Chapter 01: Spirited Away

A/N: This is fanfiction. I don't own Harry Potter. I don't make any money from this.

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It was a late night in the fall, and most of the people on Privet Drive were sleeping soundly. It was awfully chilly outdoors, and people preferred the warm comforts of their beds too much to care even as the banging noise of a motorcycle was briefly audible outside. Even the gossips were far too comfy to get up, or even awaken to the noise.

Yet as the streetlights once more shone on the streets a basket could be seen left on the doorstep of the number four Privet Drive. It was the home of Dursleys, a family of normal people that wanted nothing strange to interfere with their lives. Their reaction to the unpleasant surprise of finding a baby left on their doorstep would have been bad enough, but it was the fact who the child was that would have driven them frothing rage.

The child was Harry James Potter, and the son of the late Lily Potter, born Evans. Lily was the sister of Petunia Dursley, born Evans, and a bright and gifted young woman who had outshone her sister even before it was revealed she was a witch, planting seeds of envy and hatred in Petunia. Petunia in turn had cultivated the dislike of unnatural things in her husband Vernon to an outright hatred, spinning lies of how badly the magicals treated the muggles, or normal people.

So it seemed the child was destined for a life of hardships, misery and emotional abuse in a household where he would forever be an outsider, an unwanted burden and a reminder of the things they did not want to think about. It would have left Harry a quiet, meek child who would have been desperate to escape that life and eager to grasp onto any alternative. It was a cruel scheme by an old manipulative bastard who had to know exactly what he was doing by leaving the child there.

A lone raven took off the branch of a decorative tree nearby and flew towards the baby in the basket, the shadow on the house wall seeming to grow and change in the span of just one or two seconds, revealing the slender figure of a woman in its place. Pale fingers gently lifted the basket and the baby in it, and piercing green eyes gazed upon the child quietly for a moment, a smile tugging at the corner of full, dark lips.

"I didn't want to believe it, but Lily was right. Come on, little boy, this is no place for a decent wizard. I am sure these people will be much happier too when you will not be found on their doorstep next morning, even if they might be upset to have the old bastard storm in on their home demanding answers later."

Kissing the babe's head gently, the raven-turned-lady noticed the small scar in the shape of a lightning bolt, and felt the magic in it. Shiver ran through her body as she thought about the rest of what Lily had told her. James Potter might have believed in Dumbledore and his friends, but Lily was not as naïve as to leave it all to chance. Not when her instincts screamed for her to prepare for this eventuality, not when her minor talents in divination gave her signs that death approached her family.

"I'll take care of you Harry."

The shadows shifted once more into the shape of a raven taking flight, and as it rose to the sky all that was left on the doorstep was a lone black feather.

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Albus Dumbledore had been too tired to pay any attention to the trinkets in his office when he had returned to Hogwarts after the little trip to Little Whinging. The child was left at the doorstep of a family that would hate him and hopefully break his spirit, his magic had been bound, and the scar that Voldemort gave him had been left untreated. He had too many things on his mind and he was tired from everything he had been forced to put into motion in a hurry, and all he wanted to do was sleep. So it was no surprise he missed the fact the trinkets that were supposed to monitor Harry's wellbeing and location were starting to grind to a halt.

The next morning was a busy one as well. The gossip had reached Hogwarts that he-who-must-not-be-named had attacked the Potters last night, and had been defeated. People were curious and the rumors were too widespread for Dumbledore to do anything about it anymore. While he had wanted the glory for himself, he was resigned to the fact that this legend would not be about him.

Getting the Potter will sealed took most of his time until noon, and he had to fight to gain guardianship over Harry. Several prominent families wanted to take care of the boy, but he could not let the child grow in the wizarding world. He needed the boy a meek puppet he could manipulate later in life, someone that felt indebted to him for releasing him from the misery that the boy's relatives were sure to pile up on him, at least for the duration of each school year. If the boy was brought up in a wizard household the lad might not be as obedient, and Albus was not willing to risk it.

When he finally held the documents declaring him the young Potter's legal guardian in his grasp, he had marched to Gringotts and demanded access to the Potter vaults immediately. The fact that James had been willing to fund his Order of the Phoenix before had shown him just how extensive the Potter wealth was, but the payments had ended with James' death and even before that Lily had made sure that James would not give too much gold to the old headmaster and his order.

The goblin had taken one look at the document, sneered at him and pushed it back towards him. "The Potters have already declared Sirius Black is their son's legal guardian."

"Sirius Black is the one responsible for James and Lily's death, and is on his way to the Azkaban even as we speak." Albus put on his best sad and resigned expression, watching the goblin quietly. Damn things were near impossible to read with legilimency, and his wandless ability with it was good enough to get a read from children but not nearly enough to get even an impression from an experienced goblin banker.

"Hmmh. Very well, I suppose he is indisposed for the moment." The goblin glared at him angrily at this.

"Yes, quite so. Now, I need the keys to the Potter accounts-"

"I am afraid that isn't possible. The Potter vaults are sealed." The goblin smirked cruelly at this.

"Hmmh, yes well, they were, but I am demanding access and for the vaults to be unsealed so-"

"Until the Potter heir himself arrives here the vaults will remain frozen, and you cannot overturn that even if you are his guardian. This is a family edict, and cannot be overruled by anyone but the heir himself." The goblin's grin widened as Dumbledore sputtered and growled, tugging at his beard and trying to calm himself down.

"Now look, I am the Chief Wizard of the Wizengamot, and I demand-"

"Careful, wizard, you are on Goblin territory and if you demand we break our customers privacy and betray their orders to suit you, you will be thrown out and barred from this establishment for a year!"

The goblin had shouted this loud enough to draw attention, and people were starting to whisper and stare at him curiously. Security goblins had gotten up and moved closer too, and Albus Dumbledore knew that he had lost this time. He'd come back with paperwork that he would use to strangle the money out of these goblins if he needed to. These green-skinned little buggers wouldn't keep him away from the fortune that should be his, and family edicts be damned. James wouldn't have done that. It smelled like Lily's interference, that bloody bitch was causing him headaches from beyond the grave.

When Albus had finally arrived to his office late that evening, he was shocked to discover the shelf housing the trinkets that were supposed to monitor Harry had exploded and the dozen or so trinkets lay broken on the floor, their enchantments broken. Something had happened, and the few drops of blood he had taken from the babe to make the trinkets had also been ruined by this.

Albus Dumbledore got a chill down his spine at that sight. Surely the Dursleys could not have just killed Harry? He was certain they would hate the ruddy bugger but they were not murderers, were they? He did not want to think it was possible but something had obviously happened. It was time to get answers, and he knew he would only get them from the Dursleys themselves.

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Despite Dumbledore's attempts to silence the news, the Daily Prophet somehow got wind that Dumbledore had lost the Potter child, and that his relatives had never even known that Harry was supposed to be at their care. Their outright hostility towards the reporter had painted them as very unpleasant fashion and people began to question why Dumbledore wanted to send the child to them in the first place.

Dumbledore used his influence to start a massive manhunt for Harry Potter all over England, and then all over Europe. He feared the boy was dead, but the goblins should have sent notice if that was true. Something was going on, but the green bastards refused to let him know what they knew. The idea that Potter was alive but being raised by someone else terrified him more than the idea of the child's death. That would mean he would not get his puppet, it would mean that the boy would not look up to him and serve his interests, it meant the boy might not bend to his will and allow him to achieve his goals even if they had been delayed till the boy had matured enough to hand over his fortune to Dumbledore when he received his keys.

He lost his position in the International Confederation of Wizards, the Chairman throwing him out and revoking the Supreme Mugwump title which had allowed him to push the decisions the way he wanted. He managed to hold onto his position as a Chief Wizard in the Wizengamot, but his opponents managed to force him to some concession in order to remain there.

All because of one wayward brat had managed to slip free from his grasp. The search was proving useless as well, and Dumbledore began to worry that Harry had been taken over to the colonies. If he was in America it would be difficult to get the boy back, ICW held power in Europe but it had little influence across the ocean. It would be difficult if the boy had managed to flee that far.

A year passed, and no signs of Harry Potter emerged. He had tried to send the boy some letters by owl in the hopes of tracing them, but the owls returned with undelivered letters. The list of students would reveal where the young lad had gotten but it would not do that for nine more years. Albus did not like it but it seemed he had little choice on the matter. Without even a clue as to what had happened or any idea where the boy might have gotten Albus Dumbledore was left brooding and complaining.

OOOOOO

Far away, a young baby boy was sleeping comfortably with a stomach full of milk, and a content smile on his face. The faint scar on his forehead still hadn't completely vanished, but it was a lot less pronounced than it had been when he was left alone at that doorstep over a year ago. The soft humming of a woman rocking his bed quietly soothed him even in his dreams, allowing the troubled young child to continue healing.

The pale fingers rose to brush a bit of the wild, dark hair off of his eyes and she looked at her young ward with a smile on her lips. While the British wizards were panicking and rushing around like headless chickens to find the boy after making the mistake of trusting him with Dumbledore, she had been busy setting everything in order. The official papers had been turned impervious to harm and framed on the wall of her home, declaring her the legal magical guardian of one Harry James Potter and recognizing him as her adopted son.

She would not have access to the Potter vaults but she had enough influence (and goodwill) with the goblins to request for the vaults contents to be transferred to her homeland and put on a freeze order until Harry had come of age. The Potter properties that were not in use were under heavy wards already anyway, and the ones that were in use were paying rent which she was eventually granted access to as long as she would present paperwork proving it was spent on young Harry. She had not touched that account yet, but she knew it would come in handy when time came for Harry to go to school.

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First Chapter ends.

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