Chapter 02
The spellwork in action

James' POV

Having put up an illusion I now look like a middle aged man with graying brown hair and my wand looks like a leash holding a retired looking golden retriever. This is all part of the plan as such a man really lives here and that makes it less suspicious for me to walk past Privet Drive number four, the house of my repulsive Sister-in-law.
I look at the neatly trimmed lawn, the perfectly kept flowerbeds and the brilliantly painted fence and repress the urge to gag as it all looks as fake as a Barbie doll house. I shake my head and fake to wipe some dust of my shoes, using the kneeling position to find my son's room, which really is not that hard to do.
The entire house looks perfectly bricked and painted and yet a good trained eye can detect strangely shaped holes positioned over the top and bottom of a single window in the right front wall on the second floor. Looking closer, faking to retie my shoes, I see a rusty pin still stuck in one of the holes and wonder what all that could be for.

I shake my head, knowing I will have to ask my son later and instead fake to tug at my dog's leash, silently casting the spell Voldemort teaches me. I see a soft green glow changing to the same color as a Portkey spell and quickly scan the area, my sharp Auror-trained eye seeing absolutely no one – not in obvious hiding spots, nor in the obscure ones.
Feeling relieved and wondering where the Portkey will lead my son too, I quickly fake to walk my dog back to my house and at the front door – pull out my famous Invisibility Cloak. Sniffling as I see it I remember giving Dumbledore a perfect copy of it, with a spell on it to make it work for at least 20 years, just to make him think I was still loyal to his cause.
I then thank myself for having picked this citizen of Privet Drive, as he is known to be as paranoid as Moody, and skittishly look around, checking the area once again before putting on my cloak and fleeing the area. Arriving at the same tunnel where I heard my son had, last year, encountered 2 Dementors, I take a deep breath and Apparate away.

10 days later

Harry Potter feels terrible. The death of his beloved Godfather is not even the cause as it had been the entire last week. No, Harry Potter feels terrible, because he is terribly afraid. The last 3 summers have been hell for him, especially last, because his uncle is determined to make him, Harry, a slut and make money of him having sex.
The man, fat as a whale and with black hair and blue eyes had sworn to him that, the minute he leaves his room he will be subjected to his new lessons and so Harry had kept himself to his room for the last 3 days, using an empty flower pot that had been hanging from aunt Petunia's window as a toilet and using many bottles of water to keep himself clean.

Food had luckily enough been given to him deep at night by his cousin Dudley, who whispered he was repaying him for saving his life, but Harry was only able to eat a bite or two before fear, pain, hatred and loss took him the rest of his appetite and so he had been giving most of it to his snow white Snow Owl named Hedwig.
Harry had kept Hedwig indoors, not wanting Vernon to use her to get Harry out of his room and Hedwig, like always, had seemingly understood his reason for not letting her hunt. He had, though, kept her cage door open and she had been residing on his shoulder, chair or bed for the last 3 days, only going into her cage to sleep.

Harry is now looking at the floor, sitting on the side of the bed and having his hands clasped together just over his knees. He had just woken from another nightmare, again about his Godfather's death, but it was not the nightmare that kept him awake. Harry had seen the shock and pain Bellatrix Lestrange had felt when she had seen Sirius die and the confusion about how this murderer could feel like that kept him from falling asleep.
"She was of course his cousin." Harry thought, but then he remembered that this was the same woman that had tortured Alice and Frank Longbottom – parents of his good friend Neville Longbottom – into pure insanity and that Sirius had hated every member of his family except for the Tonks part, which consisted of Andromeda, Ted and Nymphadora.
Harry sighs and mutters: "It just makes no sense, Hedwig. No sense at all." The owl crows softly, knowing she has to be quiet if she doesn't want to wake Vernon and Harry says: "I mean, why would the same woman who tortured 2 people insane feel so shocked and hurt about killing a family member she doesn't even like? I just don't understand any of it." Harry sighs again and shakes his head, not knowing he is being watched.

James' POV

For the last 3 days have I wondered. Wondered why my son won't leave his room. On the same day I had cast the spell had Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy apparently been ordered to take Molly and Ginny Weasley out of their family Home and to bring them to our lair, something the two men had done with absolute brilliance a week later.
Lucius had hidden himself in the deep grass and bushes surrounding the wards of the Burrow and had silently summoned the two witches' wands, while Severus brought Ginny to the front yard, which in turned lured Molly out. Severus then offered them both some Felix Felicis – a potion that would grant them nothing but good luck.
Severus had even gone so far as to take his Potions Kit with him and had convinced the two that they had to help him search the perimeters of their grounds for the last ingredient and they had split into three, making it easier for Lucius to first stun and apparate Ginny and then Molly into Riddle Manor before throwing them both in the dungeons there.

I personally shake my head at the stupidity of the two females and have to snicker again as we had induced two House Elves with long lasting Polyjuice Potions and so no one of the Weasley family was any wiser about their actual missing family members, not even with the overenthusiastic way that one of the House Elves cleans.
I then spare another glance around and see Remus – an amazingly good friend of mine with light brown hair that seems more and more flecked with grey – sitting on a garden bench of a yard opposite Harry's house. The man is obviously invisible for Muggles and fakes to be reading the newspaper, as he has been reading the same page for the last hour.

Then suddenly he shocks me as he growls: "You won't get him, scum." And his amber brown eyes stare straight at me from behind his newspaper. Cursing myself for not having put up any deodorant, a spray that would surely hide my natural scent and keep Moony from noticing me, I focus back on my son, faking not to have heard him.
This takes a lot out of me as I have to try really hard not to joke around with the man like I did back in school and I whisper: "Come on, son. Just walk out your bedroom door. You'll be safe then. Just walk out." But I make sure to whisper this soundlessly as I don't want Remus to be onto me more than he already is.

Another ten minutes pass and all I see Harry do is grab that same flower pot he stole from his aunt's window on the afternoon of his arrival. For some reason he sniffs at the pot and then pulls a face as if he's smelling 3 days old garbage. He opens his bedroom window and I hide myself a little lower, not wanting him to see me as well.
Then he shocks me as he turns the pot upside down right over an opened garbage can and I see a large amount of poop and pee fall out of the pot. I stick half my head out of the bush I'm hiding in and shout: "Why on earth is he?" But then Harry looks up and I stick my head back down quicker than the Snitch flies around.
Turning up a single leaf to see through I see Harry looking around and again stare at the garbage can, now seeing that some drops of the pee have missed their goal. Looking back up, I wonder why my son would use a flower pot as toilet and with a breaking heart, I think: "Oh my poor little boy, how much are you suffering in there?"

Then suddenly Remus says: "Well, well, seems today is my lucky day." I turn around, not about to show myself in the bushes to Harry just to look at Remus and he says: "I have to watch over my cub and instead I get to catch a torturer and a traitor." I wonder what he means until I hear a soft squeaking coming from below me.
I look down and see Peter in rat form sitting next to me. Shocked that Remus sniff him out even as a rat and even from at least 10 feet away, I look from the rat to the man and back to my son before suddenly a brilliant idea comes to my mind. I turn away from Remus and with my head hidden well inside the bush, I whisper:

"Peter, I want you to get into Harry's room. Lure him out of it. Let him see you and run through the door. Please hurry, Pete. My son is treated so badly there he doesn't even dare to go to the bathroom. I want him out of there, Pete." The rat nods and scurries across the street, causing a hard growl to erupt from behind me.
I turn around and see Remus close his newspaper firmly, only now noticing that the thing itself is three years old and that the pictures are moving. I spare one last glance at my other best friend and when I see him climbing the drainpipe leading to Harry's bedroom window, I know my son will be safe soon and with a smile, I apparate away

Just seconds before a spell is supposed to hit me.