The Protagonist System

61 The Boy Who Lived (Harry Potter)

I opened my eyes and I saw that I was already on the Dursley's doorstep in my basket, which meant the old bastard had already cast his magic with the blood wards. It was also f-f-frickin' c-c-cold!

The first thing I did was cast a heating charm on the blanket and my stiff limbs felt a lot better. I cast another on my bassinet and I felt the feeling return to my fingers and toes. That sure was telling about the competency of the wizarding world that they hadn't even bothered to ensure I would live past them dropping me off in the middle of the night.

I checked the invisible clock in my head and it said it was 4 in the morning. That meant I had about two hours to do what was necessary before Petunia opened the door to pick up the milk and the newspaper beside me.

The funny thing was, were they already there when Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid had dropped me off or were they dropped off on the doorstep beside my already present basket? What kind of people, wizard or muggle, left a baby in a basket on a doorstep at the start of November?

When I cast magic detection, I knew what had happened. I had a notice-me-not charm cast on me. Well, cast on my magical sync amulet. That was where the blood wards were locked as well, and so was the second block on my magic that Dumbledore had cast. The first was on myself to reduce accidental magic that James and Lily had put on Harry to make their lives easier.

I dispelled the second block and felt my magic flow through me in a greater amount, which told me that I was a right terror when I threw a tantrum with that much magic inside and it was still suppressed by the first magical block. I dispelled the first block and gasped as my body glowed and magic swelled up and filled me. Being a magical prodigy really boosted me by removing my restrictions.

I calmed down from the rush and my magic did as well. With that much magic available, there was so much I could do, even as a fifteen month old baby. I cast an extensive diagnostic on myself and saw the damage to my forehead and found the soul leech horcrux and the residue of my mother's protective spell that contained it and stopped it from possessing me.

The next thing I did was transfer the piece of Tom's soul from my scar into my amulet and the blood ward spell automatically linked to it and latched on, instead of locking it to myself and Petunia. That had worked out even better than cancelling the wards themselves. Even the mail redirect ward had been sucked up and set to stop any mail from going to Tom Riddle, which was hilarious, because the monitoring spells and devices Dumbledore cast on my amulet were also keyed to his soul.

With those worries taken care of, I cast the specific healing spell on myself. The damage I had suffered from the cold, and the magical backlash of the killing curse the day before, disappeared. My famous scar faded away and this was where my partial-metamorphmagus ability came into play. I changed my messy bird's nest hair into normal hair and the color to dark red instead of dark brown.

I would change it back and add the scar to my forehead whenever I went on my adventures, because I had to do them as Harry Potter. I would also need to transfigure my previous noble clothes into an appropriate size to wear as the dashing hero. The robed cape I already owned would go well with it, too.

When I cast magical detection again, the blood wards around Privet Drive glowed brightly, which made me chuckle. Having a dedicated soul piece attached to them had super-charged them and expanded them to the point that nothing and no one that wanted to cause me harm could appear anywhere in the neighborhood, let alone come to the house.

My baby giggle was fairly loud as I thought about Albus Dumbledore or any of his agents not being able to come near me in the future. His own set protections for me would keep him and his people away, which was not what he intended at all. Poor old Dumbles won't know what's what where I was concerned! Ha ha!

Now I just had to convince Petunia that taking me in was going to be beneficial to her and her family. That was easily achievable, because I was going to bribe her with some of the jewels and gold I had pilfered on the last world. To that effect, I checked my extra-dimensional space and saw my backpack and everything it had inside. I giggled my baby laugh again at everything I had stuffed into it, including the piles of old-fashioned furniture, my crafting supplies, plane parts, and the mounds of treasure.

Surprisingly, it also had the things I bought in the shop. I had assumed I could only access those while between worlds and seeing the seven books of the Harry Potter children's stories, my lightsaber keychains, and even the pink werebunny costume, made me laugh again. I couldn't resist changing my current t-shirt for the one that said I had saved the world and only got that stupid t-shirt.

I also took out a couple of diamond and emerald necklaces, bracelets, several individual jewels, and a golden sceptre that was encrusted with gems. It was huge, so I shrank it down to make it look like a baby rattle and held it in my hand. I tucked the bribes along the edge of my blanket and held the baby rattle in my little fist.

The invisible clock in my head told me it was only another hour before Petunia would find me, so I had a bit of time left to do a little more manipulation. I created a fake letter from Lily Potter that explained about Albus Dumbledore ignoring her wishes to leave Petunia alone, because he had blocked her magic to make sure Lily was alone and she was never allowed to associate with her muggle relatives.

I added in a few words about how Dumbledore had manipulated her into marrying a 'right twat' and that she regretted that she could never get the ignorant old codger to fix Petunia and restore her stolen magic. That should set Petunia on a particularly long rant about interfering old men and hopefully on the path to accepting me, since I now looked more like Lily than James.

I cast a compulsion on the letter so that Petunia would see it in Lily's handwritting and tucked the letter under my little pillow and closed my eyes to wait. With luck, she would see some of the shiny gold and jewels when she saw me. If not, I would have to pretend to wake up and shake my baby rattle at her. That it would unshrink as soon as I wasn't touching it, would definitely get her attention.

*

Petunia sighed as she put her sleeping Dudders back in his crib. Four feedings a night was exhausting her and she couldn't wait to wean him off of her poor sore breasts and could feed him normal milk instead. She checked the clock and saw the time, sighed again, and left the bedroom to go downstairs. She would need to grab the paper and milk before she started making breakfast.

She opened the door and started to reach down for the newspaper first and froze at the sight of the large wicker bassinet and the handsome sleeping baby face inside of it. Her eyes immediately saw the dark red hair, the letter tucked on the side, and she was sure that was a large diamond necklace. She shook her head at the crazy thought and put the newspaper on the baby's belly.

Petunia caught her breath, because the move had dislodged an emerald that was the size of a golf ball. She reached for it and picked it up, her mind not quite making sense of it. It couldn't be real. It couldn't. A gem that size was worth thousands... no, hundreds of thousands.

Her eyes dropped back down to the basket and her eyes caught all of the different things tucked on the sides of the blanket. It was a fortune in gold and jewels. A literal fortune. She felt faint and slowly knelt to stop herself from falling, only for that to put her that much closer to the bassinet and the treasure contained within.

The baby stirred and opened its eyes and Petunia caught her breath. Lily's brilliant green eyes looked back at her from the baby's face and the baby gurgled happily and lifted its hands towards her. Petunia gasped at the small golden rattle in the baby's hand and she knew without a doubt that it was worth more than their car.

The baby held it out to her and shook it at her, clearly giving it to her, so Petunia took it. As soon as the baby's hand stopped touching it, the baby rattle expanded and became a gem-encrusted golden sceptre that was two feet long. She stared at the thing as the baby giggled at her, amused at her shock.

Petunia shivered at the second fortune in her hand and she didn't know what to do with it. The baby waved a tiny hand at her and made a grabbing motion, so she handed it back. The thing shrunk again, to her surprise, and the baby giggled and waved it around.

“I think I need to take you inside.” Petunia said and grabbed the bassinet's handle, stood, and went back into the house. She left the milk on the doorstep and shut the door, because she had something much more important to do than replenishing the milk in the fridge.

*

I pretended to fall asleep and watched her with my magic as she put the bassinet on the kitchen table. I lightly held the shrunken sceptre and knew she would want to test the shrinking option again and waited patiently as she gently gathered all of the things I had stashed around my blanket. When she was done, she stared at the pile of gold and jewels on the table.

Petunia took the sceptre and set it beside the pile and continued to stare at it. She gave me the sceptre back twice more and seemed at a loss about what to do next. I used magic to move the letter Dumbles had left for her and she snatched it up. She frowned at the terse wording and looked slightly angry, so I did the only responsible thing I could do.

I rolled over in the bassinet and my pillow moved just enough to reveal the second letter. Petunia dove on it like a bloodhound and tore it open. Her eyes seemed to dance as she read about Dumbledore's manipulations on her and Lily and her anger was almost palatable as she finished reading it. Her hands shook and her mouth changed several times from snarling to sucking on a lemon.

That was perfect for my needs and I rolled back over to let out a happy gurgle and let my hand flop out of the bassinet and let the sceptre go. It grew to full size and Petunia stared at it, then at me, then at the letter.

“I need time to think about all of this.” Petunia said and stood, looked at the stove, looked down at me, and walked across the kitchen to start cooking. She left the kitchen briefly and brought the milk in from outside, then went back to work.

I felt and heard the heavy weight moving upstairs and then heard it clomping down the stairs. I didn't do anything in reaction to knowing the bane of Harry's normal existence was approaching. I wasn't just any Harry Potter, I was the best Harry Potter. I wasn't going to suffer at the hands of an ignorant bigot and thought of several ways to charm the man to get him to like me.

“Petunia! What in the bloody hell is all of this?!?” Vernon shouted when he saw the bassinet and the pile of gold and jewels on the kitchen table.

“That stupid old man dropped off Lily's little boy on our doorstep last night after she was killed.” Petunia said. “The fortune was tucked inside the blankets.”

Vernon picked up the sceptre and his eyes almost glowed with greed. I had to hold in my laugh at finding such an easy way to start influencing Vernon and wouldn't need any compulsions or charms.

“Are they all idiots?” Vernon asked. “This almost looks like the Queen's royal sceptre!”

Petunia shrugged. “I don't think they realize how much those things are worth, not with so much of it hidden inside a child's bassinet.”

I decided it was time to say something profound and took a brilliant red ruby the size of my fist out of my inventory. “Mummy.” I said and rolled over in the bassinet and dropped the ruby onto the table with a clatter.

Both Vernon and Petunia gasped as the huge gem bounced and slid across the table towards Petunia. She darted forward and scooped it up before it fell to the floor. They both stared at the ruby that was more expensive than any of the other single jewels.

“I think it would be in our best interests to keep the little tyke around.” Vernon suggested.

Petunia carefully added the huge ruby to the pile and reached into the bassinet to take me out. She lifted me up and cradled me in her arms “What do you say, Harry? Do you want to stay around here for a while?”

I pretended to wake up and smiled at her. “Tunie.”

Petunia stiffed slightly and then smiled a warm smile. “Lily really did tell you about me?”

I nodded slightly and held my arms up. “Tunie! Home!” I said loudly and activated the one-time transfiguration spell, My Home Is My Castle.

The entire house glowed brightly and both Petunia and Vernon let out surprised shouts as the whole place started to change and expand. The kitchen was now the size of the bottom floor of the house and everything around us changed to become the best magical castle in the whole world. When the glow faded, Petunia and Vernon looked shocked.

“H-H-Harry, what... what did you just do?” Petunia asked.

“Tunie. Happy!” I said and waved a hand in front of us and called forth the 5 house elves. “Floppy! Moppy! Cookie! Butter! Nanny!”

The elves popped into existence and Petunia gasped. Vernon just looked constipated.

“I bees Cookie and I doos all the cooking.” The female elf wearing the chef's outfit said.

“I bees Moppy and I doos all the cleaning.” The female elf wearing the maid outfit said.

“I bees Butter and I doos the household chores.” The male elf wearing the butler outfit said.

“I bees Nanny and I takes care of the little ones.” The female elf wearing the nurse outfit said.

“I bees Floppy and I doos the gardening.” The male elf wearing the gardener outfit said.

The two adults looked too stunned to say anything, so I clapped my hands and gained everyone's attention.

“Cookie, finish Tunie's brekky.” I ordered and the little elf popped from there and over to the massive stove.

“This bees a proper kitchen. Cookie approves.” The elf said and started to magic the food into larger portions.

“Moppy, check clean home.” I said and she nodded and popped away. “Butter, need box.” I pointed at the gold and jewels on the expanded table.

“Right away, little masters.” The butler said and snapped his fingers to make a cardboard box appear and started to load everything into it.

“Nanny...” I started to say.

“I bees checking the other little master.” The elf said and popped away.

“I bees going to check the grounds.” The gardener said and popped away.

“What... what... what the bloody hell is going on?!?” Vernon asked with a shout.

“Mummy loves Tunie.” I said and put a tiny hand on Petunia's neck and cast specific healing on her. “Home safe. Family safe.”

Petunia had tears in her eyes as all of her soreness and tiredness disappeared. “Oh, Harry!” She said and cuddled me close to cry tears of relief and happiness.

“Tunie be happy now.” I said and hugged her neck.

Vernon looked conflicted until the elf cook put a huge plate of food in front of him at the table. He gave Petunia a pat on the back and sat down to dig into the great food. Petunia calmed down and went to put me down into the sole high chair, and hesitated.

“No worries, miss.” The nanny elf said as she popped in and a second high chair appeared. She floated a wide awake Dudley into his and he giggled and laughed until he settled down, then a huge bowl of mashed food appeared in front of him. He let out a shout of joy and dug both hands into it and shoved it into his mouth.

Petunia stared at her son's antics, because he had absolutely refused to eat anything she made and demanded her breast milk.

“Youse no need to worry no mores. We bees here to help now.” The nanny elf said and snapped her fingers.

I floated out of Petunia's arms and landed in the second high chair. A bowl of food appeared in front of me and I couldn't let Dudley show me up. I dug my tiny hands right in there and shoved as much as I could into my mouth. It was a surprisingly delicious mix of egg and mulched sausage with a hint of bacon.

Petunia sat down beside Vernon and her own plate of food appeared. As she ate the great food, her shocked face slowly changed to show a genuine smile.

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