The years following Harry Potter's departure from the Dursleys and his years in the Australian Magical Academy were both brutal and amazing. After his escape from the Dursleys and spending a year on the streets, Harry had originally planned on just putting himself into foster care so then if anybody was trying to track him down they would be waiting for a long time, but he had the misfortune of being in the wrong time, and in the wrong place.

He didn't want to be a murderer, but he was.

He didn't want to live on the streets, but he was prepared to spend a while on the streets to cover himself.

He might have scared that man outside the station, but he'd done it to stop the stranger from getting in the way and speaking to him.

The building he had gone to was being run by a gang of kids, runaways much like himself; some of them had suffered from abuse much like Harry, and like a cat which had decided enough was enough, they just turned and walked out.

Others had more complex stories, but they had so many things in common. And so did Harry. At first, Harry wasn't interested in joining; thanks to Dudley and his gang who didn't understand why 'Big D' wanted to make sure his 'freak' of a cousin had any friends, but they went along with it since they were doing what they loved doing; bullying, picking on kids smaller and weaker than themselves without thinking of the consequences, Harry had largely been cured of any desire to have any friends.

Most of the people who'd been friendly with him stopped either because they saw him using his powers, or they were beaten black and purple and blue by Dudley; after a while, Harry had gotten the message. Don't trust anybody. Harry had been tempted to just say no and go on his way, and learn how to survive on his own; he'd managed so far, he could manage again.

But logic had won out. He was tired, he was scared - he had startled a guy coming out of the train station in Little Whinging but deep down he was scared out of his mind by what he'd done; since he'd committed his first murder, Harry had considered killing the Dursleys, or maiming them so he could get away from them, but doing the deed was something else.

Besides all of that, it would take him a while before he found another place to sleep and he would need to learn where to find fresh water and food. While he knew his powers would be a bonus, this gang would be an even bigger bonus. So in the end after a few minutes of thinking about it, Harry had accepted.

That was a wise decision.

Harry spent two years with the gang, and from there he learnt how to become a pickpocket. He learnt how to live and survive on the streets, how to fight where he learnt the best way to survive was usually to keep hidden, quiet and unseen, but he didn't want to live on the streets for the rest of his life. When he had the chance, he left the gang.

In secret, it was a different matter; he continued mastering his powers, and he learnt how to change his appearance; like so many of his early experiments, Harry discovered it by accident. He had been looking at his reflection before he thought of having blue eyes…a second later, he had blue eyes.

Panicky at first, Harry quickly got his green eyes back, and after that, he started experimenting. He found he could change his entire body; he could become a baby, an old man, a teenager, a woman, a girl, virtually anything and he could even transform his face into a vulture's beak, a duck's beak, a cat's snout, and all sorts, but he preferred the human appearances.

Unfortunately, he discovered he'd become a klutz after that, he was forever tripping over his own feet.

That was one of the reasons why he left the gang, he was tired of bumping into them and they were tired of glaring at him.

He went to a police station and told them he wanted to live in a foster home. He was tired of the cold, which was true. But what he wanted to do was to have a quiet life in academia. He just wanted to be left alone, and with little to no reminders of his past, he was just about able to do that.

Taken to a foster home, Harry went to school. With no fat cousin and stupid Neanderthals bullying him, Harry was able to soar through his lessons and become a top student. He made no friends. He was polite and cordial, but he prepared to be nice to others if they were nice to him.

The few times he was bullied…

Harry was only lucky he had not injured them too severely, but it did get him into trouble. But despite those hiccups, he was a good student even if he found the lessons a little mundane. As time passed, the Dursleys became a dark, dim, distant memory even if they were there at the back of his mind although he wasn't looking to the past, but to the future. He had enough money hidden away, just waiting for when it would be used, and he went out and got a job as a newspaper delivery boy which only added more cash. He was hopeful that, in time, he would have it ready for an opportunity if it presented itself.

But for now, he was hopeful to get into secondary school and then off to college, and perhaps university. Granted, he didn't know what he would want to be, but he wanted to do something with his life.

And then…suddenly Harry got a letter. More than one offer to magical schools with names like Ilvermorny, Castelbruxo, and so on, not only offered him a different path, a different opportunity; that was a shock in itself but when Harry went through the prospectuses (the pictures were moving, but it proved the existence of magic), and decided that while many of the schools were fascinating, some of them didn't match with what he wanted.

He didn't want to go to Beauxbatons; while the French magical school was well regarded, many of their subjects were etiquette-based. Durmstrang was even worse, so many of the subjects were based on the Dark Arts, and while he was fascinated he didn't like the thought of attending a school in a very cold place.

Harry had considered Ilvermorny in America, but as he studied some of the lessons he saw there other schools. He considered Castelobruxo, but he dismissed it; while he would have thought being in a school out in the Amazon rainforest was fascinating as a prospect, Harry found the Australian Magical Academy to be the most promising, as it offered classes in techno-magic, mathematics, magi zoology (okay, Castelobruxo was mainly attractive because of that one subject, but once he went through the offered subjects at the differing schools, there were great possibilities).

When the teacher arrived, the foster home was shocked; while many of them were stunned, they liked the thought of a gifted student. Harry had tried to keep a low profile at the foster home.

The teacher took Harry back to his room, and used his wand (yeah, they had wands) to silence the room, he called it. Once they were alone, the teacher told Harry all about magic, and even showed him a few tricks. Harry showed he had powers of his own; he showed him the light in the hand trick, clicking his fingers and creating a small spark of flame which he quickly put out, and even changed his appearance.

But after the teacher showed him that magic existed, he did note the differing prospectuses and expressed his surprise that a powerful young wizard had been missed by Hogwarts, and he wondered why. Curious he took Harry to the British magical shopping district; he would get his supplies in a few days, once he was ready for the trip to Australia where he'd spend the next 8 years.

He just wanted to clarify a few things. Diagon Alley was like stepping back into the past, but when they arrived, Harry was wide-eyed, full of hope and wonder. His mind was reeling from the news he was a wizard…he had quickly asked himself if this was why the Dursleys hated him, but if they did know he was a wizard, they would have treated him better. Sadly, the Dursleys weren't blessed with ultra-intelligence or common sense.

But his wonder vanished when they went into Gringotts, the wizards' bank, and they discovered Harry was believed to be the elder brother of the Boy Who Lived, so named because he'd survived a devastating curse where nobody could survive…and Harry was believed to be a squib, someone born into a magical family but not being able to use magic.

The teacher wanted to alert the Potters, but Harry was left stunned; he felt the family rage bubbling within him as he realised he had parents. On top of that, they'd been paying the Dursleys for his upkeep, but they had left him to the Dursleys without bothering to come and check on him. And then he began to hate them.

Coldly, he dismissed his parents, and to the teachers' shock, Harry asked the goblins if there was a way he could cast himself out of their family in later years as he wanted nothing to do with his parents, especially after hearing they were happy with their new daughters and hadn't given him a thought for years. He was furious because, in his mind, they had not only abandoned him but they'd mocked him by having more kids and hadn't given him a second thought.

In Australia, Harry was taken in by the magical government as a ward. He made it clear he wasn't interested in being fostered, but he just wanted to learn magic. For the next few years, learning magic and specialising in charms, DADA - Defence Against the Dark Arts, technomagic, ancient runes, healing, warding, and other subjects, Harry was fully content enough to forget his plans to abandon his parents and just feel nothing but indifference towards them.

But all of that changed when the Triwizard Tournament came to Hogwarts and Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire.