Dear Mister Potter

We have received intelligence that you performed the Patronus Charm at twenty-three minutes past nine this evening in a Muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle.

The severity of this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand.

As you have already received an official warning for a previous offence under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlock's Statute of Secrecy, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 9 a.m. on the twelfth of August.

Hoping you are well,
Yours sincerely

Mafalda Hopkirk

Improper Use of Magic Office
Ministry of Magic

Harry found himself numbly re-reading the letter, slowly memorizing the words that were sure to find their way into his nightmares.

He had been expelled from Hogwarts… he wasn't going back to the place that he considered home… all because he had defended himself against the dementors that had been trying to suck out his soul…

A loud droning noise caught Harry's attention, making his eyes slowly rise up to stare at Uncle Vernon, the large man purple in the face as he screamed a steady stream of insults at Harry. Eyebrows furrowing as his brain tried to fight through the shock that blanketed it, Harry stood there silently as Vernon ranted on about how the allowance the other Freaks were paying them wasn't enough to make keeping him around worth it.

"You were getting paid?" Harry interrupted as his mind snapped back to the present, his voice cutting straight through his Uncle's tirade and making the obese man freeze with a confused look on his face. "You were getting paid to look after me. And yet you both constantly claimed that I was a good-for-nothing free-loader?" he demanded. "You treated me like a slave for fourteen years while stealing from me?"

"You deserved it Freak," Vernon spluttered as Harry felt anger beginning to burn in his chest. "And it wasn't worth it either. You kept showing off your abnormalities around us normal folk, and now look what you've done to Dudley!"

Listening to his Uncle snarl something about drowning him as a baby, Harry felt something snapping inside him, his eyes drifting closed as haunting phoenix song welled up inside his chest.

Anger sparking behind his eyes made them snap open. He slowly stepped forward as the room's temperature sharply dropped below the summer's usual intense heat. "Shut. The Fuck. Up," he growled out bluntly, his Uncle's mouth opening and closing as he stuttered dumbly in response.

Out of all the thoughts that were screaming in Harry's mind, only one seemed to penetrate the red-tinted haze that covered his brain. He had been expelled, not because he had defended himself, but because he had defended Dudley. He had been bloody Kissed because he'd stopped to protect Dudley. (He was also that much of a freak, that even when Kissed by soul-sucking fiends he could just shrug it off).

He could have ran, he had definitely been more than tempted to do so. But instead he stopped to save his cousin, the same cousin who turned around and blamed Harry for it instantly, the same cousin that had joined in the abuse his thieving family had heaped upon him for years.

Glancing back down at the letter still clenched in his fist, Harry recalled what it said. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand. Like hell Harry was going to give up his wand to any Ministry representative, Harry was as good as dead if he didn't have his wand, what with both Voldemort and Vernon baying for his blood.

He needed to get out of Privet Drive, he decided as he turned away and started towards the door. He needed to get out of Privet Drive and… and… and he needed to go to the Burrow, the Weasleys would be able to help him build up a defence to present to the Ministry as proof that he hadn't broken the law.

"WHERE D'YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" Vernon's voice screamed, his Uncle launching bodily himself across the room to stand in front of the door Harry was heading for. "I haven't finished with you boy," he snarled, jabbing a meaty finger towards Dudley, "You put him right! You fix what you did now or I'll-"

"What?" Harry interrupted darkly, "You'll do what?" he asked as he pulled his wand from his pocket and twirled it around his fingers.

What 'Uncle' Vernon was going to do to him was cut off, as the obese man merely let out a terrified and strangled whimper, as for the second time in a night Harry felt the familiar chill-inducing dread of a dementor's aura approaching.

Somehow standing strong against it, Harry watched apathetically as his 'relatives' slowly fell to the ground with clammy faces and fear-filled eyes. Dudley didn't look so good, he mused thoughtfully as he watched the fat boy quivering sickeningly, he looked almost catatonic with fear while Harry himself felt the dementor's aura flowing around him uselessly.

"Wha- What?" Vernon gasped out, bringing Harry's attention back to him.

"What's happening?" Harry finished for his Uncle, feeling almost detached from what was happening before him as he tilted his head to watch Vernon. "That's the dementor's aura, they feed on happy memories, so whenever they're near all your worst memories are the only ones left," he explained, a little concerned as to how his emotions had just switched 'off' from being on overdrive earlier. "And then, when they get close enough," Harry continued as he walked over to crouch in front of his Uncle, "They suck your soul out through your mouth".

"He-help," his Aunt rasped, making Harry glance over at her.

"Well I couldn't possibly do anything," Harry denied innocently, "What good could a freak like me do? Besides, I got expelled rescuing Dudley from them earlier, so I'm not allowed to perform magic anymore. So sad," he drawled as he heard the sound of the door being thrown open, the dementors sweeping into the room almost instantly. "Too bad".

Standing up against and backing away, Harry watched dispassionately as the dementors made quick work of his family. Funny that he didn't seem to care anymore, just yesterday he'd have been screaming the patronus charm until he was blue in the face, but after feeling his own soul being dislodged by a dementor attempting to Kiss him Harry really couldn't be bothered to conjure up the need to care about them, as long as the dementors didn't try Kiss him again he didn't see the point in wasting his energy.

Closing his eyes and letting the haunting phoenix song in his ears clear his mind, Harry felt himself relaxing for a moment, opening pitch-black eyes as his hand snapped up to close around a dementor's throat when it got to close. "I let you have them," he drawled slowly as he smirked at it, "Be grateful for what you were given and leave me be".

When his other hand rose to catch the other dementor mid-dive, Harry looked between the two creatures hanging limply by his hold on their throats. "So rude," he dead-panned, not even twitching as he felt his magic surging through his arms and into the dementors, causing the thrashing creatures to dissolve into dust.

"Manners are something kids these days just don't have".

Slowly turning blackened eyes to the man in the doorway, Harry turned his head as he felt a sense of familiarity radiating from him. "Do I know you?" he asked emotionlessly.

"I know you," the man countered, "And I have the answers you seek".

Tilting his head slowly as he turned to face the man, Harry thought for a moment before finally asking, "What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing," the man denied, "You've simply… evolved… beyond what you were previously".

"And what am I know?" Harry asked curiously.

"That depends on who you were before," the man said simply.

"Harry Potter," he introduced hesitantly, "I'm – I was Harry Potter".

"And who are you now?" the man questioned, stepping into the room and beginning to flit about as he inspected everything. "You know what you are," he explained, "Just as easily as you knew how to deal with our fallen brethren".

The man was right. Harry knew what he was. The word Maleficar just falling from his tongue even as he asked himself the question. He was a Maleficar, just like the man opposite him was, just like the rest of their kind were. And just like the dementors were once…

"Who are you?" Harry asked slowly, watching the man touring the room, stepping over the bodies of his relatives as if they weren't even there.

"Me? Why I'm Axe, of course," 'Axe' explained simply, "I used to be Chase Collins though. Who are you?" he asked Harry again.

Searching for his name, Harry frowned and looked down at the floor in annoyance. "I… don't know," he confessed slowly.

"Okay".

"Okay?" Harry echoed, glancing up at Axe hesitantly.

"Okay," Axe repeated with a shrug, "You don't know who you are yet. So what? It took me months to figure it out," he explained, honestly sounding like it was nothing.

Staring at the man who was poking at an ornament on the fireplace, Harry let himself ask the first question that came to mind. "How did you find me?"

Axe paused for a moment, before turning to shoot Harry an award-winning smile. "That's a good question," he murmured slowly, "The answer is one you already know however".

Huh… so Harry did. "I want to hear you say it," Harry pressed, stepping forward and narrowing his eyes at Axe.

"Magic sent me," Axe explained, "Back when the Fallen first dislodged your soul, awakening your true self, She spoke to me and told me where to find you".

Nodding to himself as the haunting song rose up inside him once more, Harry watched as Axe grinned slowly. "See? You can hear her, She's so beautiful isn't she".

"Now what?" Harry questioned when the phoenix song faded, "What do we do now?"

"Now I begin your training," Axe admitted, "I teach you what you need to know, how to use your true powers".

"And then? Then what?"

Axe shrugged again, "What do you want to do?"

MALEFICAR

I apologise for any errors in this chapter. It's an old idea, one that's been worked at and changed so many times it resembles Frankenstein's monster. If there are any little cuts or broken parts just let me know, I probably missed something.

The Undercover Operative cannot claim to own Harry Potter.