Hello there people!

This is only an introductory chapter, and I promise, after this chapter, the story gets really interesting! After you read this, please don't be caught into thinking this is another one of those "predictable" stories, because what I have planned, is not predictable…at all!

Please leave me a comment, if you want to ask anything, as I'm sure that are a couple of things you guys may find strange about this fic.

It IS AU, so there are a few points at the end for some of the questions you may want to ask.

Anyway, hope you likey! Please tell me if I should bother posting the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K.Rowling, and unfortunately, I shall not be receiving anything from writing this fic, except my own little presents to myself.

Discovering Harry

Chapter One: Introduction

"Dressed to, dressed to depress

You couldn't ask for anything less

Dressed to, dressed to depress

My whole life is a fucked mess"

"What have I told you about singing that kind of stuff?"

A handsome man in his 40's was sitting at the breakfast bar as he watched his teenage godson move around the kitchen, whilst singing under his breath what seemed to be another one of his 'I'm-so-emo-I-hate-my-life' songs. Well, who could blame him?

To the world, he was dead, and so was his godfather. Both dead, except to a select few that knew of their existence.

"Whatever Sirius, I can do a lot worse" Harry Potter mumbled back.

Harry Potter, the-boy-who-disappeared, so to speak. It had been 15 years since the dreadful attack on Godric's Hollow by Lord Voldemort and his followers. The being known as Lord Voldemort had attempted to murder what was left of his biggest threats, the Potter family.

The father was harder to get rid of than expected, but after he was weakened by the cruciatus curse a couple of times, the curse of death was easy enough. The mother than put up a noble fight to protect her son, however it was in vain. The mother was killed, and finally Lord Voldemort had only one Potter to go to fulfill his mission. He attempted the killing curse, but it backfired, causing his corpse to fall to the ground but not his soul. Lord Voldemort fled vowing to find the son and bring him down as soon as possible.

The magical world rejoiced, in what was to be known as the downfall of He-who-must-not-be-named. The loss of the Potter family, however unfortunate, was mourned, but over-ridden by the joy that came with the news of the dark lord's dead body. It was tragic, yes, that Lily and James had died, and the potter boy had disappeared, but if this was the sacrifice for ending the torture of countless numbers of other families, there was no debate.

In reality, for many had given into the rumors that the killing curse used on the potter baby was such in magnitude he was 'vaporized', the potter boy was taken from the wreckage and placed under the protection of another 'disappeared' wizard.

Sirius Black, the wizard that children were told would come and get them in their sleep if they were to behave badly, was in hiding after being wrongly accused of a mass-murder and running form the law-enforcers.

He was the only remaining family to be speak of to the child, and was given responsibility of the child to keep him from the world.

It was the more older and wiser wizard, Albus Dumbledore, that had given Sirius his instructions;

"I am wary that Lord Voldemort has not left us for good, Sirius. I am placing Harry in your care, to keep him safe, and to teach him the values of life. Lord Voldemort will not be blind for long, and soon he will form a plot to reach him. It is with great regret that I will have to release him from Hogwarts School as well. He needs to remain dead to the world, in which, Voldemort may be less hasty to reform to full power to take revenge."

The old wizard warned Sirius of the consequences of keeping the boy under house-arrest, and that maybe if things take a turn for the better, Harry might be able to go to Hogwarts after-all. "But for now," Albus sighed, "it seems there is still much danger. This may not be ideal, but I trust this is the safest option."

Sirius couldn't have agreed to the deal quicker. He had only been in hiding for a week, but was already craving human contact and conversation, and so many things that we take for granted. He could not have been more pleased to know he would be able to watch-out for his godson, as he heard of the news of his best friend's death he would make this his promise to him. Harry would grow up in the best way possible, under the circumstances, and Sirius would do everything in his power to protect him.

Harry's childhood could not have been more difficult. He was moved around from place to place every couple of months until the age of 11, when he was supposed to commence his education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, Voldemort's most devoted followers were still in society, and many odd happenings were still occurring, which made Dumbledore uneasy and he relented to offer Harry his deserved place at Hogwarts. In this case, Harry was tutored at home by one of the professors at Hogwarts, which lead to the present arrangement.

Remus Lupin had much respect for Dumbledore, and when asked to tutor the young potter boy, had no hesitation just as Sirius had no hesitation in protecting him. This was to be his contribution to the death of his best friend. It occurred to Lupin that he could not very well keep tutoring the boy if he were to keep moving about the country every few months, and he came with up the idea of re-habilitating his old haunt in Hogsmeade.

The Shrieking shack was perfect. No one would dare approach it, as it was rumored to be haunted, and after 2 months of magic, it could have been no better a place to live. Near the village of Hogsmeade so news was not hard to come by, and Remus was no longer traveling long distance to teach both Harry and his classes at Hogwarts. The rumors of it being haunted were kept up by Lupins transformations taking place in the basement of the house, in which case, the howls would still be heard in the village.

Harry was as happy as a depressed teenager could be when hearing of the plan to move to the 'Shrieking Shack'.

"A permanent home. See? We can already call it home, and we haven't even moved in yet! Yes, I think this will be the best thing to happen to us for a while." Sirius had said.

From the age of 9 years old, Harry had started to become restless. He wanted to go to the market, he wanted to play with the children, he wanted to do so many things, but was forbid from many. He had many rows with his godfather over the issue, which lead to a certain dislike deep within him for Sirius for many years.

Eventually, at the age of 11 he was told of why he was unable to lead a normal life. Even if he were to go outside and try to integrate with society, Harry would always be a different person to everyone else. He was told of Voldemort, how Harry alone managed to evade the killing curse, and how the world thought he was dead.

That night Harry cried himself to sleep, and did not emerge from his room for a week. He did not talk to Sirius for 3 weeks, in which the first words to Sirius were that of hate and disgust.

Harry grew up fast, even for a boy that spent most of his time with adults. At the age of 13 Harry was showing signs of rebellious nature. He had started to creep around the house in a most suspicious way. When Sirius had decided to confront him, he opened Harry's bedroom door to find the window open and Harry gone. Security charms were placed all the way round the house later that day, and once again, another fight ensued between godfather and son.

Sirius seeked advice from Albus Dumbledore, who said that the best thing to do now was to be honest with Harry. Harry was growing up fast, and soon, he shall be come reckless if not told everything about his past, present and future.

The next day, a rather resentful Harry sat down with Sirius, only to be told everything that he was not told before. How Voldemort had waged a war on Harry if he were ever to re-appear, how Harry was the key to defeating Voldemort once and for all, and why it is he was not given his place at Hogwarts.

"Harry, I am old and have known what it is to be young. It may seem stupid to say something like this to such an intelligent young man like yourself, but when you are young, you are reckless. Imagine going to Hogwarts, and meeting so many people who want to know you? Be your best friend? Who can you trust? And then, even if we were to give you a disguise, who can you trust to tell the truth? I like to think that I know you, being your godfather, and I can tell that it would eat you up inside if you were to go into Hogwarts and make friends but not be able to tell them who you really were. I hope this makes sense now, and that you will not be so cold to me when I enforce rules that are there to protect you more than anything else."

Harry asked countless times over the next 2 years why? How? Who? When? And Sirius had obliged with all the details from that point on. There was no sense in holding back from Harry anymore.

This is what lead Harry to his present state. At 16 years old, Harry should have been entering his 6th year at Hogwarts and start his N.E.W.T's. However, he was stuck in the Shrieking Shack, pondering if there was any point in taking the exams if he were to be cooped up in here for the rest of his life.

"Soon, Harry, you will have to go out and find out for yourself the horror of Lord Voldemort." Remus Lupin had replied, "I do not wish to scare you, but I regard you as old enough to not sugar-coat everything. That is why we are training you nearly everyday in combat. Soon you shall start lessons with Albus Dumbledore."

"So there's no possible way for getting out of these exams?" Harry has asked with a bit of hope in his voice.

Remus chuckled, "You may not have been to Hogwarts, but you sure sound like all my other pupils there. Which brings me onto your N.E.W.T's. Have you chosen the subjects yet?"

"Well," Harry started, "I would like to carry on with most of my subjects. But I do realise, that some of them, are a bit out of your area. For Example Charms? or Potions? Can you still teach me in these?"

"We'll sort something out." Lupin said not giving any more thought on the situation, and leaving that evening to lock himself in the basement.

"I don't care, motherfucker, I don't care,"

"Ok, now it's on!" Sirius said as he lowered his newspaper only to see his godson smiling innocently at him as if he had done nothing wrong.

"What? I haven't done anything wrong." Harry shrugged, as his smile turned into his cheeky smile that Sirius had seen many a time and commented reminded him of Harry's father. Sirius shook his head at his godson. Harry could definitely be a pain in the ass sometimes, but Sirius wouldn't want him to ever change. As even though he had a difficult childhood, Harry still seemed to be a charming, funny and kind guy, something that did not go unnoticed by Sirius who was not oblivious to how this change had came about.

The first time Sirius noticed that Harry was becoming slightly less depressed and seemed to even be enjoying his godfather's company was around a year ago. Harry has started resorting to sneaking out under his invisibility cloak late at night after his Godfather went to sleep, and returning before daybreak. Harry did not think Sirius knew of this at all, as he was careful to break through all the charms and stupid booby traps his godfather would setup.

Sirius had had a serious talk with him, but realized that Harry was at that age when whatever he said, he would not be able to stop Harry from sneaking out, even if he tied him down, Harry would eventually find a way out. And the more Sirius tried to protect him by telling him to stay home, the more he seemed to be pushing Harry away.

Sirius gave up, and decided to remain blissfully oblivious to the goings on of his godson, as he knew it would get him even more stressed. After all, Harry was not stupid, and Sirius was sure that Harry would never do something stupid as to blow his cover.

"Nothing wrong, eh?" Sirius replied to his cheeky godson. "Well, then you will kindly tell me why, once again, my supply of polyjuice potion has diminished?" Sirius said calmly.

"Well, then you can tell me, once again, why I shouldn't be learning how to disguise myself properly?" Harry replied, all playfulness left behind.

"You know why, and I'm not going to teach you just so you can go off every night to that pub of yours!" Sirius said raising his voice in a way that meant to say it was the end of discussion.

Harry looked at his godfather as he stared at the paper in front of him, and without a word went upstairs to his room, only to be followed a few seconds later with the thundering noise of electric guitars, fast drums and loud bass coming through the ceiling of the kitchen.

"Oh, and now comes the deafening rock music, clever, Harry…" Sirius sighed.

The next night, at around 11:00pm, Harry was listening intently at the door to his bedroom. He could not hear any noise on the landing or in the house for that matter, so assumed that Sirius had gone to sleep already.

He walked over to his bed, grabbed his invisibility cloak, and walked over to his window. He aimed his wand at the window and muttered the counter-jinx for his godfathers security charm, which changed every week like the stupid password into the house.

In the beginning, he would go out the front door, and return that way, as the front door recognized him, and with the correct password he would be granted access in to the house without alarms. However, this plan was thwarted after Sirius took to changing the password at random days of the week and in the middle of the night, which lead to a most uncomftable night sleeping on the front doorstep in hope he could pass by in the morning without Sirius noticing. That did not succeed either, as Harry was awoken by a small kick, and the face of his fuming godfather. Harry recalled saying something like, "Oh, shitty night for an astronomy project.", which was not the answer Sirius was looking for.

Tonight, he had to break through only 2 traps setup by his godfather who seemed to think it a sort of sport. Broken glass underneath his bedroom window, and then a freezing charm on the gate that would have Harry frozen in place until Sirius would find him.

"Oh Sirius, we are getting slow on these traps. One would think you've given up on them finally" Harry laughed and walked towards Hogsmeade under his cloak. As he came closer to the street full of shops and pubs, he took out a small vial of potion and uncorked it. He took a sip of the potion and felt the familiar boiling of his skin. Finally, when he had transformed, he came out from the cloak, and put the vial in his pocket, which would be taken every hour. He looked in a shop window, and found that he was looking into the face of one of his old neighbors from when Sirius used to move him every other month.

Harry had learned of the polyjuice potion at the age of 12, and from then on, had taken to stealing samples of hair from neighbors, or people that would walk up to his door in hope to sell some odd object. He had wanted to test it out himself, so had taken to 'borrowing' his godfathers supply to see the effects. It had come in handy finally when Harry had started to sneak into Hogsmeade. He enjoyed the thrill of meeting people in a different mask every time. He had often met the same people and liked to play tricks by pretending to know them, and having the other person wonder who he was for the entire night, but being too kind to ask him who he was.

Harry walked down Hogsmeade street and made a turn into a smaller back alley which lead to the bars and pubs he would frequently visit this late at night.

Whilst pondering if people would recognize this disguise, as he used it quite regularly, he entered through a dark door to his right to come face to face with a large wizard blocking the entranceway to a club.

"Where do you think you're going?" the bouncer asked in his usual I'm-going-to-make-this-hard-for-you tone.

"Inside?" Harry said impatiently.

The bouncer looked at him closely, as if scrutinizing his facial features to see if he was good-looking enough to enter the bar. Lucky for Harry, he had chosen to take the appearance of one of his more younger neighbors. He looked around early 20's in age, and flashed the bouncer a charming smile which he knew he could pull off in this disguise, as he had used it many times before. Men would see him and want to talk to him, as it was plain to see that the ladies favored his look too. It did no harm to be friends with the most good-looking guy in the bar, as you were guaranteed some action.

The bouncer nodded at him, and turned sideways to let Harry pass through into a more open area with a square bar in the middle. It was busy tonight, as it was every Friday night, and Harry could see that even some of the students, which he presumed came from Hogwarts, had decided to sneak out as well.

He walked up to the bar, ordered a drink he knew he would never be served if he had stayed looking 16, turned around and leant back on the bar whilst looking around the bar. There were booths around the side, and a couple of people had taken to dancing in the corner next to the DJ. As he searched the bar for any sign of people he may have met before he felt someone approach him and stand next to him.

"Well well, you look kind of lonely there stud, need some company?". Harry turned to the voice and looked down at the young girl.

"No thanks, I'm just waiting for some friends" Harry said and turned away. Harry could have bagged any girl he liked in this disguise, as his male 'friends' would tell him all the time. However, Harry did not think this a wise idea. He didn't have the heart to lead girls on, and then just sleep with them. He wanted to wait to find the right girl. Deep within him, he knew he was waiting for 'The One'. The one to which he would be able to come forward and tell her everything he had gone through, tell her who he really was, be able to finally share everything he had been keeping inside for so long. For now though, he would frequent the bars and pubs, maybe talk to a couple of girls, and then just hang out with his male mates for that evening.

As Harry stood there and watched the people around, he caught sight of some familiar faces sitting in one of the booths. He walked over, and by the time he had reached the table, he had completely forgot he was still in disguise.

"Jason!" one of the boys had yelled at him as he approached.

'Thank God!' Harry thought. He often forgot what his name was in certain disguises, as he liked to experiment with certain names and personalities.

"Hey there guys" Harry replied as he took up a vacant seat within the group which consisted of three guys and two girls.

"Didn't know you were going to be joining us tonight mate. Haven't seen you for a while, how's it going?" one of the boys asked.

"Well, you know. Idiots of society still walking around and making my life hell", Harry shrugged, "what about you Draco?"

"Same same, except I made friends with them" Draco said as he motioned towards the two boys sitting next to him, who were looking directly at the two girls' assets opposite them.

As Draco and Harry started up a conversation concerning quidditch and issues with no serious relevance, one of the girls shrieked and dropped her drink on the table causing Draco to shout at her.

"You stupid little wretch! What did you do that for!"

"I'm so sorry Draco. I just cant believe that they're letting people like her into this place! I thought this was supposed to be an exclusive bar! How could they let in vermin like her!" The girl replied whilst looking across at the entrance with a look of deepest loathing on her face.

Harry turned to where she was looking along with Draco, who as soon as seeing the girl had stood up and cried out with disgust.

"NO! That's it, this place has obviously gone down-hill. Well, I won't be staying here much longer. Come on you lot, we're going" Draco said to the group gathering his jacket to leave.

"Are you coming with us, Jason?" Draco asked, "Jason?…Jason!…JASON!"

But 'Jason' did not reply. He had been stunned into silence, as his brain had stopped working. He had stopped breathing as he looked over to the entrance and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen his life. She looked like an angel, and he could not believe someone could look that beautiful and be breathing the same air as he was. She looked around the bar, and for a few seconds his eyes met hers, and his heart had started to beat so loudly all noise had been turned off.

Harry recovered after he lost sight of her, but as soon as he could he turned to Draco and asked of her name.

Draco raised his eyebrows with a questioning look, and replied with disgust "Well, if you must know she's a mudblood called Granger. Goes to Hogwarts in fact. Stupid place to let in ones like that. But, you know, she is one of them. A gryffindor."

"and her full name?" Harry asked without thinking.

Draco looked at him suspiciously and said slowly with what seemed slight caution, "Hermione Granger, why do you care so much?"

"Hermione Granger?" Harry said, as he got up and went in search of the women that had just taken his breath away.

Well, hope you liked it! As I said, it's only the introduction!

There are a couple of things I should probably clarify:

1. The Dursleys do not exist in this fan fiction, so sorry to anyone who liked them! That is why Harry did not go to them when his parents died

2. Harry does 'not-exist', and Dumbledore had tried his best to make sure no one know of his existence, which is why he can do magic like anyone else. His wand does not exist, just like him…if that makes sense, there will be more information on this in the coming chapters.

3. It does seem very un-Dumbledore to put Harry in such conditions, being "dead" and all. It's just the way I wrote, and I kinda see Dumbledore as senile in this fic, even though he definitely isn't in the books. Dumbledore can make mistakes (as we have seen), I just write it this way. After-all it IS Alternate-Universe.

Any other questions…just leave a comment!