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Escaping This World	By : sablecurse Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Slash - Male/Male Views: 25499 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Chapter 10 – Know Who I Am

Harry groaned as he rolled over, cursing a bit as doing so made the morning light land across his face. The second half of the previous day had been a little rough. Taking several portkeys in one afternoon would have been enough to make him miserable, but that was only the start.

~Flashback~

Harry knew from his talk with the goblins that while most of the homes were from the Potter line (from both his parents and grandparents), several were left from Sirius. He decided to visit the Potter homes first and found that they were all in good working order. However, touring the homes, being introduced to the staff, and bonding with the house elves of those homes drained him a bit. At the last Potter house, he decided to take a break before he moved on to the Black homes as he didn't know what to expect from those. The house elves feed him dinner, which helped him regain some energy. As he exited the last Potter home he had been given a portkey to, he dreaded what was lurking ahead.

The first two properties left to him by Sirius were in fairly good shape and didn't resemble the Black persona that was evident at Grimmauld Place. Harry figured that these were properties that Sirius had gotten on his own as opposed to being inherited from his family. These homes had only a couple of house elves, so bonding with them didn't take too much of his energy. The other two homes left to him by Sirius were a different story though.

The next house was a huge castle-like home that radiated so much dark energy that Harry refused to step inside. Maybe he could get Salazar to come with him here when they were closer friends – God knows Harry wasn't going in such a creepy place by himself and Sal likely knew more about potential dangers lying about. He beckoned any house elves from outside, but figured the lack of response meant that they had died out or been moved to other Black homes (or been eaten by things lurking inside the home).

Harry took the last portkey and where it took him surprised him as he ended up landing on the front step of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. He shouldn't really have been so shocked since he was Sirius's heir and the property had belonged to the man. The fact that the Order had been using it for so long had just put this fact out of his mind.

With a dark smile, Harry had made sure no one was currently in the house before stepping inside. He magically tossed out the belongings of every order member, remembering to place an anti-muggle ward around the pile of junk so no muggles came across the magical items. He then tossed up powerful wards around the home and warded the Floo-connected fireplace to keep the Order members out for good.

Kreacher watched, silent and fidgety from the shadows. Kreacher knew that the wizard present had hated him for his deception about his previous master, but he had noticed that the 'light' boy wizard had become a powerful 'grey' adult wizard. Where he had been previously dead-set against serving him, he was now unsure – after all, his favorite master, Regulus Black, had been more grey than dark.

Harry glanced over to the shadows Kreacher was lurking in and silently beckoned the elf to him. He watched as the house elf slowly obeyed, seeming very nervous and unsure. When the elf finally stood in front of him, Harry said just one word.

"Why?"

Kreacher tugged at his pitiful clothing. "I did not know Master Sirius would be hurt. I was only told that I needed to trick you to bring honor to the Black name. Sirius was always bringing the Black name through the dirt. He also kept saying horrible things about Master Regulus and Mistress Walburga, who always treated me well."

Harry let out a sigh. He had seen how Sirius had treated Kreacher and figured a couple of years of that, plus the lack of knowledge of what the elf was actually doing by deceiving Harry, was enough of a reason to give the elf a chance – he doubted forgiveness would come as easily.

"Very well, Kreacher. I shall give you a chance. For the next month, I want you to try and return this house to its former glory. If there is anything you cannot do on your own, such as massive repairs or dark creatures you come across, let me know and I'll either come take care of it or I'll send you help in the form of extra house elves. I also want you to clean yourself up and make yourself some new uniforms. If you take the restoring of the home and yourself to heart, I believe we will be able to coexist peacefully."

Kreacher looked relieved and nodded enthusiastically at the instructions he had been given. "I shall get cleaning right away, Master Harry. Is there anything else?"

Harry tilted his head. "Yes. I'm sure you noticed me expelling the Order. You are not to take orders from any of them, nor should you let them into the house or tell them of my whereabouts. My main home is the Potter Villa in Italy at this time. You are allowed there to keep me informed of the progress on the home or to ask for help if it's needed."

Kreacher bowed and scooted off towards the kitchen. As Harry exited the front door, he could hear what sounded like counters being scrubbed.

~End Flashback~

Harry finally rolled out of bed and headed towards the shower. After he finished and dressed, he headed downstairs for an early lunch. He still had a couple of hours before he was scheduled to meet Salazar, but he figured he could relax at the park for a bit before the scheduled meeting.

A Little While Later

Slytherin Château

Salazar finished eating his lunch and cast a time spell. It was almost time to go meet Harry, so he went upstairs to gather the leaf portkey. He removed his wizarding robe (as Twixny had reminded him that it would stand out to muggles) and grabbed the leaf portkey before heading out past his wards. With a whispered, "Nature," Salazar vanished.

Sheffield Park Garden

Harry glanced up at Salazar when he popped in just a few minutes before their one o'clock meeting and gave him a smile. Salazar saw him and returned the smile before glancing around at their surroundings.

There was a partial wall of trees behind the bench Harry was perched on and a small pond to the other side (which Salazar is happy he didn't portkey into). He turned around and saw a small path which he assumed lead to the rest of the park. He could feel the anti-muggle ward that Harry had put up and relaxed a bit. He turned back around and walked over to the wooden bench before sitting beside Harry.

"Where are we, Harry? I admit that it is the perfect place to meet."

"This is Sheffield Park Garden. It's in East Sussex, which is a bit south of London. I remembered this place from a school trip I had taken as a child. I had loved that trip and I am glad to have the chance to visit it again."

"Hmm. Do you think we could take a stroll through the other areas of the park after we finish talking?"

Harry chuckled. "Sure. I looked around a little earlier, but company would be nice. I could also use the time to give you an introductory course in some muggle things, as we will likely pass quite a few of them in our walk."

Salazar nodded, quite happy for the chance to extend his time with Harry. He took a deep breath and organized his thoughts. "So, do you want to start discussing the serious issues or start with the easy ones?"

"Hmm. I think we should just jump right into the serious ones. That way we can wind down with the others."

"Alright. I guess I'll start with the muggle issue. How do you stand on the idea of allowing muggle-borns into the school?"

Harry thought about it for a while before he replied. "I am torn on the issue. Muggle-borns do have magic and, if left untrained, could cause problems. But I do not think it wise for their relatives to have information of the magical world with the chance to spread our world's secrets and possibly come to hate their own children due to the child's magic. Some ideas have crossed my mind on how to solve this, including using the Book of Names at Hogwarts to take the children from their parents soon after birth and place them with magical families. Another idea was to use a combination of secrecy spells and protection potions to keep the children safe and the magical world a secret. Either way, I do not believe we should let magical children flounder uneducated – especially magical children in a hostile muggle world."

Salazar processed that and could see Harry's point. If there existed ways in this time to teach the children without risking their safety or the magical world's security, then he agreed that teaching them should be attempted. He stated as much to Harry.

Harry smiled brightly before it turned into a slight frown. "I am curious though. It has been speculated that if we cut off from the muggle world completely that the blood among wizards will get too inbred and stagnate, eventually causing the magic to die out."

Salazar blinked confusedly. "The only way for that to happen is to stop wizards from mingling with magical beings."

Harry's eyes widened and he bit his lip. "Umm, Salazar. Many wizards now view most magical beings as evil and below them. Couplings between wizards and these beings are practically unheard of."

"What? How did that come to be? I mean, what about the vampires, werewolves, veela, and wood elves that have wizards as mates?"

Harry blinked confusedly. "Wood elves?"

Salazar ran his hand down his face. "Of course. If the wizarding world looked down on the wood elves, chances are that they have cut themselves off until things are set right. Anyway Harry, wood elves look like us wizards with pointed instead of rounded ears. They have the beauty and grace of veela and tend to stay in wooded areas, hence their name. If you weren't taught about them, chances are that they have long since felt the need to seclude themselves from the wizarding world."

Harry tried to digest the fact that the elves he had always pictured in his mind (until he met a house elf) did exist – they just didn't want to be part of the prejudiced wizarding world. Harry let out a sigh. "I hate to tell you this, but vampires basically keep away from wizards since a wizard wouldn't hesitate to kill them. Werewolves are looked upon as filth, but aren't really hunted most of the time. Hags are seen as evil and are killed with no repercussions. Veela have the best reception among wizards and have been known to join with a wizard on occasion. They are still seen as somewhat foreign though."

"Damn. It's going to take a lot of work to fix that kind of prejudice. In my original time, it was common for magical beings to mix with wizards. Doing so kept the magic and blood from stagnating."

Harry gave Salazar a curious look. "Do you have any being blood?"

Salazar laughed a bit. "Indeed, I do. The Slytherin line mixed with all magical beings at some point in time, but the more recent ones were veela and wood elves."

"But I thought the Slytherin line prided itself on being pure-blood."

Salazar blinked at Harry's confused expression. "My ancestors did. By your expression, it seems the term's definition has changed. Back then, 'pure-blood' meant having no non-magical blood – in other words, having no muggle blood. What does it mean now?"

Harry gave a hollow smile. "These days, 'pure-blood' means having only wizarding blood."

Salazar scoffed at the notion of anyone these days having only wizarding blood. All the pure-blood families from his time had at least some being blood mixed in, so the same was true of any wizarding lines today.

"Hmm. I guess the next topic is how you view both Dumbledore and Voldemort and their sides of the war."

Harry nibbled on his bottom lip which, of course, distracted Salazar a bit. When Harry noticed Sal's gaze, he snickered a bit before replying to the inquiry. "I can't get behind either of them to be honest. Dumbledore wants too much interaction with the muggle world which is a very bad idea. Lately, he has also started to go by an 'any means necessary' policy to get the results he wants. As a victim of that policy, he will never have my support. On the other hand, I agree with Voldemort's position of keeping the worlds separate, but I hate his methods – so much torturing and killing. He has also promoted pure-blood supremacy (as defined by today's standards), but I am unsure if he does that just to get supporters as he himself has muggle blood. That's in addition to the fact that he killed my parents and has tried to kill me on several occasions. I don't see myself ever being comfortable following him. All this is why I've decided to remain neutral unless something drastic happens."

Salazar gave Harry a soft smile. "I am happy that you're views about this are so close to mine. I have talked to Voldemort though," Salazar rushed on as he saw Harry tense, "and he has promised not to concern himself with you. I mostly just learned what the wizarding world had thought I was like. I was going to talk to him about his war stances though. Maybe I can convince him to change his view on some things. When I do meet with him for this talk, would you like to come?"

Harry looked a bit surprised at the offer, before shaking his head. "No. I am not ready for a confrontation with him yet. Also, it wouldn't be a good idea to bring me unannounced to a manor full of people who have previously tried to kill me."

Harry and Salazar then talked about several other serious subjects. They both agreed that even if the muggle world is cut off from the wizarding one, they should have ways of monitoring the technologies and information from there. And once Harry informed Sal about the pitiful condition the education at Hogwarts had sunk to, Sal had agreed with him that a drastic overhaul needed to be done of the school's subject matters and staff.

After getting the serious issues out of the way, both of them gladly moved on to less serious issues. They discovered each other's favorite foods, most hated foods, favorite colors, and hobbies. They both laughed when they found out that deep green was both of their favorite colors.

Harry stood up with a smile on his face, left over from the laughter. "I think we can take that walk now. If we come up with other questions, we can discuss them while we walk."

Salazar grinned widely and stood as well. He let Harry lead him down the short path to the gardens, doing his absolute best not to let his eyes dart downward to Harry's ass. When they came to a much larger gravel path, Salazar moved to Harry's side and they began their walk.

Sometimes a muggle would pass them on the path and Harry would wait until they were out of earshot before pointing out things like zippers, phones, sunglasses, and the like. Between these mini muggle tutoring sessions, they would discuss other things they came into their mind. But there was one issue that Harry refused to talk about when Salazar had asked – his past.

-ETW-ETW-ETW-ETW-ETW-

Song for this chapter: Iris by Goo Goo Dolls

A/N: I did not have Harry bond with Kreacher for a reason. To me, the bonding between a wizard and house elf has to have at least some degree of trust. House elves have the magic to determine if a wizard is trustworthy or not, which is why the house elves for the Potter and nicer Black houses wanted to bond to Harry. However, Harry does not really trust Kreacher at this time and Kreacher is fighting against the prejudices he has been taught. I may or may not have them end up bonding.

I can't remember where I got the Book of Names idea as to how the headmaster knows when a child is born with enough magic to qualify for admission. I'm pretty sure it is stuck in my head from one or more fanfictions I've read. If you let me know that it's in your story (and I know I've read it), I'll edit this chapter to include a credit to you.
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Escaping This World