Chapter 1

Hagrid had just banked the fire and gone to bed a few minutes before something went thump in the middle of the room. Startled back to full awareness, the man sat up, peering as well as he could into the darkness.

"H'lo?" He rumbled. "Someone there?"

His only answer was a small intake of breath. Concerned, Hagrid grasped his umbrella from where it sat by the bed, aimed it over at his fireplace and relit the flames. The sudden increase of light blinded him for half a moment, but then his eyes adjusted.

And there, sitting innocently on his worn-out rug, was a small child.

"Now where'd you come from, little 'un?" Setting his umbrella-wand aside, Hagrid moved to kneel in front of the toddler. Big green eyes blinked up at him through a mop of black hair, which almost but did not quite fully hide a lightning bolt scar. "Harry?!"

Harry Potter grinned, forcing himself up onto his bare feet in order to move forward and hug Hagrid's leg. Upon closer inspection, the man could see that he was wearing only a large, grimy shirt that fell to the tot's knees, and that he was covered over with a layer of soot. He was also far too skinny for a child of three and a half.

Now, Hagrid couldn't claim a great deal of experience when it came to children not yet of an age to attend Hogwarts, but he did know a great deal about raising magical critters. Harry's small size, lack of meat on his bones, overall pallor and the tiny, dried bloodstains on his fingers didn't sit well with the man. Knowing that Headmaster Dumbledore was still on a trip overseas for the rest of the weekend, he decided to call in the next best person to deal with the situation.

Hagrid set Harry onto his massive bed, before moving over to the fireplace and throwing in a small bit of Floo powder.

"Pr'fessor McGonagall? I've got a bit of a problem, I think ye ought t' see..."

-Wild-

"Simply disgraceful," Minerva muttered, pacing angrily back and forth. Hagrid sat in a chair with Harry on his lap, both of them watching the furious witch with wide eyes. "I told Albus no good would come of us leaving him there, but did he listen? No, of course not! Albus Dumbledore knows best, and don't anyone dare disagree..."

"Pr'fessor," Hagrid said helplessly, causing the woman to slow down a tad.

"I'm sorry, Rubeus, I know how highly you respect the man, and normally I'm one of his staunchest supporters as well. But this! Little Harry left with muggles who've clearly hardly fed him, allowed the boy to injure himself, and apparently wind up in enough danger that the boy felt scared enough to accidentally apparate himself all the way from a house in Surrey to your hut here in Scotland!" Minerva fumed. "First thing in the morning, I'm going over there to find out what in Merlin's name happened."

-Wild-

Part of what happened, it seemed, was that Number Four Privet Drive had been burned to the ground.

Minerva went all around the place in her animagus form, inspecting the rubble. From what she could tell, a fire started in the lower section of the house had spread out of control, weakening the support beams and causing the upper floor to collapse in on itself. Very little had been left intact.

The witch also traversed the street a bit, catching snippets of conversation from various muggles departing for work:

"Oh, isn't it just terrible what happened at Number Four last night?"

"I agree, such a tragedy, though we're lucky the firemen were able to keep the blaze from spreading."

"The Dursleys are so lucky they all made it out unharmed."

When she heard that last statement, Minerva grew incensed. Evidently, Petunia and her family had not seen fit to tell anyone that her nephew did not in fact make it out of the burning home - not out into the neighborhood alongside them, at any rate. Guessing that Harry must have been trapped by the flames, and subsequently terrified enough to apparate himself to safety, Minerva then moved on to determine what the Dursley family were up to after their narrow escape.

And for that, she paid a visit to Arabella Figg.

The squib woman was given quite a shock when one of the cats which slipped into her house at feeding time suddenly morphed into Minerva McGonagall, but got over it soon enough.

"You know about what happened, then?" She asked wearily, moving to the kitchen to start a pot of tea. Minerva followed, barely keeping her annoyance under wraps.

"I've gained an idea, at the very least. Do you know what his relations are doing now, any details of what they said last night?"

"Vernon Dursley and his family escaped a terrible inferno. Myself and quite a few others heard him inform the Fire Brigade that it was only the three of them. They were all taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, and beyond that I have no idea."

"Hmph."

"Minerva, I'm so sorry about Harry- the thought of that poor little boy dying in the flames-"

"Harry Potter is alive and well, Arabella. Through an amazing stroke of luck, he apparated himself away from the fire and to a place of safety."

The other woman gaped at her. "R-really? He's alright, then?"

"Uninjured from the flames, at any rate, though I cannot say he is in tip top condition." Minerva's frown deepened when Arabella sighed.

"I've written Albus more times than I can count, Professor, warning him about how the Dursleys were treating Harry. They've left him over here a few times, when they wanted a family trip or vacation, and I always get so worried when I see how skinny and quiet he is."

"Hmph. And what has Albus done about it?"

"Nothing, so far as I could tell. Told me not to worry, that everything would be fine."

With her ire towards the Headmaster growing, Minerva decided then and there that she would set about changing things. "Arabella. I don't want you to tell Albus about any of this."

She was met by a shocked expression. "He doesn't already know?"

"He's been out of the country for the past two days, and won't be returning until tomorrow. I'll check his office to see what, if any, ward warnings he receives from the Dursley residence, and if need be reset them to a dormant state. You are to carry on as you have been, as though Harry is living with his relatives in the same sorry way as usual."

"And what about Harry himself?"

"Clearly, being hidden in the muggle world was not healthy for him in the slightest. From now on, he's going to stay at Hogwarts, where I and trusted others can ensure he grows up safe and healthy."

"You're going to do that - without Albus knowing?"

"To the best of my ability."

A/N: IMPORTANT NOTICE

This story is part of my HP Round Table Project. Every Thursday, I'm updating a different onf of seven Harry Potter AUs, so that over the course of seven weeks they all get a new chapter (since I have a history of losing inspiration and letting stuff sit stagnant for months at a time). After the first seven week period, I start over, but the order in which these stories are updated changes depending on what was the most popular during the previous chunk of time.

So, if you really like this or one of the others, be sure to let me know!

-Triscribe