Chapter 1
The position was jinxed, that is what everyone told him and yet, he still took the position as defense against the dark arts professor in early 1984. He was James Brimble, 31 years old and an ex-auror who had fought against he who must not be named during the wizarding war. After he retired from the auror corps, he thought that teaching at Hogwarts would be fantastic, to his dismay, the position was indeed jinxed. Unfortunate events kept happening to him and now, it had finally claimed his life. He was just bringing a student for detention to Hagrid when out of the forest there rushed an acromantula. He didn’t have enough time to pick up his wand before the beast had injected him with it’s venom and dragged him deep into the forest. The last thing he heard was the student calling out to him, “Professor Brimble! Professor Brimble!”
He could feel the strength draining from his body as the venom did it’s work. Darkness overtook his vision and the warmth left him. He was so cold… then, in a flash of light, he was no longer in the forbidden forest but in what looked like a muggle elementary school classroom. Children stood around him and a teacher was looking at him worriedly, “Harry? Harry, are you okay?”
“What- what happened”, to his shock, his voice was that of a small child. Looking around, he found a mirror in the classroom. He clumsily got up and walked to the mirror, there he saw a young boy with shaggy black hair and piercing green eyes behind round glasses. What shocked him the most was the scar on his forehead, a jagged lightning bolt. The teacher had called him Harry… could it be that he was…
“Mr Potter, are you fine? Are you feeling dizzy? Disoriented?”
“No- I’m fine… just a bit hazy…” He really was Harry Potter, he-
Suddenly, a pain hit his head as memories flooded in, memories of young Harry Potter and his life. All he could think was how disgusted he was of the Dursleys, Harry’s muggle family, they treated him like garbage even though he was the savior of magical britain, something had to change… he had to do something, for his own sake. Today was the last day of school, so he would have plenty of time during the holidays to rectify that.
“You don’t seem so good, it is the last day anyways, so how about you go now, we will send your grades to your family in the mail. You can go there alone, right? You are a strong boy, right?”
“y- yes, thank you ma’am”, Harry said, walking out of the school and looking around. No one was watching, so, he spun in spot and apparated to diagon alley. The alley looked just like he remembered it but there were no people around. With full confidence, he walked into Gringotts, walked up to a goblin and explained his situation, that he didn’t have a key and so on. The goblin gave him a knife and a bowl, instructing him to let a few drops of his blood fall on the bowl. The bowl glowed with ancient runes and suddenly, the blood formed the shape of a key and transformed from blood to iron, “This comes with a 5 galleon fee, it will be taken out of your vault automatically, would you like to visit your vault?”
“Yes please”, he said and was immediately escorted to the minecart tracks, which transported him and his goblin guide toward the Potter vault. In there, he found mountains of gold, silver and bronze, stacking ever higher. The entire floor was filled with golden coins, as far as the eye could reach. He grabbed a money pouch -feather light and expanded- to shove money inside. A few good hand fulls would be enough to buy new clothes and a wand. Luckily, he wouldn’t have to worry about the trace, as his soul wasn’t underaged. And the clothes, those were very much needed, he couldn’t just walk around in Dudley’s hand-me-downs. Even living with muggles was humiliating but being treated like he was was even worse. Not anymore though… as soon as he got his wand, he could use the imperius curse to make them obedient. It might be an unforgivable curse but who cares. Rules were meant to be broken and as long as no one knew, it wouldn’t harm anyone. It’s not like he would demand them to kill each other or something like that, he would simply make them respect him.
Once he had enough money, he went back upstairs with his goblin guide and walked out of Gringotts, straight towards Ollivanders’. It was exactly as he remembered it, dusty and with the only light coming from the windows at the front of the shop, making the back a lot darker than the front.
“I was questioning when you would come”, Ollivanders’ voice was barely above a whisper yet it was still crystal clear to hear, “I remember it like yesterday when your parents came to get their first wands, Willow for your mother and mahogany for your father but you didn’t come here to talk about your parents, no, you are here for your first wand… then let’s go and see”
The procedure to get the fitting wand was just how he remembered it, every possible measurement was taken and eventually, he took out a first wand, “Mahogany and phoenix feather 9 inches, unyielding” As soon as the wand entered his grasp, it was taken away from him, “no- not that one… how about this one?”
They worked through over a dozen wands before they finally found the wand right for him, “Blackthorn and dragon heartstring, 13 inches, nice and supple”
Warmth spread through his body as the wand formed a connection with him, it was intoxicating. It was the same wood as his previous life’s wand though the core and length were different. In his past life he had a unicorn hair core and his wand was 14 inches long but he liked dragon heartstring more. Unicorn hair was way too stubborn, weakening his dark magic. Anyways, he was satisfied. He bought a wand holster and was on his way after paying for both. Next on the list was clothing, which he got rather quickly, both muggle clothing and wizarding robes. After changing into his new clothes and discarding the old ones, he was satisfied and apparated towards privet drive.
He knocked on the door and was greeted with Petunia -who was a stay at home mother- and Vernon who had just come back from work. Dudley was sitting in the living room. Vernon’s face was red in anger but not for much longer. Harry pointed his wand at Vernon, “Imperio” then at Petunia, “Imperio” and finally at Dudley, “Imperio”
“Okay, now that that is done, you will give me Dudley’s second room and will not bother, hurt or otherwise inconvenience me, you will go about your day as normal otherwise, keep appearances up and all that. Understood?”
They nodded and he moved all his belongings -which weren’t much- towards Dudley’s second room and made himself comfortable, now all he had to do was wait for the hogwarts letter. In this time, he practiced with his wand, trying to get comfortable using it, knowing it couldn’t be tracked.
It was three weeks later that the letter finally came, they were eating breakfast when the mail came. Vernon went to grab it and when Harry saw it in his hands, he commanded him to give it to him, which he did. It was a standard acceptance letter, with all the equipment and books he needed to buy. Without a word, he left the dinning room and apparated to diagon alley. Shopping was easy and fast. He had to go back to gringotts for a bit more money but after that, he got everything he needed and could apparate back to privet drive, his belongings in an expanded trunk. He met a few other students but they were older, so they had no interest in conversing with him, as he hid his scar, not wanting that attention right there. He wouldn’t hesitate to use it if the opportunity came up but just for shopping, it was such a drag. Back at the Dursleys’ he looked through his books. Most of them, he already knew, though the book for defense against the dark arts was new, as each year there was a new teacher, a tragic fact which he had confirmed with his first life. The book didn’t hold anything too different from what he knew, so he tossed it to the other books and instead began brewing a potion. It wasn’t one featured in his books but one that came in year 6 in the curriculum, the eyesight elixir, which improved the eyesight of anyone drinking it. It was a rather costly potion to brew but money was of no concern to him now, now that he had the whole Potter vault at his beck and call.
As he was brewing the potion, he realized he still had to send an owl to say that he accepted the acceptance into Hogwarts. Well, something to do tomorrow he supposed, for now the potion was already brewing and it would be foolish to abandon the potion right now when he could just do it tomorrow. After two hours of brewing, adding in ingredients every once in a while, he was finally presented with a few vials worth of eyesight elixir. One of which he drank immediately. His eyes started itching as the liquid ran down his throat and slowly, ever so slowly, his eyesight was getting better. After an hour or so, he was to the level of a normal, fully sighted person. This of course was a temporary solution, the potion would wear off, unfortunately. One had to take this potion regularly once every year for four years and then, the effects would be permanent. This was why he brewed so much of the elixir, five vials, four for each year and one spare in case anything happened. He corked the vials and put them in his trunk. With satisfaction, he laid the glasses on the table and went to sleep. The next day, Harry went to Diagon Alley again and he wrote an owl letter, accepting his place at Hogwarts and informing them that he didn’t need an escort to go shopping. After that, he practiced his spells. It had been quite a while since he last used some of them, so refreshing his memory was a must do. He even went back and bought other books for the years 2 through 5.
His birthday came and went. There was no grand celebration, he didn’t want one anyways. He thought it a waste of time. Over this time period till the first of september, he let his shaggy hair grow out, with the aid of a bit of magic, it now hung till his shoulders. It no longer looked shaggy but curly instead. By the time that 1st of september came around, he had revisited all his books up into the fourth year. He was halfway done with the fourth year material. Satisfied with his progress, Harry apparated to platform 9 ¾ on the morning of the departure day, with his trunk by his side. He quickly entered the Hogwarts express and took a compartment for himself. From in there, he watched the other children slowly enter with their families. He saw Lucious Malfoy, a good friend from his previous life there, with his son Draco. He could be a good ally to have, Harry thought as the students slowly filled the train. Eventually, a girl and a a boy his age asked to sit with him, “Sure, I’m Harry by the way”
“Hello, I’m Pansy Parkinson and this is Blaise Zabini”, the girl introduced the two of them.