You're an obscurial, Harry
Once Harry was back in the mansion, with all his stuff put away properly, he decided to spend some time in one of the more chill, hangout-ey rooms. Ambrosia was sleeping, probably catching up on all the sleep she didn't get, being in a pet shop and waiting for someone to claim her.
He grabbed the book on obscurials as well, he had spent far too long putting it off. Something about it made him uneasy, but he really did need to read it.
Once he reached one of the rooms, Harry put the book down on the coffee table and sat on a couch. He decided that he needed some time to just think everything he'd done in the past few days over. Almost all of his decisions were purely impulsive.
He got comfortable, laying back on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest.
Harry was definitely happy that he wasn't with the dursleys. He couldn't bear another day with them.
His absence from the wizarding world would certainly cause problems. But, Harry was kind of glad for that.
Let the wizarding world deal with their own war. Harry would love to see how they'd fare without their child soldier to drop all their worries on. It was hardly the first wizarding war, and the current dark lord was hardly the most intelligent. He believed that they could beat ol’ nose'nt just fine, with a bit of rational thought.
Harry realized that he should finally, after all this time, get a subscription to the prophet. It always spread hand picked misinformation, but it would give him some ideas as to how the public reacted to his absence.
He would miss being at hogwarts, he loved it there. But.. it wasn't safe. And he didn't think he could bear to go another year with Sneep- he laughed out loud at that nickname, coming up with it on the spot.
Harry would be missing a whole year of school, two if he decided to practically drop out, but this mansion had a fuckton of books, he could learn subjects at his own pace.
Harry nodded to himself at that, before going to his next train of thought.
His friends.. Harry would definitely be a bit lonely without them. But, then again, after a certain amount of time he very easily could invite them over, once he was comfortable with the notion of doing so.
He loved his friends, he really truly did, but he didn't quite trust that they wouldn't leak his location to someone. If Ron told his siblings, it might go back to their mother, and Mrs. Weasley might tell Dumbledore.
Another sudden thought hit him. Neville. He never was really close with Neville, but he did like him. And he knew Neville wasn't really allowed to be himself at his home. His grandmother wanted him to be like his parents, when Neville just wanted to be a herbologist.
Harry nodded to himself. He'd build a greenhouse and then invite Neville over. Maybe before the school year starts, even. He could trust Neville to not leak any information to anyone.
Harry then decided that it was finally time to read the obscurial book. He sat up and grabbed it off the coffee table, opening it gently.
‘Obscurials are children that have been forced to push away their magic, oftentimes through abuse. If the child forces away their magic for too long, an obscurus is formed. An obscurus is an entity of condensed magic, and brings destruction everywhere it goes. Most obscurials get taken over by the obscurus before they reach the age of 10. There was a rare case where an obscurial was able to live out his whole life, but he did prove to be a danger to a city for a long time.
Obscurials are a rare occurrence, but they can still happen to a witch or wizard. If you think you might be an obscurial, I have created a spell that allows one to check. The incantation is ‘identifico’ and if you, dear reader, do have an obscurus within you, a dark mist will briefly swirl around your right hand.
Depending on how dense the mist is, it will determine the intensity and danger level of your obscurus.
If the mist is pretty light, you do have an obscurus, but you had escaped the magical abuse before it could manifest too much. This level of obscurus is fairly dormant, but can break free of a person if they are in true danger.
If the mist is dark and dense, then you have a fully powered obscurus, and have probably already been taken over by it several times, and are likely close to the end of your time. It pains me to write, but I do not think that there is any way to save you.’
Harry stared at the journal for a long moment, taking all that information in.
Ambrosia did say she saw a dark mist around Harry, so it would be good of him to use the spell the writer supplied.
Harry took his wand out of its holster, put the book down, and stared at his right hand.
“Identifico.”
A very sparse mist swirled around Harry’s hand, going to the tip of his wand and then vanishing.
“Oh. Wonderful. Thanks for that, dursleys!” Harry said to himself, sighing.
The book did say that if the mist was light, you weren't really in any danger. And well, Harry is almost 16, so he'll take that as a good sign.
Harry sighed heavily and stood up, casting a spell to check the date. It was July 28th, a few days before Neville's birthday.
He quickly went over to the kitchen, grabbing a piece of parchment that was still there and quickly writing out a letter to Neville, inviting him over.
He set the letter aside to dry for a moment, thinking about what he’d do if Neville did accept the invite. He’d probably have to meet Neville at gringotts and bring him over with the help of a goblin.
He grabbed another parchment and wrote a letter to the Potter account manager, the one who was also in charge of his mail and the mansion.
Harry set that parchment aside and stood up, leaving the kitchen while he waits for those letters to dry.
He went back upstairs, finding Ambrosia awake but resting on his pillow.
“Hello, Ambrossia. When we firsst met, you ssaid you ssaw a dark misst around me. Iss it sstill there?” Harry asked the snake, sitting on the bed next to the pillow she was on.
Ambrosia raised her head and looked at Harry, her gaze going towards his hand and then up at his chest. “Yess. It iss sstill there. There iss ssome around your hand, but mosst of it sseemss to be around your heart.”
Harry let out a little hum at that, hoping the journal was right and he wasn't actually in danger of hurting himself or others.
“I'm going to go ssend ssome letterss, do you want to sstay here or come down with me?” Harry asked Ambrosia, looking down at her.
The snake seemed to think for a moment, tilting her head a little bit. “I think I will sstay here for now, thiss spot is comfortable and warm.”
Harry nodded and got up, waving at her before leaving the room.
He went back down to the kitchen, checking that the letters were dry. They were, so Harry picked them up and walked out to the hall. The goblins had given him passwords for a magical mailbox that Harry could send out his mail with.
“Mortem.” Harry said, and a floating mailbox appeared. He opened the mailbox, slipping the letters inside. He closed it and stepped back, saying the word to make the mailbox disappear and go to the goblins. “Postmortem.”
The mailbox vanished and Harry smiled to himself, hoping Neville would accept his invite.
And then he realized how hypocritical that just was.
Lamenting about not wanting his best friends around, and then going and inviting somebody who was a bit more of an acquaintance than a friend.
Oh, well. Too late now…