A/N I don't own any of this except for my general ideas, based off an concept in the story "A wizard's magic"

Update 6/14/2020: So I began this story over 8 years ago, the first three chapters were written while I was in middleschool/highschool and going back re-reading it I realized this is not up to my current standards. I noticed through the story stats that I had about a 40% retention for readers.

I've re-written the majority of this chapter, and will consider doing the same to chapters 2 and 3. Let me know in the reviews if you guys think those two chapters need to be updated.

As all stories tend to start, ours will begin with "once upon a time…"

In Britain there once was a man named Tom Riddle, Tom didn't have a happy childhood and did all he could to make it better. He tried to make friends however he could; he tried to excel at school and help his peers, he tried to be helpful and supportive. There was a problem though, no matter how many different things Tom tried, he was unable to fit in with this peers. There was something special about Tom however, Tom was magical. And when magic was part of the equation, anything was possible.

As Tom grew up, he slowly gave up hope that he would fit, deciding his only true friend was solitude. He began to experiment on his own, away from restrictions and away from supervision. In his isolation he found many things; many marvelous things were discovered, some good, many bad.

At the school that Tom went to, there was a man in charge. That man was Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore himself was the one to bring Tom to the school. It was Dumbledore that kept an eye on Tom and when Tom began to conduct some more questionable experiments, Dumbledore took it upon himself to stop Tom.

As grateful as Tom was to Dumbledore for showing him the wonders of magic, Tom didn't want to stop. Dumbledore resorted to more drastic measures and Tom snapped.

Thus the creation of Lord Voldemort.

James warily looked outside the window, his eyes alert as he scanned for movement. The previous week they had found out from Severus that Peter had leaked the location of their fidelius. The betrayal was beyond imaginable, but Lily was the only one who seemed to have expected it. With their last safehouse compromised, they were getting ready to relocate but there was another message of an impending attack.

Lily was working hard on a runic sequence, the last of their items already having been packed. It was her idea to leave behind a trap in case the dark lord's followers were still planning on raiding the house. The rest of the order was currently assisting on a raid at the Longbottom manor leaving only James as protection for Lily and Harry. The move to set up a trap was risky, but victories were far and few between at the moment and they needed every advantage they could get.

The rune sequence Lily was setting up used runes from ancient Egypt. Wadjet, KA, Amenta, and Maat were used in hopes of warding against evil, containing energy and hopefully releasing everything in one large explosion. The idea Lily had was to absorb any magic in the area once triggered and release it all at once.

It was during her second to last rune when James quickly turned away from the window holding up a finger to his mouth in the universal sign of 'hush'. In a low whisper, "Lily, we're out of time, the raid on Longbottom manor was a diversion. They're trying to take us both out with a two pronged attack."

As the pair felt the portkey and apparition wards rise around them, they shared a look. It was unlikely that any of them were going to survive this. The only advantages they had were surprise and a very large magical bomb.

Lily looked around hoping to find something that would get them out of the situation but things were looking very dim. With James' cloak they could possibly hide, but the likelihood of having the entire home razed to the ground in Fiendfyre was too high. She quickly picked up her notes and looked through the remaining runes hoping to find something. With less time than ever she quickly changed the last rune from Amenta to Ra. Ra was the symbol of rebirth and instead of everything exploding it would hopefully contain and imbue.

She quickly ran to the cradle holding Harry and moved it on top of the runic circle and James suddenly understanding the situation, quickly threw his cloak over the cradle. At least one of them was going to survive this encounter.

"Harry, I know you can't understand us yet, but know that your father and I love you very much." Her tears were freely falling as she knew this would be the last conversation she would ever share with her newborn son. "I know you probably won't remember us, but just remember everything we've done, was for you."

She turned away and embraced James. His face was stoic, Lily was breaking down and with the impending attack at hand, he wouldn't be much use if he was also in distress. Looking back to the window they counted thirteen figures, but one figure stood above the rest. Voldemort himself was leading the attack. In the back of his mind, he mused that at least the longbottom manor would survive, with Voldemort here, none of the Death Eaters there would survive against Dumbledore.

Lily had already laid the rune stones containing the boundary of their sequence around the area. With a plan in hand, they just needed to lure everyone closer.

James and Lily shared one last kiss as they broke the embrace. James was the better duelist, having been part of the Aurors. He would be the one to leave the safety of their home and draw in everyone.

As James walked to the door, he turned back with a sad smile on his face.

"I'll see you on the other side," and with a final wink, he left.

Lily was trying her best to hold back her tears. She moved to the center of the room kneeling alongside the cradle. In her hands she held a knife, runes adorned the handle and sides of the blade. Holding the knife with both hands she placed the tip of the blade against her chest, right over her heart.

Listening for the spellfire, she could hear a battle raging outside. James was one of the best, but even he wouldn't be able to hold out long against the group of wizards. She listened closely for the signal.

"LUMOS" she heard him yell, the light blinding everything. Light streamed through the windows, illuminating everything as if it was daylight still.

As the light streamed in and slowly died down, the knife plunged and everything once again went white.

Voldemort was panicking. What should have been an easy raid was suddenly thrown out the door. His followers were slowly wearing down on the last Potter patriarch. They were closing in when they were suddenly blinded. A minor annoyance, but Voldemort and stood further back, not seeing a point in joining the fray. If twelve of his followers had trouble closing in on one wizard, they were as good as dead to him.

It was during their final approach when a light began emanating from within the house, a dome of pure light extended outwards. Seeing the light approaching, he had time to cast the strongest mage shield he could muster, but it was all for naught.

As the light passed through he shield he fell to his knees. As a testament to his strength, his followers were already on the ground screaming as their bodies were torn from the inside out. He could feel his magic leaving his body. Behind the walls of his mind, he reached out to his many Horcruxes hoping to throw is conscience into one of them. The magic just tore through his mental walls though, and followed the trails of magic to this Horcruxes. Each item was being rendered innate as the magic flowed from them back into him and back towards the epicenter of the dome.

He could feel his strength weakening, staying on his knees now was a monumental task. In the distance he could see the Potter patriarch in the same position. The only difference was he had dropped his wand at this point. His two hands were raised at chest level and balled into fists. A single finger was extended on both hands. The last thing he saw was James Potter mouthing two words.

"F - U - C - K, Y - O - U"

And everything went dark.

It was a few hours before Dumbledore arrived at the scene of destruction. The raid at Longbottom manor was successfully repelled. There was minor injuries on their side, but no one had been injured seriously.

It looked like a completely different story at the Potter residence however. Surveying the scene the biggest surprise was the lack of bodies. He could see piles of ash in the shape of figures. It would have taken some very serious levels of magic to vaporize everything. The house was completely torn down, and debris could been seen everywhere.

As he walked through the ruins he could see only one peculiarity. In the middle of the torn down home was a an empty circle, the destroyed parts of the ceiling looked to have been deflected to the sides.

Minerva soon popped in behind him as he heard the tell tale sounds of apparition.

"Merlin, what happened here?" he heard her curse under her breath.

"It would seem the Potters had one last trick up their sleeve."

He indicated towards the empty circle as the two professors approached. Casting a few charms to make sure the area was safe, he walked into the circle never even noticing there was something hidden there.

He tripped.

Minerva could only stare in shock as the century old wizard fell to the ground. Dumbledore may have been one of the strongest wizards currently alive, but he was still technically and old man. She winced as she heard a loud cracking noise, hopefully it wasn't one of his bones.

Dumbledore sat on his rear rubbing his lower back gently trying to relieve some of the immediate pain. As he looked up, he stared at the spot in disbelief and small hope in the back of his mind. As he reached for the seemingly empty circle he could feel the texture of the signature cloak James had shown him a many times before. Pulling the cloak off quickly he found a cradle with a single sleeping child.

Harry had survived.

With the cloak no longer hiding the child, he could feel an immense magical presence. Curiously he traced the source back to young Harry.

Minerva just moved to pick up the child, while she was a very talented transfiguration teacher, she didn't have the same magical sense that made Dumbledore pause.

"I can't believe my eyes," he heard Minerva whisper. "There's not a scratch on him."

"It would seem the Potters had a few surprises still left for us." commented Dumbledore as he pondered the problem before him. The the amount of magic in the child rivaled his own, and would only grow with time. The accidental magic the infant would perform would be unimaginable. Now he could seal the magic, but placing such a restrictive series of runes on a child would most likely have negative effects.

His initial thought was to leave Harry with his extended family, recalling in the back of his mind Lily still had a sister. But with Harry's newfound levels of magic, it was unlikely that placing him with muggles was any sort of good idea.

"Minerva..." he began slowly, a sudden thought appearing in his mind. "How do you feel about raising another child?"

Minerva pondered the idea, she had lost both her husband and child in the war only a few months prior. The memory was still very fresh and with a war ongoing there was hardly time to grieve. Harry would be a welcome distraction.

"As long as I have help, I don't think I would be able to raise a child by myself again." she replied after a moment.

"I think I've got something in mind," replied Dumbledore as he flushed out his idea internally.

The magical world of Britain lost its gloom as the news of the dark lord was spread. Shops were reopening and people were walking back onto the streets. What was empty only hours ago were now full and lively. Drinks were flowing and people were singing long into the night.

Hogwarts was a different story however. While school was not in session, the staff was gathered inside the headmaster's office.

"Could you repeat that again?" asked Professor Vector in speculation, mirroring the concern in all of the other professor's faces.

"You heard me correctly the first time, Harry will now be a resident of Hogwarts until further notice," stated Dumbledore in a tone of finality.

"Who is going to watch… that thing?" asked Snape in a tone of obvious disgust. For Harry represented the death of many people. Harry being alive meant that the dark lord was dead along with Lily. Lily as a childhood friend had meant more to Snape than anyone else alive. She had been the closest human connection he had ever bothered to establish, after marrying James however, things had died off to a few letters back and forth and for some reason he had never bothered with any other relationships.

"A team effort will be required if we are to get anything done," announced Minerva as the other staff chuckled nervously.

"Watching over a child will give you a sense of experience Snape. Keep in mind that she lives on inside him, and do not let her sacrifice be in vain," commented Dumbledore as he ignored the staff's questioning glares.

"I suppose I can make an effort in memory of her," replied Snape before walking out of the office with his cloak billowing out behind him.

"He'll warm up eventually," mused Dumbledore as he turned to his staff. "So who's first?"

Sitting in Minerva's office, Harry just sat there watching her with wide eyes while occasionally making some small noises.

Minerva had been the first to take care of Harry because she had been the obvious choice at the time. Snape had just come to terms with the fact that he would be taking care of a child in the near future and Vector, Sprout, Pomfrey, and Flitwick all had matters to attend to outside of school. Of course Filch and Trelawney were both out of the question because of what Harry might pick up from them.

With no one else available, Harry had joined Minerva while she was grading papers for the summer. Minerva was never one for the theoretical part of studies but more for the practical portions, so instead of a final test, she had a final assignment where the student would demonstrate the extent of their transfiguration knowledge.

The students were given a small pebble and were asked to transfigure it into the grandest thing they could handle. Things that contained metal received more credit than transfigurations that were made entirely of wood or other things similar.

To sum things up, Minerva was sitting in her office filled to an unprecedented proportion with useless knick knacks with and uncountable number of flaws. Things ranged from grandfather clocks to silver spoons all the way to wooden bird houses. The assignments were easy enough to recognize due to the magical signature the caster left behind.

She would grade them by inspecting their current form for all flaws before canceling the transfiguration to make sure it was the original object she had given them.

Harry had taken notice of what she was doing and found sudden interest.

"Enjoying the show are you?" smiled the professor as she continued to grade a few more assignments, dispelling things left and right.

Delighted with what he was seeing, Harry began clapping his hands and laughing loudly.

This produced mixed results.

As Harry clapped, every clap he made with his hands dispelled another objects, Minerva just stood in shock before grabbing Harry's hands and stopping his clapping.

With Harry in her arms and still laughing joyfully she looked around at the half empty room and looked down back at Harry.

"What am I going to do with you?" she laughed as she thought of all of the upset student that wouldn't receive a grade.

After Minerva's turn, Snape had been the only adult left in the building that was available to watch Harry. While Snape had been hesitant at first, when Minerva passed Harry off to him, he accepted him reluctantly.

In the dungeons, Snape was preparing potions for future use should anyone in the castle be in need. Harry was just sitting on a table a distance away from the cauldron to avoid any accidents.

"Mandrake root, poppy seeds, cat whiskers…" potions ingredients spilled out of Snape's mouth as if a mantra to remember all of the separate things that go into the potion.

Professor Snape was somewhat of a potions prodigy, while not a big name due to his ex-death eater status, he had several books published on brewing techniques along with advanced potion guides for substituting and theory crafting potions. He was one of the youngest people ever to receive a potion's mastery along with one of the few people to ever receive multiple awards for an original creation.

As Snape was throwing ingredients in with measured precision, he felt a tugging on his robe on the left side and paused. Looking down he saw Harry on the ground having apparently appearing at his side, tugging at the bottom of his robes.

Shaking off the shock of the possibility of a toddler apparating he went back to adding potion ingredients.

As he was attempting to add the ingredient again, the tugging resumed.

"Is there something you want?" asked Snape, almost as if he was expecting the toddler to reply.

Harry didn't say a word, but looked over at a vial near the wall instead.

"What is this?" out of curiosity, Snape looked over to the wall and found the vial labeled as Snake's tear, this had Snape wondering.

Looking over at the potion he was working on he realized that the vial Harry had pointed at would be a much strong catalyst than the one he was about to add.

"A little potions prodigy are you?" said Snape in a dry voice with a hint of humor to it. One simply doesn't obtain a mastery in their respective subject though without general curiosity.

Snape's curiosity was centered in solid results, and due to this he had to figure out if Harry could actually feel a potion's composition or if it was just a fluke.

Placing Harry on a Table, Snape began preparing a potion and left it half finished, then placed all of the necessary ingredients along with some vials of odd things in the mix, he then let harry go.

The potion he had left unfinished was a variation of a calming draught, not wanting to expose Harry to anything that might be harmful he allowed the toddler free reign.

What he didn't expect though was for Harry to levitate the majority of the supplies and throw it all into the cauldron.

Quickly using a summoning charm, he summoned Harry to him and took cover behind a desk as if expecting the potion to explode.

Cautiously peeking out, he looked over the cauldron to see a translucent potion. The average calming draught was a silvery grey and there were many variations of the draught that could be judged from color to determine the effect. The strongest draught anyone had ever managed to make was a opaque white variation that could double as a sedative.

The potion Harry had thrown together was clear.

Snape turned back to look at the toddler behind the table. Harry was sitting quietly while looking at the potion as if expecting something.

"I dearly hope you don't expect me to drink that," said Snape in a calm controlled voice.

At this point, Harry began wailing, at first a slow quiet whimper, then erupting into a full out tantrum. The potions master was at wit's end trying to figure out what to do, while he could simply use a silencing charm, he doubted that it would be a permanent solution. On the other hand he could drink the possibly life threatening potion.

Looking at his options, he inspected the potion and rationalized to himself. "The ingredients were none of the deathly type and in combination I can speculate that it won't have any permanent harmful effects, the worse that could happen would be a severe case of vomiting"

Pouring some of the potion into a flask, Harry stopped crying. Snape looked suspiciously at the potion before looking back at Harry.

The toddler just gave him a pointed look once again.

"Here goes nothing," said Snape as he drank the potion with gusto.

Harry's laughter was the last recognizable thing he would remember that night.

Snape's euphoric experience would be remembered for many years to come among the staff. Apparently Harry's potion had induced a sense of high similar to the experiences of drug uses in the 1960's.

Since then Snape had been using Harry as a detector for potion ingredients that would increase the strength of a potion.

While Harry's persistence and crying had been a major issue that Snape abhorred, he began to realize how much of an impact the toddler had on him and found it hard to imagine brewing without the toddler.

Snape hadn't been the only professor to find that Harry had interest in their respective subject. When Professor Flitwick had returned from his business he had been tasked with watching Harry for the afternoon.

Not one to leave something half done, Flitwick set out to make the afternoon enjoyable for Harry. The small professor had been levitating hundreds of objects around Harry for his enjoyment. While Harry and been laughing uncontrollable and undoubtly having a good time, the highlight of the evening was when Harry levitated the professor himself.

Filius had been caught so unaware and by surprise, all he could do was laugh himself as he was levitated around the room next to all of the objects flying around under his control.

Accidental magic seemed to be the theme while dealing with the young infant. Filius had been informed by Minerva of his accidental bouts of magic before taking charge of Harry.

While most wizards would have been shocked and amazed by the magic the occurred as a result of the young boy, the Hogwarts staff took it in stride. Under their tutelage, they knew that Harry would grow up into a fine man who would go on to leave his imprint in history and of course, all the professors wanted a hand in that, even the reluctant potions master.

The only time his accidental magic wasn't warmly welcomed was during his diaper years. The professors would always be shocked when they opened the diapers because they would never know what was in it.

An incident that occurred was one day Harry had seemingly transfigured his waste into a golden egg, and another incident when a ball of feces exploded.

Many precautions were taken by the fearful professors from that point on.

Harry's early years were enjoyable to all, but as all good things; everything has to come to an end.

I saw a story with lots of potential left alone, so I did my variation of it.

I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this, but I hope everyone enjoys it.

I find spaced formats easy to read, but if anyone has specific formats they would like to request, do tell and I will see what I can do. I just find big stories with block texts hard to keep up with.

Pairings to be discovered later, I have a basic idea of what I want to happen and there isn't much that's going to dissuade me.

-The Purple Critic