The house at the end of Amity Street in Amity Park was shrouded in an early dusk. A small grey tabby cat sat on the front steps of this house. The cat looked down the street then up at the UFO like structure perched on it's flat roof. A neon sign hung off of this structure labeling the house as 'Fenton Works'. Looking back down the street the cat shook its head.
Amber eyes locked on the end of the street as a man appeared so suddenly he couldn't have walked. The man had long robes and a purple cloak on and his silver hair and beard were both long enough to took into his belt. The man began to rummage in his robes, looking for something. From deep within one of his pockets he pulled a silver cigarette lighter out. With a small flourish he flicked it. A lamp post went out. He flicked it again. Another lamp post went out. He repeated his actions till all of the lamp posts were out. The only light left on Amity Street was the dim glow of the 'Fenton Works' sign, not enough for anyone to see if they looked out of the windows but enough for the man to walk down the street without holding his hands out in front of him.
He walked until he was in front of the extravagant house. The grey tabby meowed at the man. He looked down. "Ah what a night it is!" The man said sitting down. "I should have known you'd be here, Professor McGonagall!" The man looked towards the cat again. But there was no cat, a woman sat in the cat's place.
"How did you know it was me, Albus!" The woman said.
"Minerva, I have never seen a cat sit so stiff!" The man, Albus, said.
"Well, I'd like to see you not be stiff if you were sat on a step all day!" Minerva replied.
"All day?" Albus asked. "When you could have been celebrating? I must've passed at least a dozen celebrations and parties on my way here."
Minerva sniffed. "Oh yes," She said. "Even here they've had reports of strange weather and owls flying by day. You'd think they'd be a bit more careful!"
"You can't blame them," Albus said soothingly. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."
"I know that!" Minerva snapped. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. Out on the streets in the middle of the day, not wearing muggle clothing, throwing gossip at each other and caution to the wind." As she mentioned gossip, she looked at Albus sharply as if hoping for him to say something, he didn't. "I just hope that, on the same day You-Know-Who disappears, the muggles don't find out about all of us. I suppose he really has gone, Albus?"
"It would seem so," Albus replied. He pulled a small white paper bag out if his pocket. "We have much to be thank full for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"
"A what?" Minerva asked, surprised.
"A sherbet lemon," Albus repeated. "It's a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."
"No, thank you," Minerva said coldly, as if sherbet lemons were far from appropriate at the time. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone-"
"My dear professor," Albus said. "Surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I've been trying to persuade people to use his proper name: Voldemort," Minerva flinched, Albus didn't seem to notice - too busy with his sherbet lemons. "It all gets too confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who' I have never seen a reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."
"Well you are the only person You-Know- Oh all right, Voldemort, was ever frightened of."
"You flatter me," Albus said. "I haven't blushed so much since Madame Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."
Minerva threw a sharp look at Albus, "The owls are nothing compared to the rumors that have been flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"
By the hard stare the woman gave Albus, it was obvious she had reached the point she was most interested in. The reason she had waited on that cold concrete step all day. She wasn't going to believe any of the rumors until she heard them from Albus. Albus, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon.
"What they're saying," Minerva said, pressing ahead. "Is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead!"
Albus bowed his head. Minerva gasped.
"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."
"I know... I know..." Albus said, patting Minerva's shoulder.
"That's not all they're saying," Minerva said, her voice trembling. "They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows how or why, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter his powers somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."
Albus nodded sadly. "We can only guess." Albus looked at a golden pocket watch that had twelve hands with little planets moving around the outside. It was rather confusing, however, it must have made sense to Albus because he returned it to his pocket and stated, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I would be here, by the way?"
"Yes," Minerva said wiping her eyes with a lace handkerchief. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"
"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle," Albus said. "This family will treat him better than his other family. Other than them these are the only family he has left."
"These people?" Minerva asked. "That live here? They are completely insane! I've been watching them all day. They left their four year old son in the park. The neighbors had to return the poor boy. Their daughter hides herself in her room to avoid their shenanigans and this," She pointed up at the roof. "Can't be stable!"
"It's the best place for him." said Albus. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written a letter."
"Every child in our world will know his name!" Minerva said.
"Exactly," Albus said. "Don't you think it would be better if he grew up away from all of that?"
Minerva looked skeptical for a moment then said. "Yes - yes, I suppose you're right." She looked at the man's cloak, as if expecting the boy to be concealed within. "Where is the boy?"
"Hagrid's bringing him," Albus stated.
With his words a low rumbling filled the air. The two professors looked down the street, both ways, trying to find the source of the noise. The rumbling became louder and louder. It seemed to be coming from the sky, both looked up.
It was a huge motorbike. The bike fell out of the sky and shuddered to a halt before the professors. The man sat astride the bike was a mammoth of a man. Twice the size of a normal man, he was, and at least five times as wide, with hands the size of dustbin lids and feet the size of baby dolphins concealed within leather boots. He had long, bushy tangles of black hair, and a beard to match, that covered most of his face. His black eyes were beady. In his vast arms he cradled a small bundle of blankets.
"'ullo Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall," The vast man said.
"Hagrid," Albus said. "Where did you get the motorbike?"
"Young Sirius Black lent it me, professor." Hagrid said.
"No, problems were there?" Albus asked.
"No, sir - house was destroyed but I got 'im out al'right, before muggles started swarming the place," Hagrid replied. "He fell asleep as we was flying over."
Inside the bundle the professors could see a small baby boy. The boy was, as Hagrid said, fast asleep. All that was visible of the boy was his sleeping face under a tuft of jet black hair, under the short locks was a curiously shaped cut, like a lightning bolt.
"Is that where...?" Minerva asked.
"Yes," Albus said. "He'll have that scar for the rest of his life."
"Couldn't you do something about it, Albus?" Minerva asked.
"Even if I could I wouldn't," Albus replied. "Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well - give him hear Hagrid - we'd better get this over with." Albus took Harry into his arms and turned towards Fenton Works.
"Could I - could I say goodbye to him, sir?" Hagrid asked. Albus nodded, turning back. Hagrid bent his large head down and gave Harry what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then the great man let out a sudden howl, like a wounded dog.
Minerva shushed him. "You'll wake the muggles. Hagrid apologised, shakily.
"Now, now Hagrid, it's not really goodbye, after all," Albus said. The old man then bent down and put the boy on the top step. He took a letter out of his pocket and tucked it into the bundle.
Unconsciously, little Harry wrapped a little hand around the letter.
The three walked slowly back to the motorbike. Hagrid sniffing all the way.
"Well," Albus said. "We have no further business here."
"If that's so professor, I'd best get this bike g'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."
"Goodnight, Hagrid," Both professors replied.
"Goodnight, Minerva," Albus said. Minerva replied in positive. The old professor then made his way back to the corner he'd appeared at. He turned back to the sleeping, American muggle street. "I will see you in eleven years, Harry James Potter and good luck." The man flicked his lighter, flooding the street in light, and disappeared with a swish of his cloak.