JK Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 11 – Sixth Year

It was the last week of August before the start of what would have been Harry's sixth year. On his 16th birthday he had been musing whether to sneak into Gringotts and claim his heritage, but he had not. It had been a wise decision as for a generous fee, or rather bribes, certain Goblins had made deals with many persons of interest to immediately inform those persons if and when Potter appeared.

The Gringotts defenses enabled the Goblins to see through any disguise be it glamour, invisibility cloak or Muggle artifices and so tempting had been the inducements that a mere Goblin couldn't resist the large sums offered. Actually there were many Goblins who stood to make a fortune because so many people had paid them, both in advance and with promises of final payments and bonuses.

The Ministry had been the first of the interested parties. Naturally they had tried to order the Goblins but had been laughed at. So money had been found and paid by the new Minister Rufus Scrimgeour.

Death Eaters acting on Voldemort's behalf just paid the money up front with no hesitation. Their only request was that they be told first so that their chances of getting the boy were the best. The Goblins took their money and laughed behind their backs.

Next were others with a more personal stake in being the lucky ones to find Potter first. Reporters from the Daily Prophet and other news organizations, both local and international paid up. Even if they only got the story of Potter being caught and dragged off to whatever organization got to him first would sell so many newspapers that the cost of the bribes would be money well spent and careers could be made.

Then there were private individuals hoping to rescue Potter and earn his gratitude. That gratitude would naturally be expressed in business ventures using Potter's new found inheritances and/or marriage contracts with daughters or sisters.

Somehow the Order of Phoenix/Griffin managed to scrape up a few knuts. It wasn't much and the Goblins laughed in their faces (and took the money) but at least they had tried their best and felt that they were doing something. The "feeling" was basically all they had left at the moment as there was still no sign of Dumbledore although the faithful knew he was out there still "fighting for right and the Light."

The Tonkses had managed to "liberate" their daughter only because a desperate Remus Lupin had volunteered to rejoin, got access to Tonks, and found out she had indeed been spelled. The first chance he got he stunned her and placed a hidden port key on her sending her immediately to her parents. The Tonkses managed to unhex their baby girl and forced her to leave the country with them.

They were safe and living in Canada while Remus stayed and "fought for the Light" until such time as he could join them. At least that was what he told them. In reality he decided it was better for him to stay and not join them so that Tonks could finally get the decent life which she so richly deserved. To make sure she wouldn't do something stupid like coming back to "rescue" him, he had arranged a letter to be sent to her parents saying that three months after they had left, he had been killed by the Aurors for simply being a werewolf and an Order member.

He knew her parents would keep her safe and would make sure she didn't try to avenge him. To quote one of his favorite Muggle authors, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done" (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens).

Amelia Bones had stayed when Scrimgeour had won and became Minister of Magic. He was just as ruthless as she knew he would be but at least he was keeping the Death Eaters at bay. Or so he told the public. Things were peaceful because the Death Eaters were keeping a low profile and were not really doing anything threatening. No one knew why but they were grateful for the lull and it kept the public from panicking.

At least Scrimgeour gave Amelia as much money as could be spared to build up and equip the Auror forces. It wasn't enough in Amelia's mind, but then Fudge's administration had gone through money like a hot knife through butter and it was taking time to restructure the Ministry's finances and to wisely allocate what money they had. Raising taxes was not the answer as any new administration knows. It was estimated that they would need another year to correct Fudge's mishandling of Ministry money, so for now they had to make due.

Amelia was grateful that she had sent Susan away. Despite a new competent Headmistress and Deputy and some new teachers, Hogwarts had been too damaged in the over fifty years of Dumbledore's reign and it would take time to return the school to the fine institution of learning it had once been.

The children of Death Eaters were still at the school causing as much trouble and unrest as they could. Headmistress Carmichael and her staff were doing their best but it was still a struggle. Students from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were constantly attacked in the corridors as were a few outspoken Ravenclaws.

In what would have been Susan's sixth year, two third year Gryffindors and one 4th year Hufflepuff would be killed in "an unfortunate accident" and even the Aurors who had been sent to investigate could not find the culprits. Many students were leaving Hogwarts to go to other schools and the atmosphere was always tense.

Harry Potter had his spies at Hogwarts, mostly house elves who loved to gossip. Winky was still "working" at the school and she had brought the very surprising news that students were allowed to bring a personal house elf to school with them as they had before Dumbledore had stopped the centuries old tradition. Having a personal elf was now more for personal protection than to see to the needs of a young master or mistress.

From reading between the lines of the news media as well as from the house elf network, Harry learned that Britain was a tinder box just waiting for one careless spark to set it off. He was still being looked for and rewards, both official and unofficial, were being offered for his capture by a multitude of sources.

There was no deadline to claim the Potter inheritance so that could wait – forever, if necessary. He had money now thanks to Kreacher and, although he hated to admit it, thanks to Walburga Black's portrait.

Despite what she had said in life and was still saying in death, she didn't hate her son Sirius, rather she was just terribly disappointed in him and the life he chose to live. He had thumbed his nose at his heritage and reveled in displeasing his parents and relatives. The fact that he had followed the likes of Albus Dumbledore – the worst and most foolish thing he ever did in her opinion – had broken his father's heart.

The Blacks knew that Dumbledore didn't represent the Light or truly fight what he called the Dark, no he sought to ruin the very essence of Magic, tradition and the Old Ways and to expose them all to the Muggles. That would lead to the beginning of the end and no one would be safe and ALL MAGICALS AND MAGIC ITSELF could be destroyed if Dumbledore got his way.

That was why so many people had flocked to Voldemort. It wasn't until the last few years, starting around the mid-1970's, when the Dark Lord started to change. Suddenly he became cruel, sadistic and started to recruit the dregs of society.

There had always been Purebloods and even Half-bloods, who were sadistic, terrible people who lived only to inflict pain, torture and misery on not just Muggles but other Magicals. The Dark Lord had refused to consider admitting these perverts until about 1978, when Regulus finally joined.

The Dark Lord seemed to lose all sense of propriety and allowed the dregs to commit terrible atrocities in his name. Even relatives of his most faithful were killed by him – or so it was said. He denied it but he was still blamed for some of the more disturbing actions which occurred.

Regulus had become disillusioned with his once hero. Shortly after Regulus had made the Inner Circle – an amazing feat for one so young – he became nervous, fretful and started losing weight and suffering from insomnia. He had told his father something shocking, but Orion had never revealed it to his wife no matter how much she nagged.

Then suddenly Regulus was gone, he disappeared and was proclaimed dead by the Goblins. The Dark Lord swore he had nothing to do with it and, in fact, ordered that an investigation be done. No one knew anything. Orion died two months after Regulus' disappearance. His portrait had disappeared and not even Kreacher could find it.

Bellatrix had hinted that Sirius had done something, she didn't know what, but apparently Regulus or Orion had found out and it had caused Reggie's death. So Walburga had blamed Sirius and cursed his name. Even after he had been thrown in Azkaban, one would have thought that she would have "forgiven him for his earlier treachery now that he had come to his senses and betrayed the Potters" but she did not.

She had asked Lucius to buy Sirius' freedom like he did for himself, but Lucius had refused. Then she threatened him but Lucius merely laughed in her face. Lucius knew that Sirius was still the heir and that once he died, and in Azkaban life was very, very short, then Draco would be the heir and claim the title and Lordship once old Arcturus died.

All Lucius had to do was wait and his son would inherit the Black and Lestrange Lordships and fortunes, which was why he wouldn't lift a finger to help. "And there is nothing you can do about it you miserable old bitch," he had told her.

That was when Walburga told the then Lord Black, her Uncle Arcturus, about Lucius' treachery, but then he already knew about Lucius' plans and had taken steps to prevent anyone named Malfoy from ever claiming the Lordship. It was already in his Will that Draco had been and would remain barred from receiving any Black inheritance.

"Just don't tell Lucius as I want him to be surprised," her uncle told her. "It will be quite a shock when he finds out, won't it?"

Arcturus then told her who the real heirs were other than Sirius and they both had a good laugh. As a favor to his niece he changed the wards to all Black properties barring entry to anyone named Malfoy, including her favorite niece Narcissa.

Walburga died in 1985 and Arcturus died in March of 1991, the year that Draco and Harry Potter were to start Hogwarts. In the old wizard's Will, it stated that Sirius was not Lord Black and never would be and once Arcturus died the other heirs would be contacted and informed of their inheritance.

A very shocked and outraged Lucius and Narcissa then found out about Draco being disowned but they tried to keep it quiet. However, Arcturus had made arrangements to have it made a public record and officially published in all British newspapers so that everybody would know.

Lucius had spent a lot of time and money trying to overturn Arcturus' Will, but with no success as it was an airtight, specially spelled Black Will which could not be broken.

Once Sirius was dead and the Order evicted, it was assumed that Harry Potter was now Lord Black, as he had always been Sirius' heir. However, the Malfoys could not be absolutely certain unless the Goblins told them (which they wouldn't) or Narcissa could get into one of the Black properties and find out that way, which she couldn't do.

The Dark Lord had almost crucioed Draco to death but at the last minute changed his mind as "he had other plans for Draco" as he told the boy's frightened parents.

The Dark Lord was still off trying to "recreate the Slytherin Grimoire" but he would drop in unexpected to review things and be briefed on the progress of his minions. He never stayed for long, he just spent enough time to terrify most of his followers, have Bellatrix beg to go with him and help him in his quest until he got irritated and severely punished her (which was probably what she wanted in the first place), think a bit for a few days, give more orders and then leave.

Harry knew this because there were a few elves belonging to Death Eater children and they always shared "survivor stories" of their masters after one of Voldemort's visits. Also he finally allowed Kreacher to bring Walburga's portrait to the Lair.

Walburga told Harry many things, especially about some of the tricks Dumbledore had used during his life and would probably be using to catch Harry.

That was the reason Harry was still living at the Lair because despite the excellent wards which Grimmauld Place possessed, there were other wards in the area which would reveal his presence if he personally ever set foot inside the house.

Harry had to give the manipulative old bastard credit. The fiend thought of everything. Apparently he knew that a lot about the Black Family wards, no doubt informed by Sirius. Since he was planning on killing off Sirius and trying to make Ron the heir, there would be a small time frame where another claimant could make his bid for the Lordship before Ron could officially be proclaimed the Lord.

If that happened Dumbledore would lose access to Grimmauld Place and the wards would be changed and the Fidelius could be broken if someone knew how to do it. Also, a new Fidelius could be cast which would hide all knowledge of Grimmauld Place's location, but that would take time. So what Dumbledore did was to plant ward stones around the neighborhood surrounding Grimmauld Place. No one would be able to find it, but the ward stones placed in the park across the street, would not be affected by the new Fidelius.

Thus, the ward stones could sense the fact that a wizard was in the area and faithful Order members could be waiting to catch that wizard when they left the house and hopefully that wizard would be Harry Potter. Or an Order member could simply use the ward stone to look for something which wasn't there, that would probably mean something, like a house was there and a massive assault could be done to break into the house once someone like Bill Weasley, a warding expert, had dismantled the wards.

Walburga warned that although Sirius hadn't been instructed in all aspects of the family wards, due mostly to his "disowning" his family and going to live with the Potters, he probably knew enough to change some things. If he had ever been so foolish enough to tell Dumbledore about what he did know, Dumbledore could use this information to damage if not break the wards.

Also, according to Kreacher, to legally be the Lord, Ron would have to undergo a special test and, if he failed to pass it and meet the requirements, he could die. Dumbledore had neglected to inform Molly (and Ron) about that little possibility. No doubt he was just hoping that Ron could claim the Lordship but not wear the ring.

Also, the floo was still in service so that the orders from the vendors could arrive. It would be easy to plant a port key into a vendor order to trap a victim. Simply put, a port key would be placed in a bottle of butter beer. House elves shouldn't be drinking butter beer, but Harry Potter definitely would. He would drink the butter beer and swallow the tiny port key which would then activate and whisk him away and land him in a specially built cell where he could not escape.

Dumbledore was quite proficient in making port keys and he could fill several bottles with the keys or even make a port key out of the bottle and have it activate when it was touched by a wizard.

Then there was the possibility that when delivering the order, one or more persons could be hidden in the middle of the massive food order, be sent through the floo, gain entry and catch Harry before he knew what hit him.

If that worked, Molly and the Order – or rather Dumbledore - would still have access to Grimmauld Place and Sirius' personal vault and hopefully one or more of the other Black vaults. If not…well they'd give Ron a nice funeral.

They would have given Ron the funeral because his grandmother's heirs – namely, any Weasley children – had been forever disqualified from inheriting any Black money, property or title, and death would have resulted if Ron would have stupidly tried to claim the ring, which he would have even against Dumbledore's orders as greed would have overridden orders and/or common sense.

Walburga knew that Harry was the first heir and would have had no trouble getting the ring. However, like the Potter inheritance he would have to go into Gringotts and claim it. Until that time, if ever, he still had all the privileges which Sirius had especially access to money - lots and lots of money. He didn't even have to go to Gringotts as Kreacher had fetched him the Lord's personal money pouch as well as Sirius' personal money pouch.

All you had to do with a personal money pouch was pull out any sum of money that you wanted. As long as you had money in the vault, you could withdraw it. Most pouches did have a day's limit on it. Sirius could only pull out no more than G300 per day. If he wanted to empty his vault, all he would have to do is withdraw G300 every day until the vault was empty. Sirius had told Dumbles that he could only withdraw G300 per month and Dumbledore had believed him as that sounded logical.

From the Lord's pouch Harry, or Kreacher acting on his behalf, could withdraw G2,000 per day, and he did for a few weeks until Kreacher found out that there were ways for the Goblins to place tracers on money bags as well as slipping a galleon made into portkey into the pouch which would activate when Harry touched it. Thus, Harry could be trapped inside Gringotts and with all of the bribes given to Goblins, the first "interested party" to get to the bank would win the prize of capturing Harry Potter.

Kreacher, Dobby or Winky could touch the money, take it out and use it to buy things for Harry, and another wizard could touch it without harm but if Harry did… It just wasn't worth it. Plus there was always a record of withdrawals from money bags so the Goblins (and then others) knew that the account was being used.

At the rate things were going, Harry might have to remain a hermit for the rest of his life and the thought depressed him. Also although his health had greatly improved, he was not free and clear yet and really needed to do something concerning his vision. He had improved in potions but he was nowhere good enough to attempt such a complex important potion. From what he had read about it, a trained healer had to administer the potion over a period of three weeks so there was no way he could do it even with the elves helping.

To finish his healing regime, he would have to have all of his money changed into to Muggle currency and then get to a Muggle country, maybe America or Japan, and have his eyes fixed by laser surgery. He would have to have plastic surgery done to remove his lightning bolt scar and probably some of his other more famous scars. But first he would need fake documents like a passport and according to Kreacher and Dobby only the Goblins were in that business.

So it all went back to money, having it and getting to use it properly so he could have a new life.

If Dumbledore didn't have his agendas he would have never been exposed to the Dementors, or been forced to compete in the Tournament and then Voldemort wouldn't have come back, Cedric would still be alive and many, many other things just regarding Harry's life.

Winky told him that Hermione Granger had disappeared and even Dumbledore couldn't find her, or at least as far as anyone knew. Had she escaped or did Death Eaters get her? Had Dumbledore arranged for her to drop out of sight and go on a special mission to find Harry? He'd probably never know and at times he didn't worry about it as, like Sirius and others, Hermione didn't seem to truly care about Harry but only listened and obeyed Dumbledore without question.

Harry knew without a doubt that if in twenty years from now he was living in America, Canada or someplace on the other side of the world and Hermione accidentally ran into him, she wouldn't blink or think twice she would just capture him and take him back to Dumbledore or an Order member. She'd be asking questions without stopping or giving him a second to answer any (she'd probably answer most herself) while chastising him for running away, causing so much trouble and worse of all, disappointing Professor Dumbledore.

She'd never think to ask what he had been doing for the past 20 years, if he had a family, had gone to school, had a job, invented a better mousetrap or was happy or sad. No she'd just stun him, bind him and take him back to Britain so that he could do whatever it was Dumbledore wanted him to do. Or get killed by Voldemort. Or something stupid that would wreck any life Harry had made for himself.

At least for the moment he was happy. He was recovering nicely, had gained weight and grew a few inches. His exercise routine was giving him stamina and keeping him fit. He studied hard and actually got to learn something. Every potion he brewed had turned out if not perfect, then close to it. Had he taken his OWLS, he was certain he would have done well.

Everything was going well – too well, in fact, and the pessimist in Harry couldn't help but feel something terrible would happen.

And it did. Winky had brought Harry a copy of the 30th August Daily Prophet, Harry took one look at the cover and sighed. He then read the squiggly lines bordering the top and sides of the paper and almost panicked. The lines were written in parsel tongue. Voldemort had written him a letter.