Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: I wrote this story some time ago when I was angry with almost all the characters in the Harry Potter series, for reasons that will be mentioned in the story. So it is quite a cynical story. On the bright side it is mostly complete. The next chapter will be posted tomorrow.
Chapter 1: Run and hide or stay and lose
The Dementors had been defeated. Just as Harry was about to celebrate, he saw someone running towards him. Harry had already cast a stunning spell at the newcomer before he recognized it was Mrs. Figg.
He didn't want to oblivate her. He had never done the spell before, and he didn't want her to end up like Lockhart. Well, he hoped he hadn't violated the Statue of Secrecy too much.
Now that he had won the fight, all the adrenaline had left him, and he suddenly felt weary. He really didn't want to deal with two unconscious people.
He levitated Mrs. Figg to her home, and left her just inside her front door. He then took Dudley home. He was discreetly using his wand to make Dudley appear to be walking beside him. But he really hoped he didn't meet anyone on the street, since Dudley was clearly not walking, but floating.
When they were outside his aunt and uncle's home, he cast Ennervate hoping that Dudley would wake up. Dudley stumbled, but soon got back to his feet. He was about to lunge at Harry, but he saw the wand pointed at him and stopped.
"You can't use that on me," Dudley said. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that.
"Sure I can. I already did magic," Harry told him. He was also trying to appear more confident than he was.
"You'll be expelled," Dudley said, and harry was surprised he remembered that from three years ago.
"But I can turn you into a pig first," Harry pointed out. Dudley had nothing to say to that. So Harry decided to press his advantage. "You're not going to say anything to your parents about what happened outside. If you tell them, I'll turn all three of you into pigs."
Dudley gaped at him with his mouth open. Harry hoped he agreed. He was not looking forward to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon screaming about him doing magic.
They went to the house where Aunt Petunia predictably screamed at Harry for staying out too late while ignoring the fact that Dudley had committed the same crime. Her screeching was cut short by an owl announcing he was being expelled and his wand would be snapped. Luckily he was the only one who read the letter.
"What was that for?" Uncle Vernon wanted to know.
"Letter from a friend. I have to leave," Harry told him. He couldn't tell them he was in trouble with the Ministry of Magic. They would probably try to stop him to make sure his wand was snapped.
Harry didn't bother packing his school books or clothes. He only gathered his photo album, Firebolt and invisibility cloak and was out of the house, within a few minutes of receiving the owl from the Ministry.
"Good riddance," Uncle Vernon shouted at his back as he left the house.
Harry turned and said, "Don't worry. I'm never returning to your house again."
Harry was sure he looked strange carrying a broom, walking down the street. He took the first opportunity to duck into an alley. There he mounted his Firebolt and put the invisibility cloak over himself. Then he flew in the direction of London
As he flew, he considered the situation. He had been expelled. And the Ministry was going to snap his wand. He had no place to go and no idea what he was going to do.
Harry was shocked to see that an owl was flying beside him. He pulled the hood of his cloak off and asked, "Do you have something for me?"
The owl gave him a letter from Ron's dad and flew off. It didn't contain anything useful in Harry's opinion. It told him to stay at the Dursleys house, which he had already left. It also told him to not do magic and not surrender his wand. All those things could obviously not be done at the same time. If someone from the Ministry went to the house and found Harry and tried to take his wand, how was he supposed to stop them without doing magic?
Besides, he had just saved himself and his cousin from getting their souls sucked out. But everyone was treating him like he had done some mischief and were trying to punish him. Couldn't they just congratulate him and call it good? Harry laughed to himself. It never worked like that with the Ministry of Magic. They merely existed to cause Harry problems.
As he got closer to London, he had received another owl from the Ministry of Magic, saying that he had to attend a hearing. Harry didn't think that would go well for him either. If the Ministry was involved, something would invariably go wrong.
Harry landed in a quiet alley. He was in London, but he had no idea what he was going to do. In previous years, he would have gone to Ron or Hermione's house or the Leaky Cauldron. But now that he was a criminal in the wizarding world, he needed to stay in muggle London.
He was also carrying a broom in muggle London. He finally decided on hiding it with his invisibility cloak. It was awkward, but it would do for now.
Harry was waiting outside the back entrance of a cheap hotel. He was looking at an employee who was smoking outside the back door. He had never cast the confundus charm before, but it wasn't supposed to be difficult. He had read about it after Snape and Fudge had accused Sirius of casting it on him in third year. As the man stubbed out his cigarette, Harry pointed his wand at him and cast the spell.
It had gone more smoothly than Harry would have expected. The charm had worked perfectly, and now Harry was in a small but clean room. He decided that it would be best if nobody was worried about him yet. So he wrote a short note to Ron and Hermionie saying that he was unhappy about staying at his aunt and uncle's house, but he was doing as he was told.
Harry felt a small measure of satisfaction at lying to his friends, after they had spent the whole summer refusing to tell him anything.
As he fell asleep that night, he considered that the Sorting hat might have been right after all. He would have done well in Slythierin.
The next morning Harry had walked out to a busy street and picked a well dressed bussinessman's pocket. He looked like he wouldn't miss the money and the confundus charm was invaluable to criminals. Fudge had told him something useful after all.
Harry walked back to the hotel, and ordered breakfast. He then flew to the general area of Diagon Alley under the cloak. He knew what he needed, but he wasn't sure how he was going to get it.
He had gone to Diagon Alley and lost no time in walking into Knockturn Alley. There he walked up and down the street, wondering how he would find a shop that provided what he would need.
Harry was looking at a sign for a shop that advertised security services. That sounded like what he wanted. He walked in nervously.
He was welcomed by the middle aged shopkeeper, who said, "Hello young sir, what can I do for you?" He had also given Harry a strange look, probably because of his muggle clothes.
"I would like you to stop any owls from delivering mail to me. Can you do that?," Harry asked him. He was sure someone in Knockturn Alley could do this. After all, if owls could always find people, they would have caught Sirius the week he had escaped from Azkaban.
"I can do that young sir," the shopkeeper said. Harry wondered if shopkeepers in Knockturn Alley spoke differently from those in Diagon Alley. "That will be thirty galleons."
Harry counted out the money from his pouch. The shopkeeper seemed surprised. His clothes made him look poor Harry realized. Well it didn't matter. "I will of course be testing your work," Harry informed him.
"Of course," the man replied with a slight smile. He took the money and started casting spells on Harry. "Did you know that you already have an anti owl spell on you?" he asked after a few spells.
"I didn't know," Harry replied, but it made sense. He had never received any fan mail or unexpected letters. So he guessed Dumbledore had put the spell on him. "Can you find out if there are any other spells on me?" Harry asked.
"Certainly," the shopkeeper replied. He proceeded to cast a lot of spells, all of them silently so Harry had no idea what he was doing. It was making him quite nervous.
"There are tracking spells on you, but they are tied to a sample of your blood or hair," the shopkeeper said.
That was very bad. "All right leave them alone for now. Can you remove the anti owl spells already on me and put up your own?"
He promptly cast more spells at Harry. Harry considered what else this man could do for him. When he had finished, he asked, "Can you check my belongings too?" He gave him his Firebolt which he had shrunk and the invisibility cloak.
They also had tracking spells. Harry had been worried about his clothes, but the man had assured him that they were clean.
"Can you tell me where I can find more information on the tracking spells on me?" Harry asked.
The shopkeeper had given him the names of some books. He thought they might be available at Flourish and Blotts.
"Thank you. And how much do I still owe you?" Harry asked as he prepared to leave.
"Twenty galleons," he replied.
As Harry paid him, he looked deliberately at the shopkeeper and said, "I hope you have not placed any spells on me that I did not ask for."
"Of course not. I would not live very long in this business if I was in the habbit of doing that," he said with a wry smile.
Harry hoped it was true as he went to Flourish and Blotts and found the books he needed. He really wanted to change some galleons into pounds, but he didn't want to go to the bank. The goblins had the uncanny ability to recognize their customers. Besides, he still had a lot of gold. He had withdrawn too much in his third year.
Harry had gotten back to his room and found the photo album. He took it to the back alley and promptly set fire to it. He had to do it before he could change his mind. Hagrid had collected the pictures in it and he felt sure that it had a lot of tracking charms on it, like his broom and cloak. Dumbledore had had access to all of them.
He could go back to Knockturn Alley and get them removed, but the pictures would leave no doubt that he was Harry Potter. And he really didn't want to identify himself right now.
He left the room soon after. He only felt slightly guilty about not paying for it. It was an advantage of not having luggage. He hoped the confounded clerk just assumed he had made a mistake.
Harry was in another cheap hotel room. The clerk who had not been confounded had asked for money upfront when he had taken the room. He would have to steal more money before dinner. It was surprising how little that bothered him.
Harry was eating a burger and fries as he reread the relevant passages on tracking with blood or hair. He had had an idea when the man at the security store had told him that he was being tracked and the person tracking him was probably using his hair or blood. He decided to sleep first and carry out his plan tomorrow.
The next morning, Harry had cut his hair roughly and put the clippings in a bag. He then put on the invisibility cloak and started walking around London and dropping pieces of his hair in random locations. With magic he could put hair fragments in the concrete of the pavement, in the cracks of furniture, in between seat cushions of taxis, even in the river.
By the end of the day his hair was all over London. He hoped that that would confuse whatever Dumbledore, because who else could it be, was doing to track him.
As he fell asleep he wondered when he had become so cynical. In three days, he had given up his friends, the relative safety of his relatives' home, almost all his possessions, and even his place in the world.
But he had good reasons. His friends had abandoned him. He wondered if it was because Voldermort was back and they wanted to put some distance between Voldermort's favourite target and themselves. It was probably unfair of him to think that, but the distance was real. Harry had not imagined it.
He had never felt safe in his relatives home. He had even run away before under similar conditions. He was not particularly fond of his material possessions. He wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice any of them for his safety. And his place in the wizarding world fluctuated like a pendulum from the Boy who defeated Voldermort to Heir of Slytherin. No he would not miss his fame.
Over the course of the last two days, Harry had asked himself why he was so determined to stay hidden. Now that he thought about it, the answer was obvious. In the wizarding world, he would constantly be a target for Voldermort. But if he lived in the muggle world under a different name, he would be just as safe as an ordinary muggle.
And he realized that he was quite content to leave the wizarding world behind. Especially in light of Voldermort's rebirth and his strained friendship with Ron and Hermione. And if he was really being honest with himself, he had never belonged to the wizarding world in the first place. He realized that Malfoy had a point. Muggleborns were not raised to know the culture and traditions of the wizarding world. Harry, who had been raised by muggles, knew very little about the wizarding world. He didn't even know where the Ministry of Magic, where his trial would be held, was. If he changed his mind about going to the hearing, he wouldn't be able to get there without asking for directions in Diagon Alley first. He was very different from a Pureblood. He was a muggle who could do magic.
Harry woke up the next morning in a better mood. He still had no friends, home or possessions. But he felt less upset about that in the light of day. He also felt better because he had decided that he would do something about being alone. He had decided that he would kidnap his godfather.
As he went over the plan at lunch, he wondered how he had escaped Slytherin. He picked up the letter he had written and walked to Diagon Alley. He had chosen to eat at a muggle café near the Leaky Cauldron.
He walked into the post office, and sent his letter to Sirius Black.