Chapter 5 : changes

Minerva McGonogall looked curiously at Flitwick. Although she could normally judge his moods with a very high degree of accuracy, he seemed to be harder to decipher this time. The normal tells for a heavily-controlled rage bordering on the berserk seemed to be mingled with aggrieved triumph and a very dark amusement.

"That took you a lot longer than I expected, Filius. Is Mr Potter coming, then?" She finally asked and Filius nodded.

"He is, although he knew nothing about his parents! Less than nothing! I was tempted to use my dueling experience on those Morgana-damned relatives of his!"

Minerva swallowed and mentally thanked all the gods that his rage wasn't directed at her.

"He was raised to believe that James Potter was a drunken layabout and Lily was a whore!" Filius snarled and Minerva froze as a wave of fury washed through her. "He didn't even know their names!"

"Merlin…" Minerva breathed, then she saw Filius grin slightly. "What did you do?"

"You remember that the Wizengamot awarded him the Order of Merlin for the Dark Lord's death?" Filius asked and Minerva nodded, uncertain as to where he was heading with his comment. "Since he has the Order of Merlin, I advised him that he should use one of the advantages it brings."

"What did you do?" Minerva whispered, then she spun round as Albus slammed the door open.

"Minerva! We need to go! Something's happened and the wards that protect young Harry have collapsed!"

As Albus vanished, Filius laughed. "It's too late. He's already been confirmed as Lord Potter by Gringotts. He's the youngest Emancipated Wizard in the history of the Wizarding World."

Minerva blinked, then scurried after Albus. He needed to know that Harry Potter had taken up his title.

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"I am being saddened that you are stopping your job." Mr Kalwar sighed. "You are doing the work of three, maybe four boys."

"Well, I have a chance to attend the boarding school my parents did, with some of the teachers who taught them, and this way I can learn more about them." Harry supplied.

"Ah, knowing of your family is being very important. And I am thanking you for giving me three weeks warning." Mr. Kalwar smiled. "I am already putting the sign out for new paperboys."

"I'll be happy to show them the routes." Harry offered and his employer beamed at him.

"Even when you are stopping working for me, you are being a fantastic paperboy."

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Harry darted into the small copse of trees and rummaged in the pocket of his coat, pulling out a small trunk. Placing it on the ground, he tapped it with his wand, causing it to expand, then he opened it up and climbed down the ladder into a large room almost five meters on a side and illuminated by glowing orbs in the corners.

"Best thousand Galleons ever spent." Harry smirked as he moved to the door that led to the kitchen. "I wonder how Vernon and Petunia reacted to my letter? They're probably celebrating even now."

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"But I don't wanna move!" Dudley protested.

"Without the freak here, he won't power the wards that keep all the other freaks away." Petunia explained for what seemed like the fiftieth time. "If we don't move, they'll be able to find us and…"

"And discuss what you did to cause him to run away." A new voice said, causing Petunia to pale as she spun towards the now-open front door and the elderly bearded man clad in a purple suit standing in it.

"You!" She gasped. "Haven't you done enough to us, foisting that brat on us and forcing us to pay for him?"

"I set up a vault for you at Gringotts." Albus countered. "I told you that in the letter I left."

"And how could I get to it? Did you even think about that?" Petunia screeched. "Unlike her, I don't have magic, remember?"

Albus opened his mouth, then paused.

"Bloody wizards." Petunia sneered. "Magic must take away all common sense."

Albus sighed. "I see. I'll arrange for it to be transferred to you."

"And the wards?" Petunia pressed.

"Gone beyond all hope of recovery." Albus admitted sadly. "In fact, the fragments that remain would need to be removed before any new wards can be erected."

"So now we're vulnerable to all those murderers in your world." Petunia snapped. "We are moving and you are not to try and find us."

"I understand." Albus sighed as he turned to leave. "I have caused you enough problems, I shall cause no more. I will send you the money within the hour, then you shall never see me again."

Petunia glared at his departing form, then turned to Vernon.

"Isn't one of your golfing friends an estate agent?"

Vernon's eyes lit up. "Yep, I'll call him now."

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Harry paused in the dawn-light, staring at the For Sale sign planted in the garden of the house that he had called home prior to his (re)-introduction to the magical world. The curtains in the window had vanished, as had the car that had been parked outside.

"Huh." He finally managed. "Wha…?"

The quiet morning offered no answers and Harry finally continued on his rounds. Although he wouldn't miss his relatives, he did wonder what had happened to them.

Maybe he'd ask Axefist when they met this afternoon at what was once The Pottery.

Putting his thoughts to one side, he continued his rounds.

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"Mr. Potter, welcome to Stinchcombe."

"Thank you, Axefist." Harry replied as he stepped out of the Knight Bus. "May your enemies gold flow into your clan's vaults."

"And may you stand victorious on the corpses of your foes." Axeblade replied while behind Harry, the Knight Bus vanished with another bang.

"So, just up this lane is where your family home was." Axefist stated. "Only the foundation and celler remain intact, but it's still fairly solid. The builders should be able to have it fully rebuilt before the Hogwarts Christmas break."

"Nice." Harry said as they rounded the corner and Harry found himself atop a slight rise leading down to a collection of tumbled walls and deep holes. "Is… that…"

"It is." Axefist agreed. "One central tower and two small wings."

"Did it start out as a pottery?" Harry asked and Axefist shook his head.

"No, it started out as the home of Linfred the Potterer, a potions inventor and local remedy-maker in the twelfth century. His eldest son took the family name Potter in his honor and the Pottery has been here ever since."

Harry looked at the wreckage, his mind's eye rebuilding the ancient house.

"Do you have the plans for it?"

Axefist nodded and held out a small granite slab edged in gold. A stroke of the finger activated it and a small, semi-transparent image rose from the stone face.

"That's… impressive." Harry managed. "Looks good… is there a floor-plan option?"

Axeblade tapped one of the runic labels and the external walls of the image vanished. Harry leaned in for a closer look.

"The bathrooms… no showers?"

"We can add showers easily." Axefist shrugged and Harry frowned in thought.

"Can you have the bathrooms waterproofed, with drains in the corners to take away the water… maybe have the floor very slightly angled to make it flow away easier? A bath in one corner… preferably a recessed bath, I've seen them in a magazine and since then, I've wanted one…"

"Ah, a wetroom, as the muggles call it." Axeblade said in recognition as he pulled up several tags, then selected one. "We have those in many of our clan-caverns. Easily done. And the sunken bath won't be an issue."

Harry nodded in satisfaction.

"Can you make the windows bigger? Lots bigger? In fact… see if you can replace the upstairs walls with windows and put big windows downstairs. Oh, and skylights in the roof. I want as much natural light as possible. In fact, change the roofs of the wings so they're also balconies."

"Of course." Axeblade agreed as he tapped several parts of the tablet, making the requested changes as Harry continued to brainstorm until he was finally satisfied with the updated plans.

"Can your people begin the day after I head to Hogwarts?"

"That should not be a problem, we'll need a few weeks to get the basalt for that special room." Axeblade said. "Anything else?"

"If there is, I'll send Grace with a message asking for a meeting." Harry said, nodding to the nearby tree where his white owl was sat, watching them.

"Then may you face your foes with a sword in your hand and allies at your back."

"May your gold and reputation increase beyond that of any other goblin." Harry replied, causing Axeblade to grin before he vanished in a swirl of magic. "Wow, I'm going to have to try to come up with more greetings. It's quite exhausting, making them up like that."

Grace simply cocked her head slightly, then tucked herself down as she prepared to go to sleep.

"Well, time to check the foundations." Harry muttered to himself as he strode forwards, looking at the scorched brickwork and the fragments of broken rafters that had once been the home of his family and where he had been born. With a sigh, he turned and…

…what was that?

Harry blinked, then focused on seeing through the ground again. In what looked like a secret basement at the end of one of the wings was an odd device, looking like something from a sci-fi comic. Scrambling to above it, Harry looked round, finally spotting the entrance, a revolving wall which was miraculously accessible from a semi-collapsed cellar.

Scrambling down a slope of rubble, Harry pushed against the wall. For a moment, it refused to move, then something snapped and the wall rotated enough that he could squeeze through and see the thing without anything blocking his view.

"Wow."

Harry stepped back and gazed at the craft. One end had a trio of what he assumed were engines connected to the cylindrical hull which in turn flared out to almost four feet wide before narrowing to a point. An egg-like dome about a meter long adorned the upper surface, in front of which was a small hemisphere and an S in a diamond-shaped shield.

The whole thing, though, seemed to be made from a single piece of metal, with no seams at all.

"What is this?" Harry wondered, stroking the dome, then his hand touched the hemisphere and it lit up.

"What the…?!"

"Hello, my son." A voice said as the image of a man rippled into existence above the object. "By now, you have learned that you are not like those you call family."

"No bloody kidding." Harry snorted, thinking of the Dursleys.

"It is time you learned of where you first came from." The man continued, his image vanishing to be replaced by a coloured sphere that Harry suddenly realised was a planet. "This was the world of Krypton…"

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Harry finished burying the craft at the edge of the grounds, carefully covering the freshly-turned earth with leaves and a fallen branch. Glancing up, he saw Grace watching him.

"I think I broke the latch on the secret cellar and I can't risk people finding that thing." He explained, half to his owl and half to himself. "When Christmas comes, I'll dig it back up and see what else it has for me, but until then…"

Harry shrugged and stepped back, looking at his handiwork. Although there were still marks showing that something had happened, the trees and bushes would hide it from the people who would be re-building his house.

"Only a couple of weeks to go." He mused to himself, then he grinned. "A couple of weeks without needing to worry about my relatives and a chance to read through all my books. And since I'm emancipated, I can even try to practice some of the easier spells. This is going to be excellent!"

Glancing round to check that no-one was nearby, Harry pulled out his trunk and un-shrunk it with practiced ease, then he almost dived into it, re-emerging with a coil of rope and a tarpaulin.

"Just set this up and I won't risk being flooded if it decides to pour." He muttered to himself as he started to climb one of the trees. "Better angle it, but once it's up, I can relax."

An amused hoot caught his attention and he smiled.

"Okay, Grace. I'll make sure that the tarpaulin protects one of the lower branches so you can sleep outside without getting wet. That okay with you?"

Grace chuffed with satisfaction.

Harry looked round, then he shrunk and pocketed his trunk, earning a slightly quizzical look from the white owl.

"I'm getting hungry, so I thought I'd get a meal at Hogsmead." He explained. "Since it's so close to Hogwarts, I'll get a chance to listen to all the rumors about it… and maybe speak to some of the recent graduates to find out if there's anything I should know that isn't in the books."