The Awakening of a Magus

The Awakening of a Magus
Prologue - Fri, Jul 21 - Day 1

A golden thread connected Harry's wand with Voldemort's. A golden cage of energy surrounded them. To the strains of phoenix song, Harry focused everything in him, concentrated on the beads of light strung along the golden thread, forcing the beads towards Voldemort's wand. Voldemort was shocked, fearful; his wand shook. Then the shadowy figures of the victims of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced their way out of the wand ...

And Harry Potter woke up in his bedroom on Privet Drive, shaking and sweating.

Chapter 1 - Fri, Jul 21 - Day 1
Day with the Dursleys

Every night in the weeks since he had returned to the Dursleys' house for the summer, he relived some part of his last confrontation with Voldemort. Sometimes, it was the murder of Cedric Diggory or the unbelievable fiery pain of the Cruciatus curse. More, now, it was those moments when his sheer, stubborn will overpowered Voldemort's when their wands were connected. Looking back, he often couldn't believe he had accomplished such a thing, especially after the pain and torture before.

Even though it wasn't light yet, Harry decided to give up on sleeping and got dressed. "Hmm." Harry looked at the fit of his clothes. "Uncle Vernon will have a fit. I must be having a growth spurt. I don't think my shirt and pants are suddenly shrinking. At least I'm not growing in the middle, like Dudley," he muttered, then sat by the window. He had gotten used to staring out into the pre-dawn sky, thinking about Voldemort's return, and the gathering of the Death Eaters.

Some time later, as daylight filled his view, he heard the Dursleys stirring. "Ugh! Today is the day we have to take that trailer out into the country and pick up all that junk Uncle Vernon inherited from his cousin ... or was it aunt ... or cousin-in-law. Of course, I'll have to do most of the work. Oh, do I wish I could use Wingardium Leviosa on that stuff." He thought back to the way Hermione had lectured the others on proper pronunciation back in their first Charms class. Harry smiled to himself, then decided to try to get on Aunt Petunia's good ... well better side ... and start breakfast.

Petunia came into the kitchen, saw Harry already preparing breakfast, sniffed, then, she turned around to greet Vernon and 'my darling Dudley-kins'. Harry wondered how his Aunt Petunia, harsh, brittle, and cruel to almost everyone, could be the sister of his caring, lovely mother Lily.

"Harry Potter!" Vernon bellowed. "You had better not cause any trouble today. And you had better not damage anything. We should be able to get a tidy sum selling off Cousin Letitia's clutter. There are plenty of fools out there who will think that junk is worth something." Rubbing his hands together, Vernon smirked and chuckled, while Petunia beamed.

"What will you buy me with the money?" Dudley growled.

Harry just muttered, "Yes, Uncle Vernon," and tuned them out while he finished cooking.

After breakfast, they all piled into the car, rode out to the house of a co-worker of Vernon's, and borrowed an open trailer with tarpaulins and ropes to tie everything down. The ride out to Cousin Letitia's country cottage was another two hours of misery, but that was nothing very new. Dudley poked and prodded, verbally and with his pudgy fingers, delighting in the fact that Harry couldn't use magic to get even or he'd be expelled from his beloved Hogwarts. Harry just did his best to ignore Dudley, sometimes closing his eyes and breathing slowly and deeply to calm himself.

Once they got to Letitia's cottage, Harry saw that someone had packed things pretty efficiently in boxes, crates, trunks and such. Obviously, neither Aunt Petunia nor Dudley would do anything but observe and make nasty remarks about his work. Probably Uncle Vernon wouldn't do much, either. He was strong as an ox, but since he was so overweight and out of shape, he had no stamina to speak of.

As soon as he was sure what needed to go, Harry started hauling boxes out to the trailer. To distract himself, he would think back on past Quidditch matches at school, though occasionally, something seemed to give him an uneasy feeling as he worked. It looked like a storm was brewing, but should move away from where they were. Maybe it's just the storm getting on my nerves, Harry thought.

"Harry Potter! I thought I told you no trouble," yelled Vernon, then his voice dropped and he hissed, "No magic!"

"Huh?" Harry grunted as he heaved the trunk onto the trailer. "What magic?"

"You must be doing something unnatural, or you never could have handled that trunk. It took two grown men to bring it up from the basement." Vernon was torn between fear and smug triumph at supposedly catching Harry cheating.

All Harry could answer was, "Well, I think I'm in a growth spurt. Maybe I got a bit stronger." Harry started past his uncle, heading back to the house for the next crate.

With his face turning various shades of red and purple, Vernon grabbed Harry's shoulder with one hand, spinning him around, and raised the other preparing to backhand Harry for his insolence. Without thinking, Harry adjusted his stance to regain his balance, and his right hand reached up to grab his uncle's wrist. He felt a wave of ... something ... energy, fill him.

His uncle's arm stopped as though it had hit a wall, his face registering shock, then pain. Harry released his wrist as though it were on fire, and saw that bruises were already beginning to show where Harry's fingers had been. "I ... I didn't mean ... did I do that?" Harry stuttered, glancing back and forth between his uncle's wrist and his own hands held in front of him. The energy still simmered within him, slowly filling every part of his body, as he somehow became aware of every muscle, every tendon, bone and joint, even the blood pumping through his racing heart. Then lightning arced between the dark clouds that had gathered overhead without his noticing.

Vernon jumped, stared a moment at the threatening sky, and bellowed, "Dudley, Petunia, inside the house. Boy, you cover the trailer and then I have a great deal to tell you, you little monster." Then they heard Dudley cry out. He had been snooping in the trailer and knocked over a crate on his foot. Petunia ran towards the trailer, calling out about her poor sweetling. Just as she climbed into the trailer, a lightning bolt struck a huge tree next to the trailer. Harry couldn't say why, but he knew the storm and the lightning were unnatural, created by magic.

As the great tree slowly fell toward the trailer, amid Dudley and Petunia's screams, an intense purple glow formed around Harry. Despite how the Dursleys treated him, there had to be something he could do. Reaching out one shaking, glowing hand, he uttered an emphatic, low-voiced, "No!" A beam of purple light shot out, engulfing the tree like fireworks. Then the light and the tree were gone as though they had never existed.

As he looked at himself, shocked at the glowing light still surrounding him, he was struck from three different directions: a sickly-colored lightning bolt from above, and two magic spells from the sides. All three attacks hit the glowing purple energy, which acted like a shield. Harry instinctively raised both arms as though to deflect the attacks, though their force didn't reach him. Tendrils of purple light tracked back along the path of the attacks at high speed. Harry saw the storm clouds suddenly disappear, and heard two loud snapping noises and screams of pain. Harry's legs folded. He sat back on his heels, hands on the ground, panting, trying not to pass out. The purple glow faded away.

Two figures appeared between the trailer and the house. Looking around, they focused on Harry. One of them declared, "Harry Potter, you know that students aren't allowed to use magic outside the school!"

Chapter 2 - Fri, Jul 21 - Day 1
Busted!

"I am Erasmus Trelawney, an Obliviator with the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, and this is my partner, Sylvia Forester, an Auror with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. There has been a great deal of magic put out here, and I demand to know what is going on. And these Muggles will have to be tended to."

"No!" Harry gasped. He slowly stood and managed to get the words out. "Wizard Storm ... Death Eaters! And leave the Dursleys alone. They already know about wizards." Harry finally steadied himself, and addressed the Auror, who still had said nothing. "I'm not sure what I did, but I had no choice. My family was in danger, and then I was attacked by magic." All three Dursleys looked at Harry, surprised that he had called them family and had protected them, even if it was using magic.

Sylvia stepped forward with a reassuring smile for Harry. "Erasmus, suppose you go with Harry and have him explain what's going on. I'll take the Muggles inside and get their side of the story. We need to know just what those power surges were."

Erasmus moved closer to Sylvia. "But he said there were Death Eaters about. You as the Auror should be the one tracking the magic, and I as the Obliviator should tend the Muggles," he said in a harsh stage whisper.

"Relax, 'Ras! Whatever Potter did here has put them out of commission or chased them away. I'd know," Sylvia declared quietly with a small smile. "Come along now ... Dursleys, isn't it? Let's go inside and have a nice, quiet talk." Even if she hadn't possessed strong magic, Sylvia Forester would have a way about her, a calm authority that put wizard or Muggle at ease.

"We don't want anything to do with witches and wizards, let me tell you!" Vernon blustered weakly.

"I didn't know witches could be pretty," whispered Dudley to his father, who swatted him on the head for such a traitorous comment.

Vernon then said, "I demand you release us immediately!"

Sylvia just smiled. "You aren't captive, you know. I just want to know what happened from your point of view. But I would suggest you go back home after that. Whatever your business here, you would rather not be around while we investigate. Sit down. Sit down. Would you like some tea?" Sylvia offered as they settled on the sheet-covered furniture in the parlor.

Petunia said, haughtily, "There's nothing in the kitchen. The owner passed on recently and we were picking up my dear Vernon's inheritance."

"Well, no matter. We can still have tea. Scones, anyone?" Sylvia asked as she held out her wand. A lovely tea service appeared on the table, including what looked and smelled like fresh-baked scones. "Now, Mrs. Dursley, I know it isn't quite the thing to discuss business while pouring tea, but if you would do the honors, I can begin, and thereby finish sooner, hmm?"

As Petunia gingerly poured, Sylvia began with Vernon. "Now, I'd like you to describe for me everything that happened just now, from the first magic you noticed. And, please, I'd like your wife and son to wait until you have finished before we get their input. Thanks so much."

Sylvia was hard to resist under normal circumstances, and she added a small Trust-Me charm under her breath. Vernon told about his catching Harry apparently using magic to help him move the trunk, "though the little mon-... the boy denied it." Then he told about the lightning, the tree falling towards the trailer and his wife and son, the purple light. At that point, he was shaking, and Sylvia waited while he pulled himself together. Then he made an attempt to describe the attack, though he had started toward the trailer just as it happened, and he wasn't sure what he'd seen.

Petunia quietly confirmed Vernon's story while sipping tea from a trembling cup and Dudley just nodded his head, saying "Uh huh!" over and over while stuffing scones in his mouth.

The lovely Auror stood and slowly paced around the room, thinking about what she had heard. "You're sure about the purple light around him? Not blue or some other color?" As Vernon sputtered that he had perfect eyesight, Sylvia waved her hand. "Yes, yes of course you're sure. Just, so ... unusual. And he didn't have his wand?"

Petunia drew herself up and stated, "We don't allow him to use his freakish tools around us, I'll have you know. It's just so ... unnatural." Her voice trailed off as she realized who and what she was saying this to.

More pacing. "How old is Harry?" she finally asked the Dursleys.

"Oh, 14 ... I think. He has a birthday sometime in the summer, so, nearly 15, wouldn't you say so, Vernon?" Petunia tried to be nonchalant. "Our dear Dudley is already 15, aren't you, sweetums?"

With a sickly smile, Sylvia returned to her pacing. They didn't even know when Harry's birthday was? By now, the Dursleys just watched her pacing, heads moving back and forth as though at a tennis match.

Sylvia began muttering. "Not quite 15! Impossible! The youngest one in history was 25. But ... a purple aura and no wand. And the residual from the magic is extensive. We registered a huge outlay of magic, almost off the scales. Ah, but he is Harry Potter, though. This could explain so many things." She stopped, and raised her wand, changed her mind and said, "Excuse me, I have to send a magical message and I'm sure you'd rather I not do it in front of you. I can see that magic makes you very ... uncomfortable. Wait here, please."

As she started out the door, she heard Dudley whisper to Petunia, "But the scones were so good!"

"Alright then, Potter, what's all this about a Wizard Storm and Death Eaters? I warn you, I'll know if you're putting me on!" Erasmus declared.

"Well, sir, I was having a ... an argument with my Uncle Vernon ... over there." As Erasmus waved him on, he went to stand where Vernon had stopped him. "There was a lightning bolt that startled us. And this nasty storm was right overhead. But it couldn't have been, you see, since I saw it building off that way, and storms never move backwards around here. Uncle Vernon called to the others to come in out of the storm, but Dudley was stuck in the trailer and Aunt Petunia tried to get him out. Then another lightning bolt hit the tree by the trailer."

"There's no tree by the trailer, healthy or damaged," Erasmus insisted, looking in that direction.

"Well, that's because it's gone now." Harry dipped his head, saying it in a small voice. "This is where I just don't understand what happened. This purple light formed up around me, and I think inside me, and when I saw that strange lightning hit the tree, everything went into slow motion. I knew I had to try something, but my wand is stashed away at home, since I can't use it away from school. I sort of ... reached out and the purple light hit the tree, and the tree ... disappeared in a bunch of purple fireworks. Then another bolt hit me at the same time as two curses. The purple light blocked the attacks, then it tracked back to their sources. The storm disappeared, and the two Death Eaters were hit by the spells they tried on me. Then the glow went away and you two showed up. But I don't understand it. I didn't have my wand, and I didn't use any incantations."

The Obliviator had been experiencing a progressively racing heart and dry mouth as Harry quietly described what he had done. His eyes were wide as he thought, It can't be! But how would he even know about Wild Magic to describe it so well? Only Ministry people know much about the legends of the Magi, and not all of them know, either. But is he a Magus? A school boy? I am way out of my league here. I wonder if those Muggles will confirm his story." Then he looked over at Harry. They had both been quiet for a couple of minutes. "How do you know they were Death Eaters?" Erasmus asked quietly, asking but not challenging.

"When the curses hit, they didn't get through, but I recognized them both. One sent a Crucio curse ... I think he's still alive ... and the other was ... Avada Kedavra ... he isn't ... alive, that is. Somehow, I'm sure of that." Harry looked off into the distance speaking in an emotionless voice, almost in shock as he began to realize what he had done, and with so little effort ... until it was over, that is.

"Show me where they are, Harry," Erasmus asked softly. He didn't see Sylvia come out of the cottage as they went around a rise into some trees.

(continued)