Chapter 2 - Confrontations and Finances

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

From the outside scenery, Harry could tell that they would be reaching Kings Cross Station very soon. He found his thoughts wondering to Sirius again, and he had to quash the overwhelming feeling of despair and sorrow, that was always at the surface these days.

He had to be strong, even though he simply wanted to just fade into anonymity. He wanted to be left alone and take the time needed to properly mourn Sirius. He knew that he simply could not allow himself to do that. If he wanted to avenge all the wrongs done to him, he had to stay focused on his goals.

Finally the Hogwarts train stopped. Harry stood up and stretched. He then picked up his trunk and Hedwig's cage from the overhead storage bins, and said his goodbyes to his friends.

"Hey Neville – Luna, you guys have a good summer o.k."

Luna replied "Oh Harry, you look after your self too, I know it hurts to lose Sirius, I know how long it took me to get over my mums death, but you know as well as I do, there they are not really gone, you remember the voices behind the veil don't you?"

"We will see them again when it's our time Harry. Just remember that they are still looking out for us" With that she stood at the tip of her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek. She then walked out to meet her dad. Harry didn't know what to make of that, but some how found some comfort in her parting words.

"Hey Harry" Neville called. "I want to thank you again for everything you taught me this year, it means a lot to me."

Harry replied, "Just remember Neville, You are as good a wizard as they come. You just needed a nudge in the confidence department." Harry clasped his left shoulder and gave it a squeeze, and with that he stepped out of the compartment and made his way out of the train, he stepped out of platform 9 ¾ and braced himself to meet his dreaded relatives.

The first thing that Harry saw was Mrs. Weasley running to hug Ron and Ginny. She turned around and asked him how he was. Of course Harry lied and said he was fine. What a stupid question that was, how should he feel right after his godfather died. He then looked at Ron who was gawking at the twins' new clothes, he noticed another hint of jealousy apparent on his face, but that was nothing unusual coming from Ron. The Joke shop must be doing very well indeed mused Harry.

"Hello Harry." greeted Lupin, "Hi" said Harry. He also noticed Mad Eye, Tonks, and Mr. Weasley.

"What are you guys doing here?"

Lupin said "Well we thought we might have a bit of a chat with your relatives." He hissed.

"I don't know if that is such a good idea," said Harry.

"Oh I think it is!" growled Moody. His magical eye was obviously peering through his head. He stepped to the left and noticed the Dursleys, who looked positively irritated to be seeing him and his friends.

To Harry's amusement, the wizarding reception committee proceeded to give the Dursleys a verbal trashing. They told them how unhappy they were about how he was treated in their care. Mad Eye was talking to Vernon, and his Uncle looked to be affronted and started blustering, but Mad Eye would have none of it. Of course being the coward that Vernon Dursleys really was, there was no option for him but to capitulate. Harry could see that his fat pachyderm of an uncle was scared shitless. Of course Mad Eye could have that effect on people.

Harry looked to his uncle's right and of course there stood his horse face of an aunt who went by the name of Petunia Evans Dursley. She now looked quite agitated to be in the presence of Order members; probably scared that she is going to be spotted by one of her light minded neighbours. Of course no Dursley family would be complete without his dear cousin Ickle Ditty Dumbkins. The fat oaf was trying to hide behind his rake of a mother. Of course he was failing miserably. If nothing else, his cousin had graduated from a baby whale to a full-blown adult soropod Dinosaur. Just the very sight of them made his stomach turn.

Harry bid farewell to Ron and Hermione, "Have a good trip guys, See you later", he said in a sort of cool voice.

He then turned around and made his way with his relatives to the family sedan. They pulled out of Kings Cross Station and got onto Main Street. All the while they kept glancing at Harry every now and then. Aside from the occasional sneering they said nothing. Harry went back to watching the outside scenery while his cousin who practically took 2/3 of the seat tried in vain to make himself look small.

Uncle Vernon looked in the rear view mirror and yelled "Boy! I did not appreciate your little welcoming reception; we'll be having a little chat tonight BOY! And make no mistake I don't care what those FREAKS SAY! I run my household not your ABNORMAL friends."

Harry decided that getting it on in the car was not wise. He could wait until supper for the showdown of all showdowns to erupt. He simply replied, "Yes Uncle Vernon" with a sneer on his face. He went back to looking out of his window. He could see from the corner of his eye that Dudley was smiling viciously at him. Fine he thought you'll get yours tonight too. After the events of his school year, with Umbridge, Death Eaters and Voldemort, he was not going to be intimidated by his stupid, overbearing, fat muggle relatives anymore. If anything, Harry had a lot of pent-up anger that needed releasing, and they would provide the perfect recipients of his anger.

They passed by the Leaky Cauldron on their way to the rotary. Harry noticed for the first time the many shops, which littered that part of London. He saw a book store, an electronic store, a male fashion store; he even saw a muggle company theatre for plays and such. Interesting he thought, he now realized that he never really paid any attention to all of the muggle stores before.

Remembering his first year, he had been way too enthralled at being delivered from his servitude at the time. All he noticed was the magical world. At the time, he didn't think very highly of the muggle world, mostly due to the Dursleys' treatment of him. All he could really remember from it were primary school, bullies and a very sheltered life under a cupboard at number 4 Privet Drive.

His thoughts wandered to Sirius again, something he found very difficult to avoid these days. God, he never wanted Sirius to get hurt. Harry knew deep down that he would always feel some guilt over his involvement in Sirius death. He had learned his lessons over his godfather's demise that's for sure.

However there were other people to blame for what happened, other than him. First on that list was that greasy hair, beak nose mother fucker Snape…. if that wicked rat fuck son of a bitch could have actually acted like a professional for once in his life, instead of holding teenage vendettas that should have died decades ago.

'If he could have put aside his feelings for his father and the Marauders and actually teach me the art of Occlumency, then events could have turned out quite differently. All he ever said was clear your mind. Fucking HOW! What techniques should I use? There was no teaching! All he ever did was weaken my natural defences, and rape my mind. His only goal was to find more ways to torture me.' Harry hated Snape with such raw passion; he was never going to forgive him. Harry promised himself that someday Snape was going to pay for every thing he ever did to Sirius and him.

Second on his hit list was the great Dumbledore himself. His betrayal hurts the most. From the time Harry started at Hogwarts, he had looked up to him and expected him to do right by him. Last year he thought of Dumbledore as his saviour for taking him away from the Dursleys. After the event at the department of mysteries, Harry had taken the time to relive all of his moment at Hogwarts. It dawned on him that it had been the headmaster's chess moves that had put him in danger every year he went there.

Maybe that's what he wanted all along. Carefully manipulate the events at every turn to further the image of the Boy-Who-Lived in the eyes of the wizarding world. Now that Harry thought about it, why had the sorting hat looked at putting him in Slyterin? From the very first time he met Hagrid, he had been made to believe that Slyterin house was bad. Of course meeting Draco Malfoy at Madame Malkin's hadn't helped the image of Slyterin that's for sure.

He wondered how things would have turned out if he had gone into Slyterin. Supposedly, he was the weapon to get rid of Voldemort. So what does Dumbledore do? He keeps Harry in the dark all summer. Last year, he kept him isolated from his friends, kept a total information blackout. Harry had been forced to deal with Cedric's death all by himself.

This year, he refused to tell him why he should be taking lessons in Occlumency with Snape of all people. Dumbledore made every effort to avoid him during the school year. He didn't even try to explain his actions. Two weeks ago Dumbledore told him that it was all done to safeguard that God Damn Prophecy. His godfather died in large part because of Dumbledore's fuck up.

Dumbledore must have felt that his little Gryffindor pea brain couldn't understand the stakes. On top of all that there was that lying, kaniving, and little pawn scum of an Elf who goes by the name of Kreacher. The damn house elf lied to him about Sirius being captured. He was obviously working for that bitch Bellatrix and Narcissa the whole time. Finally let's not forget that fucking hag Umbrige and her man whore the Minister of Magic himself Cornelius I'm an asshole Fudge. They all conspired to make his life a living hell.

Remembering all these events suddenly became too much for him and he once again became filled with despair. He could no longer keep his emotions in check no matter how hard he tried and silently tears began rolling down his cheeks. He could feel his rage begging to be unleashed.

Harry swore, as god was his witness they would all pay dearly for what they did to his parents, Sirius and him. The muggles have a saying PAY BACK IS A BITCH. Well he intended on becoming the god damn poster boy for that saying. At that moment, unknown to Harry, his eyes began to glow neon green and shone like little beacons, a white aura began to surround him. Harry felt himself feeding on his rage. It would feel so good to completely give in. Dudley had been keeping an eye on his cousin and noticed his insane smile and looked at his eyes and noticed the odd glow and yelled

"Dad! Harry is crying and doing some Freak thing with his eyes."

Vernon looked into his rear view mirror and suddenly his face took on malicious sneer and his face started turning into a weird puce color and bellowed

"BOY WHAT DID WE TELL YOU ABOUT CRYING IN FRONT OF US? WHAT HAPPENED! ONE OF YOUR FREAK BOYFRIED LEFT YOU? HA, HA, HA…"

"You know better then to let your abnormality run loose BOY! I am going to have to think up of an appropriate punishment for this." Vernon finished with a maniacal grin on his face.

Once again Dudley was snickering. Suddenly Harry realized where he was and understood he had to reign in his anger for now. It was not the right time to let it loose, soon, but not yet. His Aunt was giving him a death glare, and he glared back at her, she noticed his eyes and turned away immediately.

Nobody said anything for the duration of the drive, which suited Harry immensely. As his Uncle Vernon pulled into the driveway Harry noticed Hedwig perched on the top branch of the oak tree. She was doing a very good job of concealment. Hedwig had flown ahead of them so she wouldn't be locked in the small trunk for the three-hour car ride.

So Harry got out of the car, walked to the back and opened the car trunk. He dragged out his battered school trunk and owl's cage. His Aunt Petunia and Dudley had already rushed inside the house. In Dudley's case, unable to run, he had wobbled inside the house. His uncle locked the car trunk and rushed in after his wife.

Well Harry thought to himself, it was too much to expect any help from any of those assholes. He opened the front door and hauled his trunk and cage up the stairs and into his bedroom. He struggled some with his trunk, and finally got it up to his bedroom. He was out of breath and realized that he had to get into much better shape.

Harry had noticed toward the end of his school year that he had undergone a real growth spurt, he was now a respectable 5'-11". Of course not being starved helps your growth. He knew he would grow some more, but he was also pretty thin, thanks in part to his high metabolism and lack of good nutrition these last two months. The stress of OWLs, lack of decent sleep, Umbridge, the ministry, and Sirius had all piled up on his body. He knew he had to take much better care of himself. He promised he would make it up to himself.

Looking around his room, or to what he most commonly referred too as his own personalized jail cell. He put Hedwig's cage on the left corner of his old beat up desk. He opened the window and immediately Hedwig flew in and landed on top of her cage.

"Hi girl." he said.

"Did you have a good fly?" Hedwig looked at him and hooted a reply. Harry had always thought that his owl could just about understand everything he said. Aside from Hagrid, she was the best friend anybody could ever have. He loved her deeply. Harry knew that Hedwig loved him unconditionally. Harry felt really bad about ignoring her for a good part of his school year.

Harry decided to let her know he was sorry. "Hey Girl, I'm so sorry I ignored you last year; I was so caught up with everything. It's no excuse on my part, I hope you understand. You didn't deserve to be ignored like that sweetie."

She hooted softly and brushed her head against his cheek. "I promise I'll never ignore you like that again, I love you girl."

She affectingly nipped his fingers. Harry decided to give her loads of treats tonight. He sat there for about 5 minutes just gently petting her back. She really loved having her back feathers caressed.

Harry let Hedwig enjoy her treats, and went back to store his belongings. He put his battered trunk at the foot of his bed and proceeded to put his schoolbooks on his broken bookshelves. He then looked into his closet to take stock of his clothes. God they were so beat up, and decrepit he thought. He really had to go shopping and treat himself to some nice things.

Harry looked at his beat up old watch and realized that supper was coming up soon. He knew that tonight a lot of things would change. Tonight was the night that he was going to start his path to war. After the events of DOM, he realized he only had two choices. He could willow in self-pity, fall into depression and give in to his suicidal tendency or he could take the high road and avenge his parents and Sirius.

In the end, he realized that if he quit, then Voldemort had won and all of his parent's sacrifices along with his godfather would have been in vain. He had to go on, there was no other choice. He realized that he could simply run away and hide in the muggle world, but that was no answer either. For one thing, Voldemort wouldn't give a shit about him quitting. He would come for him anyway. Second, quitting and hiding went against his very fibre. He had never quit on anything, and he wasn't about to start now.

He decided to lie on his bed and wait for supper. Might as well make his time productive and started going over his plans for tomorrow. He had so many things that needed to be done. The next few days would decide his fate. He had to play his cards very carefully. Finally the call to supper came in the form of his aunts shrilly voice

"Boy, get down here and help me set the table!"

He got off his bed and made sure that he had his wand tucked in his right shirtsleeve. He went down to the kitchen and started setting the table. His uncle was sneering at him in disdain the whole time. When that was done, his aunt served him a miniscule portion again. 'I guess they didn't take the Orders threats very seriously,' he thought to himself. He sat down at the table, and looked at his plate; he had one very small slice of roast beef with vegetables and a little sauce. He looked over at his dinosaur of a cousin who seemed to have his plate piled with meat, gravy and potatoes. Dudley looked back at him and snickered.

He looked up from his plate and looked at his uncle who looked at him and smiled

"Well boy, did you honestly think that those freaks were going to scare us, eh?"

"After everything we have done for you and this is how you repay us!" by this time his uncles face had taken on a very unhealthy puce color, bordering on blue to be truthful.

His uncle then bellowed, "We decide how things go in this home, you little shit! You thought you had chores last year? This year will be ten times worse! How do you like that, eh?"

Your no good bum of a father and your bitch of a mother saw fit to dump you on our doorsteps. Well then you can suffer for their irresponsible behaviour you little freak. Harry had been waiting for just the mention of his parents to work himself up and unleash his rage. He brought forth all of his memories of his mistreatment by the Dursleys, he felt an unbelievable rage build up in him. Harry turned his head to get a good look at his uncle and suddenly stood up from his chair and looked directly into his uncle's eyes and to the utter shock of the Dursleys bellowed.

"YOU FUCKING SACK OF MONKEY SPUNK, YOU BULLYING RATFUCK SON OF A WHORE! Everything you have ever done for me? Well let me tell you what you've done for me." Harry's voice was now dripping with venom.

Harry continued, "Well you and your bastard family have done nothing but bully me from the time I could walk. You damn near starved me, stuffed me in a cupboard till I was 11, got me to be your fucking slave, always left me behind when you went on your little trips, never showed me any love what so ever. You did nothing but put me down, and physiologically abuse me. I was Dudley's little punching bag for at least 8 years. Well let me tell you."

"I will not be taking anymore shit from you or the rest of your bastard family! Ever Again! This ends tonight, he roared!" Harry could see the near state of shock the Dursleys were in and continued.

"I have to train to fight this fucking demon by the name of Voldemort that plagues my world, and I am the only one who can kill him according to some fucking prophecy. From here on end I only answer to my own council do you hear me? Because so help me god I will fucking kill you if you get in my way." Harry could see the near hysteria on his aunt's face and decided to give the final punch.

"Nobody will Ever step on me again!"

By this time Harry eyes were glowing like green neon signs, and his magic was starting to surround his body. Of course Vernon Dursleys being an upstanding citizen and utterly clueless where his nephew was concerned, roared and bellowed, "HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME THIS WAY YOU LITTLE BASTARD!"

For a man of his weight and girth, Vernon Dursley was surprisingly fast. He rounded the table and swung at Harry. Harry however had been expecting this and was faster, his reflexes having been honed after all those years of Quidditch. He managed to duck his head out of the way, but still managed to take a good hit on his shoulder, which sent him flying to the floor. He bumped his head on the edge of the counter. At this point Harry was pissed, his head was in pain and he saw nothing but green in front of him.

All the years of pain and suffering rushed out of him, and he quickly got up from the floor and rushed his uncle. By now his magical aura had completely surrounded his body and he yelled, "YOU FAT FUCK HOW DARE YOU HIT ME, I have had enough!"

His uncle never saw the fist coming from his nephew. Harry cocked his left fist and smashed his uncle in the solar plexus, he heard a loud crack and saw his uncle fly through the air and smash into the living room wall. His uncle then slid down the wall clutching his chest. He noticed that his uncle had also left a sizable imprint in the living room wall. By this time Dudley decided to come to his fathers rescue.

He rushed towards Harry, but Harry saw him coming and avoided a fist the size of Scotland coming his way. He then kicked Dudley where his family gonads were. The kick was so strong, that Dudley had actually lifted a foot in the air. He heard a loud cry, and then a thump to the floor. At this point Dudley was reeling from the pain, and at that moment he did the only thing that he could. He upchucked his supper right on himself and went into a foetal position and began moaning in pain.

Harry said "So much for the Junior Heavyweight Interschool Boxing Champion of the Southeast."

Harry, who was now facing his cousin, had forgotten that his aunt was behind him. His aunt who looked momentarily paralyzed from her nephews actions, recovered from her shock. With a rage filling her eyes, she ran over to Harry, and managed to come from behind and hit her nephew on the side of his face with her right fist.

She of course was nowhere close to her son or husbands strength, but she still managed to momentarily stun him, Harry shook his head and whirled around to face her, what happened next, would stay burned in her mind for the rest of her days. Harry surprised by the hit, looked at the fury in his aunt's eyes and touched his lip and looked at the blood on his fingers, with a sneer on his face he backhanded his aunt across the face with all the force he could muster.

Harry heard a loud CRACK. Harry saw his aunt sailing from the kitchen table and smashed into the dreaded cupboard door. He looked back at her, and noticed that blood was flowing from her nose freely. He must have broken her nose. He didn't think he hit her that hard. It must be my magic, he thought. Petunia Dursleys remembered hitting her nephew, and then feeling a blinding pain on her face. She shook her head, and noticed she was crumpled on the floor, she felt as if she had fallen onto the pavement face first. She now noticed the blood oozing from her nose and mouth.

She looked back towards her nephew and saw that his eyes had that same green neon color that she had seen that day in the car. For the first time in her life she was scared to death for her life. Next thing that happened, her nephew yelled at both Dudley and her to get their asses to the living room couch. Harry told them they were going to have a little family chat.

Next he went to Vernon who was sitting on the living room floor lying against the dented wall. His uncle seemed to have picked up a pronounced wheezing all of a sudden. Harry looked at the pathetic fat pig lying on the floor and remembered all of the mental abuse he had suffered at his hands. He bent down and with a grunt picked him up by the collar, which was no small feat, considering the size of his uncle. He then looked into his sneering face, and CRACK.

He smashed his uncle over five times in the face with his left fist. All the while yelling, "I HATE YOU!" over and over.

Blood was oozing from his uncle. By now his nose was broken, he had several cuts above his eyebrows, and his front teeth had been knocked out. He let go of his uncle who crumbled back to the floor. He then proceeded to kick him repeatedly in the ribs and the kidneys. After another minute or so, he picked him by up by his collar again and pushed him roughly unto the couch. He hit the couch and just grunted, barely coherent. By this time they all had a sickly look in their face and a deep worry of what was coming next. Harry looked positively demonic.

Harry laid it out like this and said, "All right," he said, "listen up. I am only going to say this once, I never asked to come to this blasted shit hole and live with you bastards. The only reason I'm here is because that conniving, slimy Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore stuck me here fifteen years ago, because of an ancient blood protection that my MOTHER, gave me when she sacrificed herself for me."

No one said anything so Harry continued, "In the process may I add, she allowed all of you pathetic assholes, to live your safe and very boring little life. The reason I have to stay here is to recharge the wards that are in effect." He waited a few seconds for his words to sink in and continued.

"You see, just to spite your sorry asses I could just leave and let the wards fail. Then you would all be at Voldemort tender mercy. Believe me, he would find you in no time and torture you to insanity. Dudley, if you thought that Dementors were bad last summer, it's nothing compared to what the death eaters would do to you." Harry could see his cousin nearly pissing himself and continued.

"Now I have a lot of things to do this summer, and I cannot have you interfere with my business any longer. However as bad as Voldemort is, he is not the one who you have to worry about anymore; you will have to worry about me for a change. If you get in my way, let me tell you what I plan to do."

Harry whipped out his wand so fast that it looked like a blur to them. He then said, "Uncle Vernon, I happen to be pretty good at transfiguration. You see that's a branch of magic that delves into the study of changing one form into another."

"Now Vernon!" he said with such venom. "If you don't cooperate and play nice, I plan on turning you into a female hygiene product. You will find yourself becoming closer to aunt Petunia then you have ever dreamed of before."

Harry then turned to Dudley and said, "You, my dear cousin. If you bug me again, or if I see you beating up on any more kids in Surrey, I will transfigure you into a toilet bowl. I will then make sure that I eat lots of fibre. I will then proceed to take very long craps into Dudley the Lou. Do I make myself clear?"

He then turned on his aunt and said, " Dear aunty Petunia, If you under feed me, or get in my way again, or try to get me to do any of you bloody chores, I will personally curse you so bad, that you will become Surrey's most notorious slut. You will find yourself unable to resist fucking every guy on this street. Just so you know, you might be thinking that I cannot use my wand, and that it is forbidden. You know what? I don't give a fuck about the ministry of magic or Dumbledore anymore."

Harry noticed she was nearly ready to pass out and continued, "So help me god, if you piss me off again, I will not hesitate to use magic on you." Harry now noticed that Dudley and Vernon looked almost green with fright.

"Now I will go out of my way to stay out of your way. I will no longer have curfews, is that understood." He waited for their acknowledgment and continued.

"I will come and go, as I please no questions asked. If you want any chores done, then you can get your useless son Ickle Diddy Dumplings to get off his fat arse and do something for once in his life. It is currently against my better judgment to help any of you out, but I may have a way to ensure that we stay out of each other's way. I'll see what comes of it tomorrow. If we can manage to completely avoid each other, it will be much better for both our healths, would you agree?"

He then looked at his aunt's eyes, and had to say one more thing. "You aunt Petunia, how you can look at yourself in the mirror every morning and not be degusted by what you see is beyond me. You had the power to stop all of this abuse for the last fifteen years and did nothing about it. I, your only last living blood relative, the only reminder of the link you once had to your sister and you let that bastard of a husband control every aspect of your relationship with me. When the time comes to meet my mother, you will have an awful lot to answer for. If there is any justice, you'll be sent straight to hell." Petunia just sat there crying.

By this time the entire Dursleys families were scared beyond belief. They simply nodded their heads. In Vernon's case he was swaying his head.

Harry said, "You should drive yourselves to the hospital. Some of you look like you may need some tender loving care." Harry was just sneering at them by then.

With that, he made his way to the counter where the rest of the roast beef was, which was a hefty four pound's worth, and put the whole thing on a carving platter. He then picked up a carton of juice and the rest of the mash potatoes and walked upstairs to his bedroom.

Harry thought for a second and decided that it might be safer to take a little precaution. He took the chair from under his desk and jammed it underneath the doorknob. You never know, they might decide on some retribution for his actions tonight and barge in unannounced in the middle of the night.

Harry played back his actions tonight and uttered out loud, "Damn revenge really does feel good."

Now just maybe, they will think twice about messing with him again. He allowed himself as small smile to cross his lips, and proceeded to demolish the rest of the roast beef. He knew he had to go to sleep soon; he had a very long day ahead of him tomorrow.

Earlier That Evening

Unknown, to Harry, Tonks was on shift that evening. With the attack on the ministry, Dumbledore had been very explicit about increasing vigilance where Harry was concerned. She could tell that a change had occurred in Harry. Sirius death had been rough on her, and Remus was totally depressed. He was in a bad straight. He was now the only Marauder left. Pettigrew doesn't count. That double-crossing bastard will get his when the time comes. Harry however seemed to have been affected the most.

He had been one angry kid last summer, but she had a feeling that was nothing to what he was feeling right now. She was brought from her musing by a loud commotion coming from the Dursleys kitchen. She edged closer to the window and what she saw would stay marked in her brain for a very long time.

She looked at Harry, and his eyes were glowing neon green, and he had a white aura covering his whole body. What she saw then was an incredible display of physical magic. He wasted his uncle and cousin and smashed his aunt. Bodies were flying everywhere. She cannot imagine what they said to him, but it must have been pretty bad to piss him off like that. She was wondering if she should intervene or not.

The last thing she wanted to do was to make her presence known, if Harry knew he was being watched by the Order, he might turn on her. Even thought she was a fully trained Auror and was a powerful witch in her own right, she knew that Harry was a lot more powerful then her. In fact she had never met somebody his age who was that powerful.

She shuddered to think what would happen if he completely let go. The frightening thing was that he was not even close to his full magical maturity. She looked and saw Harry talking to them, and they seemed to be cowering on the couch, gee no shit there. Wow that was a close one; they don't seem to be too injured. It looks like Harry is holding off his temper for now. She would have to report this little incident to the order on her next meeting.

Harry lay into his mattress going over his plan for tomorrow. He first needed to lose the order. He had no qualms what so ever that the old bastard had his goon squad looking after their weapon. He would slip out of the house at around 5:00 am, and make his way to the back entrance.

Harry knew that he would need his invisibility cloak for his plan to work. He also needed some muggle cash. He had exchanged about 100 galleons a month ago into pounds. There was this little muggle exchange booth in Hogsmeade. He had about a surprising 5000 pounds worth of notes. Tomorrow he needed to get to the Leaky Cauldron and then to Gringotts.

He had to find out how much money he had first and foremost. This would dictate where he went from there. He also needed a really good disguise. He could not afford to get caught no matter what. Based on the amount of money he had to play with, he would then see how extravagant he would get into his purchasing. After Gringotts he wanted to get to Knockturn alley and get some dark arts books.

Over the last weeks, he had come to realize that this whole life they were being fed about light and dark magic was just nonsense. Light and Dark magic was just that, magic. It all came down to intent. You could have a maniac use a light spell such as wingardium leviosa and drop someone off a cliff. Although the spell itself was considered a light magic spell, it could be twisted to evil intent.

The same was true for using dark magic. One could use a very dark spell and save a toddler from certain oblivion at the hands of death eaters. Although the spell would be dark the intent would be to save a life. Dumbledore was an idealist. A weapon is a weapon no matter the source. In the annals of history you have always had people with little scruples who will use any means possible to acquire power and subjugate people to their whims. No, Harry thought, he would seek out any and all weapons available to help him dispose of snake face. Now if…est.

Somewhere in North Scotland at a special school called Hogwarts

Albus Dumbledore stood by his window late in the evening, looking at the stars on this clear night. He sighed heavily and brought a hand up to massage his brow. He felt so old these days. He was deep in thought, and was reviewing the last two weeks worth of memories. Of course the subject of his preoccupation tonight was one Harry Potter.

The young lad had definitely become angrier this year. 'He was certainly mad at me,' he thought. The rest of the order fared no better for that matter. This past school year had certainly had its twist and turns. Events could have been played out quite differently, but what was done was done.

He would try to make amends with young Harry, as he had to gain his trust for a few more years, to ensure he is on board for the final play. He now believed that the key to defeating Voldemort lay in increasing the connection between Harry and Voldemort. The idea was that as their telepathic connection increased, their souls would eventually begin to intertwine.

Over the following years they could become so connected that when one of them died their shared essence would be so great that the others soul would be taken as well. Unknown to Severus, and playing on his natural hate for the young lad, he had asked him to teach Harry occlumency. Deep down he new that nothing good would come of it except weaken Harry's natural shields. Severus had been the catalyst to increase his mind link to Voldemort.

These were dangerous games to play, no doubt about that, but these were also very dangerous times. 'War forces us to make choices for the greater good, it's not fair to Harry, but when has life ever been fair?' Albus muttered.

At the time of these thoughts, Albus Dumbledore could not have known how far from the truth his perceptions really were. He would regard his past thinking as a fool's thoughts for underestimating Harry Potter to that extent, and would pay dearly for it.

Although Harry has the potential to become one of the most powerful wizards in history, he was too volatile, and was not level headed enough. He had to keep playing to his Griffindor side. Throughout his years at Hogwarts he had not shown any spectacular academic talent except for DADA where he was rated number one throughout the school.

He had amazing instincts in the heat of battle and could think very strategically when he needed too. He was certainly brave and cared very much for his friends. On the whole however, he thought of Harry Potter as a fairly strong wizard magically, yet ordinary in intelligence. He expected his OWL to reflect that.

Again Albus Dumbledore would be proven wrong

In the final analysis, Harry Potter simply did not have the time to get up to Voldemort's level of magical knowledge. Voldemort had 50 years experience on him, not to mention that Tom had been an exceptional student to boot. No, that connection was his weapon, and all he had to do was wait.

There seemed to be no need to spend all kinds of training and resources on Harry. It's a good thing that he kept his playing card very close to his chest. In the grand scheme of things sacrificing a life here and there was an acceptable tactical loss when compared to the lives of the entire wizarding world.