The Magical World Exposed
by Healer Pomfrey

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Warnings: COMPLETELY AU! If you don't like this, just stop reading and write your own story more to your liking.

Eight-year-old Harry Potter straightened himself and let out a sigh of relief after three hours of garden work in the blazing sunshine.

All of a sudden, a small yowl made him look to the new neighbours' garden. A small dog was standing right behind the fence, apparently watching him.

Harry smiled as he crossed the garden, feeling fairly safe to do as he wanted, as his relatives, who had taken him in out of the graciousness of their hearts like his uncle reminded him every now and then, had gone for a three-week holiday.

"Hi there," he greeted the dog that immediately began to waggle his tail.

"Hello," he suddenly heard a voice, and a boy of about his own age appeared in the bushes. "I'm David. We just moved in here yesterday."

"Hello David. I'm Harry," Harry replied, casting the boy a shy smile.

"Why don't you come over, so that we can play together?" David asked, eagerly. "My dog seems to like you."

'Nobody wants to play with a freak,' Harry thought, eyeing the other boy with anxiousness. However, David's smile was so genuine that Harry could not resist the temptation to agree, the idea 'Maybe I can get a friend, even if I'm a freak' at the front of his mind. He hesitantly left the garden around the garage, smiling as he saw David wait for him in front of the house, together with his dog.

"This is Trouble," he introduced the dog, causing Harry to stare at the boy in confusion, wondering if he was joking. However, David continued, "Trouble, this is Harry. Be nice."

Harry carefully began to pet the dog, who waggled his tail and eagerly licked his hands.

"Come," David invited him and led Harry through the garden that belonged to his parents' house into the house, where he shouted for his mother.

"Mum, look, Trouble and I've already found a friend," he told his mother, who smiled at Harry and introduced herself as Mrs. O'Brien.

Questioned where he was living, Harry hesitantly informed the kind woman that he was living with his relatives, the Dursleys, next door.

"Oh then I should go and introduce myself to them later on," Mrs. O'Brien said, still smiling.

Harry shook his head. "My relatives have gone on holidays for three weeks," he explained. "They won't be back before the end of the holidays."

"And you?" Mrs. O'Brien asked in apparent surprise.

"They never take me with them," Harry admitted in a small voice. Somehow, he felt very reassured by the woman's kindness, and added, "They hate me, because I'm a good for nothing freak."

"You're what?" Mrs. O'Brien blurted out in apparent shock. "Harry, you're not a freak. Come, let's sit here at the kitchen table and have some tea and strawberry cheesecake, and you'll tell me exactly why you think that you're a freak, which is pure nonsense."

'They'll soon enough realise that it's true and throw me out,' Harry thought and very hesitantly sat on the edge of the offered chair at the kitchen table. His eyes widened, when the friendly lady placed a huge piece of cake on the plate in front of him, eyeing the delicious looking sweet in disbelief.

"Harry, eat, it's great," David encouraged him, unobtrusively feeding Trouble a small piece of his cake.

"Is something wrong, Harry?" Mrs. O'Brien asked, kindly, giving him a sharp look.

"I'm not allowed to eat at the table with normal people," Harry admitted in a small voice, looking helplessly from David to his mother.

"Nonsense," the boy's mother replied, resolutely. "Here at our house you're allowed to do whatever David does," she promised, causing Harry to tuck in with gusto.

"It's absolutely delicious. Thank you so very much," he said in delight. "I've never eaten something so wonderful before."

David and his mother exchanged a glance, before the woman enquired, "Why is it that you think you're a freak?"

Harry fidgeted in his seat, before he replied in a barely audible voice, "Because I sometimes do freaky things, which I shouldn't."

"Like what for example?" Mrs. O'Brien asked, seeming to be not shocked at all at Harry's revelation.

"I turned my teachers hair green, or I made myself go up onto the school roof, when Dudley and his friends were chasing me," Harry admitted, causing David to smile.

"Mum, he's like Hermione," he blurted out. "She also did such things, but Dad said it was magic and that she probably is a witch."

"That's right, son," Mrs. O'Brien agreed, gently. "The girl who lived next door to us, before we moved here, did such things too. If she's a witch, maybe you're a wizard. Let's speak with my husband when he comes back. Anyway, you're not a freak, you're a very nice boy."

"Even Trouble thinks so," David added, chuckling. "He's a Jack Russel terrier by the way. I don't know if you've heard of them."

Only now did Harry realise that the small dog had put his front feet up onto his knees, apparently wanting him to feed him.

"May he have some cake?" Harry asked, smiling at the cute dog.

"He shouldn't," Mrs. O'Brien replied and handed Harry a small bag. "You may give him a few of these. They're dog treats," she explained, patiently.

Harry could not help chuckling, when Trouble eagerly devoured his treats with apparent gusto, gently licking his hand when he was finished.

"Excuse me, Madame," Harry spoke up, thoughtfully. "My relatives have told me that there's no such thing as magic."

"There is," Mrs. O'Brien informed him in a firm voice. "The freaky things you were talking about are definitely magic."

"Sometimes, I can also wish for some things," Harry admitted. "It doesn't always work though."

"Can you show me something?" David asked, eagerly. "Please, Harry."

Harry cast the other boy a shocked look, however, seeing his mother nod, encouragingly, concentrated on making his arm tingly like he had done many times before since he realised that he could willingly do strange things. He stared at the cake that was standing in the middle of the table, and very slowly, a small piece of cake moved in the direction of David's plate, where it landed with a small thud.

"Wow, this is totally amazing, thank you," David blurted out, before he happily began to attack the piece of cake on his plate.

"You must be a very powerful wizard, Harry," Mrs. O'Brien said, thoughtfully. "Let's speak with my husband later on. He's a professor and teaches Ethnology at a university in London. He'll be very interested to see what you can do and maybe will be able to give you some advice."

"I'd like that," Harry replied, happily, still unable to believe how lucky he was to have found people who did not despise him because of his freakishness.

HP

Harry and David spent the afternoon playing in David's room, which was still full with boxes and a complete mess, because David had begun unpacking this and that, and above all, Trouble was running all over the room, just making even more mess. However, the two boys enjoyed themselves greatly, and when Mrs. O'Brien came to call the boys for dinner, Harry admitted readily that he never had so much fun before.

"I'm glad to hear that, Harry," Mrs. O'Brien replied and introduced the boy to her husband, who greeted Harry in the same friendly way as his wife had been speaking to him since he arrived.

HP

To Harry's disbelief, he was even allowed to eat dinner together with the nice family, and, like his wife, Professor O'Brien reassured the boy that he was not a freak but had to be a wizard.

"I'll try to find out something about witches and wizards in our time," the professor finally promised. "There'll surely be more people who can do magic. It's just not really known."

After dinner, David's mother asked, "Harry, if your relatives are gone for three weeks, why don't you stay with us? Or is there anyone who checks on you and would miss you?"

"No," Harry admitted, hesitantly, before he explained, "it's just that I need to do my chores, otherwise, my uncle will be very angry."

"Don't worry about that, Harry," Mrs. O'Brien replied, suddenly seeming very upset. "We'll speak with your relatives, when they come back."

HP

During the following three weeks, Harry remained at the O'Briens' residence. He shared the room with David, and the two boys got along very well, thoroughly enjoying the other's company. Harry did not have to do chores, except from a very few times, when he and David had to help Mrs. O'Brien with something. The children spent most of the day playing in their room or in the garden. Once a day, they went for a long walk with Trouble, who was so very cute that Harry loved him dearly. During the weekends, Mr. O'Brien was at home, and the family often went to interesting places in London or to the seaside. By the end of the summer holidays, Harry felt more at home at the O'Briens' than he had ever felt at home at his relatives' place.

Mrs. O'Brien even bought clothes for him, and Harry very much enjoyed having new clothes that fit him for the first time in his life.

HP

One day, both children drew pictures - to Harry's great pleasure. He carefully drew a small boy who was standing in front of a pretty woman holding a bunch of flowers in his hand, before he critically eyed his picture, wondering if Mrs. O'Brien would recognise herself. He stared at his work, and all of a sudden, the bunch of flowers moved towards the woman until it ended up in her hands, causing the woman to smile at the boy.

"Wow, Harry, that's cool," David spoke up in apparent amazement. "Can you make my horse move around?"

Harry stared at the horse in a large garden, which David had just finished drawing, and an instant later, the horse began to move around the garden.

"Thank you," David blurted out, as he eyed his painting in obvious delight. "Let's show our paintings to Mum."

To Harry's amazement, Mrs. O'Brien profusely thanked them both for their paintings and put them up onto the wall in the living room. 'She put my picture on the wall,' Harry thought in disbelief. 'Aunt Petunia always threw my paintings into the bin.'

HP

"Today, my relatives are going to come back," he told David on the last day of the holidays, a sad expression clouding his face that had been always happy during the last three weeks.

"I wished you could just stay here," David replied, looking equally sad. "Let's ask Mum and Dad. Maybe they can do something about it."

"We'll speak with them and see what we can do," the professor promised.

His wife pulled Harry in a light hug, glad to see that he did not flinch back as badly anymore as during his first days at the O'Briens'.

HP

Never before had Harry felt any tension at the O'Briens' residence, however, on this Sunday afternoon, everyone was waiting for the Dursleys to come back from their holidays with a combination of impatience, expectation, concern and fear.

Finally, they saw Vernon Dursleys' car arrive and observed Harry's relatives carry their luggage into the house.

"Let's go all together," Mr. O'Brien decided, before he told Trouble to stay alone for a few minutes.

Harry was almost panicking when he followed the O'Briens over to his relatives' house together with David. He inwardly groaned, when Dudley opened the door and then shouted inside, "Mum, Dad, some strangers are here together with the freak."

tbc...