Freak of Nature

I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money off of this work, period.

fAN: So anybody else ready for Harry to head off to Hogwarts? I know I am. Sorry about not publishing this earlier, but work has been killer and writing time has been in the range of 0, zip, zilch, nada. Anyway, off we go, into the wild blue yonder! Off we go…

Edit: oops on the platform...

[parsel]

/creepy crawly critters/

{Primal Beast Language}

Chapter 14: We're Off To See The Wizard

Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it. Stephen Vizinczey, An Innocent Millionaire

The three weeks up till Harry's leaving for Hogwarts seemed to fly by quickly due to Harry's busy schedule of preparation and his newly learned experiences with "play time." Harry and Sirius had taken a trip to Gringotts and down into the vaults where Harry was able to look through his family heirlooms and the varied knick-knacks that his ancestors and conquered had picked up over the ages. Sirius was put in charge of reviewing the dark artifacts gained and making a list of the items that might be useful for Harry's "plans," while Harry focused primarily on rooting himself in the history of the wizarding world, the family trees of the Ancient Houses he took over, and the role of the "boy-who-lived." Apparently that "role" seemed to mean something, based on all of the stories and accounts that had been written about "his life;" or at least the life imagined for him by the writers who sought to use his name and image to make money.

Upon leaving the vaults Harry, Sirius and Ragnok had sat down to discuss the knowledge that he had gained from his reading of the books as well as that which he learned from his family vaults. Harry had learned of what the wizards thought and expected of the Potters as a whole as well as Harry Potter in specific, and he was going to give them exactly what they expected. He would model his outward appearance and actions to be the "hero" that they expected to get, all the while furthering his goals. A good predator knew how to blend in so that his prey wouldn't realize he was there, but a great predator would make the prey so at ease with him that they let down their guard completely and invited him into their midst; a deadly mistake. Towards this goal, Harry spent several hours a day practicing wand movements so that he would look as powerful and as experienced as the wizarding world expected. He spent hours sitting down with the painting of Walburga Black practicing his manners and etiquette so that the purebloods would feel at ease with him. Most of all, he spent time with Sirius working on his temper and his outward expression of emotions. Harry had to learn how to control his features and actions while Sirius tried to wind Harry up, pranking Harry for practice so that Harry wouldn't snap and eat somebody when he was startled or angry; well, ok, Harry wasn't going to stop killing and eating people, but he would do it in such a way that at least the prey wouldn't see it coming and he wouldn't get caught.

While Harry's "training" was going on, the goblins were doing their part too. Harry had given them two instructions: 1. Setup the happenings for a certain family, effective September 1st; 2. Buy, buy, buy. Towards the first part of the plan, Harry spent time with quill and parchment in hand, speaking with Sirius and Ragnok while they planned a mini-coup on a wizarding family. The second part was being done with the goal of emptying out Harry's vaults by purchasing land and assets.

Farm fields were purchased throughout the world, managing shares were quietly purchased in real-estate and leasing companies, utility and oil companies, ranches, unused tracks of land, and as much muggle and wizarding property throughout the world as Harry could buy. Harry purchased potion shops, apothecaries, manure and fertilizer warehouses, and every single type of animal husbandry, farm, ranch, or sanctuary that he could get his hands on. Harry was quickly depleting his vast fortunes at a very rapid rate, even to the point where he started up a mail correspondence with Mutwa regarding continued deposits from the Mines of Solomon. Through all this, the goblins were kept busier than they had ever been, and when they weren't making purchases for Harry they were warding his new property or adding control wards to property that he held a majority share in. When they weren't warding new property, they were warding businesses or even digging through the wizarding and muggle worlds' property records looking for abandoned property to seize or steal, and wherever they found it they warded it for Harry to be unplottable. Harry purchased debts, loans, government bonds, liens and commercial papers in the billions and billions of pounds/galleons, and it didn't look like there would be any stopping any time soon. The goblins were absolutely loving it as all of their work, and the associated fees on Harry's assignments, were making them absolutely filthy rich. The Goblins were more rich than they had ever been, doubling, tripling, and then quadrupling their fortunes in a very short period of time. All of this action by Harry quickly launched Ragnok into the highest ranks of Goblin leadership, for wealth was power. Ragnok's managing of Harry's myriad of holding companies, shell corporations, and silent partnerships absolutely assured the goblin his place as the ultimate leader of the Goblin Clans.

This isn't to say that the run up to traveling to Hogwarts was all work and no play, far from it in fact. Harry and Sirius still played pranks on each other, Harry using the pranks as a way to practice spell movements from his memories while Sirius didn't really need a reason to prank anybody. The occasional chasing of the Grim still took place, but rather than a Nundu sliding around the halls of Grimmauld Place, now it was usually a young Harry Potter who slid by, all the while spraying spells after his fleeing dogfather. Harry also spent time visiting Luna, his first friend, even if his visits were often after the sun went down due to both his busy daylight activities and his rather nocturnal nature and lack of need to sleep. Every night he slipped out of Grimmauld Place and apparated into the woods near the Rookery. There he would assume Nundu form, then stretch his large body up the tower on his hind legs till his head could look in the window that smelled the most like Luna. The next couple hours would then be spent with Luna riding on his head as they gamboled about the forest, or even stopping to pick the nighttime herbs and plants that could be used for potions, another skill that Luna had learned from her dear departed mother.

During their time together, Harry and Luna spoke about his upcoming trip to Hogwarts and he promised to still spend time with her; though he might not be able to see her as much as either of them wanted. Ultimately he promised to do more than just write letters. They spent their last evening together talking about their lives, and it was a pair of handholding pre-teens that entered the clearing around the Rookery early on the morning of September first. Luna left Harry with a parting kiss on the cheek, something that confused Harry and made him blush and feel weird for some reason, as he watched Luna disappear back into her house.

All too soon though, it was time for Harry to travel to Platform 9 and 3/4ths to board the Hogwarts Express. The goblin's had their marching orders, Sirius was working the political and pranking angle, and Harry had a train to catch.

Harry and Sirius had many discussions about what to expect when Harry openly entered the wizarding world once again. Besides Ollivander and Madam Malkin no other adult witch or wizard had really recognized Harry on his forays into Diagon Alley, and neither of those two had been left in a condition to really spread the news that he had come out of hiding. Harry's discussions with Sirius about Harry's goals entailed much talk about the image that Harry would project to the wizarding world. At Sirius' prompting, thinking that it was part of the grand prank they were playing on the world, Harry decided to give the wizarding world what they expected when it came to Harry Potter, in other words, Harry Potter would live up to the hype that existed in the books about him. Dumbledore must have released statements about Harry's scar and his supposed childhood defeat of Voldemort, for no other wizard besides the Headmaster and his pawns had direct contact with Harry before he was sequestered with the Dursleys. The Headmaster had released the details, and then like all good tall-tales, it had taken on a life of its own; a life that was about to bite the headmaster in the ass.

The wizarding books about Harry Potter spoke of power, bravery, and knowledge of magic that allowed him to defeat dark lords, dragons and other magical beasts, all to save the brave maiden or beleaguered town that was beset by some manner of evil beast or wizard. In wizarding Britain especially, the myths of Harry Potter had grown to the level of stories of Merlin or even the knights of Camelot and their quests. Thus it was a "heroic" Harry Potter who resolutely strolled through the barrier onto Platform 9 and 3/4's, vastly different than the beaten, abused, and malleable puppet that Dumbledore had designed, for the Greater Good.

Black embroidered acromantula silk cloak and robes fluttering, hair perfectly styled and partially spiked, green eyes glowing with backlit power, tanned, muscled and developed to something appearing beyond the age of 11, Harry Potter walked onto the platform with his tangible aura of power exhibited for all to see; sometimes a predator hides in plain sight.

His presence was immediately felt, as he stepped out of the threshold onto the platform, Harry paused for dramatic effect; not cheesy like a certain former obliviator, but rather it was the pause of a warrior who was looking over his battlefield. Stirring his cloak and hair with his elemental powers of air, his scar displayed by his short hair and the wind that blew his bangs, a strange awe and pause took over the platform as it the wizarding families stilled and shifted their gaze to see who had just entered the platform.

"Sirius would be dead chuffed if he was here to see this," Harry thought to himself, a small smirk quirking the corner of his mouth up into a smile.

Prowling forward towards the train, the crowd seemed to part as if Moses was parting the sea, open mouthed and wide eyed, the wizarding population was stunned, none of them had known that Harry Potter was going to Hogwarts that year.

Harry kept his eyes forward, but gave a bit of a glare to a brown haired man who had taken a step towards him as if to shake Harry's hand or pat him on the shoulder. The glare had the proper effect which stopped Harry from being overwhelmed by "well-wishers." Harry didn't stop his progress towards the train, not even when a short red-headed girl sprinted towards his back and dived to tackle him.

"EEEEEEEEEE!" Ginny squealed as she pounced towards her "future husband," only to be rewarded with a THUD! Ginny Weasley seemed to hit an invisible unmovable pole behind Harry's back, leaving her to hug the air for a second, legs and arms outstretched like she was wrapped around a tree, before she slowly slid to the ground; eyes crossed, a rather befuddled expression on her face, and the formation of two black eyes starting from where she had broken her nose.

Harry arrived at the door to the train, looked back at the crowd for a second from his perch on the step, and then disappeared onto the train.

The crowd came alive again, released from their stupor the farewells of the separating families were now more focused on the excitement of the reemergence of the Boy-Who-Lived rather than the sadness of departing. Ironically enough, two families who were diametrically opposite in their views of Dark and Light were having very similar conversations with their youngest male children. The Blonde boy received a stern grip on his shoulder from his father before entering the train, and the red-headed boy received a hug from his mother before both turned, son leaving for the train, mother turning to start treating his sister's "self induced" injuries.

"Sheep," Harry said to himself as he found a compartment and kicked his feet up on the seat, leaning back against the wall that held the window of the train and keeping his eyes towards the door, "They're all a bunch of bleeding sheep." He said with disgust. He shook his head at the memory of the apparent stalker who had leapt at him; any other location would have left her lying in a bloody heap as he was want to do with any creature that dared to attack him. He had learned his mistakes about watching his back from the incident in Knockturn Alley. That incident, coupled with his constant prank battle with Sirius, had been great practice for keeping aware of his surroundings and the actions of those around him.

Closing his eyes to think, Harry went over the plan. Things would be starting very quickly, the first of them planned for 15 minutes after the train departed. Sirius and Harry had planned to strike while the proverbial iron was hot, taking advantage of the turmoil of the Boy-Who-Lives reentering the wizarding world to mask their other actions and to take control of the situation before Harry arrived at Hogwarts and had to deal with Dumbledore.

Harry's closed his eyes, his even breathing didn't betray the anger that still rose up in his chest when he thought about Dumbledore. Right then was probably not the smartest time for somebody to bother Harry; in fact, you would have taken an absolute bloody idiot to bother Harry when you could visibly see his magic whipping about him in response to his pent up anger. All of these insults to such a person's intelligence are fitting, because right then Ronald Weasley decided to shove his way in the door to Harry's compartment.

"Can I sit here, the rest of the train is full?" the boy with the mop of red hair asked as he pushed his way in the door and proceeded to set his stuff down, not waiting for an answer.

"By all means, make yourself at home." Harry said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Harry's eyes opened to glare at the distraction who blindly wandered into Harry's territory without a care in the world. Harry's senses, even in human form, were that of the animals he had evolved traits from. He could taste and smell the elevated levels of adrenaline from the boy's perspiration when he stated that the train was full, and he could see the boy's pupils move with the statement. It didn't mean that the red head was lying, per say, he could have just been excited about going to Hogwarts and meeting Harry Potter, but the warning was there. Harry recognized the symptoms of a lie from his memories of dealing with some of the real estate agents who he had met with when signing documents for the goblins.

"Thanks mate!" Ron stated, totally missing the sarcasm in Harry's statement as he dragged his scuffed and nicked travel trunk into the compartment and pushed it under the seat.

Sitting down and looking across the compartment at Harry, Ron smiled big and said, "I'm Ron Weasley, and you are?"

Harry's brain was on high alert, there was no way that the boy didn't know who he was as Harry had noted the reaction of the boy and his family, especially the boy's sister, as he traversed the platform to enter the train. Harry became still and locked eyes with who he now knew to be Ron.

"Harry Potter." He stated in reply, a fake smile creeping across his face.

"Blimey! Really? Do you have the, you know, the scar?" Ron asked bluntly.

"If you mean the one on my forehead from when my parents were killed, then yes, obviously." Harry stated, his smile not reaching his eyes.

"Brilliant!" Ron stated, "Do you remember that night?" The obviously inobservant boy stated, missing the fact that Harry's pupils were starting to lengthen into animalistic slits.

"You mean, do I remember my mother screaming to take her and leave me alone before Voldemort killed her with an AK?" Harry said, menace grinding from his voice as he slowly raised himself off his bench and began to move towards the boy, "Do you mean do I remember that bastard killing my father first and then mother's death scream?" Harry asked towering over the sitting boy who was starting to creep back into his seat with eyes and mouth wide open. Harry's robe and hair were now being ruffled by a wind that only existed in the compartment, and he asked, "Do you mean do I remember him casting the death curse at me, all the while his red eyes and evil grin smiled down at me?" Harry practically yelled, towering over the red-head and looking straight down at Ron.

Ron didn't know what to say, he saw his meager life flash before his eyes, and he regretted the fact that most of it was spent in potty training.

Just when Ron thought his life was over, chess game over man, Harry stepped back.

Harry looked down at the boy and could smell his fear, that and a slight scent of urine, and realized what he was doing. Quick as a wink, his occlumency shields shot up and blanked out his emotions of anger. Slipping back into his seat faster than Ron could follow with his eyes, Harry was back in his comfortable position and looking at the boy like he had never moved.

"Nope, don't remember a thing." Harry said with a smile.

Ron was speechless for a moment, before stuttering and looking at Harry. "W-What? W-What? What was that?" Ron asked, still goggle-eyed.

Harry quirked his head to the side and took on a quizzical look. "What do you mean?"

Ron freaked out a bit and verbally vomited his answer, "The standing up, the story, the saying You-Know-Who's name? What was that!" He gushed.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, "Are you feeling ok?" Harry asked, the thought in the back of his mind was that screwing with this kid's brain could be fun.

"You were just standing here! Right in front of me, telling me about your parents' deaths! What was that?" Ron said, now yelling as his adrenaline was really pumping.

"I don't know what you are talking about. Are you sure that you are feeling alright?" Harry asked in a quizzical but polite tone, raising one eyebrow.

"Wha…?" Ron said, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as his brain hit 'reboot'.

Fortunately for Ron and the sanity of his five fully functioning brain cells, the moment was interrupted by a familiar blonde boy opening the door to the compartment and walking in with two boys who could be politely termed as 'big boned.'

Draco entered the compartment with a sneer and stated, "They say Harry Potter is on the train, and this is the last compartment to check, so… Bollocks!" Draco ended his statement as his eyes caught sight of Harry and the memories of Draco's statements and the situation at the Robe store to flooded through his brain. Mentally cursing to himself, he quickly caught his composure and turned to really look at who was in the compartment with Harry.

Sneering at Ron Weasley, Draco said to Harry, "You will find that some wizarding families are better than other's Harry, I can help you there. My name is Draco Malfoy." Draco stated, holding his hand out for Harry to shake.

"Really? Are you sure about that?" Harry said, a predatory smile now starting across his face.

Harry's reply took Draco off guard. "What? What do you mean am I sure about that? Of course I can help you know the better wizarding families. Besides, anybody is better than this blood traitor!" Draco stated as he sneered at Ron.

"No, you don't understand," Harry stated, that same smile plastered across his face, this time actually meeting his eyes. "Are you sure that you are Draco Malfoy?"

Meanwhile…

Narcissa Malfoy was always perfectly coiffed and fashionable in public, it was demanded by the clauses in her marriage contract and expected of her place in the wizarding society; the wife of the minister's chief advisor and one of the richest families in the wizarding world.

The morning of releasing Draco to go to Hogwarts had been bitter sweet for her. One part of her missed her son, the other was happy that he was off to school. The tug on a mother's heart strings as she saw her 'baby' grow up was both happy that he was growing up, but sad to see him leave her proverbial apron strings. The sadness was somewhat lessened by the fact that in the last several years Draco had become more and more like his father, distant and haughty, prone to irrational actions based on prejudice and not showing the cunning that was truly expected of a scion of House Malfoy.

It wasn't as if Narcissa didn't believe in the pureblood ideology, she had been a Black after all, and Toujours Pur was still her motto. She thought this to herself as she walked out of the floo and into her house, taking a moment to loosen the clips in her hair and stick her wand in it to hold the loose bun in its place. She walked into the living room and called for an elf to bring her tea.

Narcissa contemplated her life and her marriage as she sat down on a settee and reached for the cup and saucer of tea that had appeared before her. Lucius had "gone to the ministry for an important meeting," though she expected that he was really going to go visit 'the boys.' Her marriage was loveless, and she knew she was doomed to live it out for the rest of her days.

"What a sad life I live." She said to herself out loud as she went to take a sip of her tea, only to disappear with a *POP*!

Narcissa's cup of tea and saucer fell to the floor and shattered on the highly polished dark marble, the tea spilling across the floor and starting to seep into the ornate Persian rug that was under the short living room table.

The house was silent. If one was to be in the house, one would only hear the ticking of the grandfather clock and the rapid approach of several incoming mail-owls.

"Of course I know what my name is!" Draco said in exasperation, all thoughts of shaking Harry's hand dropping from his mind as he was side-tracked from his original campaign.

"Really? Alright then. But let me know if you need any help with that name problem." Harry said with a quirky smile, he eyes gleaming a bit.

Draco was dumbfounded. He really didn't know what to do right then, but figured that he needed some time to think about what the hell had just happened. His mouth opened and closed a few times, as he first looked at Harry, then Ron, then back at Harry.

"Bah! You're barmy!" Draco said. Flustered, Draco turned around and squeezed between his two miniature trolls and disappeared down the train's hallway. The two bookends dumbly stared at Harry and Ron for a second before turning to follow Draco down the hall, neither saying a word.

Harry just smiled inwardly and thought about how his plans were coming to fruition. He started to contemplate the next steps to take, when his train of thoughts was rudely interrupted by Ron.

"HA! We showed him, didn't we mate!" Ron said with a smile at Harry.

Harry slowly turned his head to face Ron and merely quirked an eyebrow, as if to say, "What the hell are you talking about you bloody idiot?" Apparently Harry's quirked eyebrow could say a lot. Harry's forthcoming statement regarding' Ron's sanity, or lack thereof, was interrupted by the lady with the food cart rolling up to their open compartment door.

"Anything off the cart dearies?" She asked with a genuine smile.

"No thanks, we're good." Ron said with a frown, pulling a smashed liver and onions sandwich out of his pocket.

"Hmmm, one second," Harry said as he stood up and looked about the cart. "I'll take several blood pops and two chocolate frogs." He stated, handing over several galleons and not accepting any change in return; it wasn't like he really cared about the money.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry caught Ron's jealous glare as the boy watched Harry carelessly hand over money and receive the candied treats in return. Ron carefully hid his frown by the time Harry had re-arranged himself back in the compartment.

As Harry sat down, popping a blood-pop in his mouth and savoring the bloody goodness, one of the chocolate frogs fell off his lap and onto the floor. Ron quickly scooped it up, opened it, and took a messy bite of the chocolate frog.

"Thanks mate!" Ron said with a messy smile, pieces of chocolate smeared on his lips and falling out of his mouth.

Harry decided to let Ron keep his thieving hands… for now, as a certain coldness came to his eyes. "No problem." Harry whispered with a bit of menace, the compartment growing a few degrees colder for some 'unexplainable' reason.

Ron just smiled a smeared smile back as he chewed through his frog. Harry proceeded to finish off the first blood-pop and reach for his remaining chocolate frog. As he opened the box, the animated chocolate frog jumped for freedom, only to be snatched out of the air by Harry's blindingly fast reflexes. Eating the frog in one bite, Harry looked at the card that had been in the box.

"Dumbledore! BAH!" Harry thought, flipping the card over and reading it anyway; knowledge was power after all. "Hmm, dragon blood… Nicholas Flamel… friends with the creator of the philosopher's stone" Harry thought as he read the card, the memories form Scorpius Black filling in the details that weren't listed in the short description on the back of the card.

"Hmmm, I wonder if…" Harry's thoughts were interrupted as the smell of prey issued up to him from where Ron was sitting.

Looking up at Ron, Harry saw a rat crawl out of the pocket of the red-head's robe and start munching on the chocolate that had fallen from Ron's mouth as spittle.

SNIFF! Sniff, Sniff. Harry smelled the air, and then tasted its scent. That was no mere rat, that was an animagus.

Looking down at the rat with a gleam in his eye, Harry's enhanced vision could clearly make out a missing finger. Only one rat animagus that Harry knew of had a missing finger, Pettigrew!

With a growl, Harry lashed out across the compartment. One palm flashing up to impact Ron's forehead, knocking him out cold. The other hand grabbed the rat off Ron's lap so fast that Harry ripped the boy's robe.

Hands with fingers like steel cables wrapped around the rat, "Hello Peter." Harry said, he green eyes glowing and a large sharp fanged smile forming on his face, "I know somebody who'd absolutely KILL to see you again." Harry finished. The rat squirmed, flailed, and lost control of its bowel movements as it was held in Harry's tight grasp; Peter couldn't even bend his head to bite Harry's hand.

Pulling out his wand, Harry flicked out two stunning spells, one at Peter and one at Ron, and then cast a scourgify on his robe and hands to clean off the evidence of Peter's fear.

Harry had to work fast if he wanted to get his 'gift' to Sirius wrapped up and on its way before somebody else came to the door. Flicking his wand at the door, Harry cast a locking charm and darkened out the windows.

Harry cast an incarcerous on Pettigrew, but instead of ropes tight red ribbons tied themselves around Peter's form, ending in a nice pretty bow; Harry remembered that it was the little details that meant so much to people. Pulling out a piece of parchment from his bag, Harry wrote out a quick note to Sirius stating he was sending him a small token of appreciation, but to make sure that he didn't kill Peter; maiming and torture were all good, but he had to be in "one piece" at the end.

Attaching the parchment to the ribbon with a sticking charm, Harry swirled his wand and tapped it to the bound rat's ribbons while saying, "Portus." Harry made a mental note to work on his wordless and wandless uses of such spells before focusing back on the job at hand.

Setting the rat down on the seat next to him, Harry stated, "Marauders." At which point the rat disappeared with a flash and was gone.

Looking up at the passed out Ron, Harry quirked his head to side for a moment, before an evil thought popped into his head. "Tsk Tsk, this absolutely won't do. Can't have you remembering anything that could cause me troubles now, can we?" Harry asked rhetorically to the unconscious red-head.

"Obliviate!" Harry snapped, raising his wand toward Ron's head, and hitting him with a blast of light right between the eyes. Then with a few flicks of his wand, Ron's trunk was out from underneath the seat and open, exposing the untidy mess of clothing, quidditch books, and a chess set.

Opening the window, Harry picked up Ron's trunk and shook the contents out the window of the train. Turning towards Ron with a cackle, Harry set about folding the unconscious eleven year old into a ball, only to deposit him into the boy's ratty trunk, securely closing and locking the lid.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." Harry said as he kicked the trunk back under the seat, brushed off his hands and stuck another blood-pop in his mouth. Remembering a lesson that Scorpius had been taught in his younger days as a Slytherin, "Plausible deniability is good, but being found somewhere else entirely is even better."

With that, Harry tucked his remaining blood-pops into his pockets, used his wand to unlock the door, and jaunted off down the hallway towards the front of the train, whistling a happy tune. He passed a frizzy haired brunette and a pudgy shy looking boy who were apparently searching for a toad, Harry politely denying having seen the amphibian. Harry held a small quirk of a smile on his face as he turned from the duo, he made a mental note that he would have to introduce himself to the girl he recognized from a previous trip to the zoo.

AN: Next chapter is written, sorry for taking so long, but working 60+ hour weeks is not conducive to writing.