Better Living Through Magic (Harry Potter/SI) by Coeus

One of the best Harry potter fics I ever read

Words: 220k+

Link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/better-living-through-magic-harry-potter-si.756754/

(So this story started as a "take that" to your average Harry Potter story, you know, the...)

0.1

So this story started as a "take that" to your average Harry Potter story, you know, the standard seven years "Hogwart's Experience" and all the stupid samey events that tend to show up both canon and fanon. I can't tell you how tired I am of another "Rune Magic" story where the protagonist takes Ancient Runes and discovers something groundbreaking in a field that has supposedly been around for thousands of years, usually something stupidly obvious to the point that you wonder how wizards can walk and breath at the same time if that is the level of intelligence they have. Even worse, they fail to account for the changes their new system would have had on the magical world, nothing exist in a vacuum. Why they don't just build on the existing system I'll never understand. Safe to say, the Hogwarts part of this story will be fairly short. That is to say, there will be an end to it. Eventually. 🥴

I'm also gonna try for a bit of world-building, not much, and mostly concerning fringe things that barely get any mention in the books, or none at all, as it happens. Let's see how it goes.

Better Living Through Magic

0.1 Prologue

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I hate the rain, I hate the wind, and I particularly hate it when you combine them. I grunted as a brief flash of light startled me. The rumbling boom that followed quickly on its heels seemed to cause the rain to increase, pouring down on the umbrella I was desperately trying to keep steady as the always shifting wind tried to yank it out of my grasp. I hated – well, no. I don't hate lightning. Truth be told, it was the only part of storms I liked. Once, when I was younger – thirteen, fourteen at most, I'd gone out during a fierce thunderstorm and climbed up a nearby mountain, almost to the top. There I'd laid down on my back and just stared at the sky and the lightning. I remember being scared, yet unwilling to leave and climb back down.

Not one of my brightest moments.

But it had been spectacular.

Magical…

...No, I don't hate lightning.

Being struck by lightning, you'd think it would hurt, you'd think the sound would be horrendous. That's the picture you have in your mind. The truth is quite the opposite, it was more like I was suddenly struck deaf and numb. My world went white and I felt suddenly weightless like I'd just jumped off somewhere high.

Then gravity decided I'd had enough fun and reintroduced itself. My landing was ungraceful and quite painful; I saw stars as my head bounced off the ground. I instinctively curled up in a fetal position, both because of the pain and the deafening sound of things crashing into the ground all around me.

The first thing I noticed was that I could barely see, not that I was blind or anything, everything was just blurry, with everything just seeming to bleed into everything else. I fumbled a bit but managed to pull my glasses off, and to my surprise, my vision cleared. Not entirely, the edges of things still seemed kinda frayed, like a watercolor painting that had a bit too much water.

"Vad I helvete?!" I almost choked on my own words. That wasn't my voice! What the hell was going on?! I quickly sang a short tremulous note and felt my insides freeze. There was no way I'd be able to make a note that high with my real voice. I reached up and touched my throat and got my second shock. No stubble! I rubbed my hand over my mouth, no beard. "Vad I helvete!"

I hadn't been clean-shaven since I was fifteen and my beard came in, I always had a short well-groomed goatee. "Va fan hände med mitt skägg!?

I struggled to my feet, fighting against clothes that were suddenly too big and a body that arched and cramped painfully at every little move I made. God. I was so tempted to just collapse back to the floor and lie there until my world stopped being pain!

Once I got to my feet the indignities decided to continue with my pants dropping to my feet like something right out of a B-comedy shtick. I was beyond caring at that point, though later I would feel grateful that my underwear didn't drop as well. I'd been humiliated enough for one night without that compounding it. Since I was now on my feet I took the opportunity to take a look at my surroundings. I wasn't outside anymore for one. I was in a roughly circular room with a high domed ceiling; bookshelves lined the walls, filled to the brim with books and the odd contraption that I had difficulty making out due to my lack of glasses. Some of the books and things were now littering the floor, probably caused by whatever brought me here.

The telltale groan of wood under strain pulled my attention to a large wooden desk that had been tipped over on its side. It was one of those humongous monstrosities that looked like they were carved from a single piece of redwood and probably weighed a ton and change. It was currently defying all laws of physics by floating up off the floor like it didn't weight more than a feather. I felt the roof of my mouth prickle as if someone was slowly pushing in a dozen small needles. I tasted metal. My heart pounded. The desk floated higher and then started to right itself before gently settling down on the floor again. And in so doing revealing the person behind the little magic trick.

At recognizing him I did the only sensible thing a person in my situation could do.

I freaked the fuck out!

The result was far more… explosive then I had expected, seeding out a shockwave of force that flipped the desk over again and sent the brightly dressed old man onto his ass. Glass shattered all around me and books crashed down from their shelves. It just made things worse, which caused more outbursts of uncontrolled force, which in turn destroyed more of the room. The floaty desk person reacted to that by pulling out a wand and sending out a scintillating surge of energy at me.

"Tranquillitus!"

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Well, let's see where this goes then. Sorry about any spelling or grammatical errors that have snuck in. Don't have a beta.

Criticism and comments are of course welcome and appreciated. I'll post the next part in a few hours after I get some sleep and have given it a once over. Don't forget to like if you do... like it that is.

Edit: You can all thank RandumbPerson for making this piece readable instead of the confusing mess it was before