Where in the world is Harry Potter?

Details of the challenge and Prologue

HARRY SANDIEGO CHALLENGE by Whitetigerwolf

Requirements:

- Harry is rescued from the Dursley's and raised by Carmen Sandiego. (For her own reasons)

- Carmen must encourage Harry to learn and be intelligent.

- Harry must develop a difficult/time-consuming/adventurous hobby while being raised by Carmen. (Examples in recommendations)

- While Carmen can travel for heists (assuming she doesn't retire from crime to raise Harry, which is an option), she must have a central home (probably in a sparsely populated or non-extradition country) to raise Harry in. (He can travel with her, but the idea is that they still have a home)

- Harry CANNOT be in an M/M relationship.

Recommended:

- FemHarry.

- Carmen is a Witch, but she doesn't use her magic during her crimes because that would ruin the challenge.

- Carmen somehow blood adopts Harry.

- Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived.

- Dog sledding as Harry's hobby.

- Mountain climbing as Harry's hobby.

- Computer hacking as Harry's hobby.

- Sword use/training as Harry's hobby.

- Lily lives and Carmen/Lily. (I'd suggest her being in a coma as the reason for Harry being placed with the Dursley's, but otherwise it's up to you)

- Depending on WHEN you have Carmen rescue Harry, either Carmen/Ivy or Harry/Ivy.

- Carmen and Harry having an ongoing riddle competition between them.

Author's notes: I was sincerely against starting a new story, really. I already have my hands full with my current works but while I was surfing the web mostly to cure my boredom and to let the ideas come around for the story I'm currently working on, I stumbled upon this challenge. I remember eagerly watching the Game show after school and I also always loved the theme song. So I decided to take it for a spin. Now I don't think I'll be able to follow all the different canons of the character.

A few things are recurring in all that I've read so far; Carmen is of Hispanic descent and grew up in the United States, in Chicago more precisely. She also mostly steals things for the thrill it gives her and is very intelligent. She also always wore a red trench coat and fedora hat. I'm going to add a few things in her repertoire, which is being a trained gymnast, an adherent of Parkour/free running, a master of disguise and being able to talk fluently many languages. Also while she's not found of violence, my incarnation will not hesitate to use it to protect what is the most precious to her when necessary. Now, it's time to get this show on the road. ^_^

Last Edit: May 27 2017

#4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, July 31 1986

A feminine figure was discreetly watching the cookie cutter house from the shadows across the street, clenching her fists so hard that had she not wore full leather gloves; her nails would have broken her skin by now. Here, in front of her on the other side of the street, weeding the flower beds without any gloves and exposed to the noon sun without any protection whatsoever was a little rag muffin of a boy. Short, skinny and almost sickly. He was dwarfed by the cast-off clothes he was wearing; they were almost like a Circus marquee! What the hell have those monsters done to her baby boy?

Then a male voice yelled something she didn't quite catch up due to the distance and the figure saw the little boy flinch, but quickly get up, wipe his dirty hands on his cast offs and hurrying inside after closing the door behind him.

It hadn't taken very long to find him, even with the old man' meddling. Dumbledore, she hoped that the Old Goat died in excruciating pain or choking on his shitty Lemon drops, had hidden him very well and closed almost all legal channels in both worlds that could be used to learn of this location. For a normal Witch or Wizard that is. But she wasn't without resources to go to for help in her Quest or rather her mantle wasn't. After all, who really could refuse anything to Carmen Sandiego, the greatest thief to have ever lived, a living legend, when she was applying some pressure? Carmen was a very persuasive kind of woman. If gold wouldn't untie some tongues, then magic or a good old 9mm pistol would do the job.

Lily Evans Potter had been declared mentally infirm, thus she could not take back her son legally, but the family mantle was now open after the last "Carmen" retired. If the legal way didn't work, well Carmen was known to have little care about laws anyway. Each and every "Carmen" took the name of the original to keep alive the myth she had created while wearing the trademark trench coat. Every last one of them had been a formidable Witch also. How else could they have escaped prison and pursuit as easily the rare times they were caught?

They had learned to be smart about it and did their best to not overuse their gifts. Take the now legendary red trench coat, the yellow turtle neck, grey skirt long black boots and fedora hat with a yellow band she currently wore as an example of a judicious use of magic.

The inner linings of each had multitudes of runes stitched to fan the flames of the myth, permitting each new woman taking the mantle to look exactly like the original down to the voice and accent, who was a woman of Hispanic descent, born and raised into the United States. Lily had even christened her taking of the mantle of Carmen Sandiego by stealing back her original wand from a memorial in her husband and her' honour inside the Ministry of Magic building and Harry's Trust Vault's key from the senile Headmaster's desk at Hogwarts Castle.

"Impenetrable Wards" and "Safest Place in Britain" her tight little arse! It was far too easy to break in! It was harder to break in the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade for God's sake! She loved Hagrid to bits as a friend, don't get her wrong, but the Half-Giant was far too easy to hoodwink, there was no challenge! She almost made it out with James' Invisibility Cloak too as a bonus but the old man's unexpected return to his office made her decide to cut her losses just to be safe and thus she ran away before risking getting caught.

It was far too early in the game to be sighted, but she left a business card under glamours that would fell down when she and her boy would be safely out of the country. The enchantments and runes upon her garb had kept the portraits in the dark about her presence. Now she understood somewhat why James and his band of miscreants had enjoyed it so much during their schooling. Shaking her head to chase her thoughts, she concentrated on her current objective, getting her son back.

She could reminisce to her leisure much later. She was here to take back her son, Dumbledore's plans and his wards to be damned! She was his mother; she had the legal rights to remove him from his current accommodations! Well, normally she would, but she wasn't going to tell her sister's family of her change of status. After all, she had everything ready for him in their new home.

Oh, it had been sheer torture for her to not rush to her son's side the second she woke up from her coma in Saint Mungo's, but she had to make every possible arrangement for a safe place to live for the both of them. Well, once she was fit enough to check herself out. She would never get caught again with her pants down metaphorically speaking like that Halloween night five years ago. Thus she had sought the services of Gringotts. The Goblins had been willing to help her with two conditions.

One, she was to swear an Unbreakable Vow to never target any of their Banks around the globe while she was "on the clock" so to speak and second, she was to abandon any current and/or future Heists in Egypt for as long as she was alive. A previous Carmen had really screwed them over during a joint project in an old tomb decades ago and the Goblins had long memory. While they weren't going to declare a blood feud with the new incarnation of the Best Thief of the World, it was understandable that they didn't want "Carmen Sandiego" anywhere near their Holdings ever again. She did swear and with that done, her preparations were well underway.

By the time Harry and she would be gone from the United Kingdom, everything she had put in place before approaching him would be ready. With a determined step, she crossed the street after making sure there were no cars coming from both directions, mentally commanding the magic camouflaging her to drop the invisibility and when she was near the door; she also dropped the glamours, showing her red hair and emerald green eyes. It was time for a little family reunion. When she was even nearer to the door, she then pressed the bell button a few times consecutively just for the hell of it. She had little time to wait before she heard a loud man voice said

"Wait one bloody minute! I'm coming! The nerve of people today, coming unannounced during meal time…"

There was no answer, but soon enough; the door was opened by her very fat brother-in-law. The years hadn't been kind on him, but Vernon held little to any meaning in her mind. So with a smirk the Marauders would have been proud of, she then said with a false sweet tone

"Hello Vernon. Long time no see. Did you miss me?"

Vernon Dursley prided himself to be the epitome of a normal British man. He had a steady job, a steady income, he was halfway done paying his mortgage, he had a good car, a wonderful wife and a son he couldn't be more proud of even if he tried. The only dark cloud in Vernon Dursley's bright sky was his wife's freakish nephew. Sometimes he wondered why they had even agreed to take him in at all. Sure, he had started to earn his keep last year, but all those strange and frankly freakish incidents in the recent years was using what little patience he had for anything abnormal.

Sincerely, he was only just waiting for a good reason or an opportune moment to get rid of the Boy. Maybe he could drive him to an Orphanage or threw him out on the streets? It would be one less mouth to feed since that Dumbledore fellow never followed his promise to set up a monetary fund for the Boy's care. He was waiting for his food to be served since the Boy was currently cooking it, sitting at the table while reading the Sunday newspaper when he heard the bell ring. Usually he would have sent his freakish nephew to answer the door, but even he could understand that the brat couldn't do two different things at once.

Thus with lot of grumbling under his breath and not so under his breath, his got his enormous mass out of his chair and made his way to the door. Once it was open, it was at the sight of a woman dressed in red, with eerie familiar and luminescent green eyes and long, cascading auburn red hair from under the red fedora hat. It took a few seconds before the connection was made, but when it was, the man's outburst was heard everywhere in the house.

"YOU! You're Petunia's freakish sister! The one who supposedly got blown up with her layabout freakish husband! I will not have it! Get out of my house! Your kind is not welcome here!"

While he tried to slam the door in her face, Lily was more than ready for it and with a simple application of wand-less magic, the door froze in its tracks. Like a vengeful spirit of old, she swept into the house without making a sound and suddenly there was something dangerous about her far too green gaze. That something was enough to make a big man like Vernon, who was much taller and bigger than Lily, stop in his tracks; but the commotion had attracted the attention of everyone else in the house. Dudley even came out of his TV marathon to investigate what was going on.

Petunia, who was supervising her nephew while he was cooking on a stool with a hawk like gaze also went to see what the commotion was about, but not before ordering the boy with a hissing voice

"Don't you dare burn anything if you know what's good for you, Freak! One wrong move and you won't get anything to eat until tomorrow! Remember, we only need a single reason to lock you back into your cupboard!"

Having been locked in his room before on many occasions for even the slightest slights and innocent mistakes and not wanting to be deprived of food after all his hard work in the sun since this morning; Harry was quick to nod without a single sound. Aunt Petunia had said the other day that she hated to hear him talk without been given permission to do so first, so he had to be silent. After that, he put all his attention into not burning the sausages and potatoes.

Sometimes he felt that his life would be easier if both his aunt and uncle weren't giving him so many contradictory commands. But Harry had learned a long time ago to not ask questions, to keep to himself and do what he was told. That was the less painful road.

When Petunia arrived in the entry hall and saw her sister alive and in that particular get up, she paled immensely. The last "Carmen Sandiego" had been their late father's cousin (Their father, a retired SAS Sergeant, had gone down fighting, taking sixteen magical terrorists down with him to give them all the time to escape the besieged house.) and she had been an occasional guest in their household when her "work" was bringing her in England.

At first Petunia and Lily had thought her tales of spectacular pursuits and evasions of the agents launched on her tail after impossible Heists were tall tales made up to entertain children, but they had soon found out that their aunt Carmen was telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So you can imagine the shock she got in seeing that seeing her sister alive after the Headmaster of that Freak school had told them she was dead and also seeing her in that "uniform", you could excuse her for completely losing her cool.

"YOU! No, it's impossible! Completely impossible! The old man said in his letter that you were both dead! How dare you come here in that get up?! I'm calling the police! You are an internationally wanted criminal! Get out of my house! You are dead, do you understand me? YOU! ARE! DEAD! Be gone Spirit! Vade retro satana!"

Lily, having to resort to use Occlumency to keep calm then said with a wry tone of voice

"Why, hello to you too my dear Tunie! It's been years since we last saw each other's! How are you? "

Pinching her nose, she sighted aloud and with a voice laced with magic, she ordered

"God, shut up the both of you! I'm not an incarnation of the Devil or a Ghost, Petunia."

The silencing charm now working, she then let out an audible relieved sigh and took back the parole with a rather fed up tone

"The rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated. Look, I don't care what the both of you think of me or of my kind, as you so call them. I didn't come here for idle chit chat. I'm here for one thing and one thing only. Once I have what I want, you'll never see me again if I can help it. Now, can we have a civilized conversation or do I have to use more magic to make you both behave?"

Then Lily was rudely interrupted by what she call in the privacy of her mind, a pig in a wig but sadly, it was her nephew

"Hey, you said the "M" word! It's very bad! Mummy and Daddy says that it doesn't exist! I like your coat. I want it. Give it to me! I want the hat too! Gimme! Gimme right now!"

Lily rose an very unimpressed eyebrow at her nephew and told him flatly

"Young man, this is no way to talk to an adult. I am not giving you my coat or my hat either; I am very attached to them."

She decided to not bring the fact that the word "magic" seemed to be taboo in this household. But if Lily thought that Dudley would be placated by his newly revealed aunt's polite refusal, she was very wrong. In fact, the spoiled child didn't take the negative answer to his demand very well. The boy imitated his father by bringing his considerable mass upward and with an even louder and more obnoxious voice he yelled at the same time launching himself at her, hitting her with his meaty fists and feet in a temper tantrum

"They are mine! I saw them, I want them! Give them to me RIGHT NOW!"

Lily was very disappointed in how Petunia and Vernon had raised their son. Not only was he grossly overweight, he was also a spoiled brat who seemingly couldn't and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Now things had degenerated so quickly that the new super thief felt that it would almost be better to stun all three Dursleys and simply run off with Harry.

There was a saying that said "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy", and while her initial plan failed, she still had a few recourses left. But too much magic would be picked up by the Ministry and Dumbledore would hear about it rather soon. But the situation resolved itself when her only son came out of the kitchen with his arms full of plates and said plates full of food.

As soon as the plates that Harry was carrying where put on the table; Dudley's attitude did a tree hundred sixty degrees. He stopped bawling and hitting Lily (With the protections woven into her trench-coat she had hardly felt anything) and ran as fast as he could to his spot at the table. Harry, having seen it coming, put a dozen steps of distance between his cousin and himself. Dudley would have bowled him over if he hadn't moved and then it would have been him who would have been punished for hurting "Precious Diddykins". While Harry was curious to know who the woman in red was, he had a job to do and if he wanted to actually eat something today other than one measly slice of bread, he intended to do it well.

When he was again gone to the kitchen to get another load of food, Lily, her bright green eyes now blazing with anger, whispering in a deadly tone, said to Petunia

"You had the gall to make him into your own live-in servant?! Where is your humanity, sister? I understand that you have a grudge against me, but to take it on my child? The only Freaks I see here are you both. I'm taking him away from here and pray God that I never come back; because if I do, I'm not sure if I'll be able to restrain myself. Before we leave, do you want to know something important Petunia? If our roles had been reversed and something had happened to both Vernon and you, I would have taken Dudley in and raised him like he was my own child. "

In the end, it took two more hours of tears, screams and explanations, but mother and son where now reunited for good and left #4 Privet Drive behind, hopefully forever. Taking her son in her arms and activating her camouflage, Lily and Harry were unseen and undetected when they apparated away from Suburbia Hell.

After a much needed trip to a private Healer who didn't ask questions so long as he was paid, Harry was put on a Potions regime to help undid his malnutrition and reinforce his brittle bones. He was a stone and a half too light for his age the poor dear! Then Lily brought him to another specialist who adjusted his glasses to the right prescription. She also would have wanted to get his famous scar checked since it shouldn't be still so red and fresh looking after all these years, but they needed to get out of the British Isles before Dumbledore wised up and closed his net on them.

Lily was still a greenhorn "Carmen Sandiego" after all. So it was better to not take too many chances until she had the experience to be as brazen as her predecessors. She was on the right track, but she would have to dedicate some time on it to really make progress. She was on her own for this though, it's not like the profession of professional thief came with a recommended mentor.

After a few pleasant nights in a posh hotel in central London and of course a solemn visit to James' grave in Godric's Hollow, mother and son, both with a whole new wardrobe, took a plane in direction of Costa Rica. Some sun would do her baby and herself a world of good. Funnily, everything Lily had set up since her self-checking out of Saint Mungo's once she awoke from her coma came to fruition when their plane was over the Atlantic Ocean, half way to their destination. Her Business card became visible in the Old Goat's desk drawer, the wards at #4 Privet Drive came to a cascading failure and every tracking spells on her son where dispelled.

Very frustrated by all these events and hitting brick walls after brick walls, Albus Dumbledore said to himself in his Office at Hogwarts

"Where in the world is Harry Potter?"