Harry’s Wars: Episode 1 - Chapter 3

Summer 1993, England, Little Whinging, Privet Drive number 4

Pain. Overwhelming pain was all he knew.

He didn't remember his name, his purpose. Only the pain. He wanted to give up, to surrender to whatever was hurting him in hope for the pain to stop. But he didn't. Something told him that he would lose something very important if he surrendered, that he just had to endure some more and the pain would fade.

He just hoped the pain was worth it. Then he realised the pain was fading, he was able to hold onto some coherent thoughts. He was winning whatever this was.

And then there was no more pain. He felt elation, he felt free and he remembered.

He was Harry Potter. He was a transmigrator and he did something incredibly stupid.

He decided cockily that he could absorb the total rest of Tommy-boy's soul piece in one go, what could possibly go wrong?

"I was so incredibly lucky to pull through this. I had absorbed small bits of Tommy before, without any form of autonomy or sentience. It was clear from the moment I saw it moving about in front of me, I should have known it would be different. Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

As Harry vented to calm himself down, he paced around his couch. Then, letting out a tired sigh he plopped back onto it like a sack of potatoes.

"I'm done here for now. I will sort my memories later. I just don't have the mental energy to deal with it now."

When he found a comfortable position on the couch he tried to take a small nap.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Harry opened his eyes in confusion. He had just laid down to take a nap, why did he wake up in his bed?

"Does this mean I can't nap in my mindscape? That sucks. I could save so much time if I rested there." Disappointed at his new discovery, he turned around and closed his eyes again.

When Harry woke up, he was still tired. The mental exhaustion had lost its edge, but was still pretty bad. As he searched for the source of the disturbance in his sleep, he found at the foot of his bed Dobby. He greeted him with a tired smile, "Hey Dobby, did you manage to set up a meeting with someone at Gringotts?"

Dobby for his part just locked very concerned at Harry, "Yes master Harry Potter sir, Dobby managed to make a meeting for yous tomorrow at six o'clock in the morning. Grumpy goblins wanted to meet with Harry Potter, sir, this afternoons, but Dobby thought Master Harry Potter sir best not be walking in plain view into Diagon Alley. It not bes very secretive, no it is not." Dobby wrung his hands in clear distress, but kept a concerned eye on Harry, who finally noticed the gaze.

"What's wrong Dobby? You can tell me if something is wrong. For that matter, you are allowed to express your opinion on things freely. You are my friend, never forget that Dobby." Harry finished with a smile. Dobby appeared to be uncomfortable at the thought of expressing his opinion freely, but then decided to use the presented opportunity.

"Harry Potter sir, yous have something leaking from yous scar. It smells of nasty magic. Even the pillow be tainted."

Harry was surprised at that, he hadn't felt anything. Checking his pillow, he saw the black spots marking the ruddy pillowcase. With a disgusted look on his face he touched the right side of his face, only to touch something sticky below his scar.

"I need to check this in the mirror, but you should dispose of the pillowcase Dobby. Burn it with fire and vanish the ashes. If the pillow is stained as well, dispose of it, too.

I'm going to the bathroom to try to clean this up. I might as well take a shower, so you can start setting the table for the three of us."

And with that said, he nearly ran out of the room, intending to investigate the black substance leaking from his scar.

When he checked himself in the mirror, he saw some black ichor flowing out constantly. His knee jerk reaction of cleaning it with water did not bring the desired results. He cleaned his face of the dried up ichor-remnants, but the constant slow flow of it made it an exercise in futility.

He concluded this to be a problem, where the mundane solution would not help him fix the underlying issues,so he decided to fall back on his tried method of throwing his magic internally at it while pumping his intent into it.

"I better do this in the bathtub, there should be a lot of black stuff coming out of it. Better have it washed away immediately."

When he stood in the bathtub, the flowing hot water from the showerhead drizzling onto his head he focused on his magic. The way it flowed through his body, out from the centre of his chest up into the rest of his body. Focusing on the magic flowing into his head, he tried to pinpoint the area where his scar was. There, he could feel his magic pushing against some kind of obstruction, a clog of some kind he did not notice before.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it got smaller, this had to be the reason for the constant slow trickle of ichor from the scar.

With the root of the problem found, he pushed his magic consciously against the clog with the intent to push it all out and resolve the problem. When he felt a rising pressure against his scar, he intensified his efforts with success. The clog was shrinking noticeably faster. Encouraged, Harry accelerated the flow of his magic and demanded his magic to have the clog to be gone.

With a pop, the scar started leaking ichor like a faucet for a few seconds until all that flowed out was fresh red blood. The moment the clog was gone, Harry demanded his magic to heal the wound and the famous lightning bolt scar healed up nicely, leaving behind only a faint reminder of its presence.

When his magic flow had calmed down Harry felt lighter than he had ever before. His thoughts were faster, a constant pressure he never knew he had was gone.

With a relieved and happy smile, he finished his shower and stepped in front of the mirror. He inspected the results of his action, and found the slight trace left of his scar. It had lost the angry red it had his whole life and faded into the state, a twelve year old scar should have.

Extremely happy with the results, he decided to be too lazy to properly clean his teeth, so he pushed his magic with surprising ease into his mouth and demanded it to be thoroughly cleaned.

"It worked like a charm, hehe. Next, no more towels for me."

With a mental flex he pushed some of his magic out of his body and dried himself in but a moment. "I could get used to this" he mumbled to himself with a bright smile.

As he took a moment to get dressed, he slowly felt the difference in this mind and magic.

"I have to check my mindscape later. With the way things are, there has to be a significant change."

Reaching the kitchen, Dobby instantly picked up on his good mood.

"Master Harry Potter, sir, yous have cleaned the nasty magic, yes?"

"Yes Dobby, I cleaned out the nasty magic. And the results are better than expected. I have to confirm later exactly how much better, but this is a great development Dobby."

When Harry sat down at the table, he responded to Dobby with a big happy smile.

"Come, sit down and let's eat. You seem to have outdone yourself Dobby. Thank you."

In his exuberance, Harry prepared a huge plate of meat for Hedwig, with an extra serving of bacon. As if summoned, Hedwig arrived just when he had placed down her plate.

As Harry ate, he joked with Hedwig, who had clearly picked up on his good mood.

After finishing the meal, Harry motioned for Dobby to stay seated. He had some questions for Dobby.

"Hey Dobby, why have you started talking to me in broken English and with butchered grammar? I clearly remember you talking normally last year. You may have used the third person, but you never spoke this bad. Did something happen?"

Dobby was caught off guard with this line of questioning. As he looked down at the floor in shame, he answered Harry in a low voice "Master Harry Potter, the bad masters demanded from all their house elves to speak like that. If they caught an elf talking normally, the bad master would punish the elf most severely. It is very difficult for Dobby to talk like this to master Harry Potter."

When Harry heard Dobby talking in such a subdued voice, he got very angry. His good mood evaporated; he spoke clearly and with assurance, "Dobby, I ask you to speak like this to me. You are my friend and I want you to be comfortable around me. It will be hard, but now that you work for me you can leave such degrading practices behind you at the Malfoys place.

You are now Harry Potter's elf, and no elf of mine is going to be treated like that." He looked strongly into Dobby's eyes, conveying the seriousness of his next words.

"Furthermore Dobby, you are my friend. I want my friends to be happy. How could you be happy, if you had to force yourself to be someone you are not? So this nonsense stops now and forever. Now I am going back to my room to meditate. Please take care of the dishes."

Dobby was moved. "Yes Harry Potter, sir! Dobby will do his best, Dobby promises." And with a serious nod, Dobby began to levitate the dirty dishes into the sink.

When Harry reached his room, he found his owl already resting.

"So no conversation, huh. She has been resting a lot today. Hopefully there is nothing wrong with her. Maybe she has the energy to play fetch tomorrow."

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

And with that finishing comment, he sat on his bed and promptly entered his mindscape.

As usual, he opened his eyes back at the spot he left.

"That was easy. Maybe one of the changes. Let's look around, try to somehow scan the mindscape. That should bring the fastest results. First visual confirmation though."

As he wandered through his mindscape, he was astonished at the differences he could find.

The air felt cleaner, the colours more vibrant. On the horizon was the shield shining powerful, even when the immediate danger was gone.

When he reached the shield, he tried to make out what was hiding behind it. Behind the shield he could see a massive multicoloured cloud. If he focused on it, he felt some incredible danger, more danger than he would ever attribute to Tommy-boy.

"Better leave that alone for now. Maybe when I reach a level where I can interact safely with it, I can find out what that is."

With that, he turned around and walked back to the centre, back to his magical core.

Standing in front of it, he stretched out his hand and touched it. Immediately a representation of the magical flow inside his body was projected in front of him, he felt connected to his magic like never before. It was intoxicating

"Wow, what a rush. I feel full of energy, as if I am in absolute control." Shaking his head, he let go of the shiny crystal.

He began to inspect it more critically, he took note of the change in colour. The centre was a bright clear green, only the outermost layer was a dark, almost blackish green.

"This confirms it. The absorption of Tommy added a layer to my magical core, tainting it. I really have to try to fix it. Hmm, the flowchart of my magic I got when I touched my core gives me some ideas. But that's for later."

Placing his new idea on his list of things to take care of later, he continued his tour to his memory storage, passing the fading remains of his couch.

"Oh oh. This seems to be a problem, if I have to reattach bookshelves again to my magic."

The secure, bigger-on-the-inside storage room filled with the fruit of his labour was unchanged at first glance, but like the couch earlier, it wasn't connected anymore to his magic. He tethered the room again to his magic and opened the blast door, adding the new tether in passing.

Inside was the same as outside. The bookshelves were untethered, without connection to his magic. As he saw the result of the change in his magic, he decided to change the connection.

"If this happens again, I don't want to connect it all manually again. I should centralise the connections, it might take some work now but it leaves it easier to manage in the future."

Said and done, Harry began to work to create a central connection behind the library counter.

But to his surprise, the work was done easier than he remembered. "Another change I can attribute to the absorption with high probability."

Happy at the new development he began with the arduous task of memory sorting.

He began with the life he lived before the transmigration, as it seemed to be the most complete, the most balanced and fulfilled of the three he remembered. Also, it seemed to be the easiest one to sort, as the emotional attachment he could sense from the memories was subdued. If he focused on one memory, he felt the emotions completely, but the moment he lost focus it faded again.

Harry took his time sorting his past life. Carefully sorting any and all knowledge away, shifting the emotions into a special book, while keeping an inactive link to the source.

When he was done, Harry was tired again. Not as tired as he was after the Tommy-Absorption disaster, but pretty tired all the same.

When he decided to take a break, he created a save for all of Tommy's memories. After unceremoniously dumping them inside the save, he left the mindscape.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

When he opened his eyes, he saw the dark sky outside his window.

"At least I dealt with Tommy's memories for tonight. I can have some nice dreams instead of nightmares influenced by Tommy's life. Well, I should set my alarm for tomorrow morning, I don't want to know the fees for missing a meeting with the goblins."

As he made eye contact with Hedwig, he smiled at her. "Good night girl. You can fly outside and hunt or something. I will keep the window open."

Then he laid down and closed his eyes again, this time to sleep for the night.