Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Criminal Minds or any of their characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
A/N: Words in bold is direct quotes from the movie. I used this scene from the movie not the books because it fitted into my story better. That's not to say I wont favour the book in other parts.
Harry had managed to send his letter when they stopped for dinner, and in the evening they'd stopped and spent the night at a small hotel but the mysterious letters found them there and Vernon leaded them into the car and rushed away without even packing their belongings. The next day they drove all over the countryside before Vernon rowed them across to a small island off the coast where they virtually camped for the night in the only building on the island, a rickety hut that looked like it had long been abandoned. Harry would have thought it was a fine adventure except for the fact that as they crossed from the mainland a storm was blowing in. He consoled himself that this old hut must have stood up through hundreds of storms, it wasn't likely to blow over just because they were inside it this time.
All of a sudden it seemed like Harry's reasoning was wrong and the hut was going to fall in on their heads. There was a great crashing noise waking Dudley and making him shriek and run for his parents and Harry watch anxiously as the door fell in. Harry hid beside the fireplace. It wasn't much of a hiding spot he thought, for the first time in his life wishing his cupboard was there for the Dursleys to have locked him in for the night.
A wildly ferocious looking giant of a man came in. Dressed in animal skins and a cloak with long bushy hair and beard. Harry cowered down further.
"Sorry 'bout that," the giant man said picking up the door and putting it back in place to keep the rain out. Harry wondered if this man had powers like him to stop the door from falling back down now that the lock and hinges were broken.
"I demand that you leave at once, Sir! You are breaking and entering!" Vernon blustered, pointing an old shotgun at the stranger. Harry wondered if it was loaded and if Vernon knew how to shoot, not that he was likely to miss at this distance it he pulled the trigger. He also wondered where Vernon had got the gun and if next time he totally lost it whether he would shoot Harry instead of just beating him up.
To Harry's shock instead of ducking or leaving, the stranger comes over, grabs the gun and bends it upwards. "Dry up, Dursley, you great prune," he said as the gun shoots a hole in the roof.
The stranger looked at Dudley. "Mind, I haven't seen you since you was a baby, Harry, but you're a bit more along than I would have expected. Particularly 'round the middle!"
"I-I-I'm not Harry," Dudley stammers and looks like he's about to wet himself. Harry wishes he had a better opportunity to enjoy watching his relatives quake but he couldn't hide forever. The Dursleys would be dragging him out and throwing him at the man in a minute.
"I-I am," Harry frowns when he hears his voice quaver a little but at least he was doing a better job at appearing brave than Dudley. At any rate, if this man didn't recognise him then he wasn't one of the people keeping him prisoner at the Dursleys, or wiping his memory.
The stranger grins at him. "Oh, well, of course you are! Got something for ya. 'Fraid I might have sat on it at some point! I imagine that it'll taste fine just the same. Ahh. Baked it myself. Words and all. Heh."
Harry takes the box the stranger holds out, even though he isn't at all sure he wants to eat anything this unkempt man has made. The restaurant has taught him a lot about safe food handling and to him someone with filthy fingernails in a coat that doesn't look like it's been washed in months isn't likely to exercise good kitchen hygiene. "Thank you!"
"It's not every day that your young man turns eleven, now is it?" Hagrid said.
Harry looked at him shocked. How did this stranger know it was his birthday?
Hagrid sits down on the couch, takes out an umbrella and points it at the empty fire. Poof, poof! Two sparks fly out and the fire starts. The family gapes but Harry looks at the man shrewdly. This stranger had the same powers he had. He wondered if that make the cake even less safe to eat? Then shook himself the cake wasn't important. The use of the power was. How many people could do that, and would Hagrid show him some ways to make learning to do new things easier. Not that he particularly wanted to be able to light fires, the Dursleys didn't have a fireplace.
"Excuse me, who are you?" Harry asked politely.
"Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. Course, you'll know all about Hogwarts," the man introduced himself.
"Sorry, no," Harry replied.
"No? Blimey, Harry, didn't you ever wonder where your mum and dad learned it all?" Hagrid asked.
"Learnt what?" Harry asked, though he had some idea, he wasn't sure if he wanted to admit to knowing yet since his relatives hadn't wanted him to know and believed his accidental bursts of powers had stopped happening.
"You're a wizard, Harry.
"I-I'm a what?" Harry asked. He supposed wizard was as good a word for someone with his powers as any other.
"A wizard. And a thumping good one at that, I'd wager. Once you train up a little," Hagrid said encouragingly.
"No, you've made a mistake. I can't be...a-a wizard. I mean, I'm just... Harry. Just Harry," he pretended to protest innocently.
"Well, Just Harry, did you ever make anything happen? Anything you couldn't explain when you were angry or scared?" Hagrid asked.
Harry thought quickly, he realised that Hagrid thought he could only access his power accidentally when he was stressed. He decided to play along.
Hagrid handed Harry the same letter that has been sent the past and Harry read it eagerly. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Dear, Mr. Potter. We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" he began to read aloud.
"He'll not be going! We swore when we took him in wed put an end to this rubbish!" Vernon insisted.
"You knew? You knew all along and you never told me?" Harry made sure he sounded surprised and aggrieved.
"Of course, we knew. How could you not be? My perfect sister being who she was. Oh, my mother and father were so proud the day she got her letter. We have a witch in the family. Isn't it wonderful? I was the only one to see her for what she was. A freak! And then she met that Potter, and then she had you, and I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as ... abnormal. And then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up! And we got landed with you.
"Blown up? You told me my parents died in a car crash!" Harry exclaimed. Spencer was right his relatives had been lying to him about his parents. He wondered what else they'd lied about.
"A car crash? A car crash kill James and Lily Potter?" Hagrid asked furiously.
"We had to tell him something," Petunia replied.
"It's an outrage! It's a scandal!" Hagrid blustered.
"He'll not be going!" Vernon refused.
"Oh, and I suppose a great Muggle like yourself's going to stop him, are you?" Hagrid asked irritated with the muggle's objections.
"Muggle?" Harry asked.
"Non magic folk," he said to Harry before turning back to his aunt and uncle. "This boy's had his name down ever since he was born! He's going to the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world, and he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts' has ever seen: Albus Dumbledore."
"I will not pay for some crackpot old fool to teach him magic tricks!" Vernon insisted.
"Never insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me," Hagrid roared. He pointed his umbrella at Dudley who was scoffing down Harry's cake, and points the umbrella at his rear. A grey tail grows.
Harry grinned at Hagrid as he knew Hagrid expected him to but inwardly he was freaking out. He was going to be beaten black and blue for this even though he knew it wasn't really his fault and he couldn't blame Hagrid for being upset Dudley was stealing his cake. More than that though, Harry had always worried about his powers hurting someone, to see Hagrid deliberately and so casually do that to Dudley for no good reason meant that he couldn't trust him. He had to play along and keep him from attacking him too. He had to pretend to be a little scared by this whole magic thing and make sure he didn't let on that he already had control of it and that he didn't trust him.
Harry kept his mouth shut until he realised that Hagrid was about to leave with him. "Um Hagrid, can you fix Dudley. Take the tail away. He doesn't know anyone else magical to go to get it fixed. You can't leave him like that," Harry begged.
Hagrid looked taken aback. "I don' think I can fix it," he admitted, slightly embarrassed. "I was tryin' to turn yer cousin into a pig but it din' exactly work. He'll have to go to St Mungo's."
"What's St Mungo's and where is it?" Harry asked.
"The hospital of course," Hagrid replied.
"A magical hospital? How do you get there?" Harry asked.
"By floo," Hagrid said.
"What's floo?" Harry asked.
"Magical travel, by fireplace," Hagrid explained.
"My relatives can't travel by magic. How do you get there without it?" Harry asked.
"I don' righ'ly know," Hagrid said.
"Then how is Dudley going to get rid of his tail?" Harry said beginning to panic. "You have to go and get someone who can fix this or take him to that hospital!"
Hagrid looked uneasy. "We'll send someone," he said, but Harry wasn't sure he believed him.
Harry's next objection occurred when Hagrid climbed into the boat the Dursleys had used to get to the island.
"Where's your boat? Why aren't we taking it?" Harry asked anxiously.
"I din't come by boat. Don' worry I'll send someone to get them," Hagrid replied.
Sighing Harry got on the boat and watched Hagrid use his umbrella to propel it towards the mainland coast.
"Don' tell anyone. Strickly speakin' I'm not allowed to do magic," Hagrid said.
Harry wanted to ask why but decided it might be better not to.
(After the Cannon chapter where Hagrid took Harry from the island and shopping in Diagon Alley.)
After a rather frustrating day where nothing was properly explained and Harry hadn't been allowed t even look around for things other than what was on his school list, Hagrid took Harry back to the station and bought him a ticket back to Greater Whinging where he could catch a connecting bus to Little Whinging and arrive within walking distance of home. As they got to the platform Harry asked him if he'd sent someone to help the Dursleys and Hagrid nodded.
"I mus' do tha'. You'll be righ' to get yerself home?" It didn't seem to occur to Hagrid that eleven year old's generally didn't travel on their own, especially when they'd only been on a train for the first time that morning, or that Harry might not do exactly what he was told and return straight home to the Dursleys or what he'd do when he beat them home and was locked outside for the night, if his relatives were still stuck on that island and had to go to the magical hospital before the long drive home.
"Sure, I'll be fine," Harry replied, watching Hagrid hurry away.
Harry looked at the ticket and realised that it didn't have a train time on it, in fact it was valid for the rest of the day and most of the next day as well, so if he wanted he could go back to Diagon Alley and ask some questions and get some more books before returning home on a later train. He grinned and set out without a second thought to how dangerous it could be for a child to travel alone late at night.
He'd been aware for at least half the day shopping, that Hagrid was hurrying him along, limiting who he met and what questions he could ask and what things especially books he was allowed to purchase and he hadn't wanted to anger the man so had just pretended not to notice and resolved that he would find an opportunity to go back to Diagon Alley on his own before he left for school, and now Hagrid had unintentionally given him one. At first, he'd just assumed Hagrid was in a hurry, which fit with him not taking him all the way back to his relatives, and some of the restrictions made sense no point paying for a golden cauldron when pewter was no doubt better for beginners, but the nervous air as he hurried Harry particularly in the bookshop made him suspicious. He wanted more information and this was the perfect opportunity. It might also be the perfect opportunity to disappear if he didn't like what he learned about the wizarding world since it was almost certainly a wizard who was keeping him at Privet Drive and had set something in the house, park and primary school to limit his magic.
He started his quest for information at Eeylops Owl Emporium… if he was to go to Hogwarts, he needed a way to keep in contact with Spencer.
"I have no idea whether you could send an owl to America, I wouldn't recommend it, it's too far over the sea with nowhere for your owl to rest or hunt," the sales person said uninterestedly. "You should ask at the post office, they offer some sort of international service."
Receiving directions to the post office Harry arrived as they were experiencing a rush of deliveries to be sent out at the end of the business day and the workers had no time for what they thought was a muggleborn with silly questions, so he went back to Gringotts and asked them if he could exchange some Galleons for Pounds then asked them to take him back to his vault for a little more money. He didn't exchange that much knowing that he have to hide the money and the clothing and things he bought or the Dursleys would take from him but he planned to buy himself a pair of jeans and a couple of T-shirts and some warm jumpers, winter pyjamas, underwear and socks which Hagrid hadn't given him time to buy earlier because they weren't on his Hogwarts' supplies list, even though he was sure he was expected to bring them to school with him, and hide them in his trunk for use at school. It had to be brought before he went home so Harry could hide the things in the bottom of his trunk. The most important purchase though would be stamps and envelopes. Enough to send at least a couple of international letters to his only friend each month for the entire school year since he didn't know if he would be able to buy more at school and planned to spend the holidays there if possible.
He remembered that when Spencer had told him he thought Vernon and Petunia could be lying about his parents he'd also wondered if they were possibly being paid to look after Harry and asked the goblin driving the cart if there was a way to find out about any payments or deductions coming out of his account.
"You'll need to talk to an account manager," the goblin driving the cart said gruffly, he hadn't offered his name.
"Thank you, do I need to make an appointment with the Account Manager?" Harry asked.
"Shouldn't do, just ask to see them," the goblin replied.
"Okay. Who do I need to ask and how do I do it?" Harry asked.
"I'll take you after you get your money," the goblin offered.
Harry smiled. "Thank you," he said politely.
The account manager looked even more severe and Harry quickly got to the point after being glared at for saying hello.
"I want to know if someone is taking money from my account to pay my relatives for looking after me and to stop the payments while I'm at school," he said.
The goblin nodded, it seemed more than reasonable to him not to want to pay for a service you weren't receiving. "Name," he demanded.
"Oh… I'm Harry Potter," Harry almost stammered.
"There are a lot of payments coming out of your account. Which one do you want stopped?" the account manager asked.
"Anything to Vernon Dursley, or Petunia Dursley or Dudley Dursley, but what other payments are there?" Harry said confused.
"To your magical guardian Albus Dumbledore, payments to Mundungus Fletcher, and Hepburn Whitsone for maintaining the wards on the house at 4 Privet Drive and the surrounding neighbourhood, a monthly stipend to Arabella Figg and one to Remus Lupin …" the account manager said.
"I've never met or heard of these people, who started these payments," Harry interrupted.
"The charitable payment to St Mungo's was started by your grandfather, the stipend to Remus Lupin by your father and the rest by your magical guardian," the account manager said frowning. "He shouldn't have had that much access to your accounts."
"If he's my guardian he should also have been looking after me and I've never met him. Stop all the payments he started, including the one to him. Can you recall the money he paid himself since it was for doing a job he didn't do? And can you make it so he doesn't know that I know about the payments and that I cancelled them?" Harry said angrily.
"I can certainly stop the payments and have him removed from accessing your account for dereliction of the duty of a magical guardian, but he will know it has happened even if he won't know that you approached me and asked for it," The account manager said.
"Okay. I still want it done. I don't want him to have that sort of power over me," Harry said decisively.
"Do you want the wards at 4 Privet Drive maintained?" the account manager asked.
"Would it be the wards that make my magic weaker when I'm there?" Harry asked.
"You can feel that your magic is weaker?" the account manager asked impressed.
"Yes, there seems to be a lot less of it and it's harder to do things and it takes a lot longer to build back up after I've used it if I don't go outside, the further I get from the Dursley's house the stronger my magic seems to be," Harry explained.
"Wards could be set to do that if they're using your magic to power the protection, but there's no good reason for it and you should barely notice the difference," the account manager said frowning thoughtfully and planning to reclaim the money spent on those wards if the warders couldn't come up with a very good explanation why they were in Harry Potter's best interest.
"I more than barely notice. There's a big difference in how hard it is to do things. What else could do that?" Harry asked.
"A magical syphon," the account manager said frowning.
"How do I find out?" Harry asked.
"I could send a ward breaker out to asses the wards for you and look for a syphon, for a fee of course," the account manager said.
"No thanks, if they stop maintaining the wards how quickly would they fall?" Harry asked.
"That depends on how strong they are, an assessment would tell you that," the account manager said.
"I'll be gone for the school year, if they're still there causing a problem in June, I'll consider it," Harry replied.
The account manager clearly dismissed him and he thoughtfully made his way out of the bank. He had the name of his enemy now and unfortunately, it was the same name that Hagrid had spent the day praising. Just badmouthing Dumbledore had caused Hagrid to give Dudley that horrible pig tail and it wasn't even him that said anything. And he was the headmaster of Hogwarts. Harry didn't have much contact with the headmaster of his primary school but he wondered if that would be different at a boarding school? Thank heavens that he hadn't trusted the overly large wizard. What should he do now? He wished Spencer was there to talk things over with.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.