I awoke to a stairway. This may seem normal, after all death is usually shown as traveling up or down one, but in this case something was off. It might've been how the stairs were above me and I was in a rather small room, or possibly the spiderwebs that were adorning the space.

Deciding I must not be dead somehow, and taking stock of my surroundings, I noticed that everything was still blurry even though I had rubbed my eyes a bit. Ahh well, not like you can go through a near-death experience entirely unscathed, and anyways the rest of my family already had glasses, so this would be nothing too new.

This new state of affairs remained until my still sleepy mind got around to noticing that my body was much too small. As the pieces fell into place all remnants of drowsiness were cast from my mind at speed and I held up a terribly familiar pair of glasses.

The sudden realization that I seemed to be Harry Potter of all characters had my head pushed firmly into the admittedly hard pillow to stifle my cries. I was HARRY POTTER, The-Boy-Who-Hyphens, Slayer of That-One-Guy, holder of nearly as many titles as Professor Headmaster. That thought brought my cries of laughter up short, I already remembered little enough about the series, what if this was a fanfic of all things.

In the end it was decided that that mattered little, I was here and the first thing to do was find out how old I was (and thus how much time I had to train unsupervised). To this end my first challenge was The Door. It was a wily opponent however- wait the lock is on the outside… No matter, I am a Wizard. In fact, I am a Harry Potter Wizard, who uses a system of magic more broken than some Worm CYOAs. The Door will bow to my reality-altering might!

After a few minutes (seconds) of staring ineffectually at the lock I was forced to admit that a change of strategy might be needed, maybe. Hmmmm, all the fanfic writers seemed to think that meditation was the way to go. I glance at the "bed" lumpy and pokey as it is and shudder. Nope, not happening, there has to be an easier way. Thinking back to the books most accidental magic takes place because of strong emotion, but that's not all otherwise my outburst with the pillow would've leveled the house. There must be something more…

Another five or so (one) minutes of thinking leads me to an answer, if I remember correctly Tom (the angst-machine, not the barkeep) managed to control accidental magic through an effort of will. If an angsty orphan could do it without even knowing what magic is, this'll be easy. I focus on the emotions I felt upon realizing I had magic and will them to open the door.

Hours (minutes) later I come to the conclusion that taunting murphy is a poor idea, even in the confines of one's own head. Truly The Door is a worthy opponent. It seems the time has come for Drastic Measures. I slump on the "bed" and attempt to clear my mind. You see now that my mind is clear and I'm not thinking of anything I should be able to sense the Chakra Reishi KI Nen Magicules Prana Spirit Mana, wait that's right. This isn't a mana system, it's just magic. But then does that mean I have a core or something, or is it more like Fate with the line-things, or maybe it's a network like Chakra, or maybe- DAMMNIT mind clearing is hard…

An Hour (thirty seconds) later I conclude that this is stupid and there must be a trick to it. Obviously this is one of those things where you have to do the opposite! If my thoughts are chaotic enough I'll be thinking of everything at once, and thinking about everything at once means I'll be thinking about nothing at all! I'm a GENIUS, when I figure out magic the first thing to do is learn lightning for my Evil Laugh just like a mad- science and magic don't mix because of the Anti Tech Aura that's just like- Harry Dresden has some good ideas, I should get a- gun made of- magic -mithril -dwarf -Ring -Fire -WARMTH -WHOLENESSS -POSSIBILITY -LIGHT.

-The world goes two directions -colors bleed to white -my head pounds -I fall -Down -I

I come to on the floor, groaning. That wasn't one of my best ideas, still better than the Everything Dip, though not by much. If this is anything like a hangover I'm not going to want to open my eyes, am I? I sigh and look around the cupboard, still the same place, bit brighter though, at least my- I stop, my eyes are still closed, am I actually…

I move my arm, I See it move. I grab my pillow, I See myself grab it.

WAT, no, wait, my idea worked!? I mean not in the way I intended, unless. I Look inside myself, I appear to be orange with a hint of, is that green? How does that work? Why couldn't it have been Octarine or something, oh well, at least Oreen is alright.

I open my real eyes and sit up. Okay, now how do I do this. Lets look at my glasses aaaand Force Push!

The glasses fail to so much as wobble.

Force Pull! Mage Hand! Accio! Apport! Return! GET. OVER. HERE.

The glasses wobble slightly.

Success! Now I just need to practice and eventually I'll have telekinesis. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Damn, I really need to get on that lightning. How would I do that? Can I forcibly ionize the air, or maybe force a difference in charge, ooh or I can go the Dragonslayer route and eat some lightning. Yesssss, lightning eating is the best one, it even comes with cool fangs and the ability to hurt things by yelling. If I get good enough I'll even be able to turn into-

At this I notice a click as The Door is unlocked and someone starts tapping on it. That's right, Harry has relatives that hate him. This is what's her name, it's a flower, it's pink, Carnation, Aunt Carnation. As always my memory is flawless.

"Wake up, you're helping me with breakfast." Her voice isn't as scratchy as I imagined.

"Of course Aunt Carnation, I'm coming" I answer whilst opening The Door.

Her face isn't as horsey as I imagined either, more nonplussed than anything really. I head off towards the nearest linoleum floor expecting to find the kit- it's a bathroom. I suppose a freshening up is in order anyways. Looking in the mirror I try and estimate my new age, I'm thinking seven or eight which leaves two years to become a telekinetic lightning dragon before Hogwarts.

Following the sound of plates I find the kitchen, the table is set and a walrus appears to be reading the paper at it. I frown, if they had a trained walrus you'd think they wouldn't be so concerned about odd thi- oh, that's uncle whatshisname, Verruca, yes Uncle Verruca. In the kitchen proper half of the sink seems to be taken up by some variety of lutefisk, funny I thought that was more Norwegian not English. Oh well, should be fine if the rest of them are eating it, wouldn't do to make people suspicious.

After helping Aunt Carnation get things cooked and on the table a herd of wilderbeasts seem to thunder down the stairs. Wait, I know this one, it's Dumpling the cousin. I grimace, no, I'm not calling anyone that, I'll just call him little, I glance at him, better make that Big D. At this point a rustling clank can be heard down the hall.

"Get the mail Dudley" Verruca has the oddest nicknames for people, he was calling Carnation Pet earlier too.

"Make Harry do it" I suppose Big D wouldn't want anymore exercise than completely necessary, he seems to be going for a record.

"Get the mail Harry" Odd, I though Verruca always called me 'Boy', I must be in an alternate universe.

I simply nod and go to the mailslot, it'll be good to get into the habit of getting the mail for when my Hogwarts letter comes. I look through the mail to see if one has a date, none seem to but there is one addressed to me. I pause, it seems my letter has come early. With a shrug I shove the letter into my baggy pants before heading back. I'll need to find a way to tell them about this, there was a neighbor that knew about magic, wasn't there? Her name was, it was a fruit, plum? No that's from clue. It was something yellow and orange, shaped like a Science-flask, Figy, Mrs. Figy, that was it.

I hand back the remaining mail and sit down to eat while mulling the problem over, I'll need an excuse to head over to her house as soon as possible. Big D tries to hit me with his stick, and why does he have a stick, a few times but I bat it away distractedly.

After helping with the dishes I announce "I'm heading out to help Mrs. Figy with something, I'll be back in a bit" before darting out the door before objections can be raised.

I congratulate myself on my flawless plan before heading next door and knocking. A small, harried looking man answers.

I blink "is Mrs. Figy here?"

The man blinks back "oh, no, you want number five, this is number six" he says pointing across the street.

"Oh" well this is embarrassing, at least this isn't an AU where she's a man "thank you"

I turn and watch him close the door as I set off, to the correct house this time, and knock once more, startling a glowing cat on the porch.

A slightly glowy woman with excellent mad scientist hair answers the door. "Harry? What are you doing here?"

her voice is very breathy, probably because of radioactive cat hairs.

I hold up the Letter "I just got this and have no idea why"

Her eyes widen "well I'll be, that's a Hogwarts letter, I suppose you would be going this year"

Well darn, ages are harder to estimate than I thought.

She continues "but how'd you know I'd be able to help you?"

I freeze, this is a completely unforeseen turn of events. I can't be outed now, it's time to Kaiser Soze this. I glance around and am met with more radioactive cats.

"Because everyone knows that only magical people keep this many cats"

Brilliant, I've done it again. Truly my bluff skill is maxed out.

She looks suspiciously at me then nods "alright, I suppose you'll want to borrow my owl to send a response, come along and I'll grab a quill."

I follow and open the letter to see if it's different too. Everything seems the same, though half of the books seem to be written under pen-names and they seem to specify a winter cloak.

As Mrs. Figy comes back she asks "Harry, where are your glasses, did something happen to them?"

It was then that I realized my ghost-vision-thing I activated this morning was still a thing, it seemed it allowed me a short range of all-around vision -like a terrible byakugan- and to see glowing magic. Apparently all cats are magic, this comes as no surprise, though suddenly noticing that I see things in stereo does.

"I left them at the house, I should be fine for now, my vision isn't that bad" I lie.

Luckily my vision is only poor at short range, so the magekugan, magkugan? The M-kugan compensates.

Mrs. Figy helps me pen a letter, citing that I will be free tomorrow morning and that I am looking forward to learning magic. Once we send it off I begin considering who will be answering it, in all likelihood it will be the big guy, Hagrid. This is concerning, his mastery of mind magic allowed him to keep Lord Faces out of his head for the entire first year, I must beware of any mind reading from him.

After sending off the letter we talk for a bit over tea, apparently Mrs. Figy is a squib, whatever that is, and I head back to the house. Upon returning I am unceremoniously herded into the cupboard amidst yells about respect and freakishness. It seems offence was taken at my leaving before doing any other chores and I'll be let out tomorrow. Oh well, I pull out a bag of cookies Mrs. Figy gave me and return to trying to levitate things.

Six (two) hours later I have noticed that making things wobble involves sending Oreen strands at the object. Controlling them helps, but it's like trying to grasp something tiny underwater, also the water is full of invisible currents and randomly swaps between the consistency of air and honey. It also seems that the more I understand the Concept of what I try to do, the brighter and bigger the strands are. Trying to focus on nonsensical words like accio does not work as well as focusing on thinking about The Force. This bears further study.

A few minutes (hours) of experimenting later I have figured out the pattern. It seems that magic is about Intent, the better you focus your Intent the easier it is to do things. This can be evidenced by the fact that trying to move something while thinking about moving does little. Thinking about -MOVEMENT -MOTION -FORCE dammnit, why with the face, always the face. This means that the pseudo-latin words are supposed to be used to focus Intent and associate with Concepts, being a form of shorthand for them. Focusing on something like Wing-ardium Levi-osa is probably supposed to conjure associations with birds, flight, weightlessness, and levitation simply from drawing those to mind, forming conceptual triggers. Probably why the glowy animal spell is so hard, the association is incomplete so you have to build it yourself.

Hmmm, I wonder if I can do a fireball, I remember attempting that a ridiculous amount of times before this. Let's see, Fire would be; -HEAT -WARMTH -LIGHT -LIFE -DEATH -HOPE -FEAR -CREATION -DESTRUCTION -BALANCE -FYRE. The Cupboard lights up. Red gives way to Orange fades to Gold. The Flame grows, intensifies, brighten- I quickly snuff the flame before anyone can notice it from outside. At least I know I can do it, better practice at night when nobody will notice.

I returned to hitting myself in the face with cookies, and by the time I fell asleep I had managed to send them in directions other than my face. I had even gotten accurate enough to throw two at each other in the air. Summoning still resulted in the object in question hitting me in the face half the time, but progress was progress. I drifted off with a smile on my face and crumbs in my hair.

And there's chapter 1, wooo