Delayed:

Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived finished writing his letter and handed it to Hedwig, the owl that Hagrid bought him.

'Take that to Professor McGonagall girl. If you want to stay at Hogwarts, you can, or go hunt. I will be there in a few days.'

Harry smiled when Hedwig rubbed her beak over his face before she took the letter. He watched her as she flew out the window. Once she was out of sight, he began eating his breakfast. He had another long day today to hopefully sort out the last few things.

Harry was now staying in what was called a safe house. It all started when Hagrid took him to Diagon alley so he could buy his things for Hogwarts. When he went into his vault to get some money, he found a few letters addressed to him. He didn't want anyone to see them, not even Hagrid, not until he read them. He was hoping they were from his parents. They were and they gave him a lot of information. But there was also a small wooden box that had a note stuck to the top. It said Harry had to take this and give it to Amelia Bones.

He knew he could not risk returning to the Dursley's, if they found the letters, or what was in the box, the Dursley's would destroy them. Harry made Hagrid believe he was getting on the train back to Surrey but when the big man left, Harry was able to get a room at the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry sat on the bed and began to read. That's when he knew what he had to do.

That's how Harry came to be in a safe house. Once Harry read the letters from his parents, that gave him a lot of information and one bit was to contact Amelia Bones. His parents had said they were friends with Amelia Bones, who was an auror. His parents told him what to write in the two letters. One was for when he saw Madam Bones, the other was to let her know he needed to speak with her. Once it was done, he gave one of the letters to Hedwig and told her who it was to go to.

It was only two hours later that Harry heard the knock on the door. He opened it to see a woman with a monocle along with two men. It was Madam Amelia Bones, the head of the department of magical law enforcement along with two aurors.

After some introductions, Harry handed the letters to the woman before he sat down. Once Amelia verified that those letters were really written by James and Lily Potter, she instantly worked on removing Harry from the Leaky Cauldron and take him to a safe house, until everything could be organised. That was just over three weeks ago. Now it was only a few days before he would finally go to Hogwarts. First, he had to appear in court. Madam Bones had handled everything, but she could not make it all happen before the first of September so Harry would miss the first few days of his magical education.

Amelia, with the help of the head auror along with a few others that held seats on the Wizengamot had to work in secret until they were ready. One part was done, today was the last until she would finally get a man in court and prosecute him for his crimes. This man was someone she had wanted to arrest for a long time but without proof of what he had done, she could not do a thing. It wasn't until Harry Potter handed her a long letter, then handed her a few vials of memories,that she got her proof.

Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry was surprised to see a beautiful white owl fly into her room. She had finished sending and receiving all the letters from the students and normal mail came during breakfast. It was past that time so she had no idea who's owl it was.

Minerva took the letter, then began to read. She furrowed her brow.

'Why would Harry Potter be delayed coming to Hogwarts? Hagrid said he made sure Harry got everything. I hope those muggles haven't done anything.'

Hagrid explained to Minerva and Albus what the Dursley's were like and some of the things they said. Minerva had glared at Albus before telling him I told you so. She never wanted the boy left with those muggles, now Hagrid told them exactly how they treated Harry and it wasn't good. Albus finally said he would work on finding a new home for the boy once he was at Hogwarts, which would give him time. They had no idea that Albus would not be working on any home for Harry Potter, that had already been sorted out by Amelia Bones.

Minerva didn't know that right as she was reading Harry's letter, Amelia Bones, along with the head auror, Rufus Scrimgeour and a full squad of aurors had arrived at Hogwarts and after a brief fight, arrested one of the teachers.

Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster tried to get the aurors and Amelia to listen to him but none of them would. When he asked Amelia why his potions teacher was being arrested, all she said was that she had proof of a lot of crimes the man had committed and it was time he faced a full trial in front of the Wizengamot. She did say she had enough proof to get the man kissed by a dementor. Albus wanted to know who gave her the proof, but she refused to say. She did say she was keeping that a secret until the trial. She did not want her witness to disappear or be obliviated even if he was well hidden at that time, she still wasn't going to trust any others with the information on where her witness was. She turned and left with her prisoner and aurors.

Albus called an emergency meeting with his staff, to explain what happened and that he would be out of the castle all day. He may be out of the castle for the next couple of days but he would return to greet the students. Minerva was going to inform the headmaster about the letter she got from Harry but she decided it could wait. There was already enough going on and she also had a feeling that the letter she received and the arrest of the potions teacher was some how connected.

Due to a conflict of interest, Albus was not allowed to take his place as chief warlock of the Wizengamot. He would be just a witness but he could speak on Severus Snape's behalf if he wanted. The trial began, Amelia outlined every crime that she had proof of against Severus Snape. She explained how she received letters and memories from someone and once verified, she had the proof that she needed. When she called her informant into the courtroom, Albus ended up shocked when the informant turned out to be Harry Potter and a lot of the information came from memories and letters left by Lily and James Potter.

Once Harry explained what he found in his vault, he instantly contacted Madam Bones. They worked together to make sure his godfather was found innocent. That had all been kept secret until the trial. Amelia did not want anyone letting out the information on Sirius Black or for someone to find out where he was and kill him. With the amount of death eaters who were allowed to go free, any one of them could kill the godfather of the-boy-who-lived. When it got to the information on Severus Snape and the proof which was memories and letters from James and Lily Potter, Snape was found guilty instantly. It did not matter what Albus said about Severus changing sides and becoming his spy. Everyone felt his crimes were too great. After Snape was taken away to be kissed by a dementor, it was known that Sirius was given custody of his godson, Harry Potter.

Two days later, Harry said goodbye to his godfather, who was still in St Mungo's being treated for his years of exposure to dementors. Harry was meeting one of the teachers at the Leaky Cauldron. Amelia had worked it for Harry to have a portkey on him in case of emergencies. He was the-boy-who-lived, a former death eater of Voldemort or a supporter could try to kidnap the boy.

Harry only just walked into the pub when a woman with red hair hurried over to him.

'I'm here to take you to Hogwarts Harry.'

'It's Mr Potter and what subject do you teach ma'am?'

'Oh no, I'm not a teacher. The headmaster asked me to fetch you since he knows most of my children were at Hogwarts.'

Harry took a step back then squeezed the coin in his pocket, he disappeared leaving Molly Weasley shocked. She hurried to the fireplace to floo Albus Dumbledore.

'Don't worry about it Molly. I did say a staff member would be picking him up. I would say Madam Bones warned him about certain individuals that he would need to be careful of.'

'But he didn't say anything. I also do not like the fact that when I said his name, he said it's Mr Potter.'

'All the staff know to address a student as Miss or Mr. I would say Amelia explained. It's fine, I'm sure I will hear from someone very soon. Thank you Molly. I best cut this connection in case someone is trying to floo me.'

'Alright Albus.'

Albus sighed as he went back behind his desk. He knew Amelia Bones would not like the fact that he sent a students mother to escort Harry to Hogwarts. He also knew Sirius Black would not like it either. He remembered when Sirius and James met Molly Weasley, both of those men did not like the woman. Albus knew she could get loud and she also was very opinionated. He would just have to wait and see.

Two senior aurors escorted Harry to the deputy head's office. After leaving the boy there, even though he was alone, they went to arrest the headmaster.

Minerva was surprised when she walked into her office to see a dark haired boy sitting in front of her desk, reading a book.

'Excuse me, who are you?'

Harry stood up and turned around, 'Harry Potter. The aurors left me here so they could go arrest the headmaster. I was told I had to come see you to get sorted. The aurors said you would be teaching and I should read a book until you returned.'

Minerva was shocked that her boss was being arrested. She had no idea what he had done this time. Right now she had to deal with her student, then she would find out what Albus had done.

'Very well Mr Potter,' Minerva called a house elf to bring the sorting hat, 'All you need to do is put on the hat and it will decide which house you will be sorted into.'

Harry allowed the woman to put the hat on his head. He listen to the hat and one thing he kept saying was not Slytherin. If I go into Slytherin I'll end up killing most of the children of death eaters. Finally the hat said Hufflepuff. That surprised Minerva, she believed Harry Potter would be sorted into Gryffindor, like his parents.

'I will take you to see Professor Sprout, she is head of Hufflepuff house. Before we go, do you happen to know why the headmaster is being arrested?'

'Yes, for getting some strange woman to kidnap me. I was told and so was Madam Bones and my godfather that a member of staff would be escorting me. I was also told to ask what subject they taught so I would be able to match the subject with the name Madam Bones gave me. I didn't recognise her from the descriptions Madam Bones gave me so I knew something was wrong. She explained that there was a lot of dark witches and wizards still around so Madam Bones gave me an emergency portkey.'

'I'm sure that was just a misunderstanding. All the staff were busy so the headmaster must have asked someone he knew and trusted.'

'I don't trust anyone except my godfather and Madam Bones. They told me who would be safe to go with. I wasn't going to go with anyone else. Can we go now Professor?'

'Yes, of course. I would say that you must be wary of everyone. After hearing Hagrid's description of the Dursley's, I don't blame you. I always said they were the worst sort of muggles. Alright Mr Potter, let's go.'

Harry followed the deputy head down two flights of stairs and into another office. He listened to the two professors talk before the deputy head left.

'I'll show you to your dorm room Mr Potter.'

'Thank you Professor.'

Harry went to unpack but a house elf appeared and put all his things away.

'Thank you.'

'Mr Potter is welcome,' the elf squeaked before popped away.

Harry had a look around before he went to the common room. Professor Sprout said the students would be returning there soon to drop off their book bags, before dinner. The other first years along with a prefect would show him the way.

As the Hufflepuff's entered their dorm room, they saw Harry and knew who he was due to his scar.

'Harry, you got sorted into Hufflepuff,' Susan said with a smile.

'Yes, but after hearing you and your aunt talk about Hufflepuff, I knew it was the house for me. Professor Sprout said I was to wait here until it was time for dinner, especially since I don't know the way.'

'We'll show you. So can you tell me now why you were late starting?'

'Um, yeah. I had information that Severus Snape is the reason Voldemort went after me and my parents. There was also proof of a lot of horrendous crimes he had committed. He was sentenced to the dementors kiss.'

Harry was surprised when almost everyone cheered, 'What's going on Susan?'

'Since Susan has not had potions yet, I'll explain. I'm Cedric Diggory, prefect. Professor Snape was a bastard to everyone not in Slytherin. He also let his Slytherin's sabotage our potions, which meant many of us ended up injured by burning liquid. He would blame us, take points from us and give us detentions then he would give points to his Slytherin's. I told my father, who has a seat on the Wizengamot and he said that the way the man acts proves he is still a death eater. He supports children of death eaters then harasses all of us. There are many here that wish to become healers or aurors, yet they could not learn potions which is needed for those occupations.'

'Wow, and the headmaster never sacked him?' Harry again was surprised when most of them scoffed or glared. It seems many of the students did not like the headmaster, 'Um, I'm not sure what's happening but Madam Bones had two aurors escort me here, they left me in McGonagall's office then they went to arrest the headmaster for sending a strange woman to kidnap me.'

Every Hufflepuff ended up shocked. In just a few minutes that Harry Potter had been there, he got rid of Snape and now the headmaster was in trouble. Maybe they might finally get a decent potions teacher and a headmaster who would put the students first.

All the Hufflepuff's decided to escort Harry to the great hall but Susan walked beside him so she could explain things as they walked.

Susan did introduce Harry to the other first years. She still didn't know the other students, yet. Since Harry would be sharing with the other boys, she thought he might like to talk to them.

It took until halfway through dinner before a few students from the other houses noticed the scar on Harry's head. The-boy-who-lived was at Hogwarts and sorted into Hufflepuff.

It was right at the end of dinner that many Slytherin's went up to Professor McGonagall to ask where Professor Snape was. She explained that they will have a new potions teacher and head of house soon. They would find out what happened to Snape the following day.

During this time that the students were eating dinner, two aurors turned up at the Burrow. They had to explain to Molly Weasley that what she tried to do, could be considered attempted kidnapping. If anyone tried to tell her to take another child again, she would be arrested. Molly realised how much trouble she could be in but she did explain that she was only doing a favour for Albus since the staff were busy. The aurors explained that was the only reason she had not been arrested. She was trying to help but it was still the wrong thing to do.

It wasn't until late that night that Albus arrived back at Hogwarts and he wasn't alone. Amelia Bones along with a group of aurors were there with him.

Albus had been put on probation and warned if there was anything that could harm a student or a person that could harm a student while he was headmaster, he would lose all his jobs and may end up in Azkaban.

Albus finally told Amelia about his suspicion about Quinirius Quirrell and the trap he had set.

The group of aurors first made sure Quirrell was unconscious and placed inside a crystal box that looked like a coffin. If the man was possessed by Voldemort's spirit, then the unspeakables would make sure Voldemort was taken care of. There was a chance Quirrell could die, but if he lived, he would be questioned using the truth potion. They believed one man's death was better than having Voldemort return. After the man was safe in the box, Albus and Amelia removed all the traps.

Before Amelia left, she gave Albus another warning. Put the students safety first. She also said since Hagrid took Harry shopping and he had been in possession of Potter's vault key, given to him by Albus, that he better not have anything else of the Potter's. If he did, it was to be passed to Harry immediately. Albus sighed but explained that before James and Lily died, he had borrowed James' invisibility cloak. He kept it at Hogwarts until he could pass it on to Harry. Amelia made sure the man knew that the cloak better be passed on the following day.

During breakfast the following day, the owls arrived. Hedwig landed in front of Harry with a copy of the Daily Prophet. Harry fed some bacon to his owl but many of the Hufflepuff girls began to hold out food for her. Harry couldn't help smiling and knew Hedwig was going to end up a very spoilt owl.

Harry looked down at the paper to see that the whole front cover was on about Snape and his crimes. He received a few looks when his name was mentioned but Harry ignored it.

'Damn, he should not have been allowed here, not with all those crimes,' Cedric said.

'When I read the letter from my parents, I instantly wrote to Madam Bones. I didn't know he was a teacher here. If I found out that he was still here, I wouldn't have turned up. Do you know how long it will be before we get another teacher for potions?'

'No, but I doubt it won't be long. What you lot could do is read the first couple of chapters from your books.'

'We might do that, thanks Cedric,' Susan said.

'Is that how you knew Susan, due to her aunt?' Justin asked.

'Yeah, the few times we talked was at her home. She would make me stay for dinner. I was in a safe house before she was able to get my godfather cleared.'

'Aunty didn't like Harry being alone all the time. His godfather was or is still in St Mungo's. She would work on meetings with Harry to be at the house but also made sure he ate proper meals,' Susan said, 'We became friends during that time.'

'Susan began to explain more about the wizarding world. My godfather told me he has to begin taking me through lessons about everything since I'm his heir to the Black family.'

'That's going to piss off a Slytherin,' Cedric said with a grin then explained to Harry how Draco Malfoy often went on about being the heir of the Black line, which he will control when he was seventeen, 'Now your godfather is free and head of the family, Malfoy would know he won't be getting anything.'

'Sirius told me he has plans for the Malfoy family. See, Madam Bones explained about death eaters and then told me how many claimed to be under the imperius curse. Sirius' younger brother became a death eater, died not long after. He told Sirius that you can't take the mark unless you're free of any type of charms or potions, which would include the imperius curse. Sirius said one way or another, Lucius Malfoy will either admit the truth and go to Azkaban or the Malfoy family will end up broke. When I asked how, he explained that the only reason the Malfoy's had money was because of the dowry that was given when Narcissa was betrothed to Lucius. Once he calls Lucius and Narcissa an oath breaker, the money returns to the Blacks. It won't matter if he stashed it somewhere, magic will return it all. He said he is willing to leave Narcissa and her son alone if Lucius admits everything and name names,' Harry shrugged.

'I would bet anything that old Lucy will refuse, then try to kill your godfather.'

'As head of the black family, he if tried or even paid others to do it, the Black blood oaths will kill Lucius. Sirius knows he could still die, but he would take Lucius, Narcissa and their son as well.'

'Can you let us know when your godfather is going to do this? We would all like to see that snot nosed little shit finally get his,' Cedric said. That statement made everyone laugh.

'Sure, I'm not sure when it's going to happen, but he was already organising everything even though he was still in St Mungo's. Actually, he should have gone home today.'

It was only a week later that Harry told all the Hufflepuff's to keep an eye on Draco Malfoy when the Daily Prophet arrived. All of them knew that Harry's godfather had finally worked it for Lucius Malfoy to pay for his crimes or the family will be broke, but Lucius will still do some time in Azkaban. It could be years or it could be life.

'He said to me that since he is head of the Black family, Narcissa and Draco cannot retaliate against him or his heir or they will lose their magic. Going after the head of the family could end up deadly.'

'How can someone lose their magic?' Sally asked.

'We all have a magical core,' Cedric began explaining, 'Magic controls things in this world, even I don't know everything. But when it comes to head of ancient and noble houses, it can become deadly if someone in the family tries to hurt or kill the head or the heir. The magic that links the family by blood, will remove the magical core. In some cases when this has happened, the person dies as our bodies cannot handle losing our core. Now since all of you have only just started to be around magic, you would not die if you did this. All that would happen is you would be a squib, or even a muggle. We grew up in homes where magic is used all the time so from the time we're born, we are surrounded in magic. It grows as we grow and becomes stronger. Once we reach the age of eleven, our bodies are now so used to magic that we can finally begin using magic. There are some books in the library about all this if any of you are interested. Know that most of these old laws and customs are slowly disappearing but many of the old ancient and noble houses still have them because of how often someone will try to kill the head and heir. Back around four hundred years ago, three heirs were killed, here at Hogwarts. The person who did it would go on to be the heir once his father took over as head. They were discovered and given to the dementors.'

'Wow, that's really interesting and I will definitely read those books. Thank you Cedric,' Sally said.

'I think a lot of us want to read them,' Justin said as everyone nodded.

'There used to be classes for people who weren't raised in this world but they were cancelled around one hundred and twenty years ago. The muggle studies class that us pure-bloods can take from third year is not worth the time. One, it's taught by a pure-blood so they have no idea about the muggle world. Two, it's at least one hundred years out of date. I've been told by friends who are muggle raised just how advanced the muggle's are and how they can do things we can't.'

'What type of things?' Susan asked.

'They can bring people back who have died. But it does have to be done in the first few minutes or their brain begins to die. They can give a person a new heart or kidney if something happens to them. They have gone into space and they have even walked on the moon.'

'They even have a space station up in the atmosphere. It's owned by a few different countries. The astronauts will go up, do tests and things, for...I think a few weeks before they come back. Then others will go up. They can't stay up there for long, I'm not sure why,' Harry said. 'As to what Cedric was talking about. Doing CPR, which is compression's to the chest or the heart, will sometimes get the heart beating again. We had to watch a paramedic do it once so we would know just what we can do if someone dies from a heart attack or something. We all had to practice CPR on these practice dummies. It was fascinating and when I knew I wanted to be a doctor, or healer now I'm in the wizarding world.'

'I think we would like to learn more about all this,' Susan said, 'Maybe during the holidays you could get some books Harry.'

'Yeah, I could.'

'I could send a letter to my parents to ask them to send some books. It would help if the ones who are thinking of taking muggle studies see how far behind that class is,' Justin said.

After working out for Justin to get books and how many were going to chip in to help pay for the books, they students went to their first class.

Albus had been watching Harry Potter from the moment he returned to Hogwarts. He had hoped the boy would end up in Gryffindor and become close to the Weasley boy. The Weasley family were some of his biggest supporters. Now the boy was in Hufflepuff, with the niece of Amelia Bones. He would have to forget about testing the boy or Amelia would make sure he was gone from Hogwarts. He did give Pomona the invisibility cloak to pass on to Harry. Amelia had already removed the tracking spells that Albus placed on it. He thought of doing them again but if Amelia found out, she would make sure he was sacked as headmaster. He only wanted to test the boy to see how he would go if he came up against something dangerous. Would the boy fight or would he flee? Now he would not be able to find out unless it happened by accident.

It was only a month after Harry started that all the first year Hufflepuff's had read some of the books that Justin had his parents buy.

'So what do you think?' Susan asked.

'I think we should speak with Professor McGonagall and show her just how out of date the muggle's class is,' Justin said.

'Yeah, we should. Everything Cedric has told us is way out of date. There's nothing taught from the last eighty years,' Harry said.

'What if they don't do anything?' Hannah asked.

'Well, I had an idea,' Sally said, 'What if we talk with all the second and third years from Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. If we show them the stuff in these books, then explain what the muggle studies class is like, they might all sign up for another class. If no one signs up for that class, something will have to be done.'

'I believe that is a good idea,' Cedric said as he came up behind them, 'But we speak with the first, second, third and fourth years. They will have time to catch up on another class if they drop muggle studies. I know a few people who are friendly with some Slytherin's, so they can explain. Let's begin tomorrow since it's Saturday, then hopefully by Sunday after dinner, everyone taking muggle studies will have changed subjects or we'll get a new teacher, one that knows the muggle world.'

Cedric got a few older students involved, then between all of them, they were able to explained to many of the students just how out of date muggle studies was. Also, they decided to write a petition to get the school to offer wizarding studies for all muggleborns and raised students, so they could learn more about the wizarding world.

Harry had written to Sirius to ask him about helping other muggleborns learn more about the wizarding world. Sirius wrote back and told Harry that anything he learns, could be taught to others. He also sent Harry some books and planned to send him more that would help explain a lot to the muggleborns or raised.

It began from Sunday afternoon, but student after student went to their head of house to change electives from muggle studies to another subject.

By Monday morning, there were no students going to muggle studies. When Charity Burbage went to the headmaster, he called a meeting with the heads of house, along with the prefects and head boy and girl. It was then that they found the reason why no one will take muggle studies as it's so far out of date that it wasn't worth it and won't help anyone. It was Cedric who brought up the subject of wizarding studies but he did mention that he along with Harry and other students who came from long wizarding families were going to begin having study sessions about the wizarding world. Cedric said that Harry would be learning from his godfather who is the head of an ancient and noble house.

It was right then that Albus finally had a way to get around the governors who refused to allow a wizarding studies class for muggleborns and muggle raised. Charity was given a new subject that very evening, the wizarding studies class. Albus was going to hire a muggleborn or muggle raised to teach the new and improved muggle studies class. Albus did ask if he could make copies of some of the muggle books, just so he could show all the staff, but he would also show the governors.

Even though Albus still would like to test Harry, he wouldn't, but he had to admit that things seemed to be better. He still believed Harry had the best protection if he stayed with the Dursley's, but since they were in jail, then Sirius would protect his godson. Maybe losing Severus and Harry Potter going into Hufflepuff was for the best. Maybe their world might finally be safe but also, begin to move forward.

The end: