads are having a bit of a gathering. You might enjoy it!"

"Ok," replied Harry unsure what a gathering meant and he also felt good, being invited but nervous as he knew nothing about Muggles that might help him this evening. Do not think of them as Muggles, he told himself. They are just people, nice people who have invited you around for a gathering this evening.

So later that evening Harry headed over to Wisteria Walk and knocked on the door of number ten. When the door opened Harry got a shock.

He had been expecting to see Chris or one of the lads from the park, but what he actually saw. She was fairly tall and had long blonde hair, she was wearing a short blue skirt showing lots of her long legs and a tight Lycra top which emphasised her ample breasts. Harry was speechless. He just stared for a moment before she broke the deadlock, "Hi, can I help you?"

"I am looking for Chris," Harry managed to stutter out, "does--does he live here?"

Right on cue Chris appeared behind the girl and wrapped his arms around hey waist from behind, "Hi Harry!" he said brightly, "welcome to my house. I see you have met Kiri, my girlfriend. Come on in get a drink and join in."

Harry just nodded, and Kiri giggled, Harry thought, so Muggle girls giggle as well. Maybe I won't have too many problems tonight after all.

Chris showed Harry into the kitchen that had an assortment of refreshments on the sideboards.

"Grab a beer, and join us in the front room." Chris said before Kiri dragged him to the lounge. Harry looked at all the drink. He started looking around for Butterbeer, but he could not find any, so he helped himself to a Budweiser, he opened the bottle, and wandered into the lounge. All the lads from earlier plus a few girls were sat around the room, on sofas and in armchairs watching a big wide screen television.

"Come on Harry pull up a pew," Chris shouted, "the film is about to start."

So Harry sat down on a sofa next to Tom, who had a girl sat next to him, she had her leg draped over his. Harry took a sip of the beer and immediately gave out a loud cough.

"First time you have had beer eh?" said Tom, "don't worry you'll get use to the taste of alcohol especially if you keep hanging around us!" He added with a huge grin on his face, he turned and gave his girlfriend a quick kiss, "just sit back, and enjoy the beer and the film."

The film was a teen comedy containing mainly jokes about sex and relationships, Harry enjoyed it and decided that the main character Jim was the funniest. Stifler seemed a jerk to Harry but the other guys seem to like him. Harry had a couple more beers, before they sat down to watch Match of the Day, which showed the highlights of the day's top-flight football. The girls seemed to enjoy this as much as the guys, which puzzled Harry as it seemed that the players were only men.

The evening came to a close after the football ended. As Harry bade farewell to Chris and Kiri, Chris said, "Come out and join us on the park tomorrow at 2."

"Ok, see you there," replied Harry as he trudged off home, feeling slightly light-headed.

* * * *

The next week was spent playing football and spending evening out with the guys. Harry really took to football and loved every minute they were playing. He also thought he had got quite good, well certainly better than when he first started. Harry had enjoyed this week of the holidays and had not thought about the magical world once; this was helped by the fact that his scar, a souvenir from Voldemort's first attempt on his life, had not hurt once for about 10 days now.

As Friday neared Chris had told him in the park that there was a party at his house on Friday and that Harry was invited. Harry accepted the invitation and spent the next couple of days excitedly waiting for Friday night. When Friday arrived Harry put on the smartest T-shirt and jeans that he had and headed over to Chris' for the party.

He could of found the house with his eyes shut as as soon as he turned into Wisteria Walk he heard the music thumping out of number 10. Harry hurried towards the house and knocked on the door, Chris opened it this time, "Welcome Harry, drinks are in the kitchen and people are every where, so have a good time."

"Thanks," Harry managed to say in reply.

So Harry headed into the kitchen and grabbed himself to a Bud and went into the front room, where there was a host of people. Some he knew, like Tom and his girlfriend, others he did not know. He went and joined Tom and his girl who were chatting animatedly to another couple. The conversation was about plans for the next few weeks of the holidays. It seems that they were planning some sort of road trip to the south coast and were trying to decide where to go. Tom and Claire, Tom's girlfriend, wanted to go to Brighton, but Adam and Sophie, the other couple wanted to go to Bournemouth.

Harry listened for a few minutes before using the excuse that he needed another drink to leave the argument that did not seem to be any closer to being resolved. Harry milled around chatting to a few people, drinking more drinks and noticing that certain couple kept heading upstairs and coming down some time later looking very happy. Dom had also introduced Harry to vodka, so Harry was feeling very merry indeed and felt sick. So at about 11 'o' clock, Harry stumbled out of the front door, and threw up on the pavement.

Harry took this as a sign to head home, so he walked very wobbly back home though it seemed to take him twice as long as it should and once home ignored Uncle Vernon shouting at him and he crawled in to bed still in his party clothes.

Harry awoke the next morning with his head hurting; at first he thought that it was his scar, except this time his whole head hurt. He also felt very sick though. Harry heard Aunt Pertunia scream again, it was the first one that had woke him, and a crash of china. All the loud noises grated in his brain. So Harry tried to put his head down and get back to sleep.

He was trying so hard to get back to sleep that he did not notice his bedroom door swing open and a tall thin man walk in. The man walked over to the side of Harry's bed and prodded him with his wand.

When Harry looked up and saw the man's face, he nearly screamed.