Harry Potter and the Re-Discovery of Magic

4: Tea Served with a Side of Insanity

Today was not a good day for Harry Potter. In other words, he was having a very bad day.

Firstly, he had woken up again at 3, this time his dream was filled with Tom Riddle throwing Cruciatus curses at him, and Harry wasn't sure whether snake-like Voldemort or Tom Riddle looking Voldemort was better.

Then, he had attempted to get out of bed only to realise that the leg that Vernon had broken the day before hadn't healed. It'd become a reoccurrence over the years for Harry to fall off to sleep in a world of pain, and wake up with everything healed. However, the past week saw his magic responding less and less to internal injuries, which was rather concerning, since he wasn't sure how he was meant to keep up with his Aunt's rigorous routine of chores.

Now after cleaning the bathrooms, cooking all three meals for the Dursleys, with dinner sitting in the fridge, Harry had escaped the house and found himself sitting on the swings of the park, and it was peaceful... until he was abruptly shoved into the sand and looked up to see Dudley and his gang. Just the people to brighten his day.

Which meant only one thing, that Harry James Potter, the saviour of the wizarding world was currently getting beaten by his cousin within around three inches of his life. Harry could practically see the Daily Prophet's headline 'The saviour who needed saving' and despite the dire situation he grinned at the fuzzy outlines of the muggle teenagers. His grin grew until it turned into a chuckle and further into a delirious cackle, and at that point he hadn't realised the group had run away, leaving him alone in the sand. He wondered if sand could be stained as tried to blink away the black spots in his already impaired vision.

There was a shuffling noise to his left, and Harry wondered whether Dudley had come back to check if he'd killed him, but instead he opened his eyes to two pools of a familiar shade of red.

Blinking twice, Harry was unsure he had a quick power blackout and dreamt of Voldemort and his red crucios, whether he was hallucinating, or whether Riddle was actually standing in his neighbourhood. A small smile tugged at his lips, when he imagined the great Lord Voldemort standing in a muggle children's playground and not firing sickly green killing curses in every direction.

Harry sighed and rested his head fully into the sand and closed his eyes, the little grains were going to be a pain to wash out of his hair later.

------♔------

Lord Voldemort, aka the Dark Lord, was having a very bad day. After yesterday's eventful afternoon he'd promised to never think of the encounter again and continue to pursue the boy's death. However, as he lay in bed at night, staring up at the ceiling, he wondered why he himself didn't murder the boy the previous day, and at the current rate he was going it was almost hard to think of Potter as an enemy.

He'd thought the boy had faced him each year to kill him off, and that he would be off fighting horcruxes if Dumbledore had figured his immortality out, yet the wizard had no clue and the Dark Lord realised that he was just trying to survive. He lived with abusive muggles who starved him and worked him like the Malfoy's house elves completely contradicting the almost certain fact that he lived a lavish and luxurious life. It was completely insane (and yes, he was one to be talking) that not a single other person had picked it up, and he mentally cursed himself for not noticing the too-large muggle clothes and the boy's sallow face, his presence so small he could be knocked over with the wind. How he had carried those bags his Aunt had shoved into his hands, he'd never know.

So the Dark Lord was having a very bad day because of Potter's stupidly confusing way of life, having a civil conversation with his soon-to-be killer, all his competent Death Eaters were in Azkaban and he needed them out, Nagini had somehow snuck into his room after he'd pushed her out the door, his Death Eaters who weren't in Azkaban were wandering around the ministry doing nothing of use and did he mention that Potter was a thorn in his side.