Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN. Sorry for the delay, I had a lot on my mind the last few days so I wasn't able to write much.
Thank you for all the positive reviews, it's what gives me the motivation to write faster, because I don't want to disappoint you ;-)
Darkwill0w and Dericof Diname asked about how Voldemord being his father will affect him, and while I don't want to spoiler anything I will tell you that he won't find out for a while yet, so anything that makes Harry resembling Tom Riddle is because I deliberately created a similar childhood environment, however the two of them are two separate persons and while in some ways similar, in other ways fundamentally different.
On another note I forgot to mention last chapter that I won't do dialect. You probably already saw it on Hagrid, but I am not an English speaking native, so while I think I know enough about the language to write a story, I would probably only ridicule myself if I tried to write dialect. Now on with the chapter:

"speech"
'thoughts'
"spells"
$parseltounge$

Chapter 3: A new World

Harry arrived at the Leaky Cauldron around 9am in the morning. Immediately after stepping outside the bus he changed his hair until it was almost white and more than fifteen inches long, before binding it into a pony tail. He hid his scar and rearranged a few bones in his face so it looked more pronounced and a little older.

Feeling secure with his new persona he walked into the pub, straight to the wall with the hidden archway. After three tries he finally got the right combination from what he remembered Hagrid doing.

Breaking into a secure stride he looked like he owned the street as he walked down the ally and into Gringotts. Seeing that it was still morning, very little customers were into the bank. He walked up to the goblin that was the farthest away from the other customers and addressed him:

"Good morning Sir, I'm Harry Potter and I would like to speak with you in private about some matters"

The goblin only sneered at him. "Harry Potter was here yesterday and you don't look anything like him, so get lost before I call the guards."

"That's kind of the point, don't you think" he said, while changing his face for a moment, showing the goblin his scar, before changing back.

The goblins eyes widened for a second before he answered.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, I'm sorry I did not recognise you. I'm Runestock, please follow me to the back, where we can talk"

The two of them settled in a small conference room and Runestock started: "So, what might you need, Mr. Potter, that you would come disguised to our bank?"

"I wanted to know more about the status of my vault here, as I have only found out that I am a wizard three days ago, and that I have a vault here, yesterday. I want to know how much money I have, and what other things you can tell me that I own. A house in Godric's Hollow is of particularly interest to me."

By the time Harry had finished, the goblin sat there with his eyes wide open.

"You mean to tell me that you, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the last of the Most Ancient and Noble Hose of Potter, only found out about magic three days ago? What have you been doing all these years?"

"I was pretty much abandoned on my aunt's doorsteps, a muggle who rather hated magic and everything that came with it, and that includes me. I need to find out as much as possible about what resources I have, and Gringotts was of course my first step."

Now Runestock grinned at Harry. "If you wait for a moment, I will gather the information for you, however for some matters concerning your Family Vaults I will need to get my superior." The flattered goblin left Harry sitting in the conference room, while he went to see his superior. The young Potter heir was very well behaved, and seemed to think of them as equals. The fact that he said that Gringotts was his first step also showed much about his priorities. There was business to be made, he could just feel it.

In the meantime Harry thought about what was just said. A family vault? Yesterday he was in his trust vault, meaning he had multiple vaults and the trust vault was probably only a piece of the whole. Also the 'Most Ancient and Noble House'-Title hat taken him by surprise. What did that mean? He knew already that he had much to learn, but it only seemed to get worse.

Finally after some time Runestock came back with another goblin who introduced himself as Ragnok, Branch Manager of Gringotts London.

Harry was a bit surprised that such an important person was personally coming to see him, but dismissed it as something connected do with his title.

"Mr. Potter, it is nice to see someone so young interested into the true treasure in life: Gold.

Let's come to the point: You have two vaults connected to the Potter name, your family vault and your trust vault.

Your family vault currently holds 4.462.125 Galleons 10 Sickles and 5 Knuts, as well as countless artefacts and family heirlooms and the deeds to your properties, however only the Lord Potter can open it and step inside, so while you are not the Lord, that vault and everything in it is unattainable to you."

"What would I have to do to become Lord Potter?"

"It is relatively simple: once you are fourteen you must come here to claim your vault. You can then take your family ring and the vault, as well as all the things attached to it. As long as you are not wearing your family ring, you will be unable to breach the ancient wards of your vault and around your properties."

Harry grumbled about that for a moment. He was so rich, but couldn't do anything with his money because he was too young.

"What about my trust vault then? I have the key and I was able to enter it yesterday"

"Ah, your trust vault. It currently contains 9900 Galleons and will be automatically refilled to hold 10.000 Galleons in it by the end of the year. While you can access your trust vault to buy school supplies you can only take one hundred Galleons a year without the approval of your Magical Guardian. He-"

"Wait, Magical Guardian? I have no idea who that is, as I said already before to Mr. Runestock, I only found out about Magic three day ago when I got my Hogwarts letter"

Ragnok looked Harry in the eyes for a moment, seemingly annoyed because he was interrupted before continuing with his speech.

"As I said, your guardian limited the amount of money you can draw by yourself to a hundred Galleons, and you have already withdrawn them this year. Your Magical Guardian is Albus Dumbledore, who as Headmaster of Hogwarts is the Guardian to every Muggleborn or Orphan in Hogwarts if not other wisely determined."

"Why would Dumbledore be my Guardian? I mean, I am the Boy-Who-Lived, I'm sure there are hundreds of Witches and Wizards out there who would take me in, instead of leaving me with that farce of a family…" The more he thought about it, the more he was annoyed with Dumbledore. Not only did he put him on the doorsteps of hell… er, to his relatives without telling him about magic or even looking out if he was treated well, but interfered with his ability to leave that place.

"Is there a way for me to get to some of the money without Dumbledore's approval or even knowledge? Or can I get someone else as my guardian?"

"It is very unlikely that Dumbledore will give up his guardianship of you or he would have done so a long time ago, and he is in a position of power where it will be impossible to go against him legally. The best way for you will be to wait it out until you are fourteen and then take on your Lordship, which will emancipate you automatically.

Now, about your money. It will be impossible to get to the Potter Assets without your Family Ring, however there might be a way to get to at least some money."

Harry looked suspicious at the ginning faces of Ragnok and Runestock.

"Well, let's hear it."

"As you may know, your mother was a Muggleborn. During her school time she set up her own account and never closed it or merged it with the Potter vaults. As it has not been used in over ten years it has been collecting interest nicely and holds at the moment 35.252 Galleons 3 Sickles and 15 Knuts. It is only a low security vault, which does not mean that it is not protected, however there is no family magic cast on it and everyone from the Evans family can claim it. Now, according to Ministry laws, only an adult may do so, however we have our own set of laws and rules, and it matters little to us what the wizards want or don't want, as long as our laws are uphold."

"Are you saying you would let me take the gold from the Evans vault?"

The two goblins looked at each other, and grinned, before looking back, now with a hard look that could have broken steel.

"We may do you a favour of, lets say, forgetting to report the claiming of the Evans vault to the Ministry and to your Guardian, if you will do us a favour as well."

Now Harry was really suspicious. He thought it over what it could mean for him to owe the goblins a favour. After all he had heard that they were only interested in money, what if the favour was all the rest of his money?

Two minutes later he looked up at Ragnok, with an equally hard look on his face.

"What would you have me do for you?"

"Well, seeing as you are the most famous boy in England, you hold a significant amount of influence. In three years time you will most likely claim your Lordship which includes a seat in the Wizengamot, the Wizarding Government, so it may be in our interest to have your ear should a situation arise."

He took another minute to look at his problem from different sides before answering:

"I will owe you a favour, however the favour will not have anything to do with my gold, possessions, properties or anything else I own. It must not interfere with my education or cause a direct risk to my life or health and take me no longer than one month to fulfil. Also, if you do not call in the favour within ten years it will be forfeit. Is that acceptable?"

Now it was the goblins turn to look surprised.

They turned to each other, talking fast in some language he didn't recognise.

After a few minutes they turned back to him, a smile back on their faces.

"You are an interesting boy, Mr. Potter, not many would have seen through all the loopholes and dangers that come with owing a dept. Very well, we will draw up a contract for both of us to sign that will be magically binding. Should one of us break the contract, his magic and life will be in the hand of the other. "

One hour later a very satisfied young Harry Potter was leaving Gringotts to continue his plans for the day. With him he had a copy of the contract they had drawn up together, as well as an enchanted moneybag that held five thousand Galleons he took from the Evans vault. His next stop was to find a place to stay for the rest of the summer.

The Leaky Cauldron was an option, however it was one of the most visited places in the Ally since almost everyone had to get though in order to enter the Diagon Ally from London, and he didn't want to take the chance at being discovered as Harry Potter.

Instead he headed into the other direction toward one of the side streets called Sun Ally.

According to the goblins there were a few motels and pubs where one could live for longer while staying out of the way from the busiest areas of Diagon Ally.

He finally found a cosy place called "The Pub In The Park".

The rent was not the cheapest, being forty Galleons a week, however after visiting his room he thought it was well worth it. The room had a huge four-poster bed big enough for two and a cosy love seat, as well as a desk where he could learn for school and plenty of space to exercise. He also had his own bath, with a tub and all surrounding comports needed including three meals a day to be eaten in the magically enlarged garden behind the pub, hence the name of the place. All in all he was very satisfied, and paid, under the name James Hunters, four weeks rent in advance until the September 1st, when he would go to Hogwarts.

As it was lunchtime already, he ate until he was completely saturated.

Then he made his way back to the Leaky Cauldron, changing back his appearance, summoned the Knight Bus and returned to his relative's home.

He went up to his room, packed all his clothes, and took the things he brought the day before and told his owl Hedwig, as he had named her, that she should fly to Diagon Ally and look for him there. Then he carried his stuff down the stairs where he met his Aunt and Uncle.

While his Uncle Vernon stared at him with barely concealed hatred, his Aunt Petunia had an unreadable expression on her face.

"I've found something to stay for a month, and then I will be in school. Hopefully I will never have to come back, so this is good by. Since I am supposed to be living with you, if someone comes looking for me, tell them I am still living here and that I am only out visiting a friend or something."

His Uncle snorted at that, and said something about 'freaks' and 'no friends' under his breath.

His Aunt still with the strange expression said a half hearted good by and wished him good luck, something that surprised him to no ends.

Again summoning the Knight Bus, he left Nr. 4 Privet Drive behind.

The next week was the busiest Harry had ever had. After carrying all his belongings to his new room, he started looking through the books for the first time. He remembered that he was not allowed to use magic out of school, however no one had ever complained when he did magic without his wand, so he could only assume that it was his wand that was monitored, not his magic.

He found out that there where charms that did exactly what he could do without a wand, and compared the effects with his own experiences.

The things that interested him most however, where Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The idea of transforming simple objects into whatever he needed at the moment was astounding, and the ability to defend himself with magic sounded better every time he read it.

He tried both without his wand, however his attempts to fire stinging spells from his hand failed spectacularly and after he blew up a mug when he touched it after his practice and he stopped that practice in favour of transfiguration.

After hours of touching and concentrating on his matchstick, willing it to become a needle, he managed to turn it silvery and it had a pointed end, however after all the practice he was exhausted and called it a day.

Next morning he went shopping again, this time for more clothes as he had only his uniform robes and needed more everyday clothes in order not to stand out.

He had taken to using his new face all the time so no one would recognise him, and had already started getting to know some of the locals he met during his meals, however he was more of a loner and didn't talk very much, only asking questions about wizarding customs here and there.

While he stood browsing through the clothes at Madam Malkins, he met another boy with a pale pointed face and blond hair walked up to him. The two of them got talking a little until Harry groaned "Aggrr, I so wish I could practice magic before entering the school. I mean, it's stupid not being able to practice beforehand. And think of all the things you could do to make your life easier."

With a sigh Harry looked back at the other boy who had introduced himself as Darco Malfoy who was watching him with a grin on his face.

"You know, my father is on the Board of Governors of Hogwarts and he told me that I could practice at home. You see, they can only monitor where magic is done, and not who does it. So if you use magic in a place where adult wizards live, they will automatically assume that it was an adult who cast the spell. Only if magic is done where no adult wizards life, someone investigates whose wand cast the spell, so the underage law only hurts the Mudbloods, and nobody cares about them anyway."

"Mudbloods?"

"You know, Wizards and Witches whose parents where Muggleborn. Don't tell me you are one too…"

"No, I think my dad was a Pureblood and my mum was a Muggleborn, however I'm an orphan and grew up with my muggle aunt so I don't really know anything about magic."

By the time he had finished, the Malfoy boy looked at him with disgust.

"A muggle raised Halfblood? You might as well be a Mudblood. And here I thought that you were the decent sort."

He threw Harry a look that said how little he thought of him, before spitting on the ground in front of Harry and walking away.

Harry didn't know what to do at first. Pureblood, Halfblood, Mud-, no wait, Muggleborn? What did it matter? How stupid to despise someone for who his parents were. That was no better than what his relatives had been doing to him for all his live.

He had to find out more about that. Did all wizards think like that?

Ah, well, nothing he could do to change anything about it now. At least he knew he could use magic in his room without getting caught.

After finishing his shopping, he headed back to his room to pack away his new purchases and picked up his books again, this time to practice magic with his wand.

Four hours later it was time for dinner and he was thoroughly drained.

Hedwig, his owl, was watching him closely and sent a disapproving "Hoot" his way.

He had practiced and completed the transfiguration from the day before and found it easy with his wand. The little stick was like an extension of himself that channelled his power into a more potent form. Things like levitation were difficult at first, because he put in to much power into the spell, however after a few minutes practise he could do it even without the awkward hand movements and saying the spell.

After all he had done levitations for years now, there should be no reason that he suddenly would have to say 'Wingardium Leviosa' for it to work.

As he had understood the instruction, the wand movements and said words where necessary to focus the magic into the specific spell, and his intend determined if it would do what it should.

So if he got the words or movement wrong, the magic would focus in anticipation of a different spell, and most likely fail, and if he was not focused on what the spell should do, the magic would be released without a purpose, so it wouldn't work.

Only one who had mastered the spell would be able to forego first the said words and then the movements and cast it with intent alone, focussing on both, the magic and the intent at the same time.

Did that mean he had mastered the levitation spell?

There where no references for casting spells without a wand, which annoyed him to no end.

He knew already that his books offered only a very limited view on magic, after all they where written to be understood by eleven year old first years who had never done magic before, however he wanted to know more.

How did it work, where did it come from? What else could you do with it?

What about the other things he could do with magic? He had already noticed that these magic people where seemingly immune to his mind reading, he only sometimes got a flash at what someone was feeling in general. For example when he looked the goblins in the eye he could feel their anticipation about his answer, or when some man walked up to him and tried to sell him a supposedly enchanted trunk that was enhanced on the inside so he could walk in, he knew the man was trying to cheat him.

He made up his mind and went down for dinner. The next day he would be shopping again.

He woke up early. After eating his breakfast he asked the wife of the innkeeper, who introduced herself as Mary-Jane Stevens, if magically enhanced trunks really existed and where he could get one.

Apparently there was a shop in the Wood Ally three streets down, where the carpenters had their workplace.

Walking into the shop he was met by an old, eager looking man.

"Ah, welcome to 'The Treasure Chest', I'm John Carpenter and you are my first customer today. What can I do for you? A magical school trunk maybe, or a cupboard for your clothes, or are you perhaps looking for something bigger?"

During the talk the man slowly came closer until he almost touched Harry, who was still shivering with the thought of his old cupboard, with an expectant look on his face.

"Er, I'm looking for a school trunk however I plan to buy quite a few books so I'm looking for something a little bigger"

The old man watched Harry appraisingly before taking him to one side of the shop where a few middle sized trunks where standing and answered:

"Here we have our typical school trunks. The basic model is not enhanced in the inside, however you can bind it to you so only you can move or open it. It also has a built in feather light and shrinking charm, you only have to put your hand on the closed trunk and say 'pack' and it will shrink down to a manageable size. 'Unpack' will bring it to normal size it again."

He demonstrated it with one of the trunks. The trunk, formerly almost two feet in every direction scaled down to the size of a matchbox that only weighted maybe a quarter pound.

"I like the features, however I'm looking for something a little… bigger"

"Well then, let's look around. Here we have an excellent model. This trunk here has three compartments. If you open the lid you have your ordinary, if a little space enhanced trunk where you can put in your school supplies like your cauldron and such, but if you close the lid and open one of the two drawers on the side, you can put in your clothes.

The drawers are also bigger on the inside than on the outside, so you have plenty of space, for only a hundred Galleons."

Harry thought about it. He liked the trunk, however it seemed impractical for his books.

"Yesterday when I walked down in Diagon Ally someone tried to sell me a trunk where you could walk into, with a really enhanced space. Do you –"

"NO, I hope you didn't buy that vile thing. Space enhancements like that are unstable in a moveable object. You could use the trunk as long as you didn't carry it around, because if you tried to move a space so heavily enhanced filled with objects, the enchantment would break and all your things inside would be destroyed.

Just think about it, if we had trunks where people could walk into, it wouldn't be long before someone would set up his living quarters in his trunk, and who would still live in an expensive house when you could carry your home around with you.

Every year we get a few delusional idiots who try to get it to work, only to blow themselves up when the enchantment breaks."

Harry stopped listening to the shopkeepers rant and gave a disappointed sigh.

"And here I hoped I would find something useful to keep my books in it…"

The old man went quiet and looked over Harry once more.

"I may have something like that, however it would be… expensive…"

"How costly is expensive?"

"A thousand Galleons at least, depending on the model"

Harry gulped and looked up at the man once more. "Show me"

The two of them walked to the back of the shop where Mr. Carpenter kept his special wares.

"This trunk here is one of my masterpieces: a library trunk. When you open it, you can put your books into it like with a normal trunk, however here the books get shrunk and sent into an especially enchanted space where they will be kept until you summon them out again.

Here look, I put two books in, close the trunk, open it again and the books are gone.

If you want to have your books again you have to touch the trunk and think about the book you want, for example 'A Carpenters Guide'", the book with the same title appeared again, "or you think about what genre the book is, like 'food'", the other book with the title '100 Ways To Cook With Magic' appeared.

"This trunk is the smallest of its kind and can hold up to a thousand books. For a thousand Galleons it could be yours."

Harry was lost in his thoughts again. That was exactly what he was looking for, however a thousand Galleons was a lot of money.

"This library trunk, it has the same basic enchantments like the others you showed me?"

The shopkeeper nodded.

"And only I will be able to open and move them, no one else can look into it?"

"Not without your permission. Once the trunk is keyed to you, only you decide what to do with it. The security is not unbeatable, however it would take even an accomplished curse breaker a while to get into it."

"…"

"I will pay you a thousand galleons for BOTH, the three compartment chest you showed me before, and this library trunk."

"A thousand and fifty, and I will add a little leather bag where you can put in your shrunk trunks in when moving them."

Harry accepted and pulled out his money bag to pay the shopkeeper.

Together they went and packed up his two trunks after Mr. Carpenter showed Harry how to key the trunks to him and how to allow others access to it.

After leaving he made his way back to the main ally looking for the bookstore where he had gotten his first year books.

Harry spent almost all of his morning in 'Flourish and Blotts', the biggest bookstore in Diagon Ally. After buying books that went father into the theory of magic, especially transfiguration, charms and defence, he looked around for books on other things that might interested him.

He finally arrived back his room at two pm and after eating lunch in the garden he started studying for real.

During the next few days Harry read though all of his first year books, and even if he didn't understand everything, he thought he had managed to learn the most important things.

Potions was one of the subjects he couldn't practice at all since the smell and fumes of the potions would attract attention and he didn't think it would go well if he blew up a cauldron by accident like the warnings in the book said that could happen if he made a mistake.

Charms he found the easiest to practise, after all everything he knew about magic from before could be done with charms. In fact, after some intense practise he was able to do almost every charm in the first year book without words and wand movement.

Transfiguration was another subject that came easy to him, after all the most important thing about it was to focus very hard on the outcome you wanted to have and the intent to make it happen, both things he had already practised when he learnt his wandless levitation.

After he finished with the first year textbook he was even able to transfigure a matchstick to a needle without a wand in less than ten seconds, something he had failed miserably only days before. Defence against the Dark Arts was a joke. The only useful thing they would learn in the first year was the disarming charm 'Expelliarmus', the rest were little things like the stinging hex or the tripping jinks, nothing that he could imagine would help someone to defend oneself.

Astronomy and Herbology where both boring as hell, however he found an interesting Herbology book that described the effects one ingredient could have on others that would help him to understand why one potion worked as it did.

Between studying his first year books he looked up other interesting facts.

For example in a book called 'The Pure and the Rest' the author explained why Purebloods where so much better than everyone else. Of course Harry didn't believe that for one second, however in between the propaganda he found interesting laws mentioned that where only applied to Purebloods and no one else.

Apparently time stopped in the Wizarding World some hundreds of years ago, and it was still legal to duel or marry of children without their consent. As the last heir of the 'Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter' many of those obscure laws would applied to him as well, and once he had his Lordship he would hold a heritable seat in the Wizarding Government, something Muggleborns had no chance of ever archiving, no matter how smart or powerful they where. The only way it would be possible for them was through marriage, and even then they would be considered far beneath the rest of the 'noble Purebloods'.

What shocked him most, however, was what he read in a book called 'Powers Ordinary People Could Only Dream Of'.

It described for example wandless magic as something only the oldest and most powerful wizards were capable of. Or his facial transformation was called metamorphmagic and was apparently a very rare born ability. He read that he was only a partial Metamorphmagus, however even that was only present in maybe one out of five thousand Wizards or Witches.

His mind reading was called Legilimency and while very difficult it could be learned by everyone. The only defence against it was something called Occlumency, and he swore to himself that he would learn that as soon as possible.

What worried him most was his ability to speak to snakes. That, apparently was something called Parseltonque and known as the 'Mark of a Dark Wizard', because it was incredibly rare and someone called Salazar Slytherin and the man who killed his parents, Voldemord could both do it.

Another ability he was very interested in was something called Animagic, the ability to transform into the animal that your magic chose for you. Every Witch or Wizard had one possible Animagi-form that could not be chosen but was chosen for oneself by ones magic. However it was said that it would be very difficult and dangerous to learn, and you had to be very good at transfiguration or you could kill yourself in the process, meaning something that had to wait for another few years.

When he finished that book he knew that he would have to hide most of his powers from others. While people finding out about his wandless abilities might give him some respect, it would probably dangerous to be in the spotlight again, before he could defend himself from angry ex-Death Eaters, and if became public knowledge that he was a Parselmouth he would be stamped of as another dark wizard, no matter what he did.

His metamorphmagi gave him some sense of anonymity and therefore security and had to be kept secret too.

Over a week later he was on his way to the infamous Knockturn Ally. He had searched everywhere else for a book on Occlumency, and while he had found a book on the theory of magic that explained in vague terms how wandless magic was supposed to work, he was still looking for a better guide.

According to the book, there were three kinds of magic: one where you focused inward, and caused a change in yourself, like metamorphmagic, one where you focused on an object and caused some sort of instant effect, like levitation and transfigurations, and the last one where you focused on the effect a spell should cause, and shot the spell in form of an 'magic energy ray' that had to hit something in order to effect it, like the disarming charm.

Apparently, wandless magic worked solely with intent and power, and while it was easily (which meant insanely difficult for your normal everyday person) possible to cast the first two kinds of magics without a wand, it was almost impossible for the third kind, which included some charms, curses, jinks and hexes because they could affect you as well when the touched you, which they always did when they left your hand. That could cause crippling and even death if it went wrong, because for example a wandless blasting curse would blast your own hand off, if you made even the slightest mistake, so trying to learn that kind of wandless magic was considered suicidal.

Because the very core of wandless magic was to concentrate, focus and will something to happen, Occlumency was considered a requirement for it to work with more powerful spells, however books on Occlumency were among the restricted material and illegal to sell to not authorised people, which bothered him to no end.

Knockturn Ally was where the darker wizards were rumoured to hang out. Crime and murder was something of normality here, and people were rumoured to disappear and end up as snack for a vampire or worse.

However Knockturn Ally was also the place where you could get anything you wanted, no matter the restrictions or laws of the ministry.

On the entrance to the Ally Harry put up the black hood of his jacket he wore underneath his black robes and focused some power into his eyes. Normally he did that when he needed to see in the dark, however when he practised it he noticed that his eyes seemed to glow in a dangerous looking green light.

All in all he looked rather scary, which was of course the intended effect.

With secure steps he made his way toward a bookstore he had heard from one of the shadier people he had asked about Occlumency. It was still morning and quiet in the ally, with the occasional drunk lying on the street moaning in his sleep.

Finally he saw it a sign spelling 'Ancient Knowledge' and walked into the shabby looking shop.

Inside it didn't look any better than on the outside. Books where lying around everywhere and you could see so much dust in the air it was almost hard to breathe.

He headed toward the counter and looked around for the shopkeeper, when a voice spoke from behind "What can I do for you, young man?"

Harry forced himself not to flinch and jump around, but turned slowly toward and ancient looking woman sitting on a chair, watching him with a book in her hand.

"I am looking for books on Occlumency. I heard you provide any knowledge for the right price, and I am paying well."

"Now why would one as young as you need to protect his mind? What secrets would you know that you want to keep to yourself?"

"That's none of your business, I am not paying for questions but answers!"

"Ah, answers, don't we seek them all? But without the question you can never find the right answer, so tell me again. Why should I sell a rare book on a restricted art to a little boy who would likely never understand what knowledge he holds in his hands?"

'Little boy! I'll show her a little boy' Harry was getting angry and frustrated. Angry that he once again was dismissed because of his age, and frustrated that he had no way of proving her wrong without giving up one of his secrets.

'Oh well, she doesn't know who I am anyway, so what should it matter?'

He pointed his at the woman and summoned the book she was holding into his hand.

"It's possible that I will not understand right away, however there is little I can not do if I put my mind to it."

The old woman looked from her empty hands to the book Harry was holding, noticing that he had not drawn his wand, before cracking a small smile. "Perhaps you are not that stupid after all? Well, follow me."

She stood up from her chair, walked up to Harry and held out her hand.

It took him a few seconds to realize what she wanted before he gave the book he summoned back and followed her to a desk leading on the wall where a few particularly big stacks of books stood. There she started to rummage around until she pulled out a small book, only half an inch thick at best, and shoved it into his hands.

It was titled "The Guide To Your Mind".

"That will be fifty Galleons and I will not sell you anything else until you can prove to me that you understand what you read. I don't like wasting my knowledge on idiots, so take care not to come back beforehand."

Harry pulled out the money from his bag and pocketed the book.

Without a word he left the shop. Before the door closed he heard behind him "Take care young Potter" and froze.

How had she…, no… that couldn't be? Apparently she somehow DID read his mind without him knowing, there was no other way she could have found out. Now him proving to her that he understood the book had a whole new ring to it.

Well, there was nothing he could do about her knowing of his identity, he only hoped he old crone had other things to do than spread stories.

Determined to read the book immediately he strode back to his room.

"James, what are you running away from this time?"

"I told you already, I'm not running away form anything!"

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, I am also sometimes startled by my shadow, however I usually only jump around until I see it was nothing. Yours must be really scary, if you are running for half an hour and still can't get away."

Harry scowled at the little girl standing a few feet away. "I think I told you a hundred tines already that I'm not running away from anything."

"Well I can see how you can't get away from it, after all you are running CIRCLES."

"…, whatever. What's for breakfast today?"

"Oh, the usual for Monday, pancakes with raspberry syrup."

"Ok, I'm off to the shower. See you later at breakfast."

Harry walked up to his room to use his shower.

Since he was used to his typical morning routine that consisted of running, exercises and a little wandless magic practise, he had asked the innkeeper if he was allowed to run circles around the garden behind the pub, who had allowed him to run as much as he wanted as long as he didn't do it during business hours.

Lira Stubbins, the innkeeper's eight year old daughter had taken to watching him in the morning, usually making fun of him for waking up so soon in the morning only to run until he was tired again.

Harry thought that she was annoying, however she was also interesting to be around, when she was not currently in a nagging phase complaining that he was doing far too much reading.

Sometimes, when he was getting a headache and couldn't concentrate anymore because he was reading and practising for six hours without pause, she was a welcome distraction to help him clear his mind and add a little variation to his daily schedule.

She also told him a lot of stories about the wizarding world, things her parents told her, that were usually common knowledge among the people born into the magical world.

In return he sometimes brought her little presents from his shopping trips into Diagon ally, when he was looking for another book to explain the latest problem he had trouble understanding from his first year textbooks.

After almost three weeks of living here, she was pretty much the only one he regularly talked to, generally keeping to himself most of the day.

Stepping out of the shower he reviewed what he had read in the occlumency book the day before:

To protect your mind against an invasion of foreign magic, be it potions, spells and curses that are supposed to affect the mind or attacks of a legilimens, one has to learn the art of occlumency.
Occlumency is a discipline of the mind that is most difficult to learn, however it gives you a significant advantage over one who does not know the art.
A skilled occlumens can lie to your face without you ever knowing, he can throw off the effects of a love potions as easily as that of a truth potion, and it becomes almost impossible to affect the mind using magic.
This is one of the reasons, basic knowledge of occlumency is required if you want to become a member of the law enforcement, and restricted to everyone else.
Basic knowledge implies that the occlumens is good enough to detect a mind altering agent or magic if it is directed at him or her, and sadly this is the highest level most occlumens reach, because anything further requires an exceptional self control and innate talent.
First there is to know that every magic that affects the mind targets the subconscious mind, and from there the conscious mind will be affected.
There are two different ways that are commonly used to affect the mind:
The first is the direct way. A wizard can use a spell like the imperio curse to break through mental shields and directly command the mind of the victim.
The second way is more subtle. Through the use of potions for example the mind can be affected from within, to shed inhibitions and self control.
A skilled legilimens uses eye contact to break into the mind of the caster, and once he has successfully broken through the shields he can read present thoughts and use compulsions to force the victim to remember thoughts or memories that the legilimens can then read like a book.
To protect oneself against both forms of attack a skilled occlumens must learn two ways to defend himself.
To defend oneself against direct control one must learn to build shields around his subconscious mind.
The shields will act as sentries and delay mechanism, to alert the occlumens of an attack and delay or defend against the magic.
While it is relatively easy to raise shields around the mind, it is equally easy to break said shields down, and only a wizard or witch with exceptional power and will power can completely shield against aggressive magic, most everyone can only detect for example a legilimency attack and delay the spell long enough to avert the eyes.
However because the shields themselves are outside of the mind, they contribute nothing to help against subtle magic's, and once the shield is broken, the occlumens is virtually defenceless. This is where the second way, more often called the true occlumency comes into effect.
A true occlumens can discipline his mind to a point where he can control his thoughts completely. To do that, one has to learn complete self control, something that is almost entirely based on ones willpower.
Very few ever master this art, those who do however gain huge advantages over everyone else. There are o course many misconceptions about how it is done.
True occlumency is an art that controls only present thoughts through meditation, practise and discipline. One does not gain perfect recall or has to order his memories, because only the present matters.
A true occlumens can withstand truth potions, ignore memory or compulsion spells and render the best legilimens useless, simply because he is able to suppress the minds response to such magic. He can consciously remove his subconscious mind from all of his feelings, and ignore for example guilt, anger, love or hate, becoming completely emotionless at will.
Also the ability to focus on something with ones whole mind to solve difficult problems, or work delicate magic's that would be very difficult and easily disturbed, if one was distracted by a stray thought every few seconds, becomes possible.
As such, true occlumency is almost a requirement to learn wandless magic, because the caster, without the focus a wand provides, has to concentrate completely on the task at hand to make it work properly without loosing control over the magic.
True occlumency strains the mind as it is working in ways the human mind was not intended for, which makes it impossible to continuously use it throughout the day, limiting its use to hours at a time, with an equal amount of recovery time in between.
As such, to completely protect ones mind, an occlumens erects shields that will warn him of an intrusion before he switches on his discipline to prevent the attacking magic from working in case the shields break…

Harry let out a sigh.

As impossible as it sounded, he was further by far in learning true occlumency than shielding his mind.

After all, he had been working on it for years, hiding his true self from everyone, suppressing his feelings to control his magic, focusing them to learn to control his 'powers'.

Shielding his mind on the other hand was a concept foreign to him. Moreover he first had to find his mind, meditating until he became conscious of his subconscious, and that took time. Time he didn't have because his school would start in a little over a week.

Hearing his stomach growl he pushed the thoughts aside, walking down for breakfast.

It was a sunny September first when Harry walked out of the pub in the morning, all his belongings in the shrunk trunks he carried with him.

The goodbye was draining, with Lira crying because she lost her new friends and he had to promise that he would send letters and come to visit next time he was back in Diagon Ally, much to the amusement of her parents, who wished him good luck with his studies and told him not to learn to much, for he was a child and children should play with their friends, much to his annoyance.

They knew he was an orphan without a home, so they offered to keep open 'his' room next summer for a cheaper rent, if he wanted to stay with them again, something he much appreciated.

Walking out of the Leaky Cauldron he summoned a muggle taxi and told the driver to take him to King's Cross Station, where he paid the taxi with his last bit of muggle money.

Standing on the platform between tracks nine and ten he thought about what he had learnt the last month.

He had managed to cast every spell in his first year textbooks, and while he still had problems to understand some parts of the theory, he had a far better understanding than required in others, because he reviewed the relevant texts in other, more advanced books.

Charms and transfigurations were especially easy and he could do most spells nonverbally and some without wand movements or even without a wand.

On the other hand he had no way of practising for potions and herbology so he learnt extra hard in order to avoid mistakes in class.

In defence he studied and cast the required spells, however he had no way of knowing if they worked as they should, because he wasn't about to hex himself without being sure that he wouldn't accidentally blow himself up.

History and astronomy where the subjects that interested him the least, so he avoided them for now as they had no practical use he knew of and he had enough work with the others.

In his occlumency practise he finally managed to access his subconscious mind. It looked like a glowing ball of energy floating in a big seemingly unending space without walls or bottom, and he had managed to strengthen his natural occlumency shield every magical being had, with an extra layer, that, while it seemed weak even to him, was better than nothing at all.

Hedwig, his owl, was sitting in her cage, complaining about being locked in for the first time since he got her, and hooting angrily every time someone bumped into him or the cage.

Finally he saw the barrier Mr. Stubbins told him about.

A big family of redheads was just walking through and he wondered how nobody seemed to notice people vanishing through solid barriers.

Taking a deep breath, collecting his thoughts he walked up to the barrier and stepped through.

AN: That's it, Harry's pre-Hogwarts time is officially over.
Some will notice that Harry is (of course) suspicious of everyone and dislikes Dumbledore because of what he found out at Gringotts, however this will not be a bash-story, and while Dumbledore will definitely a little manipulating, he will not be especially concerned with Harry as the prophesy doesn't exist in this story.
Next Chapter will cover the time until (including) Halloween, and hopefully break up this monotone 'Harry studies alone and everyone else can screw themselves'-kind of story path.
The problem I have when writing the story is that, while I have already most important plots and conclusions thought through and I know what I want to happen in time, I lack some of the necessary imagination to bring a little feeling into the story, with little side plots, conversations and fun that is designed to loosen up the audience in between.
Every time I read through what I wrote up to this point I get the feeling that this is just a boring recollection of facts with little in between, and I hope that will change with the next chapter, now that I have more characters to work with ;-)
I also had some problems to find time to write at all, however I think I'll be able to update once a week, give or take a few days. So write me what you think, and have fun until the next time.