Chapter 6: 06 Different Secrets

An hour later, Harry left Quiddich Quality Supplies after only spending a hundred galleons for everything, because he had let the shop owner take his picture while he wore the safety equipment and held the new Nimbus broom with a thumbs-up hand gesture.

Harry also had a letter of thanks from the Nimbus Broom Company and a free subscription to their broom catalogue and a permanent 50% discount to his purchases for his endorsement. He had also gained the Negotiation Skill and it had levelled three times and that had doubled to six because of his Child Bonus of 2x XP. All in all, he had received a lot out of the deal.

He went back to the Leaky Cauldron and Hagrid was laughing and joking with the other people in the pub. He gave Tom another handful of gold coins and asked him to tell Hagrid later that he went home. Tom looked grateful for the extra money and bid him a good day.

Harry went out through the front door and used his wand to summon the Knight Bus. He didn't go home, however. He went into London proper to one of the main bank branches and went inside. He set his inventory to gather money and walked by the three automated teller machines, or banking machines, and he gained 93,240 pounds, 168,820 pounds, and 116,780 pounds, all in 20 pound notes.

Harry waited in line and when it was his turn, asked the woman behind the counter what he needed to do to open an account. The teller gave him a condescending smile, as if she was humoring him, and said he would need an adult that had an account with them if he wanted to open a child's account.

Harry had heard that tone of voice and seen that look a lot over his life so far, so he decided he was going to show off. “I guess you don't want to hold onto my money for me.” He said a little loudly and pretended to dig into the front pocket of his dress pants.

“You would need a bit more than pocket change to make a deposit at this bank, young man.” The woman said in a fake sweet voice.

Harry took out a stack of twenty pound notes from his inventory, five hundred of them in fact, and pulled them from his pocket. He waved the ten thousand pounds around and the ends of the bills fluttered in the air.

The shocked look on the woman's face was worth getting all of the attention he now had.

“Look everyone! Here's my pocket change!” Harry said and walked along the counter and past several tellers, who also had shocked looks on their faces. He went right over to the large bank vault and he suddenly had 54,766,000 pounds in his inventory. Oops! I need to leave right now before they catch me!

Harry tucked the money into his pocket and walked back across the room. No one said anything as he left, not even to ask him to become a customer. He walked around the building and out of sight before he summoned the Knight Bus again and rode it home. He had a few things to read first and then he was going to the backyard to practice casting spells!

*

Harry was not allowed to practice spells.

It wasn't because of his relatives, either. He had cast the very first spell in the Basic Book of Spells, the Lumos charm, or wand lighting charm, and gained the Spell Casting skill and the Lumos Spell had started as Level 1 and jumped to 2, because of his Child Bonus. Just as he cast the spell a second time to try and level it up, he received an owl with a warning letter.

He opened his mouth to start complaining that it wasn't fair, when a second owl landed and gave him another letter, his second warning, and it said that the third warning would result in a hearing at the Ministry of Magic and possible expulsion from school and his wand being snapped.

“Please, wait right here. I have a couple of letters to write and could use your help.” Harry said to both owls and handed each of them several owl treats.

They hooted in agreement and Harry took out his Calligraphy set and wrote a scathing letter to the Ministry of Magic and told them that it was unfair to make him wait for a month until he was in school to cast spells. The second letter went to the newspaper office and he detailed his situation with his hate-filled muggle relatives and not being able to cast magic at home, despite them knowing about it.

“Thank you.” Harry said to both owls as he gave them each a letter tied to their legs and a few more treats. They hooted and took off to go back to wherever the Ministry of Magic was.

*

It was an uproar.

The latest edition of the Daily Prophet had come out and nearly the entire wizarding world was in shock about their saviour, the famous Harry Potter, being abused and beaten by filthy muggles! Even former Death Eaters were appalled to read about what he suffered, or rather was currently suffering through.

A near tidal wave of protests, petitions for custody, and letters to the newspaper flowed across wizarding Britain. The Ministry of Magic was under heavy fire for threatening their savior, as was Albus Dumbledore for allowing it all to happen. His years of placating reassurances were nothing but lies and everyone knew it, especially his staunchest supporters.

They were not happy and they also knew that Harry Potter had not been told who he was for ten years. That ruffled a lot of feathers and both the Ministry and Dumbledore had a lot of work to do to reassure the public that it was all for the greater good.

That did not go over well at all.

*

It only took Harry a week of seemingly endless reading before he figured out what he needed to do. Thankfully, he also turned 11 on his birthday and his relatives purposely left him home to go do something fun. He gathered up his things and went outside, over to the sidewalk, and summoned the Knight Bus.

A short trip to the Leaky Cauldron later, and the bus people giving him sympathetic looks, he was inside Diagon Alley and sat down at one of the ice cream parlour's outdoor tables. He ordered the biggest dish of ice cream the shop owner had, just to explain why he was staying around, and then he cast Lumos and then Nox to end it.

After ten minutes, no owl showed up with a warning letter, so Harry grinned and cast both spells like he was firing a machine gun. He slowly ate the ice cream for half an hour and levelled the Lumos spell and Nox counter-spell to the maximum. He gained 1,000 XP for each and that doubled, thanks to his Child Bonus.

Harry took out the basic spell book and tried the next spell, the Levitation charm, Windgardium Leviosa. After several tries, he made a bronze knut lift up an inch from the table and it dropped. He gained the spell and XP, which doubled because of his Child Bonus, and he did the same thing he had with his first two spells. He levelled the crap out of it.

Every so often, one of the other customers would say hello and tell him how brave he was or congratulate him on escaping his muggle captors. It made Harry smile widely at them and he thanked them for their kind words. He also kept buying ice cream for himself and anyone else around at the time.

Not surprisingly, Harry finished his tasks and levelled up the dozen spells from the first year spell book. Once that was done, he stored it and took out the next edition of the book he had bought that had slight variations inside. He picked it up and activated the Skill Book option, which unlocked other spells and gave him excellent XP bonuses for already having levelled most of the spells.

Harry had six versions of that book, so by the time he activated and used them all to get to the current version that he would be using in school, he had gained 10 points in Intelligence, 15 points in Wisdom, 5 in Dexterity, and gained a level himself.

And he was just getting started.

“You've been here nearly all day, Mister Potter.” Florean Fortescue said as he approached, only this time without a bowl of ice cream. “It's not healthy to only eat ice cream for meals, even if I am hurting my sales by telling you so.”

Harry smiled at him. “Can you tell me where I can get something to eat and then maybe stay for the night? I don't want to go home just yet.”

Florean had a sad look on his face. “I read about that, young man. I'm sorry my petition for custody was denied.”

“Wait, what?” Harry asked. “Why would you do that?”

Florean looked surprised. “You didn't know?” He asked and Harry shook his head. “The ministry representative said you had already picked someone from all of the petitions that were submitted and you were no longer staying with those muggles.”

Harry frowned at the man. “I haven't received anything. When did this happen?”

“All week, ever since the article was in the newspaper.”

“What newspaper? I asked them to send me a copy when my letter was published.” Harry said.

Florean went behind the counter and came back with a folded newspaper. Right there on the front page was Harry's story and it had been a week ago, just like the shop owner said.

“The ministry lied.” Harry said as he read about the outrage over his letter published the day before and about Albus Dumbledore being the one responsible for him being with the muggles in the first place. “Why would they... the headmaster is the head of the government?”

“No, he's the head of the legislative branch and can preside over criminal trials when necessary. The Minister of Magic is the head of the government.”

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Harry frowned. “Why do they get to choose who I live with?”

“You're underage.” Florean said. “Someone has to choose what happens to you.”

“Without even asking me?” Harry asked and felt a bubbling anger. It didn't rise up and overwhelm him, though.

“I have to admit that I thought they did.”

“I need to write another letter. No, two.” Harry asked and pointed to a paragraph in the story about everyone writing to him. “Why am I not getting any mail?”

“I don't know.” Florean responded. “Perhaps you can ask the Aurors?”

Harry nodded. “Where can I get a meal?”

“The Leaky Cauldron. It also has rooms for rent.”

Harry nodded again and stood up as he handed the man a handful of gold coins. “Thank you for not kicking me out sooner, sir.”

Florean smiled. “You can come back whenever you want, Mister Potter.”

“Thank you.” Harry said and picked up the book he had left on the table and walked towards the entrance to the alley. He needed to write one of those letters immediately.

*

As Head of the DMLE, Amelia Bones was a very frustrated witch. She had just read a shocking letter from Harry Potter, who was currently staying at the Leaky Cauldron. He had asked some very pointed questions about the so-called custody petitions that he was never shown or even asked about, as well as never receiving one piece of mail, except for his school letter and the two underage sorcery warnings.

She asked her secretary to check the filed documents for her and she silently waited for the young woman to return. When she did, it was with a very large stack of rejected petitions and not one of them had been approved. Each had Cornelius Fudge's and Albus Dumbledore's names on them. Out of all of them, only one had been pending, Lucius Malfoy's.

Dumbledore solely rejected it while Fudge endorsed it, which put it into limbo for a week and then it was automatically rejected, because Harry hadn't made a decision about it. Not that he could, since he was never consulted, which was completely against policy. Unfortunately, it was not against the law to not consult the boy in question.

Isolating the boy must have been Dumbledore's intention, because he didn't even bother writing excuses for the rejections. He just added 'unsuitable' to the parchment and stamped it with the Chief Warlock's seal. Normally, that wouldn't have bothered Amelia, considering the corruption that was rampant in the Ministry.

What bothered her was that both Fudge and Dumbledore were completely ignoring the fact that Harry was still living with abuse muggles and didn't care at all that the boy was coming to harm.

We'll just see about that. Amelia thought and nodded to her secretary. “Get me a petition and a curse breaker, please.”

The secretary nodded and left for a moment, then returned with the parchment and went to the fireplace. She used the floo to call Gringotts Bank and they sent over one of their best that wasn't already out on assignment.

Amelia filled out the petition and stood as the floo lit up with bright green flames and a scraggly man stepped out. “I'll be right back.”

The man stepped aside and Amelia called the Headmaster of Hogwarts through the floo. She was granted an audience and she stepped through to meet with Albus Dumbledore.

“What can I do for you, Amelia?” Dumbledore asked with his grandfatherly smile on display.

“Sign this.” Amelia said and put the petition for custody in front of him.

Dumbledore's face lost the smile. “Amelia, I'm sorry to say that you are wholly unsuited to care for a young boy. You are much too busy to meet the demands it would require.”

“I wanted to add in my attempt with the others, just so I can claim I wasn't the only one in all of Britain that didn't try to become his temporary guardian.” Amelia said.

Dumbledore's smile returned and he wrote 'unsuitable' and stamped it with the Chief Warlock's seal.

“Thank you.” Amelia said and took the petition back. “Have a good day.”

“Good day.” Dumbledore said.

Amelia left through the floo to return to her own office. “Come with me.” She ordered the curse breaker. The man nodded and followed her out of her office and she went to the Minister of Magic's office.

They both ignored the irate secretary and barged into Fudge's office.

“Sign this.” Amelia said and put the petition in front of the minister. “If you dare put unsuitable on it like Dumbledore did with me standing right there, I'll wring your fat little neck.”

Fudge let out a startled squeak and signed it and stamped it with his approval.

“Thank you.” Amelia said and left the office. The curse breaker stayed right behind her as they went back to her office.

A quick trip to the Leaky Cauldron had them sitting down and they joined an 11 year old Harry Potter for supper. Neither of them had realized it was so late and Harry had insisted, his treat.

After the meal, Amelia presented Harry with the only petition that hadn't been openly rejected, hers, and he asked her how she had managed it. A short story and several laughs later, Harry signed it and asked if he needed a seal or something to add to it.

“You can tap it with your wand and use a bit of magic. Having your signature should be enough; but, having your willing approval would go a lot further with public opinion.”

“Will the Dursleys be prosecuted?” Harry asked and tapped the parchment where his name was and cast Lumos. The entire parchment lit up like it was on fire and then faded away.

“Dumbledore would never allow them to appear in court, muggle or wizard.” Amelia admitted. “He has too much to lose by letting your home conditions be confirmed.”

Harry nodded and handed her the petition. “What now? Do I just start living with you immediately?”

“There's a month left before school, so I hope we can get to know each other.” Amelia said. “I also have a niece your age that also lives with me. Susan will be happy to have you stay with us, too.”

“Really?” Harry asked, doubtful. He was sure that all those petitions were just because he was the boy-who-lived and not because he was just a boy that needed a new home. Being rich might have had something to do with it, too.

Amelia gave him a knowing smile. “Before you ask, yes, she begged me to add my petition a week ago when everyone else and their house elf submitted theirs. I didn't do it then, specifically because everyone else was jumping on the bandwagon.”

That gave Harry pause. She really had just done it and used the same loophole that almost had him staying with one of Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters, and wouldn't that have been fun?

“We can go to your old home and gather up your things tomorrow. For now, I'll take you back to the Ministry with me and file the paperwork necessary for guardianship.”

Harry couldn't stop his smile and nodded.

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