Chapter one

The first two years at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry told Harry Potter that the school was a dangerous place, more than a school of magic should be. He may hate the Dursley's, but he found that at least he was safer there than at Hogwarts. He decided to keep going with his magical education, at least for the time being. He needed to know more before he could decide if living and working in the magical world would be beneficial or not.

Harry hated how old fashioned the magical world was, it was at least one hundred years behind the muggle world. But it was the way the purebloods ran the world that annoyed him more. Staying for now would give him a chance to figure out which world he would rather belong to. He knew even if he gave up the magical world he would not give up magic, he would just have to wait until he was seventeen to use magic legally. He was thirteen so waiting four years until he was seventeen wouldn't be so bad if he did leave the magical world

Even though Harry was furious with Marge Dursley, which caused his magic to release where she blew up like a balloon, he did get to leave Little Whinging earlier then he hoped. He spent a few weeks in Diagon alley, courtesy of the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge. He had thought that maybe Dumbledore would turn up and take him to the Burrow, or make him. Harry was glad he didn't, he liked his time alone, since he spent most of his childhood alone or locked up. Even though he liked the Weasley's, with so many there it did get a bit much. Harry also didn't like the way Molly Weasley would try to act like his mother. Even though his mother was dead, he would never allow anyone to assume the role of his mother. He believed it would be an insult to his mother's memory.

Apart from taking his time to look at the different shops that the magical community offered, he never had time before as Hagrid rushed him about first year and the Weasley's did the second year. So he finally had time to really check out every shop in Diagon alley. There was one shop Harry liked, it sold multi-compartment trunks but it also had a built in charm to shrink and resize whenever he needed it and it didn't affect him with underage magic laws, so he could use it anywhere, even at Privet drive. He figured if he did get a bigger trunk, he could buy a heap of muggle educational books to keep up with that world in case he did decide it would suit him more.

Harry went to Gringotts to make sure he had enough money for his trunk, for all his school clothes and books. What he found out, courtesy of the goblins, was the vault he visited was a trust vault, that when he turned seventeen the other Potter vaults would be released to him. They also told him that he could use up to ten thousand galleons a year and once a year another ten thousand would be automatically added. So far Harry had only used just over four hundred galleons for his first and second year. Since he had never used it until he turned eleven that had built up to a really nice amount.

One thing that Harry also found out that made him furious was the Dursley's got three hundred galleons (converted into pounds) a month, for his care, which they had never used on him, well, things were going to change. Harry worked it with the goblins to cut all money to the Dursley's, he explained why. How he had to do all the work, so much so he was like a house elf. He explained how he hardly got anything to eat, that sometimes he went days without food. He explained how he had to wear his cousin's old clothes, how he was never given one thing during all his years there and last he explained that until he began at Hogwarts that he wasn't even given a bedroom, he was kept in a cupboard. The goblins who was in charge of the Potter accounts decided these muggles didn't deserve the money when they had not treated Harry Potter as he should have been, or stipulated in their agreement on taking Harry into their family. The goblins decided since they never spent the money they received for Harry's care they would make sure the Dursley's paid every bit of money back.

The goblins used their own pensieve to view Harry's memory, once they had proof then they could officially work on Harry's behalf, if he wished them to, which he did. Harry knew what would happen once the Dursley's received the letter stating the money had been cut off but they also had to pay every bit back since they did have irrefutable proof they never used the money for which it was intended, Harry Potter's care. If they tried to fight this then the goblins would personally deal with the muggles. The goblins made sure they sounded as threatening as they could, they had people, not goblins that worked for them in the muggle world. They began having humans, witches and wizards work for them over fifty year ago since there were a lot of half-bloods and muggle-borns who stayed in the muggle world or had relatives in the muggle world. One thing the goblins cared about was money and they did not like thieves and as far as they were concerned, the Dursley's were stealing.

Once Harry realised how much he had and how much it would be in muggle money, once converted, he figured out that he was stinking rich and he still had no idea what the other vaults contained. So during his few weeks at Diagon alley he did a lot of thinking and realise he should put most of the money into a muggle bank account. So after another trip to Gringotts, he organised for a muggle bank account then transferred seventy thousand galleons into it, he figured that alone would be enough to live on if he needed to especially once it was converted into muggle pounds. He had more than enough and he could keep transferring money every year.

So Harry's third year ended up interesting and again dangerous, but now he seemed to have a godfather. He also found out that his teacher in defence against the dark arts had been friends with his parents. It seemed Remus Lupin did not care enough about his friendship with James and Lily Potter to find out how their son was, whether he was being looked after or not, he just left. Sirius Black sat in Azkaban for twelve years even though he had a way to escape, yet he didn't, again he didn't think of his friend's son's welfare.

Harry did a lot of thinking the last couple of weeks of his third year, thinking about those two men. Yes he would have lived with Sirius if he ended up free, it was better than the Dursley's. But he could not condone their choices when it came to him. It was like they did not care enough about Harry Potter even though they were such good friends with his parents. He would need to speak with both before he decided what to do, he would hear them out and if they had good enough reasons then he would decide if they were worth having in his life.

Like the previous two years, the third ended up just as dangerous. But what got Harry angry about the danger this time was dementors that had been placed at a school, dementors around school children who could not defend themselves against them. Harry had one near death experience with the dementors when he was playing quidditch, and the second he almost lost his soul, along with Sirius and Hermione. So again, after another year of danger he did more thinking, he had to decide whether he would return to Hogwarts or stay in the muggle world.

He would be fourteen soon so that was only three years away before he would be classed as an adult in the magical world. So after three years of danger he had to work out if returning for his fourth year was worth it or go to a muggle school then just wait until he was seventeen.

He thought about the danger but he also thought of other things that he thought was wrong. He thought of Hermione he also realised how stupid the ministry was, not to mention the headmaster and McGonagall. They allowed a thirteen year old to have a time turner. It didn't matter that Hermione had a thing for rules and regulations, she could have been imperiused or manipulated into using the time turner for evil. He could not understand why they would allow her to use that, even if she was supposed to it for school work only.

Harry also found it unfair as well, it gave her an advantage over the other students. Everyone knew the Ravenclaw's were all smart, he knew that some would love the chance to take extra classes, and they would have if they had been allowed a time turner. But also what got Harry was it only took the headmaster to say use it for her to instantly go back three hours to save Sirius, and take Harry with her. So even though they did save Sirius who was innocent, and Buckbeak from losing his head, many things could have gone wrong. Even if they didn't Harry still thought it was irresponsible for those in charge to allow Hermione to have the use of one for the entire year.

Now the holidays had began, Harry was standing outside the barrier that separates King's Cross station with platform nine and three quarters. Everyone had slowly drifted off home, Harry knew he would not be being picked up. The Dursley's thought they could get away with taking his money without giving him the care he deserved, now they found out just what it meant to have treated Harry the way they did. He did wait for more than an hour since they had arrived late the previous years when it was time to pick him up. He didn't want anyone to say that he planned anything like leaving before they arrived.

Harry had Hedwig leave to go hunt and find him later at the Leaky Cauldron. He dragged his trunk behind him, thanking the shop assistant for the charm to add wheels. He had a bit of a walk but he finally got to the pub that only magicals could see. After speaking with Tom, he got the same room as he did after blowing up Marge. He knew he would be here for a while, he hoped for the entire holiday but he wasn't sure if someone would tell Dumbledore he was here. Harry had no idea what his life had to do with the headmaster of his school. The Dursley's were his guardians, they had been stealing from him and now they basically told him he wasn't wanted. Harry was old enough to take care of himself, he had been since he was five years old.

So after Harry left his trunk in the room, put Hedwig's cage on the cupboard, he opened the window so his faithful owl could come and go as she pleased, he headed downstairs to eat.