Harry lay back down in his bed in the hospital wing, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the back of Albus Dumbledore as the elderly wizard left the Hospital Wing; it had been a struggle and a half to keep the old man out of his mind, and he had felt the old wizard looking inside, but thanks to the advice and information he'd gotten from the goblins after his second visit to Gringotts, who'd told him all about the missing Potter invisibility cloak which was not in the census the goblins had taken after his parents' deaths after Voldemort murdered them, he was relieved the old wizard hadn't been suspicious and believed the Boy Who Lived's mind was as easy to read as a kid's picture book.
He'd had enough of Hogwarts. He'd had enough of the poor standards, the way the students could be bullied and nothing would be done, and how anybody who fought back were the ones who were punished. Heaven forbid the teachers actually do their jobs, why they thought the victims were guilty was anybody's guess.
While he was tired of Hogwarts and he'd had enough of the sub-standard lessons and bullying, Harry still wanted to learn magic, so he was in two minds about giving Hogwarts up after only a year.
He would see how things went over the next week or so, and if he decided to leave, then he would. Harry had a secret weapon in his Gringott's vault, so none of Dumbledore's spies could get hold of it.
But as he thought of the school, Harry wanted to groan at the poor standards and bullying. How that worked he didn't know. What kind of logic was passing through the minds of the teachers? Didn't they know they were causing more harm than they realised by doing that, or did they simply not care? If that was the case then it was little wonder the wizarding world thought dark wizards could rise to power without any consequences, and it all came down to the lessons taught them by their parents, who'd gone to school to be taught by Dumbledore.
But what he'd had enough of the most, was how he had come to the school hoping for knowledge, only for himself to be placed on a pedestal and watched.
That was one of the worst drawbacks of being famous, really; in all honesty, Harry felt it was the worst thing to ever happen to him, and he had about 10 years to draw upon there.
Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes, fortifying his mental barriers and instantly felt the tracking charms and other spells Dumbledore had cast over him while he'd been asleep; he would have to get rid of them at some point without it looking too suspicious. From what he'd read, many spells had a finite amount of time before they just fell unless they were anchored to something that fuelled them and gave them strength. Dumbledore couldn't do that without attracting attention.
While he fortified his barriers, he let his mind drift back to the past. Dumbledore was wrong. He might have assumed when he'd dropped Harry off on the Dursley's doorstep, with the help of his lackeys - Hagrid and McGonagall (Hagrid had such loose lips, once you asked him a few innocent questions, you found him to be a fountain of knowledge), which meant he could and would never trust them - the Dursleys would never tell him about the magical world out of their pathetic terror which was certainly justified, as he planned to make sure they paid the ultimate price when he reached his majority, and that Hagrid would be more than enough to tell him, and whatever disgusting scheme the old man had in mind for him would take its next stage.
Whatever sick plan that was, Harry still didn't know, but now he had seen Lord Voldemort for himself, he knew the old man had a plan with him in mind, too.
And Harry had no intention of letting that happen because he had actually known about the magical world for a while. It was supposed to be his seventh birthday present to himself, he would finally escape from the Dursleys. For 5 months, the Dursleys had systematically been more abusive towards him; ever since he had reached 4, Vernon and Petunia had progressed from slapping him around and hitting him with frying pans and letting Dudley beat him up without any consequences - Harry had felt Dumbledore had something to do with how none of the muggle teachers had seen or done anything, and was the reason why every attempt he'd made to raise the alarm had failed and ended with a beating until Harry had lost whatever respect he had for authority - to beating him much worse than before.
Five months before his seventh birthday….Harry had been convinced the Dursleys were going to murder him. Just because he healed quickly did not mean it was a painless existence, and Harry knew his luck would run out. He had almost jumped to the moon when he'd learnt they were going on holiday, and leaving him with Mrs Figg - the old bat was as mad as a box of frogs, but she was not as paranoid as the Dursleys. Escaping from her wouldn't be difficult.
But he didn't when he found several letters between the old bitch and Dumbledore, the letters cleared so much up and revealed he had tried to escape several times, and each time one of Dumbledore's cronies had made sure his memory was modified so he wouldn't remember it and then dropped him off on the Dursleys' doorstep.
But even more importantly, they revealed the existence of the wizarding world. The photos were a big giveaway, as they moved.
There was more than enough information there to tell him about Hogwarts, and how he would be attending the school in a few years, but he caught the gist; Harry could not leave the Dursleys, not unless he wanted his memories removed, and for the next few years he'd stayed and made plans. It wasn't until Hagrid came to Privet Drive, and managed to get away from the oversized oaf that he went back to Gringotts they got rid of whatever spells Dumbledore had put on him, and they taught him to protect his mind, and he was inspired by the invisibility cloak even if he didn't have it at the time, to protect his mind.
For a whole year, he'd been dealing with liars in the shape of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who kept trying to be his friend and petty little kids like Malfoy and terrible teachers like Snape. But it was also thanks to the goblins he had something to look for, the Room of Requirement; he'd told them he wanted to learn how to be a wizard without the students or Dumbledore meddling in his life. At the same time, he would look for different accommodations during the summer and a different school. While he liked the castle, he didn't like the students or the teachers.
But when he had gone to the Room and learnt about its possibilities, Harry had seen the chance to become someone other than Harry Potter, and it was the start of something new….
-8-
Harry was exploring the Room of Requirement, closing his eyes and summoning books on various subjects like Charms, Runes, and DADA, and some chairs, but as he became better at understanding the properties of the Room, he decided that it was time to test something else.
Ever since he had grown his hair back, Harry had realised he could change his physical form but it was limited, and he was only able to change his head, but when he had gone to Gringotts, the goblins had unlocked some of the powers and abilities Dumbledore had locked away - why the old man had done that, he could only assume he had done it so then the Boy Who Lived would not become as powerful as he was. It was a bit petty and pathetic, but it stood and held water.
They called him a metamorphamagus. One of his earliest memories was becoming someone else.
After he summoned a mirror, Harry stood in front of it and he closed his eyes and visualised a new face. When he opened his eyes again, Harry thought a stranger was looking back, and he took his shirt and robe off and saw a much thinner frame, unmarred by the scars of living with the Dursleys.
He'd wanted to properly check this out for a while now, but he'd never been able to have the chance with all the boys and lessons.
Looking back at him was his favourite form, only he was unrecognisable as Harry Potter. Right now he had transformed himself into a form with an oval shaped face, small button nose, and large eyes under thin eyebrows and hair going down to his shoulders.
Instead of a boy, Harry was now a girl.
-8-
Harry wasn't sure why, but there was just something about being a girl, even from the head, that was liberating but it was only when he got to Hogwarts and had the spells Dumbledore put on him removed he was able to experiment, and he'd had a lot of fun dressing up as a girl and living like one; it was such a pity to leave.
One thing he did know…Harry loved being a girl more than he liked being a boy, even when he had been in primary school, he had listened to the girls as they giggled and gossiped in ways that were nicer than Petunia, but being a metamorphamagus would not make such a transformation permanent.
Oh, sure, he would be a girl in where it counted, such as having a fully operational womb. But the transformation would never be permanent.
No, he would just be a boy in girl's clothing, as it were.
Harry had a few life goals.
Get away from Dumbledore, the Dursleys, and Hogwarts.
Find a new life.
Become a girl.
-8-
Harry stood in front of the mirror in the Room of Requirement. Getting here tonight was hard, but he'd needed to unwind after that disaster in the Great Hall only an hour ago. You had to hand it to Dumbledore, he knew how to turn the whole school against him. He had only gone and awarded points to Gryffindor at the last moment, and likely made many of the students dislike their House.
It was insanity.
And his final decision was made. On the table behind him were a few books, but what Harry had been using the room for was research into the Philosopher's Stone.
The Flamels were con artists. Harry had spent months wondering why the Flamels would part with their Stone, and why they would suddenly be so willing to put it into the Gringotts Vault. There was no doubt in his head that after everything he'd heard of Dumbledore, the old man had lied to him about the Flamel's meekly accepting death.
And he'd proven it. The Philosopher's Stone had never existed in the way others thought it did. There was no way to combine a pair of potions which granted immortality and transformed metals into gold. The Flamel's had tried for decades, and all they'd gotten for it were several destroyed labs, a fortune lost in damages many times over, and two ageing bodies.
In the end, they had simply used a form of immortality that already existed, it was called essence transfer. It allowed them to swap their bodies by moving their souls into a new body. Dark wizards and witches had used the method to steal the bodies of their enemies, and it was used to continue their reigns of terror and was labelled a dark art. The Flamels were lucky to have been born in a time when the knowledge of how it worked was more readily accessible, but it existed and Harry had plucked it out of time for his use.
He had worked out what he needed to do to achieve all of his goals, and he had added the death of Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort to the list he'd made.
A frown made its way over his face as he thought of the two corrupt wizards.
Harry had used the Room as a time television. He knew of the prophecy linking him to Voldemort, and he knew no matter what Voldemort would not stop hunting him down.
Made out before his birth, the prophecy told of a child born at the end of July, born to a couple who'd defied him three times, this child when marked would have the power the Dark Lord knew not. But Harry had also done his research into Lord Voldemort, and he'd learnt the Dark Lord was called Tom Marvolo Riddle. Like Harry, he was interested in a different life, and he had discovered a method of immortality, involving the splitting of souls. While the Room could not summon one of the Horcruxes, it did help him see where one of the soul fragments was, and that there was a ritual that would remove it. The goblins could do it easily, and he'd need their help since he had something bigger on his mind.
Harry planned to use essence transfer and create a clone of his old body, only he would make it fully female and he would regress in age.