The Paranoid Harry Potter

Harry read the letter through twice. He could not believe his eyes. What the hell was this? He hadn't been in a Muggle area for hours. Why would he be performing a Patronus Charm anyway? He snorted - Patronus Charm, indeed, couldn't they have come up with something more believable? Why on earth would he ever perform a Patronus Charm at Privet Drive?

He read the letter through again. What the bloody hell was wrong with the Ministry? He knew that expulsion was supposedly the punishment for breaking the Statute of Secrecy, but what the hell was that bit about the disciplinary hearing.

If they'd already expelled him, why would they need to have a disciplinary hearing? Shouldn't expulsion be punishment enough? This looked like not only were they tossing him out of Hogwarts but they also seemed to want to punish him further. Maybe even throw him into Azkaban. His eyes widened in fear.

This was solid undeniable proof - The Ministry was obviously totally under the thrall of Voldemort and was manufacturing a reason to get him expelled from Hogwarts and thrown into Azkaban. It stood to reason that they must have panicked after he escaped from the Death Eater at Privet Drive and this was their next attempt at getting rid of him.

His eyes flickered nervously around the alley. He quickly got his invisibility cloak out, which he had previously put away once he reached the Burrow, and covered himself. He hoped that nobody had seen him. He had to change his plans. Forget about the Leaky Cauldron. He had to get away from Britain immediately. He would go back to his original plan, well truth be told until then it had been little more than a pleasant day-dream, and just leave the country.

"Come on Dobby, I'm going to need your help with a few more things" he said as he scurried towards the goblin run bank. "First, can you fix it so that no owl can find me? I don't want the Ministry to be able to find me by sending me any more owls."

"Yes, Dobby can be doing that. Should Dobby be doing that now?"

"Yes, please go ahead and do that," said Harry. Dobby flicked his fingers and Harry felt a tingle as Dobby's magic settled around him masking his magical signature so that no owl would be able to find him. Miles away an owl that had been heading straight towards him suddenly lost its bearing and flew around confused in circles before it gave up and headed back to its owner.

"Next, we need to empty my vault completely. Do you think you'll be able to fit all the gold from my vault into this backpack? I mean it's already really full, after all you managed to fit everything from my room including my trunk in there..."

"Yes, Harry Potter, Dobby can be doing that easily, there is plenty of place left in Harry Potter's bag," said Dobby.

"Excellent, come on then, let's hurry up. We need to empty my vault and then the two of us are going to head to Heathrow airport."

Ten minutes, several surly goblins and a cart ride later, Harry was watching in astonishment and wonder as all the gold in his vault swirled up into the air and started funnelling into the open mouth of his backpack.

"You know Dobby, you are really one incredibly useful person...err...elf to have around. I don't suppose you'll be willing to come with me and work for me full time? I could pay you just as much as Dumbledore was paying you to work at Hogwarts"

Dobby hopped up and down in excitement. The flying Galleons crashed to the floor as he jumped at Harry in glee. "Master Harry Potter wants Dobby to be his elf and wants to pay him as well. Oh, Dobby is so happy..." and with that the tiny elf burst into tears of utter joy.

Once Harry had settled Dobby down and gotten him to finish emptying the vault into his backpack, they hurried back into the cart. Harry had left out a large bag of galleons which he was clutching in his hands. He would need to convert those into regular muggle money. It was high time he headed to the muggle world. Every minute he spent in the magical world the danger increased. Not only did he have to worry about Death Eaters but now he had the Ministry out to snap his wand as well. He would be leaving as soon as he could figure out how to get on a plane.