Darkness and Liberty

This story takes place in Harry's fifth year, a week after the first Quidditch match.

Note: Taking a glance of the summary at the top, you may think that this story is about a Dark Wizarding Britain. While this is true, Harry and Hermione will flee from Britain to USA and attend another Wizarding school, starting their fifth year magical education over again, and continue until they finish their seventh year, in this story.

In this story, James and Lily will appear to Harry from beyond death as ghosts using Metaphysical Magic (a magic that is beyond what Wizards know), and they will help Harry get out of the prejudiced, bigoted Wizarding Britain.

Chapter 1

A Call For Departure

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Harry was lying on his bed in his dormitory, his face appeared in rage. As he glanced down at the scars on the back of his hand, he felt abhorred.

He could no longer call Hogwarts his home. The events that had happened in Hogwarts from the start of his fifth year until now had made him feel that every day appears like a year in length; as if he had to suffer from time to time.

Thinking back of the previous years when he was in Hogwarts, he had done so many things, some of which had prevented or delayed Voldemort's return to power. In his first year, he saved the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort. In his second year, he killed a basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor, and destroyed Tom Riddle's Diary with the basilisk fang, saving Ginny. In his third year, he managed to drive away a horde of Dementors with a Patronus Charm, and in his fourth year, Voldemort's back to power, and he saw him coming back, but he had managed to escape from him.

He had warned the Minister of Magic about Voldemort's return, mentioning the names of the Death Eaters he had seen, but the Minister didn't take it seriously, and he had disagreed with Dumbledore's suggestion of the steps that should be taken.

After that, he heard from Ron that Dumbledore wanted him to go back to the Dursleys, his magic hating relatives, and Ron told him that her mother had said that Dumbledore had his reasons.

What had happened to him during the summer holiday after his fourth year at Hogwarts did not make him feel better, as he had been stuck there for more than one month. Although he stayed outside and relaxed, he met two Dementors, and he was forced to produce a Patronus to drive them away. After that, he had received a letter to attend a hearing in the Ministry of Magic to determine whether he was going to be expelled or not.

And then he was told to not leave the Dursleys.

He had no idea why Dumbledore wanted him to stay with his relatives, didn't he know that the Dursleys hated him?

Right after he had been escorted to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, he heard from Ron and Hermione about what the Daily Prophet had said about him, which was not pleasant to hear.

Fortunately, he had been cleared of all charges, which was a relief, since it meant that he could still attend Hogwarts.

Nevertheless, as soon as Umbridge had been selected as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, she had refused to teach the students real defensive spells; and claimed that the former Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers had taught spells that were lethal, and inappropriate to their age group.

Afterwards, he had received several weeks of detentions where he was forced to labour over the blood quills painfully engraved 'I must not tell lies', and he had missed a decent number of quidditch practices. Wasn't Dumbledore even aware of what Umbridge was doing to him?

According to what Sirius had told him, the reason that Umbridge didn't want to teach the students real Defense Against the Dark Arts was that Fudge thought that Dumbledore wanted to form his private army and take over the Ministry of Magic.

Hermione came up with the idea of practising the Defense Against the Dark Arts themselves, and she had arranged a meeting in the Hogs Head, asking him to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, two days later, an Educational Decree was brought into the school, banning the activities of three or more students until they obtained permission from Umbridge, which had included their organisation, as well as quidditch, and Umbridge had refused to allow Gryffindors to reform their quidditch team.

And now, he had just finished his week of detention with Professor McGonagall, because of what he had done to Draco Malfoy at the end of a quidditch match, and Umbridge had banned him from playing quidditch ever again.

The DA was the only thing left for him, and it was formed undercover to teach students defensive spells. While it may have helped some students to learn some defensive spells, there was still a probability for it to be discovered, and Harry knew what would happen if anyone discovers the DA and report it to Umbridge.

In spite of all these things, the Ministry was still sprouting their advertisement about Voldemort's return, and he couldn't think of a single way to get through to them, or anyone else, about how close the real danger the dark wizard represented was. How was he supposed to convince them? How was he supposed to fight when he couldn't escape the almost constant bouts of detentions here?

Harry knew that the fact that the Ministry and the Wizarding public had chosen to disregard the statement that Voldemort had returned, and believing the snide remarks made about him in the Daily Prophet, would suit Voldemort just fine, and there was every chance for Voldemort to launch an attack in the Wizarding world; and possibly taking over the Ministry.

He had no idea how much more Educational Decrees were going to be planted in Hogwarts, but he was certain that none of them would do him any good.

Consequently, he felt that he was going to collapse real soon.

He felt that now is the time to run away from Hogwarts, just as he had felt in his fourth year, during the time that he didn't have a clue of how to get past the dragon in the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and the only thing that held him back at Hogwarts was that he had help, thanks to Barty Crouch Junior, who had given him advice of how to get past the dragon.

This time, on the contrary, while he was being left at the mercy of Umbridge, labouring over blood quills, he had no help at all, not from any staff members of Hogwarts, including Dumbledore himself. They were all sitting in their office pretending that nothing had happened. Professor McGonagall simply told him to shut his mouth and keep his temper under control.

Suddenly, two faces appeared.

It was James and Lily.

"Harry," said Lily.

Harry felt both terrified and excited, he missed his parents so much, and their sudden appearance shocked him. He hoped that it was not one of Voldemort's tricks.

"Mum," Harry said.

"I have already seen what you have gone through, Harry," said Lily. "Right now, I am going to take you out of Hogwarts, since it is more like a hell for you than a home."

Harry understood what his mother was talking about, she's going to take him away from Hogwarts, so he would no longer be stuck inside the power-hungry, prejudiced, and bigoted world. He had been feeling the same way as Lily had said, yes, Hogwarts was like hell to him than a home, for now, at least, but then he will have to go back to the Dursleys, which won't be any better.

"How?" he asked.

"I am going to take you out now, but I am also going to let someone else go with you," said Lily. "The way that I am going to use to take you out of Hogwarts is completely undetectable by anyone else in Hogwarts."

"Who is going to go with me?" asked Harry.

"Hermione Granger," said Lily.

"Why her?" asked Harry. "What about Ron?"

"I'll get to Ron in a minute," replied Lily simply.

"Besides, should Voldemort take over the Wizarding world after you left, Muggleborns will no doubt be the first to be targeted," said James. "Do you understand what I mean?"

Harry nodded, he understood what James meant, although he didn't like it.

"Then where are we going to go?" asked Harry.

"We won't be taking you back to your relatives," replied Lily, as if she could read Harry's mind. "I know they were horrible, I know they had abused you, and I can't wait to help you to get them back for what they did. Now, don't try and stop us, because we got to get this done."

Harry felt relieved.

"We have already cleared this up with Hermione's parents, that you and Hermione will be going to the USA; since we know that it is too dangerous to stay in Britain," said James. "They have already agreed."

"And don't think you will be leaving the Wizarding world, you and Hermione will be continuing your Wizarding education in a school called Strectoll Wizarding Academy," said Lily.

"Are we going to leave this country immediately?" he asked.

"Not immediately," said James, "but soon."

"Dumbledore said that he wants me to go back to the Dursleys at the end of last school year," said Harry.

"Now, he had his reasons, and I can tell you that, he placed some wards at Number Four, Privet Drive, to protect you from Voldemort while you are staying with them," said Lily. "He wants to use you as a weapon against Voldemort. Do you want to know why he didn't bother to check on your wellbeing all those years when you were being abused? He raised you to die, so he had to make sure that you have nothing to live for, or hope for."

Harry let out a heavy sigh, and he shook his head, he felt disgusted, Dumbledore had never told him why he wanted to place him there; and insisted him to go back, without caring about how much pain he had gone through.

"A prophecy was made before your birth," James said. "It stated that you can defy Voldemort, and either you have to kill Voldemort, or die trying."

"Snape heard part of the prophecy and told Voldemort about it," said Lily.

"So the reason that Voldemort wanted to kill me when I was a baby was that he believes that he would be invincible after he killed me?" asked Harry.

"Yes," said James. "By the way, that old coot, Dumbledore, has a lot to answer for, and the Weasleys are in his pockets. If you distance yourself from the Weasleys, it will make Dumbledore harder to reach you."

Harry remembered that he asked Dumbledore about why Voldemort wanted to kill him, and Dumbledore didn't answer him.

"Dumbledore didn't care about you, instead, he used you to do his dirty work for him," said Lily.

"Really?" asked Harry.

"In your first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore announced that the third-floor corridor was out of bounds to everyone who does not want to suffer a painful death, didn't he?" asked James.

"He did, and it was because of the Philosopher's stone," Harry said.

"And why did he place the stone in Hogwarts?" asked Lily. "Why didn't he hide the Philosopher's stone in a location other than Hogwarts and use the secret keeper spell, making himself the secret-keeper? Wouldn't the stone be equally safe if he did that?"

Harry didn't speak, instead, he sighed.

"And think about your second year, Harry," said Lily. "As soon as Colin Creevey was petrified, did Dumbledore set up any security measure to keep the rest of the Muggleborns safe? Did he warn the staff members, or make any announcements to the rest of the students, asking them to watch out for themselves?"

"No, he didn't," replied Harry. "Security measures were taken after Hermione and Penelope were attacked."

He felt that what his parents had told him were right, back in his second year, Dumbledore had failed to protect the Muggleborns from being attacked, as a result, he was suspended from Hogwarts by the school governors.

Hogwarts, the place that Harry felt as if he was at home, was not home at all. Every year he arrived in Hogwarts, there was at least one unpleasant event, and this year was by far the worst, even worse than his fourth year. Being forced to go back to the Dursleys did not make him feel better, right after he had his battle with Voldemort towards the end of his fourth year, and now, even Hogwarts was not a good place for him to stay.

He felt sickened about Dumbledore, not only he had been keeping things from him, at this moment he ignored him; and left him to the mercy of Umbridge, the Daily Prophet and the Ministry.

Nevertheless, it was the prophecy that he needs to worry about, but from his experience of defying Voldemort, he knew that he does not have any skill to defeat him; since it was all because of luck that he was able to defy Voldemort.

"Do I have to kill Voldemort?" he asked, trembling.

"According to the prophecy, yes, but not if you don't want to," said Lily. "I suggest you leave Voldemort be; since the Ministry denied the fact that he's back, plus that they called you a liar, don't worry about them, leave them to face the consequences themselves."

"And what is the point of staying somewhere you know that someone is after you?" asked James. "The Ministry had been trying to discredit you or silence you, to prevent you from spreading the word that Voldemort had returned. The Dementors that attacked you and your cousin during the summer after your fourth year were ordered by none other than Dolores Umbridge, and Cornelius Fudge doesn't know about that."

Harry felt disgusted, he had nearly been expelled from Hogwarts for using magic to fight the Dementors, luckily Dumbledore was able to get him out from being expelled. However, if Dumbledore had chosen to leave him alone when he needed him, there's no reason to not get away from Hogwarts. Now he half wished that he had been subjected to the Dementor's kiss, and everything would be over, even if that meant that he would be worse than death. Dolores Umbridge, who had tortured him with blood quills, had also played a part in trying to get him expelled from Hogwarts by sending the Dementors to go after him.

If the Ministry had been trying to prevent him from spreading the word that Voldemort had returned, then he might as well stop spreading it, which would make it easier for Voldemort to take over the Wizarding Britain.

"Where are you going to take us?" he asked.

"We will take you to the Grangers residence tomorrow," replied Lily.

Harry considered for a moment, then another question occurred to him.

"Wouldn't anyone be looking for me if I left?" he asked.

"You don't have to worry about this, Harry," James said. "We will make sure that whoever would be looking for you, regardless of whether they are Dumbledore or the members of the Order of the Phoenix, or Voldemort or Death Eaters, they would never reach you, since we are protecting you using enchantments that prevents every single method of transportation, including portkeys, plus that it protects itself from every single type of spell, and thus no one would break through it no matter how hard they try."

Harry nodded.

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, Harry and Hermione found themselves at the Grangers' residence. James and Lily had summoned all of their possessions to the Grangers house in a split second.

"I know you two will be here," said a voice.

Harry and Hermione turned and saw Dan Granger stood behind them.

"Nice to meet you, Harry, my name is Dan Granger."

He paused for a moment.

"I don't know what has happened to the Wizarding World," he said. "Harry, according to what your parents told us, the Wizarding world in this country is no longer safe anymore."

Harry nodded.

"They have made the request for us to get you two to the USA, and attending a Wizarding school known as Strectoll Wizarding Academy," Dan said. "I happen to agree; since I think it would be better for you both to remain in the Wizarding world."

Before either Harry or Hermione could say another word, a woman entered.

"This is my wife, Emma Granger," Dan said.

"Nice to meet you," said Harry.

After breakfast, Dan and Emma asked Harry if he had a passport.

"No, I don't have one," Harry said.

"We will get you one," said Dan.

/Scene Break/

As Ron woke up, he saw that Harry's bed was empty, so he assumed that Harry was already in the common room.

He made his way to the common room and saw a few students there, but he didn't see Harry or Hermione.

Maybe they are already at the breakfast table. Ron thought.

As soon as he walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry and Hermione were still nowhere to be seen, this caused him to become worried as he did not know where they had gone.

For the first time, he was lonely.

Nevertheless, it was not only Ron who noticed this, Fred, George and Ginny also noticed it.

As soon as Ron finished his breakfast and went to class, he waited, hoping that Harry and Hermione would appear, but they didn't turn up.

Ron started to get worried, so he started to ask people about Harry and Hermione's whereabouts during break time.

"Where are Harry and Hermione?" he asked Seamus.

"Dunno, I didn't see them during meal times," Seamus replied.

"Do you think we should tell someone about it?" Ron asked.

"Why do you think you should tell anyone?" asked Seamus.

"If Harry and Hermione are indeed no longer in Hogwarts, I wonder if the Daily Prophet is going to keep quiet about their departure from this school or not," said Ron. "On the other hand, they are my friends, so I don't think I should just ignore them."

"If Harry and Hermione have indeed departed from Hogwarts, maybe the news about their disappearance will be kept quiet; since the Ministry thinks that Harry is a liar," said Seamus.

The professors realised that Harry and Hermione are not there when they were teaching the fifth years, including Hagrid. Except for Umbridge and Snape, every staff members were worried.

Professor McGonagall, in particular, was troubled by Harry and Hermione's departure, since they both belonged to her house.

She decided to have a word with Dumbledore.

/Scene Break/

Dumbledore was sitting inside his office, sipping his tea, and then there was a knock on the door.

"Enter," he said.

The door opened, and Professor McGonagall appeared.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Minerva?" asked Dumbledore.

"Do you have any idea where Harry and Hermione are?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Aren't they in your class right now?" asked Dumbledore.

"I didn't see them in my class," said Professor McGonagall. "They were also not at their house table this morning during breakfast."

Dumbledore did recognise that Harry and Hermione were no longer sitting at the Gryffindor house table during breakfast, but he didn't think that they had gone from Hogwarts, instead, he assumed that they might have overslept, so he didn't think about searching for them. Nevertheless, the fact that Harry and Hermione didn't appear in class had caused him to wonder where they are.

"I think I will have the staff members to conduct a search in this whole school for them," he said. "They might be hiding somewhere."

Then he pulled out his wand, and sent a few Patronuses, alerting all the staff to check everywhere in the school.

After half an hour, several Patronuses returned to Dumbledore's office.

Potter and Granger were not found anywhere in Hogwarts.

This reply worried him.

He didn't mind if Hermione had chosen to leave Hogwarts, but Harry was his primary concern.

What will the Daily Prophet say about this? He asked himself silently. Will they keep it quiet or will they spread the news?

Dumbledore knew that he did not say anything to Harry, or even looked at him since the Hogwarts term started, but he had his reasons to not do it. He did not understand why Harry, the only savior of the Wizarding world, wants to leave Hogwarts when Voldemort is active.

While it may be true that Harry had enough of Hogwarts because of the state that the school is in, he knew that Harry was the only one who would be capable of defeating Voldemort, that either Voldemort had to kill him, or vice versa, except for the fact that Harry didn't know about the prophecy yet, and if Harry chose to leave at this time, Voldemort would take over the Wizarding World, and if Voldemort takes over the Wizarding world, he would kill anyone he likes, and then the Wizarding world in Britain would be the most dangerous country to live in.

He felt that if Voldemort chooses to invade the Muggle world as well, no Muggles would stand a chance against him and the Death Eaters.

He panted as he walked out of his office, and made his way to the Gryffindor common room, muttered the password, entered through the portrait hole, and went to the Boys' dormitory; since he felt that Harry may have left a letter before he left Hogwarts.

He thoroughly searched the entire dormitory, only that he didn't find any letter.

He sighed, and he crept into the girl's dormitory, and searched the entire room, to see if Hermione had left any letter before she had left Hogwarts, but he still didn't find any letter.

He assumed that Harry and Hermione had departed right under his nose, without leaving a letter. He had to act fast, to try and locate Harry since he needed him.

He went and fetched Severus Snape, and they returned to his office.

"Do you know that Harry and Hermione are not here anymore, Severus?" asked Dumbledore, as they entered his office and sat down.

Snape stared at Dumbledore in a rather careless expression, and Dumbledore could tell that his hatred towards Harry had not changed.

"And why does their disappearance concern you?" Snape asked. "Potter is arrogant like his father, and Granger is his ally, they are not my concern at all."

Dumbledore frowned, and then he said:

"I am more concerned about where Harry is right now."

"Are you going to order us to search for him?" asked Snape. "Why should I? I am relieved that Potter is not here anymore."

"Whatever opinion you have about Harry, I shall call the Order to search for him very soon," replied Dumbledore. "If you don't want to be involved in this search, it doesn't matter."

Dumbledore pulled out his wand, sent several Patronuses, and several minutes later, he received replies saying that the Order is going to go and look for Harry, this caused him to settle down.

He knew that it was not possible to apparate or disapparate within Hogwarts. The only probable way for Harry and Hermione to disappear from this school was letting a house-elf apparating them away; since the enchantments inside Hogwarts had prevented apparition of anyone except for house-elves.

Did Harry call a house-elf to apparate him and Hermione away?

He quickly summoned Dobby and Winky.

"I just discovered that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are not here anymore, I want to ask you, did either of you apparate Harry and Hermione out of this castle?" he asked.

Dobby and Winky both shook their heads in confusion.

Dumbledore felt disappointed with their answers, and he couldn't think of what other ways Harry and Hermione would use to get out of the school without detection, he hoped that someone from the Order would arrive back to his office or reply to him soon.

He waited for two hours, only that no one had returned to his office, nor did any Patronuses arrive in his office informing him that Harry had been discovered, so he assumed that they had no news about Harry yet, but he wondered what had taken them so long to search for Harry.

/Scene Break/

Tonks arrived at Dumbledore's office during the afternoon.

"Do you have any news about Harry, Tonks?" asked Dumbledore, and he hoped that Tonks would say yes.

"One of the most likely places that he is in would be the Granger's residence," answered Tonks, "but when we tried to get there, we felt that we were being blasted back. We tried to walk there manually, but we still couldn't get through, something was intercepting us from getting in."

"Did you try to use a portkey?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes," said Tonks, "however, each time we tried to get there using this method, we couldn't get in at all, it seems that there was something that causes us to not be able to reach there."

Dumbledore shook his head in disbelief, and he fell silent. He was stunned, he didn't understand what had prevented the Order of the Phoenix from entering the Grangers residence even when they had used portkeys. He knew that Muggle residence was usually not warded. He wondered if there had been any restrictions of using portkeys set at the Grangers' residence that had prevented the order from gaining access to that location.

If no method of transportation was possible to reach that place, he assumed that it must have been a Witch or Wizard who had set up the enchantments, but who had set up the enchantments was the question that he couldn't find an answer for. Whoever cast the enchantments must have been a really powerful Wizard, more powerful than him, maybe even more powerful than Voldemort.

Putting out the thoughts of why the Order of the Phoenix couldn't get to the Grangers' residence, he decided to think of another plan to find Harry.

A/N: I would like to give thanks the author, BlackIceWitch, for the constructive criticism for this chapter.