"Oy, how'd you end up on the roof anyway?"

Harry looked up. Duncan, a loner, not unlike himself, was looking at Harry with perplexion.

"I, uh…" Harry stammered. The truth was, he wasn't sure how he had gotten on the roof. He had been hiding from his cousin Dudley and a few of his mates during recess yesterday, and suddenly found himself on top of the admin building. It had made quite the fuss, as they had to get a ladder to get him down.

"I'll keep it a secret."

"This will sound weird, but I really don't know."

Duncan blinked, and appeared to chew that over. "So, you don't remember? Or poof, you was just up there suddenly?"

"Poof, I think."

Duncan nodded. "Aliens. Or magic."

Harry shrugged. Duncan was odd. He read. A lot. He always had a second-hand or borrowed library book with him. And not the school library, the local library.

"Or maybe you sleep walked?"

"I don't think I fell asleep," Harry explained.

Duncan hmmed in agreement. It had been the middle of the day. "I think I have one in here with some teleporting aliens." He said, reaching into his bag. He groped around until he pulled out a paperback. "Here, read this and tell me if it brings any memories back, you may have lost time."

"Um, sure, I guess?"

Duncan nodded, and made his way back to his desk.

Harry looked down at the book in his hands. Why not read it, he had nothing better to do at home. It wasn't as if his Aunt or Uncle ever let him have any fun.

••••••••••

A YEAR LATER

"Oy, Harry, c'mon!"

"The books aren't going anywhere, Duncan!"

Harry had just come into eyeshot of the local library where they met every weekend. He smiled, in just a year his life had changed seemingly so much. Harry had made friends with not only Duncan, but also several of the library staff. His Aunt and Uncle couldn't bother him here, he could spend as much time as he wanted going through books.

Duncan had been right, books were a ticket to freedom.

Harry wove between several of the pedestrians as he made his way towards the entrance. Duncan smirked as he looked past Harry.

"A bit old for cosplay, aren't they?" he asked, pointing back towards the road.

Harry looked over his shoulder. There were three men and a woman wearing odd clothing. They weren't uniforms, but they all were robes, with different cuts and colors. Harry frowned, something about the way they were moving made him think of Dudley and his 'gang'.

He picked up his pace towards the library entrance. It was only five or six more yards.

"Nice props! Are you all LARPing?" Duncan called out.

"We don't need this one. Make sure the other one survives," one of the robed group ordered.

Two of them produced wooden rods from somewhere and mumbled something. Duncan watched as two colored wads of light appeared and shot forwards, one straight towards him. He flinched automatically as it hit, and his skin tingled slightly, as the other one flew by, towards Harry.

"Rude. We're not LARPing with you guys," Duncan shouted. He looked down at his chest, where the light hit. His shirt seemed fine. "... Wait, that's not even how lasers work?"

Harry's hand went for the door, but a blast of light flew past him and hit it. The door quickly frosted over in ice, blocking his way, and Harry scrambled back, away from it.

"These aren't LARPers, Duncan!" he shouted, looking for some way to flee these weirdos.

More mumbling, from the side this time. A ray of light shot out, hitting the pavement in front of the group of not-LARPers. They turned to meet this new threat, and one gasped, before the ground bulged.

A massive vine pushed through the asphalt, grabbing the man in front, with more vines quickly pushing up to grasp at the others.

Duncan gasped as well. "Oh my god, it's Gandalf!"

Harry blinked. He could see where Duncan was coming from. The new man lacked a staff, sword, or pointed hat, but carried another carved wooden rod like the others. A wand, presumably. He too wore a robe, dark blue, and sported a beard down to his waist. His lips moved, and an opalescent barrier appeared in front of him, just in time for more colored lights to splash into it.

Harry dove behind one of the cheap faux-roman pillars the library had in the front to try giving it gravitas. "Duncan, the spells! They don't curve, they must be line-of-sight projectiles and or rays!"

Duncan blinked. "Ha! Good job!" He rushed off to the side, behind a trash can.

Meanwhile Gandalf and the three combatants not tangled in the vines continued to trade volleys of light, the waving vines between providing both sides partial cover in addition to the shields they all produced.

There seemed to be conversation amongst the attackers.

Two cracks filled the air. A scream pierced Harry's ears as the woman who had been thirty feet away a moment before collapsed on top him, unable to stand. They both collapsed to the ground, and as he scrambled away, he realized she was missing her right arm and leg.

"Of course she bloody splinched."

Harry looked up to see one of the others holding his wand against Duncan's neck!

"Hold it, Dumbledore! I've got a hostage!"

The old man spoke out, "What do you think you can do at this point, Bruno? Give up peacefully."

"Very funny. Now, if you don't want to see this muggle cleaned up with a mop, I suggest you get rid of that plant, for starters."

Dumbledore frowned, and, turning towards the vine plant, began to chant with his wand outstretched.

Duncan stomped on the foot of his captor, reaching for the wand.

"Reducto!"

The spell only had a few inches to travel, and slammed into Duncan's cheek.

Duncan responded by pulling the wand out of Bruno's hand and running towards Dumbledore, leaving the would be hostage taker flabbergasted.

The old man blinked, but didn't waste any time. He shot a series of spells at the one man with a shield left, overwhelming it, and apparently knocking him out. Bruno started to run, but a spell landed in his back, and he collapsed to the ground like a stringless puppet.

Duncan switched directions, and ran towards Harry. The woman had stopped screaming, and was now curled up in a ball, groaning. Harry ran up to meet Duncan.

"What did you think you were doing?"

" I figured I could dodge the spell. I also thought that, since the first spell hit me and didn't do anything, I might be resistant. I was half right."

"You oaf, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

The two boys hugged briefly before Duncan pocketed the wand and turned to Dumbledore, who seemed to be collecting their assailants together.

"Reckon he's the good guy?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"He backed down when I was a hostage. Earns him a lot of points as far as I'm concerned. We still don't know what his angle is though. Both sides could be targeting you."

"Me!" Harry let out, forgetting to whisper. Dumbledore looked up, but went back to collecting the woman's limbs that apparently had rolled next to a bush.

"They were clearly targeting one of us from what they said at the start. If they were targeting me, they would've known not to use stuff I'm immune to, right?"

"But I'm just a another kid. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to try and get you, if you're really immune?"

"You'd think so, but everyone was surprised when he hit me with that reducty thing. I don't think they knew about it."

Dumbledore was apparently finished collecting the others. They were now all unconscious, and he had taken their wands. He slowly approached the boys, one hand up in a wave.

"I imagine you two must have a few questions."

Duncan moved slightly in front of Harry and nodded. "Why were we attacked?"

Dumbledore's eyebrows went up. "An interesting first question. You aren't going to ask about the lights and plants and so on?"

"Should we really waste ten minutes arguing about whether magic is real or not? It clearly is," Duncan shrugged.

"It would be traditional."

Harry let out a nervous laugh, "I guess we're not big on tradition."

Dumbledore nodded. "I'm sorry. They were a group of criminals, and knew I was chasing them. They must have thought you looked like easy hostages."

Duncan frowned, mulling it over.

"You're both hurt, would you like me to help?"

"We're fine," Harry disagreed.

Dumbledore pointed to Harry's knee, and Duncan's arm. Both were slowly bleeding.

"When did that happen?"

"In situations like this, you often don't notice things like that," Dumbledore explained. "Let's hope you don't get familiar with finding unexpected wounds. May I?" He lifted his wand.

Harry nodded, but Duncan stepped forward again. "Just don't try anything funny."

The old wizard nodded. "Episkey."

The gash on Harry's knee sealed up within seconds, and soon the only evidence left was the blood that had run down his leg.

"Give that a wash before you go home. Now for you."

"Didn't you watch? I'm immune somehow."

"I wonder… permit me to try anyway?"

Duncan shrugged, frowning. Dumbledore repeated the motions of the wand, and Duncan's arm tingled, as he had every time before. However, his arm started to slowly heal.

Half a minute later, all three of them were frowning at Duncan's arm. It had formed a small scab, unlike Harry's wound.

"Why'd that work this time?" Duncan asked.

"I'm not sure. I'd like to think it's because I'm a fairly talented wizard, but I imagine it's more complicated than that," Dumbledore admitted. "Amazing. I'm not sure I've ever heard of magical resistance like this." He smiled, "You learn something new constantly. Even at my age."

The boys heard some strain in the old man's voice. Looking closely, they could see a bit of sweat on his forehead that hadn't been there before, even after the battle.

"I would ask you boys not to speak of this. And I need that wand back, I'm afraid."

Duncan frowned. He had wanted to keep it, but there was probably no way he could could talk Dumbledore into it. He handed it back, reluctantly.

"Thank you."

"So we were just in the wrong place?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and I was too slow. I apologise again."

Duncan shrugged. "It turned out alright… Where is everybody?" He looked around, suddenly realizing there should be others rushing away, or towards, all of this commotion.

"I put a spell around the area. Non-magicals won't want to pay any attention to this area."

"Woah, a Somebody Else's Problem field! Magic really is awesome. Hey, is there any chance we could become mages?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Wait a few years. You'll find out around your eleventh year."

"Wow, does it express itself during puberty, like in X-Men?" Harry asked.

"Not exactly. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to deal with these criminals."

He turned and walked towards the pile of unconscious attackers, and pulled a long rope out of a pocket. He tied it around the group, making sure to get the woman's appendages, before saying, "turkey with all the trimmings." The group disappeared.

The two boys blinked, then turned to each other. "That was…"

"I know, right?"

….

"Well, let's go in."

"Now? How can you think of books now?" Harry asked.

"It used to be fiction. Now it's study material," Duncan explained. "Or do you not want to be a wizard when you grow up?"

Harry's mouth opened, then shut. "Let's go."