Chapter 1: I Wanna Be More Than My Problems

Seventeen years.

It had taken seventeen years for Lord Voldemort to be defeated after that fateful night at the Potter family home.

He had lived 11 years of his life with the possibility of the Dark Lord's return, the uncertainty of whether he even still existed. And then it finally happened, the first sighting, and he was back. It had taken the Dark Lord seven years to complete his plans to infiltrate the Ministry and take over Hogwarts, but he succeeded (or so he was lead to believe) on both accounts and only one last step remained…Harry Potter.

There had been times when Harry had had his guard down long enough for one of Voldemort's loyal followers to take him out with a quick Avada Kedavra spell, he himself had had many opportunities, but the Dark Lord had made it abundantly clear that Harry belonged to him and it was he who would execute the final blow.

But in the end, it wasn't Voldemort who had triumphed. No, "good" had once again defeated "evil" and much of the world celebrated, himself included, though no one would have expected it and he would never let anyone see how relieved he truly was about the outcome of the war.

When the immediate celebration came to an end, the wizarding world was left struggling to repair itself. Families had been broken, loved ones had died, homes and businesses were destroyed. It would be a long while before things went back to the way they were.

It was decided that the children needed stability back in their lives and so they set to work repairing Hogwarts to its original glory. The process wasn't easy, magical precautions were taken to ensure that all residual dark magic was cast out and protection charms were cast in the very structure of the building. It took time but the school now stood tall with confidence, it's halls safer than before.

Changes had been made not only to the layout of the school, but also to its long-standing traditions. The most obvious of which was the abolishment of the houses of its four original founders. It was agreed that separating students and pitting them against each other as they vied for the House Cup only lead to resentment and prejudice, therefore, they would stand no longer. From now on students would be separated by age and gender. The Ravenclaw house had been turned into the first and second year dormitories, the third and fourth years were to reside where the Hufflepuff house had once stood, the fifth and sixth years would inhabit Gryffindor, and the seventh years would be bunking in Slytherin.

The houses held the same basic structure as before: a common room on the first floor as well as boys' dormitories upstairs and down to the right, and girls' upstairs and down to the left. The doors would no longer require passwords, allowing boys and girls of every age to mingle together in their common rooms. The sleeping quarters, on the other hand, would now require a password, allowing all students the privacy they deserved. All four living areas were decorated in red, gold, yellow, black, blue, bronze, green, and silver in order to include all of the original house colours.

The house cup was placed in the school entrance as a tribute to its founders, but would no longer be awarded at the end of the year. It would be difficult to adjust to the new conditions, but most understood the reasoning behind the changes, and those who voted against them had been outnumbered three to one.

The end of the previous year had been disrupted and no one had been able to fully complete the year; it was decided that marks would be administered based on how well students had been doing up until the battle and most would be entering into their properly scheduled year. A few students who, like himself, had been more involved in the war still had a full year to catch up on.

Students were currently making their way to the train station, the reconstruction having pushed them only one week behind schedule. Classes would start the next morning, and as the young wizards were re-adjusting to school life, safely stowed away at Hogwarts, their parents would slowly begin to rebuild their lives.

His family life, however, was beyond repair. Both of his parents had been sentenced to Azkaban a week after the Dark Lord had fallen and he had spent the past couple of months alone in his home. Many of the surviving Death Eaters had gone into hiding hoping to avoid their sentencing, but throughout the summer most had been caught and nearly eighty-five percent of Voldemort's followers were now locked away in Azkaban. His parents had made the decision to stick around and face their punishments and because of this had lesser sentences. It would be years before they would return to him, but they would one day return.

He was surprised to learn that he would be spared from any time in Azkaban as it was concluded that his actions had been out of pure unfiltered fear for his life and the lives of his family. When the battle was over his soul was still intact, his hands never stained with the blood of another.

He was to return to Hogwarts. He repressed the fear that presented itself every time he thought of this. He should be done with school, but his year spent working for the Dark Lord had put him behind most of his classmates and he would be returning alone, not one ally to his name. Crabbe was gone and Goyle had yet to regain consciousness after the incident in the room of requirement. All other Slytherins in his year had graduated and he had never put any effort into befriending those in lower grades.

The year would be utter hell, he was sure of it; the new rules would force him to see Potter and his friends on a daily basis. They would be living in the same dormitory and his original plan to lay low, keep his head down and avoid everyone until year's end was ruined. Slowly he dragged himself to the entrance of Platform 9 ¾ and made his way through the barrier, his mind and body instantly filling with dread.

In hopes of avoiding any unnecessary confrontation with his classmates, he had taken his time to get there, ensuring that he would be one of the last to board the train. Silently, he closed his eyes, rolled his neck, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the train. Luckily, he was able to find an empty compartment in one of the smaller cars. He placed his possessions in the overhead shelf with ease and sat down, trying to make himself as comfortable as possible. The trip to Hogwarts was going to be long, the same as it was every year. He wished more than anything that he could simply apparate straight into his quarters, but as per usual, apparating in and out of Hogwarts was physically impossible.

The train had yet to start moving and he was beginning to get impatient. His grey eyes swept over the walls of the compartment and his hands made their way into the pocket of his dark grey hooded pull-over. As his skin slid over the soft fabric his tired eyes fluttered shut. A few months ago the feel of this obviously Muggle material had been foreign to him, but at this moment it was one of the few things in his life that helped to make him feel at ease. He hadn't been able to bring himself to put on his robes since his parents' trial. When their sentences were declared, it took everything he had not to make a scene right there in the courtroom, but he had been taught to never show weakness, and displaying his emotions for all to see was the worst kind of weakness. So rather than lashing out, his features smoothly fell into a look of indifference and he silently made his way to the exit. Once outside the courtroom he went directly to the nearest fireplace and made his way home. He had known that it wouldn't take long for his parents' fates to become common knowledge, and he hadn't wanted to be around for the victory dances he had been sure would ensure. So instead of dealing with whatever was to come he changed out of his robes and into the only set of Muggle clothes he had: a pair of dark fitted jeans, a black v-neck t-shirt, and an oversized dark grey pull-over. Then, he did something he had never done before—he apparated into the alley next to the Leaky Cauldron and stepped out into the busy streets of Muggle London.

He wandered around for what seemed like hours before stopping in front of a small café. Looking up at the menu, he found he was unfamiliar with many of the items offered And then he remembered that he wasn't in possession of any Muggle money. Quickly he made his way to the toilets and removed a handful of galleons, sickles, and knuts from his pocket. He pulled out his wand, muttered Viaticus Verto and watched as his wizard money instantly transformed into British pounds.

After purchasing a cup of black coffee, he sat in a secluded booth at the back of the establishment. It was oddly comforting to be in a world where no one knew him, a world where his last name was just a last name, and his family life was known only to him. He sat and drank and watched the Muggles enter and exit the small café. When he had finished his fourth cup, he made his way out and reluctantly apparated home.

His first night alone in the manor was one of the worst nights of his life. He tossed and turned and barely slept, and when sleep did finally overtake him he dreamt of the horrors of the war and awoke the next morning shaking and covered in sweat. He tried to busy himself around the house, but it was useless. Nothing could distract him from replaying the terrifying nightmare over and over again. So once again, he dressed in his Muggle clothes and made his way to that same café. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but for the next few months every day he made his way to that café, his café. It was the only place he could completely escape from his life. He spent his days warily testing out everything on the menu and watching the constant flow of Muggles. He had always been told that Muggles were an inferior race, that they were far beneath even filthy Mudbloods, but the longer he observed them the more he realized just how wrong they had been. Yes, they were at a disadvantage, things didn't come as easy to them as they did to Wizards, but they managed. They came up with technologies that allowed them to communicate with each other much quicker than owls; they came up with a way to write that was fast and convenient and never caused a mess; and they came up with ways to get around town that were slower than brooms, but much faster than walking. He was amazed that any of these contraptions had ever been invented and that they worked and worked well. Although he'd never want to switch places, never want to be a Muggle, he was growing to respect them and he was infinitely grateful for the peace and quiet their world had provided him.

The train lurched forward roughly and he was pulled from his unexpected slumber. His eyes remained shut, but he heard slightly muffled, unwelcomed voices through his thick grey hood. He knew right away that his compartment was no longer empty and as the unknown group continued to talk, the feeling of dread overtook him once more. He realized quickly that the voices he was hearing were familiar, far too familiar. They didn't seem to realize with whom they were sharing the compartment. Had they known, he probably would have been jerked from his sleep much earlier and forced to endure their inevitable shouts of anger and hate. Luckily, his hood was shielding his face and his attire was one that they'd never expect of him, so he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that they would continue to ignore him.


A/N: Okay, so my plan was to write the entire story before posting anything…that was the plan (I do have a good chunk written) but I've come to a bit of block and after much consideration I have decided to post what I have so far and hope that your comments and ideas help to unstick my brain. So please, I encourage all of you to put in your ideas as the story goes on and if anything seems to fit well I'll probably try to work it in…or if you find the story to be utter crap then I'll just move on with my life, lol. Either way I'd love to hear from all of you. This is a bit different for me, I've never written a full length Harry Potter story, so I guess we'll see how it goes.

Thanks!