DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, Stargate: SG-1, Star Trek, or any of the real quantum physics and science in this story, the characters, plots, or stories from those series, but I do own my own characters, plot, and story. However, if in my zeal to squish real science together with sci-fi, if I accidentally stumbled upon something that works, I do want my Nobel prize (there is a cash reward that comes along with the trophy right?) Oh, and if you build one of these things and it works, you damned well owe me a ride.

A/N: From the Bone yard to the Main Story list. We will see how this goes. The poll was a victory 11-7 for going with the second version (those who saw the early plot bunny version will understand this reference).

1. Wizard, boy-who-lived, no horcrux just a scar. Surviving the attack on his life when he was a toddler re-wired his brain a bit. He has an eidetic memory and an IQ of 205. No sudden Alteran inheritance and ancient knowledge or toys.

a. At age of 5, he graduated elementary school, spoke seven languages (English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Gaelic, and Latin)

b. At age of 6, he discovered his ability to do magic and a mutation that allowed him to turn invisible and optionally intangible and could walk through secure walls without setting off motion and sound detectors.

c. At age of 6, he ran away from home at the Dursley's when his Aunt refused to answer any questions about magic or the truth about his parents, and they started beating him and locking him in the cupboard for his freakishness; including his IQ results and early graduation from elementary school. With his abilities and intelligence he had no fear of not being able to make it on his own. He would steal if he had to.

Harry Potter and the Cochran Effect - Chapter 1

Harry stayed invisible most of the time so that authorities wouldn't pick him up to question him and take him back to the Dursley's. Plus, it was certainly safer that way. He had no intention of stealing his way through life, especially thanks to the great intelligence and memory he had been gifted with, in addition to his other gifts. He would just do enough to get his bearings. He left the Dursley's with their £300 in his pocket and began looking for a new place he could feel secure and begin taking care of his own future. The only thing he got out of his Aunt regarding the magic was an admission that his parents weren't drunks that died in a car crash, but freaks who could do magic like him and something about a place called Diagon Alley. So that is where he would look.

The problem became quickly apparent as Diagon Alley did not exist on any maps. He also didn't know where it was even in general. It could be in Australia for all that he knew at that point. But, he resigned himself to concentrate on England. Despite his advantages, he had many disadvantages and could only stray so far even staying invisible most of the time without getting caught out or running out of resources. He would never be able to convince anyone to let him purchase a plane ticket, for example.

He was walking a lot, but he also got around in a wider range freely on buses and trains thanks to his invisibility. But, he was just somewhat methodically canvassing the countryside and the cities and towns looking for clues to Diagon Alley. He sorely hoped that his Aunt hadn't been lying, but he didn't think she was. She had seemed to let it slip after all, not having intended to actually tell him anything. While he did this he was getting a bit annoyed that he couldn't spend the majority of time doing what he loved most: reading and learning. So, every so often he would take a break from his travels and spend a day in a library or in a university bookstore, hiding in plain sight, reading graduate level scientific textbooks and trade journals (his favorite).

He was most fortunate that purely by chance, one of his sojourns took him to Kings Cross train station in London, as it happened to be September 1. As he milled about invisibly just people watching and eavesdropping on conversation hoping to hear word drop of Diagon Alley, he witnessed something rather odd instead. A family of redhead kids and their mum were mumbling something about a platform nine and three-quarters and when he followed them he watched them walk directly through the wall of one of the platforms directly ahead of them. The epiphany was immediate and Harry followed them.

On the other side of that magic wall or illusion, whatever it had been Harry overheard many people chattering about many unlikely things that could only be magic, such as flying on brooms and potion ingredients. Sticking close to the redhead family, he listened in to their conversation and took note of who was who. Compared to most families he saw on the train platform, the Weasley's was huge. There was their Mum, then Bill (age 16), Charlie (age 14), and Percy (age 12) who were all on their way back to another year at their school called Hogwarts. Unfortunately, no one mentioned the name Diagon Alley, but he heard of something called Gringotts which was their bank.

Being a little genius and quite observant, he cooked up a plan as the Weasley matriarch said goodbye to her older ones and corralled her brood of younglings for the return trip home: Fred and George or George and Fred, whatever (age 10), Ronald (age 6, just like Harry), and the youngest and only girl, little Ginny (age 5).

"Excuse me ma'am" Harry began as he seemed to sneak up on the Weasley mum from behind.

"Yes dear, what can I do for you?" she said sweetly.

"Hi, my name is Gary. I lost my mum. She said we were going to return to Diagon Alley, but when she disappeared I accidentally let go of her hand and she went without me. Could you help me get back there?" Harry asked with a cute little pout.

"Sure, dear, you mean disapparated don't you?"

"I will be glad to help you young man. But are you sure you're mother won't return right away when she realizes she forgot you?" Harry said,

"Yes ma'am, and thanks, but no, this sort of thing happens all the time, she will just expect me to catch up and meet her." Harry tried.

Molly frowned for a moment and said, "Very well then, come along with us. When we find your mother I'm going to have a few words with her over that sort of thing. How old are you anyway?" she asked.

"Six ma'am." answered Harry.

"Oh, of all the nerve. Well, come along then." Molly quickly introduced him to Fred, George, Ronald, and Ginny as she scooted them all back through platform nine and three quarters to London, then Harry joined them for their magic car ride home, a car that was bigger on the inside than the outside. Harry privately thought that he would get to like magic.

After a quick stop at the Weasley's where she very temporarily left Fred and George in charge until she could return from the quick trip to Diagon Alley, she and Harry were off through the floo-network to Diagon Alley. As they exited the Leaky Cauldron and entered the Alley Harry spotted Gringotts. "Oh, that's where that is." he thought.

Then Molly asked, "Where would you normally meet your mother then dear?"

"Oh, she will expect me to meet her by Gringotts. That's the landmark we decided on for whenever get separated." Harry answered.

Molly marched young Harry over to the entrance of Gringotts and said, "Do you see her Gary?"

"No. he started. Then he made a show of looking far away on the other side and down the Alley and said, Oh, there she is. Thank you Mrs. Weasley. Bye." Harry waved goodbye as he sprinted off in the direction where he pretended to see his mum. By the time Molly could catch up to the little rascal, there was no sign of him. He stood there invisibly watching her, as she milled around for a minute looking around hoping to catch a glimpse of Gary so that she could spot his mother and get to have those words with her. But nothing doing. So, she gave up, returned to the Leaky Cauldron and went home.

Harry gave himself a mental high-five for pulling that off and thought "Yes! I've found the hidden magical world." Then he scampered off to Gringotts to see what he could make out of this bank. Perhaps he would need to invisibly help himself to some magical money for his next set of adventures.

Harry made his way up to a set of white stairs that led up to a set of burnished bronze doors. The doors were flanked by a funny looking small creature in a uniform of scarlet and gold. As Harry made it through the small entrance hall he saw another set of doors. Engraved on these silver doors were the words:

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.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Harry began to reconsider his original knee-jerk idea about helping himself to some of what he did not earn lest he pay dearly for it in his turn. Through those doors - again, flanked by the funny looking small creatures - was a vast marble hall with, by Harry's estimation, a hundred or more of those odd creatures sitting at counters. Leading off the hall were too many doors to count. Since his first plan wasn't seeming like such a good idea any more, he began to wonder what he really should do in a place like that. As a six year old kid he wouldn't have any regular business there.

He hadn't noticed several of the meaner looking creatures that were dressed in crimson and gold, carrying large axes begin to approach him from behind. As they got closer he heard them say, "Stop thief. We know you are there. Just because you are invisible does not mean that Gringotts isn't prepared for the likes of you scum." growled one of the now very hideous creatures as Harry had reassessed his opinion of them. Harry wasn't sure exactly what to do, they still couldn't see him but they knew he was there. It must be some kind of magic he reasoned. The commotion drew a small crowd by the front entrance and Harry decided to try and make a break for it. He ran straight through the guards being intangible, but when he got to the doors he ran smack into some kind of invisible wall. "Ooof." Harry exclaimed as he face planted onto the invisible wall which knocked the wind out of him and he fell backwards on his behind.

He was still invisible and intangible. But that magic wall sure stopped him. He could tell by the way the guards were looking and approaching that they still couldn't see him either. His ability wasn't so feeble as to quit just because he ran into a wall. It doesn't require his constant concentration. But, he was stuck. It was too bad he didn't know how to do magic yet. So, Harry finally relented, stuck his hands up in the air signaling he surrendered then turned visible again.

The hideous looking creatures all started to laugh and one said, "Look Earguff, it's just a kid." and mighty howls of barking laughter filled the front entrance hall.

Harry got a frown on his face and said, "Hey, I could've been a real thief you know." That only caused the laughter to double in volume.

"I'm sure you are. said the one named Earguff. Let's get you over to the boss and see what he wants to make of you." They continued to laugh as the other guards just returned nonchalantly to their post, not expecting any sort of real trouble from a squirt like Harry. They focused on getting the crowd to return to their business, as Earguff led him into an anteroom with a slightly larger and older, more hideous looking if that were possible, "boss" of whatever those creatures were.

"Well! barked the boss. What's your name kid?! I don't have all day to play nurse maid to little wizard runts." This guys tone of voice made Harry shiver a bit. It's not that he wasn't scared before, but the other guards thought it was funny so he didn't feel threatened. This one had spit coming out of his mouth as he shook his fists and yelled at him.

Harry took a step back right into Earguff and stuttered out, "Ha, Ha, Harry sir. Harry Potter."

The room went dead silent. The boss looked over at Earguff with big furry raised eyebrows and quietly ordered him in a deep gruff voice that promised doom to any transgressors, to close and secure the door. Harry was really scared now. "S.. Si, Sir. I'm sorry. I didn't come here to steal anything, I just always stay invisible because I'm a kid, it's safer. I promise," he finished quickly, while the monsters were still talking to him and not chopping his head off.

The boss remained silent for a moment, Earguff maintained a watchful post at the door. Harry wondered what was coming next. Then the boss cleared his throat and said, in a not unfriendly voice or at least that's what Harry hoped, "Mr. Potter..." there was a silent pause followed by a round of "Mr. Potter, Mr. Potter, Mr. Potter..." the creature said shaking its head.

Harry gulped and said, "Yes, sir?"

"Do you realize that the entire world has been looking for you for almost two weeks? That you were reported missing and that every Ministry Auror and probably all of the Old Goat's friends are spending every waking moment out searching for you?"

"Uhm, well..." Harry quickly realized, of course someone might be looking for him, he had run away after all. But, his relatives wanted him to go and made it clear they would be happy if he did. Something didn't add up. "I didn't know that sir. I did leave my relatives house three weeks ago, but they were beating me and calling me a freak and wanted me to go. I can't believe they'd set a search party after me." he answered.

The creature changed its posture a bit and said. "Hmm. Let me start over. First, introductions. I am Senior Gringotts Guard Captain Kurgrot. Earguff, will you please go find Lugnuk, quietly... he added, and bring him here."

"Yes, sir." answered Earguff and silently exited the office.

"Mr. Potter, did it not occur to you that with your fame and status that the wizarding world would be very interested in your whereabouts, your fate?" Kurgrot continued.

"No, not at all. Actually, I only figured out that I had the ability to do magic a few days before I left the Dursley's. And my Aunt wouldn't tell me much about it. I only found out enough to know that I should look for a place called Diagon Alley if I wanted to find out more. I just found it by pure dumb luck today. I don't know anything about any fame or status that you are talking about." Harry answered.

"I see. said Kurgrot. " am not fully knowledgeable about your case Mr. Potter, however, your family's Accounts Manager Lugnuk will be able to answer all your questions and take care of any problems you are having. he paused for a moment and continued, I must say I find this all to be very irregular. The Goblin Nation has had our own bulletin posted to be on the look out for you for a week now. Supposedly there is something hush-hush going on." So, Harry then had a name for the creatures, Goblins. Well, they did seem to fit what one might think a Goblin would look like if they were real, which apparently, they were.

"That's... interesting, sir." Harry began while he still contemplated all the crazy stuff that was suddenly going on surrounding himself apparently. "Sir, could you tell me though, what is a Ministry Auror? and what Old Goat would be looking for me and why?"

Kurgrot just sighed and said, "An Auror is like a muggle Bobbie, ... and the Old Goat I refer to is Hogwarts Headmaster and Wizengamot Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore, who rumor has it, has an unhealthy interest in your personal life." he answered.

"Ah... replied Harry. Thanks, but I think I now have more questions. First of all I don't know this Dumbledore guy, so that sounds like bad news to me. And I have no idea what a muggle is. I guess by Wizengamot you are making a play on words over the old English Dark Ages assemblies called Witenagemot that fell out of fashion after the eleventh century? I guess that means this Dumbledore is a leader of some kind then?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that is correct Mr. Potter." Kurgrot started, as Earguff led Accounts Manager Lugnuk into the room. Grateful for the interruption and eager to turn Harry over to Lugnuk to answer all his questions and take care of him, he made the introductions and recapped the story of the morning and where they had left off. Then Harry followed Lugnuk out of the Guard office and down a very long great hall surrounded on both sides by what had to be hundreds of Goblin bank tellers, until they reached a side door and another room.

...

"Hello Mr. Potter, it is nice to see you again. You know you've given everyone quite a turn." began Lugnuk.

"Thank you Mr. Lugnuk..."

"Oh, please just call me Lugnuk" the Goblin answered.

"Okay, please just call me Harry then." Harry countered.

"Certainly." Lugnuk answered.

"Why did you say nice to see me again? I've never been here before. I didn't even know Goblins existed until today." asked Harry.

"Ah, but you have been here before. Of course then, you were just a mere babe asleep on his mothers bosom. Your mother and father brought you with them on a number of visits when they were here conducting business. Setting things up for you I might add." answered Lugnuk.

"Really? Well, that's interesting. Should I make a lucky guess and say that despite having not known about it and finding this place out of dumb luck, that means I have a bank account here?" Harry asked.

"Indeed you do Harry. You have multiple accounts. Not just one. We have a lot of business to cover today, now that you're finally here. Do you want something to eat or drink while I have your account ledgers brought up to my office?" asked Lugnuk.

Harry suddenly felt lucky and rich, and he still had no idea. But, from a poor start, this stop at the bank was turning out quite fortuitous so, Harry began to relax a bit. This particular Goblin seemed very nice and friendly. "Sure Lugnuk, I'd like some pop and some crisps if you have any?" Harry answered.

"We can have that brought right up while we're waiting on the books. In the meantime, can I answer any other questions you might have? You must have many at this point." Lugnuk offered.

Harry asked a lot of questions and Lugnuk answered to the best of his ability, explaining why he was famous. The symbolic significance of the lightning bolt scar on his forehead and how it was said that he got it. Who Dumbledore and his friends were and why they were likely interested in him, in addition to but, separately from the Ministry itself. He told him what the Ministry was, as compared to the muggle ones he was familiar with and what the term muggle meant as well as a few other prejudicial wizarding terms. They steered clear of the subject of wizard and goblin relations for the time being. Then the books arrived from the vault keepers.

First they took a small blood test to verify for the record that Harry was who he said he was. They explained that all business he conducted with Gringotts was in strict confidence and only certain things had to ever involve the Ministry and if and when those were to come up they would inform him ahead of time. Then Lugnuk summarized the holdings of his families accounts for him. First was his Trust vault which contained eight hundred thousand galleons, equivalent to £4 million. It was explained that if his parents had lived or any other wizarding blood relative still lived that he would normally only be able to access that one vault until he was seventeen. But, as it was that the wizarding world and the goblins followed the old natural laws, Harry was in his right to have full access and control immediately as they belonged solely to him and him alone. That meant that he also had control of the Potter Family Vault which contained many valuable and priceless artifacts and heirlooms, inclusive of the old Peverell Family holdings which had been merged into the Potter's over a millennia ago. In addition to those items, the Potter Vault held eight million galleons (£40 million). In addition to that he was heir-apparent to the Black Family Lordship, their unplottable property in London, and Vaults, which together was worth another twelve million galleons (£60 million). That was not his to touch until his godfather Sirius Black who had so named Harry in his will, died. Presently Sirius was still incarcerated in Azkaban since nineteen-eight-one without ever having a trial, on suspicion of leading You-Know-Who to the Potter house that night and for killing the supposed hero Peter Pettigrew and a dozen muggles while trying to escape capture. The Goblins had doubts about the entire story. And thus with that revelation Lugnuk also had to explain the entire thing to Harry. Harry was left uncertain what to make of the story either, but he was in no hurry to chase after someone who was in prison accused of getting his parents murdered. Now that he thought about it, he remembered Uncle Padfoot. But, if he did the things he said, he'd want nothing more to do with him at best. If he had time later he might look into it further.

After learning from Lugnuk a great deal of the story surrounding himself and a bit of the issues with Dumbledore, Harry asked if there was any way they could help set him up home somewhere overseas away from England and Hogwarts, but that he still wanted to learn magic as well as attend muggle high school and university to continue his science education. Perhaps if they could help arrange a magic tutor in the bargain as well? And how would they get around his age issue? Lugnuk asked questions about Harry's education so far. He was only six after all, but sounded far more intelligent than most older wizard teenagers. That's when he learned of Harry's impressive IQ and memory skills. That gave him a few more options to work with.

/Time Skip/

Five years later, when Harry was eleven, he had already graduated with a PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was world famous in the muggle world as one of the top five prodigy's of his generation, and was very much on the radar of top military industrial complex institutions from private to government sector, figuring on tapping that wealth of intelligence and creativity once he came fully of age. As it was, they gained much already from his papers and patents and already licensed some inventions from his holding company, Potter Holdings, Llc. Stan Lee was quoted as referring to young Mr. Potter as the Tony Stark of the real world, perhaps not (yet) as rich, but every bit as capable. Everyone would be watching to see what he could do.

While everyone was watching what he could do in public as it were, Harry had his own private laboratory and experimental hangar hidden with magic on his private rural estate south-east of Pine Springs, Texas. He firmly believed based on his studies of the Miguel Alcubierre warp-drive equation and the result of experiments by Steve Lamoreaux with the Casimir effect; that a working warp drive was within his grasp. He was secretly designing and building his own experimental warp drive spacecraft and had been working on it for several years by that point. He still had a number of challenges to overcome, but when certain people said, 'impossible because...' he simply took that on as another challenge to solve. For example there were technical issues with: (a) survivability within the warp bubble for the ship and passengers, (b) wall thickness for the warp-bubble itself, (c) the damaging effect on the destination when the ship would arrive traveling within a warp bubble, (d) and the mass-energy requirement. Could enough power be generated to "fuel" the drive without requiring the energy output of more matter than existed in the whole universe for a ship say the size of two hundred meters, as some theoretical skeptics suggested.

Harry acknowledged the problems those skeptics put forward and actually used a lot of their definitions of the alleged problems to formulate some solutions. Each of those problems essentially said, assuming you do a certain thing "this way," then this is what would be required or this would be the result, all obstacles in the view of those skeptics. But like all assumptions, there is room to change them, to work out better ways to accomplish functionally the same thing that did not have those problems. One of the biggest problems was the assumption in the equation and hence the skeptics observations of how much mass had to be consumed as fuel to power the reaction. Harry had different ideas altogether that didn't involve consuming mass at all, simply using mass' innate ability through its gluons to access the self-same source of energy, and that was the tact Harry took and worked on it. Of course, unlike muggle theoretical scientists, he had magic to help him create things or do things that science believed was impossible. But, even that could only do so much. And in the realm of magic, while he had learned quite a lot from self-study and the tutor the Goblins found to both teach him and act in loco parentis as his guardian; he was still far more accomplished in science than in magic. However, his studies of the two allowed him to discover certain overlaps between them that muggle scientists could never perceive. And that was, the same negative energy that the equations would rely on for a warp drive to work, was the same zero point energy that fueled the causality of magic. In other words they were the same energy and came from the same source. And some of what the skeptics said was impossible, magicals somehow did through biology, at least on a far smaller scale.

When he combined the research from quantum mechanics with the less researched area of quantum biology, he discovered how exactly witches and wizards were able to do this thing called "magic," and why muggles were not. In fact it was theoretically possible for muggles to do it too, except for certain differences in their DNA expressed as certain advantages magicals had evolved in their central nervous system and brain. But, the source and the physics behind where the energy came from, and would also come from in the theoretical warp drive, were all the same-quantum fluctuation. The negative energy was a byproduct of the exchange of energy performed by all matter's sub-atomic gluons with the quantum vacuum. Which all particles of bulk matter (composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons) themselves were made up of and were in turn facilitated by the sub-atomic elementary particles of quarks and gluons that form the composites of sub-atomic particles that create all the larger components of atoms. It was learned from experiments in quantum physics that this exchange of energy, called zero point energy, is what provides the strong nuclear force that holds quarks together in their stable composite states to form those protons, neutrons, etc. and it is that exchange of energy which accounts for 95% of all measured mass. Without this observation and until they discovered it, physicists were only able to account for 5% of our mass when looking inside atoms at their sub-atomic particles. Rather embarrassing actually. thought Harry. Good thing they figured that out.

He understood that those principles were the same for all matter: both non-biological matter (i.e. bulk matter) and biological matter (our living molecules, our brains, and bodies). That is how he discovered the source of magical energy and found that it equated to the same zero point energy being theorized in the energy-matter formulas of the rest of physics, beginning with E=mc^2, down to Alcubierre's recent equation for warp drive. And Alcubierre's equation required the same zero point energy, also called negative energy, as magic did. That led him, purely as an academic exercise, to then calculate the maximum theoretical ZPE output of an average human being, assuming that if one could harness all 95% of that energy and shape it to perform their will as opposed to do what the gluons naturally did with it, i.e. "to directly control it," what would that maximum power be? It turned out that one human could theoretically, if they knew how and if the process didn't kill them, using the equation E=mc^2 produce the equivalent of 6x10^18 Joules or 1.6 GWh (the power equivalent of 8.5 Nimitz class nuclear aircraft carriers). Put another way (not that this was on Harry's radar yet), a fictional ZPM could produce 10^28 joules of energy constantly for over three thousand years, uninterrupted. It is less than doubtful that under the most ideal of circumstances that a human could pull that off. However, if a human could achieve their theoretical maximum energy potential through the exchange of energy from the quantum fluctuation, they could for a moment at least put out the power equivalent to .06 of a ZPM. Not too shabby for lowly human.

Harry wasn't worried about a human being able to produce or sustain that much of a controlled energy exchange with the quantum fluctuation and redirecting it according to their will as opposed to its original natural purpose governed by the gluons, but it enabled him to provide certain new equations and proofs for the rest of his work. And beyond all the other personal reasons he had for keeping his project secret, he understood that he could never publish all of that information thanks to the statute of secrecy. But that was neither here or there. It wouldn't stop him from building his own warp-capable space-ship.

...

In the meantime Harry had another dilemma, or at least another big decision to make. Somehow his Hogwarts letter had found him all the way in Texas. Nice to get an invite from his parents alma mater, but he hadn't lived in England for five years. He also had an invite from America's Salem Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But, he hadn't planned on attending there either. However, over time those thoughts changed. He almost never got to interact with other kids his own age. Despite his intelligence and his proclivity for obtaining more knowledge, he still like to play. He was still emotionally an eleven year old. Fortunately, his tutor and nanny after a fashion went out of her way to arrange play dates for him with kids his age even though he could never be talked into playing any recreational team sports, because he thought it would be too big a waste of time. Plus, he was beginning to become curious about girls. He thought about the reasons he left England to begin with. The nosy British Ministry of Magic and their cartoonish Headmaster with far too much power on his hands. Nah, Harry thought. And he decided to attend Salem Institute in order to get a well rounded magical education and learn to get along better with kids his own age.

That didn't set too well with the ancient Merlin look-alike and he tried to get Harry dismissed from Salem and sent back to England. Problem was, Harry had become a bonafide US citizen long ago and no-one across the pond had any hold on him. They even found that his vast fortunes had been moved to America long ago as well. The only thing Dumbledore got out of the whole Hogwarts invitation deal was finally to learn that Harry was still alive and where he was. There would be no attempts at kidnapping Harry once Dumbledore found out Harry's tutor and nanny all those years was one of the few witches he ever feared, Agatha Harkness.

That affair did remind Harry of one thing he procrastinated on following up on. That was, the matter of his godfather's imprisonment and whether or not he truly deserved it. So, Harry asked Ms. Harkness to hire a wizarding barrister over in England, to look into it and let him know what was going on. Perhaps because he was older now, he wasn't sure. But, he had a sudden bad feeling of anticipatory remorse. What if he was innocent and Harry put off doing something about it all that time. He didn't like that feeling and was determined to do something about it to make it up to Uncle Padfoot, if he actually was innocent.

...

Over the next three years Harry completed a working prototype of his warp-capable ship. He still had not tested it in space however. He was still tweaking a hundred other things having to do with the human aspect of piloting and living on such a ship. He had no intentions of blowing it up on its maiden voyage (they never do), and he wasn't as rich as Tony Stark, so he really didn't want to have to spend the money (and the time using his other unique talent) to acquire everything he would need to start over and build another one. So, this first one was meant to last a good long time. At least until through exploration and discovery he found a reason to design and build a new one.

It was discovered during that time that Sirius Black really hadn't gotten a trial in all that time, so with Harry's money and a crack barrister on the case, they got him that trial. Under Veritaserum and in front of the full Wizengamot, Black was exonerated of all crimes and given time served for his unregistered animagus. He was freed and paid restitution for false imprisonment of one million galleons per year, for eleven million galleons (almost doubling his family fortune). Harry apologized to Sirius for not acting sooner. Sirius summarily forgave Harry for it being a small child at the time he first heard of it and for acting at all given what was said about him. Sirius joined Harry at his estate in Texas, taking on a role next to Ms. Harkness as godfather and surrogate crazy Uncle, and telling Harry all the stories of his parents growing up and making sure that he knew where he came from. Then spending time being amazed at Harry's intelligence, accomplishments, and obvious grandiose future that he had in front of him. Just happy to be part of it and going along for the ride. Sirius himself was never going to understand one iota of the science Harry did, but he liked to look at the shiny objects and bask in it all. This was his godson after all and he would be the first one to tell anyone of how proud he was of him and that they could expect even greater things of him someday. At some point Harry might have to be forgiven for getting a big head about it all. His godfather was not a good influence in that regard, as well as he was eager to give Harry advice about girls.

Whilst all that went on in his spare time he attended Salem Institute, broadening his magical horizons as well as friendships; and aced through all exams as one would expect. He was by far the most gifted wizard any of them had ever seen and always finished top in his class. That being said and for that reason, Harry had to face palm himself when he learned from his Headmaster that he would be accompanying the school to Hogwarts during the following year, as they would be participating in the revitalized Tri-Wizard Tournament which had been expanded to become the new Tetra-Wizard Tournament, of which Salem would be a regular participant from then on. The rumored attempt to place an age-restriction on participation was quelled in favor of the notion that no-one who was incapable would ever submit themselves for consideration. He just knew that somehow this was Dumbledore's doing to get him onto British soil and specifically into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oh well, he thought. This is one of the things I get for being top in my class. And so he went along with it even knowing that something bad was likely to come of it.

Salem Institute arrived before all the other schools, so Harry and his team got to witness the arrival of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang alongside the Hogwarts students. Despite being present as required, requested, whatever it was; Harry decidedly did not put his own name into the cup. Not out of fear but out of a hope to avoid whatever ill fate was meant to be brewing for him there. He was busy enough as it was since Harry Potter coming to Hogwarts was the biggest news in Britain, dwarfing even the Bulgarian bon-bon Victor Krum's participation in the Tournament. In addition to Harry's expected boy-who-lived fanfare, he was well known in muggles circles and hence among the muggle-born and many half-bloods for his world fame of having achieved his PhD at the age of eleven. None of those exploits were lost on the faculty of Hogwarts either, now that they knew he was alive and discovered that their Harry Potter was that Harry Potter. They didn't even know what to make of it. Naturally, when the names for school representatives in the Tournament were called out, Harry was called for Salem Institute. Harry just shook his head and went along with it, having expected it all along. He hadn't really expected his effort to stay out of it to work, but it was worth the try.

Hermione Granger of course was one muggle-born girl who knew all about the famous Harry Potter and had been patterning her entire academic life after his exploits to the extent possible, even before she ever learned she was a witch much less him being a wizard or the boy-who-lived. So, she wasn't going to leave matters to any chance. When the Tetra-Wizard Yule Ball was announced, she took the initiative to ask Harry to escort her to the Ball, which Harry accepted. He hadn't said anything to her yet of course, but he thought she was quite pretty and was rather taken with her himself. However, it would probably not have happened if she hadn't taken initiative, because he really didn't know her or anyone at Hogwarts and would've probably asked one of the girls from his school.

During and after the dance as he and Hermione talked about their lives at school and things in general he picked up on how bad things were for her at Hogwarts as a muggle-born. So, he suggested that she transfer to Salem Institute. They had no such issues of blood purity and not only would she be welcomed with open arms by the student body, but also able to continue muggle studies as electives if she wanted. When he described how in America they didn't shy away from science and technology in the magical world, she was hooked and promised to ask her mum and dad about it.

During the third task of the Tetra-Wizard tournament, Harry was abducted by port-key to the resurrection of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was lucky that Harry was rendered unconscious the minute he arrived or Harry would've simply used his intangibility to escape. As it was, Voldemort got his resurrection and Harry was woken up to find his arm bleeding and eleven dark robed and masked people surrounding an ugly nose-less snake-face bastard. Harry stuck around long enough to hear what it/he had to say and even engaged in a little dialog with him. When Voldemort went to begin a duel with Harry, the latter just said. "No thanks" and disappeared. Shots from many wands fired at where Harry had last appeared but they could not touch him. Harry walked over to where the portkey still laid, and during a lull of the wand fire, returned tangible and touched the portkey, which whisked him away back to Hogwarts where by then the maze had disappeared and the school heads and aurors were walking around looking for any trace of him.

When Harry first uttered the word Voldemort, pandemonium broke out all around him. Having had enough of the nonsense Harry simply aimed his wand at his temple and with a flourish displayed his memory akin to a pensieve display sans the need of one, for all to see. There would be little denying that Voldemort had been resurrected or that he had eleven of his followers with him. They saw and heard it all in Voldemort's own voice. Then, while that was going on, Professor Mad-Eye Moody made to walk Harry away from the crowd ostensibly to attend to his wounded arm. Harry started to walk with him when he noticed the unmistakable stench of polyjuice potion on the man. He simply backed up a quick step and thought, "Expelliarmus, Petrificus Totalus, Incarcerous," one of Harry's favorite defensive wandless spell-chains. Moody's wand flew toward Harry as he stiffened like a board and magical ropes sprung up tightly all around him.

"What is the meaning of this?" shouted Minister Fudge.

"I'll tell you sir. began Harry. This man stinks of polyjuice potion. He's an imposter. I've been wondering all year who put my name into the Goblet and now given what just happened with Voldemort..."

Harry had to stop as everyone cringed and Fudge spat, "Don't say the name, boy!" and Dumbledore stepped between them and took charge of the situation, levitating the bound Moody toward his office with all the school heads and Harry himself as well as Sirius who had accompanied him to the Tournament, following. The other contestants wanted to follow but they were held back by the aurors. Harry at least had business with what was going on.

Back in the office, waiting for the polyjuice to wear off, it was revealed that Moody was in fact, Barty Crouch, Jr. as an imposter. Harry only stuck around the office long enough to hear the truth for himself then signaled to Sirius and slipped to the back of the pack in the room and intangibly let himself out. He was not going to get all wrapped up in that mess. Later, at the leaving feast for the visiting schools, Harry and Hermione agreed to officially become a couple and would stay in touch. For his part, Harry hoped Hermione would get permission to move to Salem.

...

The following year, Hermione did indeed join Harry in their fifth year attending Salem Institute. They became closer and closer and very serious over the next few years, while they purposely ignored all the noise and news from across the pond that was stirred up by Voldemort and his Death Eaters renewing their rebellion against the Ministry. Harry and his Headmaster at Salem entertained a visit by Dumbledore and some of his Order of the Phoenix, in their attempt to recruit Harry to their cause. But, Harry asked how was it any of his personal business.

"But, don't you care Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

"Of course I care. But it's not my job to do something about it. I'm still in school for one thing. And why me, why not your own army of light-wizards? Why come all the way over here to bring this problem to my doorstep? Why aren't you trying to recruit every other kid at Hogwarts or Salem, or well, anywhere else. What makes me so special to your cause?" Harry countered.

Dumbledore realized that under Harry's circumstances, free from under any of his control or influence, that he would have to play it as straight as necessary to get him to see the importance of his involvement. "Harry, there was a prophecy made about you and Tom Riddle before you were born, which identified you by several circumstances that have come true, including that scar you got on your forehead the night he killed your parents and failed to kill you...The prophecy says that only you can defeat Voldemort." offered Dumbledore.