A/N: Slow but important chapter. Fear not the next chapter offers us a peak at Harry's new fighting skills. Since the vast majority of my reviews commented on what Harry will do to his 'friends' I'll just clear up something now. Harry has had closer to three years to think and stew on their actions, don't worry they get theirs, and then some and then some more, but don't expect him to curse them as soon as he sees them or start ranting and blow his cover. This chapter will also start to explain why everyone suddenly turned on him. :A/N

Chapter 4

Fugitive

What happened next would have been hilarious had the situation not been serious. There were several gasps, a few chocking noises, scattered grunts growls and coughs. Remus let out a low menacing growl while Kingsly let out a few quiet and unrepeatable curses. Molly managed to faint, or at least fall back in her chair and almost lose her balance. Arthur caught her and she was able to sit back up in a couple of seconds. Moody simply narrowed his living eye; his magical one was spinning like crazy. Snape was the first to regain any form of composure.

"How did that brat get out?"

"We don't know. The guards searched the main prison and found nothing, it's like he just vanished."

"Main prison?"

"There are catacombs beneath the prison, the dementors live down there and say no one came through." Everyone started talking at once, about either why Harry was guilty or how he managed to escape. Becoming annoyed Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"We must recapture him before he has a chance to return to Tom. Severus my boy, when is the next death eater meeting?"

"They don't set a schedule but I am overdue to be summoned."

"Good find out what you can? Everyone else, we need to put our people in areas that he might visit. We also need to up security here at headquarters, maybe even recast the fidelius."

"All of that Albus?"

"Yes Minerva. Harry knows where we are and will most likely come seeking revenge." The group gave a collective shudder, well most of them. Snape looked perturbed with the idea that the boy could be a threat

"Molly could you go upstairs and tell the kids?"

"But there just kids, they can't help us in this."

"Maybe not but as this will be all over the papers tomorrow they should know now. And Harry may try to contact them." Molly's sharp intake of breath showed she understood.

"Right I'll get right on it." Mrs. Weasley and Profesor Snape left leaving the others to plan a search pattern. Snape headed towards the front door clutching his arm, while Molly headed upstairs.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny were sitting in the bedroom Hermione and Ginny shared when Mrs. Weasley came in.

"Mum you look white as a sheet. What's wrong?"

"Well there's no good way to say this so…"

"Yeah." Ron said impatiently.

"Harry escaped from Azakban." The effect was similar to what happened downstairs. Hermione gasped, Ron growled and Ginny broke into tears and left the room.

"Ginny, Ginny!" Hermione called after her.

"Never mind her, what happened? How?"

"We don't know. We don't know how, he just disappeared."

While Hermione and Ron were trying to find out all the details Ginny had calmed down and was heading up to the attic. Harry had escaped, she should be happy right? She was sad that it had to come to that, that Harry was imprisoned in the first place. Whatever the others said they should have supported Harry even if he did do it, and Ginny didn't believe that he did. The Harry she knew would, could never do something so horrible. She wrote a quick note and gave it to her owl Peruses. Her mother had bought it for her last year.

"Please find him. Don't wait for a response I don't want anyone to find him."

When Harry awoke he cast a quick temptus spell and found out it was almost ten. He hurried up to his trunk and began to unpack. The first thing he removed where the various snake cages and the box of mice. After feeding each snake he opened the cages and sat them down.

"All of you are free to goss." The normal snakes thanked him but remained in their cages. Harry gathered them and carried them downstairs where he let them all out of a window and into the bushes outside. Serpentine curses and thanks could be heard. When he returned upstairs he was confronted with three snakes, two were small black snakes with a blue strip running down their backs. The third was the oversized cobra that got his attention in the first place.

"I ssiad you could go. Why do you remains?"

"If it is not a burdansss…" The first small snake began.

"…We would like to sstay heresss." The second finished.

"Alright, I can sset up ssomthing in the basement for you. Isss that alrightss."

"Yess." The two answered.

"Now then what about yousss." The six foot long cobra raised it self up as high as it could to get a better look at Harry.

"I have been imprisssoned for ssso long. You sssaved me and I owe you a debt. I would like to accompany you and help repay my deptss."

"You owe me nothing friend ssnake, but if you would like to come with me I will not stop youss."

"Thank youss." Harry picked up the two small snakes and let the larger snake drape itself around his shoulders. It was heavy. Harry carried the three down to the basement, it still had a ton of old things that he would have to go through one day. For now he just placed the two snakes in a shallow box in the corner near a window at ground level. The snakes assured him they could climb up and out so he left the window cracked and left it at that. Carrying the larger snake upstairs Harry sat down on the still covered couch and wondered what he would do next. There was still plenty of stuff in his bottomless trunk to unpack and he needed more furniture for this place. He needed food too, and that couldn't wait until tomorrow.

"Sso what iss your namesss?" The cobra slithered off Harry and curled up on the couch. Then it hissed something completely untranslatable.

"Ssory can you ssay that again. I completely missssed thatss." Again more hisses.

"I can't understand, or ssay that."

"Humansss." It gave a sound very close to a snort.

"Can I call you ssomething elsse thenss?"

"Go aheadss."

"Alright, can I call you… wait are you male or femalesss?"

"Like I ssaid before, idiot humansss. I am femalesss."

"Oh. Will Artimiss do? Sshe is the greek goddesss of the moon and of the huntsss."

"Yesss. That will do fine." Artimis laid her head down and was silent. Harry would have stayed there if not for the growling of his stomach. He stood and after making sure his disguise was in place, walked outside and down the street. He had seen a pizza parlor earlier.

When he returned Artimis had not moved from her position on the couch. After that he went up to his room and began to empty the bottomless trunk he had taken from his vault. The books went into a stack on the floor of the library/den, artifacts went into one of the unused bedrooms and clothing went into his closet. Harry set aside a few knives that seemed useful but left the rest to sort out when he had more time. Just because he mentally didn't need rest didn't mean his body wasn't exhausted. Harry assumed a lotus position on his bed and transformed. The feeling of cold and ice of the transformation was immediately replaced by an externally warm and happy feeling. Concentrating Harry lowered his aura until no one would even notice, the ice that had begun to form around the room stopped. Closing his eyes he traveled down the familiar pathway to the collective, letting his body fall into a meditative trace.

Ashe emerged into the conclave he was greeted by the sight of the slowly rotating galaxy permeated by swirling mists, the warm emotions he knew the mist stood for no longer affected him. He started forward just above the ecliptic, looking for Neri. You couldn't really smell in the collective, but smell was the closest sense he could use to describe how he could sense her. After all Neri had a unique scent. He found her at the edge of one of the larger 'clusters' of souls. Entering the memory he found himself in a humungous warehouse like room. Spread out on the ground before him lay a lounge. That was the best description he could really find, there were booths and chairs spread out. Some were in raised areas while others sunk into the ground. Then there were the people; they were all over everywhere, and everyone. The place must be a swinger club's version of heaven, or hell as some of the things they were doing didn't look very holy at all.

"Neri." As usual no one noticed his voice, he floated towards where he thought she might be and called out again.

"Over here." Neri was sitting by a couple, no seven people wasn't really a couple, involved in an orgy.

"Don't you wish you could join in?" She sighed and laid her head on Harry's arm, he had just sat beside her.

"Every guys dream, well except those two." He pointed to a pair of men, who were quite busy, with each other. Neri giggled.

"I wish… I wish that all of this power wasn't mine. I had to give up so much, had to be alone for so long."

"With great power comes great responsibility." Harry quoted.

"Do you ever wish that you were normal? That you could just live and die in peace?"

"I did once, then I remembered that every thing that has happened to me makes me who I am today. If I lived a different life I wouldn't exist."

"Poetic. So would you change anything?"

"Before I met you I would have, but now… now I don't think so." Neri waved her hand through the person closest to them, like an image in a pensive her hand passed right thought.

"You want to join them?" She purred and ran her hand across his arm. He kissed her, but then pushed her back.

"Not tonight, the pleasures of the flesh are better than that of the mind." She pouted.

"Don't knock it until you've tried it." Harry smiled, then laughed and kissed her again. They found a secluded spot to simply talk until Harry was forced to get up. Meanwhile across the country, in another location that was hidden from view.

"Severus, what do we know?" The twinkling eyes of the headmaster had gone dim; tonight was not a good night. He'd figured that if he was the one to find the evidence that would free Harry the boy would be indebted to him for life, but he had to go and escape. If that boy proved his innocence then he, and everyone else for that matter, would be in for a long trek attempting to regain his trust. The spy cleared his throat.

"The Dark Lord is displeased with the situation, I've been able to gather that he was planning to attack Azkaban sometime next week, but Potter's escape has thrown off his plans. He's now convinced that someone tipped off Potter and is looking for spies."

"Why would Potter run if he found out about a chance for freedom?" Mad-eye interrupted.

"From what I can gather, the Dark Lord didn't turn Potter." He paused and let the incredulous mutterings of the others pass. "The boy apparently went off the deep end on his own."

"Thank you Severus." Dumbledore silenced the rest of the order, who were muttering among themselves.

"It is imperative that we recapture Potter before the ministry finds him, or before he manages to contact the death eaters. Even if he has not yet, he may very well join them with no were else to go. We have already increased the guard on the burrow and Hogworts. I need everyone else to increase patrols of Diagon alley and Hogsmead. He will have to go there at some point. If that is all dismissed. I believe Molly made dinner, yes?" The Weasley matriarch nodded then went to get the food, never mind it was almost midnight. Mrs. Weasley cooked when she was nervous.

While everyone else went to help him or herself Dumbledore remained in his chair. He knew Harry had been innocent, yet he had helped to lock him away anyway. Fudge had an iron grip on that trial, it was better to go along and secretly look for the evidence exonerating the boy, rather than stand beside Harry and be destroyed publicly when Harry was found guilty. If he lost his position of power or his image, he'd never be able to regain it. But now that damn boy was lose, if Harry didn't stay soft and pliable there would be no way to defeat Tom. Harry stood no chance against his former protégé. No, the only way for Harry to win was to sacrifice himself in the processes; it was for the greater good. Dumbledore sighed and kept telling himself it was the only way.

When Harry awoke from his meditative trance the sun was starting to rise. He stretched and began to prepare for the day, water was currently not running in the house but a few charms put together a temporary fix so he could shower. Harry dressed in slacks and a simple collared shirt. His plans for today included filling his new home with furniture and creating an identity in the wizardiing world. It wouldn't do to just use a random name each time someone asked. After all people would eventually notice that he showed up the same time that Harry Potter escaped. Harry decided to start with the living room. He had already removed the sheets that had been tossed over the sofa. Said sofa was a nasty green thing that he'd certainly have to do something about, even if it was comfortable.

To start he levitated the couch and laid the sheet out over the hardwood floor. A few transfigurations latter he had a plush, if not blandly uniform, carpet. Harry enlarged the couch and positioned it under the window, then changed the color to a beige. He decided to buy or transfigure most of the things he did, conjured stuff just wasn't the same. Seeing as how the living room was now empty, save the now awake and disgruntled Artimis, Harry began to organize his library. Harry arranged the books alphabetical by author and in categories. The books from the Potter library were primarily journals, autobiographies, and a few books on wards. The books kept in the Black family vaults were also primarily composed of journals and other personal works of the Blacks. There was also a small section that apparently had been sealed in a safe; the charms that sealed it had collapsed long ago.

There were several scrolls in here that looked beyond ancient, the fact that Harry didn't already know the material spoke of volumes. He was really surprised they still were around, they looked to be well preserved notes on necromancy and from what he'd read Sirius' mother was far to interested in necromancy for her own safety. She'd died in an accident involving the forbidden branch of magic. Unfortunately most of her notes were lost. Harry would have loved to see them, he only had a rudimentary knowledge of the subject and he was certain that Voldemort had used something in necromancy or soul magic to become the way he was. Harry could summon an inferi but that wasn't very useful. He hadn't actually tried either, but he knew how. The only type of magic that Neri had not let him learn was soul magic, it was something that dementors had a natural talent in, but she said he wasn't ready yet.

After putting together his library Harry moved to the collection of daggers and swords that had adorned the Black and Potter family vaults. The Potter vault was full of ornamental swords. From what he could tell every Potter male had a custom made long sword. The exception had been his father, while each of these swords were sharp and could be wielded in combat, the amount of decorations and the lack of any useful combat enchantments meant they were for adorning walls rather than killing. Harry decided that he would eventually make a sword but his would be as useful in combat as he could make it. The weapons of the Black vault were almost a polar opposite, the weapons section had looked like the hoard of some sort of ancient dragon, the spoils of battle and what not.

Each of the long and short swords were obviously made for combat, while well made few had the gaudy decorations on the pommel or the etching done on the blade. Most were enchanted and several were obviously designed for purposes much darker than simple combat. The Black collection also had a small share of daggers, both for throwing and stabbing. Harry converted one of the bedrooms into a museum to hold the legacies of the two old families that he was now the sole heir. Before he left to shop for furniture Harry took a pair of black knives that seamed to be etched in a way that they glowed in the dark. A quick scan showed several harmful enchantments, though none for the wielder. He disillusioned them and tucked them into his belt before exiting and traveling on foot to the tubes.

His first stop was a furniture store. He bought sofas, recliners and tables that fit with the existing décor of the living room and den/library. Rather than finding chairs to match the tables in the dinning rooms he instead just bought the cheapest wooden chairs and pledged to transfigure them to match. A few cunfudus, and shrinking charms latter the sales manager remembered Harry driving off in a truck with his new merchandise, all the while it was safely shrunk and tucked away in his trunk. He wanted to stop by an electronics shop but had no idea how the ambient magic of his new home would react with the equipment. Not to mention that the place had been wired sometime in the twenties, and not changed since. Instead Harry turned into a ratty alley and approached the hooker that was calling to him.

A few hours and several morally questionable legilimency and memory spells latter Harry returned to his new place with an excellent forged ID. Harry Potter, no Dimitri Darracun, had recently emigrated from Eastern Europe. He would need a magical paper trail to go along with his muggle ID, so he began to prepare a portkey for Prague. International portkeys were watched and the processes, while no harder than a normal portkey, required much more power. First he cast several nullifier wards to prevent the portkey from being traced or noticed. Next he set up an identical set of delayed response wards that would set up upon arrival, hiding his signature from the authorities on the other side. Finally he concentrated on an alley in the city he'd chosen. He'd gotten the location from one of the many memories he'd seen. Harry held up the object he'd chosen, a spoon. He never had understood the idea of using a piece of trash for a very useful object.

"Portus!" The spoon glowed blue for a second before returning to normal. He got a good grip and activated it with a mental command. With a whooshing noise Harry disappeared from his living room, startling the only other occupant, who was lazing in the sun watching the wizard she'd 'taken in.'

Prague was a pretty city in Harry's opinion. The street he was walking on had a river on one side and several outdoor cafes on the other. Harry ignored this and walked into a particular café that was currently empty. After greeting one of the waiters Harry walked down into the cellar and taped a keg with his wand. The keg widened until it was the size of a sewer pipe that a person could walk through.

Daliborka road was situated underground. There was a tower that the muggles visited that was above the north end of the massive system, and an old orthodox church on the south end. All in all the entire place was about five and a half miles long and almost a quarter a mile wide at the top. When Harry walked in on the bottom level it was like walking into an underground canyon. Each of the seven levels above was terraced so there was room for people to walk Harry took a second to gawk at the sights before continuing on. The cobblestone street along the bottom level looked like diagon alley, with shops and cafes along the sides, well accept that in diagon alley the side alleys led to different streets, here they led to stairwells to the next level.

Harry walked to one of the circular stones that were in alcoves cut into the wall, once he was on the stone rose ten feet into the at and let him off on the second level. Harry continued to travel up the elevator platforms until he reached the forth level where he flagged a flying carpet. He had to wait for a couple to off load a large object that looked like an organ before he could climb aboard. While carpets were considered muggle artifacts and thereby illegal in England, here there was no such rule. The carpet was five feet long by three feet wide, on the outside. Once you were inside the privacy charms that blurred your image to anyone outside and the carpet was more like ten feet square. Harry took a seat on one of the many scattered cushions and gave the driver his destination, Baracnicka Hanavsky. The driver looked at him oddly for a few seconds but after Harry's smile grew much frostier than it had been the driver took off, here the various carpets obeyed traffic laws rather than squeeze around everything that moved, like the knight bus. It made for a relaxing ride. Harry took the time to look over the sides at the people bustling around, they passed the shops section and interred the heavy commercial and industrial section.

Fewer people were out; tourists traveled by carpet to pass this section of the underground city. The passed by the nondescript doors of the potions factories and moved into the residential section, middle to lower class people lived here. After all not all wizards were rich and could afford mansions out in the countryside. Then the apartments gave way to condos and compounds, shops could be seen again. This was the ritzy section of the city, many of the things that were sold at the other entrance couldn't be found here. This wasn't where the normal people shopped but where the wealthy and famous did. On this side of the city you could find gold platted dueling wands and oddities that were ridiculously overpriced, but brought anyway. On the seventh level in this area Harry got off, paid the driver, well pilot and walked up to one of the most prestigious restaurants in the city. The Baracnicka Hanavsky was the seat of power of one of the most influential crime families in all of Eastern Europe. Their magic naturally made them so almost unstoppable in muggle circles, and they were one of the major players inside the magical world as well. The restaurant itself wasn't much to visit, if you wanted to eat there the food was good but you needed reservations almost a month in advance. People, like Harry came here because this was where you came to contract the services of the Baracnickas.

The hostess sneered at the normal clothing that Harry wore but quickly warmed up when he mentioned the code word required to speak with the proprietors of 'special services.' Harry was escorted upstairs to a private room. He sat down on the plush sofa and waited for others to come. The room itself was tastefully decorated; it had another identical couch on the opposite side from him with a reclining chair positioned in between both couches but to his left out of the way. A large coffee table sat in the middle of the room between the seats. A few paintings were positioned on the walls; each was flanked with a pair of small tables with vases resting on them. Tactfully none of the painting appeared to be animated and watching him. Harry also noticed that with the way the couches were positioned there was plenty of room for people to walk behind them. His guess proved correct when five men walked into the room, four where big burly, obviously bodyguard, types. The fifth was a man in his early thirties Harry guessed. By the finely tailored suit he was wearing with a matching robe instead of a jacket, Harry figured he was a mid level boss. Getting back to the story the boss took a seat across from Harry with two of his men sitting next to him, the other two took positions behind the couch Harry sat at on either side of him.

"Good day Mr. Darracun," The man began in slightly accented Czech, he must have gotten his name from the hostess. "I would love to speak with you regarding any business you have but first I'm going to have to ask you to remove the weapons you carry." The bodyguards next to him reached inside their robes, to keep their hands on their wands no doubt.

"Of course Mr…" Harry replied in the same language hoping to pry a name out of his host.

"Weapons first." Harry held up his hands in a non-threatening manner, after all if he transformed he doubted any of them would be able to stand against him.

"Of course." He held his host's gaze until the man nodded, then Harry flicked his wrists drawing each of his wands before the other man realized what had happened. Harry reversed them and placed them on the table before the bodyguards were able to draw their weapons. He did notice that the man across from him had his wand trained on him only a micro second slower than Harry had pulled his own. Harry then reached into his robes and deposited the two daggers he was carrying next to the wands. As Harry sat back the guards visibly relaxed, but the leader didn't move until a scanning device had moved over Harry and come back clean, then with a flick of his wrist his wand disappeared.

"Odd that someone like yourself would need so many guards, especially when you're a superior draw to them." The man across from him smiled.

"Speed isn't everything Mr. Darracun. Besides the façade of power can be much more useful than power itself. Forgive my poor manners; after all we've never met yet you know a codeword rarely given out. We had to be sure you were not an Auror. I'm Pietro Maximoff." Pieto offered his hand and Harry took it.

"I could be still."

"True but you have no weapons or recording devices. If you are an Auror you are a crooked one or a soon to be dead one, either way doesn't concern me. So Mr. Darracun what exactly do you need my help with?"

"Well as you might have guessed Dimitri Darracun doesn't exist. I need a paper trail saying he does. I already have a muggle ID, but I need one from the magical world that will stand up to inspection should anyone run a background check." Pietro starred at the painting above Harry for a few seconds, his face a mask of concentration.

"You do realize that magical documents are linked to your blood and your magical signature do you not?" Harry nodded.

"So you understand that if anyone actually checked your records they would show the true you, they cannot be faked." Harry hadn't realized that but remained silent, he sensed a but.

"But if someone were to maintain the spells on the forgeries after they were created they could be used to fool an official inquiry. Now that would require an inside presence to watch over your new files. That will cost you."

"As long as my true identity is not revealed money is no object." Seeing the greedy glint in Pietro's eyes Harry added. "That doesn't mean I'm willing to pay arm and a leg, perhaps a foot." Pietro didn't laugh but the corners of his mouth twitched into a smile before he controlled himself, the man would make a Slytherin proud. Pietro turned to the man on his left and spoke to him rapidly in a language that Harry didn't know, it sounded like a dialect that Romanian gypsies used but he couldn't make out the syntax. The man nodded then left the room.

"I believe that we can properly give you a new identity. But before all of that payment, 20,000 galleons upfront." Harry resisted the urge to flinch at the ridiculous figure.

"I'll pay 2,000 upfront and another five at completion."

"Come now do you seek to rob me? I couldn't go bellow 18,000."

"Seeing as how this service is worth only five thousand I think I'm being generous."

"This is Prague and in Prague you will pay 18,000 or you will not get what you want. But seeing as how I think you are a special customer I'll cut the fee to five up front and ten upon completion." A subtle legilimency scan showed Harry that while he was paying an almost five hundred percent increase this was as low as the man would go. He pulled back before the man noticed that he was being scanned. Harry hadn't probed but could sense powerful, if simple occulmency barriers. Harry put a sour face on.

"Deal." Smirking Pietro activated something he was holding and the fourth man returned carrying a small box. Opening the box the bodyguard who had bought it in placed Harry's weapons inside it and deposited a vial of some potion on the table. Harry raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"First you hand over the first payment, then I'll explain what is next." The other man closed but didn't seal the box that now contained Harry's weapons and placed it on the far side of the table. Harry removed his wallet and pulled out one of his Gringotts bank drafts, they had been an unasked but welcome surprise. Harry had wanted to pay cash but that wouldn't be, they had asked for more than could fit in his enchanted moneybag at once. Hell to pay this he'd have to empty it several times. Pietro expression darkened at the sight of the bank drafts but he made no move to stop Harry from filling it out. After the bank draft had passed hands Pietro gestured to the vial.

"Care to enlighten me to what that does?"

"This…" He picked up the crystal vial and shook it a little, the watery lime green liquid sloshed around as best it could. "…Is a memory marker. Rather than perform a breakable obliviate at the end of our transaction you instead drink this. The person you will work with will take the same potion, when we are done both of you drink the second phase potion and you leave here having a new identity but not knowing enough to find our man. Likewise your secrets are safe with our guy." Harry nodded slowly, he didn't like it but as he was promising more funds for the completion of this project, now was not the time to poison him, right? He picked up the vial and downed it in one gulp, the potion was smooth but still tasted like every other potion he'd ever had. Horrible, still Harry held back his gag reflex. The stuff was probably expensive. Pietro watched him for a moment more and then nodded to one of his guards. The large burley man stood and gestured to Harry to follow him. After seeing Pietro waving at him to go Harry gave one last look at the box holding his weapons and then followed the other man out and down the hall. He passed two security checkpoints as he walked deeper into the complex. At each one the guard showed his ID and Harry was subject to a weapons scan, the last one included a frisking. Finally, after making more turns than Harry was even counting, the guard stopped before a non-descript door and pulled it open.

"This way Sir. I will be outside when you are done." Harry nodded to the guard and walked inside.

A/N:> Extra bonus points for anyone who points out where my guy'sname comes from. :A/N>