Ambling Home by henri8l
Disclaimer: I own no rights to HP books or film franchise or any tv series only these invented plot changes and any added characters.
Ch7 Under Siege
Harry was under siege. His heart was hammering away as he continued to throw more of his belongings haphazardly into his trunk. He would've done this earlier, but he feared jinxing his chances of actually getting away. About twenty minutes before he had barricaded himself inside the room that he occupied alone, just off of the 3rd floor corridor. His wards would keep out everyone, he hoped. He knew that no house elves could enter, though that was no different from when he'd first arrived in these rooms at the beginning of term. With what he had found out, he couldn't risk letting anyone who would report to Dumbledore about him, in. That was also the reason that none of his friends had access to the room either.
If it were up to him, they wouldn't even know where it was, but of course the headmaster had let that slip to the general population of Hogwarts. Up to tonight Harry had found a new love letter held to his door by a sticking charm, when he'd come back from dinner. Before this standoff began he had transfigured the heart shaped, perfume drenched rag into a rat and compelled it to return to Gryffindor dorms, afraid for it's very life. Harry wished he could hear the screams that the ugly rat would cause. 'It was a good idea to make it into Scabbers,' he thought pulling his last school tie he would ever wear off of his neck. He crumpled the crimson and gold striped fabric in a ball and stuffed it in a corner of the trunk. Slamming it shut, he pulled it from the bed onto the stone floor and sat down on the lid. Now he would wait. The headmaster would be on his way soon, he was sure. He had heard Hermione instruct Ron to retrieve Dumbledore just before he put up the sound-muting barrier.
The last few months had been uniquely bad. First, Sirius dead. Second, Harry was cut off from everyone over the break. Thridly, the Dursley's had been particularly nasty this last holiday, if he could call it one. Harry had willfully blocked most of what happened from his memory. What he could remember of it was bad enough that, despite his innate curious streak, he still would rather it remain a blur. Needless to say, leaving Privet Drive this year had been his happiest escape since his first departure, after his 11th birthday.
Harry had been back at Hogwarts for two months and his arm still thrummed with pain from when Vernon had put all of his weight on it by keeping it trapped under his heavy foot. In fact, most of his bones still ached from his time in his aunt's house. He knew that the persistent pain in his right arm was a fracture, but he refused to make a visit to Mme. Pomphrey. She would ask, too many questions, make her own assumptions and would only inform Dumbledore. Just what Harry didn't need. He had, had enough of the elderly man's lectures on why he shouldn't be telling tales about his loving and charitable relatives.
Harry stared at the door from his seat on the top of his trunk. He was thinking of what he should say, when the door gave an especially harsh judder. 'They've brought reinforcements,' Harry thought as he watched the door quiver again. What he should say and would, might have to be two different things. He just hoped he had the brass to tell Dumbledore what was coming to him. Everything he had learned, the things that he had discovered, the things Harry still didn't know. All of it had the markings of Albus Dumbledore's work. Harry was ready to be done with being under the man's control.
At the end of the last term his missing birth papers had come into question when he attempted to emancipate himself from the Dursley's. He sent the papers into the Ministry of Magic in the last few months of the term, hoping to pre-empt a return to his "caring aunt" and her family. When there was a delay, he thought that it was the normal bureaucracy and reluctantly returned to the Dursley's, anyway.
What he received while on holiday, were notifications of missing records, damaged paternity files, and missing vaults of monies. The latter was reported by the goblins of Gringotts. Mid thought Harry blinked, when he opened them again, he realized that he no longer had a door. It evaporated into a puff of steam. In the middle of the dissipating steam stood Dumbledore, eyes twinkling with a cold anger and filled with harsh chastisement. Now that the door had finally come down, Harry still didn't know what to say. He stood up and looked at what to some might be an intimidating visage.
Albus stepped passed the muting barrier, his powerful magic squelching the wards Harry had erected to keep the headmaster's disciples out. As he made his advance he began his spiel. "Harry, my boy-," Dumbledore started in.
"Stop right there. Stop talking, Albus," Harry said with almost a whisper. The headmaster looked at him dumfounded as Harry continued. "I am leaving. There is nothing you can do to stop me." Though his face was pale and gaunt, it glowed with a wild look of determination, as his voice rose. "You have avoided me for the last month, like the plague. Now that I have managed to gain an audience, you are now informed. I am formally withdrawing from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, forthwith. The board already has my letter resigning any claims I have here as a student. I have alrea-"
The headmaster moved forward again and put up a hand to stop Harry's declaration. "Now Harry, you simply cannot do that. I know that things have been hard. Especially since we lost Sirius, but you must understand. This is all for the greater good. Everything we do, I do is for the greater good." If the twinkle in his eye could grow any brighter it would rival the North Star.
"And my good, Professor? As I was saying. I am leaving tonight. My last meal as a student here, was this evening. I've already made arrangements for my transport. You do not need to worry about my good any longer, not that you ever did," Harry muttered snidely, at the end.
Having said his piece, Harry shrank is overstuffed trunk, slipped it on a chain around his neck and brushed passed the shocked headmaster. His friends rushed him as he left the confines of the room. None of them had heard what had been said due to his earlier muting charm. The only one who knew what was going on and the reasons as to why this was happening, was Neville and he gave Harry an encouraging nod. He had been on the receiving end of Harry's holiday howlers about how vile and manipulative Albus Dumbledore was. Harry ignored all other calls for his attention. Leaving them to wonder what had just happened, he continued his silent march to the entrance of Hogwarts.
As Harry walked away from the only home he had ever known, he breathed a deep sigh. He could feel Hogwart's magic pulling him back, but also shoving him away. It was as if she knew he had to leave, but wished he could stay. The castle's disappointment was sharp in his mind. Harry walked further, he brushed away tears that manifested from both his and her compounded disappointment that he couldn't remain. He turned one last time to look at Hogwarts and could see his most faithful friend, Neville watching him from a low castle window. Harry gave his face another wipe with the back of his hand and walked further into the moonlit night.
A/N Please read and review. Thanks, H.