Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.

Some of the concepts that will be in this fic are from other Fan fictions about Harry Potter with my own twist on them. So I would like to acknowledge all the Harry Potter fan writers on this site for great work and hundreds of hours of reading. This is an AU story.

Chapter 9

Dursleys and Lords

The moderately sized house had only been on the market for a few days. Located in a small suburb outside the rather large city of St. Paul, Minnesota the realtor had received a strange call. The caller inquired about the home, whoever it was hadn't asked a lot of questions. By the end of the call the realtor was to draw up the papers for the house and deliver them personally to a bank branch. By the end of that day, the caller was willing to pay the full asking price. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth the realtor did what was asked in what she considered the fastest real estate transaction of her life. In only a few hours she was holding a cashers check and the signed papers, the sellers would be very happy.

The house had been quiet and empty for a few days when the front door opened; several large men and a couple of women entered the house. Furniture, personal items, kitchen appliances, everything that a home would need was brought into the house and put in its proper place. Not long after the movers left, a small 'pop' would have been heard in the living room of the house if anyone had been there.

Scott Crandall appeared in the living room of the house with a look of disgust on his face. After leaving Harry at Potter Manor the day before, Mr. Crandall had used a portkey from his office in Gringotts to Washington DC in America. Since he was going to be having a long day due to the time difference, he got started on arrangements. First he had checked in with Gringotts USA to set things in motion, then he made contact with a couple of associates he had in the American Department of Magic.

Now standing in this house, he was still not overly confident of what Harry wanted done, he much preferred the way the Goblins had wanted to handle this problem. It was a sign of the kind of person Harry was and would be when he grew up despite what Harry had gone through with his relatives.

Mr. Crandall pulled a small box from his pocket and placed it on the floor and then enlarged it with his wand. Opening the trunk, Mr. Crandall used his wand to levitate the three Dursleys out, placing them in front of the sofa. After shrinking and placing his trunk in his pocket, Mr. Crandall pulled out three small vials. After pouring one vial of potion each over the three Dursleys making sure to get some on each of their lips, he sat down in a plushy chair on the other side of the room to wait. He placed his wand on the arm of the chair pointed toward the Dursleys, holding his hand over it and drumming his fingers.

It wasn't long until the first of the three started to move again. Dudley, being the smallest, shook himself as if shaking off the cold, as if he had just come in from the snow. Dudley looked around trying to find the little freak until his eyes came to rest on the older man sitting on the other side of the room. It was at that point that Dudley realized he was not in his own living room even though it had his parents stuff in it. He started to panic until a beam of red light hit him and everything went dark.

Petunia Dursley was the next to wake up in a similar fashion to Dudley. "FREAK, WHERE ARE YOU?" she screamed. Mr. Crandall was now glad that he had put silencing charms around the house. Petunia finally notice Mr. Crandall sitting across the room and froze, her eyes getting bigger and bigger as she could see the stick under the man's drumming fingers. "Wh… What do you want?"

"For you to sit down and keep quiet." replied the man. "We are waiting for your fat whale of a husband here to wake up." The man pointed at Vernon. Petunia looked around the room, the last thing she remembered was being in the kitchen, now she was in a strange living room but all of her stuff was here. The man indicated with his hand for her to sit. That was when she noticed Dudley laying on the sofa like he was dead. She rushed to him to find that he was breathing. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SON?"

"He is just stunned; I'll wake him up when I'm ready. Now sit down and stay quiet." It was at that moment that Vernon Dursley started to show signed of coming too. It took a little while longer then the rest because of his size. When Vernon unfroze he actually finished the swing that he had started but hit nothing but air with enough force to spin him self around to face away.

"Mr. Vernon Dursley," Vernon spun back around to find a man casually sitting in HIS chair. The man was dressed like some kind of freak and was impatiently drumming his fingers over what looked like a stick. "Sit down and stay quiet or you will not like the consequences." The man finished saying.

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOME!" roared Vernon as he started to make his way toward the man. The man casually picked up the stick, pointed it at him, and said some gibberish. Vernon found himself falling backwards, unable to move. Thankfully for him he landed on the sofa. Petunia looked about to scream again, but was able to keep quiet.

"Mr. Vernon Dursley, Petunia Dursley, who I am, is not important. What has happened to you and what is going to happen to you is. Mr. Dursley I am afraid that I will leave you the way you are until I am finished." Petunia watched as the man put the wand back down, she knew what it was, having seen her sister use one. She was scared now; this man looked decidedly pissed off and was an adult wizard.

Petunia walked down the strange alley with her parents and sister. Her sister had received a letter from some school and got all excited about it showing it to her parents. The next day an older looking lady had shown up at the house. That was when Petunia had found out what all the fuss was about. Her sister could do magic, she got so jealous of her sister. Then to find out that she didn't have the ability and never would drove Petunia over the edge. Now here she was walking down an alley with the freak and their 'so proud' parents. Shop after shop they got what Lily would need for the 'freak school' as Petunia was now calling it. Then the last stop was to get a wand, Petunia had seen people all morning holding them. She was so sick of it, but she kept her mouth shut. Then Lily got her wand, the shop keeper was so happy when the sparks shot out of Lily's stick. Petunia vowed to break that stick in half one day. She had never gotten the chance though; Lily always kept it with her.

After looking her in the eyes the man continued on. "What happened to the three of you is simple, Vernon you decided to and I will quote you, 'to beat the freak out of your nephew or kill him trying.' That was little more then two weeks ago." Petunia gasped. "Since then the three of you have been petrified, turned to stone. It was an accident on Mr. Potter's part but it was in self defense." Petunia just watched the man as she listened; she knew nothing good was coming. Vernon, though he could hear what was being said was staring up at the ceiling of the room, for the first time in his life he was well and truly scared.

"Now then, that is what happened and this is what is going to happen. You should feel very lucky right now, because if it was up to me and my primary employers, the three of you would be left the way you were and put on display in a goblin mine somewhere. But it is not up to me; Lord Potter has made that decision." Now Petunia was very afraid and confused, there were no Potters left as far as she knew, so who was this Lord Potter and the way that they had treated the boy, she was feeling regret for what she had done. Vernon, if he could, he would have pissed himself at that moment.

Mr. Crandall was talking in a calm and professional manner, even though he was feeling anything but.

Mr. Crandall's father had been abusive to him, not on the scale that Vernon Dursley was to Harry but he had his fair share of bruises when he was a kid. He didn't like child abuse in any form. He had been involved in a couple of cases since becoming a solicitor where the child was taken away from the family by the ministry on his recommendation.

He wanted to just; well he wasn't going to think about what he wanted to do, so he continued.

"Lord Potter will not be returning to your care, but in his haste over what he did to you, he did several things. Firstly, both he and your son are no longer enrolled in their school. Mr. Dursley you have resigned your job in favor of a new position in the colonies. That is where you find yourselves now. Here is the deal, you are all American citizens now, and your British citizenship has been revoked permanently, if you try to return to Britain in any way, I will be notified and we go back to my employer's other idea. This house is paid for, you have a new job at a respectfully large company here as an executive. Dudley has been enrolled in a select school and lastly one hundred thousand dollars has been deposited in a bank account for you."

Mr. Crandall pulled a large envelope from his pocket and tossed it on the coffee table. "Everything is in there, bank cards, title to the house, identification cards, and your car is out in the garage. Now I am going to unfreeze you Mr. Vernon Dursley, if you raise your voice or try to attack me again, well it becomes my decision then." Mr. Crandall picked up his wand and pointed it at Vernon. Vernon heard him say gibberish and then felt his body relax. He sat back into the sofa and looked at the man sitting across from him. Oh Vernon was mad, seeing red really, but he was also scared to death at the same time, so he kept his mouth shut for the moment.

"Now Mr. Vernon Dursley let me summarize this for you and then I'll be going. You are in the colonies, you are no longer British citizens, and you have been set up with a better life then you had. You will have no more contact with our world unless you break the rules. You may get a visit from Dumbledore, I can not stop him, but if he does show up just tell him you dumped Harry on the street in London. If he tries to get you to return with him tell him no. Now I will let you have two questions, then I will be going."

Vernon was finally getting his fear under control; he was still seeing red but did not want to end up frozen again. "Who-who is paying for all this and what has happened to our home?" Vernon's voice was slightly raised but not yelling.

"Your home in Surrey was purchased by Lord Potter and he is paying for all this, for the life of me I don't understand why he is doing this after the way you treated him, next question?" Before Vernon could ask anything else Petunia jumped in with her question.

"Why, do you keep calling that boy Lord Potter, how can he pay to do all this if his parents were nobodies?" Mr. Crandall got a smirk on his face; this was just the question he was hoping for, to rub some salt in. "Mrs. Petunia Dursley, if you had at least opened the letters that your sister sent to you, you would know that the Potters are an ancient and noble house in our world. Harry, now Lord Potter, is one of the richest people in not just our world but in 'the' world. His family goes back over 800 years. Maybe you should have treated him better." Petunia gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. Vernon paled at hearing that, 'rich, the kid is rich?' Vernon lost all his anger.

Mr. Crandall had a grin on his face and just shrugged his shoulders. Standing up Mr. Crandall pointed his wand at Dudley muttering something under his breath. Petunia tried to jump in the way but didn't manage to in time. Dudley started to wake up.

"Now I will be going, remember no coming back, and you have no claim on Harry." Mr. Crandall started to walk toward the door, just as he got to the living room door he stopped and turned back. "One last thing before I go, Mrs. Petunia Dursley." Petunia looked up from fussing over Dudley to listen. "Magic runs in families and Lily wasn't the first." Mr. Crandall gave a pointed look at Dudley. "Maybe him, or his children, it can skip a generation or two sometimes." With that Mr. Crandall gave a little half turn and disappeared in a soft 'POP'. The Dursleys sat there in shocked silence.

-oo00oo-

Albus Dumbledore was slowly going into a depression. He had been to the storage place in Oregon and found out that yes, a delivery was expected in the next few weeks from Britain but they did not yet have a forwarding address. He was told that the name of the shipping company delivering it and had gone to check, only to find out that no one at the company had ever heard of the Dursleys or a delivery going to the states. Albus was back in Hogwarts pacing again. The devices that he had used to monitor Harry had all gone silent, even the one that monitored Harry's health. According to the device Harry was dead, but that couldn't be true, he really was desperately hoping that it was not true. It had been three days since the Wizengamot session; Sirius had not appeared as he had been requested to, this led Dumbledore to think that something foul was going on but could not prove anything. He had sent an Owl letter to Sirius, but he had not heard back as of yet.

The new term at Hogwarts was starting in a few days; this was leading to more and more of his time being taken up with preparations. "Dumbledore" Albus looked to the fireplace to see his friend Alastor Moody's scarred face in the green flames.

"Alastor, have you found something?" Dumbledore asked as he walked over to the office fireplace.

"I may have, I checked the archives at the Ministry, Mr. Potter's file had been taken to the Minister yesterday, and the clerk informed me that something had happened. Even though Fudge is not in office anymore there is still a standing order that any changes to that file are to be brought to the attention of the minister." Before Alastor could finish what he was saying Albus jumped up and ran to his desk. How could he have forgotten his own copy of that file? He was going to check it the other day before more pressing events had unfolded. "Albus, what is going on?" Dumbledore heard Alastor asking. Reaching his desk Albus pulled out the bottom drawer, in his haste he pulled a little too hard and the drawer came all the way out and skidded across the floor. After chasing the vile drawer down, Albus pulled the last file on the bottom out.

Albus looked at the name across the top of the file, drawing in a deep breath. That was all he needed to see to know what had happened to Harry or at the least get an idea of what had happened. Lord Harry James Potter was written across the top. Harry had somehow found out about his heritage and claimed it. Opening the file Albus looked at the top sheet of parchment, he stared at the sheet for several moments not even realizing that he was holding his breath.

Lord Harry James Potter

Status: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Age: 10

Magical Guardian: Harry James Potter.

Albus let out his breath and turned back to the fireplace, where Moody was waiting, impatiently. "Harry's alive Alastor, that much I now know. I think I have an idea of where he is. Thank you for checking up on this for me. I'll call if I need anymore help."

"Very well Albus, I still don't understand what is so important about this kid. Next time you need to tell me everything." Moody's face disappeared from the fireplace. Albus turned back to the file. 'Well Harry, I think I know where you are now, I can return you to your aunt after I find her.' Albus floo called his Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, letting her know that he would be out of the castle for a short time.

Albus Dumbledore apparated directly from his office, where he ended up was a complete surprise to him. Instead of appearing in to Potter Manor like he had intended, it looked like he was in some sort of cell. The room was one by two meters in size; all the walls were hard stone with an empty portrait frame hanging from the far wall that he was facing. What really surprised him was that he could not move. It was like being in a full body bind.

-oo00oo-

Inside Potter Manor Harry was sitting with his godfather in the master study. Sirius was still recovering but was able to move around the manor. Sirius and Harry had just finished lunch. Harry was sitting down to start reading the next journal when a high pitched noise sounded throughout the Manor. Seven house elves appeared in the study a second later all surrounding Harry with varied looks of determination on their faces. "What is that noise?" yelled out Harry. Harold who had been asleep in his portrait woke with a start and yelled over the noise that someone had just tried to breach the wards on the manor and was now in the dungeon waiting cell. Sirius was up out of his seat with his wand draw watching the door to the study.

"Harry" yelled Harold over the noise of the alarm. "Tell the shield to silence the alarm, and then say lockdown. I'll go check to see who we captured out in the dungeon."

Harry ran over to the shield hanging above the fireplace mantel. "SILENCE" The alarm stopped immediately. "Lockdown" Harry said to the shield. Throughout the Manor all open doors slammed shut. The glass walls in the ballroom and main room of the house turned black and then to stone. All the windows in the Manor turned black and stone covered them. An iron grate appeared in front of ever fireplace in the Manor. Even out on the ground things were happening. The greenhouses went into lockdown; several deadly wards sprang in to active mode. Anyone trying to cross the grounds would get one warning before getting electrocuted, or burnt, or worse.

Harry turned to Sirius. "Nothing can get in here now. Relax until Granddad finds out what is going on."

-oo00oo-

Down in the dungeon, Albus was starting to get worried. The 'dungeon' as the Potters called it was not under the Manor house. It was a mile away and a hundred feet below ground. The only way out was to be let out. If he tried to apparate out he would leave some vital body part behind. Portkeys didn't work and blasting the walls would only bring a hundred feet of earth down on his head. He knew all this because he had helped his friend Harold Potter to upgrade some of the wards around it. He was not privy to all the defenses that Potter Manor had but he knew it was not a good idea to try anything. Being in a full body bind didn't help matters and it was one of those defenses he didn't know about.

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in." Albus could see someone entering the portrait frame. Albus's eyes widened in surprise to see his long time friend Harold Potter appear in the frame. He couldn't reply because of the body bind. "Albus, I will release the body bind, but please don't pull your wand or try to escape; it would be hazardous to your health." Albus felt the body bind release him.

"I was not aware that you had a portrait Harold, does Ester have one as well?" Albus had a smile on his face at seeing his old friend.

"Yes, she is in the Manor. Albus why are you here?" Harold replied with a neutral tone.

"I thought to come by and check on the Manor."

"Albus, all the elves have left, the bond has been broken. The Manor is in lockdown, along with all the other properties. Only the next Lord Potter will be allowed to enter. All names have been erased from the access list. One of our distant relatives will have to become the new Lord since James and Harry are both gone, if there are any distant relations left."

Albus wasn't getting anywhere; he would have to tell Harold about Harry.

"I'm Sorry Harold that I did not inform you earlier. Your Grandson Harry is alive."

"WHAT! NOW you tell me what it is you have done with him. Why is he missing? Where is Sirius, his godfather? Why did the house elves leave if he is still alive?"

Albus was taken aback by the venom in Harold's voice. He couldn't tell him the truth that was out of the question. Harry was already Lord Potter, he could show up at anytime in the Manor and Harold would tell him.

"I placed Harry in a loving home after Sirius was tossed in Azkaban. He has been safe, he ran away for some reason and I am looking for him. I had to protect the boy from any remaining Death Eaters, so I put up wards to protect him, one of which was an elf ward. They could have been used to get to Harry."

"Albus, I have known you for a long time, NOW tell me what is going on. I know about that stupid prophecy, James told me before going into hiding. I can tell Albus that you are plotting something, now come clean or I'll leave you here." After everything that Harry had told him, he was in no mood for games. He wasn't going to let on that he knew where Harry was, but he was going to get the truth.

"I…I am afraid…" Albus wasn't sure what to do. He could try to break the wards to get out but he helped upgrade some of them and knew that would take days. Making up his mind Albus continued. "Harold… Harry has a destiny, Voldemort is not dead. When Harry was attacked by him, Harry was protected somehow and the curse rebounded back at Voldemort but it didn't kill him. He is a shade, a wondering soul, he will get his body back someday and Harry is the only one that can defeat him. If you see Harry you can not tell him this, he is too young to have this burden."

"Albus you old fool, what are you thinking believing in a prophecy, you, yourself told me once that divination is a crock. That prophecy that my son told me is so vague. And for you to shatter an elf bond that has lasted centuries is unforgivable. You are responsible for the deaths of some or all of my friends."

"Please Harold; it was for the greater good…"

"YOUR greater good, you are playing with other peoples lives Albus, to me you are no better then Voldemort. You are willing to sacrifice others for your Greater Good. Be gone; do not ever set foot here again."

Albus felt the tell tale pull behind his navel, a portkey. When he landed he was in some wooded area. Not knowing where he was Albus apparated back to Hogwarts. He walked to his office and sat behind his desk. Steepling his hands in front of him, Albus became lost in thought. 'Am I placing too much faith in a prophecy? Is what I'm doing the right thing or just the easy thing?' Fawkes, sensing his friend's distress sang out. Albus relaxed but he had so much to think about. 'Harry is still lost, even if I didn't follow the prophecy, I still need to make sure he is safe.'

-oo00oo-

Harold returned to his frame in the study, after telling Sirius and Harry what happened, the three of them sat around discussing it. Harry took the Manor out of lockdown. Dumbledore would end up back in the cell if he tried to come back. Harold didn't believe he would try. Harry had not heard from Mr. Crandall yet so after dinner Harry went back to reading. The fact that Voldemort was still out there somewhere was troubling but it was someone else's problem now. If somehow he ran into Voldemort he knew he would want vengeance for his parents, but he was willing to let someone else deal with it for now.

-oo00oo-

In the Office of the Minister of Magic, Newton Crabtree was going over the file that had been brought to him from the archives. What he was seeing disturbed him greatly; it was not so much that Harry had taken up the role of Lord Potter. It was what was in the rest of the file. Albus Dumbledore had sealed the Potter Will, which was now open and he had disregarded it completely even after telling the wizarding world that he knew what it contained. Something was up. Newton's parents had been good friends of the Potter's. He had been almost twenty years out of Hogwarts before James Potter had even started, so he didn't know them as well as his parents did. He still felt his family owed the Potter family its loyalty. They had helped his family many times over the centuries.

He got up from his desk, walking over to the office fireplace. Tossing in some special floo powder he called out "Amelia Bones". A few moments later Amelia's head appeared in the floo. "Yes Minister?"

"Could you come to my office please, Amelia? I have something to discuss."

-oo00oo-

Remus Lupin, since the end of the war had been living in muggle London. He had taken himself out of the magical world, not wanting anything else to do with it. The deaths of his long time friend James and his wife Lily had been hard on him. The betrayal of them by Sirius Black had been even harder for him. Sirius was like a brother to Remus, even after nine years Remus still wanted his revenge on the traitor.

Remus had been getting by working as a tutor for muggle children. It was a small living but he was getting by ok. He would teach any student from primary school up to secondary. He knew a lot about the muggle world now. He had a one bedroom flat in downtown and would travel to his student's homes.

It was the end of summer, Remus had just returned from one of his student's home. The kid was in primary school but was failing math so the parents had hired him. As he was walking down the street toward his flat he noticed a gentleman standing on the corner reading a news paper. The problem was that it was not the London Times or any of the other muggle news papers. The guy was reading the Daily Prophet right out in the open and the look on the guys face was that of someone stunned by what he was reading. He wasn't even paying attention to the strange looks the muggles were giving him and his news paper.

Remus walked up to the guy. "You are attracting the attention of the muggles." Remus whispered to the guy. Whoever the guy was gave a start and dropped the paper. "Oh, oh, thank you. Just this Sirius Black issue and the minister getting sacked caught me off guard." The man leaned down to pick up the paper. When he stood back up, he looked at the stranger that had helped him. Remus was looking at the newspaper in his hand with a horrified look on his face.

"Here you can have it." he held out the paper to Remus. Remus nodded his head in thanks taking the paper from the gentleman. Remus rushed home before reading the article under the headline that had him just as stunned. Mysterious Evidence Exonerates Sirius Black

After reading the article Remus dropped down on his sofa. Sirius wasn't the secret keeper, he was innocent. 'How am I ever going to face him?'

It was several hours later when Remus heard tapping at the window. He had just been sitting on the sofa staring up at the ceiling. Looking over at the window he could see an owl there trying to get his attention. After letting the owl in, Remus removed the letter that was attached to it leg. The owl flew back out the window as Remus opened the letter.

Remus,

Don't kick yourself for thinking I was guilty; I know everyone was thinking the same thing. I don't hold it against you. Well you do deserve to get pranked but we can talk about that later. I want to meet with you, can you come to the Leaky Cauldron on Monday. I'm still not up to traveling anywhere until then. We have a lot to talk about.

Sirius

Remus reread the letter several times. Yes he would be there; he had to face what he had believed and apologize. Then he thought "What time, SIRIUS!"