When Remus Lupin was told that Albus Dumbledore had placed his surrogate nephew Harry Potter with the boys aunt he just stared at the man without saying a word. After about a minute, and still without saying a word, the werewolf turned on his heel and left the headmasters study.
As soon as he was clear of the Hogwarts wards, Remus span on the spot and apparated to Diagon Alley, the most magical street in London. The werewolf marched determinedly into Gringotts, the wizarding bank, and handed his key to one of the goblins stating his intent to clear his vault and exchange the contents for the muggle equivalent.
Amongst wizards, Remus Lupin was considered poor but this was mainly because they didn't know about his muggle bank account. Remus's mother was a muggle-born witch from a particularly wealthy family but had chosen not to convert her family's money to the witching currency as the exchange rate was better going from Galleons to pounds. When Remus added all the contents of his Gringotts account to his Barclays account, he had enough money to purchase a house in the village of Little Whinging, Surrey without having to take out a mortgage.
Two days later found Remus moving into a four bed detached house in the pristine street of Magnolia Crescent. One man didn't really need four bedrooms to himself but Remus planned to use one as a potions lab and had filled another with books. Then of course there was the room he slept in and a room for any guests (not that he expected any since two of his best friends were dead and the other had been imprisoned for their murders). Perhaps Harry could sleep there if Remus could rescue him from his aunt and uncle. After all, the werewolf understood why Dumbledore had placed him there but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Alice Longbottom cried herself to sleep the night her best friend Lily Potter nee Evans was murdered by the dark wizard who called himself Voldemort. The next day she strode into the office of the headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and demanded custody of her godson Harry Potter. The headmaster, however, was disinclined to acquiesce to her request, stating that because Lily had sacrificed herself for her son the boy was safest with Lily's blood relatives.
Alice did manage to find out where Petunia Dursley and her lump of a husband were living and a few days later, Alice, her husband Frank and their son Neville had moved out of the manor house the Longbottoms had lived in for centuries and were moving into a charming cottage on Wisteria Walk, Little Whinging, Surrey. Alice was already planning methods to liberate her godson from his awful aunt. She had heard more than enough about the woman from Lily to know her friend would not be happy about her son's new living arrangements.
Molly Weasley couldn't help feeling that it was a bittersweet day. She knew that most of the rest of the wizarding world was busy celebrating but she just couldn't bring herself to. It didn't mean she wasn't pleased that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was gone, of course she was pleased. But his downfall came at the expense of the lives of a wonderful young couple, whose son was now left to grow up without parents. Molly couldn't help feeling sad for the boy.
Picking up her youngest son, who was a few months older than poor little Harry Potter and would be in his year at Hogwarts, Molly walked over to the window. The enormous farmhouse, which had belonged to the Weasley family for generations, was situated at the top of a hill overlooking the nearby village of Little Whinging. Molly stared out at the town not really seeing it, her eyes pricked with tears as she wondered where little Harry Potter would live from now on. She had a right mind to write to Dumbledore and offer her home as a place he could grow up. The boy would need a family to love him.
The tower looked incongruous standing on the edge of the farmland. It was so tall it could be seen from almost every point in Little Whinging, whose residents were mostly of the opinion that it should be knocked down as soon as possible. They didn't want an eyesore like that in their tower.
The problem was that the tower belonged to an eccentric couple by the names of Xenophillius and Selene Lovegood who would never consent to their home being destroyed. Especially since Selene was pregnant. Xenophillius was adamant that they would have a daughter and her name would be Luna. Selene would just laugh. She had a beautiful laugh.
Ted Tonks was a Yorkshire man and never could understand why his wife wanted to live in Surrey. Andromeda would laugh whenever he asked her and tell him that her family would not look for her here. Which was true, they never did. This was good, since she had come from a pureblood family who hated muggleborns like Ted himself.
They had been living in the village of Little Whinging for five years when the fateful day came that the dark wizard Voldemort was defeated by a one-year old boy. Ted could barely keep a straight face at work. He worked as a muggle news reporter and the muggles were baffled by all the owls and shooting stars that had been seen that day. Ted, of course, knew exactly what was going on and he would bet his lucky golf balls that it was Deladus Diggle who was responsible for the shooting stars in Kent. He never did have much sense that one.