Chapter II – Harry Leaves

The remainder of the day of Harry's arrival into the past proceeded reasonably well. He stayed out of the house all afternoon and until it was time for the evening meal which he happily cooked (not only because it was expected of him, but also because he had tasted his aunt's cooking before, and didn't particularly want food poisoning just now), and then spent the early evening tending the garden (something that he had secretly always enjoyed) before going to bed early in preparation for the next day.

-SCENE BREAK-

Petunia, Vernon and Dudley,

You will, no doubt, have noticed by now that I am not here. There is a simple explanation for this fact.

Yesterday morning I received a most interesting letter. A letter from a place called "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". Yes, your fears have been realised. I found out. I've actually known for quite a while now. But that is of little importance anymore.

You have never truly been my family. You never will be.

I've left and I will likely never return to Privet Drive, so one of your greatest wishes has been fulfilled.

I know all about the letter that Dumbledore left with me on the doorstep years ago. Don't worry about him, by the time he finds out, it will be too late and he won't care to bother you about it.

Goodbye

Harry

That was the letter that Harry left on the kitchen table, having woken up at 6:30 –an hour before his relatives would get up.

He then quietly left the house and walked away from Privet Drive for the last time without so much as a glance back over his shoulder.

When he was several streets away from his relatives' house, Harry ducked into a dark alleyway and cast a glamour charm to alter his appearance. Gone was the black hair, green eyes and scar, to be replaced by brown hair, blue eyes and an unmarked face.

Considering no one in the magical world had seen him for over 9 years, and he was a baby then, he considered this level of disguise to be more than enough.

Walking back onto the main street, he raised his right hand and concentrated on summoning the Knight Bus.

10 minutes and one very wild ride later, Harry was leaving the bus (which was, he remembered, thankfully free between 2 and 7am) and passing through the Leaky Cauldron and out into Diagon Alley.

The alley itself was relatively quiet at this time of day. There were however several shops open and several more opening as the wizarding world runs on much longer hours than it's muggle counterpart.

Harry made his way into Gringotts and approached one of the handful of tellers working this time of day.

"Good morning," he began. "I know I have a vault here, but someone else has my key. Is there any way of accessing it?"

After stating and confirming (via a magical blood test) his identity, Harry was escorted down to his personal vault (the one that he had known about since this point in the previous time). Once there, the goblin with him opened the vault using a master key and while Harry was collecting some of his galleons, changed the lock on the door as there was no magical way of retrieving keys, nor any easy way to produce a replacement. There was a small fee for this service however Harry was more than rich enough to cover it.

With his gold in his pocket, Harry spent the next few hours buying the things he would immediately need as well as his school supplies.

127 books (including a copy of the Hogwarts set texts – all subjects, all years with the obvious exception of the Lockheart books he knew would be on the list for his second year – rich or not, he wasn't going to waste money on those anytime soon), 2 full school uniforms (minus the ridiculous hat, that with the exception of his first day he never wore the first time round and saw no reason to do so again), various casual robes, 2 sets of formal/dress robes, assorted formal and casual muggle clothes, a broomstick (a nimbus like his first one, as he was disappointed to remember the Firebolt series was still a couple of years away, and sod the "first year" rule – let them try and take it off him), a trunk (2 compartments – 1 with a standard key lock and enlarged to twice its normal size and 1 again twice normal size with a locking mechanism keyed to a person's magical signature), his wand (the same one as he had before, and he still thought Ollivander was a creepy old weirdo, even if he was harmless), 2 cauldrons (one for school and one larger one that he had plans for), assorted potions supplies, a telescope, some sweets, a crate of butterbeer and some muggle stationary (having long ago decided it was much easier to use) later he headed back to the Leaky Cauldron and booked a room for a few days.

Being thoroughly exhausted, Harry left all of his newly gained possessions in the room and had a light lunch in the pub before going up and having a nap for a couple of hours.

When he woke up again, Harry looked at the clock and saw that it was early evening. He decided to use the rest of his day to look through the first couple of year's worth of his school books as he realised it had been a long time since he had used much of the material as he now knew other, better, ways of doing things – but in order to get by in class he would have to know these ones.

That was something that Harry and Hermione had decided when preparing for their little trip. They would have to go to Hogwarts as it was required due to their physical ages, and probably the only way to meet some of their old friends. However, between actually attending the classes and the study they did with their friends and allies while fighting the war, they were in fact beyond mastery level in most magical fields and just about there in the rest of them (having your life depend on it being a very good motivator for learning). While they didn't particularly want everyone knowing the full extent of their knowledge and abilities, they refused to hold back (Harry because he didn't really want to have to do all of the work that would go into it, and Hermione on the principle of the matter – even years later she still would not do anything but her absolute best when it came to academics).

Once he had completed the first 3 years of material, Harry decided it was time to rest.

However, on this night, rest would not be synonymous with sleep. This seemed like as good a time as any for Harry to re-establish his occlumency abilities and protections. It turned out that when he was actually told the correct way of doing it, as opposed to what Snape had him doing, Harry was somewhat of a natural at this. The meditative state that was used in order to protect one's mind was as rejuvenating as sleeping, therefore he spent all night doing so, looking forward to the following day when he would once again see Hermione.

-SCENE BREAK-

While Harry was busy shopping and reading, Hermione had a different task in mind. It was all part of their plan you see, they wanted to have a basic timeline of the events that had happened in their previous lives written down, in order to monitor what was supposed to be happening, what they wanted to change and how their changes were affecting other things.

That was one of the risks that they had to consider with this plan. What if they changed things to the extent that their fore-knowledge became useless? What if they made a mistake and ended up causing something even worse to happen? It was a very difficult thing to predict as the effects of a single event, no matter how insignificant, could be far reaching and either wondrous or catastrophic in nature.

The following is the timeline of major events she came up with for the year to come.

HP meets Hagrid to get to Diagon Alley

HP meets Weasleys at station

HP and RW become friends on train

HG spends most of train journey alone

Both sorted into Gryffindor

Neither really get to know many housemates

Neither have any friends in other houses

"duel" with Malfoy – first discovery of "Fluffy"

HP getting on Quidditch team

Troll in bathroom

HP gets invisibility cloak

Discovery of Mirror of Erised

Norbert and detention in forest – first encounter with Voldemort

Following Quirrell after the stone

Deciding that, while not complete, this would be enough to work from Hermione was satisfied with her work.

This took her a surprising amount of time and after completing this list and a few chores around the house it was soon late afternoon. Once they returned from work, she spent the rest of the day just spending time with her parents, taking the wonderful opportunity to spend time with them once more.

As she went to sleep that night, Hermione's last thoughts were of her favourite black haired, green eyed man and how much she was looking forward to seeing him again the next day.