Disclaimer- I own absolutely nothing; it all belongs to the fabulous J.K. Rowling, I am simply making her people do what I want them to.

Summary- After the third task Harry gets sent back to the Dursleys, again. Eventually he decides that it is beyond ridiculous to sit around waiting for Dumbledore to tell him what to do and decides to have a little fun. An outing to Diagon Alley changes a lot of his beliefs and makes him see what's been happening to him for the last 14 years a lot more clearly. Harry takes actions to make his life into something that he controls.
Harry won't be dark, but he won't be the same old Harry either. This obviously starts right after book 4 and will be AU! It will loosely follow book 5's first few chapters, but eventually shouldn't be anything like it.

Author's note- I am writing this for my enjoyment because I had an idea that amused me and decided to go for it. As of the current time I have no beta and don't plan to really be all that much of a stickler for any rules. My spelling is generally very good so I don't expect too many problems there, but I'm not really much of a research person so there may be a few things that don't fit in with the way they should be in the wizarding world. If I make any crazy mistakes feel free to tell me about them. And there is not going to be any fixed POV for this story, its mostly going to be third person or from Harry's or a narrator's view, but no guarantees. Anyway, to get to the point: If you've got a problem with mistakes don't read this; there's plenty more for you to read and no reason to waste your time.

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On with the story-

Chapter 1

The Dursley home, Number 4 Privet Drive.

Harry Potter is not a normal boy for many reasons. First, he's a wizard. Second, he is constantly in life threatening situations thanks to the fact that he survived a killing curse from Lord Voldemort and Voldemort refuses to give up on killing him. Lastly, three weeks ago Harry saw Lord Voldemort return to power.

At the current moment Harry is, once again, wishing he could be anywhere other than his bedroom. It's sometime in the early morning and Harry's relatives are all sound asleep, and snoring louder than a rabid dog.

Thinking of dogs suddenly gives Harry an idea of something he can do to get out of Privet Drive. He comes up with a plan and moves over to his desk to start writing a letter to the one person he really feels like talking to.

Dear Padfoot,

I can't stand another week with the Dursleys .If I stay here I'll either go crazy or they'll probably kill me. I am going to London and will be spending the rest of my summer at the Leaky Cauldron. Nothing anyone says is going to stop me. I am only telling you because I really want to see you and I hope you'll meet me there to spend the rest of my holiday with me.
Whenever we leave the Leaky Cauldron you can be Padfoot and as only a handful of people know about that you should be safe. Please consider it. If you decide to come I'll be getting there today around 11 in the morning.

Harry.

.

With that done he sent the letter and began packing. Like he told Sirius, there was no way he was staying with his relatives. He was tired of being Dudley's punching bag or the family house elf and he was going to waste no time getting out of Little Whinging.

By the time he finished packing up his room it was around seven in the morning. The Dursleys will probably be sleeping until around 10.

Harry could think of absolutely nothing else to do for now and decided that he might as well read. He reached into his trunk at random and grabbed the first book his hand found.

First year potions textbook, not exactly what Harry considered interesting, but he figured it really couldn't hurt to do a little reading on his worst subject (next to divination, of course). And going back to the beginning might be a good idea that could maybe help him understand basic concepts, not likely but possible.

Two and a half hours, and half a potions textbook, later Harry decided it was time to start his escape. He went down to the kitchen with his full trunk, grabbed some fruit he could eat on the way, and walked out the door.

Once he was out of the house, however, Harry realized there was no way he could walk all the way to London. Especially with his trunk to carry there was just no way he'd make it in time to meet Sirius at 11.

'Well, I could either fly on my firebolt or take the knight bus' he thought. Looking at his trunk he decided. 'Knight bus it is.'

Pulling out his wand and raising his hand Harry called the bus that would take him to freedom.

BANG! And there stood the violently purple, triple decker Knight Bus.

" 'Ello my name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your conductor this mornin'- Oy! You's Harry Potter!"

Great. Why did he have to recognize me? Even better question, Why did he just shout my name to the whole bus? Now I'll have to deal with all these idiots staring at me all the way to London.

"Yeah, that's me. I'm going to the Leaky Cauldron. And I'll pay extra if you'll drop me off before anyone else; I'm kinda in a rush."

That was a lie, but it should get me out of here quicker. I can't deal with all the stupid staring much longer.

"Alrighty then, five galleons to skip to the head of the line and go to the leaky cauldron."

Harry quickly grabbed his money bag out of his trunk and handed over the gold then he went to sit down as the bus took off for the city.

Ten minutes later the bus had pulled up in front of the Leaky Cauldron and Harry was dragging his trunk into the bar.

"Hey Tom. I'll need a room for the rest of the summer; one with an attached private parlor I think." That way there should be plenty of room for both me and Sirius all summer if he shows up.

"Of course, Mr. Potter. You can have room 21 it's just upstairs."

"Just let me run over to Gringotts and I'll pay you when I come back." I said while already walking out to the little wall that opened to reveal Diagon Alley.

Once I was heard his answer I shut the door to the bar and looked to the seemingly boring wall. It was only then that I realized I was still carrying my trunk. Setting it down I took advantage of the fact that the Ministry can't track underage magic when someone is in Diagon Alley, thanks to all the magic that's going on all over the place, and shrunk my trunk to put it in my pocket. Finally, I tapped the correct brick and watched as the wall turned into an archway.

Once I was standing in line to talk to a goblin about going down to my vault I took the chance to look around. I didn't see a single person I recognized. But I guess no Hogwarts students really needed to be here since the school supplies list hasn't come out, yet.

Finally I was first in line and talking to a goblin. I handed over my key and said "I need to visit vault 687, please."

"Ah, yes. The Potter trust vault. I'll get Griphook to take you down immediately. GRIPHOOK!"

"Hang on, Trust vault?" I asked, confused. I thought that was my family vault. What's going on?

"Yes, Mr. Potter. Your trust vault. If you have a question please ask Griphook on the way down. I have a line to take care of. Thank you and have a nice day."

I looked around and noticed that the goblin was correct; there was quite the line behind me. 'Okay, I can just ask on the way to my vault what he was talking about.'

I followed Griphook to a cart and got in quietly. I was still confused. A couple minutes later I decided I would need Griphook to explain and asked him about the trust vault.

"When you were born your parents set up a trust vault that you can withdraw from until you come of age and have access to the family vaults which hold the rest of the Potter fortune, along with deeds, books, and artifacts.

"Gringotts has sent you all this information along with a full list of everything in your vaults many times in your quarterly statements. Now if you're done with the foolish questions, we have arrived at your vault."

With that said the goblin hopped out of the cart to wait for me to give him my key so that he could open the vault. While I jumped out of the cart I was, once again, confused. What quarterly statements? That was all I could really think, so of course that's what I asked as I handed over my key.

"Really Mr. Potter! Someone might think you're a little thick headed if you keep up with all this clueless nonsense. The quarterly statements I spoke of are the statements that Gringotts sends you every three months with the details of your accounts."

"But I never got one of those before!" I defended.

By this point I had gotten enough gold to pay for my room and meals this summer and we were on our way back to the main building in the cart.

"What? Of course you did Mr. Potter. As I am the goblin who sends out such notices I can assure you that yours was sent to you." Responded the goblin in a voice that said he thought that that was the end of the discussion.

"But I never got one! I don't have any idea what's going on."

"If that's the case Mr. Potter then you will need to set up a meeting with the bank manager and he will be able to figure out your problem as well as answer any questions you have. If you want I can take you to arrange a meeting now." Said the goblin as they exited the tunnels and entered the main bank.

"Thanks. Do you know if I could meet with him tomorrow?" I asked.

"Okay. I know that he is free at 1:30. I will make the appointment. Do not be late Mr. Potter."

I nodded my understanding and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron. About halfway there I checked my watch to see how long I had before Sirius might arrive. What I saw sent me running full speed ahead to get there quickly; I was late, it's already 11:17. I had wasted more time than I thought in Gringotts.

Once I was back in the Leaky Cauldron the scene that met my eyes made me burst out laughing.

There was a giant black dog running through the bar being chased by Tom all over the place. As I watched the dog jumped onto a long table and ran down the length of the table knocking over most everything on the tabletop.

"Out you stupid animal, Get out!" Tom was yelling after the dog while he chased it.

Finally I took pity on the both of them and tried to end the commotion.

"Tom wait! Sit Snuffles!" I almost lost my self control and started laughing again as Sirius sat down without stopping running and slid the rest of the way down the table and fell off the end.

"I'm sorry Tom. He's my dog; I guess he went a little crazy looking for me since I wasn't here. He's staying with me. I'll make sure Snuffles behaves the rest of the summer." I told him while I sent a look at Sirius that was a mix between a glare and amusement.

Tom looked shocked that I could possibly have such a terribly behaved animal, but consented to allow him to stay once I showed him that I had gone to the bank and gotten the money to pay for my room this summer.

"Thanks Tom, Come on Snuffles."

I led him upstairs to room 21 and unlocked the door with the key tom had given me before opening it and gesturing my godfather into the room before entering.

Once in the room I said "Don't transform yet." In a quiet voice before turning to the door and placing privacy wards, that I had learned studying for the Triwizard Tournament, on the door to keep away unwanted eavesdroppers.

"It's okay now." I said as I turned around.

A second later I saw my godfather appear in place of the giant dog and was then grabbed in a hug. After a second Sirius let me go and stepped back to get a good look at me.

"You don't look so good." He said, commenting on the fact that I was all bruised from dealing with Dudley and pale from no sleep for the past few days.

"I'm fine. You look a lot better than last time I saw you."

"Yeah, well I guess the same could be said for you too. You looked like crap after that task last time I saw you."

I laughed and said "I guess you're right."

For the next several hours we just sat and talked about everything from the marauders' school days to what I had done so far this summer.

Eventually I remembered my odd Gringotts visit and asked Sirius about it. His response wasn't what I was looking for.

"It sounds like someone is messing with your account, which means it might not be safe for you to go alone to that meeting. So I'm going with you tomorrow." He saw my face and could tell I was going to argue and continued "There's no reason to argue, the goblins know I'm innocent and they couldn't care less about what wizards do, so they won't care I'm there. I'll go in as Padfoot, it'll be fine."

He seemed convinced so I didn't bother arguing. But at that moment a disturbing thought hit me.

"Sirius, you didn't tell Dumbledore where I am did you? Because you and I both know he'll come and get me and send me back to those crazy people."

"Relax, I'm not that stupid." He pretended to look hurt that I thought him that stupid.

"You know you are, so I'm allowed o be concerned."

"Okay. Well I say it's time to go to sleep. You look dead on your feet and I know I'm beat from all the excitement today."

"Okay just make sure I'm up in time to make my meeting." I mumbled while I was trying to stay awake, I really was tired considering I hadn't had a good night's sleep in about three weeks.

.

.

~The Next Morning. June 30. ~

"Get up! It's time to go if you want to eat before your meeting. I let you sleep as long as I could."

I could kinda hear the noises in my room, but I ignored them as best I could. That was until I felt something soft hit my face and then felt a sudden chill.

I hopped out of bed in an instant and saw Sirius armed with a second pillow and my wand. I looked above my head and saw the source of the chill; a bucket, that until about thirty seconds ago must have held ice water.

"I'm up! I'm up! I'm going take a shower, be out in a minute" I then went o my trunk, grabbed some clean clothes and went to take a shower.

Ten minutes later I walked out of the bathroom dressed in my muggle clothes and went to get Sirius so we could leave to find food and go to the bank.

I was not expecting Sirius's next words." What are you wearing?" He sounded faintly disgusted.

I looked at my clothes and realized why instantly. My only muggle clothes were Dudley's old rags. And I couldn't wear my wizarding clothes because I only have Hogwarts robes and they are far too short.

"Nothing, these are the only things I have. Let's go." I was slightly embarrassed and just wanted to avoid the subject. I tried to leave, but found my way blocked by Sirius.

"No way. Here, give me your wand and I can fix this mess. I'll transfigure those into acceptable clothes, but it'll only last today."

I was grateful for the help and immediately handed over my wand. Then I realized I had another question." What about your wand? Where's it?"

"Azkaban." He said simply.

"Oh." I guess that makes sense. The ministry took it when they arrested him. "Well, we'll just have to get you a new one later today. That takes priority over any other plans we may have had."

"Alright! I haven't had a chance to get one yet. I can't wait! But for now let's get going to Gringotts."

"Breakfast first. But I think we should have ice cream for breakfast today, that's what I'm I the mood for today. Let's go."

Twenty minutes and two ice cream cones later, Sirius had eaten his in dog form, they were being led by Griphook to meet with Gornuk, the bank manager.

"Good afternoon Mr. Potter. My name is Gornuk; I hear you haven't been receiving your bank statements and you also have some questions concerning your account."

"Yes sir. I didn't even know until yesterday that I was supposed to get bank statements or that I had more than my trust vault; I didn't even know the trust vault was a trust vault. But before I say anything else I wanted to ask you if I can put a privacy spell on your office. I don't like eavesdroppers."

Gornuk looked a little offended at the idea that I thought someone could eavesdrop on his office, but I guess he must have experience with eccentric customers so he told me to go ahead and do whatever spells I felt necessary.

I quickly put up my privacy ward, which keeps out wizards and witches while allowing goblins entry, and got ready to reveal Sirius.

"One more thing, sir, I would like to introduce you to my financial adviser." I said gesturing to Padfoot.

At Gornuk's confused face I gestured to Sirius to hurry up and transform. Once he did Gornuk barely even looked worried. He merely turned to me and asked"Mr. Potter are you aware that man is a wanted criminal?"

I replied" Yes, but I m also aware that he is innocent."

"Ok, well, I don't really care who you hang around with. If we can get back to our business, there is a simple reason you don't personally receive your statements. Your guardian requested they receive them instead of bothering you with financial matters. I personally consider that rubbish, but your guardian requested it so it was done."

"My guardian? There's no way the Dursleys knew about my Gringotts account; if they did they would've had all the gold before I could blink!"

"Not your muggle family, your magical guardian: Albus Dumbledore."

"Wait. What? I should be his magical guardian. Not Dumbledore. How is Dumbledore Harry's guardian?" Sirius seemed extremely confused.

"I believe once you were in prison Mr. Dumbledore went to the ministry and got them to allow him to be Mr. Potter's guardian. Now, back to your other concerns, would you like to know what all you should have seen in your statements?"

"Yes please, actually I think I'd like to see everything this bank has that has anything to do with me if that's possible."

"Of course." Gornuk snapped his fingers and a folder appeared in front of Harry.

At that minute another goblin knocked on the side door and entered, handed Gornuk a note, and left.

Gornuk read his note the rose."If you'll excuse me there's a problem outside, you're welcome to stay here and look over that." he said, indicating the papers.

"Ok, thanks."

Once he was gone Sirius and I started looking through the folder. There were copies of dozens of bank statements, copies of Harry's parents' wills, and a current inventory of the contents of Harry's vaults. I looked over the inventory and was shocked at how much money I truly have.' I have to be one of the richest people in England.' I thought.

Sirius must have noticed my expression and looked at my inventory to find out what had me so shocked.

"Damn Harry! You've got more money than the entire Black family combined with the Malfoys! That's crazy."

At this point Harry had come back to earth and took a look at a few other documents in the folder. The one that really caught his eye was his parents' will. The part Harry found most interesting was where it listed who should be his guardian if his parents weren't able to take him.

The first on the list was obviously Sirius. Next was Remus Lupin. After Lupin was the shocker: The Longbottoms, Neville's family.

The most shocking thing of all was underneath the people who should take Harry; the list of people who should never gain guardianship of him. There were only two on that list: The Dursley Family and anyone who is currently employed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

By the time Harry finished reading he was mad. How did this happen? His parents had made it very clear who could NOT have Harry under their control and Harry ended up with both Dursleys and a Hogwarts employee as his guardians. That's just not right!

Harry hadn't noticed Gornuk enter the room but when he looked up to give the document to Sirius he Finally noticed the goblin.

"How did this happen? My parents' wishes are just being obviously disregarded!"I demanded answers.

"I believe Professor Dumbledore had something to do with it." Gornuk answered calmly.

"Well I have to do something about it. This is just wrong!"

"I have an easy solution if you'd like to hear it. You could be emancipated. Gringotts can authorize emancipation under certain circumstances. The disregarding of your parents will makes it so we can authorize you to be emancipated. You would be considered a legal adult, you could have access to your family vaults, perform magic outside of school (not that that rule seems to stop you), and you wouldn't have to return to your relatives over holidays."

I was a little surprised and didn't quite believe my ears. I turned to Sirius to find out what he thought and noticed his grin. That's what made it real. I was free!

"Absolutely! What do I have to do?"

"Just sign. I took the liberty of filling out the papers before I returned here a moment ago." He gestured to a paper on his desk that had a quill resting on top of it.

I immediately took the quill and signed after reading through the document once. I didn't need time to think about it.

"Congratulations Mr. Potter. There are now a few more pieces of business we must talk about before you can leave." He picked up a small wooden box and handed it to me." As you are now the head of the House of Potter you need your Head of House ring. That ring will both display your new status and act as a portkey to take you wherever you consider home, if you consider multiple places home all you need to do is think of the one you wish to be taken to." I immediately thought of where I consider home: Hogwarts, the Burrow, and now the Leaky Cauldron."All you have to do to activate it is twist it around on your finger once and then tap the stone 3 times."

I opened the box to find a large gold ring with a large circular ruby in the center. In the center of the ruby was what I could only assume was the potter crest; a majestic stag in the center with the words "Sempre Fidel, Sempre Valent, Sempre és cert" written in gold underneath him.

"Wow" I said as I ran my finger over the ring before pitting it onto my right middle finger.

"Good. Now here is the key to open your family vaults. All contents of your trust vault have been moved into your family vault. All other keys to any Potter vault have just been destroyed, no matter where they are. Currently the goblin in charge of your investments is Griphook, do you have any objections?" He waited for me to shake my head 'no' before continuing. "Now that you are an adult Dumbledore is no longer your guardian and we will be sending your statements to you. Also, now that you have access to the main vaults the statements will become monthly instead of quarterly.

"That's all I have to say really. Congratulations again. You just became Lord Potter, The richest man in both wizard and muggle Europe."

He chuckled as both Sirius and Harry's jaws dropped.

"Any questions?"

'Only about a million!' I thought.

"Just a few. Mostly, is there any way I can avoid having to come here every time I want to buy something big? Or whenever I need muggle money?"

"You asked just in time. When I left the room earlier, that was to make the final authorization on our new muggle debit cards. If you want you could have the very first of them. About being able to avoid always having to come for gold, there is another solution. We have a special moneybag for our high priority clients. The way it works is simple. You fold it up and put it in your wallet, whenever you want wizarding money you pull it out and think of how much you need. The bag has an expansion charm on it so that no matter how much you need it can fit in the bag. If you don't feel like pulling piles of coins out of the bag, and wish to just give the full bag to whomever you are paying, then the next time you open your wallet a new moneybag, exactly like the first will be in there."

'Oh. Wow. That actually sounds like pretty good ideas.' I thought.

"Sounds great. Could I get both today? I think I'll be doing some shopping once I leave." If I'm filthy rich I might as well get new clothes and some new stuff, after we get Sirius a new wand of course.

"If that's what you want. Please excuse me for a moment while I take care of the arrangements." And he left us alone in the office again.

"This is so cool!" Was the very first thing I could think to say.

"Well yeah! It's not every day you escape controlling guardians and come into giant fortunes, is it? Ooh! We should do something to celebrate freedom! Any ideas?"

Uh… I don't know. What do I want to do? Wait! I've got the perfect idea!

"Erm….one, but I don't know what you'll think…it's-" I was about to tell Sirius my brilliant idea when Gornuk came back, and there's no way he's hearing about it.

"Here you go. Do you know how to work a muggle debit card?" I nodded and he continued."Good, saves a lot of trouble of explaining. Well, here you go." He handed me my new card and bag and I thanked him, and stuffed them I my pocket.

Sirius transformed and we left the office and bank.

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Author's note-

On the ring the saying ("Sempre Fidel, Sempre Valent, Sempre és cert") says "Always Faithful, Always Brave, Always True"