A betrayal of a different type

It was not long before Harry developed a schedule. Early the the mornings, he would go for a run and stretch his body. Afterwards, he would do all types of exercises he could think of, which was not as short as one might expect, having learnt some from watching Dudley practice boxing. He would also take the time to just sit upon a tree in the small forest, on the grounds and watch the blue skies, clear lake and beautiful flowers. It was a moment of peace and relaxation he allowed himself, a moment of stillness and reflection, so as to not be overwhelmed and to keep himself in the present.

He would then have a long negotiation with his house elves, including Milly to try and cook, something he had grown to appreciate and even enjoy over the years, and ultimately fail each day. This always resulted in an impressive breakfast, even a full English Breakfast for a lone person not used to eating. Harry figured that the house elves worked to prove themselves worthy to cook breakfast. He still had not given up, in fact adding the request of simple meals.

After a shower and an hour of rest, he would gear himself towards his lessons. His motive primarily rested on all of his near death experiences, and all that would undoubtedly come in the future. Nor did he want to remain helpless any longer. They couldn't hurt him if he saw them coming, after all.

His lessons would start with the practical side of things, his years at Hogwarts teaching him that he learnt best with practicals or under duress. His main objective was to learn to control his magic again, and the power of his spells, with all portraits coming and going with some sort of advice. Not that all of it was genuine advice. This was best proven when a particular such advice from Simon led him to become a Salmon with human legs who could survive without water. Ignoring these mishaps, Lily predicted that he would have it down by the second week ended. It was not something he had not done before, but just something he needed to relearn. If time permitted he would revise his subjects and advance even further as well as learning new subjects such as warding. After a light lunch he would focus on the theoretical aspects, learning about History, Potions , Runes, Arithmancy , Astronomy, COMC, and about obscure spells to learn once he mastered control over his magic along with subjects long forgotten, even at Hogwarts. Of course, he barely understood them, but that was another matter. He would on alternate days, learn of politics, legilimency and improve occlumency. The rest of the day would then be his. On the weekends he would do his daily workout and practice magic, before attempting the animagus transformation process which would take time.

Harry remembered his first lesson where he tried to control his powers : He levitated a feather , it shot up so quickly towards the ceiling that the feather had lost the feathery part of it. The feathery part was later rediscovered inside of his Grandfather's portrait and no one was quite sure how it had ended up in there. Not even the house elves. At least he was beginning to control it. Somewhat.

On the other hand, 3 days into his stay at Potter Manor, he happened to sleep the whole day, due to exhaustion. He dreamt of his his first piece of magic : Throwing a whole raspberry pie at his father, who stood speechless, covered in pinkish goo. His first word. It had been quite disappointing for the marauders and Lily, who had placed numerous bets on what would be his first word, It was naturally their own names that they had bet after. That Harry's first word turned out to be "Sot !" had nothing to do with the cat secretly encouraging baby Harry in private. Nope, nothing. On asking, he would discover that it had been the family cat, Spot. He remembered the day when the Secret Keepers were changed, and when Dumbledore put those spells on them. Needless to say, it took quite an effort to stop Harry from marching out to kill Dumbledore then and there.

Everything seemed so much simpler and easier to Harry. Things did seem easier when one remained cut off from the world, and even Harry knew that he would have to rejoin at some point or the other. This, he reflected, was a valuable life lesson taught by the Dursleys : A life lived sequestered away, was not life at all, in fact. Regardless, what he knew intellectually, did not always transfer to his heart.