Arcadia's Amulet

Rating: PG-13

Summary: When Harry finds himself in an alternate dimension, everything seems so different. The only thing that remained the same was his destiny. Some things you just can't get rid of…(Alternate universe). OOTP Spoilers

Disclaimer: I don't any of it, don't sue me unless you want a lifetimes worth of ramen noodles. XD

"Stupify!"

Sirius is falling. Have to reach him. Lupin held him back. "Let go of me!"

"He's gone Harry. There is nothing you can do about it. You killed him, you don't deserve the name Potter. How could you kill your own godfather? You're going to turn out just like him, aren't you? You're going to turn out like me aren't you Harry Potter?" He turned around and it was Voldemort holding him back.

Summing up all of the strength he could spare, "Avada Kevada!" A green light flashed from his wand heading towards his opponent. A harsh cold laugh and a green light flashing back at him. Shit."

Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, woke up gasping for air from his first nightmare of the summer. Quite frankly, he was surprised he had lasted as long as he had without any nightmares. This was greatly due to the fact that this was the first time he had slept, he only slept when his body was so exhausted that he fell unconscious; all the other time he spent training physically and studying from his Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions texts. The events at the Department of Mysteries had been a rood awakening to the fact that he was the only one who could defeat Voldemort. He was only a week into his vacation and the distinct lack of food was wearing him thin already. Today was a special day however, not a day to be dwelling on things of the past. Sirius a pange of guilt went through him before he shoved down his feelings and started to clear his mind. He found he had a much better attention span when his mind had been cleared. I wonder if I will be able to do this while fighting. Today he would sneak past his guards and into Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley as well.

Harry checked the time. 12:23. He would be leaving in six minutes, during the "changing of the guard" when Tonks would leave one or two minutes early and Dung would come at least five minutes late. That would give him plenty of time to get out of the house and flag down the Nightbus. He checked to make sure his bandana covered his scar and his wand was in his pocket then put on a black cloak with a hood and waited for Tonks to leave.

12:29 Tonks left. Harry hurried out the window and down the drainpipe. Hope it holds. He had no idea what he would do if it fell. Safely making it down, Harry ran in and out of the shadows to Magnolia Crescent and flagged down the Night Bus. "Welcome to the Nigh Bus. I'm Tim Billman, where will you be going to Mr…."

"Oh, Istari, Estel Istari and Diagon Alley."

"Okay, that'll be twelve sickles and two knuts." Tim said, trying to get a look under Harry's hood. Harry handed over the money from his emergency supply of wizard money and went to the first bed available. "Dun't get too comfy, you're the only one on the bus so we'll be there in less than two minutes."

Bang! Harry sat back and enjoyed the ride. After the initial jolt, it was a similar feeling to riding a Firebolt at top speed without the air rushing through your face. Bang! "Diagon Alley, watch your step."

Stumbling off of the Night Bus, Harry was glad that he had rested, even if he didn't really have a choice in the matter. Knockturn Alley would not be the best place for him to go without being on high alert. Clearing his mind, Harry straitened his shoulders and walked into the Leaky Cauldron with as much of an air of dominance as he could muster despite his nervousness. People sensed they didn't want to mess with him and they all parted for him to walk by, muttering something about dark wizards in his wake. He took out his wand and entered Diagon Alley just like he had in his first year at Hogwarts and set off strait to Gringotts.

"I'd like to make a withdrawl from my account."

"Do you have the key?" the goblin said nastily leaning over the counter in order to intimidate him.

Harry leaned toward the goblin and said twice as venomously, "Yes, here." The goblin seemed slightly nervous when he did not cringe for him but took the key nonetheless.

"Dripfang!" Dripfang escorted Harry to the cart and one rocky ride later, they were in front of his door.

"Lamp please." Harry handed him the lamp and the key in anticipation. As soon as Dripfang opened up the vault Harry set aside all of the money he would need to finish his schooling and took the rest, putting it in a bag that he had ordered. It was feather-light, could fit as much as you wanted in it (as well as give you an inventory of what was in it) and only you could access whatever was in it; all you had to do was think about what you wanted or how much money you wanted and it would give it to you (as long as you had it). It was a Gingotts special and there were only two hundred made so far because it was very expensive. It is really worth it though. The intrest alone is half again as much as what it gets from sitting in this vault. It was just as safe, if not safer, than a vault at Gringotts; not even the goblins could get money out. The total he had in his bag was now 7,354,972 galleons, 3,843 sickles, and 6,489 knuts. When he finished stacking it all in the bag, he started going through the papers. Apparently he owned houses in France, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, England, Scotland, Egypt… the list went on and on. What the hell am I supposed to do with all of these properties? He set them back down and something small and gold caught his eye. Two keys! "Dripfang, can you tell me what this key is for?"

The goblin walked over to him and carefully examined the key, "They are the keys to vault three and seven." He said with reverence and much surprise. At Harry's questioning gaze, "The smaller the vault number, the older the vault is. The first twenty-three vaults have not been opened in at least fifteen years. Would you like to see them?"

"Yes, I think I would."

"Nothing can be taken out of vault three except for the books. Vault seven however cannot be accessed until you turn twenty one."

Books. That was the biggest reason he had come to Diagon Alley today was to get some reading material other than school books. "Would there be any way to get all of the books sent up and me pick them up later?"

"Yes. We will bring them up and put them in a secure room. When you come to pick them up just show the key for verification. Do you want all of the books?"

Yes I would. Thank you. Can we go now, I have lots to do today."

The goblin looked slightly put out at Harry's snippy tone but quickly recovered at the thought of having permission to enter one of the first vaults every made. It was a dream come true.

After he left Gingotts, Harry's first stop was to get a trunk large enough to fit all of his new purchases that he was going to get today along with the books from his family vault. Wandering along the road, wondering where he could find a trunk like Moody's (the place where he got his trunk for school only sold that one size), he spotted Trunks For All Occasions on the edge of Knockturn Alley. This has got to be it. Walking in he was amazed at the shear number of designs for trunks. Automatically he walked over to the trunk with the biggest and most compartments. Eleven compartments, all of which were connected to each other via portals, the trunk would be keyed to only the owner and whoever he chose with the option of keying a person to only specific "rooms" or the whole thing, the option to make only some of the compartments visible with the proper password, built-in anti-theft device that could be set to do a number of things such as shock a person (more or less depending how persistent they were) or knock a person out and it would also write down the names of any unauthorized people that tried to get in. When touching the latch and you say a certain password, it would shrink into of a necklace. Some of the other options were built in and already set up and ready to use rooms:

1) Potions lab (5 separate Lab areas)

2) Library (30 feet by 30 feet. Includes a library key book)

3) Dueling room (50 feet by 50 feet)

4) Sleeping quarters (27 feet by 33 feet)

5) Containment room

6) Supply room (will resize to fit YOUR needs! Shelves and cabinets included!)

7) Kitchen (18 feet by 23 feet)

8) Flying room (As large as a standard Quidditch field! Over 250 yards !)

9) Regular trunk (3x6x2)

10) Restroom (17 feet by 20 feet)

11) Room of Requirements

Library key book: just say what book you want or what you want the book to include and this reference book will give it to you!)

Will resize up to 30 feet by 30 feet

Choose from over 30 different designs (see instruction booklet for designs)

Cost: 2,379 galleons 7 sickles and 3 knut

As soon as he saw it, Harry knew that this was the one he wanted. Walking up to the counter, "Excuse me sir, I'd like to purchase a trunk."

Looking slightly startled at being addressed by the hooded man, the employee replied shakily, "D-do you know which o-one you w-w-want?"

"Yes. I want this one." Pointing over to his trunk.

"V-very w-well s-sir, you t-total c-comes out t-to 2,379 galleons 7 sickles and 3 knut" He cringed a bit at the price as if expecting to be cursed for such a large price. Harry handed over the money without complaint and in five minutes had the trunk keyed for him and walked out the door wearing it around his neck in its necklace form.

Harry walked back up to Gringotts stopping at the still empty counter, most of their business would come during the day when it became light and the supposedly dark wizards would leave the alley. Showing the goblin at the counter his key, "I'm here to pick up some stuff from my vault."

"Everything seems to be in order. Dripfang! Show this man to his possessions."

"Come." Dripfang led Harry to a hallway and stopped about halfway through, stroked the door and muttered something, then opened the door. "There is a list of all of the books here." He handed Harry a few sheets of paper then walked outside the door to wait on him. Harry set strait to task shoveling the books into the library section of his trunk knowing that it would self-organize itself. In less than a half and hour, he had thrown all two thousand some books into his trunk. It appeared that his parents had thought something would happen so they put all of their books, and probably their other valuables, into the vault. Most of the books seemed to be made up of what appeared to be all seven years worth of Hogwarts books for more generations than he cared to count and family histories. There were also quite a few advanced books on charms, transfiguration, and surprisingly, the dark arts. He had also found two objects shoved into the books. Probably so that they would come out with the books and not gain suspicion. One was what looked suspiciously like a time-turner and the other was an amulet of some sort. Harry put on the amulet, and set the time-turner in his bedroom area.

He shrunk the trunk again and put it around his neck then exited the room, following Dripfang out to the main area. He tipped him thirty galleons for his silence and patience. Next stop, Knockturn Alley. Sweating slightly from nervousness, Harry plunged into Knockturn Alley going in and out of shops buying almost every book on occulemacy, legilimency, Animagi, charms, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts, potions, the dark arts (including the unforgivables), obscure branches of magic such as wild magic and elementals, and magical creatures books, as well as random book on things like Apparation, Disapparation, how to make Floo Powder. He even got into most of their back rooms where the darker books were held in case of a ministry raid. He kept a list of every book that he bought and seven hours later, he had single-handedly almost emptied Knockturn Alley of its books. Next he went to the apothecary and started getting supplies. Crushed billywigs, sliced eel liver, frog hair, boomslang, and aconite were among the things bought in bulk. He also bought a little bit of basilisk venom, chicken teeth, the spleen of a Hungarian horntail, crushed horn of a graphorn, and a strand of threstral hair from its tail. I'm glad I bought this new trunk; the old one would have had no chance of fitting even just my potion ingredients! After he could think of no more ingredients, he started looking in random shops for a pensive since he was not really sure where he would look for one. After some asking around, he found that Six Feet Under had a few pensives to choose from. He hastily made his way down the lane, skillfully avoiding the crowds, and into the shop.

The sign for Six Feet Under was at eye level. It was barely readable under the brownish-red stuff caked on top that looked like old dried blood. Entering the shop, he saw that the inside was just about as clean. Thick layers of dust covered almost everything, the floor looked like it had not been cleaned in ten years, and there was a foul stench coming from the back room. "What can I get for you?" a misty voice not unlike Professor Trelawny whispered.

"I'd like a pensive."

"Over this way, sir." She led him through a winding isle that forked off in several directions and went back much farther than it should have. "These are the ones we have to choose from. Call if you need anything else." With that she glided back to the front of the store. Two of the pensives were cleared of any memories, the third seemed to be about half full, and so he picked up the third one and made his way back up to the counter. Trying to remember the way was harder than he would have though and he ended up back tracking several times. Right, strait, right, left, nonono, back, right, strait… what is this? Harry had walked strait into the weapons area. Adorning the walls were hundreds of throwing knives, daggers, long swords, short swords, bastard swords, maces, axes, and scythes. Trying them out for size, he decided to buy a set of throwing knives, two plain daggers, and a long sword that had a Celtic-like pattern on the blade as well as several runes on the handle. The knives and daggers were black and the long sword was a dull metal so as not to reflect any light. He also got sheaths for all of them and his two wand holsters. After choosing these blades, it seemed the shop showed him the way out. Strange…

"I'll take these." He did not mention the memories in the pensive in case the lady wanted to drive the price up.

"221 galleons and 4 knuts." Handing over the money, he quickly put them into the trunk and before she could even have a good look, he was out the door. Bloody hell! This hood is making me really hot. He was half tempted to take it off, but the risks outweighed the pleasures. Two more things left before I can go home, a wand and getting the bloody under-aged restriction taken off of me if it is possible. Passing Bent Wands, he went in to get another wand. After all, what good is the my wand going to do against it's brother wand.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes. I need to get a wand."

"Is your old wand still in working condition?"

"Does it matter? You give me a wand, I pay for the wand, and I walk out that door with you slightly richer and me a new wand. Is there anything wrong with that." Harry said in a cold voice that would have made Snape proud.

"N-no, no, of course not. Which is your wand arm?"

"Right."

"Try this one, Ash and ashwinder spleen 8 inches." Harry gave it a wave and knocked down almost a whole shelf wand. "No? Alright, yew and a chimera fang." All of the glass shattered, littering the street and wounding several people. He just waved his wand and the glass repaired itself. A half an hour and about sixty or seventy wands later… "You are without a doubt the most tricky customer I have ever had. I know there is a wand here for you, I just can't seem to find it. Now I want you to concentrate really hard on finding a new wand, what it should feel like what it looks like, then I want you to close your eyes and find your wand using your connection. Go on, don't be shy"

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated. The man was right; he could faintly sense his wand. As soon as he realized he was sensing his wand, the connection grew stronger and he started walking toward it at a slow steady pace. He could not sense what it looked like or what it was made of, but it had a distinctive feel to it which he could follow. Then he came to a sudden stop. Opening his eyes he saw a lockbox. "It is in there." If the mans eyes had been normal before, they definitely were not now. They were about as wide as Ollivander's.

"One minute, let me get the key to that." He came rushing back thirty seconds later with a single golden key. 'I never thought I would live to see the day when this wand was sold. It was the only wand that our family has not managed to sell and has been in this shop since the time of the Hogwart's Founders. 13 ½ inches blood root with a core of darkhorn hair, hellcat claw, hellhound tooth, a black pheonix's 1st feather and an unidentified strand of hair. In all of written history there has never been a wand with this many components that did not explode and kill its maker along with destroying itself." With trembling hands, waved toward the wand. "You pick it up, it will not let anyone but its master even touch it until it ahs bonded."

Harry picked up the wand and immediately felt an unseen wind blow him. He heard a phoenix singing mournfully; bringing the wand down in a sharp wave, black, green and silver streamed out of the tip and all of the dust in the shop vanished, leaving it sparkling and clean. Wonder if I'll get a discount for that. "I would also like to know if there is someway to get rid of the under aged restriction."

"Yes there is. It is a spell cast directly on the wand in question and is permanent. I charge one galleon per wand."

Harry handed over his original wand. "I'd like it done to both of these wands."

The man nodded and took both wands, muttering something under his breath that Harry couldn't catch then handed them back to Harry. "That will be 67 galleons 14 sickles and 27knuts."

"Why so expensive?"

"All of the items in that wand are wither extinct or impossible to find. The only reason it is so cheap is because it has been in here so long."

Without another word, Harry hands him the money, tried a spell with each wand and left noting the absence of Ministry owls trying to chase him down. Sssstupid humanssss. Back offff or I'll bite you! Harry walked toward the crowd to see what everyone was staring at inside the pet shop. It was a decent sized snake, around six or seven feet long but only three inches wide at it's largest point. Several men were trying to hold it down without getting bitten, there was a dead man in the corner who apparently had not succeded. A large man was standing over the snakes head with an ax about to chop off its head. Running forward, Harry punched the man before he could swing then looked directly at the snake and hissed under his breath, please don't bite me.

A speaker!

Yes we will talk when I get you out of here, will you not bite me.

You have my word as a snake I will not bite you. Just get me out of here.

"I'll take the snake. How much is it?"

"It's free if you can catch it. Poor Billy over there tried. Its venom will kill you in less than five minutes though so I wouldn't try if I were you."

Harry walked over to the snake, keeping eye contact, and picked him up, letting him coil into his cloak around his waist and out of sight. "Thank you gentlemen." Then he walked out without incident, everyone clearing a wide path for him. He could feel an intense set of eyes on the back of his head and when he turned around he saw a calculating Snape. Turning back around he continued on his way, showing no recognition. He walked back to the Leaky Cauldron and got some lunch then flags down the Night Bus for the second time that day.

Checking his watch (11:57), Harry runs to Private Drive to make the changing of the guard. He slows down to a fast walk when he sees smoke in the general direction of the house. I hope there wasn't a fire, that would get exactly the attention that I do not need right now. I wonder if they noticed I was gone. Harry broke into a run again then skidded to a halt. Crap! Up above the Dursleys house was the Dark Mark.