Chapter two: The Awakening

Harry sat bolt upright nearly throwing himself out of the lumpy broken down mattress in the process, he pawed the nightstand for his glasses. Jamming them on, he looked around at the room that he recognized as his bedroom at number four privet drive. He took stock of his appearance to judge how old he was coming to the conclusion due to the freshly healed fang scar on his right arm that this was the summer before third year.

'Perfect I can keep Sirius from dying and keep Tom from coming back, all I have to do is destroy the horcruxes, claim my inheritance and I can save all those that died last time round' Harry thought. Harry slid out of bed and composed a pair of letters to Hermione and Luna. He had to know if they remembered anything from before the spell, if they did then that would be two more people to help him save those who would otherwise parish.

It took all of ten minutes to word them properly, then he sealed the letters and sent them with Hedwig, who had returned whilst he was writing them. Seeing his beloved familiar again after watching her die protecting him was therapeutic, knowing that he had a chance to save her this time made strengthened his resolve to put Tom in the frickin ground for good this time.

"Dobby" he called softly not wanting to wake his so called relatives up, that was the last thing he needed right now. The little guy popped into his room looking around before spotting harry and trying to lock his legs in a hug. Harry knelt down to crush the elf against him in a hug. Dobby had given his life defending Hogwarts, he and the other elves had carried supplies to the fighters and sometimes the fighters themselves to strategic positions, dobby had rarely left Harrys' side during the fight which had sadly cost dobby his own life. Though the house elf had racked up an impressive death eater body count before coming face to face with Voldemort himself, Dobby had flung elfish magic and throwing knives at the snake faced lunatic and even managed to put a six inch knife through Voldemorts' left shoulder. Voldemort had not been forgiving for that, he had torn the elf apart with magic and fed the pieces to Nagini.

Seeing this had caused harry to fly into a fit of rage and had challenged Voldemort one on one, but Voldemort had not dueled fairly and used Nagini to distract Harry, as the snake struck at him Neville threw the sword of Gryffindor at the snake but due to the fact that Neville was all but blind by that point his accuracy was lacking. However harry had quick reflexes and was able to snatch the sword and slice the snake down the middle. That had led to Voldemort gaining the upper hand and ending the resistance.

"Dobby it's good to see you. I need your help my little friend, if we don't act now all of wizarding Britain will fall to Tom Riddles' madness." Harry said with a haunted look.

"Of course Harry Potter, what do we do first?" Dobby asked in his high pitched voice

"First I need get to the others who came back with me, Hermione and Luna should be first. Then we have to get to Sirius and clear his name. After that we'll need to gather the rest of them and take them somewhere safe, any ideas on a safe place Dobby?"

Dobby's face took on a contemplative look "Well, while I was still enslaved by the Malfoys, I heard them speak of some old families having their own islands perhaps the goblins would know if the Potters were among them."

"Hmm, a good a place to start looking as any, how to get there though," Harry considered the options for a moment, the knight bus seemed like a bad idea considering what he knew about Stan Shunpike, while he may have been under the imperious curse during the war, the man was a habitual gossip. While that didn't necessarily make him a bad person, it did however make him dangerous to associate with; and while he knew how to make a portkey; he also knew the ministry could track them, the same applied to apparition. And waiting until it was time to get his school supplies was also unacceptable. As he sure that number four privet drive was being watched by at least one of Dumbledore's people. Add to that the fact that Dumbledore had enough tracking charms, amongst others, on him that he could probably tell what kind of socks Harry was wearing and it made for a very difficult situation.

Then, like a sign from above, Harry looks down at Dobby and realizes the answer has been staring him in the face for the past few minutes. Clearly dobby could get thought the wards surrounding Privit drive. So there was no reason to think that he couldn't take harry with him when he left again. He also remembered the ministry only gave him a warning for the levitation charm not for when Dobby used apparition to get in and out undetected, so maybe they couldn't track elvish magic.

"Dobby can you disapparate me to Gringotts without being tracked? " Harry asked hopeful for a possible solution

"Of course I can Harry Potter, I'm an elf." Dobby said matter-of-factly.

"Brilliant Dobby, now I just need to pack my trunk and shrink it down, guess I'll have to wait until we get to Gringotts for that last bit though," Harry said, a little grumpy at the thought of having to pack it all by hand, "Can't take the chance of the ministry tracking the charm and getting myself kicked out of Hogwarts before I get the map, the sword and the diadem."

Harry set about gathering his belongings, deciding upon inspection of his clothes that he would have do some shopping, new clothes for certain, new shoes as well and a safer trunk. While quietly sorting out what to take and what to leave behind he came across his nimbus 2000, leaving him wistful for a few seconds. While it was an amazing broom it simply couldn't compare to the Firebolt. He would keep the nimbus as a backup but if this year turned out anything like it had last time round then he would need the speed upgrade, not to mention next year if the Triwizard tournament still happened. Somehow he knew is name would still get entered. It had almost seemed like fate when it happened during the last go round, and if it did happen trying to outmatch a horntails speed on anything less was suicide.

It took only ten minutes for the pair of them working together to get everything in order. They soon stood hand in hand, with Dobby's other hand clamped on the side handle of the trunk. With a sharp twist and an audible crack they were gone with the only trace that anyone had ever been there being a stack of large clothing on the bed, the assortment of broken objects some of which Harry managed to repair, and a single piece of parchment with a short note explaining that he was leaving and never coming back, ending with the line piss off and good life to you.

The Dursleys wouldn't discover the boy was gone, along with all of his things, for several days and by then it was too late to stop what befell them. Just as Dumbledore had predicted in his letter to Petunia eleven years prior, when Harry no longer called it home the protection ended. It didn't take long for the death eaters who had managed dodge imprisonment after the war to hear this and destroy the place and murder its three residents. Whether this was done out of revenge for the death of their master or as a warning that they would rise again when their master returned, no one was quite sure.

One thing was for certain though.

Harry potter was missing.