Disclaimer: I own nothin'. The creator and goddess, J. K. Rowling, is whom you should thank for inspiring me.

~*A Change of Mind*~

Chapter 2

Unexpected And Nasty Surprises

"Voldemort and Wormtail," Harry said while struggling to stand up.

The taller stranger only laughed evilly at his remark.

"It seems that young Mr. Potter remembers us, Wormtail. Bravo, Potter. Bravo," he clapped, pretended to be amused.

"What are you doing here?" Harry snapped, despite the pain of his scar.

"For a rematch, that's what. But first, meet my friends, the Dementors," said Voldemort, now stepping into the room with a dozen Dementors gliding behind him and Wormtail standing beside his master.

"What in hell are those?" Uncle Vernon yelled, stepping back while both Aunt Petunia and Dudley tried to take protection behind him.

"Stupefy!" Harry could hear Wormtail stepped forward and cursing it on the Dursleys.

They stood rigid and fell to the floor. Harry could see that Wormtail hadn't change much since the last time they met at the graveyard during his fourth year at Hogwarts. He also realised that Wormtail wasn't holding a wand but had used his replacement metal hand in place of his wand. Wormtail then pulled up his hood again and stood by Voldemort's side. Harry stepped forward and smiled weakly because he felt brave, as he knew how to deal with Dementors.

"Dementors, Voldemort? I expected worse from you," said Harry.

Harry reacted quickly and pulled out his wand which he always tuck under his shirt in case of emergency. Although he knew he couldn't use it in front of the Dursleys to amuse himself but he listened to Sirius Black's (his godfather) to have his wand on him at all times after Lord Voldemort had regained some power. The Dementors, on the other hand, were already lowering their hoods. Harry could feel the room temperature dropping rapidly. Harry, already used to this, was unaffected by it.

"Wormtail, you are not to interrupt until I order you so. Ready to die, Potter?" Voldemort smirked while Harry smiled, with the twinkle of determination in his eyes.

"I don't think that will happen," replied Harry.

Concentrating really hard on the time that he won the Quidditch cup, then he yelled, "Expecto patronum!"

Prongs emerged from his wand and galloped around the Dementors. The Dementors were falling backwards and in no time, were out the door. The stag seeing that has done his job well, then disappeared.

"Very good, young Mr. Potter. I must say that what you did just now amazes me," he said through his gritted teeth.

Harry smirked but then he winched. He felt extremely tired after performing that spell plus enduring the pain of his scar.

"Not only that. I also know that this particular spell is very, very, very advance magic for a mere child like you and that it is now draining your energy as we speak," Lord Voldemort added, gleaming.

"So? I can still beat you like the many times we've met," said Harry.

"Tsk. Tsk. Such a pathetic child we have here. You think you can defeat me. We shall see about that. We'll see how well you are against the same curse twice," Voldemort smiled evilly.

Harry panicked. He knew exactly what spell Voldemort was going to use. It has no counter curse and known to many as 'the killing curse'. Voldemort was just about to open his mouth when Harry heard another voice from behind Voldemort.

"Drop it, Voldemort! I mean it," said the stranger.

Harry couldn't see who it was but knew that the voice sounded familiar. He felt even more tired now. He was actually using all of his strength to just remaining standing. Voldemort and Wormtail, with a blink of an eye, were gone. But then, his loud voice could be heard.

"I'll be back for you, Potter. You can be sure of that!" Voldemort's voice boomed.

Harry, feeling that the every last bit of energy in him had left and beginning to lose his vision, collapsed onto the floor. Harry heard someone running towards him and catching him before he fell onto the floor. The stranger had his firm hands on the shoulders and at the back of Harry that all Harry could do was thank the stranger under his breath. Determined not to black out, Harry strained to keep consciousness. He was strong and soon able to looked up, relieved to see that it was Lupin's face looking down with concern at him.

"Are you okay, Harry?" he asked, helping him up and onto a chair.

Harry nodded his head.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked weakly while Lupin was drawing the curtains and repairing the door so that neighbours won't be able to see what was going on inside.

"Actually, I came here to take you to my home. Snuffles is with me… somewhere," said Remus, handing Harry a large piece of chocolate to him, which he took out from his pocket.

"Actually, Snuffles is right here," a voice coming from behind Harry.

Harry looked up. It was Sirius, standing behind the chair, smiling down on him.

"Are you all right, Harry?" he said in concern.

Harry could see that he was healthy and not to mention, clean too.

"I'm fine," mumbled Harry, as he was eating the chocolate Lupin gave to him.

He could feel heat going through his entire body. He felt much better now, as his scar wasn't burning badly.

"We better inform Professor Dumbledore. He should know what had happened," said Lupin, as he had finished clearing up the living room. "Enervate."

The Dursleys' immediately woken up and screamed at the sight of Sirius for they all remembered him as an escaped convict. Sirius just rolled his eyes as Harry giggled at their reaction. The Dursleys scrambled to a corner of the room, Remus trying to calm them down but with no affect.

"No need my dear Remus. I'm all ready present," said Albus Dumbledore suddenly, opening the door and closing it behind him as he entered the room.

This sent the Dursleys' to the other corner of the room. Sirius couldn't help but laughed at the Dursleys while Remus merely shook his head at Sirius's behaviour.

"Professor, Voldemort came. Here! I mean, I thought you said that he couldn't come and attack me when I'm here," said Harry, jumping up from his chair.

Sirius placed his hands on Harry's shoulders to calm him down and asked him to sit down once again. He knew that Harry had gone through a great ordeal that day and wanted him to rest. Harry took his seat as Remus used his magic to bring him some chairs so that they could sit down together. The table in front of Harry magically move itself to the side of the room as three chairs placed itself in front of Harry's armchair. Albus Dumbledore took his seat in the middle with Remus on his left and Sirius on his right. The Dursleys were watching all this with disbelief.

"Yes, it seems that he did. I'm sorry Harry. I shouldn't have let you leave Hogwarts this holiday and it seems like I was wrong," composed Professor Dumbledore, with a slight sign of regret in his voice.

Lupin was now conjuring up a teapot and cups while Sirius conjured up a small, round, odd-looking, wooden table in front of them to place the teapot and cups. Harry was slightly taken aback that Professor Dumbledore actually wanted him to stay at Hogwarts when he always thought he would prefer him to stay with the Dursleys'.

"What do we do now, Professor Dumbledore? I mean… Harry can't stay here. We already know what will happen if he does," asked Sirius while Remus was offering tea to Professor Dumbledore which he gladly accepted.

"Now, Harry must come back with me to Hogwarts with the Dursleys," said Professor Dumbledore looking for the first time at the Dursleys who were crouching at corner of the room.

The Dursleys got up and Uncle Vernon suddenly yelled, "I am NOT going to your world. Not with you lot!"

"But I fear you must. We now know that Voldemort knows of your existence and your relationship with Harry. We cannot risk any of you being capture and held hostage just so he could get his hands on Harry. We must keep an eye on you until Voldemort have been capture or killed," said Professor Dumbledore calmly, standing.

Remus and Sirius were also standing so if anything should happens they were ready. As for Harry, he was still sitting down, shock and unable to believe the words that Professor Dumbledore had just said. Aunt Petunia and Dudley were hugging behind Uncle Vernon, in fear of losing each other.

'Living with them for a whole summer was bad enough. Even a day is killing me. Now I had to live with them at Hogwarts... The only place I would be away from them. I don't think I could live with myself then,' thought Harry, feeling very uneasy.

"But Professor. Surely Voldemort will know better than to kidnap them to get to me. He knows that I won't come to rescue them even if they did get capture!" said Harry, now standing up.

Sirius couldn't help it but laughed some more. Remus was also evidently hiding his laughter. Harry looked at his godfather.

"Well Harry, we know that but unfortunately he doesn't. He'll kidnap them and when he finds out that it was a waste of time, he would surely kill them," explained Remus while the Dursleys looked terrified at that fact.

"I couldn't care less," mumbled Harry, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Harry…" Sirius gave him a warning tone. "I know you don't like them very much but they did, after all, raise you as their own," he continued.

Harry snorted and Sirius could see that he mouthed the word 'hardly'.

"Yes Harry. I agree with Professor Dumbledore and Sirius. We must keep a watchful eye on them so that Voldemort can't use them as bait to lure you into one of his traps. He has done that one too many times," said Remus as he cared for Harry's safety more than his relatives.

After a few minutes of thinking, Harry sighed.

"All right, if you insist, professor. But please, make them stay as far away from me as possible," Harry mumbled.

"That's a good boy," Sirius said smiling while giving a pat on Harry's shoulder.

Then, Dumbledore turned towards the Dursleys who backed until against the wall.

"And I assume that you too agree with Harry?" asked Albus Dumbledore finally.

Uncle Vernon stared for a few moments at Albus Dumbledore as if he was mad. But, when he thought it over, since he doesn't want he or any of his family to die for that sorry-excuse-of-a-nephew-of his, he nodded his head in sign that he agreed with Dumbledore suggestion. Albus Dumbledore smiled at his decision while Aunt Petunia and Dudley stared at Uncle Vernon.

"Vernon! What are you thinking? Living with their kind!" said Mrs. Dursley, after finding her voice to speak up.

"But Petunia, darling, think about it. Do we really have a choice? I mean we could have been killed. Do you want that to happen?" Mr. Dursley asked her.

She too gave it a thought and decided to follow her husband's decision. Dudley was shaking his head, disapproving at his parents' decision. Aunt Petunia tried to explain to her 'little' angel that it was for the best while Uncle Vernon kept his eyes on the strangers.

"Alright. Harry, you know what to do. I'm giving you, half an hour, which I assumed that would be enough time, for you to come down here again with your books and stuff. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, please pack anything you think that would be important and please be quick," instructed Professor Dumbledore while Sirius helped Remus to put everything in the living room in order.

Harry nodded and climbed the stairs, taking two stairs-steps at a time. He really didn't have to do much because he barely had the time to unpack since he just arrived last night. All he did was stuff the rest of the things into his trunk and then dragged it to the staircase. He past by Dudley's room and saw that Aunt Petunia was packing for him while he was yelling, "I don't want to go!" "Why must I?" "I want to bring all my toys" and "It's not fair!" As he was about to push his trunk down the stairs, Sirius came to help him.

"Harry, I know this is hard but try to understand," Sirius started.

Harry just frowned, not even making an effort to look at it their way.

"Just please, make sure that the Dursleys stay away from me. I can't stand seeing them," said Harry.

Professor Dumbledore and Remus then came to see if they could help.

"Professor, would there by any chance which I hope would not be that…" Harry paused, as he really didn't want to say it. "That…Dudley will be sorted and put into a house and study like I do?" he said very quickly. 'Please say no, please say no, please say no,' begged Harry in his mind.

"I don't think he will, Harry. He might just be staying there and not studying with you but he will be there at the Hall during meals. Maybe you'll bump into him or his family once in a while. You never know," replied Professor Dumbledore

Sirius carried his trunk down the stairs, helped by Remus and supervised by Professor Dumbledore. Harry just stood there and started to imagine things.

'What if Dudley starts an 'Anti-Harry' club or maybe does worse things'?

At that thought, he quickly stopped thinking about it and quickly returned to his room because he forgot Hedwig's cage. In his room he saw the letter, which he has addressed to Professor Dumbledore. Seeing that he may be telling Professor Dumbledore about it later, he placed it in his pocket and had the cage in his hands. On the stairs, Harry gave the empty cage to Sirius.

"She's not back yet?" whispered Sirius.

"Nope. She doesn't like to stay here," replied Harry.

Sirius smiled at Harry, as he now understood how Harry felt living with his only relatives.

Just then, the Dursleys came downstairs with their bags, which Harry guessed was filled with useless things. Harry thought that Dudley had tried to stuff his computer in one of his bags. He guessed that wouldn't fit in it and was too heavy. Harry could actually see a computer game sticking out from an unzipped compartment.

'Boy, would he be surprise when he finds out that there isn't any electricity in Hogwarts,' Harry thought to himself, smiling at the thought of how they would react, more of Dudley's actually.

Remus offered to help the Dursleys with their luggage but they didn't trust him with them. Then, Harry remembered something and turned to talk to Professor Dumbledore, who was nicely humming to himself.

"Err… Professor. Excuse me but I haven't bought my stuff for next term. I was wondering if we could stop by Diagon Alley so I could buy my books and stuff," Harry asked.

"Ah, why yes, Harry. I need go down there myself. Have to get a book on how to knit," said Professor Dumbledore, his eyes twinkled behind his half-moon glasses.

Harry knew why he wanted that book. It was because Albus Dumbledore told him that what he always wanted was a nice pair of socks as a Christmas present but never got it.

"Alright then. Let's go," said Professor Dumbledore.