"Feel the Force, Luke... Or how did that line from the tiless classic go again?" I asked myself as I tried over and over to do sothing with my own magic that was at least a little predictable... Yes, it turned out to be far more difficult than I had first assud. In the two months since my first magical outburst, I had not made much progress in mastering this so-called magic.
I had learned to sense the power hidden inside more keenly and clearly when it was just about to break free, and I had gotten better at suppressing spontaneous elental outbursts. And that was about it. My attempts to deliberately set sothing on fire, freeze it, or move it from one side of the cupboard to the other currently failed spectacularly eight tis out of ten.
That ant I did sotis manage to burn, freeze, or drench sothing. But most of the ti, the result was... just about anything. From a deafening but not especially powerful explosion in my hands to turning my school notebook into so kind of feathered thing. The bizarre object I got that ti did not even resemble a bird. It looked more like so sort of feather cloak, only twenty by forty centiters in size.
And all I had wanted was to make my notebook float... The new school year was approaching, this body's eighth birthday was already behind , and Petunia had already loaded Dudley and up with so preparatory tests our horoom teacher had given her back in spring. I had gotten completely sick of dealing with all that scribbling and decided to amuse myself a little with a half-filled notebook.
"But in the end, I was the fool who had to rewrite and redo those damned tests from the beginning," I grimaced, rembering all too clearly just how pitiful the notebook had looked after its transformation into a feather cloak was complete.
So far, I was not turning into any kind of great mage or wizard. On top of that, my constant attempts to produce so kind of magic in my beloved cupboard had turned the older Dursleys against even more. The explosions coming from the cupboard had definitely added quite a few gray hairs to Petunia's head...
Luckily, Vernon had not been ho at the ti. Otherwise, I was afraid I would have had to fend off the belt again. Aunt Petunia had sensed very clearly where the explosion had co from. And my slightly concussed and disheveled appearance probably did not add much weight to my excuses. Unpleasant.
But I had no intention of stopping, because I could clearly and sharply feel that there was still so progress from those exercises... If not in terms of control over my own magic, then at least in the raw power of my elental outbursts, I was definitely growing stronger. On the one hand, that was encouraging. It was probably a good thing that I was becoming stronger as a wizard.
But on the other hand, that created a certain problem... It was physically unsafe for to stop my training and experints now. After just a couple of days of doing nothing magical... the magic began to press on , demanding release. Not the clearest sensation in the world. Sotis I even thought I was imagining it... It was like needing to go to the bathroom, but at the sa ti not actually needing to go.
The sensations were vague, hovering on the edge of perception, almost impossible to catch. And yet they were distinct enough to make one thing clear: if I did not constantly discharge my magic outward, it started to fill my body and look for a way out on its own. That was when it beca truly difficult to hold back the magical surges trying to break free, and the magic itself beca eager to react to any of my emotions.
In fact, that was exactly the state in which it beca easiest for to cast. When the magic literally overflowed through my body and pressed against it from the inside, summoning fire or freezing a bit of ice in my stuffy cupboard beca much easier... And no, I was not playing around with fire inside the house. After that explosion in my little room near the start of my training, I generally tried not to use magic indoors at all.
The problem was that my main living space beca rather uncomfortable in the sumr heat, with even the hint of real warmth in the air. So I kept trying to cool down or air out my tiny room sohow, sotis with a bit of success. And sotis at the cost of extra nerves while trying to hide the traces of my magical training from my aunt.
Outside was easier in that regard. A month ago, I had already found several abandoned lots for myself, farther from the center of our suburb. No one had lived there for a long ti, but the hedges around the little private houses were still tall and thick. Perfect for secretly practicing all sorts of wizardry. The only problem was the other children who sotis visited those interesting places too. But the main thing was to stay alert and, if needed, spout complete nonsense with the most honest face possible.
Or I could just run away if I was not in the mood to talk to anyone. Yes, that option was even better. After all, it was not just children who sotis wandered onto the local abandoned lots, but also various... less than respectable types, like the occasional holess drifter or drunk teenager. Little Whinging was a calm and safe place overall, but anything could happen in life...
"Hey, Harry! You awake in there?" Dudley Dursley's badly muffled voice pulled out of my lazy thoughts. "Gordon and I are heading to the river while Mum's not looking. You coming?"
"Sure... just bring a towel. Tell Aunt Petunia you're going on a picnic with friends. She might even be generous enough to give you sandwiches after that," I hissed quietly at the boy, with whom, surprisingly, it had not been all that hard to find common ground.
Arrogant, pushy, and physically well-developed for his age, the boy had spent the first few days and weeks after my arrival trying to pick on out of habit, the sa way he had always picked on the Harry Potter he knew before... But he got punched in the face. Then he called in his friends and tried to get revenge, but got punched in the face again, though not without taking a few hits myself. I got my share of bruises that ti too.
Kids were kids. They did not really know how to fight, were frankly afraid of punching each other properly, and generally tried more to tackle their opponent than actually beat them... But I was no Rambo either, going up against five of them alone. Whoever I could smack, I smacked... Whoever I could not, I rembered and smacked later.
That was how it went with Dudley too. After our first real fight, he ca ho with a split lip, and Aunt Petunia gave hell for it... So later I gave him another private beating and earned punishnt from Uncle Vernon too. That ti it passed without any physical violence, but I spent nearly the whole day shut in the cupboard.
And as soon as I got out, I stumbled into another fight right away. I almost got punched by "Dudders, who had gone through brutal training with his father"... But in the end, I only got another punishnt from my aunt. That was how Dudley and I beca friends. Well, if our relationship could even be called friendship.
My cousin was clearly pleased with the new Harry Potter. He introduced to all his friends and even asked to show off a few more tricks with knife throwing using a little knife we had stolen together from Vernon's garage. As for ... I could not take friendship with an eight-year-old boy too seriously. But I was not going to act all high and mighty either. By the end of my first month in this new life, I had already gone a bit feral from loneliness. I wanted to talk to soone, at least.
But since the older boys, and even more so actual adults, would never have chosen to speak to without a very good reason, I had to make do with what I had... Fortunately, when I died, I had still been fairly young myself and had not yet forgotten all the things my childhood friends and I used to do when we were little.
The local kids actually liked gas of Cops and Robbers quite a bit. And honestly, I had fun too. It beat sitting in the cupboard under the stairs. In any case, I could not train magic endlessly. So days I had to leave for "full recovery of magical reserves," and at those tis I suffered from boredom in a very real way.
Thankfully, school would be starting very soon, and I would finally have access to so sort of library. Surely there would be at least sothing interesting for there, especially since I had already refreshed and even slightly improved my predecessor's reading and writing skills. Out of sheer boredom, I had even reread so of the boy's old textbooks.
There was nothing interesting in them, though I did morize a couple of amusing little rhys out of idleness and for mory practice... But ssing around with the local hooligan idiots was still more interesting than ruining my eyesight in the cupboard. My glasses were already worse than anything I had ever worn in my previous life. And that was saying sothing, considering I had once been at minus five. Well, before I got surgery...
Ahem, yes, I would have to find out how such operations worked in this era. Or ask wizards in the future how they treated eyes here. Running around in glasses all the ti was not fun. Harry's were uncomfortable too, and they looked rather ridiculous on what was now my childish face.
In short, I would have to deal with that problem in the future. But for now, I would just spend more ti outside in the fresh air. The dim light bulb in the cupboard definitely was not doing my eyes any favors... Besides, running around outside was good for one's health anyway. And all that boiling energy in my body had to go sowhere.
And I am not even talking about magic right now, but ordinary strength and the constant urge to move bursting out of . As an adult, it had been quite hard for to get used to that, but a child's body was still a child's body. Energy overflowing! I could run around outside all day without a bite to eat and still not feel any fatigue.
Pure bliss, in a word. I had even started thinking about trying to preserve at least part of that vigor and childish energy in myself... Of course, I understood that it was unlikely to work. In my previous life, sports had helped stay in shape, but I was still infinitely far from the level of energy I had now...
On the other hand, in this life I had magic. Strong and very active magic that sohow reacted to my desires in a way I still did not fully understand. Maybe it could help with this desire too. If so, then I was perfectly willing to spend all day and night thinking and dreaming about keeping my current energy even in adulthood.
I just was not sure it would help or work the way I wanted. The option of staying a child forever did not suit at all and honestly frightened ... You hear , magic? I do not want that. Just strength, energy, and health. Aside from that, a gradually maturing body suits perfectly well as it is... So do not ss it up and do not get anything mixed up!
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