cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 1

It had been quite a shock when, skull had died in the future that now would never be, he found himself shunted not into his arcobaleno self, but that of a seven year old boy he had been when he first activated his flames. That moment when the sheer desire to live sparked his cloud flames to keep propagating his blood until the bleeding stopped , when his body first learned the ability to internalize his cloud flames to keep him alive.

Skull had existed for far longer than Harry. Had seen far more of what the world has to offer. Where Harry had survived, Skull had actually lived.

And if this truly was a second chance. A way to put a lot of the wrong things right, then he was going to seize it with both hands and not look back, even if it meant loosing everything he 'gained' the first time round.

Skull had long since come to terms with the knowledge that if he had to give everything up, he would not hesitate. There had been so much needless loss and pain because of dumbledore and his inaction, so much death because he was afraid to do what's necessary to end a threat once and for all.

He was a cloud that everyone mistook for inverted because he was loud and had the patients of a saint when tested. They saw, but they did not understand that his natural instincts had been flipped entirely due to his upbringing and the fact that he was never aloud to be who he truly was.

Clouds were possessive, territorial bastards who raged whenever what was theirs was threatened or taken from them. 'Harry' had nothing, was never allowed to claim anything as his and only his, and was expected to share everything regardless of how he had felt about the matter. He was little more than 'public property's in the eyes of the European magical enclaves, and this was to be kept in a gilded cage.

So it was little wonder that Harry took a step back and went to sleep, allowing Skull to take his place.

First things first.... he would have to get rid of the rather poor excuse of a 'minder' in the neibourhood before he could do anything. He knew that senile squib was the reason why he had been stuck there, as she reported everything to the old man.

It had taken him a nights tireless work to find the ward Stone that anchored the rather pathetic wards that suround the home, and slowly, methodically rewire it so that all the alarms go to him first. Blood wards are tricky, but would fall easily enough once he was rejected as blood kind by the horse-faced Butch and her father pig of a son. He wouldn't mourn for their loss, even as he discovered with some Glee that Vernon apparently had ties to the mafia, and not the good ones.

Mafia connections means he doesn't have to be as careful when he wipes the dursleys out, or the adults anyway. Dudley was still a child, and all skull would do is wipe most of his memories and make it seem like the trauma from a really good hit to the Head had given him amnesia to give the boy a clean slate. Most of his behaviour came from his parents being completely imbiciles who wouldn't know how to raise a flobberworm, much less a child. If they had given him even an iota of discipline then his behaviour wouldn't have been so deplorable, never mind the health issues he had from being obese and eating all that junk everyday in large quantities.

Really, Skull was doing him a favor long term, even if Dudley likely wouldn't see it that way once he was finished.

Mrs.Figg was pathetically easy to dispose of in a way that Dumbledore couldn't help her with. She was to busy trying to keep as many of her precious kneazles and cats to think of asking Dumbledore for help or to notice what 'Harry' was doing, never mind that it was the same boy that set that Animal Welfare group on her ontop of unleashing the darker side of Surrey's gossip circles regarding how she paid for her house and bills.

A single hint of a 'cat Mill's was enough to send the senile squib out of Surrey, and by the time she realized there was no way she was getting her cats back he would be long gone.