Hagrid was both helpful and yet he was a blundering oaf. While the giant of a man (how the hell had he gotten so large?) had introduced him into the magical world, there were so many things Hagrid hadn't told him and he'd evaded or ignored the questions and dropping hints of how 'complicated' things were. Finally after being given non answer after non answer, Harry realised Hagrid, despite living in the magical world his whole life, truly had no idea how to introduce wizards and witches to the magical world.

He had gone to a lot of trouble to smuggle the letter into his cupboard and find a way of giving the reply back, and yet he was confused by Hagrid's presence; surely the teachers of Hogwarts were trained in dealing with difficult and stubborn and fearful muggles? What did Hagrid do, he bashed down the Dursley's door, went berserk and intimidated the Dursleys before bringing him here.

Harry had gone with him, asking him questions about the magical world and while Hagrid had given him the basics, the boy quickly learnt Hagrid had been told to give him only a small amount of information.

The only troubling thing that worried Harry was when Hagrid had mentioned the Hogwarts houses after he'd picked up on them when he'd met that unpleasant blond boy in Madam Malkins' shop. Hagrid hadn't bothered to give him any information or insight into the other Houses, except Hufflepuff was a House full of duffers, and that Slytherin was filled with nothing but evil witches and wizards, and that not a single dark wizard hadn't been a Slytherin.

Frankly his biased attitude would have annoyed and worried Harry even if he hadn't discovered the existence of the magical world early. Harry had swallowed his misgivings and decided to do more research into the Houses later. Preferably when Hagrid was not nearby. When he got into Gringotts, Harry realised the goblins clearly didn't like wizards, why would they give him misinformation?

Well they would, but if he played his cards right then surely he would learn a great deal. And he did, but he only got his chance after persuading Hagrid he could make his own way back to the Dursleys since they made him go on errands; clearly Hagrid's lack of common sense also extended into a lack of general intelligence since anyone else after seeing the Cupboard under the Stairs would know he had just told a really bad lie. Any child who was allowed out would have run for the hills, but Hagrid just accepted it and went on his merry way.

Harry had gone back to Diagon Alley and thanks to the goblins he had learnt a great deal about his family, and what Dumbledore had hidden from him as a result.

By the time he went to Hogwarts, Harry had taken with him his family grimoire, and his family ring to stop anyone putting spells and compulsions on him. He even learnt his mother's family had given her a couple of flats to let out, to make a small living and to begin a real estate business. Harry had learnt Petunia had been given two flats, also but since he had never seen them before because if the Dursleys had kept them as a means of making income, then they would have forced him to clean them. That meant either Petunia had sold them off, or given them to Vernon to deal with since the woman was not entirely bright even if she was smarter than Vernon and Dudley combined enough to see that her marriage could go badly wrong and she would need to get away from him and live on her own.

Lily was different. She was smart enough to make a living of her own, and she had spent a few years while she wasn't working for Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix doing various properties up, using a combination of magic and muggle resources to make a substantial profit. Lily had made a fortune by the time of her death, and Harry would inherit it later on.

Xxxxx

By the end of the year, Harry was left wondering if he should just leave the magical world now and drop out of Hogwarts if he had to deal with the crap he had. Harry had been sorted into Ravenclaw, stunning every single student; Harry had underestimated just how many people expected him to go into the so-called House of the Brave. But he didn't care. Harry hated his Boy Who Lived fame since it meant everyone had their own thoughts and views about who he was and what he was like in personality, looks and attitudes. They had expected him to be a Gryffindor through and through without thinking that he was his own person. They thought he would rush blindly into danger, and assumed he'd be a fan of Dumbledore. Everyone believed Dumbledore had trained him from an early age, but once everyone got over the fact he was a Ravenclaw, it would be a while before they realised he was nothing like what they had expected.

One of the first things Harry did was bluntly tell the wizarding world he was not a spoilt brat. He did that via letters and oaths which had caused several problems for Dumbledore, and he had begun suing the people who had made a quick galleon out of his name. Some people might say he was acting like a Gryffindor with his actions, but Harry didn't believe so; he thought that it would be a better idea to simply clear the air.

Harry had been tempted to reveal the truth of the Dursleys, but he decided against it since Dumbledore was already causing problems with the revelations he'd brought up and truthfully he knew the Dursleys, what if there was something far worse out there? He had only been in the magical world a short time before he learnt Fudge, the Minister for Magic, was being manipulated by Voldemort's followers into passing law after law; the goblins had warned him that while Dumbledore had put him with an abusive home, it had stopped the Death Eaters from getting their hands on him.

Okay, but it didn't mean he was happy.

Still, Harry had managed to hide the fact he had one of his mother's old properties. A townhouse. It was in London and it was well equipped and furnished, as she had loved the place.

That was where he was going to live from now on.

Xxxxxx

When Harry was made a Ravenclaw, some of the students and teachers - mostly Gryffindors - kept harassing him, particularly a bushy-haired girl who acted so much like a know it all it was not funny, to say nothing of a redhead who was highly rude and had kept saying he was Harry's best mate. In the girl's case, it was largely his own fault.

Harry had felt sorry for her, she was like him in many ways. She loved books and learning, but unlike him it quickly became obvious Hermione Granger believed books were the ultimate answer to every question in existence. It never occurred to her to actually go out and check it out for herself.

Harry had gone to comfort her after she was bullied shamelessly by her own House. Sadly he had missed the notice that there was a troll in the castle. Harry had been forced to use a piercing curse through its eye, which he got from the Potter grimoire. The thing was killed instantly and the body was discovered by the professors.

McGonagall, someone whom he hated already because of how she had often said aloud she wished he had been in her House, had demanded answers. Hermione had tried to lie, but he had told the truth, bluntly saying how the Gryffindors had a weird definition of 'family' as Hermione was only trying to help them in charms. McGonagall hadn't liked that, but while she and the other professors were stunned by the sheer brutality he had used to kill the troll, they'd given him points.

After that, Hermione had become a friend. Or at least he had assumed she had thought he was her friend, but when she kept asking him questions about how he was and what he was doing and even what he was thinking, he began wondering if they were friends.

On the opposite side of the equation was Ron Weasley. The boy was stupid; he continuously butted in, and what made him even more suspicious was how he and Granger (as Harry began thinking of her as) seemed to hit it off, with her forgiving him for driving her into the bathroom that got demolished by the troll. Harry had never understood forgiveness; to him, if someone did something to anyone else, they deserved a dose of poetic justice.

But why would the girl be so forgiving to the boy who'd nearly helped send her to her death? Harry didn't understand it. But for the rest of the year, the pair of them both tried forcing Harry to do things he wasn't interested in. He had needed to use half of Ravenclaw House to act as witnesses that he hadn't helped the two Gryffindors smuggle a baby dragon out of the school. He'd needed to avoid them when they kept clamouring for him to help them solve the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone. That last one was easy when he found the House Elves and found out about the Room of Requirement to study the stone's properties so he'd learn more about what was so special about it and why Granger and Weasley wanted him to help thyem, and he learnt of the massive con played by the Flamels. As he learnt more about it, Harry became confused; two ancient and highly skilled magicians, yet they would allow it to be put into a Gringotts vault and then into a school.

Why would they do that?

What if they needed it in a hurry?

The Flamels were alchemists, but like so many in their field they had spent years seeking out a way of combining a potion to form an elixir so it would not only grant them immortality, but would transform metals into pure gold by modifying its molecular structure. But they failed, like all alchemists. Oh they had succeeded in creating the potions, but they couldn't combine it.

Hooked as they were by the lure of riches and eternal life since their age was making them desperate, they turned to a different method of immortality. Harry saw it thanks to the tesseract which was the Room of Requirement. They had cloned their bodies and they had transferred their souls into their new bodies and kept the original flesh to clone it from, and for the next few centuries the Flamels had been jumping from clone body to clone body periodically.

The Stone was a fake.

At the end of the year, Harry had ignored every single attempt to get him to save the Stone; he was not interested since even if some Dark Wizard was after it, it would not help them so there was no point. But that hadn't stopped Granger and Weasley from trying to drag him there and 'save it' but at the ending feast, where Gryffindor won the House cup for some mad reason which made him realise Dumbledore was rewarding the pair of them for trying to save it regardless, Harry had noticed all of Dumbledore's looks pointed at him.