Prodigy

Harry spent the next couple hours going over the other things in the book. He turned the pages quickly, looking for more moving pictures from which he could learn new 'spells' as they were called. Besides the levitation spell, Harry had conjured a shield (“Protego”), shot a stunner (“Stupefy”), and a few others. As Harry turned the pages, he ignored the steadily growing darkness outside the house. Soon, though, it was too dark to read even, and the night drew Harry's attention.

As Harry was pulled back to reality, he remembered he hadn't even eaten since breakfast, since his lunch time had been spent trying to get away from his cousin. Harry thought about going back to the kitchen to see if there was any food, but the darkness held him back. Instead, Harry decided just to curl up on the ground and wait out the night through sleep. He was feeling a bit drained after all the magic he had been working on. Harry wondered if it was normal or not.

Remembering a locking charm he had read about, Harry turned to the door and cast it. After testing the door to see if it would open, Harry curled up near a wall and soon drifted to sleep. His dreams that night consisted mostly of wand movements and incantations.

As morning dawned, Harry began to stir. One thing about being so young is the fact that you can spend the entire night on hard floor in an uncomfortable position, and not feel the effects the next morning. Harry stood and stretched before making his way to the door to open it. He struggled for a few minutes to get it to open until he remembered the spell he had cast the night before. Muttering the counter spell he had learned at the same time, the door pulled open easily.

Harry's stomach growled, reminding him that he had not eaten in the last twenty four hours, so he headed to the kitchen. It was still quite a mess, but Harry had expected it. He made a note to look into cleaning and repairing charms sometime that day. He had already decided that this was going to be his new home. After all, there was no way his Uncle would take him back now that Harry knew about magic. Harry didn't really want to go back anyway. His relatives had lied to him about his parents, not to mention ever treating him properly. Then there was the fact that he had absolutely no idea how to get back either. It was obviously magic of some sort that had brought him here, but beyond that, Harry had no idea exactly what magic is was, or how to reverse it.

Harry moved some pots and pans out of the way so he could open the fridge. Part of him knew that logically, anything in it would have gone bad by now, but perhaps there was some sort of charm placed on it that would keep it's contents fresh. Anything was possible with magic, right?

Looking into the fridge, Harry was amazed at the amount of food that was present. The entire fridge was full of food! Nor was there a wretched smell assaulting his nostrils, or mold growing out everywhere. Harry took it as a good sign, and looked for something to test. He spotted what looked to be milk, and knew it would be the prefect thing to test. He'd be able to tell just by smelling it if it had gone bad.

Harry took hold of the glass bottle brimming with the white liquid and set it on the counter. After opening the top, he leaned forward and took a careful sniff. Nothing out of the ordinary met his senses. Gaining courage, he lifted the bottle to his lips and took a small sip. It tasted wonderful! It was perfect; Harry didn't think he had ever tasted anything quite as good as that before. He turned his attention back to the fridge to discover what else might be stored there for breakfast.

Harry saw there was eggs, sausages, and bacon. It seemed to be another plus now, that he had spent the first seven years of his life living with the Dursley's, as they had forced him to learn how to cook at an early age. Harry looked towards the stove, and was startled to find that there wasn't any controls on the front of it for controlling heat. He would need to learn a few more things before he would be ready to eat that day.

He rushed back up to the library as started to quickly scan the many titles for a book that might hold the information he would need. Finally he ran across Madam Stewart's Big Book of Household Spells. Harry pulled it from the shelf and opened it. To his surprise a magazine fell out of the middle. Harry looked down the fallen item briefly before his stomach growled again, pulling him back to the task at hand. He hurriedly made his way back downstairs.

Harry opened the book to the table of contents. The first chapter covered basics of magic and warnings. Harry skipped over that; after all, he'd been doing magic since the night before. The second chapter covered decorating and painting. Harry knew he would probably need that later, but for now, he needed to learn the cleaning and cooking spells. Finding the page number for a spell called “Scourgify,” Harry quickly turned to that page. The wand movement was only described but Harry felt like he was ready to try it.

The entire room had a thick layer of dust on it that needed to be removed. Harry pointed his wand at some of the pots he had moved to get to the fridge and cast the spell. He blinked his eyes a couple times as he saw the spell do its work. The whole area was completely clean! Harry quickly made his way around the room and soon, the entire kitchen was sparkling, even if everything was still out of place.

Harry flipped a couple pages to find a “put away” spell so everything would be put back in its place, but nothing caught his eye. Sighing, he knew he would have to do that by hand at some point during the day. He turned to the cooking section. The first spell was how to start a magical stove, and that was really all he needed at the time.

Harry gathered up some skillets and cooking utensils, placing them on the stove. After lighting the stove with a quick flame casting spell, Harry started cooking the sausage in one skillet then went looking for plates and silverware. The eggs would have to hold off until the sausage was close to being done, since they cook quickly. Soon his breakfast was ready, and Harry sat down to eat.

Harry surprised himself with the amount of food he ate, and had to get up to cook some more. A little while later, though, Harry found himself content after eating enough food to feel full for what was probably the first time in his life. After cleaning the dishes, he set about cleaning up the room. A couple hours later, the Kitchen had transformed into the model kitchen it must have been once upon a time. Pleased with his work, Harry grabbed the household book and moved to the front room. After cleaning the dust leaving everything quite shiny, Harry opened the book looking for repairing charms.

The entry he found was for a spell called “repairo.” It required that the wizard (or witch) performing the spell have a picture of the item to be fixed in their head while saying incantation. That was a problem, because Harry had never even been in the house before, let alone seen what it was supposed to be like. Eventually, he decided there wasn't much to lose, however, so he started on the door.

While looking at the remains of the wooden slab that had once protected the house, Harry tried to imagine what it had looked like originally. A sudden thought interrupted his focus, however. The vision from the day before. He had been in the house before - as a baby! Perhaps buried somewhere in his subconscious was just the information he needed

Harry relaxed and tried to clear his mind. One of the most difficult things in the world to do is to think about absolutely nothing. Harry found his thoughts to be repeatedly barraged by any number of random things, none of which made sense. Finally throwing caution to the wind, he pointed his wand at the remains of the door and muttered “repairo.”

The shattered wood began to shake, but nothing happened. Harry shook his head and tried again. This time, some of the smaller fragments began to move and attach themselves to one another. Encouraged by this, Harry tried for a third time. This time it worked, and a few moments later, there was a door attached where it should be that looked to be brand new.

Satisfied with his work, Harry moved around to the other things. It would take several attempts with each item, but eventually he would get something he felt was acceptable. As soon as he was done, he began to notice how tired he was. There was obviously something quite draining about the constant use of magic. Deciding to take a quick nap, Harry went to the room he had originally arrived in.

The living room was pretty much how he had remembered it the night before. Harry felt his eyes drawn once again to the coat of arms hanging above the mantelpiece and fireplace and felt comforted. Looking about the room, Harry decided that the couch would definitely be more comfortable than the hard floor he had slept on the night before. Deciding he could take the time to go ahead and clean this room, Harry set about doing just that. It was lucky that there was nothing broken in this room. Obviously whatever it had been, (probably that thing that had killed his mother) had left this room alone.

Ten minutes later, Harry found himself hardly able to cast the last spell because of exhaustion. Once it was done, he collapsed onto he couch while closing his eyes. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow at the end.

A/N: Wow! Thanks for all the reviews. I suppose I should answer a few things that a couple reviewers brought up. First, Dumbledore does not know that the Potters switched secret keepers. Yes, Lily's writing can be read to be interpreted as such, but if you read it with the knowledge that Dumbledore has no clue, the letter still makes sense.

Sirius will probably be let out of prison in Harry's first year. Harry has absolutely no knowledge of what has been happening since his parents were killed, because the only person that has been in the house has been Hagrid, who for the purpose of this story also removed the bodies. Voldemort's wand is still in the house somewhere, however. It'll probably be discovered in a few chapters.

Yes, this is going to be a story where Harry going to do things that are supposedly impossible because he doesn't know that they are impossible.

IMPORTANT:

Because my favorite author is Ayn Rand, I'm giving a sort of homage to her in a few chapters using her version of the Prometheus myth. In her version, Prometheus brings fire to humanity and it is humanity that tortures him, not the gods. I'll explain this better when the time comes.

Hermione will be making her first appearance in the next couple years (in the story line). I already know exactly how I'm going to do that part, and I promise it'll be worth it. Ron is not going to have a big part in this story, because I think he's a shallow prat.

Harry is going to be powerful, but he's going to be working quite hard to gain that power, and it's going to come at a price. Someone mentioned that Harry can't stay by himself at the house, but that is exactly what he's going to do, until he gets his Hogwarts letter. That's when things will get really interesting.

Snape will be... different in this story, I promise that right now.

I am worried about one thing. Harry's going to be the only character in the story for the next several chapters spanning the next couple years. I hope I can keep you all interested enough in the story, because I promise it will be worth it.

Ok, that is all. Thanks for your reviews! I really appreciate it! Please review again!