Chapter Two

After finding the correct building, Harry walked up a flight of stairs and stepping into the office, Harry was still carrying his paper bag with his Azkaban rags. He was never going to give them up no matter what anyone said to him. He needed those rags. They were his only possessions in the world that mattered to him.

"May I help you?" said a sneering witch unpleasantly with a large and ugly looking hair lip from behind her desk in the outer office of the wizarding solicitor Harry had wanted to see. Then, as he expected, saw her eyes dart up to the scar on his forehead.

"Yes, I need to speak with Mister Algernon Graves."

"I don't think that he is in at the moment," the unpleasant looking witch replied.

Harry looked at her skeptically; he could hear someone in the other office talking and knew she was lying. However, after dealing with that group of idiot that was once his friends and family Harry was not in the mood to deal with this woman and walked past her and opened the door into Mr. Grave's private office.

"Delia," barked the elderly wizard without turning around from talking to one of the portraits hanging on the wall nor looking up from his parchments, "I told you I wanted no interruptions."

"I'm not Delia."

Mr. Graves looked around and saw the last thing he ever expected to see in his office … Harry Potter. "Mr. Potter, what an unexpected pleasure."

"Hmmm," was all the reply Harry gave as he surveyed the wizard. Algernon Graves wasn't quite what Harry had expected. Oh he had expected an ancient looking man and that was what he got, and this man had a balding head with long stringy white hair cascading down his shoulders. Thin wire framed glasses barely teetered on the end of his long crooked nose and his clothing looked like something worn by Muggles about a hundred year ago. What he had not expected was that this man seemed to exude a presence of fair play but without the constraints of morality that one would not expect from someone who dwelled in Knockturn Alley.

Mister Graves waves his hand imperiously towards the vacant black leather arm chair in front of his desk as he took his own behind his desk and ignoring the grunting sound Harry made, the solicitor continued, "What can I do for you today Mr. Potter?"

"First, can you please cast a silencing charm around this room? There is an Auror following me against my will and I do not want her to hear what we are going to talk about," Harry said coolly.

"I'm not sure if any charm I cast would do much against an Auror, however, since you requested it …" Mr. Graves said and then cast the charm. Harry had the suspicion that he just raised the old wizard's curiosity.

"Thank you, now I wanted to hire you to represent me in the wizarding courts."

"Why me?" asked Graves, "Why not go to the solicitor that represented you at you trial last year?"

Harry frowned, "I wasn't allowed one. However, that is not the reason I've come to you today."

"Wasn't allowed one?" Graves asked incredibly. He may not have been the most moral of men, but he did know the law. The law was this man's passion.

"As I was saying, that is not the reason why I've come today. I want you to do several things for me. This morning I was made aware of a new law that pertains to me alone. I want you to find out if this law is real or if I've been lied to about it. If it is real, I want to fight it. Then I want to take legal action against several people for damage and destruction of my personal property and the murder of my pet owl, Hedwig."

Mr. Graves looked at his new client and asked, "Are you referring to the one that states that you, Harry Potter, must complete your education at Hogwarts, where you will be constantly bombarded with all the people you hate until we break you and force you to forgive them?"

"Yes," Harry replied with grinding teeth.

"It's not a real law it's a faux law," explained the solicitor when Harry looked confused. "It can only be enforced within a certain time limit and then it disappears. The Ministry is found of faux laws like that, usually to make themselves look better when they've done something completely inept and incompetent."

"Time limit?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter, one year. Apparently Albus Dumbledore seems to think that he can force you to forgive them and rid them of their guilt."

"So I have to go back even though I am of age?"

"I'm afraid so Mr. Potter," Grave said and then added with a smile that would frighten a goblin, "However, it does not say you have to co-operate with them. The law only states that you have to be physically in the castle and receive an education. It does not even stipulate what kind of education you receive."

This sparked a few ideas in Harry's mind. A few very good ideas he thought.

"Now, what was this other matter you wanted to talk about? Whom do you want to take legal action against and for what reasons exactly?"

Harry relaxed and began to explain everything to Mr. Graves.

x-x-x-x-x

An hour or so later as Harry exited the office, he was met by Tonks once again, who had been standing guard outside the door.

"What were you doing in there Harry?"

"Following your advice."

"I didn't say I wanted you to come down Knockturn Alley to visit any solicitor, especially this one."

"No, you didn't," Harry admitted.

"Harry …"

"Be quiet," snapped Harry. "You do not have the right to pass judgment on my actions, so don't even try."

"Fine," Tonks fumed. "Where are you off to now?"

"The Leaky Cauldron to have a little fun."

"Fun?"

"Yes fun, I'm sure you've heard about it. It's the thing I didn't get to have for the one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds that I was stuck in Azkaban."

Tonks scowled slightly at the mention of the prison and asked, "What are you planning?"

"You'll find out," smirked Harry as he walked out of Knockturn Alley and towards the pub.

A few minutes later they entered the pub to find the Weasleys, Hermione and Dumbledore still there.

"Ah, Harry, I heard that you went to Gringott's and the bookstore. Getting your supplies for the school year in order?" asked Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had just won something.

"No."

"No?" Dumbledore said. "Of course, you don't have a booklist do you. Well we can soon decide what courses you should take won't we."

"No."

Before the Headmaster could continued, several post owls flew in from an outside window and deposited several official looking letters from the Ministry of Magic to the various occupants at the table. Everyone looked at Harry questioningly, opened their letters and quickly read them.

Ron and Hermione were the first to react, "YOU'RE SUEING US?"

"Yep."

"But mate …" Ron began but was cut off.

"I am not your mate, Weasley."

"Harry," Dumbledore began, "why are you doing this?"

"Because they destroyed my property and I think they should pay for its replacement or go to Azkaban as a consequence. Based upon the way I was treated, by all of you, I thought that as the way the wizarding world worked. I wasn't wrong was I?"

"Harry, dear," Mrs. Weasley said affectionately. "You must realize that doing this will only make it harder for you get your old life back. Do you really want to go through with this?"

"I don't want my old life back and yes and I want to do this," Harry said as he took a seat at one of the empty tables in the pub.

Mrs. Weasley looked to her husband. She had no idea what to do next.

"Harry, you realize that you really have no grounds to take legal actions against your friends like this," the Headmaster said.

"Um, professor," Tonks tried to interject.

However, Dumbledore ignored her and continued, "Molly is quite correct, this will only make it harder for you to forgive all of us and move on with all of our lives."

"Not my problem," Harry said coldly. "However, I think you should be more worried about what you've gotten from the Ministry than what they have."

Dumbledore chuckled, "I believe that you are mistaken Harry, I've received nothing."

"Yet."

"Harry?" one of the Weasley twins asked holding a piece of parchment of his own. "What does this mean? You want your earnings from our partnership in the joke shop?"

Smirking, Harry said, "Well, you did make me a partner didn't you? I checked with the goblins while I was in the bank and they reported that you haven't made any deposits into my account from my fair share of the profits. Therefore you owe me quite a bit from two years worth of earnings." Then remembering something else he wanted to mention, he turned back to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "As for you two, I took the liberty of changing the key to my personal vault and all that the gold you took from it will have to be returned you know. The goblins have it all recorded down to the last knut that was removed since I was sent to Azkaban. They're anal that way."

"Gold?" asked Mr. Weasley. "What gold?"

Mrs. Weasley looked a little embarrassed and admitted, "Well, Arthur you see after Percy was killed and we had all that expense I thought that we were owed the money from Harry, since he had been convicted of our son's murder and since we still had the key to the vault, I took the money from Harry."

"Not to mention illegally from Gringott's itself," Harry added smoothly and quietly.

"Harry, I had no idea, I am truly sorry," Mr. Weasley said.

"I don't really care if you're sorry or not, I still want it back."

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were looking horrified, they did not have any of that money anymore, they had spent it on Percy's funeral and a little of it on Ron's and Ginny's schooling. They simply would have to talk him out of this.

"Harry, you've got to listen to us, we are so sorry about what we did to you. You've got to forgive us," cried Hermione out of what appeared to be shear guilt. She looked at Harry with tears streaming down her face and hoped that he would relent and be her friend again.

"No, Granger, I don't think so."

While everyone stood around Harry looking at each other, another official looking owl appeared in the pub from the Ministry of Magic and flew over to the Headmaster. Dumbledore took the letter from the owl and it flew off again, not wanting to be around for this one.

"Oh good, yours is here now," Harry said with a little delight.

Dumbledore read the notice from the Ministry and paled slightly. "Harry, you don't really believe that this is true, do you?"

"Yes, I do and I am willing to place my memories in a pensieve to show those things to the courts. As you've always told me, they cannot lie. Then everyone will know how you knew the truth that I didn't kill Hagrid, Professor Trelawney, Percy Weasley, several house elves and that large three headed dog named Fluffy and how you did nothing about finding the real murderer."

"Harry," Dumbledore said sternly, "You had a fair trial …"

"Fair trial?" bellowed Harry. "I wasn't allowed any kind of legal aid in that trial as you call it. No solicitor, no legal texts to study, nothing. I was forced to endure two Dementors to stand guard over me night and day and then face the one sided horror of Courtroom Ten and you dare tell me I had a fair trial. I was in that damned cell for one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds and are you going to tell me that was fair also?"

"Harry," Dumbledore said, "You must see reason, you need to forgive us and this is not the way to do it."

Standing now, Harry said, "I don't need to forgive you at all. In fact I rather like the idea of not doing it and making you all face the consequences of your actions. I think it would serve you right." Then walking over to the bar, Harry looks for Tom, the bar keeper.

"Mr. Potter," Tom asks shakily.

"Hello Tom, I need a room for the night. Do you have anything available?"

"Y .. Yes, Mr. Potter I do."

"Don't worry Tom; you didn't betray me, just these nit-wits over there. You have nothing to fear from me. I promise."

Tom sighed with relief and selected his best room for Harry to stay in.

"Harry, have you forgotten, you must return to Hogwarts with us," the Headmaster said.

"No, I have not forgotten, but today is Saturday. At least I think its Saturday it was so hard to tell when your in Azkaban and have a hundred Dementors slowly driving you crazy, but I will not be returning to the castle until Monday. That is if I cannot get out of it altogether," Harry replied. "In the mean time I have some things to take care of and thus I WILL be staying here. ALONE!"

Dumbledore was about to speak again, when Harry cut him off. "Now before you say anything, I full well expect you to have me tailed the entire time I am here so that you can somehow fulfill some deep seated control issue you have. Really, you should seek some therapy for that you know. However, I will pick the ones who are my watchers. Mind you I said watchers and not keepers, as I plan to do as I damn well please since I am of age now."

Sighing, the Headmaster asked, "Whom are you willing to have watch over you Harry?"

"Mundungus Fletcher and Professor Snape," Harry listed. "Oh yeah, you can add Tonks to that list, but only because she gives me such excellent ideas, like finding a wizarding solicitor to use the law to screw you all over like you did to me."

"Just those three Harry?" commented Dumbledore, ignoring the jab.

Harry thought about it for a total of two seconds and responded, "For now and you can tell that peg-legged idiot and the werewolf to stay well clear of me. I haven't forgotten about them either, but so far they've surprisingly had enough sense to not come near me."

"Alastor Moody is dead," Mr. Weasley said quietly. "He was killed fighting Death Eaters while you were away."

"Good enough then but make sure you tell Lupin."

Then Harry turned away from the crowd and followed Tom up to the stairs to find his room for the evening with his paper bag clutched tightly in his hand.

To Be Continued … Please Read and Review