Self Imposed Exile
Harry Potter, saviour of the magical half of the country simply stared in utter confusion and anger at the dark skinned man sat across from him. The news he had been given had floored him and given rise to great anger – rightly so after all Harry had done for the country.
"I was under the impression that you were the Minister… Could you not have had this stopped?" he asked Kingsley Shaklebolt. "Even though I am the one who brought down Voldemort, smashed his followers, liberated Britain from tyranny and slavery – and they want me jailed for it?" Harry stared at the man. "Did I miss that part in the prophecy?" he asked sarcastically.
"It is out of my hands. If I don't do this, Harry, my time in office will be limited" Shaklebolt replied. "And after all… You did kill a number of Purebloods and higher ranking Half-Bloods"
"So you'd rather imprison me on the say so of a few old families that were on the losing side…?" Harry used both hands to flip the table up and over – sending paperwork, ink bottles, quills and all sorts flying all over the place. "You know what, bollocks to you. I'm out of here, and it might be a long time until you see me again"
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I mean, Minister Shaklebolt. I am going to leave this building, go have a nice little chat with the Goblins to have them call in all the loans the Potter Family has made over the years, close down those business I so choose and then turn my back on the Magical community except for those occasions I choose to attend" Harry turned back to look at the former Auror who was pinned to the floor by the contents of the desk and the desk itself. "Perhaps I should have let Tom win…" he said darkly, then he turned round and left the Ministry.
# # # # #
"I don't see what the problem is" Ron said. "I mean, if the Minister says you have to go to jail, then I guess he has to be right"
"And what if he is wrong?" asked Hermione.
"The Minister is never wrong" Ron said back.
"Does Sirius Black ring a bell…?" Harry sipped his whiskey.
"So what do you plan to do, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Well right now the Goblins are finding out who and what owes me money. Once they have done that they will call in those loans, recover every single penny and then close all the businesses I own or have the majority shares in"
"You can't do that" said Ron. His face started to go the same colour as his infamous Weasley hair.
"Why not?"
"Well…" Ron faltered. "Because I said you can't"
"Because you said?" Harry smirked. "Ron, you are a guest in this house and of the Potter family – do not piss me off" and he withdrew his wand.
"Don't you dare to pull your wand on me" Ron jumped to his feet. "Under the authority granted to me by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I hereby place you under arrest for attempted assault of an Auror. Hand over your wand, Prisoner Potter"
"Ron" Harry's eyes turned icy cold. "Ron, get out of my house under your own power before I make it so that you never walk again" and the two Aurors looked at each other – both ready for combat.
"What about you, Mione?" Ron asked, flickering a look to the young woman.
"I'm with Harry on this one" she said. "Harry has done nothing but sacrifice his childhood, put himself in terrible danger, died once… And this is how the magical community thanks him? Yes, he killed people, but he only did it in battle and only those who were attacking him. This is nothing more than Pureblood supremacy trying to raise its head again"
"But Purebloods have to be the top – it is our right"
"Rights have to be earned" Hermione said.
"What would you know about that sort of thing, Mudblood?" and Hermione paled and gasped – then watched as Harry blasted Ron off his feet and into a wall.
"You had better get that idiot to the hospital, Hermione. By the time he comes round, I will be gone from here" Harry said, checking to see if Ron was alive or not.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked as she got her things together.
"Whilst I was talking to the Goblins, I asked them to look for a small house or something. Nothing too small, of course, a bedroom for me, a few guest rooms, bathroom, toilet, living room, kitchen, library and a garden front and back"
"How are you going to get around?"
"Got a car in the garage" replied Harry. "You see, Hermione, I've spent far too long around magic – I want to go back to how it was before I went to Hogwarts"
"You mean you are going to live with the Dursleys?" Hermione raised a bemused eyebrow.
"Not that far back" he conceded with a chuckle. "No, I want to spend time away from magic and get to know what a real life is like. Of course, I'll use magic as it is a part of my very being but I want to get out there and have a job"
"Not simply as something to do" Hermione nodded.
"Yeah… I know that I have more money than I could possibly spend in my lifetime, but I have done enough shit and enough rubbish to jump through any more pureblood hoops. No more running – I aim to misbehave"
"When do you plan to leave?" Hermione grabbed Ron – ready for the transportation to St Mungos.
"Tonight. I have Kreacher packing stuff away to be put in either the Potter vaults or taken to the new house. The Goblins are going to take me over there after dinner"
"I see" Hermione hesitated. "You will keep in touch, right?"
"Of course I will" Harry replied with a half smile. "It might not be for a while, though, but I'll always give help to those that need it – especially my friends" and Hermione nodded before turning on the spot and taking Ron for medical treatment. After a minute of staring at the spot sadly, he turned away and went into the kitchen where Kreacher was sat having a little bit to eat. The elf tried to stand the moment that Harry walked in, but Harry waved him back to his place.
"Can I do something for you, Master Harry?" he asked slowly.
"Have the Goblins delivered the new address yet?"
"Yes… They left a letter bearing all of the deeds and entitlements" and Harry looked to see a small letter sitting on a file marked 'Awdry Manor' – the name of the place he had chosen to live in.
"You have a choice to make, Kreacher" Harry said, picking up the file and opening it.
"Me?" asked the elf confusedly.
"You may either stay here and take care of this house, you may go to work at the Hogwarts kitchens or you can come to the island with me" and the elf looked very thoughtful for a short time.
"I'd like to come with you, Master Harry" he said.
"Good. Now, you have been a good and loyal elf all these years, what with protecting the house and keeping that locket safe, so I will allow you to do one thing before we leave – you decide what it is"
"I'm just a house elf, sir, I have no wants or desires"
"Oh, now we both know that is not true… There must have been something that you have always wanted to do – something you have dreamed about and thought of doing in private"
"Well" said Kreacher slowly, "There is one thing I have wanted to try and do" and the elf vanished with a pop.
# # # # #
The graveyard was quiet as the lone elf appeared in the darkness. Kreacher looked around for a moment and then started to search the tombstones for several minutes – coming to a rest in front of a small and almost unnoticeable one. Abnormally for the small magical being, Kreacher looked around once more – nervous at the thought of what it was going to do. Just to be certain, the elf bent down and looked at the grave marker.
HERE LIES
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
DEFEATED DARK LORD
"If there is an afterlife, I hope you are watching this" Kreacher said. He'd been wanting to do this ever since Master Regulus had been killed and after getting the information during the search for the other Horcruxes from Master Harry and Miss Hermione, it had firmed his resolve.
The stillness of the night air was broken only by two sounds – one of them was the sound of an elf chuckling and laughing.
The other was the odd sound of running water
# # # # #
Courage
Duty
Honour
These are all words that most people know and know well. It was well known by the surviving Aurors from the final battle at Hogwarts and it was a credo that they had taken from Harry Potter and what had happened in the years he had spent at Hogwarts. He had the courage, along with a handful of others, to face his fears and to keep up the fight against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. When Shaklebolt had ordered the still decimated Auror force to do their duty and to start a search for Harry James Potter, arrest him and lock up in Azkaban on what amounted to trumped up charges, they replied that their duty was to uphold the law – nothing more and nothing less. They'd replied that Harry had done his duty and defeated the magical world's greatest threat and had earned the right to settle down and enjoy life and maybe start a family. They had refused to carry out the order without a warrant, and they still refused to do so even with one.
"If Potter wants to go live with the Muggles, then I say we let him" said the Senior Auror in the room.
"Fifteen years on the force is quite an investment. Your job, your pension. Maybe instead of worrying about that brat, you might think about your own family" Shaklebolt sneered at him with a fake smile plastered on his face. The Senior Auror said nothing but ran his thumb over his Auror badge with his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he took the badge off and threw it to the floor at the minister's feet.
"I am - I'm thinking I have to go home and face them" and he left the room.
#
At the same that was happening, Harry was settling into his new home at Awdry Manor, located on the Island of Sodor – just off the coast near Barrow In Furness. Kreacher had, at Harry's request, cleaned the library first before starting on the rest of the place and make it suitable to live in. Nothing was wrong with the place exactly, but the years of emptiness had given it a somewhat dusty and grungy look and feel. After he had finished stacking several boxes of books on the more than ample bookshelves, Harry decided to go into the local town of Tidmouth and he went into the garage and found a small dark green Ford Mondeo parked up and ready for use. Driving out of the garage, he went down the driveway and set off towards the town to see what was around and to buy a few things that the house would need. As he walked along the high street, he wondered about how his life had flipped so upside down that he'd had to go on the run again. He had heard rumours almost since the death of Voldemort that he was to be locked away under house arrest just in case another Dark Lord showed up on the scene. As he passed by the railway station, he decided to pop inside and have a cup of tea and a rest from walking. As he sat in the station buffet, he watched the trains going by taking both passengers and freight to their destinations. Unlike most trains, including the Hogwarts Express, the engines on the island of Sodor had faces, were alive and could think, talk and feel as much as anybody. Of course, being railway engines, they could only go forwards and backwards, as fast or as slow as their drivers allowed them to go and only go in a set direction thanks to the signalman. In addition, this railway, the North Western Railway, operated mainly steam engines. As he sat and watched, Harry could see big express locomotives all the way down to little shunters and station pilots. As he looked back at the old fashioned buffet full of polished wood, gold, copper and metal fittings, he heard a sudden whistling noise and saw a small green tank engine come rushing into a bay platform with a goods train – shouting at people to get as far away as possible. His, for the voice was male, driver and fireman jumped clear onto the platform as the little engine went rushing onwards before hitting the buffers, riding up and over before smashing into a small ticket booth near some gates.
"Somebody call the ambulance!" a man shouted as railway staff poured in from all over to help pull out any injured. Harry looked out of the window at the utter chaos that had ensued from the accident and left his shopping and tea behind as he raced over and offered to help.
"You better get clear, sonny" one of the station staff said.
"I've got first aid training" Harry replied. "I can help out until the ambulances get here" and the man looked at Harry before nodding his head. Harry worked as hard as he could in pulling out the injured from the debris – putting some magical healing into each person as he did so. He knew that he might be breaking the statute of secrecy, but Harry found that he could not be bothered by it at all. Once medical assistance had been summoned, Harry switched to helping out with moving the debris from around the badly damaged engine who was in pain.
"It wasn't my fault" it said. "I was pushed by the trucks" and then it closed its eyes and groaned low and soft in complete agony.
"Is he going to be alright?" Harry asked.
"He will have to be pulled off carefully, but he should be alright to get to the works as soon as the work crews have made him safe. First off, though, we have to dump his fire – hard to do when he is at a massive angle like that" another of the workers said. They worked slowly and carefully and it was not until a few hours that the engine, whose name Harry had learnt was Percy, had been placed back on the tracks, towed up onto a flatbed and hauled away to the works.
#
"You helped us out a great deal" said a man. Sir Topham Hatt said. He wore a slightly old fashioned kind of suit with a yellow waistcoat and stood in front of Harry as he sat in his office. At first, mainly because he had not moved for a while, Harry assumed him to be nothing but a lead figure painted up as a person.
"I happened to be in the area" Harry shrugged. "I saw what happened and I helped as best as I could"
"Yesssssss" Sir Topham Hatt drew the word out a little longer than normal before sitting down in his chair. "Over the many years of running this railway, I have become a good judge of people based on what I see and hear them do… I would like to offer you a job in the company. It is not much, merely a position of station assistant, but the pay is reasonable"
"I already have a lot of money left to me by my parents, Sir, but I would like to still have a job and earn a living, so to speak at least"
"Indeed" Sir Topham Hatt looked at Harry carefully. "Very well, the job is yours. I shall have somebody send you a formal letter outlining your job description, pay and benefits if you leave your address"
"Right"
"Just two more things… The first is that you call me the Fat Controller – everybody does that even if they don't know that I know" and Harry smiled.
"The second?" he asked.
"I will not mention it to any member of staff unless you want me to do so" the newly nicknamed Fat Controller said, "But I was wondering when you were going to tell me your name was Harry James Potter?"
A/N: Well everybody, there it is – chapter one of
For the record, I will be mixing up characters and events from both the books and the tv series – but only before HiT took over the making of it – and some made up events of my own design.
Well, not much to say now but I hope you'll leave a review and if you have any questions, then please note them down in your reviews or even a PM if you want to keep the questions separate – I will answer as many as possible.
Regards
Pixel and Stephanie Forever
