Hi, i hope you enjoy this chapter!


Walking Free

A Trip to Gringotts

Once he had succeeded in opening the door to the attic, Harry climbed up and studied his surroundings. Cobwebs descended from the ceiling and dust was heavy in the air. The room was almost completely bare apart from one dark corner to Harry's left.

On approaching it, Harry realised that it was a trunk, covered with a large grey cloth. Bending down, he lifted the sheet into the air. In doing so, a thick cloud of dust bellowed around him.

Harry coughed and flapped his arms, trying to clear the air. Once his sight had been returned, Harry focused his eyes on the object at hand. It was in fact, as he had first thought, a trunk. The dark wood was scratched and battered from large amounts of use.

Harry was about to open it when he saw the gold lettering underneath the lock. He tentatively ran his fingers over the smooth writing and smiled.

Harry J. Potter

Harry laughed to himself at the thought that only his belongings were hidden away in the small attic. His possessions were no longer worthy of the Weasley's grace. He was almost surprised that Hedwig hadn't been treated in the same manner.

As if reading his mind, Hedwig pecked his ear before swooping down from his shoulder, landing on the top of the trunk. The look in her eyes was one of determination and Harry soon understood her demands.

Gently lifting Hedwig off the wood, Harry set her back down on his arm.

Harry sighed in relief when he noticed that the trunk was not locked. He flipped up the metal latch and raised the lid.

He was almost surprised to find the trunk completely full. He had had a strange feeling that it would be empty, and his search for his belongings would have all been in vain.

The first item he saw was his cloak. The material seemed to shine in the morning light coming from the window to his right, when he picked it up. It was soft to the touch, just as he remembered it had been. Putting his father's cloak to the side, Harry's eyes fell upon his Firebolt. It looked just as it did the first day he had obtained it. Picking it out of the trunk he placed it next to the cloak. He would be using that later, that was, if he could remember how to.

He also found quite a few of his clothes, two pairs of converses, and a pile of books he remembered using at school only a few years ago. How he had missed Hogwarts. The safety he felt from its walls was like nothing he could feel anywhere else. The friends he had made there, the enemies too. Harry suddenly thought of Draco but he wasn't sure if he could still count him as an enemy anymore. He had saved him from the hell but Harry still had some doubt as to how sincere Draco had been in that heroic act.

Harry chose a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans, along with socks, underwear and the green sneakers and put them to the side. He then quickly scanned the trunk for the item he was most interested in finding.

Near the bottom of the trunk, Harry found a long slim box. He slipped off the lid and smiled. His wand sat perfectly on the red, silk stuffing of the box, as if waiting for him.

Once Harry was done reminiscing, he collected up the clothes and began to dress. The t-shirt and underwear fit well but Harry realised that he had grown considerably in height since his fifth year at Hogwarts, and the jeans squeezed tightly around his lower region. After a few stretching charms, the jeans fit nicely once again and Harry finished dressing, by tying up the laces of his shoes. When that was done, Harry picked up his wand again. It felt good to hold it once more. He was a bit rusty with his magic but he was sure that with a little practice, he could get back up to scratch.

When he was finished with the trunk, Harry considered leaving it behind but he decided that he probably wouldn't be able to put Draco's plan to use for quite a while, so he should take it with him so he could use the extra clothes. He would have to do without money for maybe about a week before he would get a chance to get his money out of his vault in Gringotts so he had to plan ahead.

Making sure he had everything he had come for, Harry left the attic, shutting the door behind him. Hedwig gave him another quick peck before she jumped up and flew back down to the kitchen. Before he followed her downstairs, Harry shuffled into Ron's room. It was stuffed with dirty clothes, magazines and Quidditch books, all tossed over the floor. The walls were still the same Chudley Cannon orange and Harry wondered how the team had been doing since their last match Harry had heard about.

When Harry managed to push past all the clutter in the doorway, he stopped in front of the small wardrobe. On opening it, Harry was knocked back by an avalanche of clothes. After being hit in the head numerous times by stray trainers, Harry got back to his feet and examined the contents of the wardrobe. He pulled away some more items of clothing until he spotted what he had been after. A pile of Hogwarts school books lay untidily at the bottom. The covers were creased and bent with what looked like use but Harry knew better. The books had been second-hand to start with and Ron had never taken care of his school books anyway.

Harry sorted through them until he found the sixth and seventh year books and flicked through the pages to make sure that none of them had been ripped out in Ron's carelessness. Once he had successfully and carefully looked through the books, and to his surprise, finding none of the pages missing, he placed them in his trunk.

He descended the stairs until he came to the second floor landing and decided to use the bathroom before he left. While he was washing his hands, Harry deliberated his reflection in the mirror.

He nearly didn't recognise himself. His cheeks were hollow but a layer of stubble covered his jaw. His eyes were tired and red and dark circles had gathered under them. Harry took a step back so he could see more of himself in the mirror. He was extremely thin and he could see his bones protruding under his skin. The clothes that had once been far too large now fit him well for his height, but the shirt was still a bit too large. Dudley had always been bigger than he.

After leaving the bathroom, Harry went down to the kitchen. He looked through the cupboards and picked out some food. He thought that if he only took one or two things from each cupboard, Mrs. Weasley might not notice that they were missing. When he had enough food to last him a few days, he packed them in the trunk. Harry then realised that he couldn't fly his broom while holding the heavy box so he pulled out his wand.

Shrinking the trunk proved to be harder than Harry had anticipated. He found that the spell was lost somewhere in his tired mind and it took him a few tries to get his wand to even produce a flicker. Once he had succeeded however, he slipped the miniature trunk into his jeans pocket.

Harry glanced at the clock on the wall which read around midday. The Weasleys would probably be back at any time so he picked up his belongings and exited the house.

Once outside, Harry walked back to the shadows of the trees before he mounted his broom. Prior to taking off, he looked back at the Burrow behind him. As he did this, the Weasleys came back from the Order meeting that they had just been to. They all looked a bit flustered and worried and he assumed that it was because of the news regarding himself. Harry was sad to see them so upset and know that he was the reason behind the trouble.

Harry sighed and turned away. It was time to go. This was it. Time to say goodbye. Giving one last look at the house, Harry pushed off the ground, and took to the skies.

Harry sat alone at the large table, sipping a hot mug of coffee, pouring over Ron's sixth year text book. He was reading it through for the second time and was mostly interested in the chapter on Apparition. He figured that it would become a handy tool for him to use in the near future, but first he had to learn.

When he had finished his drink, Harry got up from his seat and headed up the stairs to his room.

He had been staying at a muggle inn, near London for a few days and he had spent most of the time, in his room, reading up on what he had missed in school. He hadn't heard anything about anyone trying to find him yet but he guessed that that was because he didn't have any way of getting a magical paper.

Harry didn't have much time left to work on his magic before he had to put it to use. Once he learnt to Apparate, he could take the letter from the Ministry, which Draco had given him, and get his money.

Until then, he didn't have any way of paying for his room at the inn. He had already asked the owner if he could pay him at the end of the week when he would have enough cash, but he wasn't sure the owner would take too kindly if he had to ask to extend his stay, without paying in advance.

Once in his room, Harry practised apparating from one side to the other. It was a tricky business and took him a while to learn without injuring himself. At first he would stumble and fall over, annoying the couple staying on the floor beneath him immensely; however, he could now disappear and then reappear several feet from where he started.

Although the chapter about apparition in the text book was useful, it did not give the exact details about how to apparate which made the learning process even harder. There was only one short passage on how to apparate in the chapter as the rest was about how useful it was when trying to escape from tricky situations. Harry smiled to himself; he was certainly in a 'tricky situation'. The faster he learnt to perfect apparition, the quicker he could get away.

It had taken Harry three days of intense practice for him to feel comfortable apparating in his small room on the top floor of the inn. He had been in London for around a week and felt that he was slowly catching up on the important parts of the syllabus that he had missed from his sixth and seventh years. He could do most spells without speaking aloud as well as some complex charms and was able to transfigure his face so that he no longer looked like himself. However, all of this was very draining and Harry found himself shattered at the end of each day.

He was slowly gaining weight, although he still looked incredibly thin and gaunt, and was now able to do magic for longer periods of time without completely exhausting himself.

Another week past before he felt he was ready to use his magic to get into his vault in Gringotts. With the letter Draco had given him hidden safely in his pocket, Harry used his wand to change his appearance. After a couple of minutes, Harry stood in front of the mirror to get a look at himself. His shaggy jet black hair had been replaced and was now short and light brown in colour. His bright green eyes were a dark blue and his lightning bolt shaped scar was gone. Harry changed his face shape to help hide his identity as well as lengthening his nose, into a slightly upturned point, a bit like Draco's. Satisfied, Harry left the inn and apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.

The sky was a dull grey and the air felt like it was about to rain. Harry held his breath before entering the Leaky Cauldron. The pub was practically empty; a few people were sitting around the bar and there was a couple sat in the corner. Walking past all of them without trying to attract attention to himself, Harry made his way to the back door where he would find the entrance to Diagon Alley. Once outside Harry let out a sigh of relief; he had safely made it to Diagon Alley without being noticed.

Getting out his wand, Harry tapped the third brick from the left above the dustbin in the courtyard behind the pub. As the wall opened up, Harry smiled to himself. He was back where he belonged, in the wizarding world. Putting his wand in his robe pocket, Harry headed towards the bank.

Looking up at the building, Harry stood perplexed. He knew the building was large from all his memories of going in to see his own vault, but it was still a shock to see the bank up close again. He had remembered when he came with Hagrid for the first time and how happy he had felt when he realised that someone had loved him. His parents had made sure that Harry would have everything he ever needed if anything had happened to them. Harry just wished they could help him now.

It took a few moments for him to take in the sheer size of the building before him. It was a lot more intimidating now than it had in his memory. 'God, what am I doing? This is insane! I'm never going to pull this off!' Harry looked over to his right, as someone pulled open the first set of doors to the bank. Harry peered inside quickly, and could just make out the words carved into the door.

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Having read this, Harry gave a hard swallow. He then recalled something Hagrid had said to him all those years ago. 'Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it.' And maybe Harry was mad. He certainly felt it. He had to do this though. Mad man or not he had to, he knew, and nothing would stop him.

Harry looked around the large marble hall in awe. It really was a fascinating sight. The high up counter seemed to stretch on forever and it was lined with hundreds of goblins. Harry made his way up to the first available goblin he saw and smiled kindly up at him. The creature looked down at him with small beady eyes. Harry tried not to shrink back under the scrutiny, but stayed firm.

'Good morning. I am here on behalf of the Ministry.' Harry said confidently.

'What business do you require?' the goblin croaked back.

Harry gulped before replying. He had to stay clam otherwise people would start to notice his strange behaviour and that would cause great suspicion. 'I have a letter about collecting some money from a vault of one of the prisoners at Azkaban.' Harry slid the letter over the surface of the counter, where the goblin examined it. He shot a few glances at Harry, each time longer than the first and the boy became quite uncomfortable. Finally, after a couple of minutes, it felt like hours to Harry, the goblin grunted and handed the paper back to him.

'Follow me sir.'

As they walked down the long corridor, Harry could feel the sweat gathering in the palms of his hands which he kept firmly clenched.

Harry jumped when he heard a loud, shrill whistle and then the goblin spoke. 'If you would, sir.' Harry looked down to where the creature was indicating, and saw a track. A moment later a wooden cart suddenly appeared before them.

'Oh right, yes, of course.' Harry stuttered as he lowered himself into the cart. He watched as the goblin sat in front of him and seconds later the cart shot into life. As Harry had remembered it would, the 'vehicle' steered itself down the steeply slopping passage. Further and further they went, passed more and more vaults, deeper and deeper but it only took a few moments.

When the cart stopped, Harry was so caught off guard he couldn't stand at first and the goblin had to wait, not very patiently Harry noted, for him to find his balance and to make sure he wasn't about to lose his breakfast. Adding this to his nerves, Harry was sure he would pass out any second now.

'Stay calm, Harry.' he thought. 'You have to do this! Now, suck it up and be a man!'

With that thought, Harry assertively got to his feet and joined the goblin, who was muttering something about 'bloody Ministry workers', outside the small door to his vault.

The goblin pulled out a tiny golden key from his pocket and slid it into the lock. Before he turned it however, he looked up at Harry with a sly smile.

'Should the Ministry really be going into Mr. Harry Potter's vault when the convict has only just escaped from Azkaban? It does not seem a very sensible thing to have Mr. Potter's money anywhere apart from locked in his vault, in the most secure building in Britain.' The goblin didn't hide his pride in what he said about Gringotts. Harry recalled Hagrid telling him about the security at the great bank when he had been eleven and it brought a smile to his face. He had missed the half giant a lot and his kind words would be much appreciated at this moment.

Once the goblin had finished gloating, the door was opened and Harry peered inside. It looked almost exactly as it had six years ago when he had last visited just before his third year at Hogwarts. Money was stacked high and it glistened in the low light. Harry gave a quick sigh at his progress so far but reminded himself not to get too cocky. There was a lot still to do before he was finally in the clear.

Pulling a coarse bag from his robes, he began to collect a portion of the gold and put it into the bag.

'Sorry sir, but you never answered my query. Do you not think it is a bad idea to be taking the money out now, with what has just happened?'

Harry kept his head down as he shrugged his shoulders. 'I'm just here to fill out orders. It's not my place to say.'

The goblin seemed satisfied with this answer for he did not comment on the subject again.

When Harry had all the money he was required to collect from the letter, the goblin closed and locked the door and they made their way back to the main hall. He thanked the goblin for his time but only received a small grunt of distaste, and left the building.

He quickly made his way to a small side street and pulled out his wand. It took him slightly longer to disguise his face than usual for he was tired and stressed. He didn't have as much control as he had earlier that morning. He was surprised that he had been able to keep the glamour up for so long. After a few waves from his wand, Harry had a new appearance. He had changed his hair to a dirty blonde and his eyes to a soft, pale blue. He didn't give much attention to his face shape for he wasn't going to go to the same goblin and didn't think he would be recognised. He did however; remove his glasses before he entered Gringotts again.

Walking up to another goblin, Harry lifted up his bag of money and quickly got down to business. He asked the small goblin to change half of his money into muggle money and his request was quickly fulfilled without any awkward questions. He was pretty sure he did receive some strange looks from the goblin who had served him first but it didn't matter now. He grabbed his money when the goblin had finished, thanked him and left with a slight skip in his step.

Harry quickly made his way back outside into the rain. He had done it. Checking his pocket to make sure the money was still there, Harry made his way down the steps towards Diagon Alley. The street was more crowded now even though it was raining. Children were running up and down the street, staring into windows and chatting animatedly to their parents. Harry supposed that they would be getting their school things ready for the start of term in September.

Making his way round the corner and into a deserted alleyway, Harry realised how drained he was. It was a struggle to keep his appearance as it was for much longer. He needed to concentrate in order to get away without being seen. As Harry turned into another street, he almost collided with someone. As Harry looked up to mumble an apology he realised who it was.

Ronald Weasley was the youngest boy in the Weasley family and Harry's old best friend. They had been in the same year at school and nearly inseparable until Harry was sent to Azkaban. Harry did not know if Ron thought he was guilty but he certainly didn't want to find out right now, especially in public.

Rain hit Harry's face as he looked up at Ron. He had not changed much in the three years that Harry had been in Azkaban. He stood tall, about a couple inches taller than Harry, and had a long freckled nose. It was in the split second that Harry had lost concentration, whilst looking at his old friend that he realised the spells on his face were wearing off and he was changing back to his normal self. The rain splattered onto his head and down his face as it changed, as if the water was carrying the spells away with it.

Praying that Ron had not seen his face change, Harry dashed down the alley.

Unfortunately, Ron, who was now training as an auror at the ministry, noticed the strange behaviour and began to follow. Harry ran down streets, turning down small cobbled roads whenever he could in order to get away.

Ron, who had got his wand out was firing hexes at Harry in the hopes of stopping him. Harry too got out his wand and began blocking as many spells as possible; however, as he turned another corner, Ron's Stinging hex hit him in the arm. Groaning in pain, Harry continued to run. He was now incredibly lost; he had never been down this part of Diagon Alley before. The streets were quiet and there were only a few shops. Harry guessed that the other buildings must be wizard houses.

After a while, Harry began to tire and felt himself slowing down. He stopped and leant against the wall for support. He needed to improve his fitness so that he would be able to do a lot of physical exercise as well as demanding magic. He felt himself slip down the wall about an inch or so as he tried to catch his breath. There was a nasty stabbing feeling in his arm where Ron's Stinging hex had hit him to try and stop him from getting away. Hoping that he had shaken Ron off, Harry remained leaning against the wall, panting.

Although he wanted to see his old friends, he did not want them to see him and he was sure that Ron, although not being the most observant, had guessed it was him. It turned very quiet. The only sound was the heavy rain smashing into the uneven ground. Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself. There was no point in apparating when he was this tired; it would only cause himself to splinch.

There was a small pop nearby which startled Harry. He immediately lowered his hand from his face and opened his eyes. Standing in front of him was a furious and rather intimidating looking Ron Weasley. Before Harry could do anything a fist met his nose. There was a nasty crunch on impact and Harry felt warm blood dripping down his face, mixing with the rain.

Harry's stomach dropped. So Ron believed that he was guilty? He was going to turn him into the ministry where they would send him back to Azkaban. He had been foolish to think that Ron might have thought that he was innocent. He needed to get away. Taking a firm grip of his wand, Harry spun on the spot and apparated. The last thing he heard was his friend call his name and a female shouting for Ron.

It was Hermione.


Thanks for reading. Please review. If you review, i will love you! :)

The next chapter should be up soon!

Princess Patterson- I'm afraid that Ginny isn't in it for a while but i will try to get her in sooner for you. Harry may be angry at all his friends for abandoning him at the moment, but you know what Harry is like, he always forgives people!

Nanchih- I like the idea of Draco using the letter against Harry but i didn't actually think of that. Draco is trying to be good to Harry because he feels guilty about something that gets explained later on in the story.