The loud crack of apparition shattered the peaceful silence of the park nearest Privet Drive, displaced air being forced out of a person-shaped space so quickly the sound barrier was broken. The wizard, for that is what he was, was dressed in weathered, worn robes, seemingly hand-sewn together in many places.
"A library." The man snarled, baring his teeth as he did. "That's all it took to find one Petunia Evans. Dursley now, but they keep those records too." He frowned. "Hopefully, I'm the first."
With that, the man started off quickly from the sparse woods near the park into the prim bushes and identically architected housed of this particular area of Little Whinging, Surrey.
"Stop, freak, I promise I won't hit you!" The boy yelling was not obese, but he was a particular brand of pudgy not born of genetics, or simple excess, but rather the frequent consumption of far too many empty calories.
The smaller boy paused to consider it, but maintained his distance. Messy black hair shadowed his face and his oversized, stretched, and worn clothes looked as though they would be more in place on the larger boy.
The fatter boy was panting now, his hands on his knees.
The wizard suppressed another snarl as he walked past on the opposite side of the street. It wasn't his fight, he just needed to find the son of James and Lily Potter. He needed to find Harry Potter.
Suddenly the fat boy lunged, his surprising burst of speed likely fueled by the sugar that made up as much of his bloodstream as blood, at least, that would be believable after seeing his daily diet. The smaller boy tried to step back, to get out of the way, but his too-large trainers rolled under his feet. He fell under the other boy's attack and his own lack of solid footing.
"I promised I wouldn't hit you," the larger boy chanted in a sing-song voice, "but I never said anything about beef stew!" The fat boy began to try to position his rotund bottom over the small boy's face without letting him up. No mean feat for a boy as inflexible and hindered by his own body as the boy was, but you don't carry that amount of weight and not build any muscle, either.
"This is going to be the stinkiest fart I've ever done!" The boy said, his grinning face made no less gleeful by his heavy puffs of breath.
The wizard squeezed his temples and rubbed in slight circles as he quickly turned and crossed the street.
"I think he's had enough, don't you?" The man's voice sounded tired, scratchy, and worn, not unlike the robe he wore.
"But he punched me first and knocked a glass of milk out of my hands!" The boy bore such a poor expression of innocence that the wizard nearly laughed.
"Does that face really work on the mug- err, on the people around here?" the smaller boy continued to struggle beneath the larger boy hoping to avoid being farted upon.
"Uhhh," the boy said, seemingly surprised that anyone would contradict him. "Yes." He paused for a moment. "But I'm telling the truth, he started it." He wasn't.
"Well if you can't be bothered to speak up in your own defense, I can't very well help you out." The wizard said, finally addressing the smaller boy. He couldn't see him well beneath the much larger boy, but looked to be a year or two younger and looked even scrawnier than he was in the loose-fitting clothing.
"Regardless, you," he addressed the boy on top again, "look to be about the age of the boy I'm looking for. Do you know if a Harry Potter still lives in Number 4?" He pointed up the street.
Both boys stopped struggling. "Why do you want to know?" The pudgy boy squinted, his scrunched-up nose further giving the impression of a porcine creature.
"I just wanted to make sure that he's staying out of trouble, not causing too much mischief and mayhem, that sort of thing."
The boy grinned a smile so wide it seemed to split his face, "Oh, he is always in trouble. He's a very bad boy." He cackled. A quite unnatural sound to come from a boy of about 8. "You see, earlier tonight, he punched a boy, and knocked the glass of milk out of his hands." The boy grinned again, clearly thinking himself very clever.
"Harry?" The man gasped, really looking at the small boy for the first time. He pulled the larger boy off by his arm, not hurting him, but not being gentle either.
The wizard reached out to the boy only to see him flinch and curl up further than he was. The man snarled at the pudgy boy. "We're going to talk to your parents about this." The boy just continued to smile at him. "Where do they live?"
"Number 4." The grinned again, only the tops of his teeth showing.
"Bollocks." The man muttered under his breath. "Would you like a hand up?" He offered his hand to Harry only for him to flinch backward again, and the wizard flinched in response. "I was a friend of your parents, Harry, I would never hurt you. My name is Remus Lupin" He smiled kindly at the boy who still showed no emotion.
"So, you must be a drunken wastrel then too!" The fat boy said, presumably the youngest member of the Dursley family.
"What?" Remus said, nearly as surprised that the boy knew the word, 'wastrel,' as he was at being called one.
"That's what my parents were. That's why they died in a car accident, and why I live here with them." Harry choked out before a single sob tore through him, his whole body shuddering under the impact.
Remus growled, a sound nearly more beast than man, and his fingers clenched tightly. At yet another flinch from Harry at the sound, and even the bigger boy stepping back in fear, he willfully calmed his growl. "They told you that?" He addressed Harry. "The Dursleys," he practically choked on the word, his knuckles drawn tight and white, "the Dursleys told you that about your parents?" He was angry, but incredulous. How could someone say something like that to an orphan about his parents? Even if it were true, which it most certainly was not.
Neither of the boys said anything, but the Dursley boy looked as though he was struggling to keep from peeing his pants, such was the level of terror on his face. Although Harry looked frightened, he seemed almost resigned to it, as though this hadn't been his first experience with an adult at this level of rage. Remus took three large deep breaths and visibly calmed himself, forcing his fingers to unclench and hang calmly at his side.
"I'm sorry, Harry, for getting so angry. I'm sorry you had to see that. I just cared for your parents very much. Your father," He paused, rubbing his face, "he was my best friend and he was so brave and strong and he was proud of you. He was a bit of a prankster. All in good fun though." He smiled, "And your mother was the smartest woman I've ever met. She was so quick and witty, and any time that James or Peter or anyone teased her, she always had a comeback that made them look foolish. They gave their lives to protect you from a murderer, Harry. Don't you ever believe that they were some kind of 'drunken wastrels.' They were the best of people, your parents, Harry." He drew in a deep ragged breath. "Don't you ever believe anything the Dursleys tell you about them." His eyes flashed once more with a terrible rage while the rest of him remained perfectly calm.
"That's not true, Harry's dad was a jobless freak just like his worthless mother." Dursley seemed almost surprised to have parroted what he had heard.
Remus didn't move or make any expression, but his eyes continued to glint dangerously. "You're wrong, and your parents are liars. The worst sort of muggles." Then he smiled, his teeth glinting brightly from the streetlights. "Let's go introduce ourselves, shall we?" He slowly reached out his hand to Harry who didn't flinch away from it, but tentatively grabbed it and Remus gently pulled him to his feet.
Harry kept a tight hold of Remus's hand, and if he noticed or minded, he didn't say anything. Remus shortened his steps so as to not pull Harry from his feet and kept his hand loose around the boy's so as to not spook him. Dursley took off sprinting, faster than Remus would have expected, heading directly towards the house with a number four next to the door.
Remus and Harry made it to the street in front of the house as the door opened, the shadow of a man filling the entire width of the doorway, and just a little further. Remus knelt down next to Harry. "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I'm going to make sure that everything is okay, alright?" He smiled at the boy, fiercely protective of the son of a member of his pack, the son of his best mate.
"Boy, go to your room." The man in the doorway snarled, his bushy black moustache quivering. Harry gave Remus a sad smile as he quickly walked toward the man, finally letting go of Remus's hand.
As soon as Harry had passed him, he stepped forward and shut the front door behind him, clipping the edge of Harry's shoulder. Remus growled and took a step forward off the sidewalk and up the Dursley's drive.
"You're one of them, aren't you?" Vernon Dursley said, practically shaking in anger. "Dumblewhatsit said your kind would not be coming around here. He said we'd be left alone."
"One of my kind?" Remus felt the tears that still sprung up from the hatred he had received over the years. Hatred for those who suffered from the curse of the werewolf. He knew Dursley couldn't know he was a werewolf, but the way it was said brought memories he'd long thought conquered back.
"Yes, one of your bloody kind," Dursley sneered his mustache drooping down either side of his mouth like some sort of grotesque walrus. "One of your rabbit-hatted magician types. And obviously not a good one at that." He said, eyeing Remus's worn robes. "We've finally squashed the magic out of the freak, I'll not have your kind coming back around here causing trouble and stirring it back up! Now be gone before I call the police!"
Remus's ears had caught only one sentence. "You've squashed it out of him?" He stalked forward, his movements that of a predator. "You better not have laid so much as a finger on him Dursley, or they won't find enough scraps of your flesh to piece together to identify the body."
"Now hold on, you can't threaten me in my own home." Dursley blustered.
"We're not in your home, Dursley." Remus muttered sarcastically as he grabbed the man by the throat and pinned him to the door, the wolf lending him strength for the act they both agreed on.
"I'll be calling the police you don't unhand me this instant!" Dursley didn't quite yell, but it was a close thing. Remus was close enough to pick up the scent of the man's sweat and fear. Even without the wolf, he would have noticed the sharp ammonia scent of urine trickling down the man's leg and he wrinkled his nose in disgust. Dropping Vernon's throat, he grasped one of the man's arms and twisted it tightly behind his back.
"I should think you'll be inviting me in now, Dursley." Remus snarled and opened the door and pushed Vernon through, keeping tight hold of his arm. His nose quivered and he picked up Harry's scent. He continued pushing Dursley moving quickly enough that he stumbled over his feet, but not so quickly he couldn't catch himself before falling.
"What is the meaning of this!" A woman's shrill, nasal voice pierced through the drone of the tv in the sitting room.
"Ah, Petunia, how lovely to see you again." Remus responded with faux cheerfulness. "It has been what, 9 years since Lily's wedding?" Petunia staggered back as if struck. Remus ignored her. "We were just going to check on Harry.
"Well he's not here." Petunia stammered.
"I just saw him come in."
"He's gone out the back." Remus's nose twitched again. He could smell her fear too. And her lying was nearly as poor as her son's.
"I think I'll just see for myself." He followed his nose and the scent of Harry Potter passed the kitchen and almost went up the stairs before going around them and to a small cupboard under the stairs with a latch and a padlock on it.
He dropped Vernon's arm in shock and turned to Petunia. "You locked your own nephew in a cupboard?" He whipped out his wand, ignoring the flinches of the adult Dursleys. The lock melted with a hiss and fell to a puddle on the ground. He opened the cupboard and peered in. A cot was stretched out against the back wall. It stretched nearly end to end and Harry was curled up with it. Short and scrawny for his age he still had to bend his knees nearly up to his waist to fit in it. Most horrifying of all was the crayon on one wall sloppily spelling out, 'Harry's Room".
Harry opened his eyes in confusion, tears streaking his face. "Mr. Lupin?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Er, how'd you get in here, sir?" Harry asked, confusion writ across his face.
"Ah, magic, Harry. I suppose your so-called relatives didn't tell you about that either?" At his blank look Remus continued. Your parents were magical Harry. In our final year of school, your mother scored highest in our graduating class in Charms and Potions, and your father in Transfiguration." At Harry's still blank look he continued, "You're a wizard, Harry."
"Now bloody get out of my home!" Vernon interrupted from outside the cupboard whipping a shotgun out as he came around the corner. Remus's eyes widened momentarily and a predatory grin covered his face. He whipped up his wand again as Vernon fired, the blast nearly pushing the huge man through hallway wall he was pressed up against.
The spray of buckshot splashed harmlessly against a shimmering shield in front of Remus. "That was rather foolish of you, Dursley." Remus said, his voice low. "Before, I couldn't do any magic against you as I would be possibly breaking the Statute of Secrecy, but since you've a magical child in the house, I'd probably be fine. Now that you've fired a gun at me though, now I have free reign. This is simply self-defense." He muttered an incantation and flicked his wand, the gun in Vernon's hand turned into a large snake that quickly wrapped itself around his upper torso and both arms before opening its mouth threateningly near Vernon's face.
Petunia took one step and fell to the ground as Remus hit her with a silent petrificus totalus. Remus turned to Harry who was peering out of his cupboard with wide eyes. He surprisingly didn't flinch when Remus knelt next to him. "Are you okay, Harry? I'm sorry you had to see that."
Harry nodded and his shirt slipped sideways revealing his pronounced collar bones. "Are you hungry? Did you get enough for dinner?"
Harry was so shocked to be asked such a question that he didn't answer right away. "I uh, I didn't get to eat dinner because Dudley spilled his milk and blamed it on me."
Remus growled again, but again Harry didn't flinch. "Does this happen often? What have you eaten today?"
"I had two slices of toast because Dudley dropped one of his slices on the floor at breakfast, and I had part of an apple for lunch."
Remus spun quickly to one side, and this time Harry flinched involuntarily at the rapid motion. "This is so much better than you pathetic excuses for human beings deserve." Remus muttered under his breath. With some quick wandwork and more muttered spells Vernon found himself with a bright red nose, great dark circles around his eyes, deep red lipstick and a completely white face. "That might wear off in a week or two, Dursley."
Remus turned to Petunia. "And you. You disgust me. You're his aunt! You should have loved him like Lily would have loved your son had the positions been reversed." He paused tapping his upper lip thoughtfully. "You don't have the right hair color, but your hair is just like hers. You don't deserve to share anything with her. She had so much compassion. I can't even imagine what she would think of you now." A tear slowly rolled down Petunia's long, pinched face. A jet of light streaked from his wand. "That was a specially modified baldness curse. Lily and I made for James during our 6th year when he was being a right prat to her. Even Dumbledore was unable to reverse it." Another tear dripped down her face. "And finally, we'll just transfigure this table into some drugs as I would imagine the police will come investigate that gunshot shortly," a burst of light shot from his wand into the side table replacing it with several carefully packaged bags of white powder, "a time-reversed memory charm so you'll remember this in a few days, I'd hate for you to forget the lessons you've learned today." Four quick bursts of light later they were both stunned and had their recent memories wiped for the time being.
"Harry," Remus said turning back to him. He paused. "I shouldn't have done that. Do you want me to fix it?" He sighed. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry. I know I don't necessarily have the whole story. But with Dumbledore refusing to tell me where you were so I could check on you, and then them being just the absolutely worst individuals I've ever had the misfortune of meeting… Or meeting again, in Petunia's case…"
"Can you fix it?" Harry asked quietly, his eyes still wide.
"Yes," Remus sighed and raised his wand.
"Wait!" Harry exclaimed, then flinched back.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Remus asked, concerned.
"Aren't you going to hit me for telling you to wait? Telling you to do anything?"
Remus growled again. "What I did to them wasn't nearly enough. You should never feel like," He paused. "Harry, I will never hit you. Never." When Harry didn't say anything, he continued. "I can fix them if you like. I can set up some sort of an arrangement where I'll come check on you and if they aren't treating you right, then I'll… Well I don't know what I'll do, but there will be consequences."
Harry was silent for a moment. "I said to wait because I didn't want you to fix them, I just wondered if you could. Would there be? Umm, could you?" Harry paused in the middle of his question, suddenly terrified.
"What is it? You can ask me anything and I'll do my best to make it happen, okay? And with magic, that's a lot." Remus smiled gently.
"Wouldyoutakemewithyou?" Harry finally stammered out.
"You want to come live with me?" Harry nodded. "I have to say I wasn't prepared for this. I thought I'd just be checking up on a happy little boy, with his father's messy black hair, and his mother's piercing green eyes." Harry looked down at the ground bashfully, trying to smooth down his hair. "I don't have a place to stay, or steady work, or any of that." Harry's shoulders seemed to crumple down, as if only the hope of leaving with Remus held him up. "But I can promise you that you wouldn't go hungry and that I would never hurt you and that you would never have to see these awful people or that dreadful cupboard ever again." He smiled at Harry and was met with the first real, joyful smile he had seen out of the boy. He held out his arms and Harry leapt at him, seemingly unsure what to do with his arms, but holding him as tight as his arms could.
Sirens wailed in the distance. "We'd better go then. I'll have a lot of work to do to get my place cleaned up and get a room set up for you to stay in. Do you have anything you want to take with you?" Harry quickly walked back into the cupboard and pulled out a few broken army men, and started gathering some of what Remus finally recognized as Dudley's old clothes.
"Don't worry about the clothes, Harry, we'll get you new ones." He smiled at Harry's smile. "We'll get you some new toys too, okay?" Harry gave him another awkward hug.
"Hold on tight, this may be uncomfortable, but I promise it won't hurt." Just before he was about to apparate, he saw Dudley peeking out from behind a chair, his buttocks sticking out the other side. "Watch this, first." He said to Harry and waved his wand. With a squeal, Dudley placed his hands over the back of his pants where a curly pig tail had magically sprung up.
Remus apparated away with Harry in his arms. Harry sat down hard and groaned. "It does get better, if it's any consolation." Remus said.
Harry ignored the statement. "Did you just? Did you give him a pig's tail?"
"Hmm?" Remus asked, feigning innocence. "That wasn't there before?"
Harry just looked at him. Remus looked back. They burst into laughter so hard that Remus too fell to the ground. Finally, they quieted down. Occasionally one would laugh and start it all up again. Remus was happy. He hadn't laughed so hard in years. He hadn't laughed so hard since before James and Lily died. Maybe since before the war started. It was hard. What happened to Harry wasn't fair. There would be a lot to work through. And Remus knew that he was certainly not dad or even godfather material. But he knew that he couldn't do worse than the Dursleys had. And he was determined to be everything he could be for Harry Potter. He owed that much to his parents. Probably more.
He turned to Harry, only to see him sleeping peacefully on the floor. He gently levitated the last remaining Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived into the air and into Remus's bed. He tucked the covers up under Harry's chin and spun around. There was a lot of work to do to make the house livable for a child. Remus raised his wand and got to work.