Hiding

Harry returned from his absence at exactly the day he had said he would and reported his return to Professor McGonagall, as was demanded by the Hogwarts charter. She tried telling him that Professor Dumbledore wanted to speak to him, but he asked in what regard, as the headmaster only could call a student to a meeting if the student had misbehaved, was in danger of failing a class, had an official function like prefect or headboy and –girl, that it was an emergency or had previously asked for the meeting. Especially the headmaster couldn't summon an emancipated student for any other reasons if the student in question didn't agree.

And Harry pointed out very clearly why he wouldn't meet with the headmaster. He could give numerous proven examples how the headmaster had influenced Harry's life to the negative and that he wouldn't give him the chance to continue, especially not in his important OWL year. Stating that he had two weeks of homework to make up for, Harry told her to not pass on meeting requests by the headmaster except things were really important, like if Voldemort decided to attack Diagon Alley. Then he might be willing to listen to something the headmaster would have to say.

Professor McGonagall had been blown away by his arguments and there was nothing she could say, as each incident that Harry had described only showed the failures of the Hogwarts staff and the headmaster in particular up. While she was reporting to Dumbledore about his refusal, Harry smuggled Jonas into a large abandoned classroom, using his invisibility cloak, which he warded with all kinds of wards. With the help of Dobby and Winky they separated the room into three parts. One became a target range for Jonas to practice his spell casting, one a study with lab part and the last one a small bedroom. There was a small bathroom on the floor, so Jonas wouldn't need to risk trouble by having to look one up in other parts of the castle. This part was fairly unfrequented. While he didn't have a shower in there, he and Harry would switch positions often enough to make sure that both got to shower regularly.

As Harry was already proficient in all of his classes, Jonas would attend a few of them to learn more about how magic worked while doing independent study on the side. Harry would let Jonas go to Potions, as Jonas really wanted to frustrate Snape for how he always treated Harry, and Jonas could easily follow instructions to the point, part of why he was such a perfect soldier. And thanks to a pendent Harry had created, Snape's legilimency attempts would be completely blocked. Jonas also wanted to attend a few lessons on Charms, just to see how far along he was in his casting. With one-on-one training from Sirius, he had mastered a lot of charms already. His problem was Transfiguration, as you needed time to study the subject properly. There were too many complex models to learn, too many things to practice to gain proficiency quickly.

Jonas was about in the middle of the third-year material and he would stand out if he tried taking Harry's place there. Charms mostly needed focus on what you wanted the magic to do and each charm was different to the other. So he didn't need to build up on other charms like it was required in Transfiguration. And Jonas was incredibly good in focussing on something.


Colonel Treize wanted to blow something up. It wasn't a normal reaction for him, but in the current situation it would feel incredibly good, he had to admit. The reason, for once, weren't the Gundam pilots and their attacks. Three of them were still imprisoned at the Luna base. Lady Une would have called if anything had happened. The PR mission in space was going better than the leaders of OZ had thought and Lady Une was slowly but surely winning over the colonies for OZ. No, the problem on Earth was another one. The Romefeller Foundation was in uproar. And the reason was a fifteen years old young man. You really couldn't call him a boy. Harry James Potter had basically frozen the organisation's funds with a few calls.

Nobody had remembered how much money the Potters had invested in companies that belonged to Romefeller. But right now everybody remembered why nobody had ever tried upsetting Charlus Potter. Nearly a third of all the Romefeller assets belonged to the Potters. And after the Mobile Doll project had been announced and Harry Potter had found out about it, he had called an audit of all of his investments and had effectively frozen the production of more MDs. While Treize didn't think that the Dolls were a good idea and should replace human soldiers, the loss of the money had also stopped the attacks on bases of the Alliance that were still resisting the takeover of OZ.

First that computer virus had delayed things by a month or so and now, when they were finally ready to continue without trouble, the money was cut off. He of course knew the name Harry Potter. He had been at the school where Relena Darlian attended and had impressed a lot of people with helping evacuate other students when the MS attacked on the orders of Lady Une. Harry Potter was also the youngest master of Physics and Computer Science ever to come out of Europe. He was a genius and OZ had tried hiring him, but right now he wanted to concentrate on his schooling for all other classes until he had taken his A-levels. Treize was completely sure that Potter could have taken them right now, but possibly the boy still wanted to enjoy a bit of his teenager years with his friends.

Except that now he had played a major card with blocking OZ. It was annoying that they would need to find a way to either placate Potter to free the funds again, or find another investor. But who could simply replace five hundred billions? That was how much the Potter investments were worth. Fifteen years of being able to do what you wanted had made many leaders of OZ complacent. The Potter fortune had always been a silent investment that didn't need maintenance like other investments did. But the heir was emancipated now and had taken control.

Treize remembered Charlus Potter. He had been an impressive character and had been respected by all members of European nobility. He had a way to solve conflicts with words and subtle pressure. He didn't need to use violence and most heeded his warnings when he gave them. Treize had really admired him when he had watched him when he had still been a child on one of the Romefeller events. There had only been one time when somebody had really made Charlus angry. That person had tried to bankrupt a family because they didn't want to sell their land to have a weapons factory built there. Charlus had not liked the methods and, after a warning that had been ignored, he had used his immense wealth and influence to instead bankrupt the man who had gone after the family. The evil grin on his face when he met the man again and his simple words of 'I warned you to back off, you didn't heed it, live with the consequences' had burned themselves into Treize's young mind.

Now his grandson was about to become a major player like him. Harry Potter had sent a message to Duke Dermail, telling him that he thought that the disregard for human life that Romefeller and OZ showed wasn't in agreement to the views of the Potter family. He told Duke Dermail that he would have the Potter investments put on audit, which would take about a month by the estimations of his bankers. Romefeller had until the end of the audit to present him with a suggestion how to do things in the future that would change that blatant flaw. If Romefeller insisted on leading a war against people that didn't want to fight, he would withdraw all funds from the Foundation at once, basically ruining it.

All of Treize's plans depended on making people see what war truly was. And now one young man was blocking them. Next to that Relena Peacecraft had taken up her position in Sanc and was advertising the politics of her father, King Peacecraft, of absolute pacifism. A young generation of leaders was positioning themselves. If only it wouldn't happen in a way that constantly disturbed his plans.


Hermione looked at Harry suspiciously. Something about him was different. Just what the difference was she couldn't tell. And she couldn't confront him, because Umbridge still tried to find anything to use against Harry. With the Minister barely staying in his position for now, she didn't have the power she would have liked to have. But she could still make their lives difficult and Fudge was hoping to get anything against Harry to save his own position. Harry had spent three days writing out all the essays that she told him they had had to do while he had been away. The thing that annoyed her most was that he didn't tell her what he had done during those two weeks.

Ron didn't like it either, but Harry simply told them that he had a right to keep family affairs a secret if he didn't want them to know. Hermione feared that Harry had done something dangerous. That he had acted rashly. But if Professor Lupin knew about it and supported Harry, it normally shouldn't be too bad, right? She just wasn't sure. She knew that the headmaster wasn't happy about Harry's behaviour over the summer, but Hermione also knew that Harry was also right that, with being emancipated, Harry had the right to decide what to do over the summers. And to be honest, she thought it was for the best that he had left his relatives. She just hated when her best friend had secrets from her. She wanted to help him and make sure that he was safe.

Right now Harry was reading up on fourth-year Transfiguration, supposedly for repetition. But she knew for sure that he had an easy time with the topic he was reading up on. So why would he concentrate on that when there were other parts of the curriculum that he was worse at? It didn't fit in with Harry's personality. He always concentrated on bringing up his weak points to a level where they couldn't be considered weak points anymore, if he didn't work on new materials. So why the Transfiguration book? She would have to watch him more, she decided.


Milliardo had a hard time going up against the new Gundam. It looked a lot like the Gundam 01, which he had fought against in Siberia, but it was a higher level model. He had come here in company of Trowa Barton, how the boy had managed to infiltrate the Space Force of OZ while being a Gundam pilot he couldn't understand, but he had done it and risen to being one of Lady Une's trusted officers. He was piloting a Taurus Mobile Suit, as the advanced suits Mercurius and Vayate had been stolen in the mess that the escape of the other Gundam pilots was. They had got news of a new Gundam attacking colonies and destroying them from one of the supply shuttles. Long-distance communication was still impossible. While the escape of the other Gundam pilots and the resulting implanting of a new virus had thrown OZ back a lot again, Milliardo knew that it wouldn't hold forever.

The more damaging hit was that the one that had placed the virus had also deleted all data about the Mercurius and Vayate that the scientists that had built the Gundams had collected. Tubarov had fully planned to use the data to create a new kind of Mobile Doll. The man was an idiot. Nobody should ever replace humans with machines. War was meaning less if machines fought it for you. Why should anybody fear war if you could send machines to fight it for you? The problem was that civilians got drawn into the conflicts and that homes were destroyed when two sides on a war clashed with weapons as powerful as mobile dolls or Gundams.

And the destruction that this Gundam had caused was massive. Two colonies had already been destroyed by the Gundam pilot. And now he was attempting to destroy a third one with the reasoning that they had all gone crazy. Trowa had tried to talk to the pilot, Quatre was his name, but he had reacted violently. Something wasn't right about him. The Tallgeese was thankfully able to keep up with the manoeuvres of the Gundam, but only barely and only because Zechs was an exceptional pilot. Trowa in the Taurus had a much harder time. That he was a Gundam pilot had probably saved his life.

Now Zechs really wished he had a way to get Quatre to stop this madness, but he didn't know who could talk sense into him before he destroyed another colony full of innocent people. Then he noticed a communication link being opened to all three suits. He put it on the screen in a corner.

"Quatre, please snap out of whatever madness you're in," a boy that looked a lot like Heero Yui, but wasn't him, said

"Harry?" Quatre's voice was heard.

"Yes, Quatre. I've only found out about what happened today and I needed a few hours to get a link set up to your Gundam and circumvent the communication block that the OZ systems in space have currently," Harry confirmed, "Please, Quatre, this murdering rage isn't like you. I know you're hurting over what was done to your father, but you can't simply kill all people in space. Once you get out of your mental state, you'll hate yourself."

"The colonies have gone mad, Harry, I don't like it, but they all follow OZ. They all are ready to kill pacifists like my father. I have to stop them before they kill more people," Quatre said.

"I'm sorry, but you need to see this, Quatre to stop the madness in you," Harry stated sadly and the screens of Quatre, Trowa and Zechs were filled with the pictures of people dying in an inferno, which only stopped after a minute or so.

"What was that?" Quatre asked horrified.

There had been horribly detailed scenes of people being torn apart by explosions, parents trying to protect their children in vain and small animals dying.

"It was the record of a surveillance camera that was placed on colony L4 V1548. The colony that you destroyed first, Quatre," Harry answered grimly.

"I caused that much pain?" Quatre asked shaking in anguish.

Then he let loose a horribly pained scream.

"No, no, why did I do that?" Quatre asked over and over again.

"Quatre, deactivate the Zero system in your suit, please, you're not ready to deal with the consequences. It's turning your mind against you," Harry stated.

"Zero system?" Trowa asked.

"A special system that enables the pilot to react with superhuman speed and accuracy to threats. I have a prototype description about it thanks to Heero. The problem is that the pilot using the system needs to have extreme mental control to not fall prey to the system overriding his sense of right or wrong and only setting him against those he regards as enemies. The system can more or less give the pilot premonitions about a battle situation, but very, very few pilots can actually use it without negative consequences. You need to know very well who your true enemies and allies are to not go mad. A person like Quatre, who was grieving and hurting, was easy prey for the system," Harry explained.

"How do you know so much? You aren't a pilot, are you?" Zechs asked.

"I'm a genius and have masteries in two subjects that allow me to understand plans for systems like that one easily. And no, I'm not a pilot in more than a civilian way. I can pilot an MS, but only for transportation and not in battle. I would be easily shot down if I tried fighting in an MS," Harry commented.

"What can I do? I need to do something to make up for this," Quatre wailed.

"If you really want to help people, go to Sanc and help Relena working on diplomatic solutions on Earth. I think you could also heal there, Quatre. You can't change the past, but you can influence the future. Oh and Trowa, it would be best if you accompanied him. Your cover is blown and Tubarov has more or less taken over from Lady Une after she refused to force the colonies to obey his orders. Lady Une is a prisoner of Tubarov now. While Une is still a piece of work, she seems to at least have learned a little bit when she had to play her role," Harry warned Trowa.

"Thanks for the warning, I'll do that. By the way, how can you send messages like that, Harry?" Trowa asked.

"I can get into any system that isn't infected by the virus. And thanks to OZ's communication and observation of the communication lines being out of order currently, I can even speak freely without fearing to be overheard," Harry answered.

Zechs was surprised. He knew that Relena was working on getting Sanc back as a nation that propagated absolute pacifism. He couldn't take his place as king, but his sister seemed to be doing a good job so far. And he would be glad if she had two of the Gundam pilots watching over her. The pictures he had seen had been horrible, but they seemed to have got the job done and snapped Quatre out of his murderous rage.

He wondered how things would go from here on. He knew that Romefeller and Treize wouldn't simply take the defeats that they had suffered over the last months silently. When Operation Meteor had taken place at the end of June, nobody could have predicted how the long-term plans of OZ would be thwarted by five teenagers that piloted Gundams, and seemingly one genius teenager that could get into any kind of computer. Zechs even suspected that this Harry could have something to do with the viruses that had disabled all of OZ's computers.


Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room reading the news on the internet. It seemed that his move to freeze all the monetary funds that the Potters had in Romefeller had worked out splendidly. OZ was basically powerless. Sure, they had other financial backers, but the Potters were the single biggest one. He heard steps behind him and when he turned around he looked at Hermione's strict face.

"What can I do for you, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"You could start with telling me what the hell is going on," she snapped, "I've watched you for the last two weeks and it's as if there're two of you."

Harry knew that she probably had noticed the subtle differences between him and Jonas.

"How so?" He asked neutrally, wanting to find out how much she knew.

"I'm not blind and you can't distract me like you can do with Ron, Harry. For example, you are at least at NEWT level in all core classes, yet you sometimes seem to have to work hard to get things in Transfiguration. In Potions you do perfect work, but your behaviour towards Snape is not normal. You have never been able to simply glare at him like you do now without saying anything against his bullying. Then there are the times you completely vanish and return hours later and nobody is able to find you," Hermione listed in a low voice to not tip the others in the common room off.

"I can assure you that I have good reasons for all the things you noticed and I can promise you that they're nothing dangerous or illegal," Harry said after a while, "Right now I can't tell you what's going on, because some secrets that I have to keep aren't mine to reveal."

"Then can you tell me why certain people look at you frightened? Like Daphne Greengrass, Justin and Ernie?" Hermione asked.

"The Potter reputation," Harry answered, "My grandfather Charlus was an important businessman and known all over the world. Not just the wizarding world, but the muggle world as well. Do you know what the Romefeller Foundation is?"

"Yes, they're the power behind the organisation OZ that started taking over the power in the muggle world around July and August," Hermione answered.

"Daphne, Justin and Ernie have parents that have connections to Romefeller. Be it that they're part of it like Lord Greengrass, or do a lot of business with them like Justin and Ernie's parents. The Potters hold a bit over thirty per cent of the shares of the businesses that Romefeller uses to take over the world. I froze all Potter funds for an audit with the reasoning that I don't support the development of mobile dolls. I hate that Romefeller thinks that they can force other people under their control by taking over the Alliance bases. Especially as mobile dolls kill without remorse.

"OZ could send the dolls against people that refuse to bow to Romefeller and I won't have my money support that mentality. So right now OZ can't act anymore, as they don't have the funds to build more dolls. They could use the existing MS and the pilots that were trained. At least this way the fights stay fair with both sides risking the lives of their soldiers," Harry explained, "I guess currently I'm the person that the Romefeller leaders that want to conquer the world hate most. Relena Peacecraft probably takes second place followed by the Gundam pilots."

Hermione stared at Harry in awe.

"How come you never mentioned the power your family had?" She asked.

"I only found out once I had a look into the ledgers my grandfather left behind, which were secured in the Potter family vaults. I also did research into the Potter name in both worlds and therefore I could puzzle a lot of things together, once I had the time. The three weeks I had in Diagon Alley before my third year here were perfect to get a lot of things done. I spent a lot of time at Gringotts with the Potter account manager, who wasn't happy that I knew so little about my own family and their economic importance in the world.

"I should have been taught a lot of things before I returned to the Wizarding World, but nobody cared about that. And, after the end of our first year, I was sure that I had to take things into my own hands, after seeing how terribly our teachers handled the issue with the Philosopher's Stone and Voldemort possessing Quirrell. I started my correspondence course with Oxford University that summer and I'm really glad I did," Harry explained without giving away too much information.

"Will you someday tell me all the things you have to keep secret right now?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Perhaps, but I don't know if I'll be able to. I'll tell you as much as I can without putting you in danger," Harry promised.

"I've been in many dangerous situations with you already," Hermione stated.

"But you haven't seen what I saw, Hermione, and I hope you never have to. I had to face lethal danger nearly every year here at Hogwarts and even in the muggle world, people are now out for my blood because I interfered with their plans. But I won't stand by while innocent civilians are killed because of greed and power hunger," Harry declared with steel in his voice, "Not when I can do something."

"And there's your saving people thing again," Hermione sighed, "Just take care and don't get involved in something you can't handle anymore. And whenever you need me, I'll be there. What are you going to teach during the next meeting of the Defence group?"

"I was thinking about an advanced shield charm that blocks solid objects instead of spells. The protego charm has the flaw that it doesn't block conjured items. So the older groups are going to learn that spell, while the younger ones will proceed to the normal one and increasing the durability of their shields," Harry answered.

"Sounds great to me," Hermione replied smiling.


The Order of the Phoenix was meeting and discussing the steps taken against Voldemort. Which weren't really successful. Sirius sat in the meeting, completely bored with how people thought they could prepare anything by simply talking about it. Voldemort wouldn't be taken out by words. He needed to be brought down by action. They needed to take out his power base, the Death Eaters that had escaped Azkaban. And Snape the bastard didn't help much with his information. What good was a spy when he didn't tell them anything of value?

"Now we also have another problem to discuss, the rebellious behaviour of Harry," Dumbledore said gravely.

"What did you expect?" Sirius spoke up mockingly, "You left him without any information, and you didn't even prepare him for his future position as Lord Potter. You kept any information about Lily and James secret, except for a few general things, and even while I was proven innocent, you didn't even try to get me a trial, which you could have done as chief warlock. But you didn't. Harry had to find out everything about his family by himself. And you had yourself set up as his magical guardian. Well, if you didn't take that position serious, you should have let Andromeda raise Harry. At least that way he would have had a loving family growing up and you know as well as I do that Andromeda never supported the dark side."

"There were good reasons to not let Harry grow up knowing about his fame, Sirius," Dumbledore tried to reason.

"Oh yeah? The only thing you achieved is that Harry didn't know what parental love is, thanks to the bastard Dursleys making it very clear that they hate him and his magic. You achieved that he grew up without any friends, because his cousin was allowed to beat them up whenever Harry found somebody who wanted to be his friend as a child. And as Harry found out who left him without any help at the Dursleys, you can't expect him to do anything said person tells him to do. That's simply ridiculous," Sirius countered, "Face it, your decisions and inactions have driven Harry into early emancipation and I for one am glad that he can look after himself."

"He needs guidance from adults!" Molly protested.

"Sirius is right in what he says. Which adults have ever given Harry a good enough reason to trust them to guide him on the right path? The Dursleys and his teachers that didn't help him at primary school in the muggle world only taught him that adults couldn't be trusted. Then in his first year it were again adults that have forsaken him and treated him unfairly. Especially Severus, Minerva and you, headmaster.

"And don't deny it, Harry told me how his first two years were before I taught him in third year. Harry was in constant danger at school and nobody really did anything against it. Then in his second year you didn't do anything when the students turned against him. A simple statement that Harry wasn't the one behind the attacks would have worked wonders. But no, you left a twelve-year-old boy alone against nearly the whole student body. And now you wonder why he doesn't trust you anymore," Remus added sarcastically.

"He's a child, he shouldn't concern himself with the war!" Molly tried again.

"And will Voldemort leave him alone?" Kingsley now spoke up, having enough of the bickering, "The boy should have been trained since he returned to the wizarding world. I don't mean like training him to be a soldier, but to properly defend himself and keep a level head in the face of danger. One hour each week would have made all the difference and shown the boy that we wizards do care for him. I can understand the arguments of Sirius and Remus. I haven't met him in person, but from what you told me, he's highly intelligent and independent. Somebody like that will only cooperate with you if you're open with him and take him serious. Otherwise you fight a lost battle from the start."

"So what do you suggest? Should we cater to the arrogant little brat's whims?" Snape asked sneering.

"No, we should simply treat him like an adult. The adult that he legally is. In case you forgot, the Potter fortune is what keeps our economy running like it is. If Harry Potter decides that he has had enough of the bigotry and unfairness in Great Britain, he could simply withdraw his funds. No business that deals with anything important would survive that," Kingsley stated, shocking some.

"What do you mean, Kingsley?" Arthur Weasley asked.

"You have to have noticed it as well, Arthur," Kingsley started, "Important people at the Ministry are worried what will happen. And the reason is not that Voldemort is possibly back. Greengrass warned his allies to not antagonise Harry, because he seems to have inherited too many of his grandfather's traits. Charlus Potter could be one vindictive bastard if you attacked his family or those under his protection. Nobody wants to see what his grandson, who on top of the Potter fortune also has his personal reputation to give him power, can do when he's pushed too far."

"What could a fifteen-year-old boy do?" Snape scoffed.

"Fifty per cent of all buildings in Diagon Alley belong to the Potter Estate," Dumbledore admitted, "Next to that forty per cent of all potions ingredients farms, wand component suppliers, warding crystal mines and farms that produce food for our community belong to the Potters as well."

"What? Why weren't we told that before?" Molly asked enraged.

"It wouldn't have mattered before Harry turned seventeen and he was way too young to deal with that much responsibility next to his schooling," Dumbledore answered.

"He should have learned how to manage that much wealth responsibly from the time he was young. The old houses train their heirs from the time they turn eight normally. I know that Charlus took James with him when he visited the businesses that were the most important for the Potter estate around that time. He told James stories how owning those businesses came with a responsibility to the workers there. He taught James how to properly handle that many different businesses, what to look for in managers and so on," Sirius threw in.

"That isn't the topic now, we need to find a way to make Harry cooperate with us again," Dumbledore tried getting away from discussing his failures.

"Harry won't listen to your plans, as, so far, they didn't help him in any way. I know for a fact that he plans to do his absolute best in the OWLs and the one thing he will do is helping other students learn proper defence in the group he founded," Remus commented.

"I heard the students were doing really well in that group," Tonks mentioned, "Madam Bones is quite happy with what her niece, Susan, wrote in her letters about the group."

"From what I know that's true. Harry is teaching the students the most commonly needed defensive spells so that they won't fall prey to Voldemort. Many are in the group because it's the best way to practice for the OWLs and NEWTs. It's a sad statement that a fifteen-year-old boy is better at teaching a core class than the appointed teacher, but we know why Umbridge was chosen to teach that class. Fudge's paranoia," Remus commented.

"I have watched a few of his lessons and I can testify for his great performance in teaching the students. He's explaining the spells and giving demonstrations before he lets the students practice the spells. And they all listen to him without question," Minerva reported.

"But he still doesn't let anybody tell him anything about what he teaches," Snape sneered, "Potter is hardly qualified to teach."

"I beg to differ on that," Minerva countered, "Contrary to you, I've seen his performance in teaching the group and he's exceptional. I would even call him a born teacher. He has an instinctive sense of how to work with the students and how to keep discipline in his lessons without coming along like a harsh disciplinarian. The students he teaches look up to him because he leads by example and can prove that he can perform all the spells he teaches them. And he has shown that he can separate his lessons and being a normal student. During the lessons his word goes, outside of the lessons he's open to suggestions from others on how to do things."

"And what use will that be if he seems to have decided to work in the muggle world?" Snape couldn't help remarking.

"We have to ensure that Harry stays in the Wizarding World. The public would go into panic, once Voldemort reveals himself, and there are rumours that Harry would abandon them," Dumbledore insisted.

"Then perhaps you should start giving him incentives to do so and not drive him away more," Sirius snapped, "I can understand why he wouldn't want to stay. He didn't grow up a wizard, he knows his way around the muggle world and he has contacts there to find a job easily, if he would decide that it was his best option. I don't want him to leave the wizarding world behind any more than you do, but I can completely understand why it would be attractive to him. Even if he's well-known in the muggle world, at least there he can go out without having to fear being mobbed by wizards for an event that cost him his parents."

The Order discussed a few other topics, but in the end nothing really came out of it, again.