Disclaimer: Don't even try to accuse me of owning Harry Potter world. All credit goes to JK Rowling. I am merely living off of her fandom.

Chapter 2

Harry was impatient. Dumbledore was supposed to have arrived at 9 pm, but it was 15 minutes past that time. Harry sat on his bed and packed up the belongings of his trunk for the 3rd time. Something caught his eye in a scrap of newspaper. The headline read "Maximaf Stone Appointed New Minister of Magic" There was a picture below which depicted a woman waving manically towards a crowd of cheering wizards/witches. He sighed. The Ministry had reached a new low.

Harry peered downstairs to see all three Dursleys busy watching the telly. They had avoided him all this summer, and that was how he liked it. But still, it was getting rather lonely without anyone to talk to. Only Hedwig kept him company. He went over to Hedwig's cage to check on her, and was alerted when she suddenly started screeching and flapping her wings. Usually that meant that someone was coming. He looked out the window, and sure enough, Dumbledore was walking down the street in his brightest robes and pointed hat. Harry dashed down the stairs to open the door for him, but Uncle Vernon had already done so.

Dumbledore stepped through the doorstep and smiled. Uncle Vernon's face went red with anger.

"Good evening, Harry. I see you did not warn your aunt and uncle of my arrival, but no matter." He held out his hand for Uncle Vernon. "Ah. You must be Harry's uncle?" Uncle Vernon did not reply because he was trembling with rage. "And here is dear Petunia," remarked Dumbledore, nodding in her direction. Aunt Petunia cowered back and tried to hide Dudley behind herself, which was an impossible task given Dudley's weight.

"Well Harry, before we get going, we have some things to discuss." Dumbledore conjured up a massaging swivel chair and sat down. "When Sirius died, you were left some of his belongings. First of all, Grimmauld Place."

"I don't want it," replied Harry. "It's old, it's dirty, and it stinks of old cobwebs."

"You would rather it going to Bellatrix Lestrange?" questioned Dumbledore.

"Well-" faltered Harry. "I'll take it. But I don't want to live in it. You can make it your headquarters."

"That will do. Now, if you have inherited the house of Black, you will also have inherited Kreacher." He snapped his fingers and Kreacher appeared with a pop, landing on Uncle Vernon's head. Uncle Vernon screamed, but Dumbledore ignored him.

"I don't want it," replied Harry for the second time. "It's old, it's dirty, and it stinks of old cobwebs."

"You would rather it going to Bellatrix Lestrange?" questioned Dumbledore for the second time.

"Well-" replied Harry. "Can we let him work at the kitchens at Hogwarts?"

"Certainly," agreed Dumbledore. "Though the idea of Kreacher touching our food is not very appealing. Now, I have matters to discuss with your uncle and aunt."

"We don't want ANYTHING to do with you!" bellowed Uncle Vernon.

"It's not about me," said Dumbledore calmly. "It's about Harry. I had hoped that you would have treated him as a son. But I was wrong. For sixteen years, all he has known were cruelty and neglect by your hands. You have locked him up, you have starved him, you have exposed him to the excuse of a boy sitting between you. And above all, you have never-"

"Professor," interrupted Harry. "Do we really have time for this? It's not as if they're listening anyway."

"But Harry-"

"I can handle this," stated Harry. He drew his wand and pointed it at the TV, which flickered on. Then he levitated the TV through the window. The Dursleys followed it out the door, their eyes glued to the screen.

"Impressive, Harry," mused Dumbledore. He walked out the door and Harry followed with his trunk. "And now, we must wander off into the night." Dumbledore held out his hand. Harry flinched, thinking he might slap him.

"We need to apparate, dear child," reminded Dumbledore.

"Oh," said Harry blankly and took Dumbledore's hand. He was yanked up into the air- everything went black- and his insides were pressured beyond control- and then...

They landed into the cool night air. Dumbledore started walking immediately, with Harry struggling to follow. They walked through a gate into a quiet village.

"Um sir, what are we doing?" asked Harry, suddenly aware that he had no idea of Dumbledore's plans.

"We're going to see an old colleague of mine to convince him to come back to teaching at Hogwarts." Dumbledore walked up to a neat, stone house and rapped on the door. No one answered so he walked inside. Harry immediately knew something was wrong.

There was destruction everywhere. The furniture lay in ruins, the walls were scratched, and there were bloodstains on the floor. Dumbledore, seemingly unaffected, hummed a merry tune and casually jabbed at a overstuffed armchair. "Ouch!" it yelled. Harry gasped- where there had previously been an armchair there was now an enormously fat man with a huge walrus moustache. Also, he was wearing no clothes. Evidently the transfiguration had not worked completely. Harry was spared from seeing the man's privates as he rushed to the bathroom shouting "Sorry , I"LL GO GET SOME CLOTHES!"because the man's layers of fat covered it all.

"That's Horace Slughorn," said Dumbledore smartly.

Slughorn appeared again in about a minute and the two friends embraced.

"Albus, Albus, good to see you," roared Slughorn and the two friends embraced. Then Slughorn's eyes fell upon Harry.

"My god," he mouthed. "Harry Potter...You have her mother's eyes. I taught her while she was at school, you know..."

"I may have my mother's eyes, but I have my father's sexiness," said Harry confidently. Slughorn blinked.

"Well, I will now go to look at some knitting patterns for some reason, so Harry can convince you to come back to Hogwarts by himself," said Dumbledore conversationally and he left the room. Harry and Slughorn stared at each other for a few minutes.

"I'm not coming back!" protested Slughorn finally.

"I've got loads of Galleons," suggested Harry.

"I don't need the money!"

"Right." Harry thought for a second and then came up with a great idea. He drew his wand and levitated Slughorn's favorite crystallized pineapple at a tall height.

"If you don't come," Harry threatened, "They drop."

"No," Slughorn whimpered. "You wouldn't!"

"I will," said Harry evilly.

"OKAY I"LL DO IT!" Slughorn screamed in agony.

"Impressive, Harry," commented Dumbledore, reappearing into the room. "You have nice tactics."

He turned to Slughorn. "Until we meet again, Horace." They shook hands.

Dumbledore and Harry exited the house. They apparated towards the Burrow. The experience still left him gasping for breath, but he was used to it now. They arrived in the yard of The Burrow. The lights were on and they could hear voices talking.

"Come now," said Dumbledore. "Let us not deprive Molly any longer the chance to deplore how thin you are."

The next chapter(s) will diverge from the canon book hehe. You will see some unexpected love and plot.