Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Part 1: A nice lady
Harry Potter was running for his life. His cousin's gang was playing their favorite game: Harry hunting. And Harry had just kicked one of them in the shin to escape a beating. Now they were angry. He was sure they would kill him if they caught him.
He turned a corner and collided with a woman. He apologized hurriedly, and was about to carry on running. But she stopped him.
"What happened to you?" she asked. Harry had never seen her before, so she wasn't one of the neighbors.
"Uh…," Harry wondered what he could say to escape her.
"Your eye is swollen," she said. She was staring at him.
Harry was getting uncomfortable under her scrutiny. He didn't know what to say.
"Were you in a fight?" she asked.
Harry just nodded.
"Who were you fighting with?" she asked.
"My cousin and his friends," Harry answered.
"And you decided it was a good idea to fight all of them alone?" she asked skeptically. "How many of them were there?"
"Five," Harry answered.
She looked at him incredulously. She had more questions after that. But getting information from the little boy was like pulling teeth.
Ten minutes later she had bought him an ice cream, and they were walking towards Privet Drive. Harry couldn't believe his luck. He had never had an ice cream before.
"You know you could be a spy. It's almost impossible to get information from you."
Harry didn't know what to say to that.
She rang the doorbell. His uncle opened the door. He was already angry, since Harry had been late getting home from school.
"Who are you?" he asked the woman, who introduced herself as Elena Cartwright and said she was Harry's friend.
Harry thought she was being incredibly stupid, calling herself his friend. He had specifically told her his aunt and uncle hated him.
"Well you can get lost. We're not inviting you for dinner," his uncle said rudely to the woman. "And where have you been boy? You're late. Go and start dinner at once." he screamed as soon as he saw Harry behind the woman.
When he saw Harry eating the ice cream, he got even angrier, as Harry had expected. "Did you steal money from Dudley for that?" he accused.
The woman stepped between them before Harry could say anything. "I bought him the ice cream. And I'm taking Harry with me for dinner," she said in an unfriendlier tone than before.
Uncle Vernon gaped at her. Harry could understand. He couldn't imagine anyone would invite him for dinner either.
She had turned around and started walking toward the street with Harry before speech returned to his uncle.
"Good riddance. And don't bring him back," he screamed after them.
Harry and Mrs. Cartwright were eating pizza at her mother's kitchen table. She had told him that she didn't like cooking and avoided it as much as possible. Harry had offered to cook, but she had just ordered pizza.
Harry had had an eventful evening. Mrs. Cartwright had first taken Harry to the police station in Greater Whinging in her very comfortable car. On the way, he had learnt that she was Miss Cartwight. She had explained that married people usually wore a ring usually made of gold on the third finger of their right hand. Harry had known this already. But she explained to him that since that was what married people did, he could use the presence or absence of a ring to identify a married or unmarried person. Miss Cartwright was not wearing any rings.
The policemen had asked lots of questions about his relatives, and his life. They were even writing down what he said, as if it was important. He didn't really want to answer their questions, but Miss Cartwright had bought him an ice cream and pizza, so he did what she asked.
On the way back, Miss Cartwright had explained that people were not supposed to treat children like his aunt and uncle had treated him. She said they would be paying fines at least. The police had agreed that it would be best if Harry stayed with her until they could investigate the Dursleys. Harry was the happiest he had ever been in his life.
He noticed her staring at him again. He looked down at his pizza.
"Harry do you have any other relatives?" she asked. "If you have other relatives, they might ask for guardianship of you."
Harry had not dared to hope that he could leave his aunt and uncle's house. Harry told her, "No I don't have any other relatives." He wished with all his heart that he could stay with Miss Cartwright.
He looked at her and noticed that she was still looking at him but her eyes were unfocused. "You could stay with me," she said finally.
This was the best thing to happen in Harry's life. "Really? I don't have to go back?" he asked.
"Of course you can't go back. Those people are crazy," she said.
Miss Cartwright had sent Harry to bed after that. Harry slept in a real bed for the first time in his life, and he couldn't believe how comfortable he was.
He was so comfortable that he didn't wake up until Miss Cartwright had come to his room to wake him up.
They sat at the kitchen table again eating cereal. Miss Cartwright had again mentioned her dislike of cooking and Harry had again offered to cook. But she just put a box of cereal on the table and went to get milk from the refrigerator. Harry thought it was a perfectly good breakfast. But the Dursleys had Harry to do the cooking for them and they liked to eat bacon and eggs with toast.
After breakfast, Miss Cartwright went shopping in Greater Whinging with Harry. She said she didn't like Little Whinging, even though she had grown up there. Her mother had recently passed away and she was in the town to sell her mother's house. As they drove Harry asked about her father. He found out that Miss Cartwright's father liked alcohol and was like Harry's uncle. She had changed the subject after that. Harry didn't ask anything else about her father. He wouldn't want to talk about his uncle either.
Harry was in shock. Miss Cartwright had bought a lot of clothes for him. As many as Aunt Petunia bought for Dudley. She had also bought him new shoes and taken him to an eye doctor.
After dinner that night, Miss Cartwright asked Harry very seriously, "How old are you Harry?"
"I'm eight."
"Ok. And what do you think about London?"
Harry knew it was a big city, but he had never been there.
Seeing him confused, Miss Cartwright explained, "I work in London. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to adopt you, but if I do, you'll have to move to London with me."
Harry told her he didn't mind moving if he could go with her.
"That's the spirit!" she laughed. "It's much bigger than this tiny town. And there are lots of interesting people and new things to do. You'll love it."
Harry agreed that he would indeed love it.
"And you might have to stay at home on your own when I'm at work."
Harry didn't even consider that a problem. He was used to taking care of himself.
"And we might have to move to a different city, where they don't speak English. What do you think about learning a new language?" she asked.
Harry told her he really didn't care as long as he could stay with her.
"It's settled then. You're coming to London with me, to start your brand new life."
The next day, they were having pancakes for breakfast. Miss Cartwright had found someone who wanted to buy her house, and they were celebrating.
She had explained to Harry that she wasn't waiting for the house to be sold. She would leave for London in a couple of days either way. But it was nice to know that everything had been sorted out before she left.
Just after breakfast the telephone rang. She answered it and immediately walked out of the room, then came back with a small tape recorder. She had a long conversation, which she recorded. Harry couldn't hear what she said, but she looked upset.
She appeared thoughtful after it. She had asked Harry to watch television while she "organized her thoughts".
Harry had no idea what that meant. He watched curiously as she paced the kitchen while occasionally writing on a notepad. Harry wondered what she wrote. It was sure to be more interesting than the cartoon on TV. But he knew not to interrupt adults while they did important things.
After an hour, she sat down beside Harry on the couch and asked if she could turn off the TV.
Harry was curious about what was going on. She started with the phone call. "It was the police, and they called to let me know that the police thought your aunt and uncle should face criminal charges for child abuse."
Harry didn't know what that meant. So she explained, "There are laws about how people treat children. They aren't allowed to make a child do a lot of work. And they are definitely not allowed to starve children. The police want to take them to court, to prove that they are unfit to look after children."
"But Dudley is their son. And they are nice to him," Harry argued.
"The police think your cousin is morbidly obese and your aunt and uncle are a bad influence on him too," Miss Cartwright said.
Harry was quite shocked. He hadn't thought his aunt and uncle were that bad. He also knew that his cousin was fat, but he hadn't thought that was his aunt and uncle's fault. After all Dudley always ate whatever he wanted. But Miss Cartwright and the police thought it was his aunt and uncle's fault?
"It seems that your neighbors were convinced that you were a troublemaker. But they were unable to give a single example of you causing trouble. The head constable told me they asked all the residents of Privet Drive, Wisteria Walk and Magnolia Crescent about you and your cousin. He seems to be determined to make life as difficult as possible for your relatives."
Harry couldn't see how that would make life difficult for his relatives but he didn't comment.
"He said they have sent someone to talk to your teachers too. They want to ask you some more questions. And it seems there was no paperwork when you were put under your aunt and uncle's guardianship. They're still trying to confirm your identity."
"What?" Harry asked shocked.
"I know. It doesn't make sense. They haven't found a birth certificate for you or any records that say Harry Potter exists. And your aunt says she doesn't know anything about where your parents lived or where you were born. The police are investigating whether they kidnapped you."
Harry was stunned. Was it possible he was not Harry Potter? Had the Dursleys really kidnapped him? Could his parents be alive?
"Do you think my parents are really alive?" Harry asked.
"I don't think that is likely," she said apologetically. "If they were alive, there was sure to be a large scale search for a kidnapped child. But the police didn't find anything like that in November 1981. It's more likely that your parents are really dead and somehow no one realized you were missing."
"So I'm not really Harry Potter?"
"I don't know. You could be. Your aunt did have a sister. But nobody seems to know anything about her. But that's what we need to think about. We need to write down everything we know about you and your parents, to help the police find out who you really are. Do you know when you started living with your relatives?"
"I think it was at the beginning of November 1981," Harry replied. Miss Cartwright wrote it on her notepad. "That's what your aunt told the police. Was she the one who told you too?"
Harry nodded.
"And do you remember anything about your parents or where you lived?"
Harry thought about the green light and the cruel laugh from his nightmares. "No," he answered.
Miss Cartwright continued writing as she asked, "Do you know what happened after your parents died? Were you with a neighbor or the police until your relatives came to collect you?"
"No, someone put me on their doorstep in the morning," Harry said.
"But that doesn't make sense. First, someone would have to find out where your relatives lived. Then they had to come here with a baby. If they did all that why wouldn't they even talk to your relatives? Besides it wasn't necessary. They could have simply given you to the police. And since your parents supposedly died in an accident, the police would be investigating their death anyway."
Harry had to agree that Miss Cartwright was right. "Maybe the Dursleys really kidnapped me."
They both thought about that for a few minutes. Then Harry asked, "But they always say I'm a burden, and they don't want me. Then why would they take me from someone else?"
"I don't know. But there could be lots of reasons," Miss Cartwright said thoughtfully.
"Really?" Harry asked.
Suddenly Miss Cartwright laughed. "Do you want to hear my favourite one?" she asked.
When Harry nodded, she said, "My favourite crazy idea is that they were related to your parents, and knew that they left you lots of money and they wanted to steal it. So they kidnapped you."
"But they didn't get any money from me," Harry objected.
"We don't know that. They could have stolen money from you without anyone finding out. As your guardians, they could have access to your money."
"So they have stolen my money?" Harry said in despair.
"We don't actually know if you inherited money. But if those people have been stealing from you, the police will find out."
Harry was happy to hear that. "But Aunt Petunia says that my parents were drunks and they didn't work. So they couldn't have money." He was not happy about being poor, but he couldn't see how his parents could have had money, if he was forced to live with his aunt and uncle and be a burden.
"Well we don't even know if those people are actually related to you. And they could be lying to you so that you don't tell the police that they are stealing from you."
This was giving him a headache. Miss Cartwright looked at him sympathetically. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure the police will find out more soon."
"Can I still stay with you if my parents didn't leave me money?" Harry asked in a small voice.
Miss Cartwright hugged Harry and reassured him, "Of course my dear. And don't worry, even if your parents were poor, I have lots of money. When we go to London, I'll buy everything you can possibly want."
It was almost time for lunch when the doorbell rang.
Miss Cartwright was surprised. "Maybe it's the police'" she said and went to open the door.
She walked in with an old man, with long white hair and a matching beard. He was wearing a bright purple suit. Harry thought he had never seen a suit in that color.
"Hello I'm Albus Dumbledore," he introduced himself.
"Hello Harry. I used to know your parents," the man continued.
Harry merely nodded, but Miss Cartwright was looking at him suspiciously.
He seemed oblivious to the strange atmosphere. "They were very brave. It seems like only yesterday that you were rescued from the ruins of their house."
He seemed to have forgotten Miss Cartwright in her own house. Harry looked at her. She was looking at Dumbeldore like he was speaking a different language.
Harry thought he was required to say something and said the only thing that came to mind, "It was seven years ago, sir."
"Yes, it would seem like a long time to one as young as you. But when you are my age, the years seem to blur together," he continued. Harry thought even this man who seemed to be able to ignore everything around him, would think seven years with the Dursleys was a long time, but he didn't argue. The old man was starting off into space.
He seemed to come back to the real world and said, "But we don't have time to go down memory lane right now. You must return home where you are safe." He got to his feet. "Miss Spencer, thank you for taking care of Harry, but now he must return to his family."
Miss Cartwright said, "You're not taking him anywhere." At the same time as Harry said, "I won't go back." He was scared now. He ran to Miss Cartwright and she pulled him into her arms.
The man called Albus Dumbeldore pointed a stick at them.
"Legilimens," he said, looking straight at Miss Cartwright.
Harry looked between them confused. The man didn't seem to be doing anything, but he was worried about Miss Cartwright.
Harry pulled himself away from her and threw himself at the man. He managed to distract him and move the stick so that it was pointing at the ground.
"What did you do to her? I won't let you hurt her," Harry was screaming.
"I'm not doing her any harm Harry," he said. But Harry kept struggling and finally he pointed the stick at Harry and said, "Stupefy"
When Harry woke up he was standing outside the Dursleys' home with the crazy old man.
He tried to run away but the old man was stronger than he seemed.
"Harry please calm down. You need to return to your aunt and uncle's house now."
Harry was still kicking and screaming. The old man had pointed the stick at Harry again and he froze completely.
"Harry, I'm sorry but you need to understand some things. I know that you have not had a happy life with your aunt and uncle. But you need to return. The Dark wizard who killed your parents and his supporters could try to kill you if you are unprotected. When your mother died she gave you very strong protection as long as you live with her blood. That's why you must return to your aunt's house, even if you don't like her."
He flicked the stick at Harry and he could move again.
Harry was too confused to be angry. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
The old man had expressed surprise that his aunt hadn't explained magic to him, to which Harry hadn't replied. He was not surprised.
Dumbledore had explained that magic was real and his parents and he could use it. He had levitated some stones from the ground to demonstrate magic. He had also told Harry that there was a man who called himself Lord Voldermort who was fighting the Ministry of Magic, at the time of his parents' deaths. This wizard had killed his parents but had been defeated when he tried to kill Harry, because his mother sacrificed herself to save him. And that was why he would be safe with his mother's relatives.
He also said other things that Harry didn't care about. Harry was not really listening. He didn't care what this man thought. He would go to London with Miss Cartwright. He was about to argue that he didn't care about being safe, when Dumbeldore told him that he had wiped Miss Spencer's and the policemen's memories, and they wouldn't remember him. All the people who had tried to help him and been nice to him, wouldn't even remember him now. And he had to go back to the Dursleys. He looked at Dumbledore horrified.
"I have spoken to your aunt and uncle and they understand that their behavior was unacceptable. If you give them a second chance, I'm sure they will do better," Dumbledore said.
Harry turned away defeated. He didn't bother telling Dumbledore what he thought about the Dursleys doing better. There was nowhere else he could go anyway.
"And Harry, you can't do magic to make people do what you want like you did to Miss Spencer," he continued.
Harry looked back at that. He hadn't done magic to make Miss Cartwright do anything, he wanted to scream at the old man. But he suddenly remembered how her eyes were unfocused when she said he could live with her. And why was he calling her Miss Spencer anyway? He looked at Dumbledore who was now smiling at having made his point.
He walked back to the house behind Dumbledore and was surprised to see that he had been moved to Dudley's second bedroom. His aunt and uncle were nowhere to be seen. He didn't reply when Dumbledore told him that he was the headmaster for the school that taught magic. Or that Harry would be going there in "three short years".
Harry doubted the next three years would be short. And he had no interest in learning the magic that was being used to separate him from the only person who had ever wanted to have anything to do with him. He was staring out the window wondering if he could see Miss Cartwright's house in the distance.
Dumbledore was finally saying goodbye. He watched the old man walk down Privet Drive to a secluded spot. Then he turned on the spot and disappeared. Harry finally turned away from the window and fell onto the bed and cried.
Part 2: Escape
Harry hadn't bothered with school the next day. He hadn't even gone downstairs for food. He supposed that Dumbledore was right. The Dursleys were better. They hadn't tried to make Harry do any chores. It was almost like they weren't in the same house.
Dudley was screaming for sweets as he usually did after school. Harry finally got out of bed and went outside. He was wandering aimlessly down the streets when he suddenly saw Miss Cartwright. He knew she wouldn't recognize him, but maybe he could still speak to her for a few minutes. She had bought him ice cream the first time she met him.
"Hello Miss Cartwright," Harry greeted her.
She turned to him surprised. "Do I know you?" she asked looking at him curiously.
"I met you a few days ago. I'm Harry," he replied.
To his surprise she asked, "Are you by any chance the same Harry who was kidnapped by the Dursleys?"
Harry laughed with relief. She hadn't forgotten him. Dumbledore was wrong. He had failed.
Harry told her that Dumbledore had done something to make her forget and he was so glad she still remembered.
"Well he did do something to make me forget. But he didn't know about the tape recorder I used to record the call with the police. When I played back the tape, I knew something was seriously wrong. And I still have your new clothes, and there was the bed you had slept in and I was missing a notepad."
They had walked to the park where they sat down on a bench. She told him about the phone conversation with the police and invited him to her house to hear the tape. And Harry told her the whole story, starting with the first time they had met until Dumbledore had dumped him back at his relatives house.
Miss Cartwright was especially interested in magic. She had asked lots of questions about what Dumbledore had done and what Harry thought he could do with magic.
She told him what she had done. She had gone to the police to find out what they knew about Harry and the Dursleys. It seemed that they had forgotten too. But they didn't have anything like the tape to make them suspicious. She had decided to find out more about the Dursleys but that had turned up nothing interesting. Harry Potter did not seem to exist at all. The only thing she had found out about Harry was that he went to the primary school in Little Whinging.
Since it was getting dark, Harry went back to Privet Drive after Miss Cartwright promised to meet him the next morning.
The next morning Harry left his relatives' house without meeting anyone. Once he was in Miss Cartwright's car, Harry started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Miss Cartwright asked.
"Uncle Vernon wanted a car like yours but Aunt Petunia said it's too expensive. They would be so jealous."
Miss Cartwright laughed too. Then they moved on to more serious topics.
"I didn't find any complaints against the Dursleys about how they treat you. I'm sure the old man has something to do with it. It's impossible that the teachers at your school haven't noticed anything," Miss Cartwright said.
"But they don't like me," Harry objected.
"Even if they don't like you, they would want to find out why you and your cousin are so different in spite of growing up in the same house. But without knowing what the evil wizard has done, we can't solve this problem," Miss Cartwright huffed in obvious frustration.
"Did you get your school records?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Yes," Harry said handing over the papers. He doubted his aunt and uncle would even miss them.
"And you didn't find anything else with your name on it?" she asked.
"No there was nothing else," Harry replied. He had even found Dudley's birth certificate and some paper that said his aunt and uncle were married, so he was sure that he had looked through all the important papers in his relatives house and he told Miss Cartwright so.
"Your relatives are really careless if they keep such documents where children can find them," she said.
Harry thought they just didn't think papers were important.
"Anyway, I have bad news. I haven't found anything useful about magic at all. I went to the library earlier."
"The old man did say that magic was supposed to be kept secret. There is a Law for it," Harry was feeling frustrated too.
"Ok, so all that we know is that magic exists. We know it can be used to make people forget things, and to paralyse people. And that everyone can't do magic, but you can."
"I don't want to do magic, I want to stay with you!" Harry exclaimed. He was crying.
"Harry, please don't cry. We're going to find out what's going on. I'm not going to let that old man do anything to you. Now don't cry. It won't solve our problems. Let's make a list, shall we?" Harry took the notebook and pen she gave him.
"It's best to start with what we want. What our goal is," Miss Cartwright told him.
So Harry started writing, "I want to leave the Dursleys and live with Miss Cartwright."
She laughed, "That is a very well defined goal. That's good. Now what is stopping us from doing it?"
Harry wrote below it, "What's stopping us- Albus Dumbledore (He can do magic)"
Elena laughed, "You're good at this. Now what do we have to do to stop Albus Dumbedore, who can do magic?"
"Stop him from doing magic?"
"How can we stop him? We don't even know how he does magic. Or even what he can do with magic!" Harry looked at Miss Cartwright in horror. "We don't know anything!"
"Exactly!" she said, "Which means we need information about magic."
"But how will we find anything if it's supposed to be a secret?" Harry asked.
"I can look in the library in London. There might be something useful. I can't exactly go and ask other people. They would laugh at me if they don't know and refuse to tell me because of that secrecy law if they do know. But this man said you can do magic."
"But I can't do any of the things he did," Harry said dejectedly.
"Don't worry about it just now Harry, we're just considering our options. And we know that you can do magic when you're feeling upset or scared right? And that you can change someone's hair colour and teleport?"
"Yes and I even grew back my hair overnight!"
"You've been trying to move things right?" Miss Cartwright asked looking at him speculatively.
"Yes?" Harry answered doubtfully.
"But when you did magic you didn't move things. Maybe you can't do that kind of magic? Or more likely you might need to use that stick for it?"
Harry nodded. He had no idea what to do.
They went to Miss Cartwright's mother's house as they discussed Harry's living arrangements. Miss Cartwright didn't think the evil wizard would allow her to take custody of Harry.
Harry asked her something he was curious about. "Why did the evil wizard call you Miss Spencer?"
"That was the name I was born with. My mother was Mrs. Spencer. I changed my name when I went to college, because I had done something stupid. People who look into my past would still find out about those things, but only if they look really carefully," Miss Cartwright said.
Harry didn't ask what the stupid things were. He was more interested in changing names.
"So you became a different person?" Harry asked.
"I wanted to become a different person," she answered.
Harry thought that would be great. He wanted to become a different person too. Miss Cartwright had said he could live with her.
"I want to change my name too! I want to be Harry Cartwright," Harry said. And there was a bright flash of light and both Harry and Miss Cartwright were knocked off their feet.
"Harry? Are you ok?" Miss Cartwright asked. She was looking at him curiously.
He nodded and they were soon sitting at the kitchen table. "Harry, did you do magic?" she asked.
"Um..." he hesitated. He had no idea what had happened.
"I think you did magic," Miss Cartwright said. "The last time you did magic, you wanted me to take you away from your relatives right? What did you want this time?"
Harry hesitated. He didn't feel comfortable about doing magic to trick Miss Cartwright to do anything.
"I wanted to be a different person. I wanted to be your son."
"Oh Harry," she said pulling him into a hug. "So maybe you did something to make you my 'son'," she said.
As they looked through Harry's school records again, they saw that Harry's name had actually changed to Harry Cartwright.
"A magical solution to our problems!" Miss Cartwright exclaimed.
So they had decided to leave for London and see what happens.
Soon Harry had been enrolled into a school in London. They told anyone who asked that Harry was Elena Cartwright's son and had been living with his grandmother, who died recently.
A few months after Harry moved to London, Elena had received an offer to work in Frankfurt. She was nervous about applying for a passport for Harry, but to her surprise, everything had worked out. Apparently there were records for Harry Cartwright's birth in the hospital in Greater Whinging. Elena was most impressed with Harry's magic.
And so on the seventh of March 1988, Harry and Elena Cartwright boarded a British Airways flight from London to Frankfurt and left Britain and the destiny of Harry Potter behind.
A/N: This story is actually the first draft of what eventually became my longer story Rescuing the cub. I was rereading the first book and I wondered what if someone had noticed something was wrong with Harry? So I decided to write a story where a muggle woman rescues him from his abusive relatives. I know that there are lots of problems with this story. And I'm especially unhappy with the ending. That was the reason why I decided to modify it. But this is so different from Rescuing the cub, that I thought that it might be interesting to post it. Do let me know what you think.