Part 1. Chapter 4. Decisions and Promises
February 19, 2026 at 7:44 AM
August 8, 1988
4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, England
Surprisingly, they didn't punish me. Instead of locking her in the closet under the stairs, as she had done a couple of times over the past week when my family started talking about me, my aunt took a deep breath, as if preparing to dive under water, and gave Vernon-san and Dudley-kun:
“HarrytheSorcererasahealer.
I didn't even understand what she said, but I wasn't the only one.
“What's that?” Uncle's reddish eyebrows shot up.
“Is Harry a wizard?” Dudley heard better. “A real magician? Wow!”
Uncle gave a strange sob and clutched at his heart. Calm down, darling! Petunia—san pulled herself together and jumped up to her husband, who was sickened by the news. Like Dudley, I was seriously worried about his health. But if my cousin was foolishly fussing, then I felt a strange warmth in my chest, and a stream of tap water flew up to Vernon, wheezing, and poured onto the top of his head.
From such a shower, my uncle abruptly came to life and did something like "brr-brr-brr", making funny movements with his wide mustache, which I really liked. The disguise is excellent, if you need to hide, you can shave them off and no one will recognize him.
“I'll clean it up!” I quickly picked up a rag and wiped the puddle on the kitchen floor.
“Dad, are you feeling better?” Dudley asked.
“Yes," Vernon-san replied in a hollow voice, because he was just drying himself with a towel.
I didn't shine, fused with the chair, waiting for the verdict of the family. Still, it's hard for them to understand my peculiarities, and I think it's difficult for an ordinary normal family to cope with a child around whom something is happening, and uncontrolled by the child himself. Of course, those who can control the chakra often feel much stronger than others, there is a side effect of "power". But mostly, a Shinobi approaches chakra control between the ages of eight and twelve, if we don't talk about clan geniuses like Uchiha Itachi or Hyuga Neji. That is, we do not have such "surprises", in order to do something "like this", you need to work hard and try. To control the chakra, you need to develop discipline: regular exercises, special breathing exercises, and meditation. All this doesn't really come out at a young age, or rather, not at all. Shinobi are considered adults from the moment they receive the genin protector, and this may be at the age of ten. In addition, the education of clan children begins at the age of three, and they are accepted to the Academy from six. So it's useless to compare an eight-year-old Dudley-kun with me or Sasuke of the same age.
It bothers me a little that I couldn't control the processes that were happening to me almost every few minutes. First he flew, then he controlled the water. Maybe I had chakro before that... or rather, mago exhaustion, and then everything came back abruptly? Assuming Harry used his childhood magic to draw my soul into his body? The last time he "summoned a demon," I remember he was sluggish and said he had spent too much energy on summoning. What if such things happened all the time? I think if there was a child in my family who could take off and fly, or set fire to hair, or make kunai spin in the air, I would be very nervous. Especially if you weren't a Shinobi. What if this child injures someone close to me? Will he betray me to everyone else? Here, the option of bullying and protecting "normal people" from this child is not the worst, in my opinion. It's not scary what a little wizard can do, it's scary that he doesn't understand the harm he can do to others.
I once seriously injured Sakura with my chakra when I released the veil of bijuu. The problem is that you don't remember or control yourself at all in this state. Such is the price of power. Sakura is a first—class medical ninja, but it took her a long time to remove the ugly burn with poisoned chakra. But she was stubbornly silent, she didn't want to upset me that I had done this to her. It's good that the captain told me. I looked at this problem from a different angle. It's not enough, it's extremely small to be strong. We must be responsible for this power.
“Vernon, you should lie down,” Petunia-san ordered. “Dudley, baby, please keep an eye on Daddy and sit with him.”
My uncle gave me a thoughtful look, but listened to his wife and they stomped up to the second floor together with their silent cousin.
My aunt took another deep breath, smoothed out the wrinkles on her dress, and resolutely sat down opposite me.
“Harry, you probably have some questions. Ask me," she said.
“Won't you kick me out?” I asked, embarrassed. An urgent question in the light of recent events.
“No, we can't," my aunt looked away.
“I'll try not to do that anymore. I'll try to control it.” I blurted out, biting down on the "if I weren't Naruto Uzumaki." After all, a child's body and the chance to be a child in the family in general have slightly pushed back my critical perception.
“I don't think you can do it," Petunia-san shook her head. This happened to Lily sometimes, though not on such a large scale and quite rarely. She could revive a wilted flower or the falling leaves in the garden turned into butterflies.… One day I was badly scratched, I started bleeding, she was afraid for me and the wound healed instantly. You have the same… When they brought you in, you were crying all the time. Neither toys nor songs helped. In addition, objects were flying around the bedroom, and the curtains were smoldering.… I was... really scared for Dudley and for Vernon. As a result, the exit was... a closet under the stairs. On the second floor, where Vernon and I have a bedroom and Dudley's room, they could see it or get hurt.… I've set up a room for you downstairs. You calmed down quickly in the dark. Besides, I wasn't afraid that a small child would suddenly fly up and fall out of the window. After you moved to the first floor, the magical emissions almost stopped.
“I see," I muttered. The mystery of the closet is solved. “But I'll try anyway.” And Naruto promised that no one from his family would get hurt.
“That would be great," Petunia—san forced a smile, and I saw that she was barely holding on. On a hunch, I went up to her and hugged her, still half expecting to be pushed away. As a child, no one hugged me, and even a light touch on my head was akin to a miracle. She sobbed and squeezed tightly, hugging.
“You have her eyes," my aunt whispered dully. “Like Lily's. My little sister was swallowed up by the wizarding world. She enjoyed the miracles she could do, she enjoyed studying at the magic school, she studied very well there.… And then she was killed. She's only twenty-one years old. So young. Naive, trusting, in love with that Potter daddy of yours. And now you're going to be taken to their Hogwarts.…
My aunt pulled back and blinked quickly, holding back the tears that had not been shed. So much for your insensitive evil relatives. Could it be that, motivated by the fact that Harry was doomed anyway, his aunt preferred not to notice him and concentrated her love on her own son? Oh, human psychology is peculiar. But I don't think it did anything good for either the "unloved" Harry or the "overly-loved" Dudley. However, if Petunia-san started talking about Harry's mother, it means that she probably overcame or removed the enchantment or mental influence.
“Tell me, Aunt Petunia, do you know any wizard or sorceress my parents know who could help us with my problem of controlling this magic?” I asked a very interesting question. “If you and Uncle Vernon aren't wizards, then we're all lucky that something terrible didn't happen today. But I didn't even understand why it all happened. That's why I flew. Or why the water started flowing.”
My aunt thought about it.
“Lily hardly introduced me to any of them.…” she frowned, and then smiled a little. “Oh, yes, Severus! The boy lived next door to us in Cokworth, and he was also a wizard and explained a lot to Lily.… Perhaps that's why she didn't have too strong and destructive emissions. Later, Lily said that she was friends with him at school, although they studied at different faculties.… What's his last name?.. Severus... Severus... Severus Snape!”
When she uttered this short name, my note, which I had made, and a newspaper clipping with a serious black-haired and black-eyed man of about thirty-five appeared in my mind's eye. A potion master and a double spy! The only one I liked from Harry's stories. He also reminded me of Sasuke in some ways, except his nose was a little bigger than my friend's.
“Severus Snape," I repeated after my aunt, in order to remember the name well, it was not necessary on my last visit to this world, since I did not plan to stay long.
But this time, it looks like I'm going to have to try on the role of the "Chosen One" for myself. And I don't want to lose face at all. It was enough to be the heir of the Uzumaki aristocrat clan and behave like a savage in my life. Ino-chan didn't open my eyes until I was sixteen and took over my upbringing a little bit, throwing in a couple of scrolls and books on etiquette and High style*, otherwise sometimes I didn't even understand Neji when he was talking to Hinata. (A distinctive feature of the Japanese language is the presence of special grammatical categories of politeness in it, which are divided into ordinary style, polite style and high speech.)
It's decided! I'm going to find Severus Snape and ask to be his student! Hmm... but how to do it?