Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter and can only hold claim to original ideas and plot within the story. I am making no money off of this so don't waste your time trying to sue me!
Author's Note: This story and its brilliance cannot be credited all to me. I am co-writing this Fanfic along with my brilliant grammar queen extraordinaire, Eowyn Edoras! Please enjoy the fruits of our work! And please don't forget to review!
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Harry Potter and the Heartsight Legacy
Chapter One: Welcomed Changes
It was the middle of a sizzling hot June day. Most of the inhabitants of Privet Drive were outside in their yards, enjoying the sunshine and gossiping with neighbors. The one exception was a sixteen-year-old boy, nearing seventeen, in one of the upstairs bedrooms of Number Four. Harry Potter, for the first time in what seemed like years, was being left blissfully alone. He was involved in the same pastime that had occupied him ever since he had returned to his aunt and uncle's home for the summer - lying on his back and staring at the ceiling, memorizing every bump, crack and crevice. Somehow it just didn't seem to matter whether he did anything. If it wasn't for the newspaper he was having delivered through his window every morning, Harry doubted that he would have bothered to get out of bed at all.
The most recent issue of that paper, the Daily Prophet, was now lying on the floor beside the bed. Its front page revealed a picture of several men and women dressed in robes, apparently in the midst of a heated but silent argument. Harry Potter did not even glance at the wildly gesticulating figures in the picture. Compared with other things he had seen recently, a moving photograph was of little interest.
Only six years ago, Harry would have been amazed at a newspaper that was delivered to his window every morning by an owl, even if the pictures in it didn't have lives of their own. But then, so much had happened in the past six years that it seemed like a different lifetime. It was a different Harry Potter who had been mistreated for eleven years by an aunt and uncle who were frightened of him for reasons they never explained. That was before Hagrid had found him and told him the secret of his past. Harry's mother and father had not been killed in a car crash, as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had maintained. They had been murdered. What was more incredible was that they had been murdered magically, by an evil wizard named Voldemort. What had bordered on unbelievable was that not only was Voldemort a wizard, Harry's parents were as well. So was Harry. But even among wizards, Harry was extraordinary. As a baby he had defeated Voldemort, without even knowing what he was doing. Among wizards, Harry Potter was already a legend.
That day had marked the beginning of the best years of Harry's life. He had enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he had met other young wizards and learned how to use his magical powers. Two other students there, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, were now great friends of his. He had even met his godfather, Sirius Black, a wizard like himself and the closest thing to a father that Harry had ever had.
Now Harry reflected darkly that the best years of his life were over, at least for a very long time. Voldemort had returned to power, and Harry knew his life would be in danger as long as the other wizard lived. Sirius was dead, killed just two years ago by a Death Eater, one of Voldemort's supporters. Harry still had nightmares about that. Life looked bleak.
Suddenly Harry was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of Aunt Petunia's shrill voice. "Harry! HARRY! HARRY POTTER!"
"Yes, Aunt Petunia! I'm coming!" Harry called as he shuffled down the stairs. "What do you want?"
"You haven't touched your lunch!"
"I'm not hungry."
"I don't want those friends of yours to come marching in here because you refuse to eat. Now, sit down. You did remember to send off your letter today, didn't you? We don't want them coming for another a false alarm, now do we?"
Harry choked back a laugh as he reflected back on the incident from the previous year. "Hey, it was your fault you didn't believe me! I told you that if you didn't let me write to them regularly they really would come charging in here like a bunch of animals. Uncle Vernon was the one who locked Hedwig's cage, otherwise they wouldn't have come."
"Yes, but how were we to know you were being literal? People transforming themselves into animals! The place was like a zoo! When I imagine what the neighbors would have thought, if they'd noticed --" Aunt Petunia shook her head. "Just make sure you send that letter. Now hurry and eat your lunch so we can go shopping."
Harry looked up at his aunt with an expression of absolute shock. Aunt Petunia was the last person he would ever have expected to buy him anything.
"Er -Aunt Petunia, are you feeling all right?" he stuttered, thinking there had to be some mistake.
"I'm fine, Harry. I just noticed that you've outgrown all your clothes and need new ones. We should go to London to get them. Then if we have time, and you don't pester me too much, I might consider taking you to that Peaky Cauldron place your kind always talks about."
Harry sat at the table with his mouth hanging open, unsure of how much more shock he could take. His aunt was not only being civil but actually taking an interest in his life. Inexplicably, she was sitting calmly and talking about the two of them going to the Leaky Cauldron, an entrance from London to the wizarding world. He didn't even know she knew about that place. He certainly had never told her about it. The thought crossed his mind that this could be a Death Eater using a polyjuice potion to impersonate his aunt, but that was impossible. Dumbledore had said that Voldemort couldn't harm him while he was at his aunt and uncle's house; surely that went for Voldemort's supporters as well?
About two hours later Harry found himself in a high fashion Muggle clothing store, holding a growing pile of assorted jeans, sweaters, and tee shirts of all sizes and styles. Once Harry had tried on what he thought must have been the entire store, his aunt chose several articles of clothing, bought them, and hustled him on to the next store.
The sun was setting when Aunt Petunia stopped the car in front of the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.
"I don't see anything," she said, peering out the window at the row of buildings. "Are you sure this is the right place?"
"Don't worry, Muggles aren't supposed to see it. It's there." Harry replied reassuringly. "I'll take you inside." Harry started to open the car door, then stopped and turned back to his aunt. "Aunt Petunia, why are you doing this? Not that I don't appreciate it," he added hastily, "but you're acting so different. You went from not even letting me talk about wizards to wanting to meet some."
"Well, Harry - dear," Aunt Petunia said rather awkwardly, "one of your friends said something to me when they were in the house last year - I think it was the bird."
Harry grinned and waited for her to continue.
"All he said was that I had no idea what you've been through already, and if I knew half of it I wouldn't treat you so badly. But it made me start thinking. When Vernon and I took you in, we thought that if we tried hard enough we could pretend that you weren't anything out of the ordinary. We kept hoping that maybe you wouldn't start making things happen that no one could explain, and then that maybe you wouldn't get a letter inviting you to that school. But it looks like we were wrong about that. So we've been making your life perfectly miserable for no reason other than that we refused to face the facts. And as if that weren't enough, now this - this murderer who killed your parents is loose again. And I know enough about your world to have some idea of what will happen if I don't let you stay with your family. So I thought we might as well get along, since it looks like we're stuck with each other." Aunt Petunia gave a tight smile. Harry smiled back, deciding in a moment that his aunt wasn't so bad after all. He got out of the car, shut the door behind him - and froze.
"Harry? Is something wrong?" Harry barely heard his aunt's question; he was focused intently on the spot where he was sure he had seen something a moment before. There was nothing there. He shook his head.
"It's nothing, Aunt Petunia. For a moment I thought I saw someone - someone I knew. But I didn't." Harry started towards the Leaky Cauldron, trying to look casual. Then he heard a voice he hadn't heard in two years: a voice he would have given anything never to hear again.