When he returned to his townhouse and transformed back into a human, Harry shook his head. He had gone to Hermione's place to kill her, but no matter what… his old fondness for the girl had remained. It had killed him when he'd learnt she was spying on him for Dumbledore, but her motives for doing it were purer than any of the Weasleys, even if he was disgusted that she valued greed for knowledge above friendship. Still, while she had a highly organised mind that prevented most wizards from getting into her mind, her sorrow was genuine, and that had tipped the balance.
He hadn't bothered obliviating her newfound knowledge of him being an animagus. What would be the point? Soon, Harry Potter would vanish forever, and he would be a whole new person although whether or not he would retain his memories, he still wasn't sure. But the point was, when he did vanish, the Wizarding World would likely be looking for him but they would never find him.
Harry had no intention of making things easier for them. He knew now Voldemort was dead Aurors and other volunteers were looking to make a name for themselves out there trying to find him, and even if Hermione knew he was an animagus, how could the wizards find one raven out of the millions in the skies above England?
In any case, she didn't know about his other forms, so the breach in security was minimal. But the biggest problem he had right now was Dumbledore. The old wizard was leading the charge in finding him, and he was becoming increasingly desperate with all the murders. Harry was in two minds about killing any more people. He had only gone after Fudge and Umbridge because of their corruption and bigotry, but he had also killed the Weasleys to deprive Dumbledore of any more fanatical followers. He had decided to simply leave Black alone. The man was likely wallowing in his misery right about now with the death of his last best friend, but truthfully Harry's sympathy was limited.
Truthfully Harry didn't understand why Dumbledore was still looking for him. All he wanted to do was switch bodies, get a new life, and end Harry Potter once and for all.
But all Dumbledore was doing was preaching to everyone who would listen and using his considerable influence to find him. Harry was tempted to kill Dumbledore now before he ruined the lives of any more children the same way he had Harry's and Riddles. The only problem he had with killing Dumbledore was the old man was raising such a lot of noise right now while trying to get him under his control and back to Hogwarts. Killing him now would cast even more suspicion; quite a few people were already leaving their opinions the murders happening recently were down to him. That was one reason why the Aurors were so interested in seeking him out.
Harry had already decided he wasn't going to bother with any more murders after deciding to just give up on Hermione Granger. But Albus Dumbledore was fair game. He was all 'Harry still has a destiny to fulfil, a duty to honour his parents' memory.' Oh Dumbledore, you are naive. It had never occurred to Dumbledore, or Black, or anybody else for that matter that Harry truly didn't care about his parent's memories at all. It was hard to care about something like that when you were fed lies about them, and nobody was willing to talk about them, never mind the image you had in your mind shifted to despising them for being drunk drivers, a whore and a crook, to two people willing to play martyrs.
Harry rubbed his face and realised he would likely have to deal with Dumbledore after all, regardless of the risks but he would have no choice.
-8-
Albus Dumbledore was pacing up and down his office; while the elderly wizard was highly experienced, and he was a highly trained and experienced practitioner in the mind-arts, it was good to pace up and down and in the privacy of his office he was able to throw away the pretence he was a patient and serene man.
There was no doubt in his head at all that Harry was behind these murders. The timing was just too close to his escape, and Dumbledore was desperate to find the young wizard and find answers to his questions. How the hell could Harry have done this? He had made sure his spies and the teachers directly under his thumb kept the boy from really learning anything at all, and yet somehow Harry had beaten the odds. It was a talent the boy had which was both awe-inspiring and yet frustrating.
Personally, while Fudge, Umbridge, and those idiots on the wizengamot responsible for the sentencing didn't bother Dumbledore too much, as they were frequently against his own agenda, the murders of such a large chunk of the Weasley family had deprived him of the stock he needed for his plans to create an army which followed his philosophies and would be enough to subjugate the muggles when the time was right.
The Statute of Secrecy was a lost cause, so many people saw it; every single year, the Statute ate up a colossal 87% of the magical world's resources, and the ICW met each year to discuss ways of strengthening the barriers. The conferences lasted for two to three weeks, and each time Dumbledore came away more determined than ever to end the whole thing.
It was just so pointless. Every single year, Dumbledore argued the magical world worldwide should adopt the same approaches as the old Rappaport laws from the MACUSA; several countries had employed them for years, with children verified to being witches and wizards taken out of their mother's wombs and implanted into the wombs of witches and wizards, while the Americans simply waited until the children were born to take them and put them with a magical family. Sadly only a few countries took this wise approach, and because they had highly developed sensor arrays designed to detect children, the greatest risk to the magical kind, that of muggle-borns being inducted with their family's knowledge, never happened and their contact with the muggle world was reduced.
The majority of countries around the world, Britain being one of them, followed by France, Germany, Italy, Spain and many other European and a few Asian countries took the opposite approach. And it caused them so many problems, that some wizards and witches stupidly tried exposing their world to the muggles every year. There were incidents with latent witches and wizards, who exploded with magic. There were obscurials. Even magical creatures caused problems.
But Dumbledore wasn't arrogant enough to believe only he could cause the Statute to break. It was only a matter of time before it collapsed on its own, and the muggles were merely growing stronger and stronger every single year.
He never noticed the tiny snake in his office, with more than one head, and he never noticed it growing in size before he felt a terrific pain in his legs.
-8-
Dumbledore was the most difficult person on his hit list to kill. Dumbledore had been a wily old bird, with dozens of protective spells in place to keep himself safe at all times. In the end, he had resorted to shrinking himself down, and he transformed into his hydra form before he'd grown in size. Getting into the castle was easy; thanks to the Marauder's Map and his own research, he'd gotten a good knowledge of the numerous tunnels leading out of the school.
The Headmaster's office was trickier, and he'd had to turn into a spider to get past the gargoyle; the wizarding world's lack of animagus wards had given him a chance to get in without the castle fighting him.
Harry had gotten out the same way, now he was back in his townhouse and he was going over everything he wanted and needed to do, and he decided that the best option he had, was to simply go through with it. And to kill Harry Potter, once and for all.
-8-
15 years later…
-8-
Emma Potter was sharing a laugh with her friends, the hot Australian sun warming up her sun-kissed long jet-black hair and her eyes, emerald green, twinkled with joy as she giggled with her friends as they had a fun time shopping at the mall, sharing gossip. But at the same time, there were moments when the girl wondered about herself and her past. Emma had been orphaned from a young age, and she had no idea who her parents were…and yet, there were times, moments, when she had the strangest feeling she was better off not knowing who they were.