Disclaimer: not mine

So, am I to assume that no one likes the story, or everyone's simply too lazy to get off their sorry arses to review? .: taps foot :. Thought so. Tisk, tisk.

Chapter 3

Harry pointed in the general direction of Diagon Alley and had them dropped off somewhere near it. "Thank you so much." Harry said as Kaede pulled out some money.

"It was no problem." Rachael replied with a smile, refusing to take anything. "You three take care of yourselves."

Ben smiled as they waved to Annah and stepped out of the van. "You too," she added as the van pulled away. The trio ran out of the drizzle and under the shelter of the opening of a restaurant. They watched the van pull away and they each took in a breath of their newfound freedom. Now that they were in London, where would they go next?

"So . . ." Kaede trailed off, "Where do we go now?" She turned to Harry, assuming the British teen knew where he was going in London.

Harry looked around and saw that nobody was in the immediate vicinity, so he waved his scarred hands over himself to change his appearance. His dark hair changed to match Kaede's and his eyes changed to blue. After moulding his glasses to be more oval shaped, he made his clothes fit better. "I'll bring us to the Leaky Cauldron." Harry said, looking both ways to check which direction they had to go in. He pointed left, but didn't leave yet because he wanted to speak before they dashed into the rain. "I'll pretend to be Kaede's cousin and I'm showing you guys around the magical UK. Our parents think we're responsible enough to take a vacation by ourselves, so we'll be renting out a room for ourselves."

"The Leaky Cauldron's a hotel?" Ben clarified.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, It's also a bar and the way to get to Diagon Alley. The Alley is the main shopping centre. That and Hogsmeade, but we'll probably go there another time." Harry was about to leave the shelter of the overhang, but Kaede grabbed his arm lightly.

"Will we use fake names?" Kaede asked, "Ben is in hiding, and you're Harry Potter. That's sort of self explanatory."

Harry nodded. He thought for a minute and finally said, "I'll be . . . Rhett . . . Ar . . . yor; Rhett P. Aryor."

"I want to keep my name." Ben said, "But I'll need a fake last name." She paused thoughtfully and finally said, "Ben Le . . ."

"Lever . . ." Kaede added, putting some more letters on.

"- it!" Harry cried, "Leverit; Ben Leverit, that's a good name."

Ben nodded and smiled, "Yeah. I like it, thanks." Harry's mask slipped and he gave a weak half-smile. It wasn't often he felt this way about a girl, and Harry didn't know how to react or which mask to put on.

"I want to change completely." Kaede informed them, "I mean, Kaede Naozumi? That's obviously Japanese and not American – not that anything's wrong with my name. It's just . . . obvious."

"I like the name Hannah." Ben replied, "I think that's really cute."

Kaede shrugged absently, "I guess." She said, thinking deeply, "I was thinking a name that's a bit more obscure, but not too obvious."

"Aeda?" Harry suggested, "It's fairly simple and a bit abnormal to boot."

Kaede nodded, "Yeah. My last name can be . . . Joris. Aeda Joris, and Rhett and I have different last names." She grinned, "This will be fun. What's the plan, Rhett?"

Harry ran his tongue over his lips and said, "We'll head to Gringotts to get some of my money. From there, we can do whatever we want. One thing I definitely want to do though, is write to Dumbledore when I get my Hogwarts letter and tell him that you guys want to join." He paused and looked at them uneasily, "You do want to go, right?"

Ben raised an eyebrow, "Yes." Harry nodded and finally led them around the block to the small pub that was The Leaky Cauldron. They slipped inside and a few people that were waiting for guests looked up to identify them.

"Can I help you?" Tom asked from the bar.

Harry led the way over and took a breath, putting his story to the test. "Yeah, I'm Rhett Aryor and this is my cousin, Aeda, and her friend Ben. They're from the States and I'm showing them around, so we need a room. It'd be best if we had two conjoined rooms, as the girls can share one."

"Sure," Tom wiped his hands and put down the rag before leading them to a corner of the bar that had the room keys and sign-in sheet. "Are your parents coming later?"

"No," Harry shook his head, voice confident. Underneath his sturdy mask, Harry was nervous and shaking – hoping that Tom would believe them. "Mum and Dad said that we could take a sort-of vacation. They live close enough to walk on foot but we wanted our space for the summer."

Tom nodded, "Sounds like fun." He began to write down their names and their room number. Harry almost laughed with relief. "How long will you be staying?"

Ben shrugged, "We aren't sure. We'll pay daily, though. One of us will come down in the morning with the money."

Tom sized them up, looking to see if they would keep their promise. He nodded, "All right, then." He passed over two keys. "Here you are, these are for rooms ten and eleven."

"Thanks," Ben smiled and took the key, leading their threesome up the stairs. They went into their rooms and Harry watched the girls pull out the first aid kit that Rachael had, apparently, given them. Ben had Harry pull off his shirt and put some more medicine on his welts while Kaede went through their bags to pull out some food she'd managed to snitch from the orphanage.

Harry was beginning to doze off from Ben's soothing massaging of the medicine into his gruesome wounds when the provisional healer spoke softly, "Why do you want the scars?"

Realizing he couldn't very well shrug in this position on his stomach, he spoke aloud, "I suppose 'cause I deserve it."

A choked gasp, and Harry almost started up to look at her face. But that would hurt more. They settled into an unforgiving silence, the only sounds coming from Kaede, who had moved into the adjacent room. Finally, breaking the silence, "You don't." Harry moved slightly, suggesting his confusion. "You don't deserve it." Ben explained, "No one deserves this." Harry swallowed.

They fell, once again, into silence. This time, the silence didn't end and Harry's heavy lids slid shut as his mind welcomed the warm embrace of the dream world.

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Harry was standing in the middle of the street in London, the rain pouring down in turrets around him. Dumbledore was standing not ten feet away from him with a distinctly disappointed look on his face. "Harry, you're in danger. You need to go back to the Dursleys. It will protect you from Voldemort."

Protesting, Harry shook his head, "No, I'm fine. We're hiding -"

"No, Potter." His eyes were red now and his face had a familiar sneer, "You need to go back. You deserve it. You killed them all, after all." Suddenly, Sirius was standing next to Voldemort.

"Harry," He had a horrid, furious look on his face that made him appear almost disfigured, "It's all your fault. I wouldn't have died if it wasn't for you."

The world was spinning and Harry couldn't take the shame. He turned to run away. His parents were standing on the front walk to number 4 Privet Drive. "You need to stay safe Harry." His mother said, "You'll only end up killing more people if you don't."

Once again, Harry turned in shame. His own parents didn't even want him. He looked up. Cedric Diggory. "Come on, Harry, let's take the cup together. Voldemort is waiting." His face changed to one that would adequately fit Voldemort's. "Come to the dark side, Harry." His voice changed. It became almost feminine. "We have cookies."

"What?" Harry was confused.

"Come on, wake up Harry." That was Ben's voice. Cedric's malevolent face faded into Ben's smiling one. "We have some breakfast, and Kaede even snuck some biscuits, though I hear you Britt's call them scones."

Harry sat up quickly and held his hand to his aching head, immediately regretting the quick action. "Huh?" He asked groggily, his voice scratchy.

Kaede giggled and tossed an apple to Ben. "Not a morning person, then?" Ben proceeded to put forth a plate that had an assortment of breakfast items and put a fork in Harry's hand. The girls were dressed already and had obviously taken showers. He looked at the clock and saw it was nine thirty. With nothing better to do, Kaede suggested that she braid Ben's hair. Harry watched them absent-mindedly while eating as they chatted about almost everything.

He eventually came around and looked around the room. His backpack was sitting on the desk in the corner and Hedwig was sitting on the back of the chair, preening herself. "You've got a real smart bird." Ben commented, "She flew in not too long after you fell asleep." There was a short pause, "Why on earth did you choose an owl?"

Harry looked over to see Kaede almost halfway done twisting her hair into miniscule braids. "Well, almost all wizards have them, don't they? They carry mail and are dead smart." Hedwig puffed up at his comment.

"Really?" Ben looked interested, "Don't the muggles notice the birds?"

Harry shrugged, "I suppose they do a bit. But there aren't hundreds of owls flying all around the country at once, are there?"

"Well, the wizarding world in the US can't afford to hide as much as Europe does." Kaede explained, "They adapt to the technology. We have cell phones that always have service and our stores blend right in with the muggles. We don't wear robes, they're just inconvenient. Muggles buy half of our divination things and go to palm readings because they're fascinated with the Seers. They think it's all just fun and games, though the occasional person is insane and believes it all."

Harry sat, listening intently. "But wouldn't there be a lot of accidents?"

"Yeah," Ben nodded, but Kaede whipped her head back into it's proper position so she could continue braiding. "The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts is one of the largest sections of the government, along with the Hit Wizards and Aurors. Half of the crime in the streets is actually magical and it's cleaned up in a matter of minutes. The muggles just think they're gangs, though sometimes the news is about actual muggles. There aren't too many boarding schools, as it would be harder for kids to go there." Ben shrugged, "They just go to a private school."

Harry grinned, "That's wicked."

Kaede finished the braids and waved her hand towards the bathroom. "Go take a shower and all so we can go do something."

Harry stood up and went to get a change of clothes. "Where are we going today?" He turned to look when no one answered and a sudden feeling of dread hit the pit of his stomach at the sight of their grinning faces.

"We're going shopping." Ben replied with a wicked grin.

Harry stood behind the girls as they gaped at the mounds of gold in his vault. He knew without a doubt, as they proceeded to heave mounds of each coin into weightless bags, that this day would be one of the longest in his life.

Earlier that morning, Harry had finished getting ready and had lead the girls into Diagon Alley. Kaede had automatically started walking to a dark looking clothing shop on the outskirts of Knockturn Alley while Ben ran off to look at the newest broomstick at Quality Quidditch Supplies. Harry had been smart enough to head them off rather quickly and explain that they had to get some money from Gringotts first.

Currently, Harry was standing at the open door of his vault (which had somehow gained more gold) as the two young witches practically dove into the piles. The goblin on his left had an almost amused look on his face and Harry decided to ask what was bugging him. "Excuse me; do you know why I seem to have more gold in here than I did before?"

The goblin promptly replied, "You have interest, of course."

Harry nodded and sighed as the girls continued to empty his vault. "I don't suppose there's an easier way to transfer gold?"

To his surprise, the goblin nodded. "There's a new project that Gringotts has recently come up with. It hasn't had much of an influence yet, and the purebloods, specifically, don't like the idea. We've taken the idea of credit cards from muggle society and adapted it. We now have a Gringotts Easy Card that automatically transfers money with the wave of a wand and the spoken price."

Harry smiled brightly and called out to the girls. Ben and Kaede agreed to use a Card instead, but looked sorrowfully at the mounds of gold they were previously swimming in. "You can go and get some anyways." Harry sighed with a small smile. He felt like a father talking to a pair of two year olds that desperately wanted a sweet.

After they left Gringotts, the girls were running high on adrenaline as they pulled Harry from shop to shop. Kaede and Ben agreed to go to a clothing shop first and they led Harry somewhere that Harry slowly realized was Knockturn Alley.

"Where are you taking me?" Harry asked, jerking them to a stop when he finally realized it. "We can't go there, it's too dangerous."

Kaede raised an eyebrow, "When has that stopped you?" Harry looked between the two girls and sighed.

"Where are we going?" He asked. Ben grinned and pulled him down the alley without answering. They stopped in front of a store with a sign that said "Blood Diamonds" in a flashing crimson colour. The windows held racks of jewellery that looked hauntingly beautiful. Quite obviously, this gothic shop pierced ears and sold the jewellery to accompany it. Ben laughed out loud at the look of horror that crossed Harry's face as he realized what they were doing. "Well, you did want a piercing, Har." Again, she laughed at him as Kaede pushed him into the shop. They have one twisted sense of humour, Harry thought, dredging up his Gryffindor Courage to get this over and done with.

"Can I help you?" There was a girl at the counter that looked about twenty-two, popping and chewing her gum, looking utterly bored.

"We need to fix him up." Ben replied with her wicked grin.

"Do you do Tattoos here, too?" Kaede asked.

"Yeah," another pop. She grinned over at Harry, "Let's get started." She took the trio into the back and the girls began to completely make him over. By the time they were finished, Harry had a feeling he would hardly recognize himself. As the girls weren't allowing him to have a look at himself until they were finished, he didn't have a clue. In addition to his right eyebrow and left cartilage being pierced, the girls decided to streak his hair. Ben seemed really excited about the colour, but none of them spoke it aloud and Harry still didn't have a clue. When the colouring was done, the lady attacked his hair with a pair of scissors and Harry was almost scared for his life. He had a feeling that he'd be bald by the amount of cutting she'd done.

Finally, they'd allowed him a mirror and Harry knew he didn't recognize himself. If he was honest with himself, he now looked every bit of the delinquent that his Uncle and Aunt had claimed he was. His hair was short enough that his scar would be in plain sight when he didn't have Ben's cover-up on it, but it fit him. It didn't look like he'd just up and out of bed without looking at it, it looked like it was styled messily.

"Sexy." Ben commented, ruffling his hair. Harry smiled and tried not to blush as he watched his hair fall back into it's messy spikes. The light caught a new colour and Harry realized that they'd streaked his hair the same colour as his brilliant green eyes, even though they were changed at the moment. Ben had gotten down the colour perfectly.

"Yes, very macho." Kaede agreed, "But now we need clothes that don't look like rags. We have to show off the body you're hiding under that baggy shirt." Harry paid for a few earrings that caught his eye, the piercings, the colouring job and the haircut with the Card before hurrying out of the shop behind his girls.

His girls? Harry's heart thumped nervously in his chest as he caught up. His eyes went to the ground as his mind hurriedly tried to figure out why he'd thought that. He'd known them enough where they meant something to him. They actually meant a lot of something. Harry almost felt a guilty pleasure that they meant almost as much as Ron and Hermione did. The big difference was that his girls knew the real Harry, while Ron and Hermione had to dreg up who he was – and even then they only knew a portion of him. He realized that he acted himself around his girls, but he had to act different in the Wizarding world. That world knew him as the Boy-Who-Lived, but Ben and Kaede knew Harry. Yes, these were his girls.

For another hour and a half, Harry practically lived in a changing room as Ben and Kaede threw clothes over the door and screamed at him to hurry up so they could see it. They passed back jeans of all kinds, shirts, shorts, belts, hat and even a cool metal chain necklace that Harry wouldn't take off. While the girls paid for everything, Harry chose an outfit to wear out of the store. He chose a pair of jeans, a black shirt with a white guitar design and a pair of vans. Looking at himself in the full-length mirror, he suddenly felt a sudden burst of self-confidence. Here he was, looking completely different and actually looking good. His old, weak, and pathetic identity was now gone and with it, he decided, would go his shyness and inability to show his true self.

Walking out of the dressing room, Harry never noticed that his posture was straighter and he not only looked like his father, but had the confidence of his old man, too.

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Kaede watched as Harry walked out of the changing room looking absolutely yummy and completely self-assured. And it was all thanks to us, she said to herself with a smug grin. She knew for a fact that she was boy crazy, but one look at Ben told her that this luscious number was off limits. Even if her red-haired friend hadn't realized it yet, she was head-over-heals in love with Harry James Potter from day one. True, it had been a bit of a simple crush when they'd first seen him shirtless in the garden, but it had developed as they got to know him. Harry was a true, honest and surprisingly traditionally principled guy, but that kind of guy wasn't for her. Kaede liked the wild ones, but Ben and Harry would fit together like a lock and key. She couldn't have been happier for her best friend.

"Hey," Harry said, walking over to them, "Where are we going next?"

"Back to Blood Diamonds," Kaede replied.

Ben looked over at her, "We are?"

"Yeah," Kaede answered, "I'm getting my hair trimmed." Trimmed was probably an understatement as Kaede wanted her hair (currently below her shoulders) to below to the back of her neck in an almost boyish style. When she was finished, she watched the reactions on her friends' faces. Harry had a shocked look on his face while Ben ran up with a grin to look at it closer. Kaede's hair fell in jagged layers – much like Ben's – to just about halfway past her ears while the back was a little shorter and cut like a guy's.

"That looks awesome!" Ben cried, flipping some of her long red hair over her shoulder, "And it's probably a hell-of-a-lot easier to manage, too."

Kaede laughed and kept shaking her head and running a hand through it experimentally. "Yeah, I'll bet it is."

"It looks great." Harry offered, finally getting over his shock.

Kaede looked from Ben's peppy, energetic, outgoing grin to Harry's shy, small and subdued smile. Yes, they would be good for each other. But for now . . . "Hey Harry, I forgot to tell you that the tattoo artist is in right now and I had her set some stuff up for you." The look on Harry's face was one for the books.

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Albus Dumbledore, head of the Order of the Phoenix, stepped out of the fireplace in the kitchen of 12 Grimmuald Place to hear Molly Weasley's raised voice. She was yelling, once again, at Fred and George Weasley for using another prank on some unfortunate order member. The family was trooping out of the kitchen while various order members slipped past Mrs. Black. Everyone sat down and Albus noted that Remus looked almost nervous.

"Albus," Molly started, "Exactly when are Hermione's parents coming? Only, she's been asking about them."

Albus smiled, "Yes, they'll be here tomorrow morning. They said something about taking their daughter, Annah, somewhere in London. They're staying in a hotel tonight." The old mage then looked over to Remus, who practically leapt out of his seat when addressed. "You have something to say, Remus?"

"Harry hasn't sent a letter," he blurted out. "It's the third day and he hasn't sent word. It's not like him."

Albus' eyebrows furrowed, it most certainly wasn't anything like the young charge. "You warned his family, correct?" Remus nodded. Severus was about to comment, but Albus silenced him with a sharp look. "After the meeting, I'll ask a few of you to come with me to go check on him."

A young man of about thirty-six leaned forward and gained the room's attention. He had a scarred face, much like Mad-Eye – though his nose was still in-tact. His black hair fell above his eyes and a pair of sharp frames perched on the bridge of his nose. The most imposing part of the man was the way he held himself. He sat with a sharp jaw and imposing gaze that demanded the attention of the room, and he seemed to have power rolling off him like waves. This man was Matthew Potter; not anyone but Dumbledore knew.

"Excuse me," the man said in a voice that made almost everyone turn their heads in surprise. His voice was a duplicate of James Potter's. "Is this Harry Potter we're talking about?"

Everyone gave the newcomer a strange look. Dumbledore smiled, "Yes, Matthew." He turned to the order at large and began to explain, "You remember the year James and Lily Potter got married. Not tremendously long before, James' parents were killed by Voldemort. It was believed that James' younger brother, Matthew Christian Potter, died as he was visiting the senior Potter's at the time. That was not the case. In his pain, Matt decided to take a break and become an Unspeakable. He has recently joined the Order and I hope you'll help him feel quite welcome."

There was a large gaping silence before the flurry of motion. People that remembered him ran forward to hug and greet him. Minerva even had a hint of tears in her eyes when she shook his hand. When everyone finally settled down, Matt spoke, "Albus, I've had a look at your memories and if they're anything to go by then my nephew won't come to you if something is wrong. And something is definitely wrong." There was a pause. "He will try to fix it himself because he doesn't believe it's worth your time."

"What?" Molly cried, "Why wouldn't he?"

"He's been abused his entire life." Matt said simply.

"Harry would tell us if something was wrong." Molly protested.

Fred, or maybe George, spoke up, "We would have picked up on something."

"Yeah," the other added, "he hasn't said anything, or even let anything slip."

"We know he doesn't like it there," the first continued.

"But he wasn't being abused." The second finished.

"What do you mean by that?" Albus asked, ignoring everyone else for the time being.

"It's hard to find," Matt continued, "but you have to look for it. I also met Lily's family before they got married and Vernon Dursley most certainly was prone to violence. He's also malnourished. It's almost a known fact that Potter men mature early, so he should have gotten a few inches taller before his fourth year. He's also extraordinarily under confident. He doesn't think he's going to live through this war." Silence met his words.

"Rubbish," Remus said, "of course he value's his life."

"Does he?" Matt asked vaguely, "Then why would he, so willingly, jump into The Veil if he knew exactly what happens when people go into it. He knew Sirius wasn't coming out. But you had to catch him to stop him, didn't you?" Again, silence. "But I also have some information from the Department of Mysteries. I work specifically in the area of Death – which includes The Veil. A few weeks ago, something absolutely asinine happened; someone with their soul in-tact fell through The Veil. The Veil is exclusively meant for bodies without souls – after a Kiss. Something's wrong with it, but no one knows what. We have people monitoring it to see what happens. The Veil might end up regurgitating people, which is most likely at the moment."

Dumbledore nodded dimly, thinking of what would happen to Harry if Sirius suddenly came back. He turned to Severus, who began his report on Voldemort and the meeting continued.

Roughly a half-hour later, Matthew Potter, Severus Snape, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Mad-Eye Moody and Albus Dumbledore stood in the Entrance Hall of 12 Grimmuald Place. As Albus made a portkey to Privet Drive, he spoke to the group, "Severus, I'd like you to look through the mind of Petunia Dursley, find any memories of Harry's childhood. Alastor, I want you to keep an eye out for general danger. Matthew, I'd like you to look for signs of abuse or otherwise. Ron, Hermione, you know Harry better than anyone. I want you to look for anything of his."

"This is assuming the brat is missing." Severus sneered.

"He won't be there." Matt said firmly, gesturing everyone to the completed portkey. The group took hold and with a pull at their naval landed at Privet Drive.

As Albus stepped into Harry Potter's bedroom and saw the pools of dried blood that had been attempted to be scrubbed out, he knew he'd failed the boy.

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