Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Number of Fools
A New Life
3 reviewsSequel to RWYS! What's a wizard to do after running away from the world that betrayed him?
4Original
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, etc.; J.K. Rowling and a bunch of other people do. If I did own Harry Potter, chances are I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about him.
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the sequel to my fic "Reap What You Sow." Originally, I planned for it to all be one story, but after some careful thinking, I decided to split it into two stories, for reasons which will be explained later on. You may want to read RWYS first, which shouldn't take too long.
Also, please note that this fanfic is NOT COMPLIANT WITH THE CANON BOOK 6.
/The Number of Fools/
By Quillian
Infinitus est numerus stultorum. The number of fools is infinite. -Seneca
Chapter 1: A New Life
It was a mid-July morning in a New England suburb, and the sun's rays were just first starting to creep over the horizon in the east. The light from those rays first touched the tops of buildings in the small city, and they slowly began to work their way down the buildings, almost as though pushing down on the shadows and suppressing them.
The rest of the city started to move in sync with the sun's starting trek across the sky. The birds began to wake up and sing their songs, the cars started rolling on the streets, and other people and things all got into motion as they began their day.
In one apartment some floors above the ground, a young man still slept in his bed, hardly moving as he remained in his deep slumber. He had nowhere to go, and he had already left from a world which betrayed him and threw him into one of the most hellish places in the world. It was a miracle he was able to sleep this long or this well without being haunted by some nightmares or being forced to wake up in a cold sweat with his heart pounding. Sleep was as precious a commodity to him as water in the desert.
Harry Potter would wake up nearly an hour later, only to lie in bed for a little longer after that as thoughts ran through his head. Just yesterday, he escaped from Aurors who were trying to bring him back so they could put him on a pedestal again and make him out to be their returned hero. He just narrowly escaped by exerting a lot of magic in order to make a sort of "jump" across the Atlantic Ocean back here to his apartment.
Well, they certainly wouldn't find him here. Harry put all kinds of charms and enchantments on his apartment and himself, so no witch, wizard, owl, or any other sort of being with sufficient magic could find him. The only exception to all this secrecy was his owl, Hedwig, who peacefully snoozed in her cage in a corner of the room.
Harry was free. He no longer had to worry about Voldemort, his Death Eaters or other minions, or that damned prophecy. He no longer had to worry about the students, professors, and other adults he was considered his "friends". He no longer had to live with his malevolent and negligent relatives. He no longer had to worry about anything at all which concerned the Wizarding world which he stormed out on.
He had a chance to start over with a new life.
The whole concept, one which he had desired for so long, actually seemed so alien to him now. What was Harry supposed to do, now that he was free of all his previous burdens? At least with all those forces in his life, both positive and negative, he had some sense of direction as to what he was supposed to do. Now, he seemed totally lost.
What was he supposed to do with his life now?
Harry thought about his strengths: Dueling, flying, fighting... unfortunately, however, they were all inapplicable in the Muggle world. He had no idea what other sorts of strengths he had. While excellent at Quidditch, he somehow doubted Muggle athletics. He was never an artistic or musical type either (although he had to admit, that for all he knew, he just may have had some talent in either of those areas).
Yes/, it was true, he /did have 43.5 million Galleons now transferred into 318,855,000 American dollars, so, hypothetically, he could live a fairly modest lifestyle and never have to work. However, the idea (as nice and tempting as it was for most people), just didn't seem right to him. He wanted to be active and doing something. Just lounging around one's home all day long in a life of luxury was just too... /Malfoy-ish/.
Of course, if he wanted to have a job like most Muggles, he had to graduate from college. Hogwarts didn't exactly give him the right credentials, and he hadn't done most Muggle-based class subjects for over six years.
So what would he do from here?
He'd just have to take each day as it came.
Finally getting up out of bed, Harry got dressed and went around town, looking for some kind of employment.
(End of Chapter 1.)
A/N: So, how's this for a start?
BTW, I converted the amount from Galleons to American dollars using the conversion program at the online HP Lexicon. (Thanks to everyone in my Yahoo group who helped me with that! You know who you are!)
-Quillian
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THE READERS
It has been a couple years since I started writing this fanfic (I estimate that I started writing it sometime in the early spring of 2005), and now, as I go back over it and fix it up a little, I feel that I should point something out to the readers.
When I started writing this fic (and all my other fanfics like I did back then), I wrote it as I went along, not giving much forethought to things like coherence and consistency from chapter to chapter. I wrote this fanfic for the fun of it, wanting to try my hand at betrayal stories like those typically seen in the Harry Potter fandom. All three stories in what I call my Azkaban cycle - "Reap What You Sow" (RWYS), "The Number of Fools" (NoF), and "Harry Potter, Prisoner of Hogwarts" (HPPoH) - are not my most serious efforts in writing, but are meant to be fun as I go along writing them (and hopefully as you go along reading them). HOWEVER, I am determined to finish what I started with this fic, and so I will see it through to the end.
As a matter of fact, even I, the writer, don't consider ay of these three betrayal fics to be serious betrayal fics. In fact, I almost consider them to be like parodies, in a sense, because they're not that serious. They're simply my take on these HP-style betrayal fanfics.
I wrote this fic (NoF) because I wanted to write my own take on a fic where Harry ran away from the Wizarding World for whatever reasons (in this case, the betrayal and other events from its prequel, RWYS), and then had to deal with his own child attending Hogwarts years later.
I just felt inclined to point that out.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
-Quillian, 1/24/07
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the sequel to my fic "Reap What You Sow." Originally, I planned for it to all be one story, but after some careful thinking, I decided to split it into two stories, for reasons which will be explained later on. You may want to read RWYS first, which shouldn't take too long.
Also, please note that this fanfic is NOT COMPLIANT WITH THE CANON BOOK 6.
/The Number of Fools/
By Quillian
Infinitus est numerus stultorum. The number of fools is infinite. -Seneca
Chapter 1: A New Life
It was a mid-July morning in a New England suburb, and the sun's rays were just first starting to creep over the horizon in the east. The light from those rays first touched the tops of buildings in the small city, and they slowly began to work their way down the buildings, almost as though pushing down on the shadows and suppressing them.
The rest of the city started to move in sync with the sun's starting trek across the sky. The birds began to wake up and sing their songs, the cars started rolling on the streets, and other people and things all got into motion as they began their day.
In one apartment some floors above the ground, a young man still slept in his bed, hardly moving as he remained in his deep slumber. He had nowhere to go, and he had already left from a world which betrayed him and threw him into one of the most hellish places in the world. It was a miracle he was able to sleep this long or this well without being haunted by some nightmares or being forced to wake up in a cold sweat with his heart pounding. Sleep was as precious a commodity to him as water in the desert.
Harry Potter would wake up nearly an hour later, only to lie in bed for a little longer after that as thoughts ran through his head. Just yesterday, he escaped from Aurors who were trying to bring him back so they could put him on a pedestal again and make him out to be their returned hero. He just narrowly escaped by exerting a lot of magic in order to make a sort of "jump" across the Atlantic Ocean back here to his apartment.
Well, they certainly wouldn't find him here. Harry put all kinds of charms and enchantments on his apartment and himself, so no witch, wizard, owl, or any other sort of being with sufficient magic could find him. The only exception to all this secrecy was his owl, Hedwig, who peacefully snoozed in her cage in a corner of the room.
Harry was free. He no longer had to worry about Voldemort, his Death Eaters or other minions, or that damned prophecy. He no longer had to worry about the students, professors, and other adults he was considered his "friends". He no longer had to live with his malevolent and negligent relatives. He no longer had to worry about anything at all which concerned the Wizarding world which he stormed out on.
He had a chance to start over with a new life.
The whole concept, one which he had desired for so long, actually seemed so alien to him now. What was Harry supposed to do, now that he was free of all his previous burdens? At least with all those forces in his life, both positive and negative, he had some sense of direction as to what he was supposed to do. Now, he seemed totally lost.
What was he supposed to do with his life now?
Harry thought about his strengths: Dueling, flying, fighting... unfortunately, however, they were all inapplicable in the Muggle world. He had no idea what other sorts of strengths he had. While excellent at Quidditch, he somehow doubted Muggle athletics. He was never an artistic or musical type either (although he had to admit, that for all he knew, he just may have had some talent in either of those areas).
Yes/, it was true, he /did have 43.5 million Galleons now transferred into 318,855,000 American dollars, so, hypothetically, he could live a fairly modest lifestyle and never have to work. However, the idea (as nice and tempting as it was for most people), just didn't seem right to him. He wanted to be active and doing something. Just lounging around one's home all day long in a life of luxury was just too... /Malfoy-ish/.
Of course, if he wanted to have a job like most Muggles, he had to graduate from college. Hogwarts didn't exactly give him the right credentials, and he hadn't done most Muggle-based class subjects for over six years.
So what would he do from here?
He'd just have to take each day as it came.
Finally getting up out of bed, Harry got dressed and went around town, looking for some kind of employment.
(End of Chapter 1.)
A/N: So, how's this for a start?
BTW, I converted the amount from Galleons to American dollars using the conversion program at the online HP Lexicon. (Thanks to everyone in my Yahoo group who helped me with that! You know who you are!)
-Quillian
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THE READERS
It has been a couple years since I started writing this fanfic (I estimate that I started writing it sometime in the early spring of 2005), and now, as I go back over it and fix it up a little, I feel that I should point something out to the readers.
When I started writing this fic (and all my other fanfics like I did back then), I wrote it as I went along, not giving much forethought to things like coherence and consistency from chapter to chapter. I wrote this fanfic for the fun of it, wanting to try my hand at betrayal stories like those typically seen in the Harry Potter fandom. All three stories in what I call my Azkaban cycle - "Reap What You Sow" (RWYS), "The Number of Fools" (NoF), and "Harry Potter, Prisoner of Hogwarts" (HPPoH) - are not my most serious efforts in writing, but are meant to be fun as I go along writing them (and hopefully as you go along reading them). HOWEVER, I am determined to finish what I started with this fic, and so I will see it through to the end.
As a matter of fact, even I, the writer, don't consider ay of these three betrayal fics to be serious betrayal fics. In fact, I almost consider them to be like parodies, in a sense, because they're not that serious. They're simply my take on these HP-style betrayal fanfics.
I wrote this fic (NoF) because I wanted to write my own take on a fic where Harry ran away from the Wizarding World for whatever reasons (in this case, the betrayal and other events from its prequel, RWYS), and then had to deal with his own child attending Hogwarts years later.
I just felt inclined to point that out.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
-Quillian, 1/24/07
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