Here's the new and improved chapter 1. Hope you like it!

Chapter 1

31st July 1987

When Harry woke up, it was dark. She was lying on something not exactly soft but not hard ground either. She figured it was something from a very uncomfortable bed to a cot. Wherever she was, she couldn't see anything at all. She touched around in an effort to understand where she was and found walls on all sides of her. The room she was in was small, not even 6 feet long and 4 feet wide. Even the ceiling above her head was sloped and uncomfortably low. She sat up, being careful not to bash her head against the ceiling and started to move her hand above her head in an effort to find a source of light. Not long after she finally found a light bulb dangling from it and pulled the chain attached to it. In a moment, the space around her was surrounded by a feeble light.

Harry looked around herself wide-eyed when she realized where she was. She was inside a cupboard. How did she end up inside a cupboard? The last thing she remembered was the fact that she was reading Harry Potter and then that it had started to rain. And then…what?

A second later the vivid memory of pain ran through her mind. She had felt pain, unbearable pain for a moment that seemed to last an eternity and then darkness. But why the pain?

She remembered then, in a moment of perfect clarity, the light so blindingly white that she had closed her eyes, the screams leaving her mouth ringing through her head.

She had been struck by lightning.

Was she dead then? If she was dead then why was she in a cupboard of all places? Was it some kind of hell? For Harry Potter it certainly was.

She passed her hands over her hair in an effort to calm down and think rationally. She needed to figure out what was going and why she was there. And where 'there' was.

When the palm of her hand passed by chance against her forehead, she felt something that it was not supposed to be there. It was a part of skin that was slightly rougher. She traced it with her middle finger and realized that it was a scar. A scar that had the form of a lightning bolt.

"It's not possible. It's not possible. It's not possible." She chanted to herself in panic.

She tried to open the door next, hoping to get out and escape from the strange situation she was in but it was closed, locked from the outside. Just like the Dursleys used to do to Harry in the books, before he came to Hogwarts.

Maybe someone was pulling a prank on her. Maybe one of the girls from juvie. Possible, she supposed, but that didn't explain the scar on her forehead.

She looked at her hands in desperation and realized they were much smaller than she remembered them. She wasn't exactly tall, she was petite in fact but last time she checked her hands were bigger. And now that she was actually paying attention, her legs were too. She was a lot shorter than she had been yesterday.

Was it yesterday? How long had passed since she had been hit by lightning? Was she in a coma? Dreaming some really messed-up dream?

Was it just a coincidence that she had been reading Harry Potter the last day she had been awake before finding herself here, wishing she had magic, and then she woke up to apparently being in a cupboard and with a lightning bolt scar on her forehead?

"No, no, no. I didn't mean it so literally. I didn't want to be Harry Potter! Who would want to be Harry Potter? His life is a nightmare! I mean, sure he has magic, but that's the only good thing about his life." Then, a thought struck her and she smiled without realizing it. "Oh my god! Does it mean I have magic?"

She shook her head, feeling stupid. "Okay, let's try not to get carried away. I'm sure there's a logical explanation for what's going on. Right? I mean, I can't really be Harry Potter. It's absurd. Things like that just don't happen. Though, I suppose, being struck by lightning and survive – possibly – doesn't often happen either."

While she was trying to calm down, she heard footsteps over her head. Someone was on the stairs and quickly reaching the place just outside the cupboard she was locked in. With her heart beating in her chest like a hammer on iron, she waited. She didn't have to wait long because a second later someone was pounding on the door and shouting with a strident voice "Girl, get up! It's time for breakfast!"

The voice was unfamiliar and yet somehow, it was exactly like she had imagined Petunia Dursley to sound like. And if it was really Petunia on the other side of that door, then she doubted the breakfast was for her.

She got up reluctantly when she heard the door unlocking and got out of the stiffening room. She looked around herself for a second, at the unfamiliar house, freakishly tidy and clean, all white with flowery wallpaper and marble tiles. It was creepy.

Then she followed the woman – possibly Petunia Dursley – to the kitchen.

"Hurry up girl and make breakfast!" The woman with a strangely long neck and pale blonde hair screamed at her.

"Yes, madam." Harry replied indifferently. She was used to this kind of people. She had met hundreds of them during the years. She knew that the best way to react was for her to do as she was told without protesting, until she was in a more favourable position to strike back, that was. She was not going to be humiliated and be treated like a slave forever, after all.

She started with the bacon and sausages, then the scrambled eggs, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, buttered toast and finally the coffee. Fortunately, she had practiced during the time she had lived in the foster families. A lot of them expected her to make breakfast, often dinner as well and clean around the house.

She took two pieces of buttered toast for herself and a cup of coffee. Petunia glared at her but didn't say anything to protest.

"This is your list of chores for today. Go wash yourself up and then start."

"Yes, madam." She said again. She watched a huge man with moustaches and blonde hair entered the kitchen, a very fat boy of about six or seven years old, following him.

'Vernon and Dudley, I presume.' She thought with a grimace. She left the kitchen a moment later without saying anything, ignoring the glares directed in her direction and got up the stairs. She found the bathroom after a few mistakes and closed herself inside. She immediately looked at her reflection in the mirror and like she thought, she not only looked smaller but also younger, by ten years more or less. There were some differences too from how she had looked before. Her eyes had been hazel, for instance, but now they were emerald green while her hair was a shade or two darker and curlier. Her face was slightly fuller but also prettier, like all the wrong features in her face had been fixed somehow. Her nose, for example, had been slightly bigger and her mouth larger but her lips less full, her teeth not so white and straight.

She looked more beautiful now, at seven years old than she did when she had been sixteen.

It was yet another thing that proved, without any doubt, that she was somewhere much different from where she had been before. And somehow, the three people downstairs, so much similar to the descriptions in Harry Potter, finally convinced her that yes, she was at number four Privet Drive, and, from the looks of it, she was Harry Potter too, though a female version of him.

She showered quickly, not losing any more time and risking making the Dursleys mad – all the while thinking that she was going to kill them sooner or later, it was just a matter of when, she just needed to make a plan to get away with it (she hoped that, if she did indeed have magic, that it could help her somehow) – and then she started her list of chores. She had to clean the house, mow the lawn, wash Vernon's car and a bunch of other things.

Many hours later, after a 'light' lunch, which consisted of ham and bread with one single glass of water, she cooked dinner, once again having something that consisted more of a snack than a real meal. Once she was again in the cupboard under the stairs, alone, she finally had the chance to think about everything that had happened and what she was supposed to do from that moment on.

If she really was in Harry Potter's place, that meant that she would receive her letter once she reached eleven and she would go to Hogwarts. While that sounded absolutely amazing, the other things that had happened to him were not and going to Hogwarts and joining the Wizarding World meant that she had Voldemort to worry about.

Voldemort was set on killing Harry Potter, he was obsessed with it. And he was, also, unfortunately, insane. She knew she could have reached some kind of deal with Tom Riddle, who was a self-serving psychopath but a rational one. And it just so happened that Tom Riddle's greatest fear was death. There was no dealing with Voldemort though. Not as he was, anyway.

Was there a way to make him sane again? Harry wondered if it was because of the horcruxes that his mind had deteriorated as he had. Was there a way to get his soul back together, or at least a big part of it? Would that help him?

Harry decided that she was going to search information on soul magic, maybe even necromancy. She needed to learn all she could before she had to make a decision about it.

Fortunately, she had an advantage. Not only she remembered everything that happened in the books and that meant that she could plan her moves very much in advance but, luckily for her, she was a horcrux herself. And Voldemort, once he would learn of it, wouldn't want to destroy a piece of his own soul, would he? Tom Riddle certainly wouldn't. But it was difficult, predicting what an insane person would do. His insanity made Voldemort unpredictable, and that was something Harry didn't like one bit.

She prided herself on her knowledge and understanding of human nature. It was the reason why she was so good at manipulating and using other people. Because she could use their weaknesses to her advantage. People were usually predictable. They were usually moved by greed, thirst for power or knowledge, ambition, love, hate, their twisted desires.

And while she knew what moved Voldemort, she couldn't say if his hate towards Harry Potter would win over his self-preservation. After all, if he thought she was a threat to him because she was aware of where the other horcruxes were, he would probably sacrifice the piece of soul that resided in her scar just to eliminate the threat.

Still, it was too early to think about this now, where she couldn't do anything about it. First, there were other things she needed to figure out, after all it would be years before she had to deal with Voldemort in the flesh.

She had no intention of following the script, so to say. There was no way she would end up in Gryffindor. Harry may have managed to convince the sorting hat to put him there, but she knew she couldn't. And, to be honest, she didn't even want to.

Slytherin was probably the most obvious house, and there she could certainly start to build her own following. She needed allies after all, as brilliant as she was, she needed numbers on her side, she couldn't do this on her own. And yet, being a member of Slytherin House was a glaring red flag.

Maybe there was a chance she could convince the sorting hat to put her in Ravenclaw instead? It was a rather neutral house and nobody would bat an eyelid if she ended up there, they would just assume she was smart, bookish. And she could definitely play that part without difficulty. She loved reading and learning, so it wouldn't even be acting really. But could she gain the same number of followers as she would in slytherin house if she played her cards right? And could she still convince slytherin members to follow her if she wasn't one of them? And yet being a ravenclaw would open more possibilities when it came to other houses. It was something that needed careful consideration. Of course, that was all based on the fact that she could actually convince the Sorting Hat not to put her in slytherin, if that was what she would decide.

But first things first, she needed to know if she had magic now and, if she had, which seemed like a given – because otherwise why would she be there? – she needed to find a way to control it before going to Hogwarts. After all Tom Riddle was able to do it, and yes, he was a magical prodigy, but the fact that she knew that magic existed meant that maybe she could learn to access it before going to Hogwarts. Using magic without a wand would be a huge advantage that she could keep hidden until she had the need for it. Someone trying to hurt her would think that taking her wand from her would render her harmless but if she learned to use magic even without a wand, she would be able to defend herself and take them by surprise.

The problem was that she had no idea how to access her magic. Maybe she could try to find some esoteric books that people who believed in magic tended to look in. Some wicca books or something. Maybe some meditation techniques and some spells that could help her access her magic. And maybe some fantasy books could help her too, give her some ideas on where to start.

Unfortunately, she had no way to go to Diagon Alley, and anyway, it was too risky, people could recognize her and that would bring too much attention to her.

Being able to use magic would also mean being able to 'persuade' the Dursleys to give her an actual room instead of a cupboard in which to sleep and three meals a day. It would definitely improve her living situation a lot. She wasn't above using intimidation, or outright violence, as long as nobody in the wizarding world (or anyone else outside this house) would find out about it, if it meant having a better life before going to Hogwarts.

She smiled to herself and closed her eyes, her mind full with plans and ideas for the days to come.