Harry Potter and the Gift of Memories [Harry Potter Fan Fiction]

Chapter IV: The Founding Five

I had finally done it! I've finally gained power! After all these months of hard work and experimentation I've been granted the power to free myself from my relatives clutches!

As I sat within the confines of my cupboard, a grin spread across my face as the small ball of light within my hands slowly flickered in and out, like the flame of a candle caught in a breeze.

Ever since I had been dumped with these people, I knew that I was different. Unique. Special. I could do things they could not. It had not taken me long to learn that this was the reason they hated me so much.

Jealousy. The lot of them were jealous that I possessed this amazing power and they did not. They had tried to beat me down so I would not realize this, but now I knew, and I would not let them walk over me like that again.

From the moment I had realized why they hated me so much, I had been practicing with these strange powers. I worked hard, all in the hopes of eventually showing my relatives that they would no longer be able to push me around, that they couldn't control me. I was glad to see it had finally paid off.

At first the only thing I could do was make small objects float; a feather, a spring, those spiders. I got very tired just keeping them in the air for a few minutes. Now I could hold them for as long as I wanted; I could even make them move! What's more, I could use that same power to push things away from me or pull them to me. I could even lift larger objects like desks―which I had tried when the Dursley's left on their family trips to the cinema and thought they had locked me in the cupboard―and now, now that I could do all this and control light. I was ready.

Finally, I would never be a doormat to the Dursley's again.

Finally, they would no longer be able to walk all over me.

Finally, I had the power.

And they had none.

XoX

It was very hard for Harry Potter to keep his eyes from widening in astonishment when he first entered Diagon Alley. His field of vision seemed to have expanded in the last second from when he had first entered the alley to now. He was very thankful that within the hustle and bustle of the crowd, no one would notice him walking out from the archway that led to the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry's eyes swept back and forth across the wizarding alley, each sight, every smell, every feeling he experienced was committed to memory. It was wondrous. Incredible. Never before had Harry ever seen anything like the place he was in now. For the first time in years, Harry felt very much like a small child getting excited over seeing something new.

Diagon Alley was, in essence, an alley. It had one main road made of a cobblestone street upon which hundreds if not thousands of witches and wizards tread daily. This road was inlaid with more roads, small branches that wove an interconnecting path. Alongside the road were large buildings that were spaced so close together there was barely any room between them. These buildings were shops, stores that sold all kinds of goods that could only be considered magical. Harry saw everything from shops selling cauldrons to shops selling a vast array of different animals such as mice, toads and owls to clothing stores whose clothing looked like something out of the fifteenth century; stores that sold potions ingredients; anything and everything he could think of that might be sold in the wizarding world seemed to be here. And Harry, his eyes moving in vast sweeps around the alley, made sure that nothing escaped his gaze. He wanted to commit everything he saw this day to memory, one he would look back on as his first steps into the wizarding world.

He looked beyond the throng of people. Far above their heads, standing in the distance was a large white building. Gringotts, the wizarding bank, and the first place Harry needed to visit.