Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Harry Potter universe. That belongs to J.K. Rowling and I am only a fan writing my story using items from her universe.
Chapter One - Prologue
November 3rd, 1981. It was a cold dreary day in England as rain splattered against the side of the large manor located outside of the town of Cambridge. Usually the inhabitants of the manor were quiet attending to their business or their one year old daughter but today was not the case.
The headlines of the Daily Prophet, the wizarding world newspaper for Britain, stated that Sirius Black was sentenced to life in Azkaban for the murder of thirteen muggles and Peter Pettigrew.
"Robert we need to go and find out what happened to Harry. With Sirius in jail there is no one outside of us that has the right to raise Harry," said Katherine Greenglass, a woman with long golden blonde hair and green eyes.
"I know dear," replied her husband Robert, a well built man of six foot one, with light brown hair and blue eyes. "I'll head to the ministry to find out where he is and why no one bothered to contact us on the arrest of Sirius, alright?"
"You better," said Katherine. "I want to raise him and as his godmother I have more right then anyone else and I will fight anyone Dumbledore included if I have to in order to raise him."
"We will. It will be good for our baby girl to have someone else to play with that won't have a Slytherin pure-blood bias and it will be nice to have a son to raise as our own as well," said Robert. "I'll be back by dinner."
After a quick kiss to his wife, he walked over to their one way fireplace and flooed into the ministry of magic.
Upon entering through one of the fireplaces outside the atrium, Robert strode over to the security desk.
"Wand please," said the security guard at the large polished old desk.
Robert handed over his wand and waited while the guard placed it on a golden tray to get a reading.
"Ash and dragon heartstrings, fourteen and a quarter inches been in use five years," spoke the guard as a slip of parchment popped into the guard's hand.
After returning his wand to his hiding place he moved towards the elevators. The ministry wasn't too crowded due in part to the celebrations of the recent demise of Voldemort.
Eventually he came to the level for Magical Law Enforcement and stepped out and began walking towards the office of Amelia Bones.
She looked up as he approached and said, "Robert what brings you to the ministry today? I mean last I heard you haven't been questioned about anything."
"This is personal Amelia. As you know recently the Potters were killed and their son some how survived," began Robert.
"Yes that was terrible news, betrayed by their friend Sirius Black. I couldn't believe that he did that James and him were like brothers," said Amelia.
"I know," said Robert. "He was little Harry's godfather and their first choice to be his guardian, but with him in jail…"
"Ok, Robert what is this meeting about, you are not one to beat around the bush so to speak," said Amelia.
"I am here to ask where Harry is currently located so that way I can bring him back to my wife and baby girl at our manor," said Robert.
"Since when do you have that right to be his legal guardian," asked Amelia as she raised an eyebrow. "I didn't think that your family knew the Potter family that well."
"It was something that we wanted to keep quite just so that in case something happened as few people as possible would know where Harry went," said Robert. "My wife is Harry's godmother and because Sirius is now in jail she wants custody of Harry immediately."
"I am going to have to see the proper paperwork to prove that she is his godmother before I can release his location to you," said Amelia.
Just as she finished her statement, Robert had pulled out the papers from a pocket on the inside of his navy blue robes with black stitching.
"Everything is in order and I would like to know where Harry is located now," said Robert in a firm voice. "The sooner my wife sees him the better both of us will feel."
It only took a minute or two for her to make sure that everything was in order.
After handing back the papers Amelia summoned the papers concerning Harry's location to her highly polished mahogany desk.
"Here we go… he is located at number four Privet Drive, Surrey under the Care of Petunia and Vernon Dursley," said Amelia.
"What is he doing under their care," demanded Robert. "Under no circumstances was he supposed to be placed at that home. I want to know who made that decision, immediately!"
"I can tell you that off the top of my head," said Amelia with no reaction to the change in temper of the man before her. "Albus Dumbledore placed him there because Petunia is Lily's sister."
"That man had no right to make that decision. I will not be pressing charges against him for taking Harry away without checking as to who would have guardianship over him. It would waste time and it wouldn't look good publicly. Plus I would rather not have people know that Harry is living with us until things have calmed down."
"Certainly reasonable," said Amelia. "I won't announce it to anyone until you and your wife wish it to be known that Harry will be living with your family, but you and your wife will need to come in sometime soon to sign the legal papers that show that you will be his legal guardians."
"I'll tell my wife later, but now I must be going," said Robert. "Thank you for the information about where little Harry is Amelia."
With a slight nod of the head he left the office with a shish of his cloak.
Quickly moving through the surrounding offices for the elevators he began thinking about what he was just told.
Something had to be going on for Dumbledore to personally oversee where little Harry was placed. He would have to discuss this with Katherine when he got home, but there were more important matters to deal with at the moment.
Finally the elevator reached the atrium level and he swept out heading for the fountain. He didn't want to bring any attention to him by running through the lobby to get to the apparition point, but the sooner he could arrive at Privet Drive the more at peace he would be.
A few people looked over at his hurried pace but seemed to shrug it off as someone wanting to get home in order to celebrate some more with their families.
It wasn't long before he reached the point where he could apparate out to the Leaky Cauldron and then take the knight bus to Privet Drive.
Once he reappeared in the small alley behind the pub with a faint pop, he strode purposefully through the back door heading towards muggle London.
He didn't even bother to look at the inside of the wizard pub to see how many people were celebrating. It was of no importance to him, who was celebrating, the only thing of importance to him was his family and anyone who came in the way of this would not like the results.
Just before opening the door he cast a notice me not charm and then held out his wand, after walking onto the side walk, to hail the purple triple-decker bus.
"Well come to the Knight Bus transportation to the wizarding world. How may I help you today?" asked the attendant.
"Privet Drive, Surrey no frills," said Robert. "What will the cost be?"
"That'll be ten sickles, sir."
After handing over the silver coins to the attendant he was shown to a chair on the second level near the back of the bus.
"There you are sir," said the attendant. "We should be arriving in Surrey in about half an hour."
"Thank you for the information," said Robert, before the attendant left for the lower level of the bus.
Nothing more could be done so he just sat back and thought about what raising a little boy and girl at the same time would mean. It would mean that there would definitely be no pressured marriage for either of the children. James and Lily wouldn't want their son setup in a marriage and it wouldn't be fair for his daughter not to have the same chance. On the plus side having Harry around would guarantee that she would be protected from some of the blood fanatics at Hogwarts. Well maybe the two of them would end up together, but that would be up for them to decide all he could do was remind them that they were not related and not change Harry's last name.
"I'm thinking too much," said Robert softly to himself. "Just worry about the present and deal with the future when it arrives."
"I wonder what he will look like though," mused Robert. "I remember the same green eyes as his mother and the messy black hair of his father but he was too young to determine which of his parents he looked more in common with."
He was interrupted from his musings as the bus jerked to a halt and the destination was announced.
"Privet Drive, Surrey," spoke the announcer.
Quickly he moved off the bus and strode down the street. The houses were all of similar design with primly trimmed green lawns. Luckily it was a weekday and therefore most of the muggles wouldn't notice a person in robes walking around.
It didn't take him long to reach the house where Harry had been left by Albus Dumbledore. "Meddling old codger," muttered Robert as he lifted his hand to knock on the door.
It didn't take long for a giraffe necked woman to appear.
"Looks like Lily got all the looks in the family," thought Robert wryly.
"Your one of them," said Petunia in a tone of disgust. "What are you doing here? We took in my sister's son just as we were told to, so now what do you want from us?"
"I am here to take little Harry home with me," said Robert calmly. "If you don't want to attract any attention I would suggest you invite me inside."
She just stood aside allowing him room to step inside, before quickly shutting the door behind him.
"What do you mean that you are taking him with you," she said incredulously. The letter that was left with him said that we were to raise him and that wouldn't change."
"The person who did that never had the legal right to leave Harry with you and your family," said Robert. "I have the legal paper right here declaring that I am in fact his new legal guardian, so it doesn't matter what anyone else told you prior to the fact."
Calmly he pulled out the papers he had gotten at the ministry and presented them to her to prove what he just said to her.
Once she looked through the papers seeing that everything was official she said, "Wait in the living room while I go retrieve my nephew."
It only took her a couple of minutes to return with little Harry Potter in her arms. "We didn't have any time to go and buy anything for him so we gave him some of my sons stuff. Now if you would be leaving because the sooner your kind is out of here the better."
"Thank you for your time," he replied as he looked Harry, who was it turn looking back at him with his vivid green eyes.
With Harry in his arms Robert made his way back to the front door and out of the house. Looking around for the nearest shielded area he began to walk slowly towards an alley way connecting Privet Drive with Magnolia Crescent.
After making sure that there was no one watching him, he apparated to the edge of the apparition barriers of the manor. It didn't take too long for the two of them to make their way up and into the manor where a house elf was waiting for them.
"Where is my wife?" Robert asked calmly
"In the solarium Master Robert, with Mistress Daphne," replied the elf with a bow.
Upon hearing those words Robert began to move through the manor with Harry to find his wife and daughter.
His wife was sitting on a couch watching their little girl play with a few of her toys.
Robert placed Harry down carefully and watched as he made his way over to Daphne, who in turn looked over at the new arrival.
"Daphne, this is Harry. He is going to be living with us from now on, ok," said Robert in a soft tone.
"Harry this is my daughter Daphne," said Robert. "The woman sitting on the coach is your Aunt Katie, and I am your Uncle Rob and you are going to be living with us from now on. Do you understand?"
Harry just nodded his head after looking at the occupants before focusing his attention back on Daphne and waddling over to play with her.
"That went quick," commented Katherine as Robert took the empty seat next to her, so he could watch the two little kids play together.
"Yes it did," replied Robert with a smile. "The ministry wants to get everything in order as soon as possible it looks like and there is also the fact that it wasn't too busy today."
"That's good. Now where was he when you retrieved him?" she asked.
"At Lily's sister," replied Robert in what sounded like a calm voice to the kids but carried an undercurrent of disgust. "I want to talk to you about it after we put them these two to bed later."
"Alright," said Katherine.
It took a couple of minutes for the two toddlers to get over their hesitation before the two were fully enjoying themselves. That was definitely a good sign that the two were getting along well already.
The rest of the day passed relatively quickly and before they knew it Harry and Daphne were in their own cribs.
After retiring to the living room Robert finally spoke. "There is more then just finding out that Harry was placed at Lily's sister that disgusts me dear."
"Alright, who placed Harry at that house of all places," she asked.
"Dumbledore placed Harry there leaving a note that Harry was supposed to be raised there since Lily died. Apparently this took place immediately after Lily and James' deaths," he replied in unrestrained disgust.
Upon hearing this Katherine's eyes were blazing. "He knew. He knew that Lily didn't want her son anywhere near her sister and that he had absolutely no right to place Harry there and yet he still did it!"
"I know dear there must be some reason for him to circumvent James and Lily's decision for where Harry was raised," said Robert. "Now what I am trying to figure out is what exactly Dumbledore's reasoning could be for him to try and hide Harry away from the wizarding world."
It only took her a minute to figure out a plausible explanation.
"He wanted to make sure Harry was out of the wizarding world so that he wouldn't know about his fame because he is going to have to do something that will make him more famous later in life," she said.
"Do you really think that is the real reason?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I mean isn't Voldemort dead, so what could he have to do now that the headmaster would think that Harry could do to make him more famous?"
"That is just it, Voldemort isn't dead yet," she replied. "Now we won't tell Harry this for a while, but we will get him and Daphne their wands a year early and then remove the tracking devises on them so they can practice quite a bit before they begin school. Does that sound good?"
Robert just sighed as he thought this over in his head.
"Dam…," he said. "I am willing to bet that you are in fact right about this unfortunately. You know that means he is going to have to know more spells then anyone his age. Spells that aren't usually part of the curriculum."
"Yes dear, but you know that it is better to be prepared then to have other people suspicious," she replied in kind.
"You are right, like usual," he said. "Alright now come on let's go check on the kids and try to get some sleep because I wouldn't be surprised if Harry wakes up at least once tonight."
Shortly after Robert had left with Harry from Privet Drive one of the neighbors, who saw him leave, went over to her fireplace. She threw in some floo powder and said, Hogwarts, Headmasters office, before sticking her head into the fire.
"Hello Arabella, what can I do for you on this afternoon," said Albus Dumbledore.
"Albus he is gone. I went and checked with the Petunia Dursley and their nephew is no longer living at the home. She said that a person with the proper legal papers stopped by and took Harry with him because he legally is Harry's guardian and it is not the Dursleys."
The usual twinkle in the old mage's eyes faded away and he looked alarmed that someone had found Harry so quickly.
"Thank you for the information Arabella, I am going to have to go to the ministry to get him back," he replied. "Harry is not safe anywhere else and it is in his best interest to grow up away from the wizarding world."
After closing the connection he tossed in some floo powder into the fire place and said, "Ministry of Magic."
With a whirl of green flames the aged mage disappeared only to reappear at the entrance hall of the ministry. Moving with more grace then most people would expect for someone of his age he strode to the elevators, ignoring the security desk.
It was one of the perks of being the supreme mugwump. The elevator that he chose was empty and there for he was able to speed up the ride just a little bit with a few waves of his wand.
Once the lift stopped he strode towards Amelia Bone's office. No one was in the office so he just strode over and knocked on her door.
"You may enter," was the muffled reply.
Albus politely walked into the room as the head of the Magical Law Department looked up from her desk.
"What can I do for you Albus," she asked in a tired voice. After dealing with Robert Greengrass earlier and finding out about what happened with little Harry Potter.
"I was just wondering about a few small things, but how is your niece?" he asked trying to take control over the conversation.
"She is fine, now what is your reason for being here I don't have time for your little games."
"Alright, I was wondering if you knew where little Harry Potter was moved to this afternoon," he asked politely.
"Yes I do know where he has been relocated to, but why are you asking about him," she enquired. "I mean it is not like you are his legal guardian or have any say as to where he should live as to my knowledge."
"I may not have legal rights over the guy but I do know that it was his parents wish to have him live with family, and seeing as how the Dursleys are his only family I must insist that you have him returned to their house or tell me where little Harry is so that I may retrieve him personally and bring him there again," said Albus.
Amelia eyes flashed dangerously before she spoke in a deceptively soft tone, "I will not be telling you where he is because you have no idea what James and Lily Potter wanted for their only son. Do not try and tell me what to do or what others wanted when I know for a fact. It is my job to uphold the law which you seem to believe is just a guideline for you to follow when you choose. If I find out that you tried to move Harry Potter from where he is now located I will have you arrested. Do not think that you can decide what is best for everyone like you do at your school because you do not have the authority to do that anywhere else no matter what you have done for our world. Now I want any possessions that may be in your possession of the Potter family sent to my office immediately so that I may send them to the boy's real legal guardians. Good day headmaster."
Albus began to open his mouth to try and argue but was cut off by Amelia, who said, "Leave my office immediately because I am not in the mood to deal with you anymore."
Slowly he turned around walked towards the elevator.
"This has not been one of my better days," mumbled the aged headmaster. He kept moving through the ministry to the apparition point.
After he had apparated to Hogsmeade he began the slow walk towards the castle entrance. Something was out of his control for the first time that he could remember. James and Lily had not told him who Harry's godmother was or even that Harry had a godmother.
How was he supposed to keep little Harry Potter safe if he didn't know where Harry was located? When Hagrid had found Harry, it was assumed by him that Lily wanted Harry placed at her sister's house because of the blood protection that she used to keep Harry alive.
Things just kept getting worse as time seemed to move along today.
He had just entered the castle when he saw Minerva McGonagall preparing to leave for her home in order to take care of some personal business.
"Well my dear it seems that you got your wish from last night," said Albus in a somber tone.
"What do you mean Albus?" asked the deputy headmistress. "Something happened obviously but what? What reason could there be for you to be so depressed now of all times?"
"I have lost him my dear," he replied.
"Who have you lost? I wasn't aware of any more deaths recently?" Professor McGonagall was wondering what could be bothering the man that was more respected then anyone else in wizard Britain.
"Little Harry Potter," he stated with such obvious sadness.
"What do you mean? Last I knew you had placed him with Lily's sister, who I disapprove of but that is another matter altogether," she said.
"Apparently his true legal guardian came and picked him up from that house, and now I do not know where he is located."
"Couldn't you ask the ministry who his legal guardians are and where you can find them?" she asked perplexed as to why he would have no clue to where the young Potter was located.
"Unless the legal guardians of one Harry James Potter decide to tell me where he is located I am not allowed to know," Albus said simply. "It is only the ministry and the people that his guardians allow that will know who is raising him."
"Do you know at least how they are his legal guardians and if you cannot challenge custody of the boy," she asked. "I mean who would be able to be his legal guardian if his godfather was sent to Azkaban?"
Albus just sighed. It was true that young Sirius Black was now in jail for the murder of thirteen muggles and Peter Pettigrew. "Apparently he has a godmother, and since Sirius is now in Azkaban guardianship goes to her, which means that there is no way that I can contest who Harry is raised by and where he is raised."
Minerva just stood there in shock. It was well known that Sirius Black was the Potter's choice for godfather, but no one knew that there was a godmother much less who would have been chosen.
"We will just have to hope for the best then Albus and await his arrival in ten years," stated the deputy headmistress.
Author's note: New story here that I have had bugging me for a while to get writing on so I have begun to weave my tale. Harry will be attending Hogwarts but he will have different knowledge of the world prior to his arrival and will have a different attitude then in the books in a sense. The pairing will wait until the Yule Ball in fourth year to develop at least.