Harry Potter and the Shadow Realm (Patreon)

“Excalipur!” a blue haired seven year old girl screamed as she jumped out of the shadows and plunged her sword into the dementor that was attempting to eat the soul of an overweight teenager.

Harry Potter ignored Dudley’s sprawled form as he tried to figure out where the purple ninja girl had come from. He opened his mouth to tell the girl to run only to stop and stare when the girl’s double bladed sword ignited with silver flames and the dementor started shrieking as its insides caught fire. “What the hell?!”

“Pay day!” the girl shouted as she tossed a handful of copper coins at the second dementor causing its robe to catch fire where the coins struck it, not that the dementor looked troubled by the fire unlike whatever the girl’s sword had done to the first dementor. She ripped her sword free then slashed the dementor across the neck as she shouted, “Mug!”

Harry blinked as a fist sized purple crystal sphere condensed in a shower of sparks in the girl’s hand a second before the dementor turned into motes of lights and vanished, leaving behind a decent sized pile of coins. “Do you need…” he trailed off as the girl turned and blurred toward the dementor.

“Mug!” the girl shouted gleefully as she hacked the dementor in half on her way past the dark creature.

Harry blinked as the top half of the dementor slid to the ground before both pieces fell apart into motes of light and vanished, leaving a small pile of gold coins. “What’s going on?”

“I was heading to the park and I saw these guys and I figured, free loot and xp,” the girl answered cheerfully then blinked when she noticed Harry’s wand. “Fiddlesticks, I just stole your kill, didn’t I?”

Harry shrugged, fairly sure there was no point in telling the girl that dementors couldn’t be killed because that obviously wasn’t true.

The girl sighed as she looked at the purple crystal she’d ‘stolen’ and realized that it was age locked and would only last four and a half minutes, which was total shit as it gave a random unique skill. ‘It would take at least that long to get back to the cabinet and longer to talk anyone into using it. ‘Screw it, I might as well see what Harry can do with it.’ She tossed the crystal to Harry. “Catch.”

Harry caught the crystal sphere, mostly by reflex. “What is it?” He blinked as a floating blue window appeared in front of them asking him if he wanted to learn a Legendary skill: Shadow Realm. ‘Allows the creation of a random pocket dimension based on words chosen, the higher your skill, the more words you can use to further redefine the resulting pocket dimension.’

“It’s a random skill gem,” she said as she put her sword back in its sheath. “It’s also temporary and age locked, which means that I can’t use it and I can’t get home quickly enough for my family to use it, which means you might as well say yes.”

“Yes…” He froze as the crystal crumbled to dust and vanished a second later leaving him feeling like his brain was going to run out his ears from the strange symbols bouncing around his skull.

“What did you get?” she asked, curious what he’d ended up with.

“The ability to create a shadow realm,” Harry replied absently as Dudley started to stir, worried about how he was going to explain the attack to his Aunt and Uncle that wouldn’t get him grounded or tossed out on the street.

“Cool, you might be able to mine it for resources or use it to practice magic during the summer,” the girl said thoughtfully as she collected the larger pile of gold.

“Wouldn’t the ministry be able to detect the skill?” Harry asked, figuring it was a safe question as she’d mentioned magic first and could see the Dementors.

“Nope, the magic detection sensors the Ministry use are basically tuned to wand use, if they could pick up magical skills, it would have detected my Payday and Mug skills but they didn’t, so they can’t.”

Harry was fairly sure it was worth checking if they didn’t try to blame him for her magical skills like second year when they’d blamed him for Dobby’s hover charm, of course, Dobby had been trying to set the sensors off. “Where did you get a sword that can kill dementors?”

“I made it,” she replied proudly.

“You charmed a magical sword that can kill dementors?” Harry asked in surprise.

“Yep.” She blinked when the alarm on her watch went off. “Crap, I need to go before I’m grounded for life. Best of luck with your new skill. Oops, I’m April by the way.” she said as she held out her hand.

“I’m Harry,” Harry replied as he shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you.” She pulled a large bar of chocolate out of her pocket and tossed it to Harry. “That should help your friend. Ta ta for now,” April replied with a wave then turned and jumped, clearing at least ten feet before bouncing down the trail on a tiger like tail.

Dudley shook his head. “Did I just see a little girl bounce down the trail on a tail like she was Tigger?”

“Let’s go with no,” Harry said as he unwrapped the bar of chocolate. “It’s easier.”

Dudley looked at the bar of chocolate, his love of chocolate warring with his desire to curl up into a ball in an attempt to get warm. “Give me the chocolate bar and I won’t mention this to my folks.”

“Do you really want to explain a bouncing girl to Vernon or the rest of it? He’d toss the chocolate or scream at you for eating it,” Harry pointed out.

“Half?” Dudley asked, knowing that Harry was correct about the chocolate and his father.

Harry broke the chocolate bar in ‘half’ and gave Dudley the larger half, knowing he’d complain less about getting the larger share. “Here, it should help.”

Dudley took a bite of the chocolate and relaxed as the feeling of cold slowly faded. “What happened? Why was the cloaked figure on fire?” he asked after swallowing his first bite of chocolate.

“The girl stabbed it with a magical sword,” Harry admitted as he looked around, wanting to make sure no one was going to jump out at them now that he wasn’t distracted by the strange kid. He frowned slightly as he realized she’d dropped a notebook in her haste. “The dementors shouldn’t have been anywhere near us and you shouldn’t be able to see them.”

“I couldn’t see anything at first,” Dudley admitted with a shiver as he remembered the feeling of cold. “Everything just got cold. I caught a glimpse of robes when it started screaming and the fire lit it up nicely.”

“Probably because it was dead or dying at that point,” Harry mused as he walked over and picked up the notebook. He glanced at the words written in black marker on the front of the notebook. ‘HP and Random Ideas? Hedwig should be able to find her.’ He turned and headed back over to where Dudley was picking himself up. “We should probably get out of here in case there are more, can you walk?”

“What are dementors?” Dudley asked warily.

“They’re basically soul eating demons that are invisible to people without magic,” Harry explained as he started heading back toward the house. “The magical world uses them to guard the wizarding prison.”

“That’s insane!” Dudley sputtered.

“Basically, yeah.” Harry took a bite of his chocolate, feeling better as soon as the chocolate hit his mouth. ‘That’s better than Honeydukes. Now I just need to figure out what to tell Sirius.’

0o0o0 

Harry set his pen down and looked over the letter one last time.

‘Dear Hermione, I know you aren’t returning my letters for some reason, probably related to security and Dumbledore but I need your help with something so give me a call on the phone tomorrow at lunch, Vernon will be at work and Petunia should be at her bridge club. Dudley and I ran into a strange girl with a magic sword that saved us from some monsters. Have you ever heard of a sword called Excalipur? Yes, with a p, not a b just in case you’re worried about my spelling. She used an interesting spell that involved coins and some type of skill that let her steal a skill crystal from one of the monsters, it was interesting. It should let me practice over the summer without getting caught. Let me know if you’ve heard of an easy way to charm swords to kill unkillable monsters, Harry.’

He grinned slightly as he stuck the letter in the envelope and handed it to Hedwig, knowing that Hermione would be driven to distraction by his scanty explanation and it would bug her until they saw each other again, which would be a decent enough punishment for not writing him. “Take it to Hermione and the other one to Dumbledore.”

Hedwig nodded then flew out the open window and headed for London.

‘That should give Dumbledore a heads up about the dementors, hopefully they aren’t wandering around the country killing people.’ He walked over and closed the window, finding himself almost wishing it still had bars on it as he stared out into the darkness.

‘Okay, what would Hermione do if she found a new magical skill?’ Harry asked himself as he pulled his attention away from the darkness, walked over and flopped down on his bed. ‘Easy, read the instruction manual, except it doesn’t have one. What would Sirius do? Poke at it until he could get it to work, except that’s probably not the best idea in this case.’

‘Dudley would probably charge in and get himself killed repeatedly because he skipped the tutorial.’ He froze. ‘It can’t be that easy, can it?’ He focused on the word tutorial and his new skill, slowly feeling a gradual increase in pressure, like the air itself was gaining weight, until everything suddenly snapped into place. “Tutorial,” Harry announced, the world wavering around him before firming up, looking much the same, but with one noticable difference.

Harry stared at an unfamiliar white haired man in black robes that stood at the foot of his bed, leaning on a staff. “What the hell?”

“Welcome to the Shadow Realm creation tutorial, Mr. Potter,” the man replied.

“How does my ability work?” Harry asked, surprised that his crazy idea had actually worked.

“In short you have the ability to create pocket dimensions, using words of your own choosing to influence their creation. Now, before you get too excited, you’ll be limited to one or possibly two words until you’ve gained skill with your ability and you won’t be able to remove anything until you can create a portal, which will permanently connect the newly created pocket dimension to the area and allow others access to the Shadow Realms through the portal.”

“Including muggles?” Harry asked.

The old man shook his head. “Due to its magical nature they are unable to perceive the portal unless deliberately shown.”

“Is there a way to hide the portals from wizards?” Harry asked, fairly sure that some people would go ballistic if they knew he had a way to practice that they couldn’t stop.

“Use one of your words to make its nature secretive or practice concealment charms.” The old man gestured toward the window. “As you can see, everything outside of the pocket dimension is dark, though most shades won’t notice they’re in a pocket dimension until you take them out of the pocket dimension and turn them into real people.”

“I can take people out of the Shadow Realm?” Harry asked in surprise, as he looked out the window and saw that the night sky had been replaced by complete darkness.

“Of course, you just need to guide them to a portal and push them through,” the old man explained with a bit of amusement. “You can link your pocket dimensions together even if they have different words as long as their boundaries connect in the real world.”

“How do I keep track of everything?” Harry asked.

“You should be able to summon a map of your current Shadow Realm. Just focus on your map appearing and a mental representation will appear in your conscious mind.”

Harry focused on a map and twitched when a three dimensional model of his room appeared in a field of black. “That was easier than I thought.”

“Good. It should help you keep track of what you have created. I would suggest playing with temporary pocket dimensions, before setting up permanent areas, until you have gained enough control to create the world that you desire rather than the almost completely random creations caused by the subconscious association of the words chosen.”

“How do I make them permanent?” Harry asked.

“While standing in the temporary realm focus on creating a permanent link to the real world and a portal should appear in a place of your choosing. Portal appearances are determined by personal preference.”

“Anything else I need to know about?” Harry asked, figuring he knew the basics but not wanting to skip over anything important in his excitement. 

“Moving in the Shadow Realm will change your location in the real world by an equal amount unless you have set the physical dimensions to a different scale.”

“How do you mean?” Harry asked.

“If you were to create a Shadow Realm with the dimensions increased by a factor of ten, not only would this room be the size of a rugby field, but walking from the door to the window would take much longer while decreasing the amount traveled by a similar factor.” 

“How do I get out of here?” Harry asked.

“Just focus on the real world, this world will persist for a little over an hour should you wish to return unless you create another shadow realm that overlays it.”

“Does that mean you’ll die?” Harry asked, concerned.

“I’m not alive, all of the shades you create are more akin to reflections in a mirror than reality itself, hence the description Shadow Realm. To create living beings from the Shadow Realm you must create a permanent portal and expend personal energy pushing them through it. Tutorial, complete.”

“Thank you.” Harry walked over and opened the door then twitched and jumped back as it opened to a dark void.

“I’m afraid you’ll need to be in the real world to add areas to the Shadow Realm,” the man explained.

“I guess that makes sense.” Harry focused and slipped back into the real world finding it easier than he was expecting. He glanced around the room then looked at the closed window, happy that there weren’t any Ministry owls waiting for him. ‘It should take Hedwig a few more hours to reach Dumbledore after delivering Hermione’s letter, which means I should have plenty of time to explore.’

‘I need a place I can trash, where I don’t have to care what small minded people like the Dursleys think.’ Harry focused on what he wanted as he activated his power and found himself blurting out, “Midgets.” He felt the shift as he slipped into a Shadow Realm. He frowned slightly as the ceiling was suddenly almost touching his head. He glanced at the annoyingly small door and realized the house was sized for a midget. “Now I know what Hagrid feels like,” he said with a chuckle.

Harry pulled out his holy wand and pointed it at the door frame. “Time to test this. Reducto!” he snapped, a touch surprised when the door exploded. “That felt good,” he said as he stepped through the remains of the door into the hallway, that was also far smaller than it should be. 

“What the hell did you do!” Vernon screamed from down the hall.

“I made the door larger...” Harry trailed off as he turned to look at Vernon and saw the house elf sized creature with his uncle’s face. “I’m leaving, this is a bit too strange even for me.”

“No you aren’t!” Vernon snapped as he stalked over. “Get back in your room or I’ll take my belt to you!”

Harry paused for a second then stepped forward and kicked Vernon in the face, sending the fat midget over backwards. “No.” He kicked Vernon in the nuts as his uncle struggled to roll onto his stomach. “I am,” he ignored Vernon’s squeal as he kicked him in the nuts again, “done with your shit!” he screamed as he proceeded to kick Vernon repeatedly, all of the years of abuse the Dursleys had heaped on him flashing through his mind.

Harry wasn’t sure how long he spent kicking him, but eventually he managed to get himself under control and stop booting the unconscious midget. He sighed as he realized that he really needed to work on his temper before he snapped at someone he actually liked. He pointed his wand at Vernon. “Reducio.” He winced slightly as only half of his uncle shrank. “I guess that’s why McGonagall said it was dangerous to use on people. Reducio,” he tried again which caused his uncle’s left leg to shrink.

“That’s going on the list of spells to practice,” Harry mused as he headed back into the room and picked up the copy of the girl’s journal and opened it, hoping that it had a phone number or a last name that would make tracking April down easier. “Harry Potter and the Alchemist’s stone, timeline?” he sputtered as he saw a decent handwritten timeline of his first year, including stuff that no one should know about, like what he’d seen in the Mirror of Erised. 

He frowned as he skimmed over the next couple of pages, reading her notes about how he should have walked off with the stone rather than get caught by Voldemort or that Nicolas Flamel should have just faked his death and lied about the exact effects the stone had. “Okay, that would have made more sense. Besides, he’d managed to keep the stone safe for hundreds of years, why move it to Gringotts rather than just store it under a Fidelius charm?’

Harry shook his head, quickly reading over the timeline for his second year, a bit disturbed that it mentioned them sneaking into the Slytherin dorm with an illegal potion. He quickly skimmed through the timeline for his third year, finding the notes disturbingly accurate then did the same with fourth, doing his best not to shake his head as he read the notes in the margins, complaining that he hadn’t gone to the dance with Hermione and that he’d forgiven Ron for being an ass. “It’s not like I have a bunch of friends, of course, most of that is probably Ron’s fault, at least according to these notes.”

He scowled as he saw the timeline for his fifth year. “Is she a seer or maybe a time traveler? This looks just as detailed as the rest… Unstable, insane, ministry official gets the Defense position and is going to torture me… Story of my life.” He scowled as he read the part about McGonagall telling him to keep his head down after being tortured. “What the fuck!” he sputtered as he tried to figure out why she hadn’t had Dumbledore fire the bitch. ‘How clueless is she?’

He forced himself to take a breath and carefully read April’s notes on his fifth year. He paled when he saw the notes about Sirius falling through the veil and him being sent back to his Aunt and Uncle’s without any attempt at counseling. “Right, so Sirius dies, because his house elf betrays him and Dumbledore thinks that it’s his fault… because he wasn’t a bit nicer to it?” he muttered, fairly sure Dumbledore had lost his damn mind. 

“Oh fun, I nearly get my friends killed and possessed by Voldemort… Oh, and Umbridge is the person that sent the dementors. Of course, there wasn’t a notice because April took care of them. I should probably thank her for that when I send back her notebook.”

Harry quickly scanned the timeline for his sixth year, growing more disturbed by the second. “That explains how Voldemort managed to come back to life. And yeah, Snape’s a traitor, news at eleven,” he muttered the last part as he skipped ahead to the timeline for his last year at Hogwarts. “Why the hell would I even go back to the Dursleys rather than just hiding in Number Twelve? Or with Hermione or across the ocean in America?”

“Chest beast? Raging love for Ginny?” he asked in disbelief, glancing at the margins, “Love potion? Yeah, most likely.” He doubted Ginny would have drugged him, but Molly might have ‘helped’ things along. “Which means I should probably avoid eating or drinking anything she prepares, which is going to piss Ron off…” he trailed off as he got to the part about Ron leaving them out of jealousy on their ill advised and stupid as shit mission. “Why the fuck would we wear a Horcrux rather than stash it in a muggle vault or pay someone to mount it in a bowling ball?”

“Oh, and hey, Umbridge is still working for the Ministry, because apparently there was no evidence that she tried to kill me or torture people and they couldn’t just drug her with truth serum which is apparently a thing… Muggle Born Registration Department? Fuck that, I’ll be damned if I let any of this come to pass!”

“Vernon!” Petunia screeched.

Harry turned to look as a midget version of Petunia stalked into the room. “Don’t start!” he snapped as he pointed his wand at her.

“You can’t use magic, they’ll expell you!” Petunia screeched.

“Accio!” Harry shouted, summoning Petunia toward him then slipping sideways and banishing her, aiming for the window. He frowned as her head hit the wall with bone crushing force rather than go through the window like the rest of her, flopping her bonelessly out into the darkness. “Good enough,” he muttered as he went back to reading over the girl’s notes, hoping there was a clue as to where she’d gotten her information.