Minerva McGonagle tore through the halls at a dead run, weaving around corners and suits of armour like a madwoman. Her exultant cry reverberated back to her from the high ceilings above as she rushed to the Headmaster's office. "He's free! He's happy! He has a family!" She cried as she turned down a final passage. The stone gargoyle at the end of the hall had never seen the ageing schoolmarm in such a state and in a panic, wisely, chose to get the hell out of her way.
She took the steps three at a time as she bounded up the emerging spiral staircase. She burst into the room, nearly knocking Fawkes the phoenix from his perch, and leapt to embrace the venerable old Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Albus Dumbledore was shocked to say the least. He'd never seen Minerva in such a state before, she was as giddy as if she'd been hit with a dozen cheering charms and babbling like crazy. It took him ten minutes to calm her down to the point where she wasn't trying to hug him, dance and laugh all at once, then another ten to finally get the story out of her. She'd noticed that Harry's name had still been on the roster for this year's attendees, which meant that he was alive and not killed in the magical explosion that devastated Privet Drive all those years ago, she had used the charmed quill to write everyone's letters but saved his for last and then personally followed the owl sent to deliver young Mr. Potter's letter. The stories of a strange new continent intrigued him but to hear of Harry was the most important at the moment.
"...and then he was there pulling his brother out of the cliff face and the old man who leads the place gave them a stern talking to in their funny language and then they went home and he has a home, Albus, a proper one not like the horrible muggle place you sent him to and a family, I checked, they have been recognised by Magic, he has a brother, and the leader of the village is their guardian and he's also been recognised, that's why the owl delivered it to him instead of Harry, oh you should see him, Albus, he's happy and safe and loved and he looks so much like James and then I apparated here as quickly as I could to tell you and..."
Caught up in the moment, McGonagal leapt at Albus for another hug before jumping back and running out of the room with a cry of "I'm gonna go tell everybody! James and Lily's son is alive, happy and well! HAHA!"
Albus was still stood there five minutes later when the house elves came to tidy up in their discreet, secretive way. In fact it took the squawk and trill of Fawkes in a panic to revive him.
Feeling much better the old headmaster sank heavily into his chair, still deep in thought. He'd spent the past few years blaming himself for the Potter boy's death. First he'd blamed himself for the death of Lily and James, for not insisting that he be the one to hide them with the Fidelius spell. Then he'd blamed himself for putting the boy in what had turned out to be, after reviewing the memories of the Dursley family, an extremely abusive household. He'd even been called out there at least once a year to heal the boy, his beatings had gotten so bad! Childish accidents indeed! Damned prejudiced muggles could have given Tom a run for his money in the old days before the little swine had rediscovered the Cruciatus curse. He should have seen! Children did occasionally run away from home, but Harry had run off nearly a dozen times. He'd kept breaking the compulsions not to, even with his magic bound! The bindings! Sweet Merlin, the boy had to have three separate bindings placed on his magic, just to get him down to an acceptable level to pass as normal, three! Dumbledore himself had only had two placed on his core as a child and the Potter boy needed three! Then there were the ward stones. The only way he could keep Lily's sacrificial protection from fading had been to establish it as a ward but then those had failed and he'd only just managed to get the ward stones set up in time to maintain them. Harry had to have them implanted within himself for them to absorb the boy's power but not only had he overloaded the wards he'd fully charged the stones to the point where they were self replenishing their own power, even with his magic bound! He'd not only managed to fill a ward stone with enough power to run the strongest blood protections known to wizard kind, but he'd filled them up at a rate of one a month!
Then came the accident, or rather the assault as he'd seen from Vernon Dursley's memories, that had ended with a mile wide zone of suburban housing magically devastated, centring on Privet Drive, and Harry Potter vanished into thin air, supposedly dead. Now he was alive, happy and should, if he was anything like his father, be causing as much havoc and uproar as physically possible now that he was out of that horrible place. The horrible place that he, Albus Dumbledore, the supposed Leader of the Light, Champion of Good and all those other titles the newspapers gave him, had kept Harry in!
It was all a disaster. He'd hoped a muggle family would keep Harry normal, being just another child to them and not a world-famous destroyer of dark lords. He'd wanted a good, polite and normal boy he could advise and eventually work with to together turn the magical world towards a more prosperous future. Being muggle-raised would have help enormously as well to bring some modernisation to the medieval magical world. His Muggle Studies professor still referred to electricity as "'lekticky" for Merlin's sake! The world he lived in was stuck in a rut and he'd turned his greatest hope and ally for the future, the Boy-Who-Lived with his prodigious fame and public good-will, into someone who would regard him as an enemy to be feared. Harry wouldn't see him as a kindly and supportive Headmaster, he'd see him as the manipulative old bastard who'd kept him imprisoned and tortured his entire early life. Harry would be against him every step of the way!
Harry probably wouldn't even want to return to Britain! He had, according to Minerva at least, everything the boy could want, even magical training, if that walking on vertical surfaces thing was anything to go by. Harry would stay in his new home and he, Dumbledore, would be stuck in the decaying rut that was British magical society until the next massive wave of political imbalance or public emotional surge could lend him the support to push through his futuristic (in magical terms) ideals. He'd only had to wait fifty years for the last one to deliver him an infant, how long could it be before the next one came around?
Albus Dumbledore nearly wept openly for the first time in many years, Fawkes' song the only thing preventing it. He just sat there and stared at his desk. He didn't even notice when the house elves returned to light the fireplace and the lamps, instead nodding off in his chair as Fawkes sat quietly on his shoulder occasionally cooing in soft tones.
Meanwhile in Konoha...
"I'm not going back there!"
"It's a chance to learn new skills and abilities we don't have access to here."
"I don't care, I refuse to go within a million miles of the place!"
"You probably have things there that belong to you."
"I will not be going anywhere near that manipulative bastard!"
"Please? For me? I'll go with you to make sure you're alright."
"No."
"Damn it Harry, you're going to the academy and you're asking Iruka for those scrolls he promised us!"
"Fine. Stupid pushy brother, making me go back to school..."
A knock on the door drew Harry away before Naruto could make a comment on that last remark.
"Hello, ANBU-san, what's up?"
"Good afternoon, Uzumaki-san, the Hokage requests your presence in his office as soon as possible and also that of your brother."
"We didn't do it, whatever it was... That's not gonna cut it is it? *sigh* I'll get him."
Ten minutes later and the two boys were stood in front of the Hokage's desk. Also present were Kakashi, Sakura and the original Ino-Shika-Cho trio. The Hokage surveyed them all from behind his desk before speaking.
"I have called you all here because of a letter I received recently. This letter, and the decisions made in this room today will permanently affect the lives of everyone present today and could impact on the very future of our village as a whole."
Seeing the serious and understanding looks on all faces present, Chouza had even stopped eating his sandwich for a second, he continued, holding up the envelope and letter with Harry's name on them in green ink. "This letter was delivered to my office yesterday, despite being addressed to Harry, here. Not only is it written in English, which would have been enough to arouse my suspicion already, it was dropped off by an owl. Yes, an owl, no Naruto I was not high, I checked." Naruto shut his previously opening mouth. "I immediately called in Inoichi's team to translate for me and have since been working and planning out options on what to do with this information. Harry this letter is an invitation for you to attend a school, much like our Academy, only back in your home country. I think it would be easier if you were to read this yourself before we go any further."
The Hokage stood, holding out the letter to Harry. The boy almost had it in his hand when the door to the Hokage's office fell into the room. Harry, Naruto and Sakura froze in shock as a giant of a man, easily eight feet tall, ducked under the doorframe with a loud "Sorry abou' tha'." The adults in the room were immediately on guard as the giant turned around, lifted the door in one hand and placed it back into the frame. All the while the Hokage's secretary was yelling apologies and excuses about how she couldn't stop the man.
The newcomer turned around, saying; "Righ', now why hasn' 'arry gotten his letter ye'?" He paused as he saw Harry in the process of being handed his letter. "Ah... righ'... uh... carry on then."
Seeing no one respond and figuring that the man's accent was probably too thick even for those like Naruto or the adults who spoke English to understand, Harry announced; "He says he's here to make sure I get the letter."
"Eh?" The giant man looked confused, even as everyone else lowered their guard, even if only slightly.
Harry decided he might as well get this over with, accepted the letter from the Hokage and skim-read it. He then re-read it to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He looked up at the newcomer, who was fidgeting nervously as everyone else either watched Harry or stared at him. "Is this a joke?" Harry asked, first to the Hokage in Japanese, then to the giant man in English.
The giant responded loudly. "'Course it ain' no joke. Weren' yeh told? Yer a wizard Harry."
"A wizard?" Harry asked incredulously, even as he handed the letter to Naruto for him to read through. "A full-blown, wand-waving, potion-brewing," he glanced back at a section of the letter for a second, "broomstick-riding wizard?"
"Yep, an' a thumpin' good'n if I'm any judge."
"How?... What?... Why?"
"Well, I suppose yeh got most o' it from yer paren's, though neither o' them managed ta pop a Dark Lord as a babbie did they?" he finished with a short laugh that quickly ended when he saw Harry's further bemused look.
"Weren' yeh told anythin'?"
Harry shook his head. "Before I was rescued and brought here I didn't even know my parents names. Then I found out they died protecting me from some madman named Vold..."
"Don't say tha'!"
"Eh?"
"Never say the name."
"O-kay... Anyway, when I got here I was told that these guys had a contract to protect the Potter family, which they felt they'd failed when my parents were killed, so they tried to take me to safety but someone beat them to it and put me with the Dursleys. Then this old guy put up a barrier of some kind to stop people from getting to me and left me with those shit-bags. Since then, whenever I tried to run away the same old bastard kept turning up and took my memories away with his wand. When that stopped working he started carving my chest open and putting weird rocks in there. These guys new I was being abused so they set up a watch to keep an eye on me so when the barrier somehow broke they came in and rescued me."
"Er..." The newcomer started to look very uncomfortable for some reason.
Suddenly Inoiki piped up, a look of realisation across his face as he yelled; "It was you! You're the giant who took Harry from the house after the explosion!"
"You did?" Harry asked
"Well, I was told ta, and yeh were just a babbie and I couldn' jus' leave yeh in a blown up 'ouse, now could I?"
"You work for the old bastard who left me to be beaten and starved for the first seven years of my life?"
"Albus Dumbledore is a great man! It all must jus' some kinda misunnerstandin' 'sall."
"Albus Dumbledore, whoever he is, kidnapped me as a baby and left me in an loveless home with abusive guardians and came back regularly to heal me from the fatal beatings I received for no reason other than existing!"
Naruto piped up from where he had been reading Harry's letter; "It says here he's the head of the school you're invited to."
"What?" Harry spun around and snatched the letter back off of his brother, reading through it again.
"blah blah blah... one pet... first years not permitted broomsticks... signed Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagal on behalf of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore! That bastard's in charge of schoolchildren?"
"The Headmaster would never le' any o' his studen's come teh harm. There ain' been a single death nor disappearance in Hogwarts since he took up the job!"
Shikaku chose this moment to join in the conversation; "You say that as if it happened regularly."
The giant turned to face him and said, almost condescendingly "Well wha' d'ya expect when yeh've go' three hundred teenaged wizards runnin' aroun'? Bound teh be some acciden's in't there?"
"Like what?" Naruto asked.
"Well there were tha' time ol' Stan Hathaway go' turned inta fer'iliser when 'e go' 'is Charms NEWT spells mixed up, he mixed up the words o' one spell wi' the movements o' another or sommat like tha' and no-one could figure 'ow teh change 'im back."
Harry cringed at the thought, "So he ended up feeding some plants?"
"Nah, Perfesser Sprout buil' the lad a nice compost 'eap round back o' greenhouse nummer three. 'E's bin there forty years or so now an' nowts worked on 'im bu' no-one 'as the 'eart teh get rid o' 'im."
After this highly disturbing tale the conversation wound down. Mostly to Harry refusing to go anywhere near the 'deathtrap-school' in question, Naruto torn between interest and horror regarding it and the giant, who it was determined went by the name of Hagrid, trying to convince the boy to come.
Eventually Hagrid had to leave, muttering something about flesh eating slugs and salamanders, escorted by some ANBU until he left the village.
After going over everything they had learned with the non-English speakers of the group they all settled down for an impromptu discussion. Harry was adamant that he wouldn't be going. Naruto, the Third and Shikaku all argued that it would be a great way to learn a whole new set of skills that would not only be useful but completely unknown amongst the elemental nations. Everyone else seemed on the fence, believing it either to not be their place to say or thought that if Harry were to go then he should at least go under escort or with some other kind of protection.
About half an hour later the consensus was that Harry should be given time to think about what to do before they made any sort of response. They had to cut the meeting short because the two boys were expected at the hospital for their chakra pathway tests. Upon leaving the Hokage tower they met up with Haku, who was waiting for them on the way.
"So, what's the old man want?" She asked.
"Apparently I've been enrolled in some academy in Britain by my parents before they died and they want me to start this September." Harry told her.
"So right after the chunin exams? You gonna go?"
"I don't know, the guy who runs the school is the guy who made my life hell back before I came here. Add to the fact that it's an incredibly dangerous place to be in from what we've heard then I don't really want to be anywhere near the place."
"How dangerous can a school be?" Haku asked incredulously.
"It's a school for wizards." Harry let that sink in for a moment.
"So you're a…"
"Yep."
"BWAHAHAHAHA." Cue five minutes of Haku bawling her lungs out.
"Hey," Harry protested, "Aren't you supposed to be supportive or comforting or something."
Haku straightened from her brief lapse into hilarity and sarcastically replied "Oh, please Mr. Magician, don't put a curse on me… I'll be good."
Cue Naruto's intense bout of giggling.
"So how do you know this all isn't some kind of elaborate prank?" Haku asked when everyone had calmed down.
"Well, aside from the fact that the Hokage was the one who started it, the three jounin who were also present and the English speaking giant who turned up at the start of the discussion demanding to know why I hadn't gotten my letter of acceptance… I'd have to say it was the giant pointing his pink umbrella at the Hokage's hat filing cabinet and making it fly that really convinced me."
"… This is starting to sound like the time Zabuza-sama ate those weird mushrooms in Rice Country. He went missing for two days and came back talking about man sized turtle ninjas training under a giant rat and being at war with shadows." Haku deadpanned as they approached the doors to the hospital before turning a concerned look on the two boys, "Look we're here now, when you get finished ask if they can do a blood test on you two just to make sure there's nothing wrong."
"Hey, what happened to Zabuza after he got back from the weird mushroom trip?" Naruto asked as they were about to split up.
"Nothing much," Haku replied, "he lay in bed for a few days mumbling about stuff and destroyed the paper shredder for some reason when we left."
A/N: I've seen many fics that have the evil dark lord Dumbledore as the ultimate villain because of things like Sirius' arrest, placing Harry with the Dursleys, Hogwarts staff being mostly incompetent, keeping Snape defended and not revealing his plans. Either that or he is the kindly, if a bit potty grandfather figure he portrays himself to be. However I have yet to see an instance where Harry figures out the 'evidence' of Dumbledore's dark ways, mounts a secret campaign against him, but all along the old man actually IS just a potty old grandfatherly figure, trying to do his best by the world. I see a fair amount of potential for humour in this if I get it right. Please bear with me.
A/N2: Oh and REVIEW!
