The nurse then turned and left the infirmary, with Harry hastily following after her. The young boy was even gasping exhaustion by the time they arrived in the Headmistress' office. He felt drained and he didn't know if it was because of the fight or because of the magic he used.
Still, he entered the room with all five of his aggressors and their parents staring down at him with furious expressions. The headmistress looked down at him with a severe expression, "Mr Potter, it's good to see you awake again. Well, now that you're here, we can begin. Can you tell us what happened, your side of things, at least?"
Harry shrugged, "Well, I decided to go on a walk for lunch since I forgot to pack myself any and didn't bring any money for the cafeteria. I was walking around when Dudley and his friends called me a freak and bragged that there were no teachers to defend me. They said they wanted me to teach me a lesson. I tried to talk them out of it, but it didn't work."
Petunia scoffed but was silenced by a glare from the headmistress. The woman then nodded to me to continue his story, "Since I'm not much of a physical fighter, I tried to turn them against one another. I said some very hurtful things that I'm not proud of to get them to focus on themselves. Malcom and Denis started fighting, and Gordon was trying to break them up."
All of the three mentioned parents glared at their children who looked down in shame and Harry stifled a smile of satisfaction at what was probably going to await them. "I then tried to run but Piers and Dudley held me up and still wanted to fight. When they hit me, I threw some dust in their eyes, and hit Piers in the leg, but then Dudley punch me in the face and I think I passed out. I don't remember anything else, sorry."
Petunia glared at her nephew, "Headmistress, you can't believe this nonsense, can you?"
The headmistress answered with a sarcastic tone, "As opposed to your son's story that he attacked them all for no reason whatsoever?"
Harry snorted in amusement and all of the adults looked at him with raised eyebrows, telling him to justify himself, "It's just that it's such a stupid story. So, I somehow went on a walk before them, and when they came out for no reason, chose to fight them. And that's your story, that an honour student who didn't go to a single detention in his schooling, decided to attack boys known for harassing their classmates, just for the fun of it. And most of all, you're saying that I, the short thin kid who can barely do a few laps in gym class, would physically fight not one, not two, but five people that are bigger and stronger than me at the same time. Are you seriously believing this?"
The headmistress must have had the same thought, "You have to admit that your son's story is far-fetched, Mrs Dursley. Look, we're all adults here, and we can admit that everyone here had their part to play in this mess. So, I'm giving you all two days of detention, and it will be up to you to add any additional punishment at home. As for now, it's almost the end of the classes, so take your children with you home."
Everyone seemed somewhat satisfied with the decision, even if Petunia was grumbling and the drive home was spent in silence. The punishment from Harry's aunt and uncle was relatively tame. They yelled at him for hurting their darling child and forbade him from leaving his room which wasn't really a big deal.
Dudley's grinning face, as they berated him, was annoying, but it didn't really anger him, not anymore. It's hard to imagine that he envied Dudley once. Now, he only just pitied him. His parents coddled him so much that they raised a dysfunctional boy that will not be able to live by himself when he grows up. He'll probably end up paying a small fortune in therapy to get over how they messed him up. And all because his parents wanted to show their superiority to their nephew.
Although, it really couldn't be out of spite, and they are just this much of horrible parents, as unlikely as that may be.
But Harry stopped caring about it, for now, Dudley wasn't important. Vernon and Petunia weren't important, because he had magic, now. He had real power, and in a few months, he would be invited to Hogwarts. It made sense because that's probably the arrangement Petunia was talking about when Harry mentioned secondary school.
As for now, Harry was confined to his own room until the end of the year, and while he would miss his trips to the library, he had enough time to experiment with magic properly.
The young wizard hadn't been successful in using it because he really didn't know what it was other than it was some kind of 'freakishness'. But now, Harry knew that it was just called accidental magic, a way for magic to express itself during childhood when they express powerful emotions.
It was often known to be chaotic and replicating it would be dangerous. It happened to Harry when he was scared or about to get hurt. It didn't really protect him, as much as it responded to his fear of something hurting him. Plus having control over the magic wasn't an impossible thing. Tom Riddle, as a child, had learnt to weaponize it to frighten his bullies in the orphanage.
Hell, he even learnt how to telekinetically move objects by himself. Well, that's according to the stories, that is. If anything, Tom Riddle was an extremely intelligent child to figure this out on his own. He probably weaponized an emotion, most likely hate, and used it to channel his magic through it. It was as disturbing as it was brilliant, not to mention slightly frightening.
As for Harry, now that he understood the principal, he needed to use them slightly. He looked at the small sheet of paper on his bed and stared at it, as he had been for the last few hours.
Harry did his best to put the image in his mind, of Dudley trying to strike him in the face, he looked deep down, trying to channel it as much as possible. He almost felt like he was there, scared of being hurt, and with that emotion, he felt something stir inside him.
A small warmth spread all over his body, and the sheet of paper levitated a few inches in the air. Well, that was easier than he expected.
.....
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