Disclaimer: - I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. Anything you recognise is hers; everything else is purely my imagination-running wild…..
Setting He's Own Destiny.
Harry had had enough, he had just returned home from Hogwarts from a terrible year. He had retuned back to Privet Drive and already his Aunt, Uncle and Dudley had already started with 'freak' this and 'freak' that.
Sirius had just fallen through the veil and Dumbledore had just informed him of the prophecy, he had to kill Voldemort or be killed.
Harry sat on his bed, after dragging his trunk up through the house, his head in his hands. Facing the wall, Harry's mind started to crack, Voldemort, Snape, 'Dursley's', Wormtail, Malfoy, the list seemed endless.
"Boy!, get down here, we have things to discuss!" Vernon shouted up the stairs.
'Now what, what does he want now, did they get through to him at the station', Harry's already cracked mind was now starting to shatter.
"Boy, get down here now!"
'CRACK'
Harry mind snapped. Rising from his bedroom, Harry descended from his bedroom down to the living room. Entering the room, Harry was confronted by his Aunt and Uncle.
"What was the meaning of you 'freaks' making that fuss at the station? Vernon shouted , his face purple, veins pulsing in his forehead.
"Well, are you going to tell me?" Vernon continued to shout walking towards Harry. Harry, not even bothering to look at Vernon, just raised his wand.
"Petrificus Totalus" Vernon fell to the floor. Aunt Petunia screamed, rising from the chair, "Petrificus Totalus", Harry cast the spell on his aunt, she fell back on to the chair, her eyes darting wildly.
Harry looked at both his aunt and uncle, his eyes had gone from the emerald green to a green/black, "You have treated me like a slave for the last time, you have berated me and made me suffer more than you could ever know. I will no longer put up with it." He snarled at the pair of them, as they lay on the floor, the only sign from them was the movement of their eyes and this was rapid and darted from each other to him.
Harry raised his wand and cast his spells at the both of them, "change ut equus", "change ut bovis". Both his aunt and uncle turned in a horse and a bull respectively. "I will leave you to your fates, lets see what the RSPCA have to say about find animals in your home", pausing Harry felt himself smirk, "actually, let's see what the neighbours have to say about you keeping animals in your house".
Laughing, Harry left the room and returned to his bedroom, he had decided what he had to do, he would no longer depend on people for his protection, he would not be manipulated into doing other peoples bidding and he would certainly stand on his own two feet . People he had trusted had manipulated him enough. People who thought they cared for him, enough was enough, today that would end.
Looking out of his window he saw an tawny owl flying towards his window, casting a spell at the bird it dropped like a stone in water. 'let's see what the ministry of magic has to say about that', he thought. 'if the ministry couldn't deliver his misuse of magic letter to him h, then couldn't get into trouble.'
Harry gathered up his belongings and left Privet Drive, walking to the end of the road before raising his wand and summoning the Knight Bus.
'First things first,' he thought, 'I need to get the tracking spells off my wand, then to Gringotts to get some money and then to disappear for a while.'
Dumbledore sat in his office when all of his alarms went off, something was happening at Privet Drive. Quickly leaving his office and flooing to Mrs. Figg's house, Dumbledore exited the floo in a state of near panic. 'What was going on with Harry?'
Upon arriving at the Dursley's he noticed that both the police and the RSPCA were in attendance, not wanting to draw attention to himself he waited, quietly observing what was happening, he could not sense any deatheater activity in the area so he knew that it wasn't Voldemort, but what had gone on?. Turning his robes into an everyday business suit he walked the remaining few yards towards the house. He could overhear various conversations, centering around the fact that there was a horse and a bull being subdued by a local vet inside the house, the RSPCA were in attendance because of the state of the animals, the police because of the animals inside the house.
Dumbledore had to wait until the ministry obliviator's had shown up because of the number of people surrounding the house, wanting to know what was going on. Once everything had clamed down and Petunia and Vernon were returned to their natural state, of looking like a horse and a bull rather than being a horse and a bull. Dumbledore had deduced that Harry may have had a breakdown and left of his own accord.
Returning to his office he quickly call a meeting of the order. Rather than using Grimmauld Place, member's of the order flooed into Hogwarts.
"I have some rather disturbing news, it appears that Harry has left the safety of his relative's house and is out on his own. It is imperative that we locate him at all costs and return him to his relatives where the blood protection is at it strongest." Dumbledore informed the order members.
There was an eerie silence followed by a outburst of in human proportions, from Molly Weasley stating that the 'poor boy should have stayed with them at the Burrow', to Professor Snape insinuating that 'Potter was an attention seeking brat who was just looking for more attention.'
Dumbledore quickly silenced them all with orders to locate Harry and to take various know locations and begin the search.
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Elsewhere at the same time as the order was meeting
Harry had just left the Knight Bus and entered the Leaky Caldron, passing through quickly he tapped the bricks, allowing him entry into Diagon Alley. Making his way over to Gringotts, Harry was oblivious to the stares that he was receiving, the murmuring of the crowd.
Once he was inside Gringotts, Harry made his way to a short line and waited his turn to be seen
"Is it possible to see Griphook?" Harry enquired once he was at the window.
The goblin, being a short tempered individual, looked at Harry, "Who is wanting him and why should he see you?"
Harry already fed up at being treated like a forth class citizen spoke in a very quite voice, the meaning not lost on the goblin. "I will speak with Griphook now and if you wish to keep your job and also your head you will get him here now within the next ten seconds." Harry continued, his voice now a whisper "You will tell him that Harry Potter is here to see him and if I do not find any satisfaction I will remove my account to a muggle bank, I'm sure the loss of such a prestige account as the Potters will leave other clients wanting to remove their money also. Do I make myself clear?"
The goblin, not easily frightened left his seat and disappeared through a doorway behind the counters, within less time than it took to snap your fingers Griphook had emerged from the doorway.
"Mr. Potter, please come through" Griphook said to Harry, as he was lead behind the banks counters "What can I do for you today?"
Entering a small office Harry sat down in a comfortable chair and looked over at the goblin. Although not usually taller than 4ft 6 inches, goblins had a feral look and their magic was unique.
"I wish to know that state of my account and once I know this I will require a few additional services, either provided by yourselves or someone that you trust" was all Harry would say.
Griphook looked at a ledger on his desk and proceeded to tap it with if finger.
"Mr. Potter, it appears that you are one of our largest clients and with the recent death of Mr. Black it appears that your holdings have grown. Mr. Potter your net worth is currently 480 million galleons with various properties around the country"
Harry sat back, stunned was an understatement, if he calculated this right if every galleon was the equivalent to four pounds, this meant that he had nearly two billion pounds.
"Griphook, what do you mean Mr. Blacks holdings?"
Griphook looked at Harry in disbelief "Mr. Potter I thought that you would have known that upon the death of Mr. Black you have been granted his entire estate including money, investments and properties. I also understand that you have been granted emancipation. You Mr. Potter are considered an adult in the wizarding community with all of the rights and responsibilities granted to a full wizard"
Harry could not have been more stunned, if his own mother and father walked into the bank and given him a hug, it would have been less of a shock.
"Thank you Griphook for informing me of this", however, Harry was interrupted by Griphook, "Mr. Potter, we at Gringotts have been sending you monthly statements concerning your wealth and what we should do with your investments since you were eleven, your guardian, Albus Dumbledore, has seen to your investments for the last five years"
Harry could not believe his ears, what was Dumbledore doing with his money, why didn't he know that Dumbledore was his guardian and if so why did he have to return to the Dursley's year after year?
Harry already fragile mind, snapped from betrayal by others, only succumbed to further shatter into already smaller pieces. Harry's aura flared in the office, making Griphook back away in haste, the instruments within the ministry of magic went off the chart, wizards looking for the disturbance noting that it was coming from Diagon Alley.
Claming down, Harry surveyed the office and Griphook, "Remove Dumbledore from all of my accounts" he snarled.
While Griphook had left the office undertaking to remove Dumbledore from Harry's accounts, Harry thought about his next moves. He didn't want to attract a lot of attention and he needed to get away and think of what his next moves would be. He had only thought to get away from the wizarding world and have time to think about what he wanted to do. He didn't want to be hounded and plagued by the Dursleys and have the order keeping a watch over every little thing that he did.
Griphook entered the office and reviewed Harry, he appeared to be thinking, getting Harry's attention, "Albus Dumbledore has been removed from all of your accounts and his key has been revoked" Griphook stated "was there some other matter that you wished to discuss?"
Harry waited, letting Griphook finish "I need to have the tracking charms removed from this wand, also I need to know what properties that I own, I wish to relocate to one of them, I do not want to be found this summer." Harry considered his next words carefully. "Can you achieve this or can you recommend someone who can do this without mentioning that I have been here?"
"Mr. Potter, we can remove the tracking charms from your wand, for a small fee. Also you have a number of properties that can be used, two under the Fidelius Charm" Griphook sat down at his desk and reviewed the ledger in front of him "One of the properties is Grimmauld Place, in London and the other is Black Cottage, in the Lake District"
Harry thought about the options, "Griphook, can you please remove the charms from my wand and see about transferring the secret keeper for the property at Black Cottage to myself" Harry asked.
Griphook placed a call to another goblin and within minutes the charms were removed from his wand and Black Cottage was now under the control of Harry.
Harry left the bank, with a bag full of galleons and was making his way to Flourish and Blott's to collect a few books when the sound of apparition sounded in the alley. Deatheaters appear in the center of Diagon Alley and were randomly cast spells everywhere. Indiscriminately at everybody, old and young alike.
Harry darted behind the pillars of Gringotts and cast 'Evanesco' at the deatheaters legs, these were cut from beneath them and six of them fell to the floor, Harry quickly banished the legs from Diagon Alley, ensuring that those deatheaters wouldn't have the chance to use them in the near future.
Ducking behind the pillars, Harry quickly decided that this was not the brightest thing that he had done all day, coming to Diagon Alley to loose his life in a fight was not top of his list at the moment.
The remaining deatheaters noticing that they were down half of their contingent looked for the source of the attack, once their attention was diverted other wizards joined in attacking the remaining deatheaters and soon were joined by the ministry aurors.
Harry noticing that the deatheaters were apparating away and leaving their colleagues, Harry quickly made his way to the Leakey Cauldron, leaving via the muggle entrance, he summoned the Knight Bus and instructed Stan Shunpike to take him to the Lake District. He thought it better to drop him off near Black Cottage rather than take him directly to it, the order would probably trace him there, even with the Fidelius Charm on it.
Back at Hogwarts – Meeting of the Order
Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt entered through the floo into the Headmaster's office.
"Sorry we're late, there was an attack on Diagon Alley" stated Kingsley in a quite deep voice.
"please explain what happened" Professor Dumbledore asked, the noise of the order members lowering immediately
"It appears that about twelve deatheaters apparated into Diagon Alley, Indiscriminately killing anybody they could see" answered Tonks, taking a seat at the front of the meeting.
"How many were killed" asked someone from the back of the room.
"That's the funny thing" a smiling Kingsley answered, "There were no deaths and the only injured were six deatheaters, who have now been taken under guard to St.Mungo's, they lost their legs when someone sliced them off and then banished them"
Cry's of disbelief echoed around the room.
"Tonks, Kingsley, could you please explain this in a little more detail" requested Dumbledore, taking a lemon drop from the tray in front of him.
"Well, the rumour is that Harry Potter cut the legs out from the deatheaters, banishing them away and then left, leaving via the Leakey Cauldron, he then disappeared into muggle London" Tonks said, "it can't be Harry as he's at the Dursley's?"
"That Nymphadora, is what we are meeting about. Harry has left the protection of his relatives and is missing" Dumbledore paused "It appears that you have now found out where Harry was, I suggest we start to look for Harry around Diagon Alley" Dumbledore stated looking at the people within his office.
Black Cottage – The Lake District.
Harry got off the Knight Bus and made his way down a leafy lane, leading to Black Cottage. His thoughts rapidly turning over the events of the last day.
As Harry neared his destination, he pulled out the piece of paper and read the address again 'Harry lives at Black Cottage', looking up his could see the outline of a small building against the skyline. A small chimney rising above the thatched rooftop. As Harry neared the cottage, it was a picture postcard of everything that a cottage should be, square framed windows, a large oak wooden door in the middle of the house, a narrow pathway leading from the gate to the entrance. A typical cottage, in every sense of the word.
Inside, the cottage consisted of a living room, a kitchen, a sitting room, including a small collection of books, a bathroom and two bedrooms. 'Why did Sirius own this?', was the first thought that crossed Harry mind, however after a few moments of consideration, did it really matter why the Black family owned this cottage, it suited Harry's purpose.
Making himself at home Harry considered his next moves. Food was a priority and then learning. Harry knew how to cook, so looking after himself should not prove to big a problem, learning would probably present him with greater difficulties.
Harry settled into a chair and closing his eyes, thought about Hedwig, 'hopefully she will find me' was Harry lasts thoughts before going to sleep.
Reviews are welcome, feel free to let me know how I'm doing. It won't stop the story but it will let me know if I am writing correctly, if the English is okay and on the right track…….