Harry Potter: Rise of an Empire.

Disclaimer: If you recognize anything in this story, I don't own it.

"Text" - Speech.

'Text' - Thoughts.

Chapter 3: Leaving Home

Appearing back in my cupboard at number four Privet Drive, I drop Salem on my bed, cancel the illusion around my form and cause an orb of light to appear and illuminate the small area. Salem takes a single look around the small cupboard and meows at me, annoyance clear in his tone.

"I know it's small and cramped but don't worry, I'll fix that in a second." I reply, flopping down on the bed. "I Just need a second to rest."

He meows again and lays down next to me, curling into a ball at my side and closing his eyes, i guess he's tired too. For my part, I'm feeling completely drained after the mornings events and its only noon, its not a physical weariness but more of a mental one, I had to deal with a lot of new information today.

I spend a few minutes laying in bed, slowly sorting today's memories and filing them away for later, I can feel my mind calming as the memories are filed away. A few minutes later, I'm feeling rested enough to work, I've used quite a bit of magic today but I still have power to burn.

"Alright Salem," I say, causing the cat to look up at me lazily. "We're going to be living here for the next month or so, I don't see why we shouldn't be comfortable, do you?"

Salem meows in reply and puts his head back down, his eyes open and watching me. I grin at my strange pet before focusing on the cupboard around us.

At first nothing happens, I'm simply standing in the small room with my eyes narrowed and my brow furrowed. Then, with a loud creaking sound, the walls begin to move, each of the four walls and the roof above sliding away from me. I'd gotten this idea from my new bottomless bags, if they could be expanded indefinitely, then why can't other things?

After a few seconds of this, the walls of my room stop moving, leaving me in a space roughly the size of Dudley's bedroom. I don't need much space since I only plan to stay here for another month, just enough space that I'm not cramped together with my pet and our belongings.

I flop down onto the bed once more, breathing heavily, that last trick pretty much drained the last of my power away.

Even with my metal ball to amplify the magic, I just bent the laws of time and space to my bidding, it's not a simple task. From what I learned while skimming through the books earlier, something like this requires the area to be soaked in special potions and specific runes to be carved into the wood to achieve the required effect, I did it with pure magical power and nothing else.

It's no wonder that I soon find myself slipping away into the darkness.

I wake up two hours later, feeling much better but not completely refreshed. At my best guess, I would say that only twenty percent of my power has recovered, at this rate it'll take a few more hours for the rest to come back.

I sigh and sit up, groaning at the soreness in my limbs.

'Note to self, never use all of my magic in one go.' I groan, rubbing my sore arms and legs. A few minutes later and I'm good to go, I decide to finish the work I started earlier, namely learning as much as I can about the magical world.

With a flick of my fingers I attach a ball of light to the roof, the first one having gone out when I passed out, and empty my Mokeskin pouch.

"Right, I have one month to read most of these and learn what I can." I muse with a frown, glancing at the ten books I purchased. "Maybe I'll visit the library again, some of those fantasy books and comics had some good ideas."

Salem makes a sound, something resembling a snort and a squeak, before opening his eyes, guess I woke him up. He looks mighty murderous as he glares at me in annoyance, I simply grin and shake my head, he's quite strange for a cat.

Ignoring the angry cat on my bed, I pick up one of the books randomly and conjure myself a table and desk.

I have a lot of work to do.

The following month is a hectic blur for me, as I try to learn as much as I can before my self-imposed deadline.

Since it's the start of summer break, I'm able to spend a large portion of my time reading and learning, not that I have much else to do. The Dursleys, as per our agreement, leave me alone, even going so far as to pretend I don't exist when I come out for meals. Since no one else really cares enough to check up on me, well other than Ms. Figg who would come around from time to time asking about me, I'm left largely undisturbed.

Much to my unexpected surprise, the first book I decided to read is the one on the mind arts and boy am I glad for it. Within the Occlumency section of the book, I found a great deal of information on creating offensive barriers within my mind, something not mentioned in the meditation books, mainly because it requires actual magic to power the barriers. Either way, anyone that attempts to penetrate my defenses is in for a big surprise. The best part however, is that there's a near impossible technique mentioned in the book, one that apparently requires years of study in the subject to use.

I had it down within an hour.

Basically, the technique allows me to rest my body, as well as a large portion of my mind while the rest of my mind is allowed to freely roam my mindscape. This allows me to skim through books during the day, glancing at the pages without really reading them, and then while I sleep to regain my energy, I can sort the memories in my mind and absorb the information provided.

It was with this technique that I was able to read and memorize all ten of my magic books in just two days, the hardest part was putting what I learned into practice. While at the Dursleys, I couldn't use much magic for fear of damaging the house or drawing undue attention to my actions, this didn't stop me from using the smaller, more subtle techniques, like Legilimency.

My hobby for the summer became reading the minds of people I passed on the street, I had to be fast since the technique only worked for as long as I held eye contact, which isn't very long as people tend to avoid holding eye contact with strangers. Luckily, with Legilimency, one second in the real world is roughly one minute in the mind, as long as the target doesn't know you're there and tries to fight back.

Slowly but surely my skills at mind reading improved, as did my skill with my magic.

Since I finished my books within the first two days of the month, I decided to spend the rest of my time reading fantasy books in the library, taking any ideas I can from them in the hopes of recreating the magic involved. That however, only lasted a single week, the library only had a certain number of books that I was interested in.

With just around three weeks left of my time, I decided to focus entirely on my magical abilities, I have hundreds of ideas and now it's time to make them reality.

From then on my schedule consisted of waking up early, eating breakfast and then teleporting to an empty field to the south. The rest of the day was then spend practicing with my magic, creating any effect I can think of and recreating the various magics I'd read about. I dove deep into my practice, working on all branches of magic regardless of their classification in the magical society, my favorite branch however is the art of warding.

Wards are so useful to my future plans, there are literally hundreds of different types of wards, each able to help me hide or remain undetected from any who would pursue me. Some were like my blood wards, mainly used for protection and defense, whereas others could be set to detect certain things like negative intent or even lies spoken within the wards. A few were for more offensive uses, aggressively attacking anyone who crossed them and could be set to either incapacitate or kill. The best ones however, like the Fidelius and the Unplotter, would allow me to go into hiding whenever I please with no worry of discovery.

Having learned to erect a few wards of my own, some of which were geared towards the prevention of magic detection, I was able to freely practice the dark arts without worrying about the ministry or Dumbledore coming to investigate. While I can easily simulate any effect with raw magic alone, I actually found that my magic is more powerful and efficient when I use the formulated spells in my books. I also found that the spells that were classified as 'Dark' are far more powerful then their lighter counterparts.

It was quite the learning experience.

The dark arts, unlike the other branches of magic, are plain addictive. While using magic in general filled my body with a warm, pleasurable feeling, the dark arts practically set me aflame in ecstasy. The more I used them, the more I wanted to use them, I wanted nothing more than to cast the next hex or the next curse just to feel that dark power coursing through me. Eventually I found myself practicing only dark spells on a daily basis, ignoring the other aspects of magic.

Of course I couldn't let this continue on, I'd sworn weeks ago that I would control my power and not let it control me, no matter how good it feels. I couldn't let this continue, the dark arts were slowly corrupting me, drawing me away from other forms of magic and making me weaker in the long run. In fact, I could actually feel the darkness tainting me, spreading through my magic and turning it more and more like the black goo I'd expelled from my scar, that was the last straw for me.

It took me a few days researching in Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley but I was soon able to find a minor cleansing ritual, an extremely old one that wasn't even mentioned in any of the newer books, that would rid me of my addiction and purify my magic. According to the ancient and decrepit tome, the ritual would clear away the darkness that was tainting my core and return my magic to its original, clean state.

Too bad it didn't mention anything about the pain.

It was almost as bad as removing the black ooze from my scar, the darkness had latched on tightly and it didn't want to let go. After several hours of intense pain, pain that was required for the ritual so I couldn't suppress it, the darkness finally let go, releasing my magic and allowing the rest of the ritual to purify it. I woke up hours later, feeling completely refreshed but still sore with phantom pains, the rituals way of reminding me of the consequences of using the dark arts.

At least now I know why the dark arts are illegal, if they corrupted this easily and quickly its no wonder the ministry would out law them regardless of their power. Also, considering the hassle I had to go through just to find the cleansing ritual, I can reasonably say its not a widespread ritual, meaning that those that dabbled in the dark arts remained permanently corrupted.

Too bad I just can't give up on the dark arts, the spells are extremely powerful and seeing as I need that power, I'm not going to let a little thing like mind numbing pain get in the way. I would find a way around this, just like always.

It may have taken a couple days from my schedule but in the end I found an answer to my problem, my blood wards.

The blood wards are already programmed to protect me from most outside threats, all I have to do is add dark arts addiction as a threat and tie some power from the purifying ritual to my wards. It was a brilliant idea and while it took me a few tries, I'm well experienced at tying strings of magic together so I was able to achieve the effect I want.

The results weren't exactly what I was expecting.

My blood wards are now programmed to purify my magic, they do this by drawing small amounts of power during the day and releasing it at night, removing all dark magic taint while I sleep. Unfortunately, I had to reverse my wards in order to get the required effect, this means that they no longer protect me from outside danger.

While I could have used other wards for the purifying spell, the effect only seems to work correctly when its tied to blood and as I'm all out of blood relatives willing to sacrifice themselves for my protection, I cant erect a second set of blood wards.

It almost makes me wonder who Dumbledore tricked into sacrificing their self in order to set up the first set of wards, I'll have to remember to ask him that should we ever meet.

On the matter of my wards, I was a little upset over losing my protection but the benefits are well worth it. Not only can I use the dark arts with no consequences but I'm also getting the best sleep I've ever had in years, waking up feeling clean and refreshed every morning can do quite a bit for your disposition. Besides, it took almost no time for me to design a series of wards to protect me from both physical and magical attacks, they're not as powerful as my blood wards but they'll suffice.

Unfortunately, the business with the dark arts was more distracting than I would of liked, and my little addiction and cure used up almost all of my remaining time. I soon found myself with just three days left until my birthday and with such little time left, I was forced to speed up all my preparations and studies.

A majority of my time is spent in Diagon Alley, withdrawing gold from Gringotts and getting most of it converted into various muggle currencies. The Goblins could easily tell that I'm planning a long trip but none said anything about it, they can be quite discreet when it calls for it, especially when it come to one of their biggest patrons.

While I now have access to my family vault, I left it in the capable hands of the Goblin Nation, after all my account manager has done a good job managing my accounts these past nine years. Besides, the large sum of money in my trust vault is more than enough for my immediate plans. As for the artifacts in the family vault, only a few old tomes were worth taking, all of which are safely tucked away in my mokesin pouch.

Other than those items, the rest of the vault is full of old furniture and deactivated portraits, none of which are of any real interest to me. The only other items of note were listed as 'The Sword of Gryffindor' and 'Cloak of Peverell' but despite searching the entire vault, I found neither of them and not even the Goblins could explain why they would be missing.

They did promise to look into it though but there is little else they can do.

As the week comes to a close, I find that all of my preparations are complete and I'm ready to leave Privet drive, the Dursleys and England itself.

This is going to be my tenth birthday, in just one year I'll turn eleven and receive my Hogwarts letter, which I plan to decline of course. I honestly see no need to attend Hogwarts for seven years, the school and the wizarding community have little to nothing to teach me.

If that store clerk at the book store, and the books I've read, are to be believed then I've managed to learn more magic than most Hogwarts graduates in just one month. Sure, I have a greater understanding and control of my magic than most and I may have cheated by learning the mind arts first but that doesn't change the fact that I already know everything they could possibly teach me.

While I still need to finish recreating several spells and my dueling technique requires refinement, I can easily do all that by myself, I don't need Hogwarts or the wizarding world. I'm superior to them, I'm superior to the muggles, I don't need any of them.

With my mind settled and my decision made, I pick up Salem and my pouch, memory charm my relatives and vanish in a flicker.

I'm ready to see the world.

-Hogwarts. General P.O.V-

"Albus!" a voice shouted, resounding through the entire room "Albus, come quick!"

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sighed as he heard the voice shouting from his fireplace, he recognized that voice well. Standing from his ornate desk, Dumbledore took a glance over the many silver instruments that decorated his large office, one in particular drawing his attention, one tied to a special little boy.

'Hmm, the wards are still in place and Harry seems to be healthy.' Dumbledore mused, making his way to the fireplace. 'I wonder what has Arabella so flustered.'

Kneeling before the fireplace, Dumbledore smiled at the form of Arabella Figg, his eyes twinkling incessantly.

"Arabella my dear, what troubles you?" he asked, eyes twinkling in curiosity.

Arabella Figg definitely looked troubled, her eyes were searching the room nervously and when she answered, it was with a shaken tone.

"Its Harry, Headmaster." She answered, looking even more troubled. "He's gone missing."

Dumbledore's twinkle vanished as the old man frowned, he took another glance at his silver instruments. They were still reporting the same thing, Harry was safe and within the wards.

"I don't understand my dear, what do you mean he's gone?" He asked, turning back to the woman with his twinkle back in place, she must have been mistaken. "The wards are still in place."

This however, seemed to worry Ms. Figg rather than calm her.

"I don't know how Dumbledore, he just gone." She said nervously. "I went by to check on him like I usually do-"

"Check on him?" Dumbledore asked frowning, twinkle once more absent. "Why would you need to go over to the house?"

His orders were for her to stay at a distance, watching when the boy was out of the house or when she was required to babysit him. There was no reason for her to approach him, it could draw attention from the wrong sort.

"I know what you said sir but once summer started he just stopped leaving the house. Usually he's outside doing chores and yard work so I grew worried." Ms. Figg supplied, Dumbledore made a motion for her to continue. "When I asked Petunia, she said the boy had done bad in his classes and had taken to studying in his room. After a while, I began seeing him going to the library and back so I left him be but I still stopped by once a week to ask about him just in case."

Dumbledore frowned but remained silent.

Ms. Figg looked quite hysterical now.

"I stopped in to ask about him again today sir, it being his birthday and all, but Petunia... she didn't even know who he was!" Arabella explained, eyes wide and teary. "She didn't even remember him living there for the last eight years, I think she was obliviated sir."

Dumbledores' eyes widened fearfully, that definitely sounded like obliviation.

"Step aside Arabella, I'm coming through." he ordered, face stern and focused.

"Hello Petunia." Dumbledore greeted amiably as the door opened. "How are you on this fine day?"

Petunia glared back hatefully, wanting nothing more than to slam the door in his face.

"You! What do you want here freak?" She asked in a hushed, yet venomous tone.

Dumbledore simply smiled peacefully.

"I'm here to inquire about young Harry." He replied, frowning when he saw confusion clear on her face. "Your nephew, the boy I left here roughly eight years ago."

Petunia frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about, I haven't seen the little freak since Lily brought him to see us."

Dumbledore sighed, this was not good at all, he would need to take an alternative method.

Gazing into Petunia's eyes, Dumbledore dove into her mind in search for information, he was not pleased with his discovery. There were no signs of obliviation within Petunia's mind, no memory blocks or fake memories he could detect, there was a faint hint of magic in her mind but not enough to latch onto. Whoever did this was a professional, not even ministry obliviators are this good.

'Who could have done this? The obliviation is very subtle, whoever did this is very experienced with the ways of the mind.' He mused as he walked away, he ignored the muttered 'Freak' as Petunia closed the door behind him.

"This is troublesome, very troublesome." Dumbledore muttered, turning back around to face the house.

He swished his wand, once, twice, three times and... nothing happened.

"The wards!" Dumbledore yelped in shock. 'Someone's moved the wards, how is that even possible? How was I not alerted? It would take a great deal of time to accomplish such a task, even for a master curse-breaker.'

Dumbledore retreated back to his office, troubled and somewhat confused. He had no idea how this could have happened, no idea how to find the missing boy-who-lived. According to his instruments, Harry was still within the blood wards and as long as he was inside those wards, he couldn't be scry or track the boy.

The old man could only console himself with the fact that the Potter heir was still in perfect health, for now at least. Hopefully the prophecy would protect him, keeping him alive until he faced Voldemort in battle. He could only hope, hope that the boy was safe and sound.

This didn't prevent him from enchanting his instruments to alert him if the boy ever left the protection of the wards however, he wasn't going to leave things to chance.

'Stay safe Harry Potter.' Dumbledore prayed. 'I will find you, I promise.'

-Harry's P.O.V-

One little tidbit I'd found during my month of training, is that I can teleport to places I've seen secondhand, even if it's just through a photograph or Legilimency. As long as I have a general image of the place, I can teleport there with ease.

That's why a week after I left England, I find myself standing in waist-high grass deep in the plains of eastern Africa.

While the last month had been spent training and preparing, I'd also been planning on where I would go when I left home. Those plans were refined this past week, most of which was spent lazing about and resting in a hotel room, purchased by a twenty year old illusion of myself.

My plans mostly involve two things, gaining more knowledge and increasing my personal power. I want to learn more, to grow stronger and more powerful. So, I decided that as long as a place contains something I want to learn, I'll go there. While this isn't a great basis to make my future plans on, I'd managed to compile quite the list and there are many places I'm itching to visit.

My first stop is the wilds of Africa, there's something I need here. There's a magical creature here, native only to Africa, known as a Nundu. The Nundu is a large, leopard-like feline that roams the wilds of magical Africa, hunting prey and laying waste to the odd village. It's also a class five restricted creature according to the various ministries of the world.

What sets the Nundu apart from regular felines, other than its enormous size, is the fact that its pelt is highly resistant to magical spells and that it can exhale a deadly neurotoxin. A single adult Nundu is capable of slaughtering whole villages of people with its breath alone, entire cities once their teeth and claws are added to the mix. Coupled with their magic resistant pelt, incredible speed and large size, they are deadly predators, even to other magical creatures.

In fact, it's said that it takes roughly a hundred trained wizards to take down a single Nundu, I'm going to attempt it alone.

I'd found a few rituals that require parts of a Nundu as main ingredients but because of the dangers presented by these creatures, the few ingredients I seek are quite hard to find and are extremely expensive. If I want them, I'll have to kill the creature myself, hooray.

The fact that the parts I don't need are quite expensive is a bonus as well. If I succeed in killing the creature, I could get started on rebuilding my family's fortune. Not that I really need more money, I'm just thinking of the future generations, honest.

Anyway, here I am, with no allies other than my pet cat, stalking through the high grass in search of the deadliest predator known to wizardkind.

Why did I ever think this was a great idea?

Despite its huge size, it still takes me close to three hours to stumble across my quarry.

The pattern of its pelt helps it blend in so well that I'd thought it was a small hill until I was literally standing next to it and watching its body rise and fall with each breath.

I was twice lucky in this instant. The first being that the creature is asleep and the second being that I'd thought ahead to silence a small area around myself. I'm not looking to test my magical might against this creature, with its resistance, that would be plain suicide.

I thank the gods that I remembered to place the silencing charm, because there's no doubt that if I'd made just a single sound, the beast would have been feasting on my corpse already. Taking a few steps back, I gaze over the creature before me, I couldn't help but waste precious time staring at it in awe.

The Nundu is roughly the size of a small house, towering above me by several feet, no wonder I'd thought it was a hill of all things. Even its head is bigger than my entire body, and I felt myself gulp as I take in its razor sharp claws and rows upon rows of teeth.

How terrifying.

Now, how am I going to kill this thing again?

'Right, the plan. Stick to the plan.' I thought, panic filling my mind. I can feel Salem shivering in terror, wanting nothing more than to be far, far away from this monster.

I take two breaths to calm myself and squash my instinct to run, before petting the cat to calm him. When that doesn't work, I decided it'll probably be best if Salem isn't here for this, he's already terrified and I don't want to think about what'll happen if my plan fails.

With a flicker, I reappear in my current hotel room, high in the Swiss Alps, and set my pet on the bed.

"You just wait here boy, I'll be back for you later." I explain to the now calmed feline. "There's food in your bowls so don't worry if it takes me a while."

He meows back, his tone slightly shaken, and I flicker back to the wild.

I reappear before the Nundu once more and I thank my lucky stars that it's still asleep. A sleeping Nundu I can handle, had it been awake I would be laying beside Salem at this instant, trying to forget all about Africa and my crazy ideas.

"Right, here's hoping this works." I mutter, but of course no sound escapes the little bubble of silence around me.

I raise my hands in the air and focus my will, drawing power through the ball around my neck and amplifying the meager amount of power I require for my plans. My magic surges through me, replacing doubts with its pleasurable warmth, and I bend it to my wishes.

High above the Nundu, an enormous block of metal warps into existence, roughly six feet long and sharpened to a point.

The thing about magic resistant creatures is that they're just that, resistant to magic. Most witches and wizards, having spent most of their lives depending on magic, never think to try physical attacks against these creatures. The ones that do think of it, usually lack the power or skill to cast the necessary spells and conjuring such a block of metal would drain the average wizard.

That's why it takes so many wizards to take these things down, they could easily shrug off all sorts of spells and even the killing curse did no more than slow a Nundu down, so it takes an entire team conjuring smaller implements to cut them down.

My idea is to strike hard and fast with large and powerful physical attacks, either transfigured or conjured weapons.

I examined the giant spike floating midair and frown.

'This won't be enough, I need more.' I realize, comparing the spike to the beast.

I wave my hand and the spike vanishes, a moment later, a new one appears in its place. This spike is twice the size of the original, and runes for sharpness, toughness and other such effects are etched onto the blade, causing it to glow with hidden power.

'That's better, but I'm still missing something.' I muse, smirking at the giant spike.

With another wave of my hand, several dozen spikes appear midair, entirely made of steel and with runes blazing on their surface. The wonders of transfiguration never cease to amaze me, these spikes, though numerous in number and just as powerful as real metal-forged spikes are considered simple conjurations since they only last for a few minutes or one solid hit. They are made even weaker because of the runes on their surface, each sigil drawing power from the magic within the conjured item and weakening the conjuration as time passes.

They wont last longer than five minutes but that's more than enough time for what I have planned.

'There we go, that should be enough.' I decide, nodding in satisfaction. 'Let's give this a try.'

With a single thought the pikes fell, speeding through the air so fast they're mere blurs.

I hold my breath as they strike the Nundu's thick pelt-

"ROAR!"

-and pierce right through.

The beast wakes, its eyes burning with rage as it releases a roar of pain. It finds me far to quickly for my liking, its eyes locking onto my much smaller form, I should have turned invisible as well. The Nundu growls, glaring at me with narrowed eyes as purple gas begins leaking from its maw, it's injured but very much alive.

Even with its wounds, and dozens of spikes still stuck in its form, the Nundu is quick to leap to its feet. It glares down at me, hatred clear on its face, as more and more gas escapes its mouth.

I find myself struck dumb, staring straight into the golden eyes of the beast as true terror fills my form, there's nothing but death in those eyes, my death. My magic surges through me, reacting to my fear, and crashes against the Nundu. While it has no effect on the beast bearing down on me, it does draw me out of my stupor.

Just as I regain my senses, the Nundu lunges at me, moving far faster that I can follow, and its teeth snap closed around me. I watch all this from a tree behind the beast, having teleported the second I noticed it move. It's fast, extremely fast, there's no way I can keep up with that, my first teleportation was a fluke and I barely made it out in time.

The Nundu pulls back, finding its prey gone and begins sniffing the air.

Crap.

Having moved behind it, I'm now upwind of it and it easily catches my scent, that's bad. It has my scent now, I won't be able to hide from it, maybe I should call it quits and leave.

'That does sound good.' I muse, eyes narrowed as the terrifying beast. 'But there's no way I'm running away, I refuse to be a weakling and a coward.'

As the beast turns towards my tree, I jump down and flicker back to my original spot, a plan forming in my mind.

As I reappear in my spot, I lash out with my magic, sending bolts of pure power crashing into the creatures flank. There's no effect, other than a slight irritation. I do however, manage to draw its attention, perfect.

By now its lost a quite a bit of blood and the spikes in its body make movement difficult, yet it still manages to turn faster than I can follow and lunges at me-

SHINKT!

-only to have its head go flying as a massive slab of sharpened metal comes down, beheading it in an instant. The body remains standing for a few seconds before it topples over, blood pouring from the stump where its head used to be.

I release a breath in relief and collapse to my knees, that had been terrifying. Deep inside I'm rejoicing, I just killed a bloody Nundu for gods sake, alone! Yet none of that pierces through the bubble of relief within me, for a second there I had seen my death and I was terrified.

What if I'd died, eaten and devoured by a Nundu, with no one the wiser?

No one knew I was here, no one would ever suspect it.

"No! I don't have time for this." I rage, suppressing my despair and basking in the radiance of victory. "I won, I killed a freaking Nundu!"

Jumping to my feet, I release a cheer of happiness, affirming my belief in myself. I'm powerful, I'm strong, I'm no longer that weak little boy.

But somewhere deep inside the fear festers.

Fear of weakness.

Fear of death.

It takes me five hours to deal with the Nundu's corpse and harvest the materials I need, much of that time is spent clearing the area of the creatures toxic breath. Even in death, its body is still resistant to magic, although to a lesser degree than if it had been alive so I'm unable to skin it with magic. This doesn't stop me from enchanting tools to do the work for me and I sit back as various metal implements fly about, skinning and cutting up the corpse.

The pelt is rolled up and stored away, to be used for magic resistant clothing at a later time. The meat and organs are stored in equal chunks to be sold and I already have a buyer in mind, only Goblins can handle the toxins prevalent in the meat but due to the danger of the creature, the meat is quite a rare delicacy for them; they would pay out the nose for just one chunk of Nundu meat.

The poison sacks are emptied soon after and I have all of the Nundu's deadly breath stored in a series of special vials, each layered in runes to make them unbreakable. Lastly are the bones and skull, the bones I have no real use for but I can still sell them for a hefty price to collectors and the like. As for the skull, I have one of the back teeth removed for my ritual while the skull itself is stored in my pouch, it will make a fine trophy. When I'm finished, there is only a large patch of blood to show that a Nundu was ever been here, that quickly vanishes with a wave of my hand.

I take one last look around the African plains before flickering back to my room.

Salem is quite excited to see me alive and well, even if he only shows it by opening his eyes lazily and meowing at me.

"Come along Salem." I say, picking him up. "We have a few rituals to partake in."

He meows in annoyance but I just smile and flicker away.

I reappear in Diagon Alley, hidden from view behind the very pet store I'd purchased Salem from. I'm disguised once more as the brown haired boy from my first visit here, which is fine since not many will recognize me except for the Goblins.

Salem follows beside me, head held high and his tail swinging lazily, as I make my way to Gringotts. I enter the bank and immediately feel the wards wrapping around me, they still have my signature in their systems, goody.

The lines are short today and there are even a few open tellers, I make my way to one of these tellers and throw a bubble of silence around us, he looks down at me with a raised brow at the display but doesn't comment.

"How can I help you today Mr. Potter?" He asks, face stern and stoic.

Curse those wards, they ruin a perfectly good disguise.

I smile at him politely, the politeness being real this time since the Goblins have done quite a bit to help me.

"I'd like to meet with Manager Ranglow once more, if you don't mind." I reply, keeping my tone light.

He nods and signals a Goblin behind him, I drop the bubble of silence so they can converse. A few words are shared in their strange language before the second Goblin nods at me and begins walking away.

I follow behind him, passing through winding halls once more until we reach Ranglows' office, the Manager looks pleased to see me. Or at least I think he does, Goblins tend to sneer for a majority of their expressions.

"Mr. Potter, it is a pleasure to meet with you once more." Ranglow says pleasantly. "News of your unexplainable disappearance has caused quite the commotion in the wizarding community, the Goblin Nation has found it quite entertaining to watch."

I smile back and nod.

"I'm glad I could entertain you all, it should make our business today all the more pleasant." I reply as I take my seat, those few etiquette and diplomacy books I took a peek at are coming in quite handy.

He raises an eyebrow in question.

"Oh?" he asks curiously, not many bring their business opportunities to the Goblin Nation. "And what can I help you with today Mr. Potter?"

I fidget but a meow from Salem calms me, with what I have to offer they won't turn me down.

"I require use of your ritual chambers," I reply, causing his eyes to widen. "The rituals I plan to undertake are sort of um... illegal, so I am unable to use the ministries chambers and I have none of my own."

He frowns, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"While we do allow use of the chambers to certain clients for a hefty price, the nature of your own rituals will increase the price." He replies in a level tone. "It will cost far more than you can afford, I am sorry Mr. Potter but we can not agree to this."

I grin at him in amusement.

"Oh, but I wasn't offering gold for it." I say amused. "You haven't even heard my offer yet."

He sighs but nods for me to continue.

"I offer 15 tons of Nundu meat," I continue, grinning cheerily. "Of course, the Goblin Nation will have to offer me something extra in order to make the trade equal in value."

His eyes widen in shock as he stares at me, his mouth opening and shutting. The amount of meat I'm offering has never been collected before, not by the Goblins at least. There's also the fact that the last time a Nundu was killed and safely harvested was over 50 years ago, they really are dangerous creatures. While it may have been a young Nundu the last time, providing only 4 tons of meat, the meat from that occasion lasted the Goblin Nation for many years.

Finally, after several minutes, Ranglow composes himself enough to speak.

"That is quite the offer, assuming you can back it up." he says slowly, sounding skeptical. "Nundu meat is extremely rare, especially in such large quantities."

I chuckle and hand over a slab of the meat from my pouch, safely preserved with a stasis field spell, he takes a sniff of the meat and pulls back in shock.

"This is fresh?" he gasps, eyes wide. "How?"

"Well, I only killed it about six hours ago so it's somewhat fresh." I reply.

He stares at me in shock.

"You?" he asks, blinking in surprise. "You killed an adult Nundu? Alone?"

I smile and nod, saying nothing. Yeah, I'm awesome like that.

He coughs, trying and failing to keep his composure.

"Very well Mr. Potter," he replies after a moment, standing from his desk. "If you'll wait here, I need to speak with my superiors about this."

I nod and settle in for a long wait.

Close to forty-five minutes later, Ranglow returns, following behind him are two more Goblins. They appear to be far older and higher ranked based on the way Ranglow acts around them, Goblins are highly respectful to their elders and superiors.

"Mr. Potter," one of the goblins begins. "I am Director Ragrok, Director of Gringotts London."

"A pleasure to meet you." I reply, giving him a slight bow.

"This is Councillor Grimhack," Ragrok continues, holding out a hand to address the second goblin. "He is here representing the Goblin High Council."

"Hello Councillor." I greet, bowing to him as well, I receive a curt nod.

The four of us take a seat, two chairs appearing out of nowhere for the two new Goblins.

Grimhack speaks first.

"Manager Ranglow has informed us of your current terms, the Goblin High Council has agreed to make a deal with you, provided you can keep your side of the bargain." Grimhack explains, frowning at the end.

I pass him the slab of meat for proof and the look on his face causes me to chuckle, both he and Ragrok stare at the meat in shock before their eyes light up and they turn to me.

"That's just a sample, you're free to keep it." I say, that's more than enough meet for the higher ups to snack on. "I have more stored away, roughly fiftenn tons of it."

Both Goblins grin and spend a few seconds conversing in low tones, not that I could understand them even if I could hear them.

Finally Ragrok looks up and addresses me.

"We offer you access to our chambers on this day, two hundred thousand galleons and one favor owed to you." he offers, face stoic and firm.

My eyes widen in surprise at the last little tidbit, an honest to magic favor from the Goblin Nation is worth quite a a lot. This would be a magically binding favor too, so I could literally ask for anything and they would bend over backwards to accomplish it.

All in all, it's a really good deal but not good enough.

I smirk at him, knowing that I can ask for far more than they're offering but I decide to play nice, show that I can be a good ally.

"I know this meat is worth far more to you Director, Councillor, far more than you're offering," I reply, causing them to pale as much as a Goblin might, they may want this meat but Goblins like their gold. "Still, I'm willing to be lenient. After all, the Goblins have done quite a bit for me already, especially Manager Ranglow."

Ranglow puffs up with pride at my comment, if this deal goes well he's definitely looking at a promotion or a great increase in wealth at the very least.

"That's why I'll sell you this meat for.." They lean forward, eager to hear my counter offer, Goblins tend to enjoy haggling sometimes. "Unlimited access to the ritual chambers, five hundred thousand Galleons and two favors, on the stipulation that they can not be used to cause damage to the Goblin Nation itself."

They're practically drooling at the offer, I could have asked for ten times the Galleons and they still would have agreed, the meat is literally that delicious for Goblins. The stipulation that I added is also a great bonus for them, this way they don't have to worry about me using the favors in a way that will come back to bite them.

"Agreed!" Ragrok and Grimhack say at the same time.

Grimhack turns to Ranglow, who is still puffed up from my comment.

"Manager Ranglow, draw up a contract with the terms and stipulations." he orders, grinning greedily.

"Yes sir." Ranglow replies, fishing the papers out from his desk.

"While he does that, I would like to discuss another deal." I say, addressing the two elder Goblins.

They both turn to me, brows raised in question. Goblins seem to do that a lot, I wonder if they practice it.

"As you know, the meat is very fresh, this would of course mean that I have other parts of the creature in stock." I explain, receiving two nods in understanding. "I would like the Goblin Nation's assistance in finding buyers for the bones, minus the skull, and the toxic breath of the creature. In exchange, I will give you ten percent of the profits."

They spend a few minutes conversing, these items are worth quite a bit to the right buyer.

"How much of the breath do you have stored." Ragrok asks after a minute.

"About ten average sized vials, nine are for sale." I reply.

He nods and looks to Grimhack.

"We'll handle the sales for fifteen percent of the total profits." Grimhack says in an even tone.

I pretend like I'm thinking about it but I already know I'm going to agree, I don't care about the money I just want to unload this junk, I already have plenty of money.

"Very well." I reply after a few seconds, causing them to both grin or grimace, I still can't read their expressions well enough to tell.

At this point Ranglow has finished with the first contract and he begins writing up the second. I spend a few seconds reading the contract and seeing everything in its place, I sign with my full name. The second my quill leaves the parchment, the contract rolls up and pops away, a copy will be stored in my vault and another with the Goblin Nation.

"It has been a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Potter." Grimhack says, standing to leave. "The Goblin Nation looks forward to a profitable relationship in the future."

"As do I Councillor." I reply, bowing respectfully.

He nods and leaves, going back to report to the council no doubt.

Ragrok stands and I turn my attention to him.

"This has also been a pleasure for me Mr. Potter." He says with a grin, or a sneer, it's still hard to tell with Goblins. "Should you require anything in the future, feel free to request either my assistance or that of Head Supervisor Ranglow."

Ranglow perks up at that, there's that promotion he was hoping for, he looks so happy at the news, or sad, it's really hard to tell.

"Thank you Director, it was very nice to meet you as well." I reply with a smile.

Ragrok turns and leaves, the two extra chairs vanishing with a snap of his fingers.

That was a pretty cool exit, I need to remember that one.

Ranglow soon hands me the second contract, I sign it after a minute to peruse it over and it vanishes the same way as the first.

"Well, this had been an interesting day and it seems that I have much to thank you for Mr. Potter." He says with what is probably a grin, I don't feel like asking however, that would be awkward.

I chuckle and shake my head.

"Don't mention it High Supervisor."

The use of his new title causes his grin, yes I've decided its a grin and not a sneer, to widen as he stands and makes his way to the door.

"I'll show you where to leave the merchandise and then we can head to the ritual chambers." He says, stepping into the hallway.

I take a second to make sure my disguise is in place before following behind him, this has been a really good day, a good week even.

One week away from the Dursleys and I've managed to not only kill one of the most dangerous predators on land, single-handedly might I add, but I've also managed to more than double my already considerable fortune, that's pretty good work for a 'no good freak'.