Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following is just a little one-shot I'm putting out there in the hope of inspiring somebody else. A throwing down of a gauntlet, so to speak. It takes place in the early hours of a morning in July, 1991 in the headmaster's office of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (I assume the previous school year has finished by now.)

Further Note: This story is rated 'T'.

In Scotland during the summer months the sun rises ever earlier, the further north that one goes, and the fact that the colours of dawn were tinting the skies above Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on this particular July morning was consequently more of a testament as to the ungodliness of the hour at which the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had urgently summoned Severus Snape from distant Spinner's End, than any indication that the hour might be friendly. For all that this was a time of morning when most might expect to be comfortably tucked up in their beds, the hour and unexpectedness of the summons showed little effect in having discomposed either the attire or stony-faced disposition of the potions master.

"You wanted to see me, headmaster?"

"Ah yes, Severus – about three things, all linked. The first is that I would like you to deliver Mr. Harry Potter's Hogwarts letter on behalf of the school."

"Is Minerva too busy, then, and is Mr. Potter too good for an owl to bear his letter, as it would that of any other half-blood?" the dark-haired potions master curled his lip slightly at this news.

"His letter would ordinarily have gone by muggle post, and I have my reasons, Severus, for doing otherwise, as you will shortly learn. I placed Harry with his aunt, Petunia Evans – or whatever her married name is – all those years ago, as you may or may not be aware. Consequently, you being you, you will need this when you go to call."

The headmaster of Hogwarts handed across the desk to the other what to all intents and purposes appeared to be a bright orange root vegetable, with traces of grit adhering to it in places. The potions master inspected it carefully.

"It appears to be a carrot, headmaster." He scrutinised it more closely and sniffed it cautiously. "A recently unearthed one."

"Quite, Severus, quite." the headmaster beamed.

"Unless you have taken leave of your senses, I take it that there is a reason for your presenting me with this?"

"Oh absolutely, Severus. You see it was the first thing I had to hand, when this little crisis arose, and so naturally, as soon as I thought what might perhaps need to be done, I seized upon it and enchanted it; a good thing too, given what the hours between then and now have shown me. For the next twenty-four hours or so, so long as you have it about your person, it will protect you. You see, when I left Harry in his aunt's care all those years ago I quite naturally put in place some quite powerful magic to protect young Harry from the attentions of malign witches and wizards – including, as a rather obvious precaution, measures to deal with any who bore the lingering traces of a very particular magical signature…"

The headmaster trailed off significantly.

"The dark mark."

"Quite, Severus." the headmaster's beam broadened. "Amongst other things."

"What will happen to me if I do not have this carrot upon my person, should I enter the warded area?"

"I'm not quite sure, Severus, since I don't think the effect tuned to react to the dark mark has ever been tripped. However, in theory, I would hazard that there is a strong possibility that you will catch fire, and in very short order unless you immediately leave the premises will be reduced to ash."

"I see, headmaster. Clearly I shall have to take great care not to misplace this carrot then."

Absolutely blank-faced, the potions master dusted the carrot off slightly, and then tucked it away carefully in a robe pocket.

"Excellent." Then the headmaster's smile faded. "The second reason that I wish to speak to you is that Sirius Black has disappeared from Azkaban. The august body that is our Ministry of Magic is currently unsure exactly when he went missing – it has been several weeks since anyone can be certain that they last saw him, and I rather suspect that the news was held back whilst the prison authorities attempted to discover if he had perhaps been moved, without the proper paperwork, and they had simply misplaced him somewhere in the prison. And then, of course, there was some arguing, I should imagine, about who would inform the Ministry, followed by more dithering at the Ministry over when and what to inform me. It was finally brought to my attention early yesterday evening, since when I have been making many frantic enquiries in different directions, pondering a good-deal, and taking steps to attempt to ensure that several different aspects of this crisis are handled as best as can reasonably be hoped. I have of course requested that the Ministry hold back the news from being made public for a further twenty-four hours, to give the aurors a chance to brace themselves for the inevitable wave of panic and false sightings and to afford me the time to make certain arrangements of my own – but young Cornelius may not be able to restrain himself for that long." A slightly strained look appeared on the headmaster's face. "Obviously, given the events of Hallowe'en, ten years ago, I made sure that particularly nasty measures were in place to be triggered, should Sirius Black ever attempt to break into the house where Harry has since that time been living. I have no doubts that Harry is safe from Black there – or anywhere else for that matter in the immediate neighbourhood. However, if Harry is to attend Hogwarts, then naturally he will need to go shopping in Diagon Alley, and preferably as soon as possible, before Black has any further time to that which he may already have had to rebuild his resources and make plans. Hence you, Severus."

"You want me to take Potter junior shopping in Diagon Alley immediately after delivering his letter?"

"Filius is currently unavailable, and you are the only other member of staff I could trust to keep Harry Potter safe, should Black be lurking by some mischance in the Alley and take the opportunity to launch an attack. In light of the sum of factors of which I am currently informed about the situation, there are no other options that would be both effective and – to my mind – would not risk causing adverse public comment, if not outright panic. Such as, for example, if I, who am never seen on such errands, were to be the one accompanying him."

"I see." said Severus, only the slightest of inflections to his tone suggesting that there were numerous other tasks he considered infinitely preferable which he would have preferred that he be 'the only one available' capable of executing.

The headmaster sighed, and produced a bundle of silvery cloth, in the midst of which nestled a key. He pushed these across the desk towards Severus.

"Here is the key to the Gringotts vault that contains what money Harry's mother and her husband had to leave their son. Sirius Black was supposed to have been their trustee – it seems that neither James nor Lily ever had any doubts over his loyalty, at least to them – but obviously following through on what directions they left on that count would have caused a great many difficulties, so in my capacity as Chief Warlock I have been looking after it instead for ten years. Also, here is James' old invisibility cloak. James had loaned it to me at my request shortly before… 'things happened'…" the headmaster phrased those two words with incredible delicacy and sorrow, "and it may as well be available to you, today, in case it should prove useful to you upon your errand. Unless its destruction should prove absolutely necessary to save Mr. Potter's life, I should like it back please, Severus, in one piece at the end of the day."

Severus did not yet move to touch either cloak or key.

"And the third thing, headmaster?"

The headmaster produced a folded piece of parchment, sealed with a blob of wax, and his expression now was truly grim.

"You know our school's mailing arrangements for first years, Severus: as part of them, the letters of known non-muggle-borns are automatically addressed with self-updating tracking charms, and either affixed by our elves to school-owls for delivery or franked and deposited into the muggle postal system; and in either case it is done usually with scarcely a glance at what is written on them. I intercepted Mr. Potter's letter shortly before midnight and have it here. I admit to making occasional mistakes, Severus; besides the magic which I put in place, to protect Mr. Potter from witches and wizards, I had a watcher in place in the neighbourhood with instructions to keep an eye on Harry and his well-being, as best she could. She was a well-meaning woman, but unfortunately a squib not well versed in muggle culture and habits and I am very much afraid that for years she has been misinterpreting certain things happening, and seeing far too much in the best possible light. I have spoken with her at length during the past few hours, and she has had a nervous breakdown. I am making up my mind over what subsequent action – if any – I will take over her, but she is my responsibility entirely, Severus. As to Harry's relatives – I would prefer Harry's aunt and any children she may have, who would be Harry's cousins, to remain intact for now. It would be nice, given that I believe the protections against witches and wizards have functioned so effectively for almost ten years to date, if by the time that you are finished, Harry's aunt would be prepared to still let him call her house a place where he can at least have a roof over his head – the magic is dependent on Harry abiding with her, you see. However I require, only, that you do not put yourself in any danger of Azkaban, nor take any action likely to needlessly alarm Harry. It has been overly late in coming to my attention, but the current situation will not continue."

Severus took the folded parchment, and glanced at the first line of the address, beneath the name:

…The Cupboard Under the Stairs…

"The address has not altered ever since I collected the letter from the elf about to send it off in the bag for the Edinburgh sorting office." Albus Dumbledore said softly. "I would like to think that it is due to some sort of childish game that has been played in the household just before bedtime, and that he went to sleep there, but my knowledge of human nature – and reading between the lines of what my agent from the neighbourhood had to say during my recent close interrogation of her – suggests to me that there is a strong and unfortunate possibility that this may not be the case."

Author Notes:

Basically, the premise here is shaking up the school years. In this universe, instead of the Philosopher's Stone business happening during Harry's first year, Sirius Black breaks out of Azkaban. (Voldemort presumably spends another year or so waiting for someone such as Quirinus to happen-by.) In just this one-shot, that's resulted in Albus wanting Harry's initial letter delivered more swiftly, efficiently, and in person from the outset, as compared to the intentions of his canon counterpart. The coincidence of Black disappearing from Azkaban several months before Harry is scheduled to commence at Hogwarts seems to suggest one very obvious motive, at least to Albus Dumbledore, for why Black may have made a break for it now.

I had a few notes as to how this story might progress further, in the interests of things being mixed up. The Ministry of Magic would insist on stationing Alastor Moody at Hogwarts as the defence teacher for the coming year, and to some extent in terms of dementor presence and so forth, the year would run roughly as with Prisoner of Azkaban - except in that Harry and any friends are first years so no time-turner for Hermione or casting the Patronus charm for Harry. On the other hand, Remus Lupin isn't on the grounds, and Draco Malfoy isn't going to bump into a hippogriff, so no escaped werewolf or Buckbeak going to be executed either.

I had nothing worked out for what house Harry would get sorted into. Assuming that Draco's schedule for the summer is unaltered from canon Philosopher's Stone, Harry certainly wouldn't bump into him in the robes shop, although I can't see Severus Snape wanting to hang around in Diagon Alley any longer than strictly necessary, so probably no conversations for Harry with anyone except Severus Snape (unless there's a bottle-neck with trying out the wands at Ollivanders).

Alastor Moody probably fetches Harry to get the train on September 1st and stays glued to him (and constantly vigilant) throughout the trip.

Anyway, here's hoping this one-shot inspires someone else.

(Oh yes, Severus Snape *barely* manages to restrain himself from torturing Vernon and Dudley to death in front of Petunia, then burning the house down with her in it, though he makes it clear that that's what he'd like to do, and has carte blanche to do it; he contents himself with snarking at her and wringing all sorts of admissions out of her in front of her nephew, instead, along with issuing some highly persuasive 'don't do anything further to upset Albus Dumbledore for the next few months' threats...)