Prologue

"BOY!" Get here in this instant!"

A familiar yet despised voice awoke a five year old kid, early in the morning; however he wasn't aware of the time, but from the shouting, he thought it was around six in the morning since he had to feed his Uncle before he went to work. The boy winced and stood up slowly, trying to ignore the pain from his arm. Hurrying as to avoid being punished, he stepped out of the cupboard that he used as a 'bedroom' and headed towards the voice, finding his Uncle Vernon sitting comfortably at the head of the wooden kitchen table, reading the day's paper.

"Tell me, boy… WHY, IN THE BLOODY HELL, HAVEN'T YOU PREPARED MY BREAKFAST!?" He shouted at the boy, glaring daggers with his small, beady eyes.

"I'm sorry Uncle Vernon" the boy apologized, trying desperately to start his day with just a little bit of shouting for not making breakfast for his whale of an uncle.

"Apologies aren't enough. Today you won't be allowed to eat a single thing, and as punishment, you'll have to sit here with me and watch me eat breakfast," Uncle Vernon told the scrawny boy, a glint of satisfaction in his eyes.

The boy finished making breakfast with great difficulty, given he had a broken arm as well as his small stature in comparison to that of the oven, and served it to his Uncle sitting in the dining room and took a seat, being forced to watch his whale-sized Uncle eat his breakfast with rabid viciousness, not even sparing a look at his nephew.

Sometimes life isn't fair, being abandoned in his relative's doorstep when he was one year old was the best example of it, submitted to abuse, slavery, starvation, and neglect had caused scars both on his body and in his mind, scars that were not likely to heal in his opinion, for his life had been a punishment for a crime he did not commit.

He was trying to think of other things to ignore the hunger and the pain in his arm but it was all for nothing, no matter how many times he tried, he couldn't avoid the same questions that had plagued him his entire life.

'Why does my uncle hates me? I'm not asking him to give me gifts, I just want him not to hit me…' he asked himself, finding the only answer was the one he was given by his so-called family over and over.

"Freak-child of drunk good-for-nothing bastards like you deserve to die like the scum you are, the only reason you are alive is that we could get in trouble with the authorities if we disposed of you"

The thought of it hurt even more than his grumbling stomach or his broken arm, hell, it hurt more than the timed he was whipped by his uncle on his fifth birthday couple of months ago, that wasn't a good day.

He didn't even know that he had a birthday, since it was never celebrated before so he wasn't aware of it. That morning his uncle woke him up, pulled him from the hair out of the cupboard where he slept, tied him to the banister and tore his shirt. He explained that since that day was his fifth birthday, he was just a few weeks away from starting kindergarten, so he wanted to make clear what would happen if any of his teachers were to find out how was his home life was like. He proceeded to whip his back with his belt, over and over until he got tired.

With a bloody back he was left to mourn in his cupboard because his 'family' didn't liked to hear him cry, not that he did that anymore. From early in his life, he decided that his relatives would never see him cry, no matter how bad the pain was.

In the end he was left alone in the darkness of his 'room'. Hours later, when his relatives weren't around he cleaned his wounds with bleach. Deprived of any care or attention, he made himself adept to tend wounds by any means available. This lack of love and the constant abuse made him a person with a high tolerance for physical pain.

He was reliving his bad experiences when suddenly a loud sound alerted him of a big black dog and a brown wolf entering through the window, sending glass all over the place frightening both him and his Uncle.

Uncle Vernon stood up incredibly fast for someone his size and age to look for a knife in the kitchen drawer, so as to get rid of both animals; however, the dog charged against him sending him to the floor with a big 'thud'. Both animals stepped away from the blob of a man.

Both the black dog and the brown wolf suddenly started to change their shape. The black dog into a thin man with messy, long, black hair and gray, hollow eyes holding a stick in his hand and the brown wolf into a man with sandy hair, shorter than the black haired man and looked very tired, his eyes a beautiful amber color.

"Hello there, Dursley. I can't say I'm glad to meet you, so I'll just ask you to stay where you are and there will be no harm done to you, or your family," the dark haired man said angrily to Uncle Vernon, who was lying on the floor trembling in fear of what he just witnessed. The black-haired man then directed his gaze towards the boy, got closer to him, and rested on his knees, eye level with the boy.

"Harry, it's certainly has been a while since the last time we saw you, you probably don't remember us, but we're here to rescue you…" the man stayed silent as he saw that the boy was still in a state of shock, wondering who the man in front of him was as well as who Harry was.

"Remus, he's in shock" the gray eyed man told the former wolf.

"Harry!" said Remus in a louder voice, snapping Harry out of his state of shock.

"Y-Yes…?" asked the terrified boy. Remus, realizing that he was scared, started looking for something inside his jacket. He found what he was looking for.

"Harry, I'm sorry that we scared you, but you need to believe us, we came here for you, here, look at this," the former wolf said, while handing Harry a battered picture.

The photograph was of four young men and a young woman, two of the men were standing in a living room, only younger and, curiously, one of the other men looked a lot like him, while the woman had eyes exactly like his.

"W-Who are you? And who are they?" the boy asked while pointing the picture, a little bit calmer now.

The sandy haired man, named Remus, responded, (the other guy had his stick pointed at Uncle Vernon), "My name is Remus Lupin, your uncle, and this guy" he pointed to the other man with his thumb, "Is your godfather, Sirius Black. The other people in the picture are your mum, Lily Potter, your dad, James Potter, and another friend of ours" Remus said gently.

Harry felt a knot form in his throat. He had never seen a picture of his parents, and as a result, he started crying heavily, as he just reminded of the fact that his parents would never return to him.

"Harry…" Remus said quietly, "Do you want to leave this place? Forever," he asked the sobbing boy.

"Y-Yes…" the boy said, after a few seconds of silence.

Harry's biggest dream was his parents taking him away from the people he lived with. While the two people in front of him weren't his parents, they wanted to take him with them. He didn't know why, but deep in his heart, he wanted to believe them, to trust them. One thing that helped him say yes was their eyes. While Sirius's eyes were in some way sad, whenever he turned to see Harry, they were filled with warmth and care, something completely different to what his Aunt and Uncle's eyes reflected when they saw him, anger and disgust. Remus's eyes seemed to reflect the same things as Sirius's.

Remus smiled at Harry, "Harry, can you go and grab anything you hold dear and come back quickly, we're leaving this place, for good," the sandy haired man told Harry in a gentle tone that carried the sound of caring.

Harry headed towards the cupboard, grabbed just the few clothes he had and, as well as the blanket he had from when he was left outside his Uncle's house, and put them in the sheet he slept in. He returned to the dining room, which looked the same despite the drastic change in ambiance and mood.

"This is everything I have," said the boy, with a weird sense of happiness, as he was finally going to leave the forsaken place of Number 4 Privet Drive.

The black haired man glared at Vernon Dursley, venom pouring from his voice, "What is the meaning of this Dursley?" he said Vernon's name with disgust and rage.

The big man was paralyzed with fear of the man with the stick; Harry couldn't understand his Uncle Vernon's irrational fear to a stick.

The long haired man approached Uncle Vernon, "I asked… What is the meaning of this Vernon? Why is my godson retrieving his things from a cupboard?"

"T-this is all I-I have, and t-that is where I live, sir" The boy answered, stuttering in behalf of his Uncle, who seemed to be unable to articulate a single coherent word.

Sirius's eyes started to flash with anger, and he started to growl. Remus sensed that this wouldn't help them at all, so he put himself between Sirius and Vernon, "Padfoot, you can't do this, I know how you feel, trust me, I feel the same way, but you can't do anything, if you do, you'll get into more trouble than what we are already in, and you will scare Harry if you do something to his Uncle" Remus said, while trying to restrain Sirius who had a deadly glare fixed on Vernon Dursley, who was already crapping his pants in fear.

Sirius somehow calmed down and turned to see Harry, "I'm sorry Harry, I didn't want to scare you" he apologized to the kid.

"Why were you mad?" Harry asked the man. He knew he was mad at Uncle Vernon, not at him, but that didn't make any sense to him, and he wanted to know why.

Sirius was taken by surprise at his godson's question and took a deep breath, "I'm mad because he shouldn't have placed you in a cupboard, is not right, you don't deserve that, you deserve better" the raven haired man said with care.

Harry's eyes were bright from unshed tears of happiness.

Sensing that it was time to leave, Harry's godfather spoke "Harry, you're coming with us, you'll never be mistreated by these animals ever again and you'll have the opportunity to start a new life, are you okay with that?" love and care could be heard in his voice, as well as hope.

Harry just nodded, finding himself unable to say a word due to the emotion of being free from his longtime prison. Something in both men made him feel loved and cared for, or at least what he supposed it felt like to be loved and cared for.

The brown haired man turned into a wolf again and grabbed Harry's things with his fangs. "Harry, I want you to hop on my back and hold on as hard as you can, we need to get out of here quickly, before anyone realizes what is happening here" said his godfather, "Any parting words Harry?" he asked the boy.

Harry turned to see his cupboard one last time, feeling a grip on his heart for leaving the place that was both his cell, and his refuge, only to find his shocked aunt and cousin on the stairs. The look on their faces told him that they saw what had happened throughout the last 15 minutes.

He nodded and told the Dursley's "I just want to say good-bye, and I hope you're well".

Hearing these words as his cue, his godfather shifted into the black dog one last time and held still as his godson mounted onto his back. And with one final glance, the small group left the god forsaken place that was Privet Drive.

After having ran a couple of blocks, both the animals and the boy disappeared from the neighborhood with a small crack.

.oOo.

Harry Potter was sitting at a small table inside a room. The room rather large, its walls painted white and a tiled floor. Unknown to Harry, he was inside the Medical Room of the home of Andromeda and Ted Tonks, family of his godfather and rescuer Sirius Black. After disappearing from Privet Drive, the group of wizards headed for the home of the Tonks', much to the surprise of Sirius's cousin, Andromeda.

"Hey Ted, come here for a bit, tell me what you see," said a frantic Andromeda, looking outside her sitting room window. In the front of her house, Andromeda could see a brown wolf, carrying a sack between his fangs, and a large black dog with a small boy on his back.

"What is it Andy," asked Ted. Andy was only able to point at the window in response. Ted looked at to where his wife was pointing and gasped. In front of him, he too could see the wolf and the dog, as well as the little boy. "What in the world can this possibly mean?" asked Ted.

Across from them, the party of three started walking towards the door of the couple's home. Once out of sight, the couple headed towards their door, only to hear a loud knocking, which awoke their daughter Nymphadora.

"Mum, what's going on," she asked, rubbing her eyes and changing her color to a bright pink. She walked over to them and heard the knocking again, so she made to open the door.

"Nymphadora Tonks! You stay away from that door," said her mother, swatting her daughter's hand away. She moved to block the door when more knocking ensued.

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" she exclaimed, crossing her arms across her chest and making her hair turn a fiery red.

"Andy, Ted, please open up, we're freezing our feet out here," said a voice from behind the door.

"Was that-"

"Remus…" finished Ted, opening the door to allow their old friend in. "Remus! How are you old friend, what have you been up to?" asked Ted, closing the door after the dog and little boy entered the room.

"Oh you know," replied the werewolf, "Here and there, spent most of the time in the States until I had to come back to help out my nephew."

"Nephew?" asked an astonished Andromeda, looking at Harry, "You mean that's Harry? Lily and James son. We thought he disappeared that night too. How did you find him."

"With help from me of course, how else would've Moony found him," replied a smiling Sirius, who was looking at his cousin.

"Sirius! How did you get out? Are they after you? Have they followed you?" asked a distressed Andromeda, who was hugging her cousin.

"I'm ok cousin, I'll tell you more another time," said Sirius, hugging his cousin.

"Alright, well, the Diagnosis Charm is showing that Harry is underfed and malnourished. I'll give him the potions he needs to regain his health later after he's ate something. Also, he has his left arm broken, so I'll just add Skele-Grow to the mix. I also believe that he has some injuries on his back but he won't remove his shirt," Andromeda said to a grave looking Sirius.

Sirius nodded and walked over to his godson and asked, "Hey pup, do you mind taking your shirt of for your Aunt Andy. She is going to look at it and perform a spell to heal," he said in a soft tone.

"Aunt?" asked Harry, looking over at Andromeda, who nodded at the little boy. "Ok, I'll do it," he said, getting of the table. He took of his shirt and turned around.

Everyone in the room gasped, for they have never seen a boy so scarred in their life. "Oh my boy, what did those monsters do to you?" asked Andromeda, waving her wand in circular motions across the boy's back, healing his scars and getting a sigh of content from the boy.

"Oh well, the belt marks were my fifth birthday present and the rest was for when I failed to make breakfast or lunch correctly or on time," Harry replied, as if it was just the morning news.

"Your birthday present? What do you mean?" Asked Remus, walking back and forth across the room.

"Well you see, this year I started school. So on my birthday, which I didn't know I had until then, my Uncle Vernon put me in the middle of the sitting room and starting to whip me, telling me it would be much worse if I told any of my teachers how I was treated," he finished, putting his shirt back on and sitting on the table.

"So quick question," said Nymphadora, "Is he like my baby cousin or what?"

"I am not a baby Nymphadora!" Yelled Harry, causing the adults to smile and chuckle.

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" She yelled walking towards Harry.

Seeing that, Harry jumped from his table and started running around laughing. Nymphadora pursued him, screaming with rage at her failed attempts to catch the little boy. Once Harry was on one side, and Nymphadora at the other, Sirius put up a shield, preventing them from going near each other. From his side, Harry kept blowing raspberry's at Nymphadora, who in turn started chucking things at Harry.

"Hey, how about this," said Sirius, "Dora, Harry is your little cousin, and Harry, you'll call Nymphadora, Dora," he finished, looking expectantly at the two children.

"Ok," they both answered in unison.

Sirius destroyed the shield between the two children and turned to talk his cousin.

"So, you're my cousin?" asked Harry, looking at Dora carefully.

"Yeah, so you're mine too, huh?" asked Dora, "You're my family now, kiddo, I protect my family," she finished, spreading her arms out.

Harry hesitated for a second, then suddenly rushed into Dora's arms, breaking down in silent sobs.

Chapter Two