Chapter one
By the time Harry Potter and Hermione Granger returned to the hospital after helping Sirius Black escape on Buckbeak, Harry was feeling down. For a short time, he thought he would finally get the leave the Dursley's and get to live with his godfather. The minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge refuse to believe Harry and Hermione about Sirius, yet he believed Snape, who had been unconscious at the time.
Harry was thinking about when Snape first appeared in the shrieking shack. He heard the loathing in Snape's voice and saw how happy he was when he thought Sirius was going to be kissed by a dementor. Harry already hated Snape for the way he acted, now he just wished the man was dead. He would never tell anyone that's how he felt as he knew it would shock his friends and some might believe he was turning dark. But if there was a way for him to get rid of Snape for good and he knew he wouldn't get caught, Harry wouldn't hesitate. He would kill Snape himself if he could get away with it.
Dumbledore had told Harry that Voldemort was getting stronger and after seeing his spirit in his first year, Harry knew eventually Voldemort would return. With the way Snape acted and how he allowed the Slytherin's to get away with anything, he could see people like Malfoy, Nott, Zabini, Parkinson, Bulstrode, Crabbe, Goyle and other Slytherin's joining Voldemort. To Harry, Snape was making more death eaters, he was getting them ready for when Voldemort did return. What Harry couldn't understand was why Albus Dumbledore was allowing him to do it. Everyone at Hogwarts saw the way Snape acted and how he treated the students from the other three houses. Snape shows that he supports the children of dark families and treats children of light families like he hates them. Harry just couldn't understand why the headmaster and the so called leader of the light would allow Snape to get away with things like he did. He wasn't sure what to believe when it came to Dumbledore. Harry already came to dislike the headmaster because he was the one that said Harry has to return to the Dursley's and he was the one that put Harry with the Dursley's after his parents were killed. It made Harry wonder if Albus Dumbledore was really dark.
As Harry lay in the hospital bed that night, he thought about Snape, Dumbledore, Voldemort, the Slytherin's and Hogwarts. He also thought about just not returning to Hogwarts after the holidays. The only reason he did this year was to get away from the Dursley's. He was about to turn fourteen in a months time, so if he did sneak away, somehow, it wouldn't look unusual to see a fourteen year old boy alone, as long as he wasn't always seen alone. He had his invisibility cloak, which he would use, a lot. He could easily get to Diagon alley and clear out his vault, all he would need to do was make sure he wasn't recognised. Harry figured that would be easy, just wear a hat and maybe some sunglasses. The hat would cover his scar and messy hair, the glasses would cover his green eyes.
The only trouble Harry could see was, Dumbledore. If he left the Dursley's and not return to Hogwarts, he was sure the old man would somehow find him. That led Harry to another problem, where would he go. He knew money wasn't an issue, he had plenty, but being fourteen he could never be able to rent a flat or a house. As Harry thought of this problem, he realised he actually owned a house, his parent's home. Hermione had told him that the ministry, along with Dumbledore sealed the house after his parent's were murdered and now it was like a monument. She also told him it had some damage, but was mostly still standing. If Harry could get to the house, he could hide out there. Since he never wanted to read the books that mentioned the murder of his parent's and how Harry survived the killing curse that night, he doubted anyone would believe he would visit the house, let alone live there. Hermione knew that he didn't want to read those books and as far as she or others knew, he, Harry, didn't know much about his family or where they lived.
Harry had a lot of thinking to do and planning. He had a week before the students left Hogwarts, so he could use his cloak, sneak into the library without anyone knowing and read those books. He would need as much information as he could. He would love to live with Sirius, but he had no idea where his godfather went, but he had a feeling he would have left the country. It would be safer for Sirius if he did leave the country. Harry knew he needed to find a way to help his godfather, to make Fudge realise the truth, or somehow get him out of office and maybe a new minister would investigate Harry's claims. Harry had so much to do and more thinking to do, he just hoped he could work out how to sneak away from the Dursley's. They locked him up before his second year, Harry couldn't take the chance that they would do that again. He thought of asking the twins how the picked the lock. He just didn't want to make anyone suspicious. He would think on that later.
Ron had mentioned something about the quidditch world cup, so he would also need to make sure Ron and his father didn't want to pick him up at Privet drive. He would need to work on that as he didn't want anyone to find him too soon, or at all. If he could get away from the Dursley's, then he could work on what he wanted to do, whether to just disappear, or to return to Hogwarts.
When Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to Gryffindor tower the next day, they were asked what happened and why they had been in the hospital. Harry decided to tell the truth and hoped the rumour mill of Hogwarts would work for him for a change. He told them his godfather, Sirius Black, was innocent, never got a trial just chucked in Azkaban. He explained that Peter Pettigrew was the one who murdered the muggles and was still alive. Harry was just about to head to his dorm room when he said he would never trust anyone at the ministry again, nor the adults at Hogwarts, not when they allowed an innocent man to be sent to prison. Harry really wanted everyone to believe he would never trust people like Fudge, Dumbledore, McGonagall, no one and he wanted nothing to do with them. He mentioned Snape as one of his reasons for his lack of trust. He didn't stick around for people like Hermione, or others to argue in Dumbledore's favour. He just turned and headed up to the dormitory.
What Harry didn't know was the portraits the hung up on the walls in Gryffindor tower heard what he said and relayed everything that Harry said to the headmaster. Dumbledore was shocked, then he realised he would need to get Harry to trust him so when the time came Harry would fulfil the prophecy. The only way Harry would trust him is if he helped make sure Sirius was cleared.
Harry lay on his bed thinking about what he planned to do, but he also stayed on his bed because he knew Hermione would want to talk to him about what he said, or argue with him. He knew Hermione and Ron argued all the time and wondered if Hermione just liked to argue. He couldn't understand her blind trust in authority figures like Dumbledore and McGonagall, especially when she had been involved in some of the dangerous things that had happened at Hogwarts. The troll in their first year, then again with the philosophers stone. It might have been their decision to go after the stone but Dumbledore had left Hogwarts and McGonagall flew them off. She didn't even investigate to see if they were telling the truth. Hermione had been in the forbidden forest when they saw the dead unicorn and how eleven year old students were sent into the forest when someone evil was killing pure beings like unicorn. The forbidden forest was supposed to be forbidden yet four eleven year old children were sent in there late at night when something was killing the unicorns, something evil. Hermione also heard what Harry told her about Voldemort. She was one of the people that ended up petrified when the basilisk was roaming around the castle. He just didn't get how she could trust Dumbledore. He knew part of it was how she was raised. Hermione loved and trusted her parent's. Harry was raised by the Dursley's who always lied which naturally made Harry suspicious of everyone. He would watch and see what people were really like, not how the acted in front of others. So far, there wasn't one adult he felt he could trust and he wouldn't trust them until they proved they could be trusted.
As he lay there, he thought again about how to make sure he could sneak away. Then it came to him. His godfather, his murdering escaped prisoner of a godfather. That just might make the Dursley's think they were in danger. Harry quickly got the photo album out of his trunk and stared at the picture of his parent's wedding, the one with Sirius standing beside his father. He knew what he was going to do, first was to enlarge the picture so Sirius was easily seen, then he planned to get a copy of the Daily Prophet with the picture of Sirius that was taken at Azkaban. If that didn't scare the Dursley's, nothing would. But Harry had a feeling all he had to tell them was his godfather was keeping an eye on him and he had to meet up with his godfather occasionally. He would tell them they had worked on times to meet otherwise Sirius would turn up at the house. That should be enough to make sure the Dursley's didn't lock Harry in his room or his things in the cupboard under the stairs. Now Harry couldn't stop smiling. He had a plan to get away from the Dursley's and he knew that it would be the last time he would see the Dursley's. Harry put the photo album back in his trunk then lay back on his bed, but he couldn't stop smiling as he knew he would finally get a better summer than the previous summers.
It was easier than he thought it would be. The moment Harry told them about his godfather, who had escaped from wizards prison and would be keeping an eye on his godson, the Dursley's ended up scared to death. They left him alone, which meant all Harry had to do was wait until it was dark, then he just had to sneak way. He wouldn't even bother telling the Dursley's he was leaving. He wanted nothing to do with them every again.
Sneaking away ended up easy, then he just called Dobby, who was happy to take him to Godric's Hollow. Harry knew it would be emotional going to the house where his parent's had been murdered. But he would rather be emotional then remain at the Dursley's.
Harry knew he had made the right decision when he snuck away from the Dursley's that first night. He also knew calling Dobby and asking him to work for him was also the right decision. Even though Dobby was able to use magic at the house, which meant he could repair the hole in the roof and the wall of Harry's old baby bedroom, he also liked to clean, but Harry helped him clean, just without magic. Harry had been concerned about one thing, that the ministry would pick up on magic being used at the house. When he told Dobby about his concerns, especially after Dobby used magic at the Dursley's, Dobby explained that he wanted magic to be picked up at the muggles in the hope it would stop Harry returning to Hogwarts. This time Dobby made sure his magic was not picked up, which house elves usually do when they serve their masters, as most homes were warded. That made Harry feel better.