Welcome to Anima, my Fem!Harry Soulmate AU. I really love this work, and I hope you enjoy it too. I'm not totally satisfied with the first three chapters (with the Dursleys). I'm trying to edit them so that they fit the tone of the rest of the story.

That said, if Hogwarts year 1 AUs aren't your thing feel free to skip Invisus (CHPS 1-16) and read Compendio (Invisus Redux) instead. It's the important bits of this story condensed down into 2,000 words. Obviously, I'd love if you read the whole story. But there are a lot of year 1 AUs out there, and reading the same lines over and over again can get old.

I hope you enjoy this series! Please let me know what you think :)

The only time that Harri Potter had called Aunt Petunia 'mum' she was promptly smacked across the face.

It wasn't the first time her Aunt had hit her, but it was certainly the hardest. "I'm not your mother," Aunt Petunia had snarled. Harri had known that. She had always known, because the Dursleys had made it clear her entire life that Harri was not welcome at Number 4. When she looked back on the moment, Harri wasn't entirely sure what had prompted her. In her five-year-old mind's eye, had she just wanted to be loved? Had she truly believed that her Aunt might reach back with returned affection?

At ten years old Harri knew the truth about that. The Dursleys would never love her. Because Harri is unlovable.

No one liked little Harri Potter. Harriet, as the teachers at school call her. Freak, as her cousin Dudley calls her. The girl, according to her Uncle and Aunt.

She has no friends because everyone knows that Dudley will hit any girls or boys seen with Harri.

Instead, Harri Potter is isolated and alone at school. She mostly hides in the library or music room to avoid Dudley and his gang. Her teachers don't comment, but she suspects that they do notice that she wears oversized boys clothing that is worn and faded. That her glasses are taped together. That she is far too small and skinny for her age. For whatever reason, they don't comment. To Harri, it is only confirmation that she is unlovable.

She tries at school, she really does. Harri is thankfully not penalized for getting better marks than Dudley. Uncle Vernon has always been perfectly content to comment that school, "is for nancy boys and ugly girls anyways". The two refuges that Harri has are books and music. She manages, as if by magic, to be unnoticed when she is reading in the library or strumming a guitar in the music room. She always pictures a shield around herself, a bubble that is exactly Harri sized, that no one can enter. And because she is unlovable Harri Potter, that no one looks for in the first place, she is left alone.

It was during Year 1 of primary school that Harri first read about a mother. In Peter Pan, all the Darling children long to go home to Mrs. Darling. They have a home where Wendy, Michael, and John are beloved by their worried mum. Harri sat there, with her book on her small lap, and pictures it perfectly.

"Mama loves you, my darling girl," a beautiful woman whispers to her. Hair just as red as Harri's.

Everyone has to have a mother. Maybe hers loved her. Maybe, in the whole world, there had once been someone who loved Harri Potter.

She had cried, wet drops hitting the pages. A hole in her heart had grown. Harri had gone back to Number 4, called Aunt Petunia mum, and gotten hit across the face for her trouble.

By the time she was ten, Harri had read the book at least twenty times. It was stained with her tears. Through her longing, Harri was able to picture a woman with fire red hair and a smile that was just for her.

Harri was awoken on the morning of her cousin's eleventh birthday by the shrill voice of her Aunt.

"Up! Get Up! Now!"

Harri woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" She screeched. Harri heard her walking toward the kitchen and the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. She rolled over and tried to remember the dream she had been having. Her mother's face had been perfectly clear while sleeping, but it was quickly fading away. Harri often wondered if there was a picture of her mother somewhere in the house. She knew that she had been Aunt Petunia's sister. But that was it. Harri wasn't allowed to ask questions without being hit.

Her aunt was back outside the door."Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Harri.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn. I want everything perfect for Duddy's birthday."

Harri groaned.

"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing…"

Harri got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harri was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept.

When she was dressed she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all of Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention a staggering number of other electronics.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harri had always been small and skinny for her age. Or maybe it's because they don't feed you enough, the dark part of her thought. Harri hated the Dursleys, but with a resigned kind of hatred. She knew that at eighteen the Dursleys would turn her out and that she would need to be smart enough to survive when they did.

Harri had a thin face, knobbly knees, bright red hair, and hazel eyes. She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had ripped them off her face and stomped on them. The only thing that Harri liked about her appearance was a thin scar on her forehead that was shaped like lightning. She had had it as long as she could remember, and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt was how she had gotten it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harri was turning over the bacon.

"Pull back your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

Uncle Vernon hated untidiness, and since he refused to spend money on Harri, he instead was perpetually displeased with her appearance. Harri imagined that she could look presentable if she had clothes that fit. Or someone to show her how to do her hair instead of fussing at her all the time about it. She pulled it back into a low ponytail. She wished she knew how to plait her hair, but she wasn't sure where to begin.

Harri was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Harri put the plates of eggs and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year." Harri tuned the rest out. She had never received a birthday gift from anyone. Dudley's theatrics about not getting enough only served to make Harri's heart clench in frustration.

While Harri began to eat as quickly as she could, the telephone rang. Aunt Petunia went to answer, while Dudley began to open his gifts.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take the girl."

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror. Harri felt her heart sink. She didn't like Mrs. Figg per se. Mrs. Figg was a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Her whole house smelled of cabbage, but Mrs. Figg had cats and a piano. Harri liked cats a good deal, as they only seemed to like a select number of people. Harri was one of them.

Harri also relished the time she could spend at Mrs. Figg's piano. It was old and slightly out of tune, but Mrs. Figg let Harri rattle around on it for hours. With no one to teach her, Harri checked out primers form the library and played old sheet music that Mrs. Figg had collected through the years. There was also a hymnal that Harri had stolen from church two Christmas' ago when the Dursleys had made their biannual pilgrimage to the Anglican parish.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harri as though she had planned this. Harri felt quite sorry for Mrs. Figg but worse for herself. It might be weeks before she got to play again.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl."

The Dursleys often spoke about Harri like this, as though she wasn't there- or rather, as though she was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"What about whats-her-name, your friend- Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harri put in hopefully. "Or call Mrs. Figg back. I promise I won't be any trouble for her."

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" snarled Aunt Petunia. "I suppose we could take her to the zoo," she continued, "and leave her in the car."

"That car's new, she's not sitting in it alone…"

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't crying- it had been years since he'd really cried- but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let her spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I… don't… want… her… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "She always spoils everything!" He shot Harri a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

Just then the doorbell rang- "Oh good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically- and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. Harri had never liked how he looked at her. Like she was gum on the bottom of his shoe. He'd called her a slag several times, a word that she was certain he'd heard from his brother and didn't understand. Harri had not either until she had looked it up on the new library computer. Harri hoped that she didn't have to use computers too often, as they often acted strangely. The librarian, fresh from her orientation on how the new technology worked, was befuddled why it always acted up after Harri used it.

Half an hour later, Harri, who couldn't believe that she was going somewhere public with the Dursleys, was sitting in the back of the car with Piers and Dudley on the ways to the zoo. She had seen pictures of animals in an encyclopedia and was hopeful about seeing a tiger or lion. Maybe big cats would like her like their domestic cousins.

Maybe they would like her enough to eat Dudley.

"I'm warning you," Uncle Vernon had said, taking Harri aside before they left. "Any funny business, anything at all- and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harri.

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe her. No one ever did. From her bubble of solitude to the computers acting up, strange things often occurred around Harri.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harri letting her hair remain unbound, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut her hair to her ears. Harri spent a sleepless night worrying about looking like a little boy the next day at school. Next morning, however, she had gotten up to find her hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. She had been given a week in her cupboard for this, thankful as always that she had snuck food and water so that she wouldn't starve.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers and not with her piano, to be spending the day with animals.

It was a sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance. The smiling lady in the van had asked Harri if she wanted anything, but Petunia had said no for Harri, commenting on young girls and their figures.

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harri was allowed to finish the first. Harri loved food. She could never eat much without feeling ill, but she loved the rare taste of something good. Often the Dursleys would give Harri leftovers that were stale in the fridge. Or only rice with no curry. Never the expensive part of a meal. At restaurants, Aunt Petunia would make Harri split with her, and would only give Harri the parts of her meal that she didn't like.

After lunch, they went to the Reptile House. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can- but at the moment it was fast asleep.
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass, but the snake snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned and shuffled away.

Harri moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. She wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harri's.

It winked

Harri started. Then she looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. She looked back at the snake and winked too.

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, and then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harri a look that said quite plainly:
"I get that all the time."

Now Harri, used to wanting no one to see her, felt the sudden need to be invisible with the snake. She pulled her bubble around herself in her mind. Just the snake and Harri. No one would notice them.

"I know," Harri murmured. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harri asked. This time as she spoke Harri thought she heard a hiss to her voice. The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harri peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?" Harri hissed. She was sure of it now, she was speaking to a snake like a snake. She had no idea how she was doing it.

The boa jabbed its tail at the sign again, and Harri read on: Bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see- so you've never been to Brazil?"

The snake sadly shook its head. Harri looked around and saw that the Dursleys were leaving the Reptile House. They had forgotten Harri, which was ideal because she was certainly doing something that Uncle Vernon would not approve of.

Harri had seen pictures of Brazil before in the library encyclopedia. She pictured the rich Amazon filled with life. She felt something funny inside of her. Like a tingle in the back of her throat, or an itch behind her eyes.

"Do you want to go to Brazil," Harri asked. She didn't know how she knew, but she was certain that if she willed it the snake would be in the Amazon.

It nodded its head. Not knowing how, Harri willed the glass partition out of existence.

It vanished.

She reached out to touch the snake, and her fingers gently brushed the warm dry head. "Thank you ssspeaker," the snake hissed, and was gone.

Harri started as if from a trance. The glass was gone, the snake was gone, and the Dursleys were not in the Reptile House any longer. She needed to catch up. As she rushed from the room, the sounds of people gasping in panic followed her.

They had noticed that the glass and snake were gone.

Harri laid in her dark cupboard much later and wondered about that had occurred. How had the glass vanished? How had she talked to a snake? Had she really sent it to Brazil? How?

Harri tried to will something else to happen, but she didn't know how. The feeling of the Reptile House, of seeing a trapped animal that clearly wished to be elsewhere had filled her with something.

Rage, she realized.

The snake was like her. She felt rage that the Dursleys treated her this way. No better than an animal at the zoo.

She'd lived with the Dursleys for almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as she could remember, ever since she'd been a baby. She couldn't remember being in the car when her parents had died. Sometimes, when she strained her memory during long hours in the cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on her forehead. This, she supposed, was the crash, though she couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.

When Harri had been younger she had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relative coming to take her away. But, Harri had no one.

Little Harri Potter was unlovable, but apparently she could send a snake to Brazil. That was something at least.

For updates about when new chapters will be posted in this work, take a look at my user profile. If you're curious about the main goals of this seven-part series I'll lay it out here-

1. Soulmate AU/Gender Change- I love soulmate AUs and I love the idea of Voldemort and Harry Potter being connected and bound up in each other's souls. I absolutely love several fem!Harry fics, so please be aware that I'm building off a 'fannon' as well as creating my own version of fem!Harry.

2. Dark Lord and 'Light Lord' are concepts that have far-reaching magical impacts. Voldemort didn't have a very strong motivation IMO. Let's give him one. I'm going to attempt to tie a lot of 'Pureblood' Culture, add a different perspective of light and dark magic, and do some world building. Magic is such a big playground that has a ton of development available. My main focus will be expanding Potions, Magic Creatures, Magical Festivals, and general politics of the wizarding world.

3. Severus Snape is a complex man. Dumbledore is a complex man. Sometimes it may seem like I'm getting close to the line of badguy!Dumbledore. Let me assure you now that this is not a Dumbledore bashing fic. He's making decisions for real reasons that will take several books to be made clear.