Chapter ten

'Are you okay?' Susan asked as she squeezed Harry's hand.

'Yeah, at least I know now why he seemed so interested in my life and it's better than what we all thought. It's bad enough but it's still better than thinking he wanted me...for...well, you know. But your aunt was right, if I'm supposed to face Voldemort again, then why weren't I trained. Apart from Remus, we haven't had any decent teachers. The last one was okay, but only just taught enough to pass our tests.'

'He said love, which we know it can't be. I think Aunty is right, he's gone senile.'

'Susan, Harry, would you two join me inside please.'

Harry and Susan had been expecting this so they walked hand in hand into the house.

'Sorry, but we overheard what you and Dumbledore were talking about. We didn't mean to, we were coming inside when we heard his voice,' Harry said with a shrug.

'It's fine, even though you should not have found out about this that way, you know now. Well, I'm sure you heard that you won't be returning to Hogwarts, which means some decisions. I am legally your guardian now Harry, so from this moment on I make the decisions. But I would like the three of us to talk this over then decide. You have the choice of going to another school, or having private tutors. Even though I do not believe Voldemort is still around, we have to be cautious in case he is and he just too weak to cause problems. Since most of his death eaters are dead, he would not be able to get them to help him. But as I said, I do not believe he will return. I believe whatever you did during that time with Quirrell weakened him so much that he finally crossed over. All my investigation collaborate that.'

'Ever since that happened, I haven't had any pain in my scar or have those strange dreams I used to have. I always heard him talking in snake language during my dreams, but I never saw him or who he was talking to. I think you might be right about Dumbledore though, I think his age has caught up to him.'

'He always watched Harry, it was kind of creepy actually. We all thought he wanted Harry, you know, in that way. But if he wanted Harry to trust him or believe him then he went about it the wrong way. I mean the way he allowed Snape to act made almost all the students either hate him or think that Snape had something on Dumbledore. Snape was especially cruel to Harry and he was allowed to get away with it.'

'I doubt I would find out, but I believe the same. Snape was involved in something or knew something which meant Albus wanted him at Hogwarts and allowed him to treat the students terribly. We have the rest of the holidays to work out what you should do about your education. But I will give you the information on all the other wizarding schools. There are twelve altogether. I will also put together some names of tutors if you want to go that way. Let's have dinner then you two can talk it over.'

'Alright, thanks. I just wished none of this was necessary,' Harry gave the woman a small smile before the three of them headed to the dinning room.

That night, Harry sat at the desk in his room and wrote two letters, one to Ron and one to Hermione. He wanted them to hear it from him that he would not be returning to Hogwarts, not while Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall were at the school. He also wanted to be away from Ginny. He wanted to stay away from those three people, for many reasons, but he wasn't going into his reasons. He wrote that he had spoken with his new guardian and she agreed that he should not return to Hogwarts. He made sure to write in Hermione's letter that no matter how many times she writes and asks, he wouldn't be telling her anymore his reason nor could she change his mind. If she kept going, he would refuse to write to her or answer her letters, but he would tell her their friendship would be over if she kept asking. He decided not to use Hedwig in case they kept her, he would use Susan's owl to send them the following morning. They wouldn't know who's owl it was until after it had flown off.

'Are you okay?'

Harry looked up to see his girlfriend standing at the door, 'Sort of. At least it all makes sense. Tell me though, what would you like to do? Tutored or another school?'

Susan walked in and sat on the bed facing Harry, 'I think I would like to read through all the information on both before I decide. I was always told Hogwarts was the best school around, but I found out it wasn't, nor was it very safe. I want facts before making that decision.'

Harry smiled, 'Me too. I heard how Hogwarts was supposed to be safe and the best school. Apart from a few classes, it wasn't that good and I saw how un-safe it was during our first year. Okay, think of this as well, friends, Hannah, how will you handle that if we got with another school or tutors?'

'I haven't thought about Hannah, I've had too much on my mind. I'm sure we can work something out so we can see each other. I want to be an auror, so far I would not come close to passing the tests, not with the terrible teachers we've had. At least Slughorn was able to get us all up to standard in potions. I didn't like the attention he gave me though.'

'Same with me, he wanted us for his slug club. But I also know that Dumbledore wanted me close to Slughorn so he's involved as well. I won't be used.'

'You won't be, I won't allow it, neither will Aunty. So you're writing to Ron and Hermione?'

'Yeah, I want Ron to know it had nothing to do with him, it was just his mother and sister. He knew I had been ignoring them and he knew why. He also knew what his father was doing so I wouldn't be dosed. But I still want him to hear it from me. With Hermione, she will support Dumbledore, so I want her to know I will never have anything to do with him and if she persists, then our friendship is basically over. I'm waiting to see what she says. But she is friends with Ginny, so I'm not sure how she will react. Hermione seems to only care about Ginny and what Dumbledore wants. I told her I won't be returning while they are there and we all know the old man won't leave Hogwarts.'

'Which means we just have to decide whether we want to go to another school or be tutored.'

'Okay, being tutored would probably get us up to newts earlier and have more education by the time Hannah and the others are ready to take their tests. So, going with tutors gives us an advantage. The only downside I can see with that is being isolated. That wouldn't be good for either of us, even if I'm used to spending time alone.'

'You don't need to anymore Harry. But really, we can still go places, we don't have to stay at the house all the time.'

'I suppose, but I don't trust Dumbledore, so if we do go anywhere, it has to be where he would not find me. We can make it random and even set up places to meet Neville and Hannah that he wouldn't think about. I wish he would just leave me alone then we wouldn't have to worry about any of this.'

'He will,' Susan said then went and sat on Harry's lap, she wrapped her arms around his neck, 'We'll make sure. But you can always do what you've done before, wear a hat, wear sunglasses.'

'I've been thinking of asking your aunt about something. See, in the muggle world I could get rid of my glasses by just getting contact lenses. I need my guardian with me before they will even look at me. I will need to have my eyes examined, which they haven't been since I was eight.'

'I didn't know that. If you got glasses here in the wizarding world, if you pay extra you can get self updating glasses. But since you haven't had your eyes checked, then that should be done straight away. Explain what contact lenses are?'

'They're small eye shaped discs that are made to your prescription. They sit right on your eyes. I won't have to worry about my glasses falling off or getting broken. You can also get ones in different colours, in case you don't like your eye colour or you just want to change for a while.'

'Then talk to aunt tomorrow. It's late, we should get some sleep.'

'Yeah, we should.'

Susan and Harry spent a few minutes snogging before Susan went back to her room and Harry got into bed. It took Harry a while to fall asleep as he kept wondering if Dumbledore was going to try something, or find some way to get him to the Burrow. If that happened, Harry would leave and make sure no one but Susan and Madam Bones knew where he was. But one thing Harry was glad about, he wasn't returning to Hogwarts so he wouldn't have to put up with danger, bad teachers, or Ginny staring at him all the time, also, he wouldn't have to put up with Hermione bugging him about Ginny.

He knew the death book was there, but he had promised himself he would only use it on people like death eaters, who killed and tortured. He only did Fudge because of how close he was to Lucius Malfoy which meant he could put their world in danger by allowing a death eater to tell him what to do. But with the way Fudge acted and how his undersecretary acted, Fudge could follow people like Voldemort for all he knew.

The Dursley's basically abused him from the time he was a baby, so again, they didn't deserve to live. Dumbledore was not evil or dark, he didn't kill people, he just couldn't believe he was wrong about something and thought everyone should just take his word for it, for whatever he was saying. He did wonder if the old man would use Sirius in some way. He had received a letter from Sirius, who had returned to the country and was now hiding in a house that was under the fidelius charm, with Dumbledore as the secret keeper. Sirius said he wanted to stay close to Harry, in case anything happened. He did mention in his letter that Harry could stay with him, but they would have to remain in the house due to the danger. Sirius never mentioned what danger, he probably thought of the aurors if they found him.

Harry had spoken to Madam Bones about Sirius, he even showed her the memory of what took place in the shrieking shack. She said she would see what she could do, but the aurors would need a reason to open his case. Without Pettigrew that might not be possible, at least now. She was making changes in the ministry, which could lead to her being able to get Sirius a trial, one that he should have had fourteen years ago. Harry would write to Sirius and he would tell his godfather what was going on and why he refuse to have anything to do with Dumbledore. Harry would write that he wouldn't tell Sirius anything because Dumbledore was the secret keeper to the house he was staying in. It meant Harry couldn't trust Sirius because Dumbledore would be around him. He wouldn't tell Sirius what Amelia said, so even though right now Harry couldn't trust Sirius, he did deserve to be free. Harry also didn't want to get his godfather's hopes up.