Chapter Two: Conversations

Summary: What if Harry left the Dursleys' behind? What if he grew up far from Privet Drive? What if he wasn't a Gryffindor? What if he had different friends? What if he wasn't the golden boy that they wanted him to be? AU first year. NOT slash. R/R

A/N I didn't intend to post this chapter yet, but here it is anyway. READ and REVIEW this story and give it a chance! Thank you.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

"I am home." The young Harry said, gripping the two knives a little more tightly in his hands. Thoughts began to race through his mind. What if he had been found out? Perhaps these strange intruders were here to take him to the local orphanage, or maybe a foster home. Or was all this just a joke set up by the guys down at the construction site? No, that's not right, they wouldn't make a joke on his behalf.

Harry was quickly trying to form an escape plan in his mind when something clicked.

Flashback

Young Harry was drifting in and out of that space between sleep and consciousness. He had just had the strangest dream of riding on a flying motorcycle. He slowly opened one eye to see a couple of vaguely familiar faces looking down at him. They didn't know he was awake.

One of them, a women, pointed a long boney finger at his forehead and whispered, "Is that where ---?"

The old man, most familiar of the lot whisperd, "Yes. He'll have that scar forever?"

Harry must have fallen back to sleep, because the next thing he remembered was the old man standing over him announcing, "Well, that's that. We have no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations

The next thing Harry knew, he was waking up to the hellish shrieks of his Aunt as she went to set out the milk bottles.

End Flashback

Fury built up inside Harry. His eyes flashed dangerously.

"You...You're the one that brought me to Them, aren't you? You bastard. I'm not going back! I left all that behind me! Leave me alone!" And with that he ran, straight past the trio of strangely dressed people, who attempted to grab him as he fled. He raced down the hallway and down flight after flight of steps.

"Ah, Albus, I believe he has interpreted your words in the wrong way."

"Yes Severus, the boy was not how I expected him to be."

"Perhaps I shall cut him off Albus?"

"No Minerva, allow me. I believe we may have a hostile Slytherin on our hands." And with a loud POP the potions master was gone.

Harry was bolting towards the exit door in the lobby when, with a loud CRACK, the greasy haired man was directly in front of him. It was too late to stop and soon two sets of limbs were tangled up on the floor.

"Alas, the great Harry Potter is not nearly as graceful as the world would like to believe."

"What the fu..." Harry mumbled as he quickly untangled himself and once again attempted to escape.

"I see you're not afraid to run from danger, unlike your foolish father, he never did know when to stop playing the hero."

Harry stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around, reaching for a knife he had stashed in his belt.

"What the FUCK do you know about my father!"

"Just that he was a popular, stupid git."

"Take that back!" the dark haired youth said in a dangerously calm voice, raising the knife, preparing to throw it.

"I don't take back the truth Potter. Expelliarmus." The knife flew into the man's hand. "Now you are going to come with me, whether you take the easy way," the man offered out his hand to the boy, "Or the hard way." He said, raising the wand slightly in a threatening way.

Take me, not Harry! Avada Kedavra! Green light. Darkness.

Harry grimaced, the wooden stick in the man's hand reminded him of what he assumed was his mother's death. His mother...his father. "How did you know my father?"

The man sighed, deciding perhaps he should try and gain the boys trust. "We attended the same school."
Harry gulped. He knew nothing of his parents. The Dursleys had always locked him up in the cupboard if he asked. He slightly lowered the knife in his hand (he had drawn another from his sleeve).

"What school?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your parents were wizards Harry, just like me, and just like you."

"What do you mean by wizard? I'm not a wizard." Harry said in an almost pleading voice, but some part of him knew that he was fighting a losing battle.

"By wizard I mean you are a male human with the ability to do magic. And you definitely fit the criteria. After all, no squib could defeat The Da..." he paused, perhaps know was not the time to release that bit of information. "Let me ask you Potter, has anything...strange... ever happened to you or around you? Particularly when you were quite angry or distressed?"

"No... well..." He thought back over the years. There was that time he had ended up on the school roof when Dudley's gang was chasing him...and the time when he disappeared and ended up in Florida...or the time when he broke his arm at work, and it was fine the next day...or when his teacher's hair turned pink after Harry had received a 61 on a math quiz...

"...yeah. Yeah a few things have happened."
"Course they have. And that's why we're here. We want to take you back to Hogwarts so you can become a real wizard." The greasy haired man once again offered his hand out to Harry.

"And why should I trust you? Hell, I don't even know you name!"

"You don't have to trust me, you just have to come with me. And it's Professor Severus Snape."

Before Harry could protest two loud CRACKs broke the silence as the elderly man and the strict women appeared on either side of Snape.

"Ah, Severus, I see you have done well. And now, unless I am very much mistaken young Mister Potter, you are feeling quite confused?" Questioned the wise old wizard known as Dumbledore.

"Confusion is a sign of helplessness." Harry replied, his guard all the way back up.

"That it may be Harry, but a feeling of helplessness is simply the body's reaction to confusion, so, as you see, it is a cycle. Lemon drop?" The headmaster reached in his pocket for one of the candies but paused as the dark haired boy's eyes narrowed. "Harry, I believe we started off on the wrong foot. I do not intend to bring you back to your relatives. In hindsight that was one of my less brilliant ideas. I do however, wish that you would return to where you belong. Perhaps we could discuss it over tea?"

"Tea? How about coffee?" he paused before adding, "In my apartment." A curious Harry responded. The three professors exchanged a glance and Dumbledore nodded.

"Very well then."

Several hours later Harry sat quietly thinking in his apartment. It all seemed so absurd, yet, strangely, it also felt right. He glanced up at his visitors, particularly the man sitting back, relaxed in Harry's comfy armchair. It was a rather odd sight, to see such an old, important looking figure to be so relaxed, but Albus Dumbledore was not your normal 'important figure.' No the eccentric old wizard was far form normal, by any criteria.

One of the things that made him particularly strange was his patience. His two colleagues were sitting very unrelaxed on Harry's beat up couch, waiting for the boy's response.

Over the past three hours the three professors had been explaining to Harry everything from what, exactly, magic was, to what Hogwarts was, to what it was like at Hogwarts, to why he needed to attend. In fact, over his fifth cup of coffee, Dumbledore had only just moments before explained to Harry of his past, of how he had defeated Lord Voldemort.

And there Harry sat, thoughtfully rubbing his chin, letting all these waves of information sink in, while the three professors sat there waiting for some sort of reaction.

"So, you're telling me that I'm some sort of hero in this 'wizarding world' because some evil cat named Lord Volie-something tried to kill me when I was a little and I survived, and I like banished him or something. And now you dudes show up wanting to take me off to Britain so I can train up on my skills?"

"That pretty much sums it up."

"And if I do decide to come, I'm gonna need like a wand and stuff, won't I? And books too?"

"We can arrange a trip to Diagon Alley to get your supplies."

Silence.

"I do have a job, but dosen't the school cost a pretty penny to attend? I'm not exactly rich you know."

"Ah yes, there is an annual fee, however you need not worry about expenses. I believe your parents left you more than one vault at Gringotts, a wizard bank."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot."

"Very well then. If there are no more questions then I believe that we will be off. I will arrange for you to go for your supplies tomorrow, perhaps Professor Snape could pick you up at noon?"
"Right."

"Oh, and if you wouldn't mind, could I use the loo before we're off?"

Harry looked at Dumbledore as if he was a bit crazy. "The loo?...oh yeah, the bathroom. Second door on your right as you head to the door."

"Thank you."

A/N: you've made it this far, why not keep reading. In the next chapter Harry gets his first taste of the magical world in Diagon Alley, stay tuned.