BLANKET DISCLAIMER; I OWN NOTHING

Albus Dumbledore looked at the mess around him, a fat blond child dangerously treading to obesity sobbing quietly at the step of the stairs leading to the second floor, crying quietly and softly and so obviously frightened. The child; in his pre-school age, were pale and shaking. Albus looked at him, "Dudley Dursley?"

Dudley looked at him with wide frightened eyes, "Please…help Freak…"

Albus felt as if doused in cold water of the artic north and knelt down, "Where are they?" He asked softly, keeping his rising emotions in check. Dudley point at shaky finger to the kitchen and Albus immediately left him to his crying, urgency pushing him forward faster than his arthritis infected limbs and joints could manage but he ignored the pain.

Entering the kitchen, messy and disconcertingly seemed to be a picture of violence what with the splatters of blood along the cabinet lining beneath the counter, Albus took immediate notice of the voices arguing with hushed urgency through the door leading to the back garden. It was far after midnight and the Dursley's home were the only one with lights on in the kitchen. Albus busted through the back door and felt ice forming in his vein at the sight of the hole near the garden patch, large and long enough for a small body to be thrown in.

Vernon Dursley and his wife Petunia Dursley jumped high at the sudden intrusion. Vernon turned pale with anger and charged at the elderly wizard with the shovel in his hand as Petunia fell onto her rump, shocked out of her mind. With barely concealed fury, Albus waved his hand and Vernon was thrown against the low wall of the garden surrounding his backyard. He gave loud 'oomph!' as his back connected with the low wall and fell in a boneless heap as all air left his lungs from the impact. Petunia started and Albus halted her movement with a swish of his wand in his hand.

She paled at the sight and Albus delved deep into her mind mercilessly. He couldn't count the number of time he had to intervene personally and placed a compulsion charm on them to act as he ordered; to care for one Harry Potter as if he was theirs, before reluctantly removing memories of their meeting from their mind less they decided to move away. He then send a letter to them to remind Petunia of Lily's will and the reason why it was important that they keep the boy with them instead of sending him away to the orphanage; safety.

He had to seem cold, unmoving, calculative and most of all authoritative as well as uninvolving with their life. A fact he regretted as he delved through the memory of how things became so out of control so much. Fury make his long whiskers bristled and he pressed the tip of his wand to the throat of the woman he entrusted the Heir Apparent to the Potter Estate without thinking, barely holding his power in check,
"All because your son realised how wrong it was to treat his own cousin like a slave, all because he asked you to allow Harry to go to school with him? All because Dudley Dursley realised that his parents are inhuman?!"

Petunia turned red with anger, "We have never wanted him!"

"He is your NEPHEW!" Albus turned to the hole in the ground and gasped with disbelieve at the prone bleeding form of a small bodied child with a head larger than his whole frame lying in his grave.

Petunia started her usual rants, "Always doing freakish things in my home! Stealing foods right my Dudley's mouth!"

Albus levitated Harry from the hole, his heart bleeding afresh from the state the child was in as he looked at the ranting women with cold fury, "He 'stole' a bottle of milk from Dudley's cradle because you won't feed him!"

Petunia paled, "He takes too much food from us, too much money from us! We are not the one at fault here!"

Placing Harry in a cot he conjured for the injured boy, Albus knew that Harry could no longer remain in this madhouse mocking a home. He felt the binding of the Unbreakable Vow tightening around his magic, wincing at the memory of the promise he made with Harry's late mother; Lily Potter. He sighed, "Oh Lily, I can only make one choice of either; protect your remaining family and let your son suffer and die or sacrifice them to the wolves and let Harry live the life he deserves,"

He turned to Petunia with sad blue eyes, "Lily had wanted to kill two birds with one stone; to keep both you and Harry alive with her sacrifice,"

Petunia turned white with rage, "I never asked for her sacrifice! I don't need her protection! Who tell that bitch to go and get herself blown up?! Now she saddles me with her bastard of a son!" She seethed, "Lily, the perfect daughter, the pretty one, the talented one! I am always, constantly in her shadow! Nothing I do, no achievement I made can compare to her witchery! I will not have you hold her so called selflessness over my head! She and that brat can go to Hell for all I care!"

Albus was speechless. His mind recalled the conversation he had with Lily six years ago while she was heavily pregnant with Harry, discussing about the ultimate protection that she found in a book hidden among his dusty collections. It was a ritual of sacrifice that can protect her son and any of her blood safe from harm long after she's gone from this world, a sacrifice that requires her as the medium. A sacrifice that does not need mere blood as known rituals needed to tie the powerful charm in place, but her very life, the power that only the pure energy of a soul can achieve.

When asked to whom she will entrust her child with, she had begged him to let Harry live with her sister. When asked why not of the Potter's extended family, she sighed and said the closest relatives of James will be the Blacks and then the Malfoy. She also mentioned that the reason she wanted Harry with Petunia was because her proud sister will be powerless before the might of magic while all of James's relatives have magic to protect them. Her sister will be vulnerable. She also said that the magic will be strongest when Harry stayed with blood, her blood as the caster of the spell.

She had made him promise with an Unbreakable Vow; "Promise me that you will do with all your power to protect Harry and Tuney,"

He sighed, "Petunia Dursley, how low you have fallen," He turned and took Harry when the sound of wings beating in the air boomed overhead. Albus looked up and froze as a winged being with blazing red eyes and black lips framing a mouthful of fangs tore through the weak protection over the resident and landed before him.

The being's eyes were on little Harry and Albus raised his wand, "To whom do I owe the pleasure of meeting this evening," He distractedly noted that Petunia had flee into her home to protect her own brood. His heart felt heavy like a stone; Petunia was a wonderful mother and had been a good choice for Harry…if only she wasn't so blinded by her jealousy and old anger over Lily for all the attention she stole from her with her birth and then the revelation that she was a witch.

As for Vernon Dursley, Albus have yet to meet another potential psychopath like the man. The man was amiable only to those he see as important and was anything but kind to those he deemed below him. The lesser they are, the worse he behaved. And in Vernon Dursley's eyes, Harry was the lowest.

"Child," The stranger before him rasped. Albus met his red gaze and was given visions of his memories with little Harry. He was a bum though one with a home though not a job wandering down an alley scavenging for food when he saw Harry doing the same. They became close friends and he had imprinted on the boy…

Albus then realised who stands tall before him, realising that he did not search through the man's memories but was given willingly by the being before him. He lowered his wand and bowed, "I am most honoured to stand before one such as you, Ancient One," He looked up and an understanding passed between the two, a silent conversation of thoughts that went faster than the blink of an eye. Albus walked closer to the man and handed Harry over along with a vial of clear liquid, "This is a vial of phoenix tears. It will cure him of all injury. I trust that no one can keep safer than you,"

The creature took Harry with all the tenderness of a father. He then lashed out and grabbed the hand slowly being cursed by the Unbreakable Vow and with a simple flick of his crimson gaze, the binding snapped and Albus felt all was well as if he has never the promise. Only unimaginable force of magic could snap a binding as powerful as the Unbreakable Vow. Even his good friend Nicholas Flamel who has lived for more than three centuries has yet to see such an event.

"Thank you," He brushed his hand over Harry, "I hope you will forgive me for my helplessness, Harry," He looked pointedly at the being before him, telling him his new charge's name. The winged being nodded and Albus asked, "May I have you name? Mine is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore," He gave his name with magic coating them, letting the powerful being before him recognise him fully. With this, no matter where Albus are, he can find him.

"Abel Nightlord,"

Albus levitated the overlarge walrus of a man and dumped him on his couch before heading for Dudley's room. The boy was sleeping and Petunia was standing in front of his bed a knife in her hand, ready to defend him. Albus simply send her to sleep while making sure the knife was banished from her hand before she fell in heap on the floor. He then looked at Dudley. With his father's influence, the innocent boy will sure to grow into an unpleasant man.

With a sigh, Albus casted a special spell that took a long time chanting. This particular spell with give Dudley's dreams of being in his cousin's shoes. How Harry had to start throwing out the trash as early as two and forced to do chores from sun up to sun down, as well as his unfortunate abuse at the hand of the people who should have protected him and how instead of being sent to school, he was sent to fend for himself in town, and with that done Albus left the home to fend for itself with Lily's protection broken.