Chapter 2

At the end of fifth year, Harry was lost in thought as he rode the Hogwarts Express back to London, dreading his return to Privet Drive and his horrible muggle relatives. He drifted off to sleep and his dreams brought back unpleasant memories of his childhood.

Harry Potter had lived all of his life in a cupboard under the stairs, never even aware of any world except that which his aunt and uncle allowed him to see. Petunia Dursley was the older sister of Lily Potter, but Petunia and Vernon hated magic and the magical world with such a passion rthat they took their hatred out on a fifteen month old baby. On the other hand their son, Dudley, was a fat, spoiled little brat who enjoyed tormenting his smaller, more helpless cousin.

To protect their little "Duddykins", Petunia's sickenly sweet nickname for her own "normal" baby, the horrendous couple put their nephew into the cupboard under the stairs. It was because Harry had odd things happen around him which scared the adults so they beat and starved him, and locking him away to try and get rid of the freakiness inside him.

As he grew up, the only thing that his relatives told him about his mother and father was that they were drunk losers who never worked a day in their lives, and that they had died in a car crash. The same crash that left him an orphan with an ugly scar on his forehead. It would be years before the little boy would understand why his life was so awful, and that he had been lied to, too.

Things changed for Harry when, just before his eleventh birthday, an envelope came for him adressed as follows;

Harry Potter

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging, Surrey

The return address read;

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Holding the letter in a shaking hand, Vernon looked his equally frightened wife and gulped.

"Mummy? Daddy?" Dudley asked in a terrifed voice. "What's wrong?"

"Nu...Nothing Duddy dear," Petunia replied, trying to reassure her son.

"Vernon, what do we do?"

"We ignore it, Pet. There's nothing they can do. They've left us alone so far. If we don't respond, nothing will happen."

"But, the address!" Petunia wailed.

"Stop this!" Vernon demanded. "It is over!"

"That envelope is addressed to me!" Harry yelled, reaching for it.

"Boy! Go to your cupboard! This is nothing to do with you," Vernon ordered.

"Dudders, if you will?"

An evil grin came over Dudley's face as he dragged the smaller, weaker boy towards the stairs. Dudley was very obese for an eleven year old, and quite strong, and Harry, who was starved more often then not, was unable to fight his cousin off. The larger boy had no trouble throwing the smaller boy inside of the small room.

Vernon smiled fondly at his son.

"That's it. It's definitely over."

Unfortunately for Vernon Dursley, he was very wrong.

Over the next week, the house was flooded with a lot of envelopes, each with the same address, each destroyed by Vernon. The beginning of the following week found hundreds of more envelopes pouring through the mail slot before Vernon gave up and decided to take the family away in the middle of the night.

At 2 o'clock in the morning, Vernon, Petunia and Dudley, dragging a weakly struggling Harry, left the house and walked quickly down the driveway towards the car.

"'ere now! Let 'arry go!"

The Dursley's came to a halt and looked towards the street. There framed by the light of the streetlamps stood a gigantic figure, a man, dressed in a large coat that looked like it was made of animal skins.

"Wh...who are you?" Vernon demanded, his voice wavery with fear.

"Name's 'agrid. Rubeus 'agrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at 'ogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm 'ere to pick up 'arry. Albus Dumbledore, the 'eadmaster, sent me to get 'arry when 'e din't answer 'is letter."

"I refuse to let him go! He is not going to learn about magic!"

"Magic?" Harry asked, increduously. "You told me that there was no such thing as magic."

"'e lied to you, 'arry. Now, come wit' me, please."

"Dudders, don't you let him go."

"And, just how is a great, ugly muggle like yerself gonna stop me from takin' 'im?"

That said, Hagrid advanced toward where the very obese man and his slightly less obese son were standing.

"Duddykins, let him go!" Petunia squealed in a high pitched, frightened voice.

Hagrid stopped his advance, as Harry was released and ran over to him.

"If I go with you, will you answer my questions?"

"As best I'm able, 'arry."

"Then, I'm ready to go."

Harry sighed as his thoughts ran through his five years at Hogwarts as if in fast motion. His meeting his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Being sorted into Griffyndor, meeting his Head of House and the Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, his professors, including Professor Quirell, the Defense Against the Darks Arts instructor, and the other residents of the school. He was the most impressed when he met the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, but when he found out that it was Dumbledore who left him with his relatives, he was not as impressed.

He loved learning magic, but there were things that puzzled him, especially things that happened to an eleven year old. When he went to get his things from Diagon Alley, the wizarding shopping center, he was witness to Hagrid removing a very small package from a Gringotts vault, after Harry had found out that he had his own vault. Why would the half-giant point out to a child that he was picking up something secret for the headmaster. Later in the year, Harry found out that the package contained the Sorcerer's Stone, a gem that could help Voldemort be returned to his body.

Even more strange was the fact that Hermione, Ron and himself seemed to be the only ones who thought that the Stone was in danger. In fact, the trio went after the thief, who turned out to be Professor Quirell, who had been possessed over the summer by Voldemort's spirit. Harry was able to both the rescue the Stone and destroy Voldemort's host's body.

He was sent back to the Dursleys for the summer, where he met a house elf with good intentions, but a bad way of trying to protect Harry. The little elf, Dobby, told him that returning to Hogwarts

would be too dangerous, but when Harry would not listen to him, he performed some unauthorized magic. He dumped Aunt Petunia's fancy cake onto the head of Mrs. Mason, the wife of Vernon's biggest client. As a result, Harry earned a reprimand from the Ministry of Magic, for underage magic, and Vernon locked the teen into his bedroom with bars on his windows, and locks on the door.

When Ron had heard no word from, he and two of his older brothers, twins Fred and George, rescued Harry with Mr. Weasley's flying car. Later, when Harry and Ron were blocked from getting through the brick arch between the muggle and wizarding world, it was Ron's brilliant idea to fly the car to Hogwarts. At school, they were caught by Filch, the nasty caretaker, and taken to Professor McGonagall, where Ron cheekily reminded her that school had quite started yet, so she could not take points.

Again Harry's instincts were working overtime as the school was invaded by a monster and children were once again both in danger and the solution to the problem. The monster turned out to be a sixty foot basilisk, the lived in the Chamber of Secrets, a place that the professors claimed was non existent. Harry and Ron went into the Chamber looking for Ginny Weasley, Ron's kidnapped little sister. Harry fought and killed the basilisk with a sword after confronting the spirit of a sixteen year old Tom Riddle, who would later become Voldemort.

When Dumbledore sent Harry back to Privet Drive, saying he was safe there, Harry definitely knew something was going on. Living with beatings and starvation, was infinitely more safe, Harry thought sarcastically.

The summer before third year brought more information to light, for the thirteen year old. He was able to trick Vernon into signing his permission form for Hosmeade weekends, but threating him saying that Dumbledore would be checking. He found that he could get even with Vernon's older sister, Marge, by blowing her up like a balloon, when she bad mouthed his parents. He packed his things and ran from the house, ending up at the Leaky Cauldron where he lived for the rest of the summer. He was enjoying his time alone doing his homework, eating ice cream, and no chores, when Ron and the Weasleys showed up.

Harry was stunned. He knew that Arthur Weasley worked at the Ministry in the Misuse of muggle Artifacts office, a very low paying job, but he and his family had just returned from visiting the oldest Weasley boy, Bill, who worked in Egypt as a curse breaker for Gringotts. Where were they getting their money for all of these purchases.

While at the Cauldron, Harry heard about an escaped convict by the name of Sirius Black who was the first person to ever escape from the wizard prison, Azkaban. He also learned about the dementors, the phantom-like creatures that guarded the prison, and were capable of sucking out souls. That was all he was told, but Harry was positive that many things were being kept from him, and upon arriving at Hogwarts he found out he was right.

The dementors were stationed around the school, and the headmaster and professors used their threat and others to try and keep Harry out of the wizarding village. Dumbledore had evn tried using Remus Lupin, the new DADA professor, who, it turned out, was a close friend of his parents and a werewolf. When Harry could not get much infortmation from him, he let the professor teach him the Patronus Charm, the only known defense against dementors, then went into the village with the other third years and above.

Once there, Harry was able to overhear Professor MCGonagall talking about Sirius Black as being the person who betrayed his parents, and that he was also was Harry's godfather. Dumbledore's reasoning for keeping Harry in the castle was, because he thought Harry would go after Black. Harry, on the other hand, only wanted to stay safe and hope that his godfather would be returned to prison.

It came to a head when Harry went to rescue Ron who had been trapped by a large black dog who resembled a grim, an omen of death. The grim turned out to be Sirius Black, whose animagus form was a big, black dog. An animagus was a witch or wizard who was able to change into an animal using their inate magic. Also, in the Shrieking Shack, a very haunted place, was Remus Lupin and Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. Harry listened to Sirius' story, about how he was not the betrayer, but it was Peter Pettigrew, another friend of the Potters. He was a small, nervous boy and had grown up into a small, nervous man. When James wanted to use Sirius as their secret keeper, Sirius convinced the Potters to use Peter as he would not attract attention. James and Lily never knew how wrong they were when Pettigrew betrayed them, then spent the next twelve years in his animagus form as the Weasley pet rat.

Harry demanded proof, and Sirius told his godson that he went to Azkaban because when he confronted Peter, Peter accused him of the killings, cut off his finger, blew up the street and changed into his animagus form. Together, Sirius and Remus forced Pettigrew back into his human form, then they took the traitor to Dumbledore. As Pettigrew was being questioned, Lupin transformed into his werewolf form, allowing Peter to escape and causing Sirius to have to go into hiding and Harry back to Privet Drive Drive.

Harry sat in Dudley's second bedroom, questions about Albus Dumbledore flowing through his mind. The headmaster had seen Pettigrew with own eyes, but claimed that he could not pove Sirius in innocent without the rat in custody. That had not sounded right to Harry as Dumbledore, being the most powerful wizard in the world, should at least have been able to get Sirius a trial, something he had been denied.

The summer was another puzzle for Harry. The Weasley's took Harry to the Quidditch World Cup match, but before the game could be played Death Eaters attacked, destroying the wizard camping grounds and torturing the muggle landowners. Harry then spent the rest of the summer at the Burrow, the Weasley's home.

Fourth year brought the Triwizard Tournament to Hogwarts, and two things happened to Harry. One, Ron showed just how jealous he could be when Harry was entered into the Tournament, by someone hoping to cause him pain, and would not tell the redhead how he did it. Two, during the last task, he and the real Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory were portkeyed to a graveyard, where Cedric was murdered by Wormtail, Peter Pettigrew's nickname, and then used blood forcibly taken from Harry to return Voldemort to a mostly human form.

The villain turned out to be the newest DADA professor, Mad-Eye Moody, a retired auror and close friend of Dumbledore's. Only it was not the real auror, it was a Death Eater by the name of Barty Crouch, JR, who attempted to kill Harry, after Voldemort's failure. Voldemort was back and Harry was headed back to Little Whinging.

Harry's fifth summer was going to be the start of a disastrous time for Dumbledore, because he kept the teen from any important information about the wizarding world. Of course, until something happened, the headmaster would not it would not be fixable. Not even remotely fixable.

One day Harry and Dudley had gone to a park, when Dudley began taunting Harry about Cedric's death, when everything went pitch black. When the temperature suddenly dropped, Harry felt his stomach drop as he realized that dementors were on Privet Drive. He had been told that it was not possible as there were wards to protect him from magical beings. Knowing that he would more then likely be in trouble, but he had to safe himself and his fat cousin, Harry tried to cast his Patronus. It took him three tries before his silver stag named Prongs, after his dad's animagus form, jumped from his wand and chased off the dementors.

To top it off, he found out that his childhood babysitter, Mrs. Figg was a squib, and that Dumbledore had her watching him, but she never reported the abuse he suffered. Then, he heard from first Dumbledore, then Arthur Weasley and finally Sirius to just stay put. More bad news arrived when he received a message from the Ministry telling him Aurors were coming to snap his wand, and that he was suspended from Hogwarts.

He received another message telling him that he would be given a trial, in which Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge tried to silence about from talking about Voldemort's return. To his surprise, Dumbledore showed up, defended him and got him off, but then proceeded to ignore him. Afterwards, he was taken to Grimmauld Place, his godfather's family home.

He was stunned to find that not only were Ron and Hermione staying there, they were allowed to know what was happening. Harry realized he was only allowed there because of his status as the Light's weapon.

He spent the summer holiday in bad mood, unsure why he was angry almost all of the time, but knew it had something to do with the headmaster ignoring him. He also had to worry that because of Fudge and the Ministry, he was considered to be a delusional, attention seeking child. Nobody wanted to believe that he had not just portkeyed Cedric to the graveyard, kill him, then bring back his body. He could not believe how sarcastic he was becoming.

At Hogwarts, while the students simply avoided him, the new DADA professor, Dolores Umbridge, or Umbitch as he had began calling her, gave Harry detentions for trying to convince his fellow students that Voldemort really was back. She used a blood quill on him which caused the lines he was forced to write to become embedded into the back of his hand. At those times, he felt that he hated her more then he did Voldemort.

Another problem facing him were the dreams had been having seemed to become more real to him, and he found out that they were more then dreams, when he witnessed Arthur Weasley being attack by Voldemort's snake, Nagini. Dumbledore arranged for him to be taught Occlumency, a mind blocking art, but he failed to understand the art and the man teaching him got angry and left. With no success, Dumbledore tried to find someone else to teach him, before giving up.

The worst vision happened when he dreamed of Voldemort torturing his godfather scaring him into doing something rash. When he tried to use the floo in Umbridge's office, he was captured by her Slytherin inquisition squad. While he was held captive, he learned that Umbridge had sent the dementors after him, and then she risked Azkaban for attempting to use the cruciatus curse on him.

Help came in unusual way, when the DADA professor had summoned the Potions Mistress, a Ms. Malroy and demanded veritiserum, the truth potion from her. The Slytherin Head of House appeared in Umbridge's office, and even though she was a pureblood, she did feel the same as Voldemort, so she refused to help the angry woman. Harry yelled a message to the Potions professor, not knowing if she understood, before being able to trick Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest. There, she insulted the centaurs, and Harry left her to face them while he left to try and save Sirius.

When Harry reached the MInistry, he realized it was a trap, and, to his horror watched as an insane Death Eater and Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange forced his godfather behind the veil from which noone ever returned.

Then, Voldemort entered the Ministry and possessed Harry while facing off with Dumbledore. The dark lord kept taunting the headmaster, trying to get the old man to kill Harry, before the teen was able to throw out the bastard by thinking about the love he felt for his family. Once free, Voldemort left, while Harry was portkeyed to the headmaster's office.

When Dumbledore finally explained about the prophecy and why Voldemort wanted him dead, Harry destroyed the headmaster's office in a fit of rage. He had lost his godfather and found out that he, a teenager, was expected to kill the most powerful Dark Lord in fifty years.

Harry came out of thinking as the Hogwarts Exprees pulled into King's Cross station. He was aware that something was off about the prophecy, but he would find out what if it was the last thing he did.

Passing through the arch, back into the muggle world, Harry watched as memebers of Dumbledore's secret organization, the Order of the Phoenix, threatened Vernon about his treatment of Harry.

On the ride back to Privet Drive, Harry was not aware that his life was going to be changing, all for the better for himself, and not for Dumbledore.