Author Note

I do not own Harry Potter, the characters, places or thing in it. I am merely using the characters to create a story of my own. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

Harry opened his eyes. The lights became suddenly bright and it took a moment for Harry's eyes to adjust. He reached out with his hand and grabbed his glasses. Sound began to fall into his ears and he heard Hedwig hooting. Harry put on his glasses and sat up in bed. He looked around his room. Everything seemed normal in the Dursley house, that is of course until Harry noticed his alarm clock.

"10 o'clock?" Harry said sleepily, taking a double take to make sure he had seen the time correctly. "I should have been woken up ages ago."

He put his feet over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment. He knew something was wrong, and only now realised that everything seemed rather quiet. He stood up and slowly walked to his window. Everything on the street was normal; the same today as it was the day before and the day before that. Harry shook these thoughts out of his head, and realised he wouldn't know anything until he went downstairs.

Once Harry was fully dressed he crept out of his room onto the landing. He poked his head out of the door and looked round first, just to make sure no one was there. He walked to the top of the stairs and took one step down. It was here, now, in that instant when he heard voices talking downstairs. He crept further down so that he could listen.

"Mr Dursley, if you would just listen to me," Dumbledore's voice said, in its usual calm and warm manner.

"No," Vernon's voice boomed out, louder than it needed to be, "I will not listen to this rubbish."

"It is not safe for Harry, or any of you, to be here any longer," Dumbledore said, his voice clearly indicating he had tried to make this point many times.

"You people have no right to be in my house, you have invaded my life, and if you're not careful I will call the police!" Vernon shouted.

Harry sighed to himself. He had sat down on the step and now had his head in his hands. He knew Vernon was stupid, but he didn't realise how stupid until this point.

"Mr Dursley, I realised you were stupid, but I didn't realise how stupid until this point. Mr Potter is in grave danger if he stays here, and so are all of you, now I suggest you listen to the professor and start moving or else you will all be dead within a day," Snape's voice called out, harsh and cold as ever. "Are you getting the picture yet?"

There was a deathly silence, but Harry knew that Snape was staring deep into Vernon's eyes, making him shiver and fear the black eyes that were looking back. He did, however, wonder why Snape was even there in the first place, but he slogged it down to Dumbledore forcing him to come.

"What has changed?" Vernon said, surprisingly quiet.

"Harry's last guardian has died, now he has no protection against Voldemort," Dumbledore said bluntly.

Harry didn't need to hear what was said next because he knew who his last guardian was. It was Sirius Black. His parent's friend and his Godfather. Sirius had died at the end of the last school year in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. Harry occasionally still had nightmares about the whole experience.

Harry heard Vernon agree meekly to moving.

"You can come down now Harry," Dumbledore said out loud.

There was silence as Harry descended the stairs. He walked into the room with a guilty look on his face, like when a dog brings in a ball they found in the grass and they know they're not supposed to have it.

"How long have you been listening, boy!" Vernon shouted.

Vernon brought his hand in the air to hit Harry around the back of the head, but he stopped when he realised he had two wands pointing at him. Harry hadn't even seen Snape's hand move, but now there was a wand pointing straight at Vernon's head; and Remus Lupin, who had been stood next to the door and was behind it when it opened, had appeared and got his wand also pointing at Vernon's head.

"I think that would be a very foolish thing to do," Remus said, with a calm voice and a sly smile.

Vernon was frozen, he hated the idea of magic and now he had two magic casting sticks pointed at him, with two wizards who scared him to death anyway.

"Hand down," Snape commanded, with a flick of his wand.

Vernon followed the command, almost as if he was a puppet on one of Snape's strings. Harry ran from Vernon and hugged Remus.

"I've missed you," Harry said.

"I've missed you too, Harry," Remus said laughing.

With hugging Remus, memories of Sirius flooded back into his head. Remus and Sirius had been extremely close friends, ever since their Marauder days. Remus was the closest thing Harry had to family now. It was odd though, that Remus and Snape did the same action of drawing their wands at the same time. Harry found this whole situation highly irregular, but in its own right it was regular considering how his life was hardly ever normal, what with being the arch enemy of a snake-faced, wand-wielding psychopath and all. 'Ahh the joys of life', Harry thought to himself as these thoughts passed through his mind.

"So, Potter, how much did you hear?" Snape asked, putting away his wand.

"That me and the Dursleys are in trouble," Harry said, summing up what he had heard, "and it's because Sirius is dead."

Lupin flinched at how casually Harry seemed able to say that. Harry looked at him with an apologetic look, but was quickly brought to attention by Dumbledore.

"Yes, that is true, there is much to discuss, Harry, and we can only do so at Hogwarts where it is safe and secure," he explained, his voice soft, but holding an immense amount of authority. "Sirius's death was saddening and unfortunate, he lived a harsh life and came to an early end, but I am afraid it is more unfortunate because he has passed before we had time to tell you certain things that you need to know."

"When do we leave?" Harry asked, holding back the tears that were brought to his eyes by Dumbledore's words.

"You are to pack your stuff, all of you," Dumbledore said, looking at the Dursleys, "and we will leave immediately. We will be using a Port Key to teleport straight into my office at Hogwarts. Vernon, you are to get in your car and drive as far away from here as you can, and as fast as you can."

Everyone nodded, except Vernon and the other Dursleys who were still unhappy about having to abandon their home so early in the morning.

When Harry was packed he and Remus carried his stuff downstairs. Harry sat on his trunk whilst Dumbledore gave the Dursleys a final word that they will be safe if they keep moving. When he returned Dumbledore was holding an umbrella.

"This is the Port Key," he said, stating the obvious.

Harry grabbed hold, and so did Remus and Snape. He felt the familiar pulling sensation at his navel as the room began to spin and it felt like Harry was being yanked off the floor by a chain. He looked across at Dumbledore, whose lips were curved and he was laughing. Dumbledore always found that the sensations created by teleportation with a Port Key tickled him, and when he was given the ability to create Port Keys he spent a day and a half teleporting to random locations just because the pulling made him laugh. The four landed safely inside Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts. Dumbledore landed securely on his feet without even looking unstable. Remus and Snape wobbled but managed to stay on their feet. Harry, however, landed flat on his face in the middle of the floor.

"I'll never get used to that," he moaned, though his voice was muffled by the rug that his mouth appeared to be trying to eat.

Remus grabbed Harry's arm.

"Here you go, my boy," he said, lifting Harry to his feet.

Harry looked round the room. It was exactly how he remembered it; Fawkes was sitting on his perch, his flames falling fainter, signalling the end of another cycle; the paintings of old Hogwarts Headmasters were hanging from the wall, some asleep, some listening and some pretending to be asleep but listening anyway. When Harry looked back round Dumbledore had already taken his high backed chair behind his large desk.

"Take a seat, Harry," he said indicating to the chair.

Harry sat down and looked across the desk at Dumbledore, but his attention was also on Snape, who had just walked around the desk to Dumbledore's side, and Remus, who was stood next to him.

"Harry, there is a lot to discuss and there is little time to discuss it in," Dumbledore said, his eyes losing their warmth and turning serious.

"Ok, Professor, I'm ready to listen," Harry said, though slightly nervous.

"Ok, Harry, I'm going to say the first thing as bluntly as I can because it is the only way I can do it without sugar coating it too much," Dumbledore said.

Harry was really nervous now.

"James is not your father."