Chapter 1

Harry's time at the Dursley's was never a good, fun or happy. Family meant sticking together through the good and the bad, unconditional love and support and being restful in the knowledge that you could sleep at night without fear of harm. For Harry, the Dursley's pointed the finger at him, blamed him for their misfortunes due to his 'freakish behaviour'. Dudley would happily break the legs that physically supported him and Harry usually slept with one eye open lest Vernon try to strangle, smother, stab, poison or his latest favourite, put his old set of golf clubs to 'good use'. Harry had wondered whether Vernon had finally realised that he was crap at golf or whether he was becoming bored with the whipping, punching and breaking he usually favoured.

At the last night, before the end of year feast that Harry usually gorged himself on knowing that the starvation of the previous summer would likely resume, Hermione had pulled him aside and tied a thin leather strapping around his neck with a runic pendant attached, then Hermione quickly pushed it underneath his last clean shirt. When the cool metal touched his skin a warmth brewed throughout his body, from the tingling in the tips of his toes to the feeling of his hair standing on end. She didn't say anything, just pulled him towards the Great hall doors and sat him down with her and Ron. Ginny had moved away from him, he still didn't understand, or rather he hoped he didn't understand.

But now in the dead of night, the bars removed from his window since the Order had come for a 'chat' with the Dursley's and Hedwig happily tooting by the window where a cool breeze was cutting through the humid heat, the boy, the young man on the cusp of adulthood physically, the cusp of middle age mentally, slept soundly beneath the usual ratty thin blanket that had been his own since childhood, that had once been a blessing but now with growth a curse. But on he slept soundly, replenishing the body and mind after the latest ordeal at the hands of Voldemort after the Tri-wizard Contest, but this sound sleep left his mind and body too preoccupied to notice a whale sized man waddle into his room carrying a louisville slugger from the latest 'family vacation'.

The boy didn't notice the door open, the man come closer to his bed, but what he did notice was the pain when the slugger was swung down with 25 stone force into his stomach. Spleen ruptured, crushed liver, stomach and intestines.

Whilst fighting against through the pain of the first blow he was too unaware of Vernon's arm raising again and again; slowly, excruciatingly slowly the boys body came to a shuddering pace. His skull cracked, his collarbone smashed, both forearms that had been thrown up in protection snapped beneath the force of the weight of Vernon, along with his internal organs slowly ebbing away his life's blood. His mind in turmoil. Fight! Fight! Fight! But all the effort to defend himself just earned him another swing of the bat until it broke. Harry sighed what little he could thinking the abuse to be over when the meaty fists of the Whale came crashing down onto him next.

When young Harry thought he could take no more, when the screaming voice within his head turned from fight, to run, Harry felt a familiar warmth spreading throughout his body with a strength that hadn't previously,happened. A pulse of light connected with Vernon, throwing him away from Harry, sending him to the floor loudly and unconscious. The light slowly swallowed Harry whole until he was no longer in the room, or town or even the county.


The noise in 12 Grimmauld place was steadily increasing with the shouts of the men and women inside and soon the neighbours would have been complaining had it not been for the numerous privacy wards and secrecy spells placed on the town house located somewhere in the London area. The impromptu meeting between the Order, the secret organisation set to rid the world of Voldemort . He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers the aptly named Death Eaters. Albus Dumbledore had called the meeting after hearing underground rumours of an attack set again Harry Potter and his relatives at 4 Privet Drive. The Death Eaters had planned to use the boys family to get to Harry but Severus complained that the boy was so pampered and adored by his family that there was really no point in having it investigated, pulling his precious time away from his Extremely delicate potions to look out of the the boy on a whim. He spent far too much time away from his potions already because of the brat as it was and he wasn't going to let a measly rumour take any more time and he had spent the last hour trying to get the Godmutt to realise this. Instead the words drawled out complacently by the potions professor ended up In the eruption of Black rushing toward the Professor, wand drawn and a curse at his lips that things started to get ugly.

Snape decided it was time to put the mutt in his place, mentioning that if the unlikely event something did happen and Harry was attacked by Death Eaters it would be entirely Sirius' fault for meeting him in the the known animagus form and slipping away to keep watch on the boy. But the boy hadn't been seen. Severus thought he was probably loungin on a sun lounger on a Mediterranean beach somewhere, but the mutt thought something was wrong. And even though Severus couldn;t admit it to himself, no matter anybody else, he was becoming more and more angered at the notion that Potter could be on holiday whilst the rest of them fought with their live in the balance to keep him safe and alive.

"Black", He spat out in disgust, "I am not prepared to risk everyone here on a whim! There is no tangible proof that the blasted boy was in any danger what so ever!" Snape sneered

"No, you're not prepared to risk yourself, ay Snivellus. You're a coward, a snivelling coward when we were young and with the growth of your nose, the growth of the cowardice has grown too" Black screamed back.

No-one in the room wanted to tell Black that of his voice got any higher he would start to sound like the banshee of a mother at the bottom of the stairs and the resemblance would be uncanny. But everyone could see the fury building in Snape, building rapidly at the humiliation so quickly that it had many shuffling back wards and others for an explosive proof area.

"You're problem, you greasy haired, hook nosed bastard is that no-one ever loved you, so you can't feel what we do for Harry. No-one loved you and no-one ever will and all of us can see that you can't cope with what he would sacrifice for Harry"

Black reached Mrs Black pitch and lunged froward towards Snape. But after years of practice keeping various Death Eaters away, Severus was quicker, finally letting himself use the spell he had developed with Black in mind.

"SECTUMSEMPRA!"

But before the cutting curse could hit it's target a bright light and a feeling of warmth and comfort came into the room and a corporeal body could be seen slowly forming. A hand outstretched reaching for Snape, a face barely visibly recognisable for all the bruising and blood, looking in relief a the potions master. A brief look of tenderness could be seen aimed at the professor before the curse hit. But not its intended target.