The Factory Of Ideas

Harry Potter if He Became a Matilda Level Bookworm

     I was recently thinking of a movie I have always loved, also a book, called Matilda and then I thought of Harry Potter. 

     I thought of how they both were raised in abusive homes. Then I wondered... What if Harry learned to read just like Matilda? What if he had to learn how to take care of himself like Matilda did? Because the Dursley's sure wouldn't take care of him well. 

     What if Harry, instead of just gaining powers from reading a lot and being super smart like Matilda, had the same powers Matilda did because of his magic? Like telekinesis but really it's windless magic. Not any extra magic powers since he doesn't know about magic yet, at least until Hagrid tells him. 

     It's like his stories he's read came true when he gets to go to Diagon ally and later Hogwarts. 

     What if reading got rid of his anger and resentment? Well, not all of his anger and resentment. He has a right to be angry at the Dursley's, at least some. But getting into books and stories and learning to take care of himself made him independent a more mature. 

     What if reading about all those happy families made him long to have his own happy family? He may come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with himself and that must be why he doesn't have a happy family? Or maybe that's too angsty... Well he has to feel at least somewhat put down by his family though. 

     His teachers notice his intelligence early on since Matilda in the book was canonically 5 and advanced for her age. Maybe some of the teachers start to pay a little more attention to Harry and start seeing signs of something wrong at home. 

     They don't talk to the Dursley's about it, as they aren't sure at first. They don't want to alert the Dursley's in case what's wrong is the Dursely's themselves. The signs of abuse and at least neglect are there. They don't talk to Harry about it, as whenever anything about the Dursley's is brought up he seems to shy away or brush it off. 

     Eventually, one of the worried teachers goes to confront the Dursley's. The Dursley's say some suspicious things but shut her out when she poses her questions. She doesn't have enough evidence to convict them or anything, so she leaves defeated. 

     The teachers who're concerned meet up again afterwards and they decide the best course of action is to gain Harry's trust, which is a little hard. They do the best they can, but Harry never opens up about the Dursley's. The best they can do is protect him in their classrooms. 

     They let other teachers know about Harry's intelligence and their worries about the Dursley's. Eventually someone tried to ask some of the neighbors about Harry but ended up getting lost and returning having forgotten what he was doing. The teachers grew even more concerned. 

     Rumors about the incident spread among a few of the teachers, especially after it happened to another teacher, but it was mostly the more conspiracy leaning teachers that spread them. 

     Some teachers that pried were even threatened to stay out of the Dursley's business. 

     Teachers started telling each other not to talk to the Dursley's about Harry, especially after, on top of everything else, Harry would return more ragged to school the next day. 

      They did their best to support him, despite not being able to do much about his home life. 

     They also learned about the rumors spread about Harry himself, mostly through the Dursley's own neighborhood. The Dursley's would badmouth the boy and blame him for most things. Even though strange things happened around Harry, he wasn't a bad kid. 

     Still, the teachers gathered as much evidence against the Dursley's as they could and did their best to dispel the awful rumors about Harry and inform other teachers. They kept as much of an eye on the Dursley's home as possible during the Summer, when Harry was stuck away from the safe haven he had found in the school teachers. If the Dursley's were out of sight and they saw Harry, they would talk to him too. 

     Eventually Harry was getting close to turning 11, and owls started heading to Harry's house. The way the Dursley's reacted was outrageous and almost comical. 

     Harry mentioned the letters were addressed to him but never being able to open any of the letters. They could guess why. The Dursley's were horrible people. 

     The teachers had started spreading rumors about what the Dursley's were doing to Harry a while ago, quietly and in the natural flow of conversation as to not be obvious, hoping to get other people to notice Harry's situation and start gathering evidence too. So at least they would eventually get their comeuppance. The Dursley's were obvious about the verbal abuse, even if it would be better if none of the abuse happened at all. 

     Once one of the teachers managed to get one of the letters from one of the owls delivering them, by offering food and promising to get the letter to Harry. 

     When Harry finally got the letter he lit up and eagerly opened it. Then his face shifted to confusion, then suspicion, and lastly realization. Like he suddenly everything made sense. A little bit of shock and suspicion seemed present as well, but mostly a realization. 

     "Can... Can I have a piece of paper?" Harry asked. Then, "And I need a pen." 

     The teacher wasn't sure what Harry read, but she obliged. "Let's go to my house, I have papers and pens there." 

     Harry would have said no if this was a stranger, but this was one of the people who didn't believe everything the Dursley's said without question. This was one of the people who supported him most of his life. 

     He silently nodded and followed her as she walked to her house. 

     This was just some idea I had a while ago but never posted or did anything with. Feel free to use any of the ideas here. 

Author's Note: I've updated this chapter.