"I shall leave now and wish you a Merry Christmas, we can only hope you and your family enjoy many more."
Dumbledore popped away, leaving Petunia clinging to her husband's arm. "Oh Vernon, perhaps we should have kept the freak? We could have stuck him in the cupboard under the stairs out of the way..."
"Petunia, the old man was deliberately trying to scare us. He's just pissed off because he didn't get his own way."
This was little comfort to the worried mother. "But Dudley..."
"Listen, let's enjoy Christmas and, if you still feel the same way in the New Year, we'll look at moving house. It wouldn't hurt for me to get a shotgun either, soon show these freaks we mean business."
Vernon could see the worry literally drop off his wife, Petunia was probably planning how she would decorate their new home. The new house should also have a bigger lounge, this would be the excuse for him to buy that new giant TV he had his eye on.
-oOoOo-
Albus walked up to the first available teller at Gringots and asked to see the Potter accounts manager. The goblin in front of him though just added to his already bad day.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No I thought..."
"What do you want to see him for?"
"That's personal, needless to say..."
Albus was interrupted again. "Who shall I say wishes to see him?" "I am Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, surely you must have heard..."
"Wulfric after Percival but before Brian?"
Albus could only sigh and nod his head in agreement, only to discover the goblin wasn't even looking at him so he was forced to say 'yes'.
"Okay, and last name Dumbledore? I'll go and see if there is anyone available to deal with your request at the moment. Please remain here."
It had been Dumbledore's experience that when the goblins were at their most obstructive, it meant you had upset them in some way. He was struggling to think what he'd done to merit this treatment but reckoned he would soon find out, he didn't have long to wait. Four security guards with drawn weapons surrounded him and demanded he follow their lead.
He was surprised but delighted to find himself in the directors office, now at least he was getting somewhere. Or so he thought. "Director Ragnok, delighted to see you again..."
The director cut across him as abruptly as the teller had. "Let's cut the dragonshit Dumbledore, I have better things to do than stand here and listen to you talk nonsense. The reason you are in here is to give you this." Albus found a scroll being slapped into his hand. "This is a notice of vault closure, you have twenty-four hours to take your belongings from the Dumbledore vault before we seal it. After that time, Gringotts will no longer do business with you."
This was totally unexpected and an extremely serious development, getting kicked out of Gringotts was a sanction used for only the very worst offenders. "Perhaps there has been a mistake here?"
"Oh yes, and it was you who made it. We now know that the dark one is not gone, and we also know how this was achieved. This was information that could have seriously compromised Gringotts, yet you deliberately withheld it from us."
Albus suddenly understood what was going on here. "Did you find any in the vaults? You must tell me!" Ragnok's answer was scathing. "Oh, so now you want a spirit of cooperation between us? I must tell you nothing. Get him out of here."
Albus was being dragged out before he'd got what he came for. "Wait, What about Harry Potter?"
The director's sneer was predatory. "Send his Hogwarts letter to Gringotts, I'll make sure he gets it."
Albus was rather unceremoniously herded into the main lobby of Gringotts by the guards, the old wizard then headed back to Hogwarts. He would need to make some quick arrangements on where to store the items from his vault. Albus decided to tell no one about this, being barred from Gringotts was ammunition his enemies didn't need to have. His plan for Harry Potter was to ensure the boy wouldn't be seen again in the British magical community until the child's arrival at Hogwarts. That plan was still viable, though it would be a different Harry Potter who now stepped onto the express. Just how different was something Albus was going to have to wait ten years to discover.
Hermione Granger was different, she'd always known that. It would be hard not to when the children that you attended school with went out of their way to point this fact out to you every single day. Having really bushy hair and rather large front teeth were obvious targets for her main antagonists, being top of every class didn't help the situation any either. Her continual lack of friendship had led Hermione to seek her escape in the printed word, always having a book in her hand though was just more ammunition for the various groups of Hermione haters. She may have heard variations of the terms buck-toothed bushy-haired bookworm hundreds of times, that didn't mean those words didn't hurt on each and every one of those occasions.
Then, almost a year ago, an event happened that explained why she was different - Hermione Granger was a witch! While her mum and dad had taken some convincing of this fact, the instant Professor McGonagall had spoken those special words Hermione had known deep within herself this was indeed true. The preceeding months had been some of the best of her young life. Schoolyard taunts no longer had the power to hurt, she was different and would be leaving for a special school where things would be so, so different.
Hermione Granger was done with being an outsider, she was going to a place where everyone would be the same as her - a place where she could finally have friends. This had been her shield and armour against the taunts and jibes that had viciously escalated as the bullies attempted to get a reaction from their favourite target. It was perhaps somewhat understandable then that the young witch was near to tears since those dreams were beginning to appear to be mere fantasy, and she wasn't even on the bloody train yet. The day had started so well too, up at the crack of dawn so she could be fully prepared for her new adventure. A breakfast where she never seemed to stop talking was followed by the car ride to Kings Cross - bright and early of course. Saying goodby to her parents at the barrier had been hard, but a new life awaited her and she was quite prepared to run through a brick wall to get there. Hermione did just that, and then things started going downhill.
On her first sight of platform nine and three quarters, it wasn't the bright red Hogwarts Express that caught the young witch's attention. It was the group of four witches already in their green-trimmed Hogwarts robes that drew Hermione like a moth to a flame. Unfortunately, just like said moth, she got burned. Deciding to introduce herself, Hermione was met with looks of disgust and derision - it wasn't supposed to be this way. Confidence severely dented, she then discovered another problem.