Harry was in shock as he sat in the goblin's office, and next to him Professor Babbling was just as stunned as he was himself, but he didn't pay her much attention right now. He was too busy trying to wrap his brain around what he had just learnt from the goblins.

How could this have happened? He had known something was not right when he had woken up for the first time in that damned cupboard and when he had gone through his first beatings from the Dursleys, and when he had escaped from Number 4; those memories of that snake-faced man whom he now knew, thanks to Professor Babbling, was Lord Voldemort, had been too vivid for him to even try to forget them.

But to be abandoned by his parents, his parents… Harry had known the moment he had called for his parents when he had found himself in that stinking Cupboard under the Stairs something wasn't right, and his parents were still alive. He had refused to accept the possibility they could even be dead, no matter what the Dursleys said.

Nothing the Dursleys could have said would have convinced him they'd died in a car crash, he had always held out hope that the Dursleys had kidnapped him or something, and his parents were looking for him, but to discover they were the ones who'd left him with the Dursleys in the first place, all because they thought he didn't have any magic….!

Harry had never hated anyone before so much in his entire life, never.

He had hated many people over the years, but they didn't hold a candle for his own so-called family. He had endured so much from the Dursleys; so many beatings and dealt with their attempts to stifle him, and destroy his spirit while he was shoved into the Cupboard under the Stairs. He had been chased across neighbourhoods by Dudley's gang, and nearly been killed on the streets more times than he'd prefer to count, and all that time, his parents were not only alive, they weren't looking for him at all. They had abandoned him.

Bastards!

Fucking stupid bastards!

If he ever met them again….!

Unknown to Harry, his magic was beginning to react to his emotions, and the goblin and Professor Babbling paused and turned to him, and they were terrified by the glow in his eyes. Everything began to shake.

Quickly Professor Babbling threw herself in front of Harry, "Harry! Stop this! Calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Harry whispered, but he did as he was told, and he took a few deep breaths and everything stopped shaking. "I hate them, Professor Babbling. I hate them so much! They abandoned me to that filth. They never bothered to stay in touch! They never bothered to come and check up on me, and for what? Only because they'd gotten dodgy results saying I couldn't do magic! What kind of people do that?"

Babbling was more horrified than frightened right now, and she was stunned by what her friends had done. She had never imagined Lily doing anything like this, and not bothering to keep in touch to make sure her son was safe. "Harry, we don't know what happened," she began, but Harry lifted his gaze, and the look in his feral twisted face shut her up instantly. His eyes were glowing with rage, literally.

"No, we don't," Harry agreed. "And I don't care. I don't care about my brother being the Boy Who Lived," Babbling shuddered at the unadulterated loathing she could hear in her charge's voice, the contempt, "I want nothing to do with him, or them." Harry lowered his head and closed his eyes as he tried to master the pain and the sheer hurt he was feeling.

Harry couldn't believe what he had just learnt. He had held onto so much hope over the years since he found himself with the Dursleys, he had always assumed he had been kidnapped and dumped with the Dursleys despite Petunia being his bitch of a mother's sister and now he'd learnt the truth….Harry….he…. he didn't want to know his parents at all.

After a few moments, Harry realised he genuinely didn't care about what his parents thought, said, or did.

They had proven they didn't care about him; the fact they'd left him behind to the tender mercies of the Dursleys was bad enough, discovering they had been paid all this time was even worse! No, actually what was worse was they had set the whole thing up and walked away without a backwards glance.

They hadn't set up any way to keep in touch with the Dursleys in case something happened! The Dursleys could have gone on holiday, and anything could have happened to him. Where would that get him? So much for parental love.

Now he was calmer, Harry had the chance to think this through a little more rationally, or as rationally as he could; he was still angry with what he had just discovered, and he was not in the mood for any kind of platitude right now, even if he sensed Professor Babbling was just as horrified as he was himself.

Harry didn't want to go to Hogwarts. Now he knew Lily and James Potter were alive and were on the teaching staff, he wanted nothing to do with them even more.

"I'm sorry, Professor Babbling; it seems I've wasted your time," Harry spoke at last, the woman becoming upset when she heard his detached voice. "I don't think I want to attend Hogwarts. Are there any other magical schools I can go to?"

"Harry-," Professor Babbling blinked in surprise and hurt. While she had seen some things about Harry's personality which were worrying to her, she found herself becoming fond of him, and the thought he didn't want to go was painful. But she could understand it. As she'd witnessed his reaction to the way his parents abandoned him, simply because they'd made a mistake, she realised how seriously he took things, and she had to see it from his point of view.

Harry had been abandoned at a very young age; he found himself abused and he didn't know why, while he had the spark of a memory of You-Know-Who rattling around in his head. He had been forced to flee and fend for himself and Merlin knew what he'd gone through.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Harry's expression made it clear he meant every word he was saying, "I don't want to go to Hogwarts. My parents abandoned me and left me with people who hated me because I can use magic, and they never bothered to check up on me. If my parents want to live in a bubble, then they can. I want out of it."

He didn't dare tell her he planned to get back at his parents for what they'd done.

He just didn't want to do it now.

Bloodbringer, the Potter family account manager, took the moment to speak. "There is a way you can change schools, Mr Potter, and since your parents abandoned you, they relinquished custody of you, however, you will need a guardian. There is a branch of the Potter family living in the MACUSA - the Magical Congress of the United States of America, if you move to America as their ward then would things go smoothly without involving other families."

Harry knew enough about legal and political battles from reading stories in newspapers to know they could be nasty, and he wanted to avoid them as much as possible. "How can I get in touch with them?"

"I can handle that, however, you will need to be aware your parents will be informed, so your desire for anonymity is going to be impossible to allow. There is nothing that can be done about that," Bloodbringer said regretfully.

Professor Babbling looked at Harry, gauging his reaction, and she saw he was not happy. "Won't they try to stop him from leaving when they realise their mistake?"

"Almost certainly, Professor Babbling. However it should be possible for memories of young Mr Potter's life to make the desired result possible," Bloodbringer replied.

Professor Babbling sighed, cursing the Potters for making her witness this mess. But what upset her the most was how Harry wanted this. It just wasn't right, especially since Lily was such a thoughtful woman who was intelligent and cunning; she should have known better than to do this.

Harry wasn't happy himself, since he had hoped never to see his parents again. "What kind of memories?" He asked.

"Memories of your childhood should do, especially if you were separated from them," Bloodbringer replied.

Professor Babbling shuddered when she remembered the scars she'd seen.

Harry remembered it, too, if the cold laugh was anything to go by, "Oh wow, I've got dozens of those. Okay, I'm not happy about it, but let's do it."

"Very well. I'll arrange it with the Gringotts branch in the MACUSA," Bloodbringer promised.

Xxxxx

Professor Bathsheda Babbling found it weird she was bringing Harry back to the foster home with nothing but a load of questions and a lot of painful realisations she hadn't known the Potter family at all. She and Harry had both worked with Bloodbringer in sorting through the memories Harry had in his head, and she was amazed the boy had lasted the way he had. Hearing him scream in pain whenever Vernon Dursley beat him finished off a large chunk of her unease, her doubt this was not for Harry.

How could Lily and James do this, just abandon their child and walk away?

What the hell was going on, what was the point?

Why hadn't they kept in touch or looked for a way of making sure they hadn't made a mistake?

"I am sorry, you've wasted your time today, Professor Babbling," Harry apologised again.

Bathsheda snapped out of her thoughts, offering him a smile, but it came off as a grimace in her head.

"No, it's okay," Professor Babbling said quietly as she looked down at Harry. "Are you sure this is what you want, to leave Britain?" She winced, she didn't know why she was asking.

Harry nodded. "Without a doubt, Professor," he said, "there's nothing here for me, except bad memories. I just want a fresh start for good."

He didn't add he hoped he had the chance to send Lily, Charlus and James letters of how good he was at magic, out of spite more than anything else.

Professor Babbling smiled down at him, and on impulse she gently hugged him, feeling bad when she felt him stiffen before she left.