Summary: Harry has always tried to fill the expectations of the people around him. Anyone and everyone had an opinion of who Harry Potter should be. When he finally reaches his breaking point he strikes out on his own, setting off a series of events that bring him on a globetrotting adventure where discovering his freedom just might lead to discovering who he wants to be.

A/N: this is a story that I thought up a long time ago with a good friend of mine. Note that as this is an AU a lot of people are probably going to be at least a little OOC especially Harry, but I am going to stick to a few solid personality traits.

I very much do not own anything to do with Harry Potter. At all.

Please enjoy.

Prologue – In Which It Begins

June 4th – Location: Unknown

Our story begins surprisingly not with a dark and stormy night. In fact it was a rather warm summer evening, one that usually finds friends and family sitting together and enjoying each other's company and fresh air. However despite the pleasant evening there were still of course some people who were doings things that were decidedly unpleasant.

As an active and valued member of the Order of the Phoenix, Remus Lupin was one of the few doing just that. He should have been spending a lovely night at home relaxing. Instead, this poor man was trudging through a veritable jungle of foliage that seemed to fit right into the idea of cursed forest.

What dastardly plot could have possibly brought him out to this isolated area under the cover of darkness?

Silently Remus cursed Dumbledore for sending him out here.

Even though he was the obvious choice for speaking with these people he wished that Albus could have possibly sent someone else with him, though he grudgingly understood his lack of partner. After all werewolves tended to be a suspicious bunch when it concerned people trying to pull them out of isolation and having a group of wizards barge into their homes was indeed more alarming then a single lycanthrope. He supposed he was only so nervous because he just wasn't as comfortable with his affliction as these people tended to be and his aversion to their choices made the meetings all the more awkward and difficult.

This entire situation had all started after the disaster that was the Tri-Wizard tournament. The return of the Dark Lord had lit a veritable fire under the Order and the various members were scrambling to prepare as best they could for the approaching war.

He of course had been tasked with trying to convince as many werewolf groups that he could find that siding with the Dark Lord in the upcoming conflicts was a major mistake.

That was how he found himself on the backwater roads in the middle of who had any idea where he was. In fact he hadn't even seen any kind of trail or pathway in hours let alone a road. Of course Dumbledore had no idea where the exact location of the group was and Remus had no idea why the older man thought he would have had any idea either, his own home being much closer to civilization. When he mentioned that he really wasn't sure where he was supposed to be looking all the Headmaster had told him was, "Trust your instincts my boy, they will not lead you astray."

Remus scoffed. His instincts had lead him astray a great many times in the years gone by.

Foremost in his memory was never suspecting that Peter Pettigrew was as much a rat as his form showed and instead believing that Sirius, his best friend and brother in everything but blood had betrayed James, Lily and Harry. Sirius had loved them more than he loved himself, which was a great feat for the entirely too vain animagus. Good lot his instincts had done for him so far.

Thinking of Sirius made him remember the unfortunate man was currently shut in his old childhood home at number 12 Grimmauld Place. A prisoner of circumstance in an entirely too dusty cell he could certainly do with some company. God knows he must have already completely trashed some of the house as a dog.

Maybe when he finished talking with the werewolves he could meet with Sirius and sit to have a good long talk, maybe soon they could also bring Harry to the house. That would certainly brighten Sirius' mood.

His budding smile slowly slid off his face as Remus looked around himself again and sighed. How was he supposed to find anything at this time of night? Being a werewolf came with certain advantages in the fields of night vision, enhanced smell and the like but that didn't stop him from being far too tired of his search already to even try and continue. The wind was picking up, throwing clouds across the sliver of moon in the sky. He heaved the strap of his bag back up his shoulder and decided that here was a good as any spot for the tent for the night when suddenly he heard the snap of a branch underfoot.

"Hello?" he called, startled, raising his wand in what he hoped was the right direction.

It was clear when the next moment his consciousness left him that it wasn't.