Harry knew something was wrong when he didn't hear Snape's signature drawl as he entered the room. Instead he heared something he almost prayed for whenever he entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
A Quirrel with no stutter.
"You?" Harry says. Quirrell turns around at the noise. "No. It can't be...Snape. He was the one"
"Yes. He does seem the type, doesn't he? Next to me, who would suspect p-p-poor s-stuttering Professor Quirrell?"" Quirrel smirks.
"B-but, that day, during the Quidditch Match, Snape tried to kill me." Harry asks. He was confused. This was all wrong. How were they so wrong!
"No, dear boy. I tried to kill you! And trust me, if Snape's cloak hadn't caught fire and broken my eye contact, I would have succeeded. Even with Snape muttering his little counter-curse." The Professor scoffs.
"Snape was trying to...save me?" Harry asks in shock. That can't be right. Snape hated him. Why save him?
"I knew you were a danger right from the off. Especially after Halloween." Quirrel elaborates.
"Th-then you let the troll in."
"Very good Potter, yes. Snape, unfortunately, wasn't fooled. While everyone else was running to the dungeon, he went to the 3rd floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again. He rarely left me alone." He says as he turns back to the mirror. "But he doesn't understand. I'm never alone. Never. Now...what does this mirror do? I see what I desire. I see myself holding the stone. But how do I get it?"
Suddenly a raspy voice seems to call out from under the evil professors turban.
"Use the boy."
"Come here, Potter, now!" Quirrel immediately barks.
Harry walks forward shakily.
"Tell me. What do you see?"
Harry looks in the mirror and sees himself. His mirror self brings his hand into his pocket and takes out a red stone! The mirror self winks and puts the stone back. Very subtly, Harry reaches to his pocket. There is a lump. He gasps as he feels it. Its different than he expected. Powerful even through his pants. Almost burning, but not.
"What is it?! What do you see?!" Quirrel yells.
"I-I'm shaking hands with Dumbledore. I've won the house cup." Harry replies, lying to bide some time.
"He lies." The Voice says.
"Tell the truth!" Quirrel yells at Harry. "What do you see?!"
The Voice speaks before Harry could do anything.
"Let me speak to him."
"Master, you are not strong enough." Quirrel pleads.
"I have strength enough for this." The Voice states. Quirrel sighs before reaching behind his head to undo the headpiece. Slowly removing it to reveal a snake like face on the back of his head. "Harry Potter, we meet again."
"Voldemort." Harry says with some shock. He should have known... He needs to keep the stone from him even more so now. If what Hermione said was right, this can bring Voldemort back to life, something he could not allow.
"Yes. You see what I have become? See what I must do to survive? Live off another, a mere parasite. Unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a body of my own. But there is something that can. Something, that conveniently enough, lies in your pocket!" The spirit snarls.
Harry turns and runs.
"Stop him!" Voldemort yells.
Quirrell snaps his fingers and fire erupts all around the room. Harry realizes that he is well and truly stuck.
"Don't be a fool! Why suffer a horrific death when you can join me and live?!" The Dark Wizard roars.
Harry shakes his head.
"Never!"
"Haha. Bravery. it was something your parents had and look where it got them, dead by my hand! Tell me, Harry, would you like to see your mother and father again? Together, we can bring them back."
In the mirror, Harry's parents faces appear.
"All I ask for is something in return."
Harry takes the stone from his pocket.
"That's it, Harry. There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it. Together, we'll do extraordinary things, just give me the stone!"
The image of his parents in the mirror vanish as Harry steels his resolve.
"You liar!" he yells.
"Kill him!" Voldemort orders.
And that is when things started going haywire.
In an alternate universe, Quirrel would have leapt at the young Boy-Who-Lived in order to retrieve the Philosophers Stone. Harry's Mothers Blessing would have then burned the dark wizard to ashes and Voldemort would have then escaped. The power he used taking its toll, Harry would then collapse and the Great and Mighty Albus Dumbledore would come a few minutes late and rescue Harry. Taking the stone and supposedly destroy it in order to prevent a repeat of what had just occurred.
But, as I said, that would have been in an alternate universe.
In this one, things are a bit different. In this one, something strange happens and unfortunately for Harry, he fell unconscious before anything happened but the last things he heard was screaming, probably from Quirrel.
Harry woke up with a groan. Looking up, he saw that he was in Hospital Wing with Dumbledore looking down at him sadly.
"Uh, Hello Professor." Harry greeted tiredly. Goodness, he was still feeling really drowsy.
"Morning to you too my boy." Dumbledore replied sweetly, his eyes twinkling like usual, but held no happiness in them. Harry was about to say something but Dumbledore cut him off.
"Before you say it, the philosophers stone has been destroyed so no worries."
"Um, that's not what I wanted to say sir." Harry said nervously.
"Oh?"
"What I wanted to ask was why are you sad sir? Your eyes normally look more happy." Harry asked curiously.
"Ah yes," Dumbledore sighed. "When I found you with Professor Quirrel, you were unconscious and Quirrel..."Dumbledore paused, as if he wanted to refrain what happened.
"I found Quirrel's body, though your too young to know the cause."
"What? Why?" Harry asked. He wanted to know.
"I doubt you'd be able to handle it." Dumbledore said. "Let's just say it was quite messy."
After hearing Harry's silence, the old professor continued.
"Seeing this, I decided to inform the Ministry of Magic of what had happened. That was one of my greatest errors." Dumbledore said, sadness and regret practically rolling off of him.
"W-what happened?" Harry stuttered, his imagination running through the possibilities.
"The Ministry decided that, since it was only you and Professor Quirrel there, it had to have been you." Dumbledore answered, stroking his beard. Harry already knew where this was going and he was clutching his covers in terror.
"I informed them that Professor Quirrel was possessed and that it was an act of self defence but they didn't see it that way. They saw fit to expel you and send you to Azkaban." Dumbledore revealed.
"W-what?" Harry stuttered. He wanted to say more, but Dumbledore continued.
"Luckily, thanks to an ancient, unseen rule in the law, I have managed to stop you from being sent to Azkaban." He explained.
"Phew." Harry sighed in relief. "B-but am I still expelled?"
"Unfortunately, that is the case." Dumbledore replied sombrely.
"O-oh."
"Do not fret, my boy, for I may have a solution, somewhat at least." Dumbledore exclaimed, gaining a bit of twinkle back into his eyes as he looked into Harry's.
"Do you?" Harry asked in confusion.
Dumbledore nodded as he proceeded to put his hand into his pocket, taking out not a moment later revealing a stack of cards with a dark brown backing as well as a strange necklace.
The necklace itself(or is it a pendant?)consisted of a thin, black leather holding(the bit that goes around your neck)in which dangled a circular object, about just over half the size of his palm, made of pure gold with strange hieroglyphics engraved along the edge while a strange eye laid in the centre.
"What are these?" Harry asked, looking at the two objects(The cards are lumped together as one).
"Well my boy, over the years I have collected many mysterious objects and trinkets and, these two, happen to be one of them." Dumbledore replied. "There is a place in Japan, where they value a game called Duel Monsters I believe. This just so happens to be a deck that I myself made when I was in my younger years."
"R-really?" Harry asked. He'd heard of this game before from the sounds on the Dursleys TV, but had never actually played before. "Then what's the necklace?"
Dumbledore chuckled as he answered, "This was something your mother gave to me to pass on to you if she weren't there to do it herself."
"This was my mum's?" Harry gasped.
Dumbledore nodded. "Of course my boy. She created it herself in fact. I believe you may have need of it for the journey ahead."
'Journey? What journey?' Harry thought as his head tilted in confusion.
Dumbledore, again, answered like he had read his mind.
"Well Harry, since you can't go to Hogwarts, I thought it best to send you to a place that still held a spark of wonder." He stated.
"Like what?" He asked curiously.
"Like I said before my boy, there is a place a certain game is highly popular." Dumbledore hinted. "A game where monsters duel for their masters."
Harry thought for a second on what Dumbledore said before realising.
"Your sending me to Japan?"
Dumbledore said nothing, but the soft smile on his face answered for him.
"Wait if I'm going to Japan, then are-" Harry's word were cut off when Dumbledore shook his head.
"No, I believe that would do no good." Dumbledore exclaimed. "I believe you have already addressed your opinions on your family and, while I would much prefer you stay with them, I believe that this may be the exception."
If Harry could smile any harder, then the tips of his mouth would go beyond his ears.
"Now that we have that out of the way, would you care to take these? My grip isn't what it used to be." Dumbledore chuckled as he held the necklace and cards for Harry to grab.
"O-oh, sorry Professor!" Harry apologised as he took them. He noticed that, as he held the cards, none fell out of placed as he grabbed them. Must have been a charm to stop them from scattering everywhere if he dropped them.
He took the necklace and instantly placed it over his neck as the gold hieroglyphic coin laid dangling by his mid-chest.
"So, um, what are the cards for?" Harry asked as he looked at the stack of brown-backed cards.
"Well my boy, what do you think they are for?" Dumbledore replied cryptically.
He looked at them, thinking a moment before looking back on Dumbledore's word.
Something about Japan, Duel Mons-
"These are Duel Monster cards?" Harry asked in shock. Dumbledore collected these?
"Of course." Dumbledore chuckled. "I have made a habit of collecting trivial things."
"Why're you giving me this?" Harry asked, looking to the cards and back to Dumbledore.
"Harry my boy, I find things such as these trivial and a hobby. If I needed to give them away for someone else's happiness, then I would." Dumbledore answered. "I do believe that, if you were to try and learn, I may request you try and learn the rules."
"Yes sir." Harry said.
He was expelled, sure. It was utterly gut wrenching, but Dumbledore was trying his best to cheer him up, so why wouldn't he take this opportunity?
Get your rest my boy. I'll give you a rulebook, so take a look at the cards, familiarise yourself with them." Dumbledore stated with a small smile as he stroked his beard. "Make a deck, you may need it when you make your stay in Japan."
"Thank you Professor!" Harry exclaimed as his headmaster, or in this case, former headmaster, stood up and left, giving him a wave as closed closed the door behind him, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts, at least until Madame Pomphrey returned.
'Well, if I'm gonna be playing this game, I might as well have a look at them.' Harry thought as he began to look at the cards.
After a couple hours of going through the cards, he finally felt like he had an idea of what the game was all about, other than the obvious. Although it would be better if he had a rulebook to explain some of the things that confused him as he saw things in the effects of cards that said things about Main Phase 1 or 2, Battle Phase and such things like that.
Well, now he had done that, it was time to look at the necklace.
As Harry stared at it, he thought on what his mother did or was thinking when she made this. Did she make it just for him? Maybe for herself?
He caressed the outside of the circle as he pondered but his thoughts were cut off as the necklace began to glow slightly.
"Huh?"
Harry looked on as the circular necklace began to change colour to that of a navy blue as the hieroglyphics engravings glowed slightly in a dim white colour.
"Why'd it do that?" Harry asked himself curiously. All he did was circle his thumb around the hieroglyphics.
"Can I do it again?" Harry wondered he repeated that same movement of circling his thumb clockwise on the hieroglyphics on the edge of the circle.
Instead of turning the same golden colour, it turned to a deep red this time as the hieroglyphics now glowed an electric yellow.
He did it once more and this time it turned to a dark yellow as the hieroglyphics glowed an ominous red and when he turned it once more, the dark yellow crossed over into a snow white as the hieroglyphics glowed a sunlight yellow.
As he turned it once more it turned back to it's original gold and black appearance.
"Cool." Harry muttered. "I can try out more stuff later, but I'm going to sleep." He added in a moan as his head hit the hospital pillow.
Several Days Later
"Is this it Professor?" Harry asked as he viewed the sight before him.
It looked to be a small apartment on the highest floor of a complex with a simple wooden door and a clear window to the right whose contents were covered by the curtains.
"I do believe it is Harry." Dumbledore answered as ge held the key. "Have you got your things?"
"Yup." Harry answered as he held his suitcase in his hand(shrinking charm).
"Well, I think it's time for you to see your new home." Dumbledore said as he unlocked the door with the key.
As the door opened he was greeted to the sight of a relatively small living room with a small open kitchen with pure white tiles cleaned to perfection, at least to most anyway.
To the right was a small room with a toilet inside as, just to the left of it(from his perspective) resided a bathroom/shower with a bathtub, sink and several clean towels already inside.
As he looked inside the relatively small living room, which looked to be about 15 x 15 x 8 ft, he then took notice that, looking straight ahead, he managed to spot 2 other rooms.
One looked to be a storage room of sorts with a washing machine inside as the door was left open and the other seemed to be what would be his bedroom, although the bed didn't really look that comfortable.
Then again, comparing it to living in a cupboard for 10 years, it was heaven.
"Well?" Dumbledore asked.
"I love it sir!" Harry replied as he hugged the elderly headmaster.
"I'm glad you do." Dumbledore said. "Now, do you remember what I told you?"
"Yeah." Harry answered. "You said that if anyone asked, you were my guardian and you had to work a lot."
"Perfect." Dumbledore exclaimed. "I assume you can take it from here?"
"Yup."
"Alright then. If there is nothing more to do, I shall take my leave." Dumbledore stated kindly as he disappeared with a loud crack.
"Alright then." Harry stated, looking to his now enlarged trunk/suitcase. "Time to get unpacked."