Disclaimer: Do not own HP or JP

Edited

Chapter 1

Harry walked through the Alley, keeping his head down to keep from being recognised. Getting to Diagon Alley had not been easy but he had managed to convince his Aunt that if he had some more books to keep him occupied in his room then it would be better. So, Uncle Vernon had dropped him off on the way to taking Dudley somewhere and would pick him up later in the afternoon. He still had some of the money he had taken out of Gringotts before school, so his first act had been to grab a meal in the Leaky Cauldron. Now he was heading for the bank. The goblins had been very intimidating when he'd come last time, but he'd also been with Hagrid then. This time he was on his own, and it was scary but not scarier than facing Voldemort. Thankfully the bank wasn't overly busy, so he got into line, he just hoped there was a way to access his vault without his key since Hagrid had kept it. He assumed it had been given back to the Headmaster for safe keeping but how was he going to get his school supplies when the lists were sent out?

"Yes?" the goblin asked as it was Harry's turn, leaning forward to scowl down at him.

Harry took a deep breath and refused to be cowed. "I need to access my vault."

"Key," was the gruff answer.

"I've never had my key sir. Hagrid had it last year and he gave it back to Headmaster Dumbledore as far as I know," Harry quickly answered.

"You allowed another to have your key?" the goblin demanded, leaning further over his counter.

"I was raised by muggles, sir. I only found out about being a wizard before the start of school last year," Harry kept his voice down, not wanting anyone else to hear and maybe realise who he was.

"Name?"

Harry glanced around and then leant in, rising up on tiptoes to do so. "Harry Potter, sir."

The goblin frowned and then pointed to a hallway just off the main floor. "Wait on the bench there."

"Yes, sir." Harry went and took a seat in the dim hallway, trying not to fidget from nerves. He sat for maybe ten minutes before he was summoned by another goblin and led into an office.

"Use this quill and sign your full name on the parchment," the goblin seated behind the desk ordered as the door closed. Harry sat down and took the quill, writing out Harry James Potter, jerking slightly at the stinging pain. He saw his name appear on the back of his hand, bleeding very briefly before healing. He stared in awe as his parents' names appeared on the parchment above his. "Welcome to Gringotts Heir Potter. Now, why did you give your key to someone?"

"But I didn't. Hagrid said Dumbledore gave it to him when we were here last year," Harry was quick to explain.

The goblin frowned and began reading over some form of records. "And what of your account statement?"

"My what?" he frowned in confusion, he'd seen Uncle Vernon get those from his bank, but he hadn't realised Wizards used them too.

"Gringotts sends out two statements a year for trust funds, to help teach young Heirs about money management," the goblin explained, none too happy about the waste of time.

"What do you mean Heir? And I never get any mail, sir," Harry answered honestly, which lead to several hours locked away with the goblin who was actually the Potter account manager, Slipknife. He'd learnt more about his family than he'd imagined and on his right ring finger sat the Heirs ring, hidden from view, but he could still feel it. Finding out he had a hereditary seat on the Wizengamot had been interesting, he needed to learn a lot more about the government before he was of age to take that seat though. He had money, as in he never had to work kind of money. It had just been sitting there for the last decade though, something the goblins didn't like. His parents had made investments, which was normal, but thanks to his Mum they had also invested in the Muggle world.

One company had him really interested, InGen, owned by John Hammond although it turned out his parents had invested a nice chunk in the company when the man had needed money back in the mid-seventies. Because of that, many reports had been sent over the years and what had caught his attention was the mention of dinosaurs. He knew if he wasn't attending Hogwarts then he would be working to go to University to be a Palaeontologist, like the one who had come and given a talk at his primary school once. In his backpack was a document folio full of financial statements, company information…. everything he needed to go over and learn about the Potter financials before deciding what to keep, sell or buy. The best thing was it had magical security so even if his Uncle found it, he wouldn't be able to get to the documents inside.

He was running out of time in the Alley, so he quickly went to the bookstore and found two books on the British Magical Government, one on the notable families, two on potions to try and help his grades there and another on Defence that wasn't a textbook. He made it back to the meeting point with five minutes to spare, ignoring his Uncle's annoyance at him.

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John Hammond was shocked, after all these years to have a letter from the Potter family. He was even more shocked to find a letter in a child's hand, but he read it and was instantly upset. How had he not heard of Lily and James' deaths? He had only met them twice but they had been a wonderful young couple. The letter was from their only child, Harry, who had just found out about him. He remembered hearing of the boys' birth, only months after his own granddaughter Lex had been born. He would have to ensure he was invited to the grand opening, without the Potters money there may not have ever been a park.

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Harry was glad he'd managed the trip to the Alley back at the beginning of vacation because it meant he had things to read now that he was locked in. All because of some crazy House Elf saying there was going to be danger at the school. It couldn't be worse than Voldemort as a teacher! He had to believe that when he didn't show up someone would come looking. It was the law to attend school until he had his OWL's, they couldn't keep him locked up here. Food would be an issue before then, thin soup and stale bread were not enough for him and Hedwig. If the bars weren't on the window he would risk his Uncle's wrath to smash the lock and let her fly to safety.

He pulled out goblins folio and went to work, trying to ignore the gnawing hunger. There was a lot of information and some of it went way over his head. The only one he had already read over fully was InGen, he'd written to Mr. Hammond and had received a reply the day before being locked in, including an invitation to see the wildlife park his family's money had helped create…. a wildlife park full of real live dinosaurs! The park was set to open late next year, while he was in school, so he was hoping to maybe arrange something during the summer holidays instead, though how he would get around the Dursley's he wasn't sure yet.

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Slipknife scowled and contacted his manager, someone was interfering with Heir Potter again and he would not allow it. The child had a good head for business, for a human child anyway. Should anything fatal happen to him the Ministry would attempt to claim the Potter money and he would be out of a job, something he would not allow!

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Two days later Harry was escorted from the Dursley's, hopefully for the last time, by Ron's eldest brother. The goblins had sent Bill to check on him since he wasn't answering their correspondence, why did they notice and not his friends?

The eldest Weasley son had been back in the country for a few days and had jumped at the chance to meet his little brothers best friend. His reaction to finding the boy and his owl locked up and half-starved had left the family cowering as they were faced with a fully trained and of age wizard. When an owl arrived with a letter, Bill quickly grabbed the owl and wrote out a response, sending it off to the Ministry, explaining the magic had been done by an adult, not Harry. He then apparated them to Gringotts where Harry and Hedwig were taken off to the Healers while Bill went to write a report on what he had seen and found at the Dursley's. Gringotts could not bring charges themselves…. but they could hire a lawyer for him.

The lawyer they hired was one Ted Tonks and Harry was moved into their house since he couldn't stay at Gringotts. It was a big surprise to find out he was related to Andromeda Tonks through his Grandmother as both women had been born Black's. While Ted went to work on legal matters, Andromeda began teaching Harry everything he should have learnt long before attending Hogwarts, as well as fattening him up, while their daughter gave him helpful hints on defence since she was training to be an Auror. He didn't have very long with them before school went back but it was long enough for a muggle custody hearing where the Tonks' were awarded custody of him and the Dursley's were arrested for child abuse and a few other crimes.

It only took a few hours after the owl delivered his school list for Albus Dumbledore to show up on the doorstep. He was rather shocked to be confronted by an angry Andromeda. He tried to guilt trip Harry over leaving his family vulnerable to attack by Death Eaters and that really made Harry upset. He had thought Dumbledore cared about him, but now he was really wondering about the man's obsessive interest in him. As soon as he left Ted went to the Ministry to file custody papers, they had been avoiding it since that could cause issues, they weren't his only living, if distant, relatives. Andromeda had two sisters after all and only one of them was locked away for life. Everyone in the house knew his life was over if the Malfoy's got their hands on him. Thankfully the clerk on duty filed the papers without really looking them over, used to dealing with Ted as a respected Barrister.

With that taken care of Nymphadora decided Harry needed to relax and have fun so she started taking him on trips to see the sights of London, as well as shopping since he'd hit a growth spurt. The two had a lot of fun and the two adults were happy about that. Nym hadn't had a lot of friends at Hogwarts due to her abilities and Harry had been isolated by his bully of a cousin. The two bonded quickly, despite the gap in their ages.

When the time came to go to the Alley to buy his things all three Tonks went with him, serving as protection and also wanting to enjoy a shopping trip with him. Everything went well until they reached Flourish & Blotts where the line was out the door because Gilderoy Lockhart was doing a book signing.

"Harry!"

He barely caught the dark-haired missile, spinning slightly to absorb the momentum. "Hi, Hermione."

"Where have you been? Why didn't you answer my letters?" She demanded as she moved back to look him over, he looked…different. He'd grown a bit, but he also looked happier.

He unconsciously shifted back at the onslaught and Ted put a hand on his shoulder. "You must be Miss Granger. Ted Tonks, Barrister, this is my wife Andromeda and our daughter Nymphadora."

"Pleased to meet you," she looked between the four in confusion, why were they with Harry?

"The Tonks' are my guardians now Hermione," Harry told her nervously and she blinked in shock.

"The Dursley's?" Had his family been hurt or worse?

"In a prison where they belong," Nymphadora growled in disgust for how they had treated her cousin.

"Oh… are you here for school books?" Hermione changed the topic, she wasn't always the best with emotions, and Harry nodded. "Gilderoy Lockhart just announced he's this year's Defence Professor."

"That explains the ridiculous book list. Doesn't the man realise that could bankrupt some families?" Andromeda frowned and then she caught sight of something in the shop. "Oh dear." They turned to see what she had, a physical brawl between Lucius and Arthur. Thankfully Hagrid broke them up. "Harry why don't you and Miss Granger go get ice cream, I shall get your books."

Harry looked at Hermione who went to ask her parents, the elder Grangers joining them to get away from the people interested in the fight. They settled down at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour to talk about their holidays.

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Of course, after the happy ending to his holidays, the start of school was horrible. Snape was worse this year if that was possible and Malfoy kept sneering at the Tonk's because Ted was a muggleborn. By the time Halloween arrived, he was ready to go home, and it felt really good to know he had a home now. Ron was being a bit of a prat over the Tonks' taking him in and his not answering letters, despite his explaining about Dobby. He really didn't understand him sometimes, Ron had a loving family and now Harry finally had one too so what was there to be jealous of?

Lockhart was a nightmare and Ted had ended up coming to the school to serve the man with the magical worlds' version of a restraining order to keep him from hassling Harry in class. When Harry had explained about the class, Ted had begun investigating and was not liking what he was finding. Unfortunately, gathering evidence was rather difficult due to Lockhart's favoured spell.

When Halloween arrived, Harry stayed in the dorm rather than go to the Feast. This year it really felt real, this was the day his parents had died, and he had been attacked. He just couldn't join them in celebrating. That meant that when Mrs. Norris was found he was the only student unaccounted for.

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Harry crossed his arms and glared at the gathered Professors, he didn't even know why Snape was there. McGonagall made sense since she was his Head of House, not that she ever did anything to help her students. "I didn't leave the dorm, ask the Fat Lady. You might enjoy celebrating my parent's horrible deaths, but I will not," he snapped, and McGonagall gasped in shock.

"You must understand my boy that this does not look good," Albus offered and Harry glared angrily at the man he had once looked up too.

"What doesn't look good is you dragging me in here. If you are going to accuse me then call my guardians!"

"I am sure that is not necessary."

"No! I will not stand here and be accused when I did nothing. Call them." They didn't, but they eventually let him return to the dorm where he got the cold shoulder from the other Gryffindor's. "Before assuming, I was here the whole time. I have no desire to celebrate the day I became an orphan. Ask the Fat Lady, I never left the dorm. Goodnight." He went upstairs to go to bed.

The next few days were horrible as the other students decided he was the Heir. Only Hermione stuck with him although Neville did sit nearby. Unknown to him it was a good thing he missed the Duelling Club, spending the time in the library with Hermione, studying instead since they had both guessed Lockhart would be in charge. Because he skipped he wasn't revealed as a Parselmouth to the whole school.

Unfortunately, his arm was broken in the Quidditch match thanks to a crazy Bludger and no one stopped Lockhart trying to 'help'. The idiot vanished the bones in his arm and Harry was quickly admitted to the hospital wing for a very painful night and another run in with Dobby. That meant he was wide awake, if in pain, when they brought in a petrified Colin Creevey. He struggled to sit up, watching as Colin's camera was opened to release smoke and reveal melted innards. He shifted and groaned in pain, alerting Madam Pomphrey to the fact he was awake. She rushed over and quickly forced him to drink some Dreamless Sleep.

He was released in the morning in time for breakfast and walked into the Great Hall to have it fall silent and everyone stare at him. "Are you all idiots?" He demanded, hands balled into fists. "Use your brains for once," the twelve-year-old yelled at them even as Snape began to get up. "I was sedated in the Hospital Wing because our fool of a Defence Professor decided to play doctor and literally vanished the bones in my arm!" he turned and stormed from the room, heading for his dorm where he grabbed parchment and began to write. Hedwig, beautiful and smart as she was, appeared as he sealed the envelope. "To Ted as fast as you can." He then went to his bed and curled up in a miserable ball. It wasn't meant to be like this.

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Ted Tonks smirked as he entered the Great Hall, two Aurors with him. He was really looking forward to this after all the problems the fop had caused his ward and Amelia had happily agreed once he had explained everything.

The hall fell silent as Albus stood. "Aurors, Barrister Tonks, shall we speak in my office?"

"No need Headmaster," Ted answered and nodded to the Aurors.

"Gilderoy Lockhart, you are under arrest. Surrender your wand and come quietly or be subdued," the young man in the lead ordered and Lockhart stared in confusion at them

"What? You must be mistaken! Don't you know who I am?"

"A fraud," Ted's smirk widened as the Auror's began reading out the list of charges, the latest being the assault on Harry but there was a long list of illegal obliviations and assaults on others as well. Ted then unrolled a scroll. "This is a signed affidavit confirming that Harry James Potter is in no way involved in the attacks m at Hogwarts. A record is being taken of everyone who is falsely accusing my client or even attacking him. Should this behaviour continue you will find yourself in court, being sued for defamation of character and assault. This is the only warning you will receive." He turned to stare down the students before posting the signed affidavit to the wall near the doors, making sure the official seals were very noticeable.

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"Ron?" Harry asked as the other boy approached, skin white with fear. An announcement had just been made for students to return to their common rooms which had sealed.

"Have you seen Ginny?" Ron demanded, and Harry noticed the twins checking the other students.

"Your sister? I've barely seen her all year," Harry wished Hermione was there, but she was in the hospital wing, petrified.

"We can't find her."

Harry frowned, he and Ron hadn't exactly been friends this year…. but if Ginny was missing then that went beyond friendship. "Where's McGonagall?"

"Hasn't come to check we're all here," Alicia answered as she joined them, having done her own headcount. "Everyone else is accounted for."

"Okay. I know the Headmaster's password, I'll go tell him," Harry offered, he should be safe enough under his cloak.

"That will take too long!" Ron snapped.

"What do you want to do? Look for her alone? The castle is too big!" Harry was relieved as Hedwig swooped in, he grabbed some parchment and quickly wrote two notes. "To the Headmaster or McGonagall as fast as you can and then Ted." She hooted and took off.

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Dumbledore took the note from Hedwig and read it, frowning. Her skeleton…it appeared Miss Weasley had been taken to the Chamber. He adjusted the wards, unsealing the Gryffindor common room. Now he just had to wait for Harry to find and save her.

TBC…

Some fleshing out and mistakes fixed from the first version.