AUTHOR NOTE – Set near beginning of Book 5

Harry Potter was angry! Angrier than he had ever been. Voldemort was back, and he had been stuck at the Dursley's house. That was par for the course, but normally he felt like he had some sort of support from his friends and his godfather. But, this past summer… nothing!

Well, that was unfair. He had received letters from Ron, Hermione, and Sirius. They all basically said "sorry, but we can't say anything, nor support you, but you need to be a good little boy and wait until we deem you worthy of support" (it was possible that Harry was still being unfair, but he just didn't care anymore).

It had been a crappy summer, of course, but he could have handled that. He was no stranger to his relatives being horrible examples of humanity. He was accustomed to working hard hours in the garden for the bare level of sustenance. It was only a few months, and then he would be back at Hogwarts where he belonged (at least when the students weren't in one of their moods where they had decided he was the next Dark Lord).

What pushed him over the edge was that he had been attacked by Dementors and successfully defended both himself and his cousin. In response, he received a letter from the Ministry of Magic telling him he was expelled. Then another letter telling him he was not expelled but had to attend a hearing where he risked being expelled. Those letters were horrible, but not unexpected from the corrupt Ministry.

It was the letters from Mr. Weasley, Dumbledore, and Sirius that had pushed him into a frothing rage. Not a single word of praise to Harry for defending himself. No, it was all about how he had to stay put and stay out of trouble. He saved himself from being killed (lord knows no one else was there to help), and they were scolding him like he was a naughty student they caught trying to sneak into the Forbidden Forest.

And now, here he was in 12 Grimauld Place, listening to Ron and Hermione offer their lame excuses for not writing to him. All of it boiling down to "Dumbledore said so, so stop being a baby about it and do what you're told" (there was a chance that Harry was not ready to be fair).

Enough! Who did these people think they were talking to? He had fought off a hundred dementors in one shot, he had dueled Voldemort and lived to tell the tale, he had fought a bloody basilisk with nothing more than a sword! What the hell had the adults in the house done to earn his respect and obedience!? Nothing! If he just obeyed the adults like a good little boy, Hermione would be dead, Ginny would be dead, he would be dead, and these pushy adults would likely be dead too!

He was Harry Bloody Potter, and he was done listening to those who had not earned his respect!

With that thought in place, he stormed away from Ron and Hermione, ignoring the rest of the Weasley children. He stomped down the stairs to the kitchen and began pounding on the door.

"Open up!" he bellowed. "Open up, or I will blast this door down and take my chances with the Ministry!"

The door opened to a concerned Molly Weasley, blocking the way into the room.

Molly spoke kindly. "Harry, dear, whatever is the matter?"

"I need to speak to Dumbledore!"

Molly's face remained concerned and her voice gentle. "I'm sorry, dear, but the Headmaster is in the middle of a meeting. And children are not allowed in the meetings so if you…"

Harry tried to squeeze past Molly, but she was quite adept at dealing with disobedient children and had no problem widening her stance to fully block the doorway.

Frustrated, Harry yelled toward Dumbledore. "Dumbledore, we need to speak… NOW!"

Harry ignored the muttered responses of the adults, the snide remarks of Snape (why was he here?) and stayed focused on Dumbledore who continued to stare at the tabletop as if he hadn't heard Harry.

Molly swelled with indignation. "Young man, that is not how you address the Headmaster! Now, walk up those stairs right now or else…"

Harry would not be deterred and continued his angry shouting. "Talk to me now, old man, one-on-one or I'll vow to never return to Little Whinging."

The people in the room gasped and looked to Dumbledore. Dumbledore looked up at Harry, though kept his eyes averted from looking Harry directly in the eyes. He finally spoke up.

"Very well, Harry, please come in and we will talk. Everyone, we will take a fifteen-minute break."

Harry was surprised to see everyone leave the room without complaint. He was somewhat hurt that neither Sirius nor Remus insisted on staying with him. Even Mrs. Weasley left quietly, and that was… eerie.

As Harry walked in, Dumbledore flicked his wand. The doors closed and sealed tightly. Harry sat and Dumbledore focused on a spot directly behind Harry, refusing to make eye contact.

"Now, my boy, let us discuss what has you so upset. But, first, I must insist that you not even joke about permanently leaving your relations. They are your family, Harry, and you don't want to give up something so precious for such a minor reason."

Harry, who had been calming down, now felt his rage reignite.

"Voldemort said that the Dursleys offered me a protection he could not overcome. That I didn't even realize everything you had done to keep me safe. And yet, here you are completely safe in a non-Dursley house. While I spend another miserable summer cut off from everyone I know, on your orders mind you! And then I am attacked by dementors while living in a Dursley house. You call that protection!? A drunk thief and a crazy cat lady is all I'm worth!? You know what, I was just bluffing before… but I'm serious now! I, Harry James Potter, swear that…"

"Harry! No! You don't know what you're doing!"

"… I will never live with the Dursleys again!"

A quiet gong sounded from Dumbledore's robes. He pulled out a pocket watch and looked at it with a very serious expression. He relaxed into his chair, closed his eyes, and let out a drawn-out sigh.

"The wards around your aunt's house have broken."

Harry couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction.

Dumbledore opened his eyes and looked back at Harry, avoiding eye contact. When he spoke again, it was with a frustrated tone.

"It's about damn time! What took you so long!?"

Harry stopped smirking.

"What?"

Harry's mind was awash with confusion, and a thousand questions demanded to be asked. In the end, all his mouth was able to speak was that one word. It was a good word, though, and really summed up Harry's state of mind. He repeated his question.

"What!?"

"I sometimes think that you are honestly a saint, Harry. I can't believe that you managed to go so long without running away, or just going completely Dark. I would have been horrified if you went Dark, mind you, but I would have understood."

"What!?"

"I was so annoyed when you ran away before your third year. You were so damned close to vowing to never live with them again, and you let Cornelius Fudge convince you to return the next summer. Cornelius Fudge! If I didn't know better, I would swear you went back just to spite me!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"

Dumbledore huffed in annoyance. "Do you know how long I have wanted to get you out of that damned house? Fourteen years! To be precise, since November 2nd, 1981."

"But… that was two days after my parents died."

Dumbledore's annoyance fled, to be replaced with regret. "Yes, Harry, that's right. You were left at the Dursley's house the evening after that terrible night. The next evening, I visited to make sure you were doing well. What I saw, disgusted me. You were an adorable fifteen-month-old toddler, and they refused to even acknowledge your existence. I easily saw what sort of future you had in store in that house. Right then, I knew I had made a mistake. Leaving you there would have been an insult to your parents' sacrifice, and I resolved to find another place for you to be safe. Even if I had to quit my positions and raise you myself."

"Then what the hell happened!?"

"The wards happened. I walked straight towards the front door, resolving to remove you from your relatives. And the next thing I knew, an hour had passed, and I was in my office at Hogwarts, with no memory of wanting to remove you from the Dursleys. Luckily, I know my mind well enough to recognize tampering, so I used my pensieve to observe my true memory of what happened. I was shocked to see myself stopping at their door, smiling, and immediately walking away."

"I thought the wards only protected me from Voldemort and his Death Eaters."

Dumbledore shook his sadly. "They do, but that is hardly all. The wards were designed to take advantage of the unknown protection you had received from your mother's sacrifice, and I realized too late how dangerous it is to base a system of wards on a magic I didn't understand. As far as I can tell, the wards decided that to most effectively protect you, they also needed to protect themselves. Anyone who became a threat to the wards continued existence would find themselves turned away from their plans as soon as they got near to you, your relatives, or their house. The wards seemed to work to affect people's attitudes around you so that you wouldn't be overly tempted to vow to leave your relatives permanently. Attempts to rescue you were viewed as attacks."

Harry sat in stunned silence. Dumbledore sat quietly as Harry processed the information. After several minutes, Harry spoke up.

"Did many people try to break the wards?"

"Yes, and frequently. Excluding the dozens of thwarted Death Eater attacks… let's see… Molly, of course, has been the most vocal. Nearly every day since the start of your second year she has called me to tell me she didn't care what I said, she was going to make the Dursleys give her custody of you followed by her apparating to your house, apparating back home and completely forgetting that she had tried."

"She did?"

"Indeed. Sirius has 'snuck out' every midnight of this past summer to offer you the chance to live here permanently. Remus is always with him, except around the full moon, and neither has gotten to your house nor remembers. Professor McGonagall vows to break you out three times a year, Professor Flitwick is once a year, Professor Sprout is twice a year, Professor Snape is once every two years, and Hagrid vows it every time he goes to the pub."

"And the people you had guarding me?"

"They vowed it multiple times a day"

Harry's eyes opened wide, and he spoke with a hope filled voice. "Ron and Hermione said that they didn't write me anything substantial because you ordered them…"

Dumbledore smiled. "I did indeed, I have gotten used to the feel of the wards affecting me, so I speak the words necessary to avoid gaps in my memory. You'll be pleased to know that they both have 'secretly' written you longer letters trying to convince you to run away from the Dursleys. Each letter ended up being trashed as soon as they tried to send them."

Harry's brow scrunched in confusion. "But… Sirius offered for me to live with him. Back in third year. Why was he able to do that?"

Dumbledore shrugged. "I suspect the wards were not able to affect your mind directly, so you would have remembered the offer. If they made Sirius forget, then it would make you suspicious and threatened the wards. Or, perhaps Sirius didn't expect you to agree and so inadvertently found a loophole because he did not truly intend for you to leave the Dursleys. I do, however, find it inconveniently coincidental that Remus completely forgot the danger he posed during the night of a full moon, and ended up ruining Sirius's chance at freedom. I don't know for certain that Remus was influenced by the wards, but it would fit with what I know."

Harry sank into his seat, his mind running over every muggle teacher who vowed to get him away from the Dursleys and then turned on him. Every time people seemed to completely ignore him when he talked about how bad the Dursleys were. How the students of the school seemed to turn on him whenever he started feeling truly at home at Hogwarts and would contemplate trying to live there year-round. He wondered how much of his life had been impacted by the wards.

He looked at Dumbledore, and once again wondered why the man was not meeting his eyes.

"Sir, why won't you look into my eyes?"

Dumbledore paused, and then spoke extremely slowly. "Well, my boy… I fear that… your scar… connects you to Voldemort."

Dumbledore smiled, and spoke again at a regular rate. "Hmm, the wards are no longer stopping me from talking to you plainly. Wonderful! As I was saying, I fear that your scar connects you to Voldemort, and he may be able to lash out at me mentally if I look into your eyes. We'll have to get you trained up on Occlumency to protect your mind from intrusions, I'll call in… Alastor to train you. Oh, that felt so good! I am no longer compelled to make you slightly hate the magical world, since you needed a reason to not want it to be your permanent home. If the wards were still in effect, I would have probably forced Professor Snape on you, and that would have been a disaster."

Dumbledore chuckled and smiled wider than Harry had ever seen before. "Learn Occlumency quickly, Harry. Once you can protect your mind, we can start training you up properly for the coming war."

Dumbledore began to rub his hands together in excitement. "Oh, this changes everything! Now, I think we have some people waiting outside the door."

Dumbledore flicked his wand at the door, and it slammed open. A flood of people rushed in, each talking over the other. And yet, Harry could tell that they were all saying variations on how they were no longer going to let Harry stay with the Dursleys.

As he sank into the gentle hug of Molly Weasley, Harry had real hope that Dumbledore was right.

This changes everything.