Disclaimer: As usual, all I own is this fanfic and OCs Kassidy and Kassandra. The OC Xander Scamander belongs to 5UP3RN0V4. The rest goes to J.K. Rowling, no copyright intended!

Chapter 18: Surprises For Xander

Harry had no idea how long he'd been out-cold, but he was slowly opening his eyes and saw that he was, to his horror, back in the Dursleys house, in their living room. It wasn't just Dudley, but his gang had been keeping watch while cracking their knuckles threateningly. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Marge and Aunt Petunia were standing behind them. Then walking up to Harry was the hook-nosed man with long, greasy black hair while wearing black robes, and an elderly wizard wearing colourful with long, silver hair and a long silver beard. Harry immediately recognized the man with black robes, since he kidnapped Harry weeks ago and took him to the Burrow. Harry also realized that the elderly man was Albus Dumbledore, since he had been informed of what Albus' physical description was.

"Harry my boy, I'm glad you've been found!" Albus responded in mock worry. "We all had the decency to bring you back to the safest place you can be."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Harry responded in anger.

"Watch your words, you brat!" growled the black-haired man, as he showed Harry the scar on his hand. "Remember that day you bit me there? I wouldn't have needed to use chloroform on you had you cooperated!"

"Cooperated for what?" asked Harry angrily.

"Don't ask questions!" snapped Aunt Petunia.

"Why, for the Greater Good of course, Harry," Albus responded in his grandfatherly voice, with false assurance. "I've cast the bond-of-blood charms all around this house to ensure your safety. As long as you call this place 'home' will the charms work to it's fullest."

"I've never called this place 'home,' and I never will!" snarled Harry.

This resulted in Harry being knocked out with a chloroform rag for the second time. Then Dudley and his gang dragged the out-cold Harry upstairs into his room, with Petunia and Vernon following them. Once Harry was on the bed in the smallest room of the house, Uncle Vernon padlocked it twice to ensure maximum security, intending to keep 'the freak' locked in his room around the clock. Once they were all back downstairs, Dudley and his gang left the house to 'patrol the neighborhood,' which really meant looking for kids to beat up. Then Albus walked upstairs to Harry's room, pulled out a note for him, put his hand holding the note through a cat-flap next to the bedroom door, dropped it and pulled his hand out. Then the former Hogwarts headmaster walked back downstairs, and he and Severus left the house to return to their hideout.

After half an hour had past, Harry started regaining consciousness. He darted his around trying to find a way to escape. He widened his eyes in horror when he saw that the window had bars over it, since it meant that escaping would be difficult, if not impossible. He even checked his pants pockets and realized that his wand was gone. Upon looking down, Harry gasped when he saw that he was no longer in his Lord Potter robes, but Dudley's old clothes.

'I've ended up right back where I started!' thought Harry in despair. 'If someone is unable to find me soon, I'll probably have to attend Stonewall High! Dudley mentioned something about me going there sometime before leaving for Paris, since we were already getting close to graduating from St. Grogery's Primary School.'

Looking down at his hand, Harry quietly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his Potter family ring was still there. But it wouldn't be able to help him escape from Durzkaban, as Dumbledore likely anticipated potential loopholes and dealt with them to the best of his abilities. Harry spotted a folded-up note right in front of the cat flap next to the door, so he walked toward it and picked it up. Then he unfolded it to read what was written on the note, which said:

Harry, if you desire to have love and peace once again, all of the following requirements below must be met:

1. You must drop out of Beauxbatons Academy and enroll at Hogwarts.

2. You must drop all criminal charges against myself, Severus Snape and Molly Prewett.

3. You must end your betrothment to Gabrielle Delacour, and start courting Ginevra Molly Prewett as soon as possible.

4. You must befriend Ronald Bilius Prewett with the intention of being best mates with him.

5. You must help the three Prewetts find a more suitable wizarding house.

6. You must be sorted into Gryffindor House once you're accepted into Hogwarts.

7. You must agree to have Sirius Orion Black returned to Azkaban for the rest of his natural life.

8. You must have Remus John Lupin exiled from Wizarding Britain.

9. You must return to the Dursleys every summer, as you're safer there than anywhere else. This includes calling Privet Drive home, in order to keep the blood charms as strong as possible.

10. You must allow Severus Snape the opportunity to treat you with as much contempt as possible.

11. You must refrain from interacting with any kid your age besides Ronald and Ginevra, unless Molly gives you permission otherwise.

12. You must file restraining orders against the Delacour family.

13. You must convince the Hogwarts Board of Governors to reinstate Severus as potions teacher and head of Slytherin House.

14. You must allow Lucius Malfoy the honour of being the head of the Hogwarts school governors.

15. You must be happy with your fame as the Boy-Who-Lived.

16. You must get an interview setup, where you happily support The Greater Good, and have it printed in The Daily Prophet.

17. You must have Rita Skeeter be the one to interview you for The Daily Prophet.

18. You must be hostile towards every Slytherin student to the extreme.

19. You must be neutral towards Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students.

20. You must be friendly towards Gryffindor students only.

21. You must be the one to conquer Lord Voldemort, and you only.

22. You must reunite with the Prewetts after Voldemort is defeated for good.

23. You must be willing to have kids with Ginevra once you two are ready for that.

24. You must name one of your kids Albus Severus Potter, in the honour of Severus and myself having helped you prepare for your destiny.

25. You must have a passion to be an auror.

26. You must arrange for Dolores Jane Umbridge to be the next minister for magic once Cornelius Fudge retires.

Severus and myself will be back tomorrow morning, since that'll give you plenty of time to think over your requirements. I must warn you, Harry, and that is if you resist, you'll stay locked up in your bedroom. The more you refuse, the longer you'll have to stay there.

Yours Sincerely,

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Harry read the note with an incredulous look on his face. He couldn't believe that Albus Too-Many-Names Dumbledore wanted to control his life. Not only that, but have several other people being in charge of certain positions, that was a potential for a corrupted country. Instead of agreeing to the terms on the note, Harry naturally refused. Instead he was going to wait for someone to come to Privet Drive and rescue him. After all, there was going to be somebody out there willing to do it, even if it wasn't going to happen right away. Having made his decision, Harry got onto the bed in the bedroom and laid down on his back while staring up at the ceiling.

/Scene break\

It was around forty-five minutes before lunch when Fleur and Gabby started regaining consciousness. Upon looking around the hospital wing, they started developing worried looks on their faces when they couldn't find Harry on a bed anywhere. Gabby felt tears welling up in her eyes, scared for Harry and that his relatives would potentially beat him up much more than when she met him at the zoo in Paris. Moments later, their parents entered the hospital wing, where Apolline gave her daughters hugs and kisses, relieved that they were okay. Antonio also gave his daughters hugs, also relieved to see his daughters having regained consciousness.

"Maman, will we be able to get Harry back?" Gabby sobbed into her mother's shoulders.

"We will, sweetie," Apolline whispered into Gabby's ear soothingly. "Once we find out who kidnapped him, that'll tell us where he was taken to."

So Gabby and Fleur took turns explaining to their parents what had happened. Naturally, Antonio and Apolline quickly deduced that the Dursleys, Albus and Severus were behind Harry getting kidnapped for the second time. A few minutes later, Minerva, Sirius and Remus entered the hospital wing with a man in his late 20s or early 30s. He introduced himself as Xander Scamander to the Delacour girls.

"Xander was one of the top students during his time here as a student," Minerva told Fleur and Gabby. "He's been trying to bring the Dursleys to justice, but he should explain the rest."

"How have you been trying to do that, Xander?" Gabby and Fleur asked in unison.

"Well, I used to work for the Magical Congress of America," Xander began telling the Delacour girls his story. "I was assigned to work undercover at Vernon's workplace Grunnings, a drill manufacturing company. One day I was trying to get some paperwork to take over to my boss and one of the documents slipped out of my grasp because I was in a hurry. That day was a day where employees were allowed to bring their kids with them to work and Dudley got ahold of the one document and showed it to Vernon. He confronted me for it and fired me on the spot to keep things hushed up. You may have been told that the Magical Congress of America did the same, but I actually resigned and since then, they haven't heard from me. I've been planning something in retaliation against the Dursleys for ruining my life."

"Will you ever get rehired over there, Xander?" asked Gabby.

"I'm not entirely sure," said Xander downheartedly. "Since I'm afraid that my former fellow employees will just ridicule me, since that was my first ever real failure. It even resulted in Harry getting heavily punished, as it was put, for causing more so-called freakishness."

"Well, I know where the Dursleys live," Minerva told Xander. "I was watching the Dursleys every move before Albus illegally brought Harry there. I tried reasoning with Albus, but he just went with his Albus-knows-best attitude, claiming that Harry was safer there. But I knew it was all a misdirection, several times I went to check on Harry. Seeing him endure such treatment, I returned her to the castle to inform Albus, but he'd always claim it was an exaggeration."

"When will we go out to rescue Harry?" asked Gabby.

"Well, I have some animals at a sanctuary that are quite… unique!" stated Xander as he grinned.

"Ooh! I need to go use the loo!" said Sirius, going for the foolproof escape and pretending he had to go.

So he turned around and left the hospital wing. Once he was a reasonable distance away, he dropped the act and went to go find Fred, George and Lee. Sirius remembered that they had the Marauders Map and he figured it may be needed. It took him at least ten minutes before he found the three pranksters wandering a corridor on the fifth floor.

"Sirius!" Fred, George and Lee greeted him in unison. "How are you? Did Gabby and Fleur both finally wake up?"

"Yes, they did," stated Sirius. "But I'm equally worried for Harry."

"Same here!" said the Gryffindor pranksters in unison. "We've been trying to find him to see if he managed to escape or not, but we haven't had any luck."

"Gabby and Fleur did mention that Harry had been knocked out with the help of a chloroform rag!" Sirius informed the prankster. Then he started asking in a whisper, "Do you still have the Marauder's Map?"

"Yes, we have it here!" the pranksters informed Sirius, one of the Weasley twins holding the map up. "Do you need to use it right now?"

"I'm afraid so," stated Sirius. "If Harry's kidnappers managed to make it back to cover their tracks, we can look for the quickest routes and hiding spots, just to make sure they get caught and make it easier for them to be apprehended."

"Alright, here's the map." the pranksters spoke in unison.

"Don't worry, I'll give it back once I'm through with it." Sirius promised.

The pranksters nodded their heads in acknowledgement just as Sirius wiped the map clean. Then he turned around to head back to the hospital wing, only to run into Remus and Xander on the way. They both explained that Madam Pomfrey wanted the Delacour girls to rest some more. Sirius showed the map to Remus, which confused Xander. So the three adult wizards found an abandoned classroom, cast some privacy wards and locking charms on the door before discussing the map.

"What is that piece of parchment?" Xander asked Sirius, rather curiously.

"This is the Marauder's Map, Xander," Sirius told him, as Remus nodded his head to confirm it. "Remus and I are some of the inventors, the other two are Harry's father, James, and that traitor Peter Pettigrew."

"How does it work?" asked Xander.

"You point your wand at the map and recite 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,' and the map starts forming," Sirius explained to Xander how the map worked. "If you want to wipe it clean, you point your wand at the map and say 'mischief managed,' useful if you don't want the wrong people to see it."

Xander nodded his head to prove that he understood, so he pointed his wand at the now-blank parchment and recited the certain phrase to activate the map. Sirius and Remus showed Xander the different passages throughout the castle shown on the map. As soon as they began scanning over Dumbledore's office, the three wizards were met with a shocking revelation. The name Albus Dumbledore happened to be on the map, somewhere within his office. This had the three widening their eyes in utter shock.

"What can this possibly mean?" Xander, Sirius and Remus asked in unison, as they looked up from the map to face the reader, their eyes still widened in shock (with Sirius and Remus putting their hands over their mouths in sheer horror).

The End!

Author's note 1: A big shoutout to '5UP3RN0V4' for suggesting that Xander visit Hogwarts and explain what he has in mind to rescue Harry; and Xander informing Harry's friends and guardians about owning a sanctuary for unique animals (which will be revealed in the sequel).

Author's note 2: Looks like something bigger is going on here. I felt that ending this part of the story here was necessary, to help you prepare for the next part. Why is Dumbledore's name on the map when he's supposedly on the lam as a wanted criminal? What does this mean for Xander especially? What are the unique animals he was referring to? Will Harry be rescued from Privet Drive on time? What tricks does Xander have up his sleeve to accomplish his goals? Will anybody help out by jumping in to provide some joint effort? Check my profile page to be on the lookout for the sequel if you're interested. The sequel name will be called 'Harry Potter And The Great Rescue,' suggested by 5UP3RN0V4. Happy reading!