Yet another AU story. This one will have Petunia, Dudley, Harry and Mrs Figg walking away from Dumbledore's machinations six months after Harry was left on the Dursleys' doorstep and they start a new life with the goblins' help. There wasn't enough time for the abuse to settle in and Vernon was the only one in the house who was aggressive to Harry.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.

1st May 1982

Petunia had been trying to stop hyperventilating and calm herself down enough to drive ever since she got the boys and their things out to the car, but it just wasn't working. She shrieked when someone knocked on the window, but it was Mrs Figg from around the corner, looking surprisingly serious, so she wound the window down.

"What happened dear?"

"It's Vernon, for some reason he suddenly started shouting about Harry being a Freak and took everything that came with Harry when he arrived out into the yard to burn it, saying that he was getting rid of any sign that the freak had been here and then he was going to get rid of the Freak. But the fire seemed to explode so he had to jump back to avoid being burnt and when he saw Harry laughing he just grabbed him and started hitting him so I… I…. I hit him with the heavy fry pan. I don't know how much damage I did to him, I really should have called for an ambulance but I just wanted to get Harry and Dudley away from him before he could hurt them any more."

Mrs Figg patted her on the shoulder, saying "Just wait here and I'll go check on him dear." before she headed into the house.

She was back in a jiffy. "He'll be fine dear, he's already trying to get up, but I think you had the right idea about getting the boys away from him because he is making threats about what he's going to do to the Freak when he gets his hands on him. Are you alright to drive?"

Petunia shook her head and wailed. "No…. I've been trying to calm myself down enough to drive but I'm still shaking too much."

Mrs Figg nodded. "Why don't you scoot over then so I can get you out of here before he manages to find his feet then?"

Petunia nodded and scrabbled over to the passenger seat so that Mrs Figg could hop in and get them out of there. While Petunia didn't see Vernon stagger groggily out the front door as they disappeared down the street, Mrs Figg did, and she vowed to make that bastard pay for trying to hurt Lily's boy.

She expected Dumbledore to come looking to find out what happened straight away, so she couldn't take them to her house. It didn't take her long to decide to drive them to a train station in another suburb to talk, that way if Petunia took her advice they could easily hop on the train and head straight into London from there. Once they were parked at the station, Petunia dug through the glove compartment until she found the hip flask she knew that Vernon would have in there and took a few quick swallows of the expensive scotch in the flask. She didn't much like it but it settled her enough to stop and think and she offered the flask to Mrs Figg, who accepted it with a smile and took a smaller sip before handing it back.

"So, now that you and the boys are out of the house Missus Dursley, what are your plans?"

"Call me Petunia, please Missus Figg, and I can't thank you enough for helping us get away from there, but I really hadn't thought of anything past getting the boys away from Vernon…. Knowing Vernon he'll report the car as stolen as soon as he thinks of it and he'll probably freeze our accounts as well, so I need to get to the bank and get the money out before he has a chance to do that because I've got nothing but the housekeeping money in my purse…."

She started to cry and Mrs Figg patted her on the shoulder. "Don't cry dear, we'll get you through this, and call me Bella..." she smiled "My name is Arabella but that's actually longer to say than Missus Figg. Your sister Lily called me Aunt Bella when we got to know one another after she left Hogwarts…. We talked quite a bit because I was the only one in the group who lived in the non magical world and trying to talk to the ones who understood nothing but the magical world drove her around the bend…. She was never one to suffer fools gladly…."

"Anyway, if you're really worried about your fat pig of a husband finding you and the boys and doing something to you, I know people who can help you."

Petunia looked hopeful at that. "Really? Who?"

"Do you remember going to Diagon Alley with Lily to get her school things before she started at Hogwarts?"

Petunia nodded hesitantly, wondering where this was going.

"And do you remember going to the bank with all those angry looking little men in it?"

She nodded again.

"That's who, the goblins. Lily told me that you and your husband thought that the stories you heard about how rich James' family was at your wedding was just James and Sirius trying to wind your husband up, but they weren't. James' family is one of the richest and most powerful families in the magical world, and they're extremely important to the goblins, so all we need to do to get you the help you need is to get Harry into Gringotts and they'll handle everything from there. If I thought that your husband was going to try and harm Harry I would have done something before this but I thought that he was just a blow hard, and I didn't know how closely Dumbledore was monitoring Harry so I didn't want to take the risk of him catching us and wiping out our memories."

"I do know that Dumbledore will go to great lengths to stop anyone interfering with his plans because Sirius Black, who's Harry's magically sworn Godfather so he couldn't do anything to harm Harry, was thrown into Azkaban for supposedly betraying James and Lily to Voldemort so they could be killed, then killing another one of their friends and a dozen normal people without blinking an eye. Sirius loved James like a brother and loves his Godson, he'd never betray them and I don't believe he would have killed all those other people without good reason either so he had to be set up and Dumbledore would have had to sign off on it. Unbeknownst to Dumbledore though, I also know thanks to Lily that he blocked my magic, memory and intellect to make me supposedly break down and fail out of Hogwarts so I'd be discarded into the non magical world as an idiot Squib by my family because he wanted to damage their reputation and position in Magical Britain, that man truly is totally ruthless."

She looked Petunia in the eye. "So, are we going to see the goblins and get you some help?"

Petunia drew a breath and nodded resolutely.

"Good! Right, if you think your husband will be reporting his car as stolen we're best off leaving it here and heading into London by train..." She held up a hand to cut off Petunia's protest. "I know that you have all your and the boys' things in the car, but as I said, I'm a witch like Lily, if nowhere near as smart or powerful as she was. I can shrink all your bags so they fit into our purses and we can each carry one of the boys, so we'll just look like a young mother and her aunt taking the boys into the city, will that work for you?"

That got a relieved smile from Petunia. "Yes thank you, that will do nicely, Aunt Bella."

An hour later, they were standing outside the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road in London and Arabella discovered something quite interesting, both Petunia and Dudley could see the Leaky Cauldron as well as she and Harry could, so they weren't Muggles. A quick look inside confirmed that there wasn't anyone she recognised in the Cauldron, so she hustled Petunia through to Diagon Alley and straight up to Gringotts as quick as she could.

Getting close enough to whisper to the teller that she needed to talk to the Potter Account Manager because she had Harry Potter with her and he needed sanctuary almost got her skewered, but a quick finger prick confirmed that the boy was indeed Harry Potter, so the two women and two toddlers were hustled out the back to a part of Gringotts that humans rarely visited.

Born Arabella Minette Rosier into an old Pure-Blood family and raised in the Noble House high society of Magical Britain up to the age of thirteen, Arabella was well educated in the who's who of the magical world, so she almost fainted when the goblin whose office they were delivered to introduced himself as Over Chieftain Gringott the Eighth, Director of the Gringotts Bank and Leader of the Goblin Nations. When she was able to speak, she hesitantly asked whether they'd perhaps been brought to the wrong office, because they were supposed to have been taken to see the Potter Account Manager.

Gringott looked at her for about a minute then barked a laugh, saying. "You have been brought to the Potter Account Manager Madam Rosier, has the House of Rosier fallen so far that they no longer remember the history of Magical Britain?"

Arabella growled at him. "It's Missus Figg Over Chieftain Gringott! I stopped being Arabella Rosier in Nineteen Forty when Albus Dumbledore bound my Magic, Memories and Intellect to make it look like I had a total breakdown to embarrass my family and they threw me out as an idiot Squib!"

She froze, suddenly realising that she was snapping at what was reportedly the most powerful goblin in the world, but he nodded calmly. "I know this Missus Figg, but I doubt that Missus Dursley knows the story. Would you be willing to explain to her what happened to you so that she has a better idea of the type of people we're up against?"

Arabella hesitated, and then nodded, turning to Petunia. "As I said Petunia, I was never a patch on the witch your sister Lily was but I was doing fairly well in my Third Year at Hogwarts when Albus Dumbledore decided to make it look like I was some sort of defective who had a total breakdown which left me an idiot Squib to publicly embarrass my family... Because the Pure Blood Houses' core tenet is that they were better than everyone else in every way and image is everything to them. When my family threw me out, the uncle who took me away was supposed to kill me and get rid of my body to cover up the shame to the family, but instead he got people he did business with in the Muggle world to place me with a good family because I'd been a favourite of his since I was a little girl. I got married at the end of the Second World War and over the next ten years or so I had and lost several children but I had a good life with my Albert up until I was widowed when Death Eaters, the ones who follow Voldemort, killed him for fun five years ago."

"I'd recovered enough of my magic, memories and intellect without managing to work out that I'd been interfered with by then for Dumbledore to decide that I could be of use to him so he recruited me for his Order of the Phoenix. Lily, her husband James and several of their friends joined the order in Seventy Nine after they'd finished at Hogwarts, and as I said Lily and I hit it off because she could talk to me about things in our world without putting up with the others' condescending attitudes and ignorance."

"When Lily got to know me, she thought that there was something…. Off... about me and she didn't trust Dumbledore, so she quietly arranged to bring me here and get me checked out by the goblins' healers. I think she was even angrier than I was when they found all the bindings on me. The healers removed the bindings and Lily worked with me until I could act well enough to cover up the fact that the bindings had been removed. Luckily Dumbledore would never bother wasting his time looking into the mind of the dotty old Squib that he used to keep an eye on things in the Muggle world for him because my Occlumency shields would never have been good enough to keep him out."

"I didn't get to see much of Lily or Harry over the last year before Lily and James were killed by Voldemort because James had bought into Dumbledore's shite about needing to maintain secrecy about where they were, and I wasn't important enough to be told that Lily and James had been killed, I had to find that out from the Daily Prophet. A few weeks after they were killed Dumbledore turned up at my house without warning and told me that he needed me to keep an eye on Harry for him, so he'd talked a couple who were selling their house just around the corner from Privet Drive in Wisteria Walk into selling it to me cheaply.… Which means that he used magic on them so they had no choice in the matter…. Then he just dumped a bag full of cash on the table, said that I had a meeting with them the next day at the house to close the deal and left without asking me whether I was okay with moving at the drop of a hat like that or whether I needed any help to do it, because everyone was expected to obey him without question and of course all the minor details that needed to be worked out to buy a house were beneath him. I didn't argue with him because I wanted to watch over Harry for Lily, and I knew that she didn't like or trust your husband at all. I was waiting for the chance to get Harry, or you and Harry, in here to get the goblins to protect him, but it came up a lot quicker than I expected, because I felt Harry's outburst of wild magic from my house when it apparently decided to make the fire where his things were being burnt into a proper Beltane bonfire and headed straight over."

While Petunia was trying to get her head around the callous nature of the ones who ran this world she was being dragged into if she went along with it, Gringott brought up something else.

"By the way Missus Figg, in case you didn't know, you still have your personal vault here as Arabella Rosier. I don't know why it was never closed off, perhaps your uncle was supposed to do that but he was holding off in hope that you would recover your magic and didn't get around to closing it before he was killed in Grindelwald's War…. But it's still there and your annual clothing allowance of Six Hundred Galleons has continued to be deposited on the First of August each year so with what was left in it in Nineteen Forty, you have over Thirty Thousand Galleons in there now. I dare say that might come in handy if you are need to leave your current residence."

Arabella nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, it would, and for that matter the house in Wisteria Walk is in my name too. We haven't worked out any details with Petunia as yet but as I said, I do want to be there to help watch over young Harry whether he remains with Petunia or not. I've got a bit of money put aside from selling my old house, but would there be any chance of Gringotts disconnecting the floo and selling the Wisteria Walk house for me quickly and quietly for market value so I will be able to afford to get myself another house close enough to Harry to look out for him Over Chieftain Gringott?"

She was a little surprised by the approving nod he gave her. "Yes Missus Figg, for your assistance in getting the Potter Heir safely away from a dangerous situation as you did and the care you've shown for him, Gringotts will be happy to do that for you. Would I be correct in thinking that you'd prefer not to go back to the house in case Albus Dumbledore or any of his people are waiting there to find out what happened to Lord Potter?"

Arabella nodded. "Yes Over Chieftain Gringott, if there was any way to have my kneazles, Mini and other belongings retrieved without me having to go back there myself, I would be most grateful."

Gringott nodded. "It will be done. We can also arrange for accommodation for yourself, Missus Dursley and the two boys here at Gringotts until more permanent arrangements can be made if that's acceptable?"

Arabella looked a question at Petunia who gave a quick nod, happy to let Arabella take the lead in these discussions because she obviously knew what she was doing. "That would be appreciated Over Chieftain Gringott."

He nodded again and turned to Petunia. "Missus Dursley, do you have any questions about what we've discussed here, or anything else?"

She looked at him, not quite knowing where to start, but then she realised that Mrs Figg had shown the way forward. "I don't really know what to ask yet Mister Gringott, but as I said to Missus Figg when we were talking in the car, I need to get money to look after myself and the boys out of our accounts before Vernon can freeze them, is that something you can help us with?"

"I'm not sure whether Missus Figg has mentioned this Missus Dursley, but the House of Potter is extremely wealthy, so money to look after you, your son and Lord Potter won't be a problem. That being said, I can quite understand you not wanting your husband to get what you see as your money, and we can help you recover that. Where are your accounts held?"

"They're all with Barclays..."

She broke off when the goblin gave a frighteningly feral smile, but she understood when he spoke.

"We certainly won't have any problem recovering your money then Missus Dursley, you see Barclays Bank was created and is managed by Gringotts for our interfaces with and investments in the non magical world and it's essentially entirely owned by us, in fact your nephew as the only remaining member of the Potter family owns a majority holding in Barclays. Just give us details of how much you want out of what accounts you and your husband have in Barclays and we'll transfer it for you….. I do not know what your plans are at this point Missus Dursley, but might I suggest that we create a new account for you in the name of Petunia Evans and transfer the money into that account?"

She gave him a musing look. "Actually, if you can do that, could you make the account in the name of Morrissey please? Vernon doesn't know this but Morrissey was my mother's maiden name…. You see while I haven't really made any decisions yet Vernon's bright enough to know that I'll probably be divorcing him and he knows my maiden name, so putting the money into an account in that name would be as obvious as using Petunia Dursley."

Gringott gave her another one of those frighteningly sharp toothed smiles as he nodded. "Good thinking Ms Morrissey, I can see that your sister wasn't the only intelligent daughter in your family, and if you do choose to go ahead with a divorce, we have solicitors who can get it put through in quite a lot less time than it would normally take."

Petunia nodded distractedly. "I get the impression that you know quite a bit about my family Mister Gringott, so I presume that you know that Lily and I were actually half sisters, my mother died in childbirth and Lily's mother was my nanny…. She was the only Mum I ever knew because she was looking after me from when I was a month old. After they died together in that car crash last year Vernon tried to get me to claim the whole estate because their house had been a present from my mother's parents and he made Rose out to be some sort of dirty little gold digger who came in and deliberately seduced my father as a grieving widower, and to my shame in my jealousy over all the advantages I saw Lily having, I went along with him. I knew that it wasn't true, because Daddy sat me down and told me the whole truth after I said some hateful things to Rose when I was a teenager. He told me how she'd comforted him when he was grieving over my mum, but kept him at arm's length until after a mourning period of a year was over, I was nearly eighteen months old before she allowed their relationship to become physical, they got married when Rose found out she was pregnant and Lily was born twenty seven months after me. Our contesting the will kept everything tied up until after Lily and James died so it's only just been finalised and most of the money from the estate is still sitting in our Barclays accounts. I can't go back to Vernon because I can't trust him around Harry, so I want to use the money that came from our parents to buy a house for Harry, Dudley and me to live in. Vernon Dursley has no right to any of our family's money, it should only be used for our family…."

Arabella knew that the goblins were famous for not having any patience for wasting time, so she couldn't believe that Gringott, the Leader of the Goblin Nations, was just sitting there letting Petunia waffle on like this. She'd been trying to catch Petunia's eye to shut her up before he got angry with her but she hadn't looked up while she was talking.

The goblin in question caught her attention once Petunia had finished. "Thank you for explaining that Missus Dursley. I will ensure that the money is transferred to the Morrissey account as soon as you give me the details…. Missus Figg, I could see you getting worried about how I would react to the long winded story that Missus Dursley was telling us. If I am reading the intentions of you two ladies correctly, we will all be having quite a bit to do with each other while young Harry is growing up, so I will try to explain my…. Ungoblinlike behaviour…. to you. The fact is ladies that in the eyes of the Goblin Nations, young Harry is by far the most important human alive…."

He paused to let that idea register.

"When the Potter Magic accepts him as Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Potter, Harry will also be accepted as Patron of the Goblin Nations and have quite a bit of authority over matters in the Goblin Nations. Missus Dursley is understandably in a state of considerable turmoil, but she was explaining to us about where the money in the Dursley accounts came from and what she wants to use it for, and that Harry is an important part of her family now, just as you previously explained that you wanted to get the house in Wisteria Walk sold so that you can get somewhere close enough to Harry to watch over him, so you're both telling me what I want to hear, that you want to protect and help him. From getting to know Duchess Potter over the time we had before she and the Duke were killed, I believe that with Arabella to provide the wizarding, Petunia and her son the non magical, the Goblin nation the goblin and the Potter elves the elf influences, young Harry will be ready to accept all elements of our world when he grows up..."

That reminded Arabella of something and she piped up. "Would it be possible to get Petunia and Dudley tested for magic and inheritance Over Chieftain Gringott?"

"For a start, if it is alright with you ladies, perhaps we could use our given names when it's just us here in private from now on? As I said, I hope that we can regard ourselves as a family raising these two little men together so a little informality is appropriate… but while that is indeed possible…. Arabella?"

Arabella nodded. "Or Bella Gringott, I came to like Lily calling me that."

He nodded. "While that is indeed possible Bella, why would you ask that?"

"Because I noticed that when we arrived on the Muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron, neither of them had any trouble seeing it, so they must be at least borderline magical."

He looked surprised. "Is that correct…. Petunia?"

She nodded as Arabella had then hesitated. "Actually, no, Tuney please. That was what Lily called me and I must admit that I miss hearing it sometimes…. From what you were saying Gringott I take it that you wouldn't have any trouble getting our names officially changed?"

Gringott shook his head with a smile but remained silent, wanting to see where she was going with this.

"Then I would like my new name to be Tunisia Rose Morrissey. You see it wouldn't be difficult to track us down in the normal world by searching for the names Petunia, Dudley and Harry…. But fanciful names became popular in the Sixties so people would accept Tunisia and the boys aren't even two yet, so Dudley shouldn't have too much trouble getting used to being called Daniel… Danny, he can be Daniel Robert Morrissey and while I expect that Harry will need to keep his name in your world?"

Gringott nodded.

"He can be officially registered with his full name of Henry James Potter Peverell but be known as Henry Peverell, Harry, in our world. That should make us much harder to find…."

Gringott smiled. "As I said Tuney, I'm glad to see that Lily was not the only intelligent Evans daughter, those are very good and workable ideas and I will get our people working on them straight away."

"Thank you Gringott, but what were you asking me?"

"When you arrived outside the Leaky Cauldron, could you see the pub?"

"Yes, clear as day…. Why would I have any trouble seeing it?"

"Because there are wards to prevent non magical people seeing it, and I can assure you that most parents of the so called Muggle Born students can't see it….. Which makes me wonder whether Dumbledore bound your magic to prevent you going to Hogwarts for some reason…. Yes… We definitely need to have the proper tests done on the two of you…. And Harry too, given the way Dumbledore likes to block everyone's abilities to keep them under control there's no way he'd leave a child as powerful as Harry alone…. Yes, I think that's our next step, but if you have the account details and amounts you want transferred Tuney, I'll get the orders sent off to get that started, and if you give me the address for your house in Wisteria Walk Bella we'll get everything cleaned out of there, and cut off the floo and put a for sale sign out front as well, that should upset Dumbledore."

Tuney didn't think she'd ever become comfortable with seeing goblin smiles, they just looked so dangerous!

Half an hour later, Tuney was wishing to see those goblin smiles which only implied mayhem because she found that an angry goblin was much more frightening.

They'd found the expected blocks on her magic, along with a slightly less severe one on her intellect, a serious obliviation and a compulsion to avoid magic, all placed as she was coming up to eleven. With the blocks removed, she was shown to be potentially around Arabella's level, a clever witch of mediocre magical power. Apparently someone (they all believed Dumbledore) had decided around that time that if Muggle-Borns were as exceptional as Lily, they would be allowed to go to Hogwarts so they could be exploited, but if they were mediocre, their magic would be bound and their memories of magic wiped to keep them out of the magical world. Dudley looked to be a bit below her in intelligence and power, but he should be able to at least match most wizards in Magical Britain.

The inheritance tests showed that Petunia and Lily's father, Robert Evans, had been a high level squib, borderline wizard, from the senior line of the Ancient Wizard Family of Ifan, while Lily's mother Rose Jones had also been a high level squib, if not a witch, but she was from the senior line of the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Slytherin. She, and hence Lily and Harry, were the true heirs of Salazar Slytherin, not Voldemort as he claimed. Voldemort wasn't even from a cadet line under the traditional rules inherited from the non-magical nobility, because he was descended from one of Salazar's two younger sisters.

It was Harry who had Gringott ranting and swearing in High Goblin though, because aside from the bindings that were so severe that he should have been in a vegetative state, not blasting out magic so strongly that it could be felt in the next street….. He'd had a compulsion placed on him to make Muggles react violently to him, even more so when he displayed magic…. And something else involving blood magic that had managed to change his magical signature enough to hide him from the Potter elves…. But the worst news was the fact that the diagnostic scans showed that behind that ugly scar on his forehead that wouldn't heal was one of the worst abominations known to the Magical World, a soul anchor.

The ritual to remove the soul anchor took over an hour, and much of that had Harry crying and screaming in pain, but when it was done he settled down as soon as he felt the wrongness of the soul anchor gone. Gringott ordered the soul anchor transferred into an enchanted object (which became a dark object as soon as it was transferred), rather than destroyed out of hand, because he wanted to use it to determine whether this was the only soul anchor that Voldemort had created.

Gringott wasn't at all happy when it was discovered that there was another soul anchor inside Gringotts, in fact his fury at hearing that was enough to send hardened warriors scurrying out of his way. The second anchor had been discovered in the Lestrange family vault, but it turned out to be Helga Hufflepuff's enchanted cup so once the soul anchor had been transferred into another enchanted object, the cleansed cup was placed in the Hufflepuff vault where it rightfully belonged.

Vernon was having a very bad day, first Petunia tried to kill him with a frying pan and disappeared with his car, their son and the Freak. Then when the police finally bothered to turn up, instead of charging Petunia with attempted murder, kidnapping and auto theft as he demanded, they'd questioned him.

Their first questions were all around why he'd been burning baby blankets in the back yard. When he said that they'd belonged to his wife's orphan nephew who she took away, along with his son, they wanted to see the paperwork to show that this nephew had been legally placed with them, because there was no record of any Harry Potter being born, let alone being legally placed with the Dursleys. Telling them that they'd found him on the doorstep when they got up on the 2nd November last year just had them demanding to know why they hadn't called the police and child services as any decent people would have if that had actually happened.

Then they wanted to know just what he'd done to frighten his wife enough to make her attack him in self defense and then take her son and their clothes and flee from the house in a panic (they didn't mention to him that the neighbours had reported seeing Mrs Dursley talking to an older lady who apparently lived somewhere nearby and that they'd driven off together). The fact that the Dursleys' car was found parked and locked at a station about 10 KM away refuted the charge that she'd stolen it, as she'd merely used the family's shared property to get her and her son away from what they were quickly coming to regard as an abusive husband. The search for Mrs Dursley was called off, because the officers were confident that she'd turn up as soon as she felt safe, to lay charges against her husband.

Vernon's day just got worse after he had to spend ten quid to get a taxi to the station to pick up his car, because when he went to the bank to freeze their accounts to stop her getting any money out of them, they'd been cleaned out! The bank was worse than the police, because they swore blind that there was no evidence that the money he claimed was stolen had ever been in their accounts. It had to be something to do with those freaks! This type of thing just didn't happen in the real world!

He had a brain wave then though, because he remembered that they had the paperwork for Petunia's parents' estate that proved that over a hundred thousand pounds had been deposited into their accounts from the estate, so he raced home to get the paperwork, only to find that it had been cleaned out while he was gone, along with everything relating to Petunia and Dudley. The house had been reduced to a bachelor's home, a bachelor who didn't have any of the paperwork he'd need to satisfy the Inland Revenue's questions when tax time came around. Who also didn't have the paperwork he needed to cover himself in some of the dirty deals he'd made with dodgy characters, not to mention all dodgy deals he'd done at Gunnings, he was beginning to realise that he was in trouble, a lot of trouble.

Albus Dumbledore didn't realise that he was in trouble until the blood wards around number 4 Privet Drive suddenly disappeared a month or so after Beltane (not that he paid attention to the old Druid festivals). He tried to floo to Arabella Figg's house, but the floo had somehow been disconnected so he had to floo to the Leaky Cauldron in London and then apparate to Little Whinging from there (while he may be able to apparate to London, it would take too much out of him and he couldn't risk damaging his image as a powerful wizard).

Privet Drive looked normal enough, aside from the fact that detection charms confirmed that the blood wards were completely gone. He let himself in, but while the house was filthy and no-one was there, nothing looked out of place and there were no signs of a struggle as he'd expect if the Death Eaters had tracked Harry Potter down and kidnapped him.

When he left there he went to Arabella Figg's house to find out what was going on, but there was a sign out the front to say that it had been sold! Once again, he let himself in but the house had been emptied, weeks ago going by the layer of dust over everything. His investigations were interrupted by two police cars screaming up the road with sirens blaring and he heard people shouting out that the burglar must be an idiot because not only was he wearing some stupid garish wizard's costume, he was in Mrs Figg's house which had been cleaned out and sold weeks ago after she was run over by a car.

Hearing his robes called 'some stupid garish wizard's costume' infuriated Albus, but looking out the front windows he could see quite a crowd in the street, and it was getting bigger so he wouldn't be able to obliviate everyone. That made him decide that discretion would be the better part of valour, as he'd heard some Muggle-Born students saying, so he apparated back to Diagon Alley.

Albus decided that he may as well transfer the gold that would have been deposited into the Potter brat's personal vault on the first of June into his own vault while he was there and save himself making another trip, so he headed to Gringotts. He was gratified to see most people waiting to be served deferring to him so he only had to push past a few people to get to the teller, as was his right. He was rather less gratified when he handed over the key and told the creature to transfer ten thousand galleons from that vault to his personal vault but the creature just applied the key to something on the counter in front of him and said. "No."

"What do you mean, no? I demand that you transfer the gold as you were told to!"

"That is not possible wizard, because there is only fifty three galleons, thirty sickles and one hundred and seventy eight knuts in that vault!"

A few of the Muggle-Born and Raised witches and wizards who were listening to this with amusement looked at each other, wondering whether the thirty pieces of silver was a message.

"Stop lying to me goblin! The annual deposit of ten thousand galleons would have gone into that vault on the first of June!"

Okay, that was a stupid thing to shout out in Gringotts! Everyone who'd been avidly listening in up until that point quickly backed away from Dumbledore as angry looking security goblins were now marching towards the counter where Dumbledore was shouting at the teller.

The biggest security goblin with the fanciest armour snarled at Dumbledore when he arrived.

"Wizard! You are hereby banned from Gringotts for making false accusations and insulting a citizen of the Goblin Nation of Britain, which you are currently standing in!"

"I'm not going anywhere until my gold is transferred!…."

Dumbledore quickly shut up when a spear tip suddenly pricked him under the chin. "You must be deaf wizard, because you have already been told that the contents of that vault is worth less than sixty galleons, so there are no thousands of galleons to be transferred, and I have told you that you have been banned from Gringotts! Teller Sharpclaw, give him his vault key back… No! Wait! Who is the owner of the vault that key is for?"

"The key is for the personal vault of Harry Potter Warrior Snorri."

"Well this wizard is obviously not Harry Potter so he should not have the key to Harry Potter's vault. Send the key to the Potter Account Manager…."

Dumbledore wasn't about to lose that key so he shouted. "Stop! I have the right to hold that key as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian! Give it back to me!"

The spear tip drew blood this time as Warrior Snorri snarled. "Teller Sharpclaw. Do as I told you and send the key to the Potter Account Manager, and you, Albus Dumbledore, will leave Gringotts now while you are able to!"

Teller Sharpclaw gave a smile that was evil, even by goblin standards, as he held up the vault key and said "As you command Warrior Snorri." as the key vanished.

Snorri barked a command in Goblin at the other guards to get Dumbledore out of Gringotts before he gave in to the urge to take his head and Dumbledore decided that it would be foolish to argue with the spears that were poking him in the back, meekly heading out the door. His ego wouldn't let that insult go though so he rushed straight to the Ministry and was still ensconced in Minister Bagnold's office when a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers arrived at Gringotts to demand that Warrior Snorri be handed over for attacking and injuring the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

The scene when they arrived wasn't what they were expecting, because Diagon Alley in front of Gringotts was filled with angry witches and wizards who had just been ejected from the bank. There were also ranks of goblin guards blocking the stairs going up to the closed doors of Gringotts and a cadre of obviously high ranking goblins waiting for them.

When the Officer in charge of the DMLE Patrol squad demanded that Snorri be turned over, the spokes goblin (Ragnok, Gringott's nephew and heir, but the DMLE Officer hadn't bothered asking who he was talking to) asked him whether he was aware of the contents of the Treaties currently in force between Magical Britain and the Goblin Nation of Britain?

The Officer was an arrogant Pure-Blood, one of Arabella's cousins actually, and told him that he wasn't there to waste time talking to creatures and to bring out the goblin who had dared attack the Chief Warlock. The rest of his squad stepped back when most of the hundred or so goblins who were filled the steps in front of Gringotts burst into angry shouts, this was beginning to look like a very bad idea.

"Go back to your masters and tell them that no member of the people will ever be given to the wizards for doing their duty within the Goblin Nation. I would suggest that you get memories from the witches and wizards standing here who witnessed the event, because I can guarantee that they will tell a very different story to the lies that Albus Dumbledore told…. And there will be a penalty for this attack on the sovereignty of the Goblin Nation! Gringotts of London is hereby closed for business for two days! Any further attempts to interfere with the affairs of the Goblin Nation will result in longer closures!"

The DMLE Patrol officers were too shocked at that statement to make any attempt to stop him as he turned and walked back into Gringotts, with the rest of the goblins falling into line behind him until the doors closed with a rather final 'thud' and all that was left in front of Gringotts was a crowd of confused and angry witches and wizards. The Patrol officers' reception when they returned to the Ministry wasn't much better, because they were met by a cowed Head of the Patrol Office and furious Head of the DMLE, who had only been told that a squad had been sent to Gringotts to arrest the goblin who attacked Albus Dumbledore after the squad had left.

Most of the squad were sent back to the DMLE offices to await their punishment, though a few hoped to have 'dodged a bullet' as the muggles said because they had done as Ragnok suggested and quietly got memories from some of the witches and wizards who had been in the bank, along with memories of the scene outside Gringotts. They'd quietly handed the memory vials to Master Auror Moody, who they knew had the Director's ear, telling him what the goblin had said just before he announced that Gringotts was closed for business for two days as a penalty for attacking the sovereignty of the Goblin Nation, and that any further attempts at interference would result in longer closures. Moody had nodded angrily to them and stomped over to Director Bones, who looked even more furious after he whispered to her and handed the vials over.

By the time they reached the Minister's office the head of the Goblin Liaison Office was there waiting for them, and Moody growled that Dumbledore, Malfoy and Macmillan were in the Minister's office with her. They just barged straight past the Minister's Secretary and burst into the office, which infuriated Minister Bagnold, who started shouting.

"What's the meaning of this? I'll have your job for barging into my office like this Bones!"

Amelia Bones snorted at her. "I don't think so Minister, for a start, as we all saw last year, the full Wizengamot has to sign off on replacing the Director of the DMLE. More to the point though, I'm not the one responsible for shutting down Magical Britain for two days! I presume that the Minister's pensieve is still here somewhere? We have some memories that we need to look at."

Bagnold was muttering angrily as she waved for someone to get the pensieve out but Dumbledore was looking worried, because whatever happened was bound to be blamed on him. No-one was shouting after watching the memory of what happened outside Gringotts, because their 'Oh Shit!' reaction was universal.

Even though she probably understood the treaty better than he did, Amelia made a point of asking the head of the Goblin Liaison office what Ragnok of Clan Gringott, Heir to Over Chieftain Gringott, Leader of the Goblin Nations, had been referring to when he asked the head of the DMLE Patrol squad whether he knew what the current treaties between their two nations said. He looked nervous as he summarised the matter as the fact that the Goblin Nation of Britain was a sovereign nation and no foreign nation, such as Magical Britain, had any right to force them to do anything on their sovereign soil, which Gringotts was. He got rather quiet when he added that any attempts by a foreign nation to force the issue on the Goblin Nation's soil would be accepted to be an act of war.

"So by sending a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers to Gringotts without the authorisation of the Director of the DMLE to arrest a citizen of the goblin nation without any proof of a crime being committed, someone has effectively declared war against the Goblin Nation?"

It was only the silence in the room that allowed them to hear his "Yes."

"And what about calling one of the most senior members of the Goblin Nation a creature and ordering him to hand over one of their citizens without any authorisation?"

"That is more a diplomatic matter, but they could well demand that the guilty party's immediate family to be handed over to meet goblin justice."

She sneered at the Patrol Officer. "Congratulations Rosier, you've not only shut down Magical Britain for two days, you've probably put your own family's heads on the chopping block, what's the bet the Head of the House of Rosier throws you out of the family before the day's out to try and limit how much you cost them? Get out and wait for me in my office, you're fired." She turned to the Head of the Patrol Office. "You too!"

She turned back to the Head of the Goblin Liaison Office. "Thank you for your assistance Mister Shafiq, we just needed you to interpret the issues we will be facing as a result of this ill advised exercise."

He didn't have to be asked twice to leave and squeaked his goodbyes as he headed out of the room.

Amelia turned back to the ones left in the room and Lucius Malfoy spoke up. "What's Moody still doing here? He has no place in discussions of this nature!"

"Please address Master Auror Moody either by his professional title or his noble title of Baron Moody, Lord Malfoy... And I must remind you that as Baron Moody, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Moody, his station is considerably above your's as Lord Malfoy, Head of the Noble Wizard House of Malfoy, both in house status, and the fact that it is Baroness Malfoy who holds the title that makes your house Noble, so it is expected for him to be given due respect for his station. As for your question, Master Auror Moody is investigating the criminal activities that led to the incident that has closed Gringotts of London for two days and his presence is therefore required here. By the same token, I must ask in what capacity you here Lord Malfoy, and you Lord Macmillan? I was not aware that either of you currently held Ministry positions and these matters are quite sensitive."

Bagnold started blustering. "Now see here Bones, Lord Malfoy and Lord Macmillan are my trusted advisors and I will not have you questioning them in my office."

"But not official advisors Minister Bagnold, and according to the regulations of the Ministry of Magic no one but official Ministry officials should be present when discussing matters of a sensitive nature. Never mind, I expect that Professor Dumbledore's permission for them to remain should suffice, seeing that the matters we now need to discuss relate to him."

"Me? How? What are you saying?"

"Come now Professor Dumbledore, everyone in this office is aware that the incident caused by a DMLE Patrol squad being sent to Gringotts without my authorisation… And under the control of an idiot who managed to insult the Goblin Nation enough to make them close Gringotts for two days... Was a direct result of what you told Minister Bagnold after you were banned from Gringotts for making false charges against and insulting a citizen of the Goblin Nation in the course of their duties."

Dumbledore and Bagnold were staring at her in shock. "What? A concerned person contacted me to advise me of what happened in Gringotts because they were worried that it would cause problems. The fact that in the next fifteen minutes I was informed that Professor Dumbledore was here in your office Minister Bagnold, and that some idiot had sent a squad of DMLE Patrol Officers to Gringotts without my authorisation confirmed that the person who contacted me was right to be concerned! As I appear to be the only one concerned about non Ministry personnel's involvement in this, let's just observe the incident in question shall we?"

With that, Moody put one of the memories of the banking chamber into the pensieve and started the playback. When the memory was finished, Amelia looked at Dumbledore. "So you went into Gringotts, pushing past anyone in your way and demanded that Teller Sharpclaw transfer Ten Thousand Galleons from Harry Potter's Personal Vault, which you should not have the key to, into your personal vault. When Teller Sharpclaw informed you that the transfer could not be done because there was less than sixty galleons in the vault you shouted for everyone in the banking chamber to hear that he was a liar because a deposit supposedly should have gone into that vault on the first of June. Then, when Warrior Snorri informed that you were banned from Gringotts for making false accusations against Teller Sharpclaw you were confrontational and refused to leave until the transfer of the gold that you had already been told didn't exist was done. That was probably why Warrior Snorri asked for confirmation of the identity of the owner of the vault. He was quite correct when he said that you are not Harry Potter and ordered that the key be sent to the Potter Account Manager, but you still demanded that they give you the key to Harry Potter's Personal Vault. I will remind you Professor Dumbledore that if you were truly magically accepted as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian as you claim to be, you would be working with the Potter Account Manager at Gringotts to manage his affairs, you would not be forced to steal gold from his personal vault!"

"So after you were finally forced to leave Gringotts at spear point, you came here and lied to Minister Bagnold, which resulted in the incident that will cause Magical Britain to basically be shut down for the next two days because the only gold we'll have to pay anything will be what we currently have in our money pouches. Any businesses that need to make critical deals over the next two days could well be ruined and that idiot waiting back at my office has probably killed his immediate family by insulting the Heir to the Leader of the Goblin Nations to his face. That's quite an achievement Professor Dumbledore, I didn't think it was possible for one wizard to create a disaster of this magnitude for Magical Britain out of spite!…."

"And by the way, in case you didn't notice it, there were exactly thirty sickles left in Harry Potter's Personal Vault. Get someone who understands the Muggle World to explain the significance of thirty pieces of silver to you. I expect you may find that that is the reason you are not magically accepted as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian."

Of course Dumbledore tried to ignore most of what she'd said. "I was officially appointed as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian by the Wizengamot!"

"But magic has not accepted you! There is someone else who magic accepts as Harry Potter's true Magical Guardian! What do the Potters' wills say about that? Oh that's right, we don't know because you had the Wizengamot seal their wills without being read the day after the Potters died, the same day you hid Harry Potter away from everyone who promised the Potters to look after him!"

"Director Bones! I will not allow you to attack the Chief Warlock in my Office!"

"Very well Minister Bagnold, I will leave the matter in your hands. I have two Officers to fire and a notification to send out to my department to try and prevent this type of thing happening again. Might I suggest that you issue an advice via the Wizarding Wireless and possibly the Daily Prophet as soon as possible to warn people to be very careful with their spending for the next two days so that they do not end up in any more trouble than necessary? Personally I would suggest that you tell people the truth about what happened to prevent anyone attacking the goblins and causing even more trouble for Magical Britain, but of course that must be your decision Minister. Good Day Minister Bagnold."

With that, she walked out, leaving a furious Minister for Magic and three furious wizards.

Bagnold ignored the other three as she got a bottle of Firewhiskey and a tumbler out of the cupboard and poured herself and downed a glass. She refilled the glass and turned to Dumbledore.

"Who is Potter's real Magical Guardian Albus?"

"I don't know, Black was first on the list but it can't be him because he's in Azkaban. It may be the Longbottoms, I don't know whether being vegetables in Saint Mungo's invalidates them or its gone to Augusta Longbottom in their place. If not them it could be any of the Lovegoods, the Tonks or Minerva McGonagall, possibly even Bones."

"You and your stupid pride have just about ruined us Dumbledore! Now I've got to find some way of convincing everyone that through no fault of our own or the goblins', Magical Britain will have no money for the next two days. Bones is right about one thing though, we can't afford to have anyone blaming the goblins for this so if blame does have to be assigned to anyone... you, Rosier or that other idiot will be getting thrown under the Knight Bus…." She gave him an evil smile. "For the Greater Good of course."

With that she told them all to get out so she could prepare her speech and Dumbledore flooed back to his office at Hogwarts. When he stepped out of the floo though, he couldn't believe it, because his day had gotten even worse!

All of the devices he had had that were keyed to the blood monitors on Harry Potter, and everyone else for that matter, had disappeared, but that wasn't all. He frantically checked all his hiding places but all the heirlooms that he'd acquired from the Most Ancient and Ancient and the Noble Houses had disappeared, the Potter invisibility cloak and Pensieve (along with all the memories he had accumulated), the Sword of Gryffindor, everything! On top of that, his entire library of ancient and arcane tomes that he'd been removing from the Hogwarts and Most Ancient and Ancient House Libraries for the last seventy or eighty years was gone too.

But if that wasn't bad enough, his phoenix was gone! He'd used dark blood rituals to forcibly bind the bird to him fifty years ago to establish his image as the Leader of the Light, because the companion of a phoenix must be a warrior of the light. The fact that the damned bird was gone was proof that someone had been able to see the dark bindings he'd placed on it, and more importantly, able to break enough of those bindings to get it to leave him.

He demanded that the portraits in his office tell him who took everything, but none of them could tell him anything because whoever it was had managed to either freeze them or lock them out of the office until after they were gone.

Like Bagnold, he pulled a bottle of Firewhiskey and a tumbler out of the cupboard, but he downed three glasses before he slowed down. If he'd known how this day was going to turn out he wouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning.