Chapter 1

To most people in Little Whining the morning was like any other. The air may have seemed cleaner, the dawn sky clearer and the sun more cheerful than normal but wrapped up in their little lives none noticed. It seemed that the world itself was celebrating something and in a way it was. The sense of relief that the more perceptive residents could feel was attributed to the fact that the dark lord, Voldemort had finally been defeated after many years of war. None of the muggles would know this of course but the wizarding population was overjoyed. Late the night before the dark lord along with two of his most trusted deatheaters had attacked the Potter family. While the deatheaters stood watch the dark lord had personally killed James Potter as he tried to buy time for his wife and young son to escape but it was not to be. Lily too was killed in a flash of green light as she protected her son with her body but a strange thing happened next for when the dark lord turned his wand on the baby his curse rebounded upon its caster and the house they were in, destroying both. No one had ever survived the killing curse before; no one had ever survived after the dark lord had tried to kill them. For these reasons all through the wizarding world people were talking of Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived.

For one couple in particular the day was started with a scream as Petunia Dursley opened the front door of their perfectly ordinary house to find her nephew on the front step with a letter from the headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. It said that her sister was dead and they were to look after the boy as he would be safe from the remaining servants of the dark lord. Why did that stupid, freaky sister of hers have to go and get herself killed anyway? Well, it wasn't going to stay here no matter what the letter said; it could hurt her precious son Dudley with its freakishness. They would have to keep it for a few days though until the freaks stopped watching their house. After that though, they would find somewhere to dump him. With that settled she picked the bundle up and carried it none too carefully into the house.

A week later Vernon, Petunia's husband was driving through the streets looking for a good place to dump the boy where it would not be traced back to him and his family. A set of imposing wrought iron gates caught his eye, making him slow. A sign next to the gates proclaimed it to be an orphanage, perfect. Pulling the car up to the nearest parking bay he climbed out grabbing the blanket wrapped boy before approaching the orphanage. A girl who looked too old to be a charge but still quite young answered his knock and took the boy quickly jotting down the little bit of information he gave before closing the door. Vernon turned and strolled back to his car, whistling as he drove away from the place glad to never have to look at his only nephew ever again.

From there, life for harry didn't get any better. The orphanage was an old one and fairly run down as the owner refused to spend any more money on the brats than he had to. He seemed to think that they owed him for letting them stay and was prepared to take the price out of there skins if he had to. The only workers he had were the cook and Kaysey, who looked after the youngest children and made sure that the older ones did their chores. She also set up adoptions and took in the newcomers.

There he was taken care of by a kind girl for the next few months of his life. The girl knew the owner was abusive though and tried extra hard to get as many of the children adopted as possible. With Harry though, she was almost desperate to get the boy out of the orphanage, there was just something about the boy that set him apart from all the other boys and girls that had been through the orphanage. The manager noticed that too and the looks that he had been sending in the child's direction seemed to promise cruelty of another level entirely, making her even more desperate. When an older couple with an odd accent entered one day, saying that they had been 'drawn' in this direction she immediately asked them if they would be willing or knew of anyone who would be willing to adopt a child. They told her that their granddaughter might be willing to take on a child, did it matter that she lived by her self. Torn by that the girl said that normally it would but if they could prove that she would take care of a child then it wouldn't be a problem, she would just say that they would be looking after the child. They agreed to this and after a short discussion pulled a worn looking photo album out of a backpack.

Flipping it open to one of the pictures they showed her a rather plain looking girl in her late teens or early twenties, the open smile that she was directing towards the pony that was nudging her chest was inviting and any remaining doubts that she had fell away in an instant. Mouse brown hair, turned golden blonde about half way down from the sun, eyes that seemed too vary from blue to a vibrant green, she seemed just perfect for Harry. After glancing for permission she flicked through the album looking at all of the pictures of the girl. All but one of them she was with one animal or another and in that one picture the light seemed to be gone from her eyes. It was at a party or family reunion with people all around and while she was smiling for the camera, it was missing something. Maybe the child would be good for her too. While the people talked to the girl on the phone she listened interestedly to the conversation. Some different doubts started to emerge when she heard the man say to treat the child like she would any of her animals and it would be fine. After hanging up they said that she had agreed, if reluctantly and even so she would never abuse anything that came her way. With that in mind she led them through to the nursery where the smaller children slept. A fair few of them were playing loudly on the floor and ran or crawled up to them when they noticed the strangers. A few who didn't looked too young to be that active yet and some were adjusting to their situation but one in particular stood out to them. A little boy, around three years old was sitting cross legged on a bed at the end of the room playing with a pillow case which had a piece of string tied around it. Curious they walked closer to him, the pillow was his teddy they realised when they got closer and he was talking to it like it was real, like their granddaughter used to when she was little. As they got closer he looked up at them and smiled. They gasped and knew that it was him that they had come for. Filling out the paper work they took the boy with them and went to a small store, bought him a few sets of new clothes and went to the hotel where they were staying to pack. From there they went straight to the airport where they spent the last of the travelling funds on an extra ticket for the boy after an argument with the staff who said that it was too late to be booking to go on that flight.

"What do you expect us to do, send this little guy on another flight and meet him at the other end? He can't even talk properly yet!"

Finally they boarded the aircraft and settled the very tired boy down to sleep for as much of the flight as possible.