Harry smirked with smug satisfaction as he lounged around on the beach in Australia; this was a luxury for him, especially since Dumbledore had tried to stop him from leaving the Dursleys, believing that even if the threat of Lord Voldemort was gone for good, that didn't mean it still wasn't safe, but with all of the Dark Lord's followers now gone, the old wizard's arguments didn't hold much water. But while he was sure the threat was gone, Harry hadn't really told anybody where he was going after getting the Dursleys' permission to come out here, to Australia.

He also had no intention of going to Privet Drive again. He didn't need to, although he would return briefly and follow up on his promise to himself to make the Dursleys finally answer for every single thing they had done to him as a kid.

By far, his best memory was saying no and giving logical explanations for why he would never go to the Dursleys again, but at the same time Dumbledore had merely given a token argument; Voldemort's death had been so sudden Dumbledore wasn't even in any kind of position to bluff or deny Amelia Bones' team of investigators. And they had been ruthless. Bones wasn't like the rest of the weak-willed morons in the school. She ignored the pathetic platitudes Dumbledore gave out like free sweets, and when she discovered that Dumbledore had purposefully hidden the Philosopher's Stone within the castle for a whole year to draw the Dark Lord out, she had not wasted time.

She had arrested Dumbledore, Flitwick, Sprout, Snape, and McGonagall within half an hour of hearing about the traps leading to the Stone. Harry told her, and he didn't care he was dropping the Heads of house into it; none of them had given a thought about what Dumbledore was making them do, so he felt nothing for them. Well, she found arresting Snape tricky, as he was terribly ill; the sudden ripping out of his magic had shaken the Potions' Master and rendered him extremely weak, but he had enough magic in him to answer questions, and without his magical defences, he cooed like a dove.

All of the Death Eaters had paid for their crimes, and they'd been numerous. With their magical defences completely gone as the magic in their bodies was stripped from them once and for all, they were questioned. Their answers had shattered the 'I was under the Imperius curse, I didn't mean to' defence they had used.

So many people had joined Voldemort, willingly or not, but Harry hadn't given much thought about the ones who'd been forced to give up their freedom to become slaves to a madman. And now they were gone. Dozens of families were now either dead or on the edge of extinction. For their sake, Harry hoped they didn't make some stupid mistake now.

Hundreds of people had died. With a bit of luck, their deaths would serve as a well-deserved warning to the rest of the populace that there were some things they should not do.

Frustratingly enough, word of how Harry Potter had defeated Voldemort again was spread throughout the magical world. Somehow the popularity-hungry Fudge had gotten wind of what happened, released it to the Daily Prophet, and before Harry was even aware of it, he was facing interviews. Harry had been horrified. Everyone was now demanding to know how he had done it, and he'd had to keep his secrets to himself; the Room of Requirement was a resource he did not want to lose, and the last thing he wanted was for Dumbledore to seal it off from him.

But he had other things to worry about, namely his newly discovered godfather.

He had a godfather.

How did he discover this?

By the surprise re-appearance of Peter Pettigrew, who'd been believed to be a victim of Sirius Black, who'd been suspected of being a Death Eater, who'd betrayed his old friend and blood brother, James Potter to Voldemort, who then slaughtered James and Lily before being stopped by Harry (one of the things he had revealed during his interview was what really happened).

More horrifyingly enough, there had been two Death Eaters at the castle - Severus Snape, and Peter Pettigrew. The discovery of the believed to be deceased Pettigrew had come when Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had woken up when they'd heard a terrifying squealing noise shortly after Voldemort had finally kicked the bucket, and they saw to their shock Scabbers', the smelly and disgusting rat pet of Ron Weasley, transforming into a repulsive, dirty little man who resembled a rat.

It wasn't long before the Aurors found out and they identified him as Peter Pettigrew. Harry had known about Sirius Black for a while, but he had been convinced of the man's guilt. But to discover he had a guardian, someone his parents had trusted, locked up….Harry wondered if the wizarding world was even remotely for him.

Harry sighed as he thought about Sirius Black, remembering how furious he had been when the Aurors and Bones had questioned the weakened Pettigrew, who'd spilled the beans on all of his crimes; murders of muggles, the death of a large chunk of the McKinnon family, who'd been friends of his parents, and so many others. Sirius was currently recuperating in St Mungo's, undergoing all kinds of treatments. The moment it was discovered he was innocent, Madam Bones didn't waste a second and made sure to get Sirius out of Azkaban prison, which was by all accounts the worst prison in the world.

Harry had visited his godfather briefly before he had left for Australia; the poor man had been a husk of a man, and he was very ill. The moment they'd met…. Sirius had been mad, but apologetic about leaving him to Hagrid. Harry had listened as Sirius had poured it all out. While Harry was not happy his godfather had just…left him and gone after Pettigrew, whom he later cornered in a muggle neighbourhood in York, and then blew up the street and transformed into a rat after cutting off his finger, firing an overpowered cheering spell at Sirius, who was left to take the rap. By the time the magical authorities got there, Sirius was laughing on the ground like a madman, and then he was thrown into prison without a trial.

If Harry had been disgusted with how the wizarding world had forced Voldemort into taking on such a brutal offensive after his formerly peaceful rallies were transformed into a bloodbath, which had been so conveniently forgotten by the wizarding world after Dumbledore had made sure to vilify Voldemort as a Dark Lord monster, he was overwhelmed with horror when he learnt the wizarding world just…trampled over people's rights whenever they fancied.

Harry had reciprocated the story by telling Sirius about how he had been raised by the Dursleys….horrifying and shocking Sirius, who knew full well what the Dursleys were like, and how Lily and James had made it clear he was not to go there even if all of the guardianship choices were unable to look after him. Sirius almost exploded, setting back the mental healing treatments he was undergoing when he learnt Dumbledore had meddled.

Also present were the Tonks family; apparently they were family friends, and their daughter, Nymphadora (Harry didn't understand why she hated her name, he thought it was cute), had been really close to Harry; indeed, Nymphadora (or Tonks) had been the closest thing to a big sister that Harry ever had.

The moment he'd heard that, Harry wanted to track Dumbledore down and eviscerate him and then give him a Colombian necktie. He had never been so furious in his entire life. He could have had a sister, a mother and a father if only the old wizard hadn't meddled.

It had been a bit of a blow to the Tonks' family that he wouldn't be there for the summer; he had been planning a summer holiday for himself, and the plans predated all of his encounters with Sirius and Andromeda's family. They had been stunned when they heard of his plans, saddened that he wouldn't be around, stunned an 11-12 year-old would be on his own, but Harry told them that he was going because he wanted to get away from Britain.

He was tired of the country. He wanted to see the world, but he had asked the Tonkses if they would like to come with him, but they couldn't as they had commitments.

-8-

Harry was swimming in the Caribbean Sea, a smile on his face even as he felt his muscles ache. He had recently come here, and he was simply island hopping. Everything was just…beautiful, and stunning, and he was enjoying the change in scenery. Harry had fallen in love with tropical and humid places, believing them much nicer than Britain. Taking a deep breath, he dove under the surface for a few minutes before he came back to the surface.

-8-

After spending a few days on his holiday, Harry noticed the only people who had sent him mail were the Tonks family and Sirius Black. He noted that the Weasleys and Granger hadn't, and he wondered why.