~ Prologue~

Harry had always said it would be a cold day in hell before he ever went back to the place of his childhood torment. Promised himself that never again would his feet touch the soiled ground of Privet Drive. That stopped Harry in his tracks 'oh great my inner monolog now sounds like Malfoy what fresh hell was this prelude to' he thought. As though thoughts of his former childhood nemesis had opened a pathway to the past every step he took reminded him of a different memory. It did not help that as he counted down the house numbers he paused at number 4. His former life, as he looked at because the day he died at the hands of Voldemort every trace of his rather forgettable past died with him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the drapes of Number 4 flick reminding him that the Durslys so set in their ways that as soon as the slightest hint that it might kind of be safe they had left the protection the Order(?) offered them and moved back home. Any hope that they had learned any type of lesson by their death defying escape vanished as soon as they abandoned their son. Dudley in a brief stunning moment of stupidity, compassion and logic agreed with harry and tried to point out that it was not safe that Harry still warned about danger.

"Not all the death eaters had been caught" he warned "there are still people out there that will come after you."

Harry tried to keep them there but when they refused again he let it go. He watched them be escorted down the path as they left their nephew and son on the doorstep of a safe house. However that is a story for another day, today was the day harry broke the promise to him and set up Privet Dr. toward magnolia crest. The nip in the air showed that winter was blowing down the coast and the bitter sound of fall leaves under his shoes matched his mood. Harry had honestly thought that he would never be back here but he never took into account a one Arebella Figg the old women not the only person who made his childhood somewhat bearable. The only one in this neighborhood who helped him when the bastards around here where only into appearances ignoring blatant child abuse when they saw it. She helped him feed him when he needed it and could get away with it. Bandaged him up when Vernon got too bad, watched out for him and offered him a sanctuary. She taught him to mend clothes and what food could be preserved and would last the longest. She was both mother and father since his parents had passed that long ago all hallows eve. He could never deny this women anything and this request was no different she rarely asked him for anything and this was no hardship. She said there was something extremely important to tell him that she had called him son in the letter meant that no power on earth would stop him from getting to her. The fact that the letter had not been in her flowing script though it had been on her parchment worried him somewhat. He was not familiar with the car in the drive and when the door was wrenched open by harried unfamiliar women in scrubs that glared him down made his sense of worry sky rocket.