Full Summary: Dumbledore placed a trap within a trap when he brought an alchemic stone to Hogwarts for safe keeping in Harry's first year. When the traps are sprung by their intended target, there were unintended consequences as he never intended for young Harry to get caught in the trap. A botched ritual, a crippling battle, and a misdiagnosis see Harry expelled from Hogwarts and banished back to his aunt's house where he is quickly pawned off on an old friend of his aunt's and shipped out of England just six months later. AU, pairings to be revealed later, warnings inside

Disclaimer: I used to write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction.

Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, foul language, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon from both worlds goodbye), angst, drama, and who knows what else.

AN1: Horcruxes; in this story, there are no horcruxes. Instead, Voldemort will have used other means to escape death, Harry's scar contains remnants of the Killing Curse that struck him and not a piece of Riddle's soul, and Voldemort's survival of the incident where he was hit with the backlash of dark magic was a one-time deal. There will also be no such thing as a valid prophecy and the reasoning behind that will be explored within the story.

Additionally, the timeline for Prince of Tennis has been shifted roughly fifteen years backwards in order to line it up with the HP timeline. So basically, instead of Ryoma being born in 1995, he was born in 1980 (same as Harry). However, I did keep the technological advances and an assortment of pop culture from the series the same (so please don't tell what did and did not exist in 1993; I am well aware of that information – seeing as how I was born in the seventies – and I disregarded it completely for the sake of the plot).

Next, you can throw out most of what you know as HP canon from the end of first year (or book 1) on. There will be bits and pieces that I will keep but for the most part, I've changed the story of Harry Potter as you know it in order to create something a bit different than the usual since so many people have rehashed canon far too many times (myself included). The relevant changes that I made in addition to the stray bits I left the same will be touched upon throughout the story, so most questions you might have about what has been changed will be answered within the story. Changes will also be made to PoT canon but those will be apparent within the story as Harry's presence will have an effect on those around him.

Finally, please keep in mind that this story is labeled as an AU (Alternate Universe) for a reason. If that kind of thing doesn't float your boat, then I would suggest you close out this window and look elsewhere for entertainment.

AN2: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Wizard on the Courts
Chapter One: A Trying First Day

Monday, March 29, 1993, Early Morning
Echizen Household, Tokyo, Japan

Twelve year old Harry Potter turned off the water before he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry off. As he toweled off his hair, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror and froze in place. His breath hitched a split second later as his eye zeroed in on the scars he'd received at the end of his first and only year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It had been just over six months since he'd received both scars but the sight of them still caught him off guard each time he looked in the mirror.

Unconsciously, he reached up to lightly trace over the ridged grove that ran from what used to be a lightning bolt scar down through his ruined right eye before cutting sharply to the side to form a line that ran from just below his eye to the base of his right ear. His fingers then dropped down to dance across the raised scar on his neck that ran over his jugular. Memories from the night he received the scars flashed through his mind. The same memories that used to haunt him every single time he closed his eyes until the day he'd boarded the plane to Japan just two weeks earlier.

Professor McGonagall dismissing their concerns over the stone…

Ron taking a blow to the head from a giant chess piece…

Hermione falling unconscious after drinking one of Snape's potions…

Finding Quirrell in the final room instead of Snape…

Getting the Philosopher's Stone from the Mirror of Erised when he had been forced to stand before it…

Voldemort's face on the back of Quirrell's head…

Being knocked unconscious by a red light…

Waking up in the Chamber of Secrets naked; his hands and ankles bound tightly…

Quirrell dragging him over to a large silver cauldron and seeing torchlight dance on the Philosopher's Stone inside…

The searing pain of a knife slicing through his throat and his blood pouring over the Stone inside of the cauldron and welling up in the back of his throat…

Quirrell screaming in pain when his hand was splashed by Harry's blood; the smell of burning flesh filling his nose while his own blood choked him…

The Philosopher's Stone exploding in his face and throwing him into Quirrell…

The shards of the Stone burning as they embedded themselves in his skin…

Quirrell grappling with him and his skin smoking and crumbling wherever Harry's flesh and blood came into contact with his bare skin…

Voldemort's angry shade coalescing into a black cloud and calling upon an ancient basilisk…

A phoenix bursting into the Chamber and blinding the basilisk…

The phoenix crying tears on Harry's neck before ripping the bindings from his hands and feet…

The basilisk tracking Harry through the scent of blood that clung to him…

The basilisk's fang ripping through his face and eye when he couldn't quite dodge its attack…

The basilisk dying as green light burst from Harry's scar the instant its fang had ripped into it…

The basilisk's venom setting his right eye and half of his face on fire…

The phoenix pecking at his hands until he moved them from his face so it could cry on the wound he'd received from the basilisk…

Voldemort trying and failing to possess him in a fit of anger over the basilisk's death…

Voldemort's shade shattering into millions of pieces as his spirit was ejected from Harry's body in an outburst of uncontrolled magic…

Fire surrounding him when the phoenix flashed him to the hospital wing right as he passed out…

Madam Pomfrey telling him that magic could not repair his ruined eye or his damaged larynx once he regained consciousness…

Madam Pomfrey's eyes filled with pity as she told him that he had been 'squibbed' by the failed ritual…

Headmaster Dumbledore telling him that he was being expelled from Hogwarts because he no longer had any magic…

Headmaster Dumbledore snapping his wand in half and confiscating anything magical in nature; including his school books, his broom, and Hedwig…

The loud sound of knuckles meeting wood cut through Harry's memory induced trance and he nearly jumped out of his skin as he abruptly returned to reality; he was no longer in Hogwarts. His Aunt Petunia had taken one look at him after Dumbledore had returned him to Privet Drive less than an hour after snapping his wand and immediately made arrangements to ship him off to Japan. He'd then been forced through six months of remedial education and Japanese lessons while he waited for his passport and educational visa to be processed.

Heart pounding, Harry tore his eye from the mirror and whipped around to stare wide-eyed at the bathroom door as whoever was on the other side knocked a second time before a woman's voice floated through the door, "Hari-kun, breakfast is ready."

Harry opened his mouth to reply out of habit only to snap his mouth shut a heartbeat later when no sound passed through his lips. Pressing his lips tightly together, Harry hurriedly finished drying off and pulled on a black turtle neck before he dressed in the black slacks, white dress shirt, and black jacket that made up the uniform of the Japanese school he'd been enrolled in upon his arrival. The young wizard turned squib felt decidedly awkward in the form fitting gakuran; he was far more used to wearing his cousin's old castoffs or the loose robes worn by Hogwarts' students.

With a grimace and a final tug at the neck of his uniform, Harry gathered up the clothes he'd slept in and slipped out of the bathroom. He ducked into the bedroom he'd been given for the duration of his stay in Japan and dumped his rumpled sleep clothes on the bed before he strapped an eye patch over his useless right eye, slipped on his glasses and a clean pair of socks, grabbed his book bag, and ran his fingers through his still damp hair as he left the room. Just outside the sliding door, he nearly ran into his host's twelve year old son, Echizen Ryoma.

Ryoma was five months younger and two inches taller than Harry, had green-tinted black hair that was nearly as messy as Harry's, and brown eyes. He was currently wearing the same exact uniform as Harry and had a tennis bag hanging off his left shoulder. Harry automatically ducked his head to hide his scars and quickly stepped back into the guest room behind him to avoid coming into contact with the other boy. Ryoma blinked at him and offered a murmured apology before he continued on his way down the hall.

Harry waited a full minute before he silently followed after the other boy. He still felt very uncomfortable and out of place in the Echizen household and as a result he did his best to stay out of the way of all four members of the small family. It wasn't that they were mean or that he didn't like them; he just felt like the outsider he was. Part of that was due to the fact that he wasn't really allowed to help out around the house. The rest of it was because he'd developed a deep aversion to attention and physical contact since the incident with the Philosopher's Stone.

He had never been overly fond of being the center of attention and he'd always been a little uncomfortable with people touching him or even just invading his personal space but his mild dislike had morphed into a near phobia after his encounter with Quirrell and Voldemort. He especially didn't like people touching his hair because the feel of another's fingers catching on the tangled locks always triggered a flashback of his throat being slit. Part of him also feared that his touch would cause another to burn to death like Quirrell.

Harry forced his thoughts back on the present as he set his book bag down beside Ryoma's tennis bag near the front door before he stepped into the kitchen. As he stepped through the door, he swept his gaze over the room; his eye passing over Ryoma to briefly land on Meino Nanako (Ryoma's twenty year old cousin) who was sitting directly across from the other pre-teen. Nanako had long, dark hair with a blue tint to it, dark purple eyes, always wore a friendly smile, and favored wearing sweaters and skirts.

Harry tended to avoid Nanako the most after seeing her mother Ryoma a few times; he didn't feel comfortable with the mere idea of her even trying to fuss over him.

His gaze then landed on Echizen Nanjiro, Ryoma's father, where the man was seated in the open sliding door that led out onto the porch that wrapped around the house. The man had short, messy black-brown hair, the same brown eyes as his son, a light tan, and wore a rumpled black monk's uniform. Mr. Echizen reminded Harry a bit of Fred and George Weasley due to his carefree and playful nature. He was also a certified pervert and shameless flirt from what Harry had observed. The green-eyed boy was just thankful that the man's teasing was usually directed at his son and not at him.

Moving on, Harry's eye finally landed on Echizen Rinko (Nanjiro's wife, Ryoma's mother, Aunt Petunia's old friend, and the reason why he was here in Japan). She had shoulder length, reddish-brown hair, dark brown eyes with a slight red tint to them, and a very warm personality. Harry knew she was an attorney and that she used to play tennis with his aunt when they were younger. He also knew that she was a rather forceful woman despite her friendly nature; she'd been the one to put her foot down and forbid Harry from doing any chores around the house because he was a guest.

Mrs. Echizen was the member of the Echizen family that Harry had spent the most time around since he had arrived. She had been the one that had picked him up from the airport two weeks earlier. She had then taken him out shopping for clothes and other necessities the moment she had seen how little he had brought with him. She had even taken him over to Seishun Gakuen to register him for school and sit his entrance exam. And she had taken him to the local hospital for a complete physical and medical check up. Harry sometimes wondered how such a warm and friendly woman had become friends with his rather strict and impatient aunt.

"Ah, there you are, Hari-kun; come sit down and eat your breakfast before it gets too cold," Mrs. Echizen instructed as she turned away from the stove and noticed Harry hovering in the door way.

Harry nodded in response and shuffled towards the table to slide into the seat beside Ryoma where a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast had already been set alongside a glass of orange juice. He then awkwardly pressed his palms together and mouthed a silent 'itadakimasu' (a custom he'd been taught by Rinko shortly after he arrived) before he picked up the pair of chopsticks beside his plate and began to eat. A short while later, as he took his final bite, Harry felt rather proud of the fact that he hadn't dropped or spilled any of his food for once; he'd never held or used a pair of chopsticks prior to his arrival in Japan and it his earlier attempts had been both frustrating and messy.

Breakfast finished, Harry quickly washed his hands and face and collected the boxed lunch that Mrs. Echizen had made for him before hurrying to the front door to put on his shoes and grab his book bag so he could head to school. Ryoma was already ready and waiting for him just outside of the front door and Harry felt more than a little guilty for making the boy wait for him. The green-eyed boy was still not used to people who were considerate enough to wait for him despite his occasional exposure to such behavior during his single year at Hogwarts. He'd grown far too used to either hurrying up and waiting for others or being hustled along with sharp words.

It wasn't that the Dursleys had been abusive towards him, they hadn't. They just hadn't liked him very much and they hadn't really wanted him around. The fact that they had had no choice in the matter (something he'd only learned after his aunt had made arrangements for him to come to Japan) had only made them more resentful of his presence. The result was that they tended to be very strict with him when they weren't ignoring or neglecting him. His aunt had not apologized for the way he'd been treated growing up but she had explained to him in great detail why she had kept him at a distance all those years.

And it wasn't because she was jealous of her sister's magic, though there was no question that she had envied her sister.

Aunt Petunia had known from the moment Harry had been dumped on their porch step that the magical world would one day return to claim him and she hadn't wanted to grow close to him only to lose him to the wizarding world in the same way she'd lost her sister. His sporadic bouts of accidental magic had only thrown that knowledge back in her face each time they occurred. She had been angry when he'd been brought home by Dumbledore before the end of the term. Not angry with him but angry with the bearded wizard the moment he'd opened his mouth and informed her that Harry had been expelled due to having his magic stripped from him.

He still recalled the words his aunt had spat at the headmaster that day…

"This… this is why my husband and I fought so hard to keep him from you people. You took him and used him and now you're throwing him away a second time after your world broke him! Your kind call those of us without magic animals simply because we don't have your 'gift' but the truth is that the lot of you are nothing but monsters without even a shred of human decency. Now, get out and stay out. Never darken our door again. And you had best stay away from the boy; I won't allow you to send him to his grave like you did my sister."

Things at the Dursley's house had changed for Harry that day.

Vernon still mostly ignored Harry and Dudley still picked on him and teased him but Petunia had taken him in hand to prepare him for his move to Japan. She'd bought him four changes of clothes (one set of sleep ware, a set of warm casual wear, a set of summer casual wear, and a nice set of formal clothes). She'd arranged for him to take remedial lessons in all of the non-magical subjects he'd not taken at Hogwarts and hired him a Japanese tutor. She'd even taken him to Diagon Alley so he could make arrangements with Gringotts for all of the money in his vault bar a couple thousand galleons to be converted into yen and transferred to a muggle bank in Tokyo in his name.

It had been rather shocking for Harry to learn that his aunt had actually known about the money he'd inherited from his parents (and a few others that had left their money the 'Boy-Who-Lived' because they hadn't had an heir). Apparently, she'd not had any interest in claiming a single cent of that money due to its magical origins. She also wasn't about to let the magicals confiscate a single cent of his inheritance because he had 'lost' his magic through their negligence. The only reason that the goblins had cooperated that day was because Aunt Petunia (Harry's principle guardian) had been with him and he'd still had the key that Hagrid had given to him on his eleventh birthday.

Learning that Petunia did actually care about what happened to Harry (little though it was) had been rather eye opening for the former wizard and it made it a lot easier to forgive her for his somewhat unpleasant childhood. It helped that she was the one that had made the effort to give him a new start in life where he wouldn't constantly be surrounded by the reminders of all that he had lost that night when he and his friends had foolishly gone after the Philosopher's Stone to protect it from Voldemort. She'd even arranged for him to be given an alias so that it would be harder for anyone from the magical world to track him down.

Granted, Harold Evans wasn't exactly an original or even a particularly clever alias but it was a name that was common enough for it to be overlooked by most people. The best thing about his new name, in Harry's opinion, was the fact that as Harold Evans, he was no longer Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived; he could go back to being 'just Harry'. Or so he hoped. Part of him feared that his new scars and inability to speak would draw far too much of the wrong sort of attention to him; which was why he took pains to hide the scar on his neck and had taken to keeping his head bowed to hide the scar on his face.

He also knew that his special treatment at his new school would draw further attention to him. Due to how recently he'd lost his eye, he had been exempted from participating in any sports during his physical education classes or through a sports club until he learned to compensate for the loss; though he was still required to do calisthenics, stretches, run laps, and other such warm up and conditioning exercises. He would also be excused from participating in any activity that required verbalization due to the fact that he could no longer speak. That meant that his class participation would be limited to paying attention, taking notes and exams, completing daily class assignments, and solving an occasional problem on the board; something the other kids were likely to pick up on fairly quickly.

The principle of the school had also waved the necessity for Harry to be a member of one of the school's activities committees for his first year. The reason for that exemption was strictly due to the fact that Mrs. Echizen had made arrangements for him to receive counseling three days a week from the school's onsite psychologist (though those sessions wouldn't start until his second month of classes in order to give him time to settle in). The reason for the counseling sessions was to help him deal with the mental scars that had been left from his encounter with Quirrell and Voldemort at the end of his first year at Hogwarts.

And both the Echizen family and the school faculty were fully aware of how he had received his injuries. Or rather, they were fully aware of the cover story that Petunia had created to explain her need to ship him off alone to a completely different country and was based upon the story she'd dragged out of him (via pen and paper) shortly after Dumbledore had dropped him off. The cover story wasn't really all that far from the truth either; the only thing missing from it was the mention of magic (including the true nature of Hogwarts or the fact that Harry's magic had been stripped from him).

The cover story stated that Harry had been kidnapped by the members of a satanic cult and that he had nearly been killed in one of their brutal rituals. It also included the information that Harry had killed the cult's leader, one of the cult's 'priests', and a large, dangerous snake in self defense during his escape attempt. The details of how he had killed them and how exactly he had escaped were a little vague aside from the mention of firearms (a reference to wands) and an explosion. It was close enough to the truth that Harry had no problems remembering it.

Using that story and a claim that Harry had been placed in a witness protection program would also keep his name and face out of the media for the duration of his stay in Japan. His name and picture wouldn't even appear in the school's yearbook because of it; since a copy of all yearbooks were kept in a semi-public library on campus and distributed to the vast majority of the student body at the end of each academic year.

Harry was drawn from his internal musings when the two boys reached the school a short while later. The large number of students flowing through the entrance gave the one-eyed twelve year pause for a moment; he hadn't expected there to be quite so many children attending the school. Part of him wanted to slink away from the crowds but the rest of him was far too Gryffindorish to allow him to run in fear. Swallowing his nervousness, Harry split away from Ryoma and migrated to the shadows as he slipped through the school's entrance and made his way to the office to pick up his class schedule and the official notice he was to show all of his instructors regarding his special circumstances.

Once he knew which class group he had been assigned to (1-2), he headed towards his first classroom for his first lesson; mathematics. He would be one of the first freshmen (as all of the first year junior high school students were called) to enter the classroom and he silently approached the teacher to show him the note regarding his handicaps. The man barely glanced at the note before he signed it, handed it back to Harry (so he could show it to the rest of his instructors), and directed Harry to take a seat some where in the first row (so he would be able to clearly see the blackboard). Harry nodded in return before he claimed the desk right next to the right hand wall near the door where there was less of a chance that someone would sneak up on him from his blind side.

After hooking his bag to the back of the chair, Harry slouched down in the chair to make himself as small as possible while he waited for class to start. Each time another student entered the room, he would briefly take note of them but avoid making eye contact least one of them take that as an opening to approach him in an attempt to engage him in a conversation. He had no interest in making friends here; he felt no desire to have another friend turn their back on him and abandon him (the half-blind pre-teen completely unaware that it was Dumbledore who had instructed his friends not to contact him until he sought them out first so as not to remind him of all that he had lost).

Harry shoved the painful memory of his first ever friends severing their friendship back to the depths of his mind as he focused his attention instead on the teacher as the man began passing out workbooks to the class once most of the students had arrived. His attention was drawn back to the students just a couple of minutes later when a boy with short orange-brown hair, dark eyes, and a unibrow loudly entered the room. He was a bit surprised to see Ryoma entering the room on the loudmouth's heels; he had not realized that he'd been assigned to the same class group as the Echizens' son.

He was at least thankful that Ryoma had chosen to sit on the opposite side of the room next to the windows; he didn't want the other boy to feel obligated to watch over him or anything. To most people, Ryoma probably came off as being arrogant or cold but Harry figured he was just confident and a little more mature than most twelve year olds. Out of the entire Echizen family, Harry felt the most comfortable around Ryoma because of that; though he still did his best not to get in the other boy's way. Harry's interest in cultivating a new rival was on par with his interest in making friends; non-existent. He'd had enough of that kind of stuff after dealing with Dudley and Malfoy.

The bell rang just two minutes later and Harry put his worries aside as he focused on the instructor's lecture. The class period would pass by fairly quickly and before Harry knew it, the bell signaling the end of the class was ringing. The next class period would be English followed by P.E. and Social Studies before their group was given a lunch break. After lunch he would have Science and Japanese before he was done for the day. In between each class there was a five minute break to allow for both students and instructors to move between classes.

His class periods that morning flew by fairly quickly but the brief breaks in between classes were hell for Harry as the other children finally took notice of him and attempted to draw him into a conversation. The only one who wasn't pestering him during that time was Ryoma and for that, Harry was thankful. He also appreciated the fact that Ryoma didn't tell anyone what he knew about Harry's background story each time an opportunity to do so was presented to him; though that did surprise him a bit. After the third break, most of his classmates stopped trying to approach him and instead began taking note of the fact that the teachers never called on him during the class.

Harry hated the attention and speculation about him that was flying fast between his peers but he did his best to ignore them. It wasn't like he hadn't had to deal with such things before; both at Hogwarts and during his years at primary school back in Surrey (though the reasons for the attention had been different at each school). His only saving grace was the fact that Ryoma garnered almost as much attention since this was the other boy's first year at this school as well; which meant that Harry was only garnering half of the attention that he would have otherwise.

The bell signaling the start of the lunch break came as a welcome relief for the mute pre-teen and he was the first one out of the room in his effort to escape his curious classmates. He then spent the next eight minutes hunting down a secluded corner of the grounds in hopes that he could avoid his peers until the afternoon classes started. He would end up tucking himself into a small gap between one the school's main building and a row of hedges where he was easily overlooked by passing students and teachers alike. The only way one would be able to spot him was if they were looking straight down from an open window or the building's rooftop.

As he ate the lunch that Mrs. Echizen had packed him, Harry silently wished he still had his father's invisibility cloak so he could hide beneath it. He had no idea what had happened to the magical cloth though; he hadn't seen it since he, Ron, and Hermione had used it to sneak into the Third Floor Corridor that night. He suspected Dumbledore had confiscated it alongside the rest of his things but he had no proof. At least the man hadn't taken the small photo album that Hagrid had given Harry towards the end of his stay in the Hospital Wing just before he was expelled; those pictures of his parents were priceless treasures in Harry's mind.

At the end of the lunch period, Harry would slip out of his hiding spot and return to the classroom for his afternoon lessons; never noticing the gaze of a curious senior watching him from a second story window. By the time he found his next classroom, all of the other freshmen in his group were already there and Harry felt distinctly uncomfortable as he slunk into the room, dropped his note on the instructor's desk, and took the first empty seat available. He could sense at least three people heading in his direction and he purposefully buried his nose in one of his text books in the hopes that they'd leave him alone.

Harry would be spared from whatever it was the trio had been planning by the arrival of their fifth period instructor and the ringing of the bell. His relief would only be short lived though as their science teacher ordered them to pair off in groups of two or three after giving them a short lecture. Harry sat frozen in his seat as the rest of the class selected a lab partner from amongst their friends; a large knot forming in his stomach over the prospect of being forced to work together with another student.

"Do you have a lab partner yet, Evans-san?" a familiar voice inquired as a pair of shoes stepped into Harry's peripheral vision.

Harry tipped his head to the side just enough to briefly glance up at the individual now standing beside his desk and felt conflicted when he confirmed that it was Ryoma that had approached him. He hesitated for a second before he minutely shook his head no in response to the question.

"Ah, I thought so. Would you mind being my partner then?"

Harry blinked twice and briefly snapped his head up to look directly at Ryoma for the first time since he'd met the boy two weeks earlier (unintentionally giving the other twelve year old a clear view of his scarred face bar what was hidden behind his eye patch) before he dropped his chin back down to his chest and wrote out a single word on the open notebook in front of him. If he had kept his eye on the other boy a few seconds longer, he would have noticed the brief flash of shock that passed over Ryoma's face the moment he had gotten a good look at the visible portions of the scar on Harry's face.

Why?

"Why not? You don't have a partner yet and neither do I," Ryoma countered after he'd recovered his aplomb enough to glance down at the notebook to read what Harry had written. Harry bit his lip as he glanced back up at Ryoma through the fringe of his hair while he considered the other boy's logic before he let out a silent sigh and shrugged his shoulders in response. Ryoma snorted in return as he leaned back against the desk beside Harry and lazily retorted, "I guess that makes us partners then. Are you any good at science?"

Harry hesitantly nodded before he held out his left hand parallel to the floor and rotated his wrist to make the universal sign for 'so-so'. He then scribbled out a witty, I'm good at melting and blowing things up, on his notebook before angling it so that Ryoma could read it; his mind automatically thinking back to the number of cauldrons he'd destroyed during potions lessons at Hogwarts (mostly because of interference from the Slytherins or Snape breathing down his neck).

Ryoma flashed him a small grin in response as he replied, "I'm glad I'm not the only one."

Harry started to laugh only to cut off abruptly due to the rasping sound of air passing over his ruined vocal chords; the sudden reminder of his ruined voice box killing the brief flash of amusement he had felt. His left hand unconsciously snaked up to clutch at neck of his shirt; his fingers twisting in the fabric as he once more felt the sharp bite of a blade slicing through his flesh. He snapped back to the present when he sensed rather than saw the instructor reaching out to drop a hand on his shoulder and leaned sideways in his seat to avoid the touch.

"Is there something wrong, Evans-kun?" the instructor inquired with a frown as he dropped his hand.

Harry shook his head no even as he sank lower in his chair out of embarrassment due to the fact that he'd nearly had a panic attack in the middle of class.

"If you're certain; though if something does come up, then I expect you to let me know," the instructor replied before he addressed the entire class. "Does everyone have a partner now? Good, let us head through the door at the back of the room and into the science lab next door so I can go over the safety procedures you will be required to follow when using the lab for your experiments."

The rest of fifth period and all of sixth period passed by in a blur as Harry sank into a state of numbness. Before he knew it, the final bell signaling the end of the lessons for the day rang loudly and his fellow classmates scrambled to gather up their things before heading off to their start of term committee meetings. Harry mechanically copied them as he packed his things into his book bag; his mind a half a world away as a small part of him wondered what he would be doing right that moment if he'd still had his magic and was still attending Hogwarts.

He would eventually make his way out onto the school grounds after delivering his signed note back to the office and wandering aimlessly about the grounds for a good twenty minutes before he left the campus and headed back to the Echizens' place; the despondent twelve year old once again oblivious to the curious gaze following him as he left the school.

Translations: Japanese to English

Gakuran – school uniform worn by boys
Itadakimasu – an expression of gratitude usually offered before one eats (similar to saying bon appétit)
Seishun Gakuen – Seishun Academy (Seigaku for short)

Notes:

Science class – I am basing the idea of having a classroom and a lab room on my experiences in middle school, high school, and college where the lecture room was situated directly beside the lab. The reason for this was to avoid the students from being distracted during lectures and to allow other classes to use the lab on those days when our class was not in the lab. So, for those of you who are used to having your lecture and lab in the same room, please keep in mind that not all schools use that model for their science classes and I am going off the model that I am most familiar with.

AN: Just a quick reminder that any apparent holes found in the information provided within this chapter (as far as the story line goes) will be explained/filled in future chapters as the story unfolds. That includes the full details about Harry's new status as a squib.

10-02-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.