DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. The HP franchise and all the canonical characters pertaining to it are properties of J.K Rowling and the Characters related to the MCU are not mine either.

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[CHAPTER ONE]

Twin emerald orbs watched as the pale skinned man surveyed him with keen, scrutinizing eyes. The man looked like a vampire from the legends he'd read about in the library.

"What's your name, young one?" the man asked. His voice was exceedingly soothing. It almost got rid of the unease the young boy was feeling.

"Harry, sir," the young Harry Potter answered.

"And how old are you?"

He wondered why the man was asking him these questions. Who was the strange man in the first place? But he couldn't not ask. He didn't have single disrespectful bone in his body. They had all been broken and shattered by Uncle Vernon's belts.

"Eight, sir." Was his brisk answer. Uncle Vernon had also, through violent modes of educational corporal punishment, taught him not to beat around the bush when asked a question. Dallying in No. 4 Privet Drive could earn him some serious lashing.

"Hmm, that's good," the man said, smiling for the first time. "Now, Harry how would you like to come with me on a vacation."

Harry was stumped. What had led to this? Why was this man who was nothing but a stranger asking him to accompany him on a vacation? For a moment he wondered if this man was the guardian angel he'd been hoping would come rescue him from the Dursley's.

No, this man couldn't be an angel. Angel supposedly radiate peace and have snow white wings. Neither qualities was being exhibited by this man. And anyway angels don't exist. The elementary science teacher has said so when a boy asked her about heaven.

Harry realized he had taken too long to answer the man's question and he was starting to look impatient. The last thing he wanted was for this stranger to get angry because of him. He had a feeling that the man was more dangerous than Vernon. He had the aura of a predator.

"I..." He faltered knowing that his words might make the man angry. "I don't think my uncle will let me go with you."

To his surprise the man smiled. "I have settled it already with your Uncle. He was willing to let me have you for a few million pounds. Now, I think we best be on our way." He turned around and started walking toward the driveway where a black SUV was parked. Harry stood there, dumbfounded, trying to comprehend what the man just told him. Had his uncle really sold him to this creep? "Come on, Harry, we don't have all day."

Harry looked around. He was out of his element here. His decision was made for him though when an armed henchman stepped out of the car and held the back door open for the strange man. Not wanting to displease the man and then make him have the henchman point the gun at him, Harry hurried after the man.

The stranger stepped into the car and as Harry was about to follow suit he saw Uncle Vernon step out of the house.

"I don't want to ever see your hide near my house again, freak. Do you hear me?" he yelled in an oddly cheerful manner. "Go with the other freak. I bet you will both enjoy a short freakish life. Good riddance."

With a hearty laugh, the nearly obese man stepped back into the house. Harry stood still for a moment before he was beckoned by the stranger. He stepped into the car and the henchman shut the door.

"Your uncle has been drinking," the stranger guessed. "He will learn that he's being too quick in celebrating. Unfortunately for him the briefcase I gave him is filled with fake currency. But that won't be the only surprise he will be getting from me today. Gary, did you turn on the gas like I told you to."

Harry was just noticing that there was another henchman in the car. "Yes, sir," Gary answered from behind the wheel.

"I hope you didn't ignite it?"

Harry could see Gary's frown from the rearview mirror. "No, sir. Your instructions were clear. I was to leave the gas knobs on without lighting them to let the gas flow and spread all over the house."

The other henchman stepped into the car, riding shotgun.

"I had to ask," the stranger said unapologetically. "The last mercenaries I hired were quite stupid. Simple instructions were like rocket science to them. Nigel, please do human kind a favour and lob a grenade into that house. Gary, get us going once the grenade is out of this car."

Both nodded and Gary started the car. Harry's eyes nearly came out of their sockets when he saw Nigel bring out a grenade and unlatch the pin. He leaned out of the car window, aimed at the front window of the Dursley house, and threw with angled accuracy.

Immediately the car lurched and they were speeding off. Harry turned around and looked through the rear windscreen. He missed the the grenade sailing through the window but he didn't miss the ensuing explosion.

Just as the SUV was a block away, No. 4 Privet Drive went up in a ball of smoke and fire. Harry could not find it in himself to feel sorry.

~Break~

As their journey to London progressed the stranger started asking Harry more questions. He was asked about how well he did in school, things he was skilled at, his hobbies, his allergies and dislikes. Harry didn't understand why this man wanted to know these things, but if the man was his new guardian then the questions were sensible. Harry hoped not. He sincerely hoped that this man wasn't going to take him in.

The stranger's wickedness was light years beyond anything the late Vernon Dursley had been capable of. Vernon Dursley never killed anyone before. He'd only just been a big bully. A dangerous and abusive one, yes, but just a bully still. As for the stranger, less than ten minutes in his presence had already shown Harry that the man was not to be taken lightly.

"I realize that I never introduced myself to you," the man said, looking put out that he had forgotten such common courtesy. "My name is Nile Hasse Natex. You can call me Uncle Natex if you like. I am technically your uncle considering that I had once been a mentor to your dear mother."

Harry found himself leaning forward in interest. "You knew my mother?"

The man looked like he was trying not to smile but when Harry blinked the expression was gone from his face. "I indeed knew Lily Evans. Oh what a lovely mind she had," the man said, forlornly.

Harry was about to ask more about his mother when he felt the car stop. Mr. Natex opened a compartment by the side of the car and brought out a baseball cap.

"Now Harry I want you to put this on. Wear it to the back and use it to cover your scar." He handed the cap to Harry and stared at him until he had the cap on backwards. "Nigel, you will be coming with us. Leave the SMG and bring only your sidearm. Where we are going a gun will look out of place and even get us some unwanted attention. You can take two sidearms if you wish."

Nigel grunted in compliance. He dropped his submachine gun atop the dashboard and stepped out of the car. As he was stepping out his shirt rolled up a bit and Harry caught a glimpse of two holstered pistols.

Nigel went around and got the door open for Mr. Natex then he came over and opened Harry's door. Harry got out and the door was slammed close. Mr. Natex beckoned for Harry to walk beside him. Harry moved to do this and the man placed a hand on his shoulder. They left the small parking spot and walked across the street.

Their destination turned out to be a dilapidated building. As they neared the building Nigel stopped and started looking around with a look of confusion on his face.

Mr Natex stopped too and turned around to glare at the mercenary. "Nigel," he called harshly. "Get ahold of yourself, its just a mere mind trick. Remember your discipline, remember your training. My protection is your priority."

Whatever had been disturbing the merc seemed to dull at that moment. Harry won't really say it faded completely as the man focused all his attention on Mr. Natex when they resumed walking, not taking a chance to look anywhere else.

Harry managed to muster the courage to ask for an explanation. "What is wrong with him?"

Mr. Natex looked down at him surprised, his eyes brightened and he enthusiastically answered the question. "Nigel is what the people where we are headed call a muggle. They'd think so of me too but I'm technically not hundred percent human."

Harry wondered if this was the self-proclaimed admission of Mr. Natex about his vampirism. He knew he shouldn't ask but his immature mind could not contain its curiosity.

"How are you different from normal humans and what are muggles?" He enquired.

"Calling humans normal when asking about what makes me different from them means that you are implying that I'm not normal," Mr. Natex said in with steely voice. "Regarding muggles, well they are in layman's terms humans without magic."

Harry, who'd had his head bent when Mr. Natex subtly admonished him for suggesting that he is abnormal, snapped his head up to look at the man at the mention of magic. He never got the chance to ask any more questions because at that moment they entered the ramshackle building which had a sign outside it that read: The Leaky Couldron.

It was a pub, one that admittedly was as horrible as it looked from the outside but still would give the late Petunia Dursley phobia for the rest of her life if she was to step inside it. Nigel managed to snap out whatever had been wrong with him once they crossed the threshold. The trio stopped to take in the place.

There were strangely dressed people seated at tables, drinking and engaging in conversations with their fellows. There wasn't much dirt in the place but it certainly could do with a bit more maintenance. It wasn't untidy, it wasn't dirty, just unkept.

Mr. Natex sighed in expressed disappointment. "They have magic and they can't even gather the effort to clean up after themselves. And all it'd take would be a single wave of a wand."

Harry saw what the man was talking about. A few people in the pub had sticks in their hands. One used his to refill a glass of water, another who just stepped out of a fireplace used his to vanish the ashes from his clothes. Stepping out of fires, recreating matter, this was more than enough prove to Harry that magic indeed exist.

"Let's go before we draw unwanted attention to ourselves," Mr. Natex commanded. He hadn't still let go of Harry's shoulder. Together they started walking towards the back entrance of the pub.

Harry saw what the man meant about unwanted attention. The trio were the odd ones here, surprisingly, even if they weren't the ones doing acts out of storybooks. It was because of their dress. Nigel with his SWAT-like combat vest, Mr. Natex in his pristine suit, and Harry in Dudley's castoffs. They made for an odd group, especially in an establishment where everyone wore Renaissance robes.

When they reached the back entrance, Mr. Natex signalled for them to stop again then he struck a conversation with Nigel about the political climate in the Soviet Union. Harry was barely able to follow the conversation and wondered if this was the place to hold such out of the blue discussion. Nigel, by look on his face, was also wondering the same as Harry but he continued conversing with Mr. Natex about the Union's isolationist policy, economical decline, Gorbachev's uselessness, and the possibility of a dissolution.

A wealthy looking man wearing quality robes and animal hide shoes stepped out of the pub almost slamming into Nigel. Without a single word of apology the wizard continued on his way, not even sparing Nigel a glance. If the mercenary hadn't been trained to sense people coming from behind him then he'd be on the floor right now and Harry was sure the arrogant wizard would have stepped over him. He might have even stepped on him.

"Pureblood," Mr. Natex whispered. "Insufferable, but our ticket into Diagon Alley."

The Pureblood, as Mr. Natex had called him, stopped before a wall directly opposite the back door of the pub. He whipped out a wand and used it to tap the wall in a series of geometric patterns.

Once the opulently dressed wizard removed his wand from the wall, the bricks began to rearrange themselves. Some even disappeared leaving empty spaces. This happened until, where there'd just been a wall, there was now an archway.

Harry stared at it in open-mouthed shock. He didn't see the robed man walk away into the archway but he certainly felt it when Mr. Natex grabbed him and stepped in after the man. Nigel came in from behind them, just before the archway closed.

Beyond the strange archway was an avenue that left Harry speechless. His eyes met sights right out of fantasy, soaring owls, magically decorated shops, strange pets zipping between people's legs on the cobblestone paved street.

There were even more magical sights to behold but before he could get to study them Mr. Natex started pulling him onwards. Harry kept his head revolving from side to side to take in what he was seeing. At one end of the street he saw two wizards appear out of thin air and gasped. He instantly went down memory lane to a fateful day when Dudley and his gang had chased him and he had somehow willed himself away only to appear atop the school roof.

I can teleport, he realized for the first time. And these wizards can do it too. Does this mean that I'm a wizard?

Harry wasn't certain but he suspected that he might have magic. Except it's a mutation like those mutants appearing in America or the few sighted in London and Dublin. But it couldn't be a mutation because according to the talkshows Uncle Vernon used to watch most mutants only have one power. There were some with two or more powers but Harry haven't heard of any with as much power as he'd shown in the past.

He can make his hair grow back as proved when Aunt Petunia had shaved him nearly bald; this he associated with shapeshifting. He had a healing factor which had made him heal from Vernon's physical abuse in under an hour. His healing had only been enhanced by each beating from Vernon and now it takes less that four seconds. That's why there were no scars on his body to prove that he'd ever been abused. He could teleport, something that he just confirmed seeing two grown up wizards do exactly what he'd done less than a year ago. He can speak to the snakes in the Dursley's garden; can possibly change the appearance of others as he'd done when he'd made his grade one teacher's hair blue; can possibly read minds as he had been able to tell what Uncle Vernon was thinking sometimes; can possibly fly as was proven just two weeks ago when he had climbed a tree to escape Dudley only for his cousin to begin stoning him until he fell. Fortunately he had just floated down like a feather rather than crash land.

His abilities were so numerous to just be a mutation, he concluded. No mutant he'd heard of had that much power. So his powers must be magic. This made him feel confident. If he have magic then he automatically have power. Magic will help him gain freedom, magic will be his mode of escape from this servile life and from Mr. Natex who Harry didn't trust a bit.

"I wonder how these vaunted wizards will react if they know that wo muggles, unrelated to Muggleborns, are in their midst," Mr. Natex mused aloud. Harry barely heard him, still occupied with his thoughts.

For the while that he had been busy with his fantastical thoughts, Harry had missed them walking from the archway all the way to a white grandiose building of Roman architecture.

On it was a sign that said Gringotts Bank and beneath it was a dangerous warning.

Enter stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn

Must pay most dearly in their turn

If you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

When Harry was done reading the words meant to inspire fear he looked down at the entrance of the bank as they climbed up the steps leading to it. Standing before the opened doors were two dwarfish creatures with hooked nose and pointy long ears.

"Goblins," Mr. Natex told him seeing Harry staring at the short creatures. "This is the Wizarding Bank and the Goblins are solely in charge of it. There are several branches all over the world. They believe their strongholds to be impregnable as you may have deduced from the idiotic poem but their true might lies in the control they hold over the wizarding economy. But whether they are economically or martially formidable is of little concern as their their liberty to act antagonistically is being limited by centuries old magically binding contracts they signed with the wizards."

They went past the guards and entered the bank's interior. It had quite the wealthy appearance. Golden decorations like chandeliers, monuments, and murals adorned the entrance hall.

Mr. Natex ignored all of it and led Harry and Nigel to a reception table manned by a Goblin wearing a waistcoat.

"Goblin, I'm in a bit of hurry so I need you to direct me to a Mister Boneclaw," Mr. Natex demanded in a voice that was so soft and quiet it diminished a bit of the demand in his tone.

The Goblin frowned. "Master Boneclaw, you mean?"

Mr. Natex smiled nastily. "Yes, him."

"Ah, he informed us to give you something after your identity has been confirmed," the Goblin asked. "First what transaction did you coduct via mail with Master Boneclaw."

"A conversion of two million galleons to gold bars," Mr. Natex answered brusquely. He didn't seem to be happy with this interrogation.

"And the galleons were withdrawn from which vault?"

"The vault of the Blood Clan of Essex," Mr. Natex answered.

"Hmmm," the goblin hummed softly then placed a chest on the table. "There you go, Baron Essex. This holds your gold bars, all twenty thousand."

Harry's eyes widened hearing that. How could twenty thousand golden bars fit into that tiny box. Mr. Natex seem to accept the goblin's words as truth yet he opened the box to check. Harry, rightly curious, stood on his tip toes and looked into the box. He gasped at the sight that met his eyes. Inside the box was a space as big as a bedroom and piled inside were stacks of gold bars.

Mr. Natex shut the box close and gave the goblin a polite nod. "Give Mister Boneclaw my best and tell him to send me an owl about the current state of all Clan Essex's investments."

Without waiting for a reply from the goblin, Mr. Natex, still holding onto Harry, turned around and signalled for Nigel to carry the box. Together they swept out of the bank.