13Prologue: The Day the World Ended
Harry Potter had that dream once again: green light dancing toward him, only to rebound back to its source.
But of course, I remember that night as clearly as the day I was born. It was a year after my birth when a mysterious man wielding a power like no other sneaked into my parents' house to kill them, then tried to kill me… That's a canonical event! A typical event for a tragic protagonist seeking revenge!
Harry Potter is his name in this life, in this life where magic is real. But he wasn't always Harry Potter. Once, he was Kageno Minoru, who lived his life in an insatiable quest for power, aiming to fulfill his deepest dream. His training paid off, and one day, Minoru was reincarnated as Harry Potter.
I didn't care much about being a baby again. With magic surrounding me, at my fingertips, it was only a matter of time before my body matured enough to begin my training. Secretly, I tried to teach myself how to walk and run. But my power wasn't enough to stop the man from killing my parents… And even if my power was somehow strong enough to repel the green-killing-light back to the caster now I'm condemned to a life with a protagonist's past...
Lily and James Potter were killed, and from the rubble, the child was rescued by a giant who proceeded to take him on a flying motorcycle to another place, where a man and a woman dressed in extravagant clothing left him on the doorstep of a normal house. Kagenou—or rather Harry—had mixed feelings about the situation.
I mean, first of all, cool. Second, oh my god, that was freaking amazing. And third, isn't this too protagonist-like?
Luckily for him, in the years that followed, Harry grew up as a normal boy under the care of the Dursleys restless abuse to put him in line—always a little below average, a weakling, sometimes bullied at school, following his cousin left and right through the days, living in his shadow.
The Dursleys seemed quite content with his normality and very comfortable abusing the boy from time to time. The only problem Harry had during those years was to avoid being too miserable, for he knew well that there is a subtle yet notable difference between being miserable and being mediocre.
Being too miserable would only exacerbate my tragic past. I must be mediocre, even slightly happy, so no one suspects the power I hide and perfect in the darkness of the night as I sneak in the dark to train as Stylish-Thug-Slayer.
The day was normal, peaceful, as the Dursley family quietly ate breakfast.
Petunia tasted the pancakes and sighed in satisfaction. Dudley emptied his plate quickly and raised it even faster.
"Another one!" the boy shouted.
"Right away!" came the reply from Harry Potter in the kitchen.
Quickly, a new batch of pancakes, adorned with syrup and strawberries, was on Dudley's plate. Harry wiped his cousin's mouth with a technique that denoted elegance and practice like no other.
Vernon nodded slowly, approvingly. He would never admit it out loud, but he was proud of the honest, hardworking boy, never showing the slightest hint of freakiness that might reveal his side of the family. Vernon was a proud man, proud of his normalcy. That's why he was even prouder of himself for making Harry Potter a normal boy, more so than he was proud of anyone else.
Smiling as he listened to the radio, he asked, "Dudley, dear, could you fetch the mail?"
"Don't worry about it! I'll get it, Uncle Vernon!" Harry Potter hurried to the door and was back within seconds with a pile of letters.
Vernon took them carelessly and quickly sorted through them while sipping his coffee.
"Junk mail, tax report, electric bill, letter from Hogwar—" Vernon spit out his coffee and paled as he stared at the letter in his hands.
He looked at his wife Petunia with sweat and fear in his eyes.
"More pancakes coming right up! Who's hungry?!"
Dudley happily continued eating, oblivious to the conspiratorial looks shared between his parents.
(UwU) ~Line Break~ (UwU)
Harry didn't know when everything had ended, or how it had come to this. He was doing such a good job being the perfect background character! Ah... everything was going so well. I was secretly growing my power while maintaining the image of a normal boy who loved his family. Everything changed when letters started appearing out of nowhere…
Harry was pretending to be cold inside a cabin on a rock in the middle of the sea, in the middle of nowhere. All of this was the result of Vernon acting strangely and the mysterious letters trying to reach him. Harry had done everything he could to ignore the mysterious inked letters that tried to fill the house. He had helped his uncle seal the mail slot in the door and the chimney. But nothing they did seemed to be enough to stop the constant flow of letters. The family tried to flee to a hotel, but even there, the letters managed to reach them. It all culminated with the family settling temporarily in the middle of nowhere, trying to escape the mysterious letters.
At least there's no way the letters will reach us here. I think I'll be able to sleep peacefully tonight. But it's sad that I can't sneak out to do my Stylish-Thug-Slayer activities on my birthday night. That would have been so awesome...
When Harry Potter thought he could finally fall asleep, someone started knocking on the door, waking the Dursleys. Harry squeezed his eyes shut and told himself that this was all just a nightmare, that this was just a bad dream.
The door fell open, and a man as large as a house—and who probably was a house for some creatures living in his massive beard—entered. Setting aside the vulgar descriptions, the giant, long-haired, shaggy man entered with a purple umbrella in his hands, standing imposingly before Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley. Harry pretended to keep sleeping.
The giant wandered around the room, looking at the boy sleeping peacefully, staring with confusion, unsure of what to do. Vernon Dursley shouted at him to leave while pointing a shotgun at him, but the giant waved his hand dismissively as he cautiously watched the boy. He then decided to stay in the shack until Harry woke up.
Vernon clearly wasn't happy about this and tried to threaten the giant, but the latter got angry and, with a wave of his pink umbrella, transformed the shotgun halfway into a walking stick.
"What did you just do?"
Hagrid jumped in surprise and fell to the floor when Harry's voice startled him out of nowhere.
This... this power... Magic! That's it! The man in front of me just performed magic. I suppose whoever sent the letters finally got tired of not receiving a response and sent someone... An assassin? No, the man doesn't seem to have bad intentions. Then, what?
"Harry, you're a wizard."
(UwU) ~Line Break~ (UwU)
Harry Potter kneeled before his relatives. Vernon was as red as a tomato, trying to strangle the boy with his gaze. Petunia was crying, not daring to look at the boy, and Dudley was confused, glancing from side to side, with a face that showed his bafflement.
"Vernon, thank you for thoroughly teaching me the values and behaviors of normal people, as well as how to present a facade of normalcy in front of guests in mere seconds. Petunia, gardening and gossiping—without you, I would never have learned these essential skills for a normal life. Dudley, thank you for being the center of attention that always overshadowed me. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you, and I promise that these ideals of normalcy will guide me now and forever."
With a half-smashed birthday cake in his hands, and after bidding farewell to his relatives, Harry Potter—Stylish-Thug-Slayer—left in a small boat with a rather confused Hagrid.