Leaving
It was a lovely afternoon in Little Whinging, Surrey. The mid-morning sun was beating down upon the rows of clone-like houses like it normally does every summer. The residents of the plain neighbourhood were going about their normal lives. Nothing was out of the ordinary in the neighbourhood and its occupants, with the exception of one household.
Within the plain walls of Number 4 Privet Drive, a raven-haired boy was pacing about restless. He had meant to enjoy a quiet day, maybe even start on his summer holiday homework. However, one thing about being Harry Potter was that things almost never went normally if you were him. And as expected, Harry's morning had turned out to be very unordinary. After all, it is not every day a little boy finds himself sporting a fishtail when he touches the water.
Harry Potter slumped onto the Dursley household's sofa, fed up with his own pointless pacing. He was in an unusual circumstance. However, Harry was by no means overly puzzled by it. Having learnt to adapt and change constantly to survive while growing up, Harry was not one to be fazed by difficult or unusual happenings in his life. As such, he was quite calm about his sudden ability to become a merman (merboy, considering his age if one were to be truly technical). Neither was Harry unclear about the situation he was in – well he still was in need of more information, truth be told, but he was not confused by any means about his current predicament. After all, being sharp and smart was another quality that little Harry had had to sharpen during his young life while learning to survive in the Dursley household. For a quick evaluation of the cold, hard facts he faced every day had been his clues while growing up, to know when to flee and hide and when to expect a few bites of food or sneak some for himself to his cupboard. There had been no point wasting time hoping, he had learned that lesson quickly from the beginning, after his first few tastes of imprisonment in his cupboard-under-the-stairs. It had been the reason why Harry had learnt to play dumb in primary school, why he knew that to tell any teacher about his true home life was only going to be more detrimental to him than the Dursleys. It was the reason why even in the Wizarding World he knew instinctively that he had to keep to himself more, that he was not to end up in Slytherin House, that he was not to reveal his best potential. For the third lesson he had learnt during his life in Privet Drive was that showing people what they expected was the safest way to avoid unwanted attention (which translated to danger in the Dursley household). Therefore, Harry Potter had been able to deduce the facts he had about his condition without the customary distraction of panic and worry anyone else may have undergone.
1. He turned into a merboy upon contact with even a drop of water in its liquid state. (He had held onto ice successfully before the darn thing melted in his hand. He had bruised due to his falling onto the kitchen floor.) However, he could avoid the transformation if he managed to completely dry himself in less than ten seconds upon the contact.
2. Somehow, he was better in tune with his magic. Ever since his transformation in the bathtub in the morning, Harry had been able to feel his magic within himself. He had only experienced the feeling while performing spells during school. Now, the presence of magic was a constant thrumming under his skin, in his very blood (Harry had a nagging suspicion that he may be able to perform magic without a wand. However, he was not willing to risk testing the theory when his Hogwarts ticket (that brought him his reprieve from the Dursleys) itself was at stake here if he were to get another use of underage magic notice).
3. The entire situation was tied to the moonpool somehow. He was positive his ability was bestowed by the Magic from the moonpool. However, he had no clue as to why.
And while any normal person would worry over the lack of more information they were facing, Harry had other worries to focus upon.
He would gladly repeat over and over again that he was not worried about his newfound ability/condition. In fact, he was quite indifferent about it. With the many phases he had gone through during his twelve years of living – freak, burden, saviour, next-dark-lord-in-the making (the last one particularly irked him as it proved how easily people could turn on him) – Harry was not one to fret about identity crises any longer. And for a kid who had just recently learnt he was somehow half-fish too, Harry was doing well.
Survival, however, was a pressing issue for him. Having spent evaluating every moment in his life to adapt it a way that increased his survival chances, Harry knew instinctively that this newfound ability was both a blessing and a curse. The same instinct in him knew that it was wiser to counter the disadvantages first before seeking out the benefits when he lived in a house whose owners looked out for every opportunity to harm him.
And currently, Harry was very vulnerable. For if according to his analysis, if even a tiny drop of water turned him to a merboy, that translated to being half-fish for the better part of the day while he was at Privet Drive as his chores often included water. He had to clean every nook and cranny of the place after all. He had never used gloves before and knowing his Aunt, she would not grant him a good pair that could keep out the water even if he asked for a pair. So that left Harry with a high chance of being half fish while doing the internal house chores (The Dursleys would not let him escape his duties so easily, though they would keep him away from outside contact in fear of the neighbours seeing him in a freaky form) and that was not something Harry wanted because that meant he was even more vulnerable than he usually was. If Dudley figured it out that a little bit of water incapacitated Harry, the overgrown orca would have a field day and he did not trust Dudley to let go of an opportunity to successfully maim him or worse yet, kill him. (He was not over the near-to-death experience he had in the sea). That was if his Uncle did not kill him off first for not even remaining human.
Harry resumed his previous pacing. He had to leave. Even if by a miraculous moment, the Dursleys did not immediately pounce upon him for having new "freakish abilities" they would sooner or later learn to use his disadvantage against him. They might even successfully keep Harry away from Hogwarts this time by keeping him in his half-fish state. How could Harry escape that?
He had to leave. There was no other way. He had tolerated his stay at the Dursleys for years. Before knowing he was a wizard, it was the hope that once he went off to a different school than Dudley, he could eventually show his potential and work towards a scholarship and be free from the Dursleys. After his wizardry heritage was made known to him, Harry had tolerated coming back to appease the old but powerful Headmaster of his school when he realized the man was going to be willingly blind like the rest of the adults in the muggle world about his home life. But it had been tolerable because each time, Harry had the option and ability to run if all hell broke loose. However, this time, that option of running was in true danger of disappearing and he would rather not learn what it was like to be truly captive. Self-preservation was the golden goal that Harry worked towards all his life. Even magic would not be able to change that aspect of Harry.
Harry stopped pacing.
It was decided. He may not know where to go as of yet but he knew that when the Dursleys returned home, they would be returning to an empty house. He would not even need to explain his disappearance to them. They probably believed he was dead or had runaway (if Dudley did not reveal his act of pushing Harry into the ocean) and Harry was not going to let them believe otherwise. It gave him the perfect opportunity to slip away and if he ever got found out by Dumbledore (with the man's insistence on Harry staying with the Dursleys, Harry was sure he would eventually find out about his disappearance), the man could never fault a little boy from running away from people who knowingly tried to kill him (and this time there was no excuse, Dudley was evidently aiming to finish Harry off. Harry did not believe his cousin to be dumb enough to not realize pushing a person who did not know swimming into the sea was bad idea).
Sighing Harry Potter slid back onto the sofa. Now to figure out a plan that would get him somewhere that was safe from his relatives and any potential wizards planning on harming him.
"Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's it. You are almost there. Just cut across the street, take off your invisibility cloak near the shadowed entrance and step into Gringotts. It'll be as easy as cutting up dead flobberworms."
Harry scanned the crowd. It was relatively thin. He had stood near the exit to Diagon Alley for about ten minutes so far. Getting into the wizarding world had been easy. With his only valuable possessions being his wand and his invisibility cloak Harry did not have anything of importance to take away with him on his "Mission Runaway". Muggle money had been easy to find. Having spent years doing the Dursleys' laundry Harry knew which pockets of his Uncle's shirts to check for a few forgotten pounds or three. He also had his own little collection of dollars that he had found and stowed away during his years cleaning the Dursleys house. It had been more than enough to catch a train from Surrey to London. Afterwards, staying unseen and making his way to the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley had been smooth, especially with his invisibility cloak.
His plan had been relatively simple. He would go to Gringotts, inquire about the total money he had and whether the Goblins had any recommendation to private rentals, clear out the required money and go about finding a place to stay. He remembered he had quite a lot of money in his vault and vaguely remembered Hermione ranting about how the exchange rate of the money between wizarding and muggle currency was unfair (towards muggles that is). That meant even if Harry could not afford to live in the Wizarding World, he would be able to make it in the muggle one. Of course, there were many flaws in his plan, the foremost being his age. He knew the muggle world would make a fuss if they found out a child was living by himself. He suspected the wizards would do the same. However, if it came down to it, Harry was more than ready to flee and hide forever if he truly had no other option except going back to the Dursleys. He had given it a lot of thought since his decision to leave the day before. Had spent the whole day planning even. A major disadvantage on his end was his lack of knowledge. He was completely clueless about the ways of the wizarding world, which gave his plans a lot of loopholes. Normally, with a plan this risky and uncertain, Harry would backtrack in less than a heartbeat. However, he had been surprised by his own determination to get away from the Dursleys once and for all by deciding to go with the plan anyway. It seemed this time he had been truly pushed beyond the limit. He had woken up in a fitful state the night before, plagued by nightmares where he was drowned repeatedly, with every time he had been close to the surface, something had pulled him down even more viciously than the currents tossing him. It was hilariously ironic, considering Harry was a merboy now. Yet it explained his newfound desperation to leave.
He had understood by the age of three that he was unwanted in the Dursley household and had gotten over the sting of that realization by his fifth birthday. (Yes, he still longed to be part of a family that would accept him, that wish would forever linger in a part of his heart. However, he no longer longed to be part of the Dursley family). Despite the blunt neglect he faced however, Harry had not fully resented his relatives. He knew that he could be worse off in the streets or in an orphanage. So for all their fault of neglecting him and underfeeding him, Harry had been glad that at least they tolerated him enough to provide him with a constant shelter. That they tolerated his presence without going to drastic ways to make him miserable (He knew locking him up would be the least of his worries if the Dursleys truly wished to damn him. Yes, it was still terrible but it was not the worst an abuser could truly do. Harry always thanked his lucky stars Vernon was not a very violent/alcoholic man). It was why he had not done anything drastic as running away or purposely going out of his way to antagonize the Dursleys. He had learnt to tolerate them as long as they did the same. But what Dudley did was not tolerable. It threatened Harry's survival directly. That had not been a broken bone or bruised and bleeding leg. Harry would have very well died had he not had magic. Which meant the overgrown orca broke the most fundamental code that kept Harry in the Dursley house for so long. Besides, living with Dudley for so long, Harry knew that once he reached a certain level of tormenting Dudley never descended from it. He either kept the harassment at the same level or escalated it and Harry was not going to live in a house watching his back 24/7. His merboy status only made matter worse in the Dursley home for him.
So here he was. A few dozen steps away from the marble building that was the bank of wizarding Britain with a plan with a lot of holes and a good amount of desperation.
"Deep breath, Harry. You have got nothing to lose and that desperate Plan B of jumping and hiding in the ocean will always be there."
Harry pulled his invisibility cloak tighter around him and started walking. It was best to get it over with. He would have three more days to plan anything else before the Dursleys returned and he had to forever leave Privet Drive. No big loss to either parties truth be told. He was as happy to be rid of his relatives' presence as the Dursleys would be to be rid of him.