Harry sat on the edge of his bed in the master bedroom of the Potter Estate, slowly swirling the glass of fire whiskey in his hand. The rest of the house was empty except for the main entrance hall. Everything his family owned had been shrunk and placed within magical trunks that were stored in a moleskin pouch on his hip. All of it, ready to move at a moments notice.
Despite the fact he sat in a bedroom, he looked ready to fight a war since he had donned his full battle armor. Enchanted armor and robes that cost more than most wizards earned in ten lifetimes. And he had created these himself from scratch over the course of a year. All the knowledge to create them had been found in this house. The Potters truly were a powerful family, and it was no wonder Dumbledore had set up such an elaborate plot to gain access to his ancestor's secrets and fortune.
Everything the man had ever spoken or done regarding Harry had proved to be a lie. The death of his parents, the incarceration of Sirius, the ineffectual fighting of a second war against Voldemort, and the proclamations of war crimes against Harry for ending the lives of so many "upstanding purebloods" to end the conflict. Dumbledore had secretly been behind it all, and thought himself one-step ahead of Harry at all times.
The start of Harry's disillusionment with Dumbledore began moments after waking up in the hospital after the Twi-Wizard tournament. The old fool assumed Harry was asleep, but Harry had always been able to wake early from potions meant to incapacitate him in the hospital. It was the only time the Headmaster had probably ever spoken his true mind in public outside the safety of his office, and he paid for his indiscretion in spades.
"Is it done, Severus?" he heard the old man ask from a few feet away.
"Yes, but it appears to be ineffectual. His blood must be willingly and freshly given. We determined Potter himself must be in proximity to the wardstone as well. There were also additional conditions of the offering: he must be alive, coherent, and uncoerced when he makes the offering."
"Blast," he heard Dumbledore respond with vehemence Harry had never heard before. Harry almost opened his eyes there, but managed to remain calm and unmoving. "The boy can never know of his family's estate. The knowledge and opportunities it contains could allow him to end this war on his own if he actually was properly trained. We can't allow that if we want to be the ones who gain from allowing this conflict to be drawn out."
"Well, at least that part won't ever be a concern," said Snape, and Harry actually could swear he heard humor in the distasteful man's voice. "The boy is far more concerned with playing chess and quidditch with his Neanderthal friend than he is actually improving himself. He's known the Dark Lord has been after him since the end of his first year when he saw him with his own eyes, and he still does nothing to actually improve his chances of survival. He chooses classes such as Divination and Magical Creatures instead of Runes and Arithmancy. His luck has held so far, I doubt it will hold much longer. We will be ready to step in if that is the case."
Harry remembered his anger at those words at the time, but looking back now, he could honestly credit that brief summarization of his life as entirely truthful. He truly had never applied himself. All he had done was go with the flow. The only true extracurricular studying he had ever done outside the standard Hogwarts curriculum was to support his own survival in the Tournament. And even then, it was Hermione who performed most of the legwork.
He resolved right then and there to change.
A final off-hand comment by Snape as he walked away though is what changed the course of history. "It's just good he's continually bought your excuses not to enter Gringotts and to let the Weasley woman have possession of his trust vault key. He'll never know he's about to miss the opportunity to claim his inheritance and the Order will be well funded with money from his own vault."
As he heard the fading footsteps he felt rage overcome him. At that moment, for the first time in his life, he knew just how screwed he really was. It was a daunting realization, to have it finally dawn on him just how numerous his enemies were beyond just Voldemort.
The Death Eater children of Slytherin were his enemies. They had been trained since birth to hate Dumbledore and his "Golden Boy" Harry. It didn't matter that Harry had been left out to dry Dumbledore publicly on multiple occasions. Additionally, the "popular" crowd of Hogwarts were his enemies, since they relied upon gossip as fact. They had hated Harry for being a parselmouth, and hated him even more for stealing Cedric's thunder in the tournament. And the "light side" cronies of Albus Dumbledore were also apparently his enemies, as they sought to take what was rightfully his.
He also knew that the Ministry of Magic was now his enemy. He was not a completely naive child, and he was well aware of the consequences of the massive argument he had witnessed between Albus Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. Because Harry was the original source of the now disputed fact of Voldemort's return, he knew the ministry would likely throw all its considerable political weight behind destroying Harry's reputation even further than Rita Skeeter had done this past year. He also knew this would be exacerbated by Lucius Malfoy, an influential Death Eater who had the Minister's ear. His political power was demonstrated two years previous after the man out-maneuvered Dumbledore during the Chamber of Secrets crisis.
A war had started and Harry was already fighting an uphill battle. Harry, for all intents and purposes, was in a war against everyone. And he was completely alone.