Title: A Gargoyle in St Louis
Author: Blackcrow
Rating: T/PG-13
Warnings: Betrayal, Violence, Insanity
Summary: After Voldemort is defeated, Harry must flee for his life before he comes into an unknown creature inheritance. His sanity is already fragile when he arrives in St. Louis will he survive the changes intact. Crossover with ABtVH. Creatures, Vampires, D/s, Gray!Harry
Compliance with HP Cannon: This story is almost completely compliant with the 7 HP books minus Epilogue. Differences in my world are the alliance with Snape, Dumbledore interfering in HP creature inheritance.
Disclaimer: Not Mine. The author receives no financial gain from its production or distribution.

A Gargoyle in St Louis
Chapter One - Contingency Plan

Monday 4th May 1998 - Two Days After Voldemort Was Defeated

After Voldemort was defeated, Harry knew he only had a short time to put his plans into place. With Sirius' help (and more surprisingly - Severus'), he'd devised a 'Plan B'. It was his contingency plan for if he could no longer stay in the wizarding world safely. He would be turning 18 in less than three months. He needed to be somewhere safe and secluded by then.

He had distracted his friends from following him by hinting that he was going to visit Gringotts to make arrangements. Then he asked Hermione about jewellers in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and in the muggle world. Then he asked where Mr Weasley would be over the next few days and hinted that he might need to speak with him soon.

He left his so called friends behind and made his way to Diagon Alley feeling lighter than ever. If his friends put together his rather blatant misdirections and came up with him getting back together with Ginny, what could he do about it?

He'd known for a long time that many of the people around him would prefer a martyr to a living hero. It was only a matter of time before the wizarding world's media and the ministry turned on him. In his second year at Hogwarts, he'd seen his classmates and teachers quickly come to believe him to be an evil murderer. And in his fifth year, nearly the entire school and wizarding population had thought him a danger to society and a psychotic attention seeker. He had a good idea what would happen if people found out about what he was becoming.

He knew a lot more than his friends thought about their plans. His hearing had always been extremely acute. He had also become skilled at remaining unnoticed in the shadows. He knew that Dumbledore had made many plans for his future. Before his fifth year, he had overhead Mad-Eye, Shacklebolt & Snape at Grimmauld Place. They had been discussing his possible creature inheritance and ways to control him and stop him from becoming the next threat. Hearing their plans had made him freeze and his blood run cold.

In second year, he'd found out that Ron and Hermione were monitoring him and reporting his actions back to Dumbledore. He hadn't done anything about it because he didn't want anyone alarmed. The longer they believed him to be an ignorant pawn, the safer he was and the more time he had to plan. After the Chamber incident, He'd also found out that Mrs Weasley and Ginny had been involved in Dumbledore's plans since before Ginny had started school. Ginny was to be his childhood sweetheart that he'd anything for and the future Mrs. Potter. Just like James and Lily.

He'd laid some false trails in his friends' minds already. Ever since fourth year when the competing schools were at Hogwarts, he'd talked with Ron & Hermione about places he wanted to visit after he finished Hogwarts. He'd asked Hermione about places she'd been with her family and told them how much he wanted to visit France and Egypt.

For the most part, in the beginning, he was only mildly annoyed at them all for trying to manipulate his life. They all wanted Voldemort gone as much as he did. They were watching out for the wizarding world and obviously didn't know him well enough to know that he had no desire for power.

October 1995 - Occlumency Lesson

Midway through his fifth year his naivety was torn away most abruptly. What had originally been a plan for Harry to gain independence from overbearing mentors, and the right to make his own decisions; was to become a fight for his very life. If he didn't escape in time, he could be drugged into compliance, and then either sent to Azkaban for safe keeping or destroyed. Dumbledore's meddling meant that he would never be able to have a life among the Wizarding world population.

Updated: 20 September 2008