The Threads of Life, a harry potter fanfic

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Authors Note: I don't know for sure if I'll continue this, if I get enough positive response I will..if not..oh well...I got the idea for this why writing chapter 4 of my HP/FMA crossover 'Forgotten Rain' so it might not be too good...if it isn't you have my sincerest apologies.

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Title:

The Threads of Life

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Chapter: One

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The miasma like weather around four Private Drive had driven everyone inside, everyone that is except Harry Potter, and his watchers. He was sure they were still out there, sure they still had orders to 'protect' him. Harry knew Dumbledore and he had thought he knew how he thought; he had been proved wrong in the latter when Dumbledore allowed himself to be killed. But, even with the little Harry now realized he knew about Dumbledore, he was still sure of one thing: That Dumbledore would have left orders for him to be watched...and 'protected'. The protection part was a joke; Harry now realized. 'Light' Wizards stood no chance against 'Dark' Wizards, no matter how powerful they were, Light Wizards with their Stunners and other weak spells could never overcome the Dark Wizards and their 'Avada Kadavra' , the killing curse. He also now realized that there was no sure 'Right' or 'Wrong' it was all in the Grey area.

'I hate this!' He screamed indignantly into his mind 'I have to find someway to escape from these 'Protectors'.' Thought Harry angrily, unconsciously causing the grass around where he was hiding, underneath a bush, to avoid his Uncle and Aunts attention, to wither and die.

"BOY!" Harry head his Uncle Vernon yell, "Come in here." as he heard this, Harry decided to avoid a confrontation with his uncle and got up to head in.

Before Harry had moved five steps from his hiding place on his way to the back porch of his Uncle and Aunts house, he felt something collide with his upper left shoulder. Searing red-hot pain coursed through his body; but Harry had withstood the 'Crucio' curse before and this pain was nothing like that. Whipping out his wand as he fell backwards why turning in mid air to land on his back; he thudded down on the ground with soft, but sickening 'plop' as he displaced massive amounts of mud. He immediately conjured cast a shield charm; only to see something collide with it and make both fizzle out in a star-burst of white and red sparks. He could see two cloaked figures running towards him; he hoped they were on his side. Apparently they were as they cast shielding charms upon him and themselves while they moved towards him looking for the attacker.

A green burst of light flew from the other side of the fence that surrounded the Dursleys yard; it impacted upon one of his protectors shattering the persons shielding charm and sending him flying backwards in a spray of blood. The other protector dove for cover as another spell was tossed at him. Harry, ignoring the massive pain in his shoulder he stood up and began to move towards the cover of the house. He passed the Protector that had been hit, he saw a huge hole in the poor mans chest. He was three meters from the door to the Dursleys porch. An arm flew passed him to hit the house it sunk to the ground leaving a bloody streak behind it on the siding of the house. Another curse hit his leg, making a spout of blood pour out of the gash. Harry spun around, massive pain coursing through his body.

Uncle Vernon came out of the house; "Boy what in the hell are you doing out here!" He roared, a milli-second later a spell impacted with his forehead. Uncle Vernon crumpled to the ground, his forehead stuck to the door of the house. Harry could see blood and Grey gore pouring out of his uncles head. A last huge gush of blood flowed out of Uncled Vernon's head with a sickening gurgling sound.

Harry saw another spell flying towards him; he raised his left hand as if to ward it off, knowing that it would be ineffective against a spell that could break flesh and bone in one hit. The instant before the spell was about to impact a white flash of light appeared from Harry's hand; he could feel power coursing through his veins, his wounds were healed instantaneously; more importantly the spell had just not been stopped, it had been sent back at the caster with twice the force. Harry heard a scream and saw a man appear in the center of the yard, and invisibility cloak falling off of him as blood spurted from his chest leaving a gory puddle around him.

Harry got up shakily only to fall back down as his legs spasmed from the massive amount of magical energy he had used up. Harry gasped in pain as he stood up, he used the blood-drenched railing on the steps to the door to lever himself up. He stumbled through the door into his Aunts immaculate white kitchen. He somehow felt dirty and contaminated in the light of this pristine environment.

"Boy, what have you done-" Aunt Petunia gasped as Harry stumbled by; he stunned Her and continued on his way to his bedroom so he could get out of the area. His cousin charged him; Harry tried to stun him, but because of his wild fluctuations of power and the anger he had built up over the years, he sent his cousin flying through a wall.

Harry dragged himself up the steps and into his bedroom; he wanted nothing more to fall down on his bed and sleep but he knew he had to get out of the area as soon as possible. He didn't bother to pack his bags manually he used a packing spell, that, despite his utter and complete exhaustion the spell worked better and with more power than it had ever had before.

"Hedwig," Harry whispered hoarsely, "I'm letting you go out now, go to the Weaslys and I'll get you when I can." He released the owl who hooted softly before flying off into the night.

He used a basic flotation charm to make his trunk float behind him. He delicately walked down the steps to the entry way, being careful of his aching muscles. When he got to the front door he could hear sirens in the distance; one of the neighbors must have seen the fighting and called the police. The sirens were getting closer and, even though he had no desire to face the bodies again, he decided that it would be better to go out the back and not be spotted than to go out the front where he could be seen by any curious person who had come out in the rainy weather to see what all the commotion was about.

Rather hesitantly he used his wand to call down the Night Bus. A moment after his Lumos spell was cast the Bus crashed down; the earth vibrated as it ground to a halt in the soft sod of the backyard. Harry, who had had enough presence of mind to disguise himself, climbed on.

Just as Harry was about to enter the bus, and owl appeared. The owl, much to his surprise was from Gringotts and not the Ministry of Magic. It dropped a letter addressed to him in his outstretched hand. He quickly covered the name of the recipient and boarded the bus.

"Where are you going?" asked a man dressed in the Night Bus uniform and whom Harry recognized as Stan Sherpike(spelling?) who looked somewhat worse for wear from when he was arrested on charges of being a Death Eater.

"How far are you going?" asked Harry not sure of where he wanted to go.

Stan looked at Harry as if he was crazy, "This is the Night Bus, we can take you anywhere in the world." He was still looking at Harry as if he was strange.

"Oh...than how about the Leaky Cauldron." Said Harry thinking how he could go to Gringotts for whatever they wanted him for.

"Just a bed, or do you want Hot Chocolate or another similar beverage?" Asked Stan seeming to sink back into a business mode, and no longer looking at Harry as if he was mentally unstable.

"Just a bed." Harry stated quietly.

"Okay, that will be one Galleon seven sickles. And I didn't catch your name." said Stan, once again looking curiously at Harry who was digging in his money bag.

Harry, who hadn't thought of a name for himself, prolonged as long as he could in finding the correct change for Stan. "Laton, Andrew Laton."(1) Said Harry thinking fast as he handed Stan the correct amount.

Harry sat down on a bed at the very end of the first floor of the bus, away from all the other passengers, which on this level was just one old witch who seemed to be asleep. Slitting the letter open with his fingernail harry pulled out s thick piece of slightly yellowish parchment.

"Dear Mr. Potter,

We would like to give you our sincerest apologies for the deaths of the following persons who we request your presence for the reading of certain parts of their wills. One Serious Black. One James Potter. One Lily Evans. One Albus Dumbledore. Due to the fact that you have not been receiving are letters, we are making an exception in allowing greater than normal time in which to claim the inheritance. If you have received this letter our magical means will have informed us and we expect you to arrive within five (5) days of receiving the letter.

sincerely,

Lord Greedhold, High Goblin."

Harry gasped. Dumbledore had left him something? And even more importantly his parents had separate wills? Why hadn't he heard of this before...and why hadn't he been receiving the letters? Harry hoped these questions would be answered when he arrived at Gringotts. Harry was jerked out of his thoughts as the Night Bus skidded to a halt in front of the leaky cauldron. Harry clambered down out of the bus, his trunk floating behind him, it seemed that his spells were also lasting longer than they normally did.

Walking towards the Leaky Cauldron Harry noted that the lights of the pub seemed darker than usual. As if they were afraid of being discovered even though they were only visible to wizards. He entered noticing that there were now Ministry guards at the entry ways. Even though it was getting late there were normally more patrons here from what Harry remembered from his stay during his third year; now there were only two other patrons not counting himself, an old witch and wizards who were sitting in a corner whispering amongst themselves.

Harry walked over to Tom, the bartender, "Hello," Harry said taking a seat at the bar.

"Hello," replied Tom warily, "How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could get a room." Harry replied.

"Sure, the patronage has really gone down the drain since..well..you-know-who came back." Said Tom shuffling around to the other side of the bar carrying a ring of keys in his hand. "I'll just need to know your name, and see that you can indeed pay; and I want to say in advance that the cost of the rooms has gone up."

"Andrew Laton," said Harry, "And whatever price you charge is fine." Harry pulled out his money bag, showed the contents to Tom and the replaced it in his cloak pocket.

"Very good, M'boy." Said Tom grinning, "You'll have your choice of rooms, now if you'll just follow me." He said as he led the way up the steps to the second floor grinning wildly.

When they arrived at the second floor Harry noticed that it seemed like it hadn't been used in a while. After a lengthy discussion over prices and room sizes Harry selected the biggest and paid in advance for two weeks. The room had two bedrooms each in separate rooms, it also had a small kitchen, a 'family room' and a entry way. The room had been constructed when Tom had remodeled; allowing him to charge more with larger rooms. Originally the Leaky Cauldron had had twelve rooms, now it had only five. Each room was the size of a small apartment, intended for families on vacation, which was rare, or the lone traveling wizard who had money and important business in Diagon Ally to attend to.

After depositing his trunk at the foot of his bed and after he took off his thick black coat, he fell onto his bed and into the black recesses of his mind in sleep.

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The next morning Harry woke up feeling amazingly refreshed, even though by all rights he should have been exhausted: Accidental magic, wounds, fleeing the scene of a massive battle, and then not getting to sleep until late; but yet, he felt wonderful- more alive with strength and vitality then he had since Sirius had died.

After washing and re-donning his disguise he headed down to the main room of the Leaky Cauldron to get some breakfast. Tom seemed pleased that he finally was getting some business. After Harry had paid for the room, Tom had informed him that he hadn't had a single guest in months, and very few people were venturing out to Diagon Ally, much less the Leaky Cauldron, except when absolutely necessary. Harry had also been informed of some new laws that the Ministry of Magic had passed, such as no one was allowed out on the streets after dark, if you were found out after dark an Auror could kill you, no questions asked. Also, if you were found in possession of Dark Materials you could be executed, Dark Materials included everything from Sneak-O-Scopes to books to powerful dark artifacts (such as the Hand of Glory which made everyone in a house go to sleep except the user and provided light only to the user. The Hand of Glory was created by cutting off the hand of a murder immediately after the death of the murderer, or so his book on the Dark Arts had said after he had looked it up after seeing it in a shop during his second year.). Harry had destroyed the Sneak-O-Scope Ron had given him first thing in the morning, after all, it didn't work. He had also remembered all the un-read letters he still had stuffed in the bottom of his trunk, from Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and even the twins and one from Luna and Neville who were seeing a lot of each other over the summer holidays; he had vowed to himself to read them soon- as soon as he took care of the business with Gringotts.

Harry ordered a huge breakfast, realizing that after the expenditure of magical energy that he was starving. After eating Harry headed out into Diagon Ally, he was shocked at the lack of people out on the streets, even though he had been told he had not expected such a dramatic drop in the patronage of the local stores. Looking around he could only see six or seven people out- not counting the Ministry guards who were positioned at intervals on the street. From Tom he had found out that the 'Guards' were not fully trained Aurors- they were whoever had volunteered for the job, some of them weren't even out of school yet. The ones who were still in school had been tempted by the lust of power, the fact that any underage magic they did was ignored by the Ministry.

Harry first headed for Madam Milkins Robes for all occasions. Deciding that his school robes would look unusual, everything but the heavy duty robe he had employed in disguising himself were for school wear only and would be spotted a mile away by anyone looking for him. When he arrived he refused to allow the clerk to measure and fit robes for him, instead picking through the racks of robes that had been ordered but never picked up. He had always had his robes custom tailored for him, and as he began to try some on he saw how they didn't fit quite as well.

'This must be why Ron always looks awkward in his robes.' thought Harry to himself as he looked through the rows upon rows of robes.

Eventually he picked out six plain black robes for himself and one emerald green one. After paying for them he headed out of the store, noticing on the way out a sign advertising 'Battle Robes' for the wizard on the go. Apparently the terrible state of affairs that had been caused by Voldemorts return was being used to market new items- or old items, depending on how you looked at it. Battle Robes were tight-fitting robes that had things like wand holsters and potion canisters built in; the more expensive ones also had defensive magics sewn into them and would last for centuries. Also it had a duel advertisement for secondary wands, wands that were created to be as similar as possible to the original in design, look and function. Harry decided to go and look at these secondary wands, as soon as he could find the time.

After leaving Harry stepped into Florish and Blots, the bookstore, to see what they had that might be of use to him. The shelves were empty, Harry was shocked at the massive amount of books that had been burned, literally, by the Ministry of Magic. Everything ranging from Defense Against the Dark Arts to Occulmancy to certain books on artifacts and curses to some advanced Charms and Transfiguration books. After taking one glance around and seeing the empty shelves Harry turned

around deciding not to bother with the pathetic excuse for a book shop.

After depositing his purchases and changing into one of them and re-arranging his hair, which he noticed wad straightening out and growing at an amazing pace, and adding some make-up and basic transfiguration spells to his face, the Ministry of Magic is seemed no longer cared if he used magic, even though he was underage. After all of this he headed down to get some lunch as he noticed that it was after noon. After Harry ate he decided to head down to Gringotts.

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Harry walked through the great doors into the single most powerful bank in the wizarding world. Noting as he entered the utter lack of wizard guards; there were, of course, guards, every single one of them was a goblin. Each one was out fitted in amazing armour that was both beautiful and functional. Along with this armour each was equipped with a sword that was held at the ready.

'No bother with appearing as if they wanted to be peaceful." thought Harry when he entered and saw this.

Harry headed over to a long desk that was cubicaled off with a goblin at each cubical. Harry walked over and showed one the letter. The goblin looked at him as if he was some strange anomaly, which harry realized in a way he was.

"Understood, Mr.Potter." Said the Goblin in a superior tone. "Now if you'll just follow me." He commanded as he got up and walked off without waiting for Harry.

Harry jogged after the goblin to catch up thinking to himself as he ran. 'Rather rude, aren't they?' he thought to himself as he overtook the goblin.

"Now, Mr.Potter." Said the Goblin looking at Harry as if Harry was dirtying up the goblins private world. "Step through this door, the executer of the will will be in to see you in a minute."

Harry sat down to wait. He looked around enjoying the decadent surroundings of the room they had placed him in. It had painting and furniture from all periods of time dating back to the early A. D.'s . After about five minutes of waiting three goblins and one human entered, the human being dragged between two of the goblins while the third led the way, lecturing the human.

"Think you're smart sneaking into one of our vaults?" Laughed the Lead goblin in the humans face. "You're lucky the owner of the vault decided to check it or you would have been trying to kill yourself within a few days, no food, no water, and no light, except what you can create yourself and when you haven't eaten it's mighty hard to cast a lumos spell." the Goblin sneered in the humans face.

"Please...just let me go." Pleaded the Human pathetically.

That was the last Harry heard as they disappeared into another door off of the room that he was waiting in. Less than a minute later he heard a scream from inside the room. Thirty seconds after that the goblin that had been in the lead came out of the room.

"Mr.Potter, I presume?" Inquired the goblin.

Harry nodded, "May I ask what happened to that man?"

"You may, he was executed after he was caught in one of our vaults. Now if you would follow me." the goblin said stepping through a different door than that which the man had been taken through. "I have to leave you here, you can go through that door there to see Lord Greedhold." he said pointing through a door which was elegantly carved and made out of pure stone; Harry could feel the wards magically emanating power from the door. He knocked and he heard someone or something telling him to enter.

Harry entered and was almost thrown backwards by the raw magic emanating from the room. All types of artifacts were strewn about ranging from swords and armour to glass baubles and trinkets.

"Harry Potter!" Exclaimed the Greedhold cheerfully, "How nice to see you."

"Nice to meet you, sir." said Harry respectfully.

"Yes...yes.." said Greedhold appearing distracted, "Now have a seat while I look for the wills." He eventually fished out four pieces of paper two of which appeared new while the other two appeared older and slightly worn. "Which will would you like to start with?" asked the goblin.

"My parents wills, if you don't mind." said Harry respectfully.

"Yes...now I want you to understand that for reasons unknown to us, they were known to other wizards of course, they had separate wills. Through your fathers side you receive access to the Potter vault and access to Gryffindor vault. Yes you are heir of Gryffindor. Through your mothers you gain access to the Evans funds." Greedhold finished, taking obvious amusement in Harry disbelief.

"I'm really the heir of Gryffindor?" Harry finally managed to gasp out.

"Yes you are." Replied Greedhold hurriedly. "This is of course not well known. Now on the the Black will, you receive everything including the house at 14 Grimmauld place. The only thing you do not gain from that will is one million galleons that have already been delivered to one Remus Lupin."

"How many Galleons did I get from that?" Harry asked amazed at that huge amount.

"You get nine million, but that is not the most of your holdings, the Gryffindor vault holds much more than that." Said Greedhold amused, "Now Albus Dumbledore's will." he said pulling a letter out of one of the drawers."You receive unconditional access to Hogwarts, also he has left you a large amount of 'artifacts' and books. Additionally he has named you as his heir, though all you receive is the Books and Artifacts as all money he had was to be donated to the school. Finally you receive this letter." he handed a letter addressed in Dumbledore's writing to an open-mouthed Harry.

"Now I will be sending you with one of the goblins to quickly inspect the vaults and tune them to you." said Greedhold ushering him out of his office.

After Harry and Greedhold exited Geedhold's office Greedhold signaled to a goblin to take Harry to see his new vaults.

"Mr.Potter," said the goblin, "My name is Spiffole and I will be showing you the vaults that you acquired, today."

"Excellent." said Harry still in a state of shock from what he had been informed of.

They descended by a rail car, going deep into the bowels of Gringotts. As the rail care descended at an amazing rate Harry took pleasure in the feeling of excitement and it created.

'This is better than any muggle roller coaster.' thought Harry to himself as they pulled up at the first vault.

"This is the Evans vault." Said Spiffole taking out five keys and inserting one of them into the door. "Just some gold in here." said the Goblin opening up the door to reveal large piles of gold.

"If my parents had separate vaults, what was that vault I saw before?" Harry asked the goblin curiously.

"That vault was a trust fund for your schooling and other similar expenses, also you weren't supposed to be told about the Gryffindor vault until you came of age." said Spiffole closing the vault once again at Harry's urging.

After being shown the Black, Evans, and Potter vaults Harry had decided to have them consolidated into his original vault that had contained his trust fund.

After another long cart ride they arrived at the vault that contained what Dumbledore had left him. He entered the vault and was overwhelmed by the amount of strange and curious objects it contained. Spell books, most of which Harry was sure the Ministry would love to destroy. All kinds of things ranging from a mirror similar to what Harry had seen in Mad Eye Moodys office to trunks like Moody had had to invisibility cloaks to a collection of wands. Upon closer inspection it turned out that the wands were the 'spare' wands of the founders of Hogwarts. This was just the tip of the iceberg as Harry delved through the stuff, selecting some spell books and training manuals, both muggle and wizarding, to take out and study. Where or when Dumbledore had acquired all these items was a mystery as Harry was sure most of them would have been banned by the Ministry for centuries.

Harry was given the key to Dumbledore's vault as he had decided to continue to keep it separate from his other vaults. After that they went even deeper underground until Harry thought he could feel it getting warmer and warmer; they had been driving in the rail car for nearly two hours. Finally after Harry was sure it would never end, they pulled to a sudden jolting, bone rattling stop.

Getting out of the cart Harry stretched, he could fell his bones pop as he moved suddenly from the long period of non-use. When he got out and went over to the Gryffindor vault, which had five stories to itself, or so Spiffole told him, he understood what Greedhold had meant when he had told Harry about 'tuning' the vaults to him.

Following Spiffole's instructions he placed his right hand into a hand-shaped depression in the stone. He felt a painful burning sensation and tried to jerk his hand away. He couldn't it was being magically held in place. He screamed in pain as liquid fire poured through his veins. Suddenly, as quickly as it started the pain ended, it was reduced to a quickly fading tingling sensation in the tips of his fingers.

"You could have warned me." Harry gasped as he removed his had looking murderously at Spiffole.

"My apologies, Mr.Potter." Said Spiffole in a vastly superior tone as he ran his finger along a crack that had appeared in the wall. "Normally any goblin can open a vault with or without the key. The Gryffindor vault requires blood from the owner, while the Dumbledore vault just requires the key."

The massive doors to the vault slowly creaked open; Harry could see how each must be at least a meter thick. There was a magically charged gust of air as the vaults which hadn't been opened in years were opened.

"This way please, Mr. Potter." Said Spiffole as he stepped through the doors into the vault.

Harry now understood how the vault could take up five stories under the ground. His mouth fell open as he entered what could only be described as a mansion underneath the ground. Huge pillars stood on either side of the doorway. A huge double staircase led downward into the other four stories beneath the mansion. Harry began to explore.

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Eight hours later Harry was back on the surface to stop at the Leaky Cauldron and then head back to the underground mansion with his things. The mansion contained certain rooms that slowed time for the person in the rooms. It slowed time to such an amount that one hour outside the room was equal to six months inside of it. Additionally the mansion was stocked with books, gymnasium, and many other things. According to Spiffole the mansion could 'create' rooms to suit the needs and wants of the owner.

As Harry walked out of the Leaky Cauldron he spotted a newsstand that contained copies of the Daily Prophet. On the front page was a picture of himself and a headline that proclaimed 'Harry Potter, Missing Presumed Dead or Worse.' and then a another picture of four Private drive, but the house was completely destroyed, and it added that all the inhabitants were found dead along with two wizards and one Ministry hit wizard, which the Ministry denied any knowledge of.

As he walked down the street back to the Leaky Cauldron Harry passed a group of people mulling about and talking. He recognized the one witch who had bubble-gum pink hair as Tonks, who was deep in another wizard who he assumed was a member of the order. Harry slowly walked closer, wishing that there were more people on the street to make it easier for him to eavesdrop. Eventually he was able to get close enough to overhear while remaining unseen to them.

"...First Dumbledore and now the Boy." said a man Harry couldn't identify.

"We don't know what happened, around the time of the attack the Ministry tracking and surveillance department was destroyed by a massive magical backlash." said Tonks.

"What does that mean." said another wizard, obviously the youngest of the group.

"It means it's one of the things that could happen if Harry were to get into a fight. Remember now that Dumbledore is gone, Harry is considered one of the most powerful wizards in the world. He might lack training but Dumbledore always said the Harry was amazingly powerful when he needed to be." Said Tonks.

"But wouldn't that mean that if Harry is dead then You-Know-Who is unquestionably the most powerful wizard in the world?" Asked the wizard who was the youngest.

Suddenly Tonks spun around and shot a stunner at Harry. Harry unthinkingly tossed up a shield which caused the stunner to rebound upon Tonks, who also threw up a shield.

"He was listening in." said Tonks gesturing for the wizards with her to attack. "He's probably a spy for Voldemort." She tossed another stunner at Harry.

Harry decided to end the encounter-after all he still didn't want to let the wizarding world know that he was still alive- and sent a powerful stunner straight at Tonks; Harry's stunner blew right through her shield and sent her flying back ward into another one of the wizards.

One of the wizards stunner connected with Harry but he shook it off. Feeling a slight tingling sensation where it had connected. Harry spun around and sent a stunner off at the wizard who had hit him. The wizard had a look of fear on his face as Harry's stunner connected knocking the man off his feet. As Harry spotted the fourth man he heard the distinctive pops of apperating wizards. He ran.

'shit' thought Harry to himself. 'I shouldn't have tried to listen in.' He turned into Knockturn Ally, even the bravest Auror wouldn't go in here without an army behind him now, Harry realized as he looked around and saw shops that catered to the 'darker' elements located on the street.

'I guess I'll get a spare wand while I'm here.' Harry thought as he spotted a shop that claimed to carry them.

Harry walked into the shop. The shop was small and had no name plate outside, just a few small ads. As he walked in he was surprised to see that it still carried Dark Arts materials, it also contained wand holsters, in several styles, and many other battle implements. He walked over to the counter which had a lone wizard behind it.

"I'd like to purchase a secondary wand." said Harry looking that man straight in the eye.

"Yes, now do you have a Ministry permit for one?" asked the man.

"You need a permit?" said Harry incredulously.

"Thats a no..." said the man looking around, "It will be a little more expensive then, I'm guessing you still have a limiter on your wand then?"

"There are limiters?" Harry asked amazed.

The man sighed, "Let me see you wand." He commanded holding out his hand. After Harry had handed him his wand the man tapped it with his own and mumbled something in a strange language. "No need to remove the limiter, it's been broken by some tremendous magical force." the man said looking at Harry strangely. "Now as to the spare, I can't get one that contains Phoenix feather but I have one that will work just as well." he said reaching underneath the counter and pulling out a nondescript box. "I'll even throw in a wand holster for free." said the man handing Harry the box and a wand holster meant to be worn on the lower arm. "Now that will be fifty galleons."

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Harry laid back on his bed in the Leaky Cauldron and gently rubbed his eyes. He felt utterly exhausted. He rolled over and cross drew both wands; one in each hand. He had bought a couple different wand holsters, one for each arm, and ankle holster, and a hip holster. He examined his new wand. The man hadn't been able to tell him much about it. Just that it was a very high-quality wand that had been commissioned but never picked up. Also, Harry was fascinated with the limiters on the wands and how they could be removed. Normally only Ministry of Magic officials could legally have the limiters removed, and most didn't even know they existed as they only reduced in power offensive magic which was considered extremely advanced and any decrease in power was normally put down to a wizards ineptness in the field. For an extra fifty galleons the man had taught Harry how to remove the limiters. It was a very advanced spell that sounded simple but required a lot of power and concentration to cast.

Harry used an advanced charm spell to have everything in the room unpack and than repack itself, taking pleasure in the fact that even with a wand he was unfamiliar with he was still able to make the socks fold themselves. Before he left he decided to read the letter from Dumbledore as it might contain valuable information.

"Dear Harry,

If you're reading this it means I'm dead, and much sooner than I had expected. I hope you can forgive me for all I've kept from you over the years, but it down to a senile old mans mistakes. I just hope what I've left you and what you'll find in closed will make up for it it.

Your Friend,

Albus Dumbledore."

As Harry finished reading another paper fell out. Upon closer inspection he discovered it to be a charmed emancipation paper. There was a note from Dumbledore scrawled upon it saying that all Harry had to do was sign his name and it will magically be added to another paper that will be filed in the legal department in the Ministry of Magic making him a legal adult as Dumbledore had already taken care of everything else.

Harry signed his name grinning broadly as he realized that even if that explosion in the Tracking and Surveillance department in the Ministry hadn't happened he would now be able to legally do magic without getting in trouble.

After Harry charmed his trunk once again to make it float after him he walked down to the main room of the Leaky Cauldron and from there out into Diagon Ally. As he walked back to Gringotts he noticed that the street was swarmed with Aurors who he was worried were looking for him, until he overheard two people talking about the half a dozen Death Eaters that had apperated in and started killing people.

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Harry entered the Gryffindor vault again still amazed at the extravagance and the massive size of it. He quickly walked to the bedroom he had selected for himself earlier that day. He had selected it because it allowed easy access to the library and gymnasium from it.

After unpacking and washing up in the huge bathroom off of the room he headed down to the library. He had spotted some books on wandless magic in there when he had explored the place earlier and he intended to check them out. He also decided that he would have to train in the rooms that had time slowed down so he could at least get somewhere near Voldemorts level. As it stood now he wouldn't last ten seconds against Voldemort in a serious duel. He had realized this after seeing the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort at the Department of Mysteries. Harry had also realized that even if he trained none stop for years he could never get up to Voldemorts level without practicing against a human opponent.

"Amazing." Said Harry out loud to himself as he read a book on the theory of wandless magic. It was going to be a lot tougher than he had originally thought it was going to be to learn how to caste wandless spells. He remembered how tough it had been to caste spells without saying the incantation and he assumed from what he had read that this would be ten times harder.

He got up and headed down to the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich. He was famished having not eaten in hours. As he walked to the lower stories, thats how he thought of it even though he had to walk up the steps, he couldn't help but admire the weapons and artifacts that were hung on the walls and held in glass cases scattered around the mansion. 'Hermione would go nuts if she saw all these books.' thought Harry chuckling to himself. He was fascinated by the fact that there was no dust anywhere in the mansion. Instead of having a house elf or elves to do the cleaning the mansion had amazing powerful cleaning charms. The charms would clean any mess, organize anything, and keep dust off of everything.

Fixing himself a sandwich he gained new respect for the people that had designed the mansion as the spells used to stock the kitchen called food from professional bakeries, restaurants and food markets around the world according to the taste and need of the owner. Everything was paid for from a fund that was set up over 400 years ago and the food was paid out of just the interest that fund received.

Harry was still going over the papers and accounts that he had inherited with the vault and Gryffindor title. The Gryffindor family had holding in over 40 countries and was respected in all wizarding circles. It was also one of the wealthiest wizarding families in the world and made the Malfoys look like a poor peasant family by comparison. What he received from Dumbledore was amazing too; Dumbledore had given Harry his journals which contained all the knowledge that he had discovered in his life. They also contained information on every major wizarding family. He had finished Dumbledores first journal and was amazed at the wealth of information but as he was studying offensive magic and didn't need to concern himself with politics at the moment he decided to wait to read the rest until he had finished his wandless magic training.

In the wandless magic theory book it had recommended that you take up something that would improve hand-eye coordination; Harry had selected fencing. He had always admired swords whenever he had seen them, and as fencing was the easiest to find books on, it was the logical choice. Additionally he had swords both training and real that were used for fencing.

After eating Harry headed back up to the library intending to finish the book on the theory of wandless magic, but remembered the vow he had made to read his friends letters and instead made a detour to his room. He dug through his trunk until he found the letters; he went and sat down on one of the magnificent chairs that adorned the room.

The letters from Ginny, Neville, Luna, and the twins were all basic letters, though the twins was rather amusing especially in the fact that it tried to bite his fingers when he opened it. The one from Ron was filled with the classic Ron-ish stuff of worry about Voldemort and apologizing for the fact that Harry couldn't come and stay sooner and the wish that he could come and stay soon, it was the complete utter lack of information that always made Harry angry and annoyed whenever he read these letters. He was mature enough to understand the realistic danger if a letter that contained important information was intercepted but it still annoyed him that they couldn't find someway to at least let him know some of what was going on.

Hermione's letter on the other hand made him feel guilty for not reading it before and after reading her heart-felt letter he felt obligated to reply. Her letter was filled with best-wishes for his summer, hopes that he was well and the like which brought a warm feeling to him that would be hard to dispel even by the most dismal news. After writing off a few meaningful and heartfelt lines and posting it with one of the owls from the owls that were in Gryffindor mansion. He headed back to the library.

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Harry reclined in the chair he had fallen asleep in, picking up the book that had fallen on the floor. He stood up and stretched. It had been almost a day in the Gryffindor vault but it would only have been a few milliseconds in the outside world. After getting some breakfast he got a book on how to perform wandless magic and began to read. He was amazed at how simple the book made it seem. Performing wandless magic and the theory were two different things. It seemed that performing it would be easier than understanding the theory had been; Harry quickly discovered how wrong he was. When he attempted to perform wandless magic he was lucky if he could produce a spell, much less a functional spell, even after hours of trying. He decided to take a break from wandless magic to study some Dark Arts spells which he was much better at. After about three hours of practicing none stop he decided to take a break and look up something that he had always been curious about.

Digging through the bookshelves he eventually found a book on advanced self transfiguration. He had long suspected that you could correct problems with your eyesight using transfiguration but he had always put it off or forgotten to ask when he had had the chance. Now he knew he would need the best eyesight he could get as he couldn't have his glasses fogging up during a duel against Voldemort or one of his followers. He was proved right; there was in fact a spell to correct near-sightedness or far-sightedness. The spell literally adjusted the shape of the eye, the spell had to be cast by the person it was affecting as you needed to get as close as possible to a perfect focus using magic. The spell was dangerous though, if you used too much magical power in the focusing of the eye you could rip it right out of the socket. Another major factor that made the spell dangerous was that you couldn't practice it as you had to do it only on yourself and you had to get it right the first time. Harry decided to attempt it.

Harry took off his glasses, and closed his left eye. He brought his wand up to his right eye, muttered the incantation and started applying the magical power. It said you had to will the power to move the eye in or out of focus. After about 10 minutes of careful concentration he had gotten his eye into the best focus she assumed he would ever be able to get. He dropped the spell. He closed his right eye and brought his wand up to his left. He repeated the process.

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Harry loved finally having perfect eyesight. He no longer had to worry about his glasses and he thought he looked much better without glasses. He went to the washroom and looked in the mirror. His hair had grown and an amazing rate. It was now shoulder length and it was no longer tangles and messy. He liked it, it made him look different and unrecognizable.

Harry sneezed as dust billowed out of the chest he had just broken open. The spell might clean the house but it didn't clean inside closed containers. He looked inside and found what he had been looking for: The Gryffindor ring. The ring of Gryffindor was a powerful magical artifact that had a built in shielding charm that activated automatically when the wearer encountered offensive spells. The ring could also only be worn by a descendant of Gryffindor and when shown to anyone in the wizarding world it would instill tremendous respect.

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Harry fired off two wandless stunners into the moving targets. The targets flew apart into a cascade of paper pieces. He spun around cross drawing his wands and fired off two incendiary spells incinerating the moving targets. He had been training none stop for two months and Harry was becoming proficient in wandless magic, Advanced Dark Arts, transfiguration, and charms. He could cast any spell without his wand but using his wand the spell would be three or four times stronger.

After showering and grabbing a bite to eat he went to the entry level of the Gryffindor vault and exited. The who had only been waiting one hour for him was shocked with the transformation and commented in it during the long ride back up to Gringotts higher levels. Harry just laughed.

Harry found it amusing that even though he had posted the letter to Hermione six months ago she wouldn't be receiving it for another day. He looked through his bags and what he was bringing with him. He had looked in the vault and decided that no matter how much he trained that he wouldn't be able to achieve the level or proficiency that he would be able to acquire if he was taught by someone.

He exited Gringotts and came face to face with a group of three Aurors. He had forgotten that the attack by the Death Eaters had just happened a little over three hours ago.

"Hey, you." said one of the Aurors stepping in front of him. The man obviously thought he was tougher than Harry.

"What do you want?" Harry asked politely but with a mocking tone to his voice.

"Do you know anything about the Death Eater attack?" The man asked, Harry could hear the drawl of a rehearsed question in the mans voice.

"No, whatever could I know?" Harry mocked the man even more.

"You know what." the man said drawing his wand. "I think you do know something and maybe we should take you in."

"I don't think thats a good idea." said Harry in a calm tone.

"STUP-" The man started to yell but was cut off as Harry ducked down and hit the man in the stomach taking advantage of the martial arts books that he had read during his six months training.

The other two auror drew their wands and leveled them at Harry. The one got of a weak stunner that barely activated Harry's ring before Harry stunned them both. Harry looked up to see the mass of people that had been out on the streets disappearing in fear.

Harry head the distinctive pops of Aurors apperating. Ten aurors leveled their wands on Harry.

"Oh shit." Mumbled Harry, he knew he could take them on and win but he didn't think it would be good for the moral of the Ministry's troops if they were defeated by one man.

"Drop your wand and put your hands up." Said one of the Aurors positioned closest to Harry a tremor in his voice.

Harry dropped his secondary wand. The aurors visibly seemed to relax at the fact that he appeared unarmed. Three aurors ran up to him. One of them picked up his wand while the other two each grabbed one of his arms. When they were about 20 feet away from the main group Harry summoned his wand using wandless magic, stunned the two Aurors who were restraining him and was gone before the main group realized what had happened.

Harry was on his way to Grimmauld place. He figured that some of the order would still be using it. And after reading what he had during his two month training period he had discovered that Dumbledore naming him as his heir made Harry the secret keeper for the order.

Harry used a taxi to get to the street that the order was located on. He didn't want to come back as Harry so he was going to tell them that he was Andrew Laton, who was a friend of Dumbledore. He had already put time into faking a letter from Dumbledore asking that he join the order, and after all if he could get into the house, he must have been cleared by Dumbledore himself, which in fact, he had been.

Harry knocked on the door, which was answered promptly by Mrs.Weasly.

"Hello," She said warily, "Who are you?" a silence fell over the entry way he could see Tonks who had her arm in a sling, he felt bad about that, he could see Ron, Hermione and Ginny who had been talking in the room immediately off of the entry way and some other members of the order talking hurriedly of the most recent attacks. All fell silent as he entered.

"I'm Andrew Laton." said Harry cautiously showing the faked letter from Dumbledore, "I'm a friend of Dumbledore and he requested I join the Order." Harry saw Ron and Hermione staring at him, he was somewhat upset that they hadn't recognized him. Even though he knew it wouldn't be good for them to recognize him he still had half-heartedly wanted them to.

Tonks drew her wand with her good hand. Remus walked up to Harry. "Let me see that letter, Mr.Laton." said Remus Lupin taking the letter from Harry. After a moment of inspection, he said "Looks like it really came from Dumbledore." he handed the letter back to Harry.

"Mr.Laton, how long had you known Dumbledore?" Asked Tonks.

"About seventeen years." Harry replied.

"Mr.Laton, you'll have to excuse us but we are in the middle of a major calamity." said Mrs.Weasly "So if you'll just take a seat someone will get you up to speed when they can." she gestured to an empty seat near where Ron and Hermione were seated.

"I understand." said Harry coldly, his cape billowing out as he walked over to the seat she had indicated.

"Hello." Said Hermione cautiously. "I'm Hermione, very nice to meet you..."

"Nice to meet you too," Harry said in a flat tone, "Feel free to call me Andrew."

"I'm Ron." Said Ron sticking out his hand. Harry gently shook Ron's hand.

"Nice to meet you." said Harry coldly.

"Same here." Replied Ron.

"So your still in school?" asked Harry under the guise of making conversation.

"Yeah, but you must be too," said Ron looking at Harry curiously, "You don't look much older than us."

"But I'm not still in school." Harry replied in a tone that signaled that the conversation was ended.

"So, Andrew," said Hermione, "What school did you go too?" She asked.

"The last schooling I had was private tutoring." said Harry. 'Not really a lie,' thought Harry 'My last schooling was private tutoring it was just me doing the tutoring.'

"Interesting, but if you didn't finish your schooling you should come to Hogwarts, you can always learn more by being taught then you can by teaching yourself." said Hermione.

'Hogwarts?' Harry laughed inside his head, 'I learned more teaching myself then I ever did there. But she's right I need to learn from someone, just not anyone at Hogwarts.'

"I'll consider it." Harry said coldly getting up and walking out into the entry way.

"Hello, Andrew." said Tonks walking up to Harry. "Do you mind if I take a look at your wand?" she asked.

"No, not at all." said Harry handing her his spare wand, not thinking of any way he could say no to a completely fair and reasonable request.

"Interesting..." Said Tonks handing it back to Harry.

"Could you get me up to date on whats going on?" asked Harry politely.

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Harry sighed as he walked back toward Gringotts. There was no longer anyplace for him with the Order or even at Hogwarts. After Tonks had gotten him up to date on the Orders view and ideas of recent events. They believed that the fights that Harry had been involved in were started by powerful Death Eaters obviously in Voldemorts upper echelons. How wrong they were amazed Harry. They didn't seem to realize that a Death Eater that powerful wouldn't have settled for stunners. They would have used the killing curse on anyone who got in their way. Additionally, he was finding Ron annoying. He had overheard Ron and Hermione talking and Ron thought Harry going off on his own was a betrayal. This infuriated Harry that Ron couldn't see the incompetence at Hogwarts and the fact that now that Dumbledore was dead it would no longer be safe. Already a large majority of students had been removed from the school. Purebloods that sided with Voldemort still went and almost all Muggle Borns still attended, their parents not knowing what was going on in the wizarding world.

When Harry came within sight of Gringotts he was highly annoyed to find a group of Aurors mulling about outside the bank. He continued to walk only to be spotted by the Aurors, Harry, remembering reading something about Gringotts being off limits to the Ministry of Magic, Harry ran inside. The Aurors followed only to be met by the Goblin guards who wouldn't let them passed as long as their wands were drawn. During the subsequent commotion caused Harry was able to take a rail car down to Gryffindor vault.

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Harry loved the fact that time was slowed down in the vault. He could spend years training and still be able to come and fight the war against Voldemort. Harry made a vow to sleep outside the area of effect so that maybe some change would happen in the would. He also made the decision to travel the world and learn from as many different wizards as possible. He would learn and practice skills long forgotten or deemed evil by the 'light' wizards.

'Yeah, they're light,' thought Harry laughing 'light in power.'

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A/N...Well I hope you like it please R and R...I'm finding this story really fun to write...so if I get a couple positive reviews I'll write more...

Take a guess were I got the name 'Laton' if you're a Sci-Fi fan you should be able to guess. (Hint hint...it's a book! Not a movie or TV show!) if you get it right...50 points to whatever house you're in!

Also! Tell me what you like and don't like! Maybe I can improve my writing or writing style! Do you want a couple long chapters? Or a whole lot of short chapters? Did my wand limiter idea fall upon deaf ears or did you think the idea was good? Tell me everything you like or dislike about the story! Constructive Criticism is loved! The double C's are loved! If you flame me I'll write a (flaming (maybe) ) drabble inspired by the flame! Haha...