The Rules of the Game

A/N: Sorry if you find this boring, but I have to give you the background. Once I give you guys the basic idea of Harry’s feelings his life and what not, things will go faster (though that will take a few chapters like 6ish) and I’m going to try to get through his first 4 years of school pretty fast so we can get to the good part with Voldie and all that drama.
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When I entered pre-school and eventually first grade with Dudley it quickly became apparent what this place was. At first I was worried about the new rules I would have to learn but those seemed almost non-existent compared to home, this was the place where I could learn the skills to get ahead enough to do something, but I didn\'t forget my forth rule. I learned everything I could, as quickly as possible while only presenting average results to my teachers on tests and homework. I hid in the library during recess and found books that showed pictures of what it was I was healing inside of me. I think it was called \'A-nat-o-me\' or something, but what I discovered is that if I could picture in my mind exactly what I wanted to happen, the healing would go quicker and I would feel less drained after as well.

I continued to devour books in the library and found that most everything came relatively easily. As I advanced far ahead of my classes I got stuck on some things but fixed that by sneaking into the tutoring sessions and pretend to be reading some children books while I listened to the upper classmen explain different things to others. I found science, especially chemistry, to be the most intriguing and was frustrated that we were barely even touching the subject in my class.

Though I enjoyed what I was learning I quickly discovered there was one area that was going to be very necessary; being fit. Though I could escape Dudley during recess by going to the library, there was no food allowed in there and seeing as lunch was my one meal of the day I wasn\'t about to give it up. Dudley decided to form a kind of gang and they seemed particularly interested in hunting me down and taking my lunch. It was during one of these \'thrilling\' games of Harry hunting when I thought they had me cornered. I stupidly got confused and ran into a dead end between to buildings, I knew they were going to be around the corner in seconds and just closed my eyes and continued to wish they wouldn\'t see me. The sound of loud feet and heavy breathing brought my gaze back to the front of the small passageway to see the looking around confused. \"Damn, we lost him.\" Dudley had said in annoyance and my eyes widened
in confusion as I starred straight at them, just a few feet away, and then back down at myself and almost yelped in surprise. I knew I was starring at where my body should have been but there was nothing there. I glanced up again to see them vanishing back around the corner and in panic began wishing me visible with all my might. Right before my eyes I began to reappear again, it was then that I realized that it wasn\'t just healing I could do and decided to set about in discovering the full extent of my abilities. I was so eager and excited about the prospect that for a moment I thought about going home and announcing it to Vernon in Petunia, but then again I remembered my fourth rule. This was something that definitely fell under the category of a skill that would lead to me being underestimated, besides the memory of how Vernon had tested my healing ability cut off any further thoughts on that.

And so my time at school went on but by third grade I had learned everything I could from the library, and though just a \'B\' student in classes I was one of the best in my P.E. classes because of my speed. The teacher had wanted me on the soccer team but when it was brought up with Vernon and Petunia, Dudley had said no and so that was that. I was angry at loosing that opportunity but of course hid it from everyone. I had perfected my masks since I started them and they never suspected anything. I knew why Dudley did that though; he didn\'t want me to make any friends and had prevented almost everyone so far. There was one girl that had been in our second grade class that was deaf, I went to the library and mastered sign language in just over a week and we became friends. But as soon as Dudley noticed he began to harass the girl so bad her parents ended up transferring her to another school. That incident had made me so angry I accidentally blew up his PlayStation and was punished severely though Vernon couldn\'t really give a reason why. When I was able to go back to school, I was all alone again but decided that was best. Having friends would only cause problems, they would be a weakness that could be used against me and they would distract me from what I needed to do. The only good thing that came from meeting that girl was the idea of mastering languages, so that was the next thing I set out to do.

The fact of me going to school didn\'t influence my life with the Dursleys greatly either way. I was still given chores which I got up earlier to do, and then returned from school to complete. The beatings for any \'bad\' things I did were concentrated to areas that could be covered with clothing and any serious wounds I would heal before arriving at school. The Dursleys made it clear what would happen if I ever spoke of what was going on in their house. I didn\'t fully understand why they were warning me, it was just the way it was, I was a freak and bad so I had to be punished, it was just a rule.
Despite this it seemed Vernon was always looming over, threatening me; he even gave me an \'example\' of what I could look forward to if I talked...it took me two days to get enough energy to heal after that. One slight problem that did arise was my increasing dislike to being touched. I know I deserved the punishments that were given to me, but when one of my teachers stood near me or reached for a paper on my desk to collect I couldn\'t help but tense and hold my breath, waiting for a blow to come. No matter how many times the blow didn\'t come, no matter how hard I worked to steady myself, I couldn\'t completely stop myself from shying away. That\'s probably why it was a good thing that I had no friends, that I was such a loner and the teachers paid no mind to me because I was neither an exceptional nor abysmal student. I continued to work on it, hoping that if the day came when I would have a friend or teacher who cared I would be able to hide the reaction. The last thing I wanted was someone thinking they knew everything asking stupid questions in an attempt to \'help\'. They wouldn\'t understand, that\'s just how things worked, I had to be punished to learn, to become stronger.

I began to test what I could do with my powers but always made sure no one was around to see. It was the most amazing thing to watch things happen merely by willing it strong enough with my mind. When I began it was tiring and I could only float a few things for a short while before I needed to rest, but as I worked on it every chance I got it became easier and it seemed that the only limit to what I could do was my imagination.
When I entered fourth grade I could levitate anything I wanted including myself, I could summon things to me from across the room or throw them across the room without touching them. I could create fire, or light and even make the plants in the garden grow faster. I could even make shields to protect them from the weather or prevent someone from getting something and if I tweaked it a little I could change the shield so it made what ever it was shielding invisible. I had also gotten into the habit of carrying needles around because I discovered that I could change things into what ever I wished. It was easiest to have needles hidden in my clothing, and then if I ever needed anything I would just slip one out and change it into what I wanted. Every time I discovered something new I wanted to run to Vernon and see him proud of me for once, but I knew he wouldn\'t be. What I was doing seemed like magic and if that word was even mentioned in our house I was taken to the basement to be punished. I knew this had to be a secret of mine and eventually I stopped needing to go to someone, I didn\'t need anyone.

With my new abilities I had begun sneaking out at night, I could just will my cupboard unlocked and would go in the back yard to lie under the stars. It was on one of those nights when I meet one of my first friends... well sort of. It was a snake, and I know most people wouldn\'t count them as friends, but he would talk with me and I with him; I named him Gary, he was a garden snake. It was just a few weeks after that when I discovered a new power that instantly went high on my useful list. Everyone was supposed to be in bed already and I wanted to go talk with Gary about these headaches I was getting and some voices I could hear when no one was talking, but I could still hear the TV on in the living room. It seemed most likely that Vernon had passed out in front of it but I wasn\'t going to risk my secrets. I sat and waited in my cupboard for nearly an hour for him to go to bed but it seemed like that wasn\'t happening anytime soon. I began wishing that I could skip going by him and just appear outside, I felt a stirring in my magic so I focused my will harder and harder until \'pop\', and I was outside. I almost burst out laughing at the surprised reaction from Gary but just managed to keep quiet. Unfortunately he didn\'t have any idea about the voices or headaches so after a few minutes I \'popped\' back into my cupboard and with a smile went to sleep.

When another week went by the voices were beginning to cause trouble and I constantly had a headache that I couldn\'t heal. It was starting to affect my class work but worse it was affecting my chores and even caused me to loose control on my powers once. Vernon had been so furious when the vase across the room exploded just as he backhanded me that I had to struggle hard to keep the rest of my magic from defending me just from the look on his face. I repeatedly begged for forgiveness, claiming I did nothing, and didn\'t know how it happened but he took me down to the basement without listening and I passed out before he was even half way done with me. It was another week of constant mental pain accented by physical pain before I finally got some luck.
A month ago we had been given the option of doing dodge ball, soccer and other games with the P.E. teachers or learning martial arts from an instructor they would have coming.
It wasn\'t anything I had to debate over and so when I went in for the first lesson with fewer than ten other kids we were told we were starting with meditation. All the other kids moaned at the thought but reluctantly everyone began. As I closed my eyes and listened to the sensei\'s instructions, the headache began to fade and the voices receded, I began to get a picture in my mind of my power source but also my mind (if that makes any sense), what I realized first is that I needed to organize it better but also that though I was putting shields on other things, my mind needed one too. With my powers growing stronger they were leaking over into others and I could see the energy slipping into the heads of the kids around me. That\'s when I realized the voices were other\'s thoughts and so with a bit of mental effort made a shield around my power as well as one around my mind so no one else could get in. That night and through the other lessons of meditation with the sensei I strengthened my shields but also began to test the new ability of going into other\'s minds. I felt slightly bad doing this, as I quickly learned I could influence other\'s decisions or simply control them, but what was useful is I could see the information that they knew and learn it straight from their minds in seconds. As with any other ability I mastered it until it was simple for me but because I hated going into other\'s minds without them knowing never did it much, and definitely not to any of the Dursleys.

Now that I had the shields that would protect me things began to go back to normal, chores, school, homework, beatings, and learning as much as I could. It was the end of my fourth grade year, and had been one of the best in my opinions, and I was walking home alone, (Dudley having been picked up already) with all \'B\'s\' on my report card and for once it wasn\'t a mask of happiness on my face, but true happiness because Petunia and Dudley were going back to school that night to talk to the principal about his grades and holding him back and Vernon would be at work still, leaving me home alone \'locked\' in my cupboard. It seemed like this was going to be the start of a good summer...that is until I got home.