Harry Potter was turning 11 when a thousand, purple stamped, emerald inked envelopes came flying through the chimney with his name on it. It was the most spectacular and terrifying thing he ever had witnessed.
The black haired, scrawny little boy with glasses and a lightning bolt scar had been treated like a servant by his adopted family. He was neglected in every way while his cousin Duddly was spoiled rotten. It didn't bother Harry that his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon liked Duddly more, but it wasn't at all fair that Harry got used toothpicks, socks with holes in them, and cabbage soup on all his birthdays when, only a few weeks earlier, Duddly always got a spectacular of a party.
Harry felt utterly unwanted and useless, like he would never belong anywhere.
But then, to escape the madness of the letters, Uncle Vernon moved them all to a rock in the middle of the sea with a small, one-roomed building, and that's where the second maddening spectacle occurred.
A very large, hairy man burst down the door, calling himself Hagrid, and presented yet another strange letter for Harry. This was the first one he had received as Vernon tried desperately hard to destroy all the previous ones.
But when Harry opened the letter, it was the most baffling thing of all.
He was enrolled in a school for witchcraft and wizardry.
"Yer a Wizard, Harry," Hagrid explained.
"No. Not I'm not. That's impossible," Harry stepped back.
Uncle Vernon had taught Harry long ago that there was no such thing as magic, and Harry had never experienced anything to suggest otherwise. Well, other than the letters and how Hagrid chased them out in this storm.
"Yeh never told 'im anythin'?!" Hagrid boomed, stomping towards Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. The were both unresponsive, so Hagrid turned on Harry, this time in a much calmer voice.
"Yeh can't tell me yeh never did something tha didn' quite make sense, couldn't be explained by ordinary muggle reasoning."
"No? What's a muggle."
"Their kind," Hagrid said breathily. The large man was exasperated, trying to figure out how to explain to Harry that he was special, but not even a word or moment of consideration from Harry suggested he knew his own power.
"Never jumped too high, never willed something to go the way you wanted?"
Harry shook his head.
"Merlin's beard, there has to be something! You're Harry Potter!"
"I'm not sure I follow."
"Yeh really didn' tell him anythin'!" Hagrid exploded, throwing his hands up. Vernon and Petunia cowered back as if they thought he would strike them.
"Harry, let's jus' talk over cake, I brought one fer yer birthday." Hagrid spun around, patting himself down as if unsure which pocket it could be in, but that was rediculous. Even in Hagrid's enormous coat, a cake couldn't fit in a pocket.
And it wasn't in one. Hagrid caught sight of a heinous crime. Duddly was stuffing his face with Harry's cake. Hagrid through a fit and cast out a pink umbrella, directing it toward Duddly's buttox and fired some strange bolt.
And so Dudly sprouted a pig's tail.
Harry was dumbfounded, if not amused. But the shock of someone thinking of his birthday outside a burned notebook and other hand-me-downs from Duddly's past years of school. Much more, the shock of magic being real, and being told he had magic.
It had seemed Hagrid just about lost it and was about to give up when Hagrid handed him his umbrella. "Harry be a lad an' flick this in some direction tha's not aimed at people."
Harry took the umbrella in both hands, and quite unsteady, obeyed. He waved the pink parasol and...
Nothing happened.
Hagrid was dumbstruck as Harry handed it back to him.
"No magic," he said, flushed pale white. "But, but I-"
"I'm sorry," Harry said, not sure what was expected or why it was expected of him.
"But yeh are him, underneath that terrible haircut and bangs tha' don' fit it? The scar mus' be there."
"Yes. The scar from the accident that killed my parents, but I don't know how-"
"ACCIDENT?!" Hagrid roared. "DURSLEY!" Hagrid looked as if he was about to grind Uncle Vernon into the cold, dirt covered floor.
Harry ran between them, he was terrified himself and he didn't really like his uncle, so why did he even move? All Harry knew was that this stranger had come, broken down the door, tried to convince Harry to go with him to a magic school when Harry knew nothing of the sort, and he was trying to intimidate his... well hate to say it, but his family.
Hagrid immediately froze. His hairy face fell and he slumped down onto a sofa. "Yeh don't know how they died. Yeh don' know who yeh are, and for some reason yeh can't even conjure a spark. Wot' happend?"
"My parents died in a crash, I'm Harry Potter, and I already told you, I'm no wizard. I can't conjure any magic spells." Harry answered, confused at the giant man's behavior.
All was quiet for a long moment. "Yer parents were murdered, 'Arry, by a dark lord."
"W-what?" That was impossible. Harry grew up being told about the car crash, and Magic wasn't real. But the letters. And Duddly's new tail. "Who?"
"I can't say, yeh understand. The name's taboo. It's crused."
"Cursed?"
"They say 'e can hear yeh when yeh say 'is name."
"Poppycock!" Uncle Vernon exclaimed.
Hagrid gave Vernon a nasty glare so that he couldn't help but tremble under the giant's gaze.
"Alright. I'll tell ye' but don't you go aroun' saying his name willy nilly, and don' tell anyone I was the one who said it."
"I won't," Harry shook his head.
Hagrid gulped down a lump in his throat as if he were a grown man swearing for the first time. Raised believing the devil would get him for saying shit. "Alright... Voldemort."
"Voldemort? What kind if name is-"
Hagrid hushed Harry up frantically. The boy didn't know why. It's not like there was anyone around that the name would mean anything to. So why was Aunt Petunia paler than ever? Suddenly Harry started thinking this wasn't all Hogwash.
Not that it mattered anyway. Harry couldn't do magic. For whatever reason. "Why did he kill my parents? Why didn't he kill me? Was it because I'm not magic?"
"Of course not! He did try teh kill yeh, Harry, that's why yer so famous. Somehow yeh lived. We all expected the greatest wizard teh ever live!"
"Well, I'm sorry to say that isn't me."
Hagrid still looked as if he couldn't believe it. He appeared as if half his life was a lie.
"But- but then- how'd yeh live."
"I can't tell you that," Harry admitted. "I don't remember any of it. Sometimes if I think really hard I can imagine a flash, but that's it."
"That's it? That can't be it!" Hagrid stood up tall and came over Harry in an instant. Hagrid grabbed Harry's shoulders and shook them. "Yeh gotta have some magic in yeh!" Hagrid pressed his pink umbrella back into Harry's arms. "Try again, yeh have teh!"
Harry shook his head and pushed the umbrella back. "Nothing's going to happen."
"Nothin'?"
"Nothing. We already tried." Harry tried to hide the disappointment.
"Nothin'..."
As Hagrid's shoulders slumped Vernon gathered his courage again. "You heard the boy! There'll be no magic here! Now get out!" Verbon seemed to gave a prideful expression greater than anything he'd ever had before even for Dudly. Harry was confused. Something about what Hagrid said felt right, but so much felt wrong at the same time.
As Harry watched Hagrid drag his giant feet through the door, he whispered something deep inside his heart, "I was supposed to be a wizard."
The whole next day, Harry had a headache unlike anything he'd ever known. His scar stung as if there were needles stabbing into his skin and his head throbbed, replaying the green flash from his parent's supposed car crash over and over. He began to think, "a car crash couldn't have had a green flash, could it? Was it really a spell? Is there really a curse? Is the curse the reason I can't do magic?"
The next week, Harry was back on Privot Drive, where the Dursly's original home was and everything seemed normal again, except Dudly's tail, which he had to go get removed before school started back up. Dudly kept throwing a fit about how much he thought it would hurt.
(I didn't get around to finishing this, but I was going to transition to an Order if the Phoenix meeting where they discussed what could have gone wrong the day Harry's parents were murdered and how he survived. In short, Voldemort splitting his soul and Lilly's sacrifice disrupted the killing curse so it only killed Harry's magic, instead if Harry getting out scot-free woth nothing but a scar. Harry would go on, led my members of the Order, like Kingsly or Snape, trying to find ways to reawaken Harry's power. That winds up being a lost cause and attention has been drawn to Privot Drive, so Harry has to find non-magical means of defense there. I really just want there to be guns in Harry Potter.)
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