Chapter 2

The next twenty months flew by with Harry spending every spare moment that he could in the library either at school or the local public library. He considered the two sisters to be his best friends, always there with a kind word and a new book for him to read. Harry found that he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He devoured books on every subject, from math and science, to mystery, science fiction and fantasy; nothing was out of his scope when it came to learning. Every time he entered one of the libraries, there would be one of the sisters with a new book or a question he needed to research and find the answers to. It was one of these research questions that revealed to Harry Just how different he was than others who were normal. The question that Ms. Prudence had given him was how long it takes for the human body to heal from debilitating injuries such as muscle tears and broken bones. According to the books he read, it usually took anywhere from two weeks to several months for proper healing to take place. Yet for Harry, the longest he had taken to heal from one of his Uncle's beatings was five days and that was one that he suspected that his family thought he would not recover from. At least, they seemed very surprised to see him cooking breakfast when they woke up and came into the kitchen and he heard his Uncle Vernon mutter to himself, wondering how you could actually get rid of the freak if he wouldn't die like a decent person would.

This revelation led Harry to question a few incidents that happened to him in the past. Things like turning a substitute teacher's hair blue, re-growing his hair overnight, unlocking his cupboard from the inside when he had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and even speaking to a snake that lived in their garden. All of these things had gotten him called a freak and incited yet another beating from his Uncle. It was almost as if they knew what he was capable of and were determined to beat it out of him. While he had been reading about what the human body was capable of, he found a book about the power of the mind. This book talked about examples of super human strength, extremely heightened senses, perfect control of the body, and even being able to see into the future. It talked about spiritual leaders who could make themselves float through meditation, Martial Masters from the Far East who could make their bodies like iron with proper focus, and even ordinary people who had been able to call on abilities far above the human norm when their loved ones were in danger. The author posited that there were huge untapped wells of abilities in the human mind and body, and they could be reached and unlocked by meditation and self-awareness brought about by an organized mind. Harry became driven to find out what lay inside his own mind. He spent most days in class trying to open his mind. He learned about self-hypnosis, memorization techniques, the art of Zen meditation, and an obscure discipline of organization taught to him by a Tibetan monk named Tzu Zee that Lady Abigail brought in to talk to him and teach him. Master Zee not only trained him to utilize his mind, but his body as well. Master Zee was amazed at how dedicated Harry was to learning to discipline his mind and body, and also how fast this amazing young man picked up each mental and physical technique. One day shortly before he had to go back to his home, he decided to ask Harry why he was so determined to learn and master all the lessons he taught him. Harry's answer left him both astounded and puzzled at the simplicity and yet depth of character that was in his youngest disciple.

"I know that you are here to teach me for a short time," Harry told him earnestly. "And I also have seen that the techniques that you are teaching me for both my mental and physical wellbeing will allow me a head start on the road to reaching my full potential. This means that I must make the exercises and methods you are teaching me truly a part of my mindset so that even when you are gone, from me or from this plane of existence, I can continue to learn and improve myself and those around me." Master Zee was left in a humble frame of mind as he realized that just as the old proverb stated, 'The Master would truly benefit and be taught as much or more by his student, than the pupil he was teaching would gain from the Master.' It was a sad day for both Master and disciple when Master Zee had to leave, but he felt that he had helped the remarkable young man start on his journey to greatness.

Then the day came that changed everything for Harry. While doing his mental exercises in his cupboard before bed, Harry had a break through. He found himself in a huge room with orbs of light zipping to and fro at breakneck speeds with no sense of rhyme or reason. In the center of the room stood a gigantic pillar of solid light of which all else orbited. Harry was at first perplexed by the chaos around him, but then he decided to see what was there. One of the orbs was zipping past him and he reached out and grabbed it for examination. He became immersed in a memory about a red haired woman with green eyes tickling him on his naked belly while he giggled and a familiar dark haired man took a picture of the two playing. He let go and grabbed another, hoping for another memory of her and the sense of love he had when he saw her. Instead, he found himself reliving the first time Uncle Vernon broke his arm when he was three, pain and all. He cried out and dragged himself out of that memory, not wanting to experience it again. Harry now saw what he had not noticed before, that each orb had its own color. There was every color of the rainbow, with different hues for each. As he focused on them, the colors became even more distinct to his sight. Harry decided that he needed to create some order in here and so, being that he spent his best times in the order of a library; he imagined a book in his hands. Not at all surprised that one appeared in his hands, he then called all the red orbs down into the book, red being the color that the Uncle Vernon memory was in.

A veritable storm of red swept at him, and began to overwhelm him with pain as the book no longer was absorbing the orbs. In an act of desperation and pure self-preservation, Harry created an entire set of bookshelves full of books and sent the different reds to different books. There were a lot of different hues, from blood red to a darkish pink color, and they all contained echoes of pain and anger. When this had been accomplished, it became clear to him that there were not a whole lot of the other colors left to sort. Most of his memories seemed to be full of pain and misery, and that realization made Harry begin to see that it was not himself, but his family that were the true freakish ones. Feeling rather tired, he called the rest of the orbs down into books, separated from the red books by walls and shelves of their own. When all that was left was the glowing column in the middle, he imagined walls going up around everything and then he formed his mental library, with the column being the center support hidden behind four walls. Looking at his handy work, Harry smiled and then allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

One thing that Harry had learned but not fully grasped was that the mind has powerful tools that it can access even while you sleep. If Harry had remained in his mental landscape, he would have seen some truly astounding things taking place. First there was a pulse of light that expanded outward from his core, and then he would have begun to hear a pervasive whisper filling every corner of his mental library. Rooms began to form and then separate into entire wings of shelves and catalogues. Then the books all jumped from their shelves and laid out in lines, one for each color, and the orbs began jumping out and back into other books, like dancing water fountains, seemingly at random. As a book would fill, it would jump up and go to a bookshelf, with each color having its own wing. If Harry had examined these books, he would have instantly realized that they were being sorted chronologically, with the front of each book containing the dates it held in its pages, and chapter lists for each incident that was held. When Harry's subconscious mind was done, there were only two things left for Harry to do. One was an entire group of orbs that were hidden by a haze, not allowing Harry or his subconscious to see the colors of the orbs it contained, and the other was the fact that if one looked closely at his central core, he would have seen a web of black lines holding it in check and stopping it from expanding or growing.

When Harry woke, it was to find that his mind seemed to be running at a much increased speed, memories jumping to the front with no discernible waiting. He was able to recall passages from books that he had read as if he were rereading them again. Harry couldn't wait to get started on his chores so that he could head to the library and explore this new found talent. With a brief pause, he remembered the time he opened the cupboard lock from the inside, and with a look of concentration, he focused himself and willed it to happen again. A quiet click and he was free from his cell and could begin his day. Harry felt full of energy and was ready to go, wondering why his Aunt Petunia was not up and yelling at him yet. When he wandered into the kitchen to get breakfast started, he realized why he was the only one up; it was 04:00 am. Harry briefly wondered why he was awake and so full of energy, but he decided not to question his luck, choosing to enjoy this time of peace without the yelling and abuse that he suffered through every morning.

Harry used his talent as he began to call it, to open the lock on the pantry so that he could eat his fill for once. Harry imagined a pulse of energy leaving his hand and becoming a key that fit itself into the lock and matching up to the tumblers inside before turning to release the lock. With an audible click, the lock sprang open and Harry was one step closer to being able to subvert the treatment that he was forced to endure from his family. He figured that if there was no way that a lock would stop him, then as long as he was frugal about what he took and didn't get greedy, they would not be able to starve him again. All that was required of him was practice and patience so he could learn to control his gifts for when he really needed them.

Aunt Petunia had as usual, bought some breakfast pastries for Dudley that were supposed to be for breakfast, and since there was really no way that Harry could get into the pantry without his Aunt unlocking it, he he he, she would hopefully think that Dudley had grabbed a box or two of them. With his subterfuge done, Harry relocked the pantry, put the two boxes of pastries in his cupboard, and then cleaned the kitchen and then swept and polished the floors. He then grabbed the carpet sweeper, thankful for the first time that it had no motor unlike his Aunt's Hoover, and finished with the rest of the downstairs. After he deemed everything was up to his Aunt Petunia's meticulous standard, Harry went back to his cupboard and crawled into the very end where he had long ago found a space behind a board that the builder had left unfastened. It was where Harry hid all his treasures, from books given him, to candies he had filched from Dudley's stash, to a blanket that he had had for as long as he could remember. The great thing about his space was that it was so far back that only Petunia could have found it, and she would never crawl in there, and no matter what he put in there, he never seemed to run out of space to store more.