Disclaimer: I disclaim.

A/N: I did do some research on autism, even though it's not the main point of the story as you will soon find out. I can't say anymore, otherwise I would ruin the surprise.

Many thanks to my fantastic reviewers and just look how many there are after only one chapter.

In alphabetical order, the people who actually took twenty seconds (sometimes more) to tell me they read and often like my story. :)

ahappyjtm: Thank you, I'm glad you find it interesting, I would hate for my story to be boring. (Nothing worse than a boring story, unless it's a boring story more than twenty chapters long.)

Ali (honouranddeceit@msn.com): Thanks, and no I'm not planning to stop writing. I don't know how often I update, but until now I've written one chapter for one of my stories about every few days, so the chapters should be coming pretty fast.

athenakitty: So many questions :), everything will be answered, don't worry.

BP: Thank you, I'm flattered and I definitely plan on continuing this fic.

Brit: Thanks and yes, Harry isn't exactly a very happy teenager.

fyre: Intriguing is definitely good, exactly what I was aiming for. I know the pairing are a bit odd, but it's all planned out. I'm glad you already trust me on that.

gizachick: Thank you, but try to be a bit more patient :) It's only the first chapter after all.

Joe: Thank you and I hope I haven't let you wait too long for your taste.

mandraco: Thank you and you'll see even more soon.

MaraWeaves: What do you mean begging is annoying? It's what spurs me on :) Yes, I did do some research on autism, even though it's not the main point of the story as you will find out. I always I make sure my stories are based on truthful information next to my own fantasy.

MiruSedna: Thank you and I will write more, don't worry.

Miss-Aurelia: Of course I haven't forgotten you. Thank you very much for reviewing this story too and I'm glad you like it. The first chapter was meant to confuse you, but everything will be cleared up soon enough. Immediately after reading your review I started another chapter of At Death's Door, which you have already read and reviewed. :)

momma-dar: Thanks, I hope you liked this chapter.

rach: Thank you and I will definitely write more.

Shells33: That's so sweet, thank you. As you've seen, yes the four have been told about Harry and they will discover more about him throughout the story, as will you. So you will just have to be patient. :p

Slice: And the plan is to keep you intrigued ^.^

Core of Power

Chapter 2: Illusions of Freedom

This was not how he had wanted to gain his freedom.

He wanted to be free to explore the castle, without having to sneak around like he had always done.

More importantly, he wanted to be free to go outside, explore the grounds, fly high above the quidditch pitch like he had seen so many of the students do from his windows and maybe even explore the forest where he knew many magical creatures dwelled.

But no, even if there was a possibility he was allowed to leave his rooms now in their company, he hadn't gotten freedom, he had gotten four babysitters.

Shit.

But then again, it was better than having to stay in his rooms alone. The only things to do in there were working in the small garden that was out on the terrace, fly his broom, even if he could only go as high as a few feet because otherwise he would get outside the obscuring charm and collide with the shield charm, and read books.

Of course he could draw or paint, play with his exploding snap cards or other small things, but he had quickly gotten bored with playing games on his own and he had already drawn everything in the rooms, including the plants in the garden.

As for reading. He had read all the books Albus had given him, but they were all muggle, both educational and entertainment. So he had taken to stealing books from the school library. He would hide them until he had finished them and then bring them back, only to take more back with him, all in the cloak of night of course. It may not be what he really wanted to be doing with his days, but there was simply nothing else.

The headmaster had talked to him about the plan to introduce him to some students, or at least tried to. He never liked talking to Albus, the man didn't just make him feel like he wasn't good enough, but also uncomfortable, he didn't really know why. So he had just listened to the old wizard telling him he couldn't say anything about being the boy-who lived to any student, couldn't let anyone see his scar and couldn't tell anyone his real name. For his own protection of course.

He needed an other name. He could understand this, there were still people out hunting for him and what would be more alluring than a seemingly helpless Harry Potter out in the open. This time he did respond to Albus, he didn't want an annoying name, now did he? The solution was simple really, he would just use his full name, the world only knew him as Harry after all.

As for his last name, his mother's maiden name was too obvious, so Albus chose the name of one of his parent's best friends. He remembered him, the werewolf, he had been at the castle one time to visit the headmaster and he had seen the man walking through the halls about two times that same year when he had sneaked out at night.

That had been the most unpleasant year at Hogwarts for him up till then, he hadn't been allowed out of his rooms even once. Apparently there had been someone special out looking for him, but Sirius Black had gotten the dementor's kiss and the paranoia had passed. Of course just as all the years before, he had left his rooms at night, even if it hadn't been allowed, and he had seen Sirius, had even talked to him once, but only after he had seen a rat name Peter Pettigrew exposed as a traitor to two thirteen year old students called Seamus Finnigan and Ron weasel or something like that.

He had shown himself afterwards, when they had been alone. Sirius had told him everything then and he had believed his godfather, but he hadn't been able to safe him from getting captured by aurors that same night. No one had believed the two Gryffindors, so no one would believe him either.

But his thoughts were wandering again.

Heron Lupin, that would be his public name and his scar would hidden by both a very powerful glamour charm and his hair. He wouldn't be sorted or go to classes, but the four guardians might be allowed to take him out of his rooms in the future.

Luckily he had known better than to let his hopes up about all this. He knew Albus would take any precaution thought necessary to keep him safe.

Still hidden away.

So now he was going to meet the four students who would interact with him, as McGonagall had put it. He had probably seen all four of them before and he knew what Hermione and Padma looked like for certain as he had avoided them many times over the years in the library, but now he got to actually talk to them.

Maybe they would take him outside to fly in the future, or visit the greenhouses, but it wasn't very likely. Albus probably wanted them not to leave the building, or even these rooms, and not let him do anything dangerous, like flying high enough so his feet didn't touch the ground. He snorted at the thought.

Suddenly a soothing presence entered his mind, calming him down from his growing anger. It had helped him a great deal over the past years, especially because he was very bad at controlling his anger when he got to thinking like this.

Yes I'm better now, thank you

I don't know if I can go outside

No I won't leave the grounds

I won't let them take me away from the grounds either

Yes I am a bit nervous

I know they won't hurt me

I know you will protect me, you always do

He could hear people moving and talking outside the portrait entrance to his rooms. They were here.

The portrait swung open and as Albus entered he looked up from his book, the muggle book he had switched to the moment he heard movement in Albus' office. Before he had actually been reading the seventh year potions book for the third time, he would really love to try to make one of them some day.

At the small cough from Albus to get his attention he focused back on the matter at hand, his babysitters. Behind the headmaster stood four seventh year students, ages ranging from seventeen to eighteen, all dressed in the black school robes, but with different colours in their crests and ties.

"Heron, may I introduce you to Padma Patil of Ravenclaw, Hermione Granger of Gryffindor, Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff and Draco Malfoy of Slytherin."

"Children meet Heron Lupin."

They gave various greetings and he nodded back. They seemed a bit uncomfortable to him, not that he felt very relaxed with four strange people in his rooms, but they acted like they were on edge. Albus must have told them that he was autistic, not normal, freak, or at least warned them to act in a certain way

He had to repress the urge to glare at the headmaster, because now he had to try to get them to act as themselves around him and he really didn't know how to act himself. Social behaviour had not been part of his education and was very difficult to learn out of books. He wondered if they would report everything that happened, like Albus probably wanted, or if they could keep secrets.

After a few seconds Draco apparently had enough of just standing there and pushed passed the other students to go sit at the large wooden table that stood below the largest window. The Slytherin put his bag down on top of the table and pulled out two books, a quill, a small jar of ink and some parchment. The others slowly followed his example and also sat down to do some work.

Harry looked at them in surprise and almost smiled at their actions, maybe they would act as themselves despite his presence.

He took some time to study them, during which Padma kept throwing him nervous glances, then picked up his book and sat down next to Hermione, across from Draco.

Albus, seeing that the children would get on fine without him, left silently and closed the portrait behind him.

Harry couldn't concentrate on the stupid book about physics, he had already read it a few months ago anyway, and the people around him were so much more interesting.

"Do you have to stare at us?" Snapped Draco suddenly, startling Harry so much he actually made a very embarrassing eaping sound.

But Hermione was quick to come to come to his defence. "Malfoy, leave him alone. You know what the headmaster told us." So he had been right, they had been told about him.

"Well, he needs to stop it." Draco was scowling now and Harry could feel a strong dislike coming from the Slytherin. He hadn't done anything wrong had he?

"Why? Does he make you uncomfortable?" Hermione taunted, making Padma and Ernie smile a little.

"Yes he does actually." Draco sneered and turned back to him. "Why are you staring at us anyway? You haven't even said anything since we came in here."

He cocked his head at the blond, funny how much a simple question could confuse him. Albus had long since given up on expecting answers from him and had stopped asking direct questions.

"I..." He actually had to cough to clear his throat. "I don't know." He said softly. "It's just.... I never really meet people, only watch them from a distance."

"You never meet people? Don't you get out of these rooms?" Padma asked him, flipping her dark braid back over her shoulder.

Harry just shrugged.

"What about the headmaster then, he must talk with you, he takes care of you right?" Ernie added to the conversation.

Draco sneered. "Yeah hasn't he taught you not to stare at people?"

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "Malfoy don't be rude."

"Shut it Mudblood." Came the immediate reply.

Harry, wanting to break up the beginning argument, answered the question about the headmaster. His voice was very soft and rough from lack of use. None the less, or maybe because of this, the two bickering students stopped talking and listened to him. "Albus is always very busy and the house elves don't really have a lot of time either, so..."

"So you hardly ever see or talk to people." Ernie looked shocked and Hermione immediately drew another conclusion.

"So if Snape hadn't caught you sneaking around, you would still be in these rooms alone?"

He nodded.

"Well you're not alone now Heron, I'll.... we'll ask Dumbledore if we can see you more often."

"You can't tell him I said anything." He said quickly.

"You haven't said anything wrong about him, don't worry." Ernie said, trying to put him at ease.

But Draco clearly had an other impression. "You don't want him to know you spoke at all, do you?"

Harry nodded.

"Why?" The Slytherin asked, giving him a shrewd look.

He couldn't tell them about the disappointment that he had seen on Albus face when he wouldn't listen to the headmaster's muggle lessons, when it became clear at his relatives house that he wasn't a normal boy and this autism wasn't curable, when Ollivander told them there wasn't a suitable wand for him.

In the beginning he hadn't trusted the headmaster enough to talk to him, he hadn't trusted anyone, but that improved over time and he had started talking again. Later Albus tried to teach him things, but wouldn't listen to what he himself had to say, so both of them got frustrated and Harry started just reading the books. All the while he felt Albus' disappointed in him and when he noticed that the headmaster came by less and less often, he just stopped talking.

He wouldn't tell them this, it had hurt too much.

Harry picked up his pen and started spinning it on the tabletop, holding it in place with one finger and keeping it spinning and spinning with his other hand.

"Heron? What...."

Hermione cut him off. "Leave him be Malfoy."

The four of them went back to their homework, leaving him alone with his thoughts, until the headmaster came back about an hour later to collect them.

And as Harry walked them to the doorway, no one noticed the pen still kept spinning on top of the table.

End chapter 2.

You will get a little bit more of how Harry is seen by others later in the story, although the perspective won't change. It will become clearer then how different he seems to others, while to us his thinking pattern is almost normal.

Please review, I need them to live, and to write of course. :)