I thought the first chapter was a bit long so split it up. There should be a new chapter within the next two days though.
Albus Dumbledore walked up to number 4 Privet Drive, unusually nervous, but unwilling to show it. That morning he had done a check on the wards protecting Harry Potter, as he did about once a month. The small boy had been taken to this home two years before. He was hoping he would find the boy in good conditions. Perhaps the spell had fallen on it's own, not due to outside influence. He knew he was a great wizard, but he was not so aware of it that he thought his magic infallible, and this was, of course, a complex spell.
A child opened the door, a boy about four years old. Dumbledore assumed that this must be Dudley.
"Hello. Could you go get your parents for me? I'd like to see your cousin." The young boy frowned in confusion before calling out to his parents.
"Mum! Daddy! There's a strange man here!"
"Oh! Nick, you can't open the door like that!" A young woman picked up the small boy and turned to Dumbledore.
"I'm sorry. What was it you wanted?"
"I came here to speak to Vernon and Petunia Dursley." The woman smiled in understanding.
"Oh! You mean the people that lived here before? They just moved, sorry. We only moved in a week ago. You didn't know?"
"No, I didn't. Thank you for telling me."
"You're welcome. I'm afraid they didn't leave a forwarding address,sorry."
"It's perfectly all right." The woman shook her head in thought.
"Not that it's much of a surprise, if the rumours I've been hearing are true. I'm not usually a gossiper, but this kind of thing you can't help but hear, you know?" Dumbledore frowned at her words.
"What was it you heard?" If the family was in trouble, Harry could be in danger. The woman bit her lip. She put the child on the ground with quick instructions to "go play with your toys."
"If you know them, I'm sure you know that they were raising two children. Apparently, and no one knows why, Child Services came and took the children away. Nobody suspected any abuse or anything. They were a perfectly nice couple. I mean, you never know what goes on behind closed doors, but it was just a very strange affair. I'm sure you'll excuse me." With that revelation, she bid him goodbye and closed the door.
Dumbledore, troubled, walked up the street before Disapparating. He would need to look further into this.
Harry Potter had only spent a few days at the temporary foster home when a man and woman came to meet him. Harry thought they looked familiar, but he couldn't quite remember why.
"Hello Harry," the woman said, smiling. "My name is Maria. Can I talk to you?" Harry nodded, who was he to deny the woman? His uncle had taught him to always respect others, especially adults. Plus, this woman seemed very nice. Suddenly, Harry remembered where he had seen her.
"Are you the lady from the zoo?" He asked.
"Yes, I am."
"Okay. I'm Harry." Then he remembered that she had greeted him by name.
"I know. This is Stephen. He wants to see you too."
"Oh! Come in, Sir, Ma'am." He said hastily, eyes widening as he realized he should have said that originally. He hoped they weren't too mad. Harry blinked in surprise. She wasn't angry with him. Was the man? He looked at Stephen worriedly. Stephen smiled back. The three conversed for a while that afternoon, and they fell into a pattern the next few weeks, Harry tentative and shy, but growing more confident as time passed.
Eventually, Maria asked Harry the question she had been planning to for a while.
"Harry. We would like to adopt you. Do you like that idea?" Harry's eyes widened. He wasn't quite sure what adoption was, he was only three, but he had a vague idea of what it was. He wasn't sure about doing it though. Maria and Stephen seemed nice, but what if they were mean when he went to their house?
"I-I don't know." Maria noticed the small boy's fear.
"We won't hurt you, I promise," She said, pulling him into a hug. In a moment of bravery, Harry nodded.
"Will you change my name?" Harry asked.
"Only if you want us to."
"I-I don't know. My real mommy and daddy named me, I think." Maria smiled in understanding.
"That's okay. Your birth parents should be an important memory to you. Do you think it would be okay if we gave you part of a name and you can keep the rest? That way, you can be our son sometimes, and still be Harry like your parents wanted."
"Okay."
A week later, Harry arrived at the household. Almost immediately, he was greeted by two young children, and an older woman holding an infant.
"Hi! I'm Luke! You're Harry." Harry nodded.
"Hi, Harry. I'm Elizabeth! I'm your sister now!" Harry's eyes widened. He had known that Maria and Stephen had other children, and he had seen pictures of them, but he had not expected this enthusiastic greeting.
"Um, hi."
"Come meet Nana Smith and Max! Max is your cousin now. Uncle Alistair and Aunt Rose are coming by soon. They're bringing food." Elizabeth struggled over her uncle's name, but beamed to have pronounced it correctly.
"You mean, uncle Al," Luke corrected. He couldn't even begin to pronounce the name.
"Okay." The older woman handed Maria the baby, knelt down toward Harry.
"Max is almost a year old. We're going to have a birthday party next week for him. Won't that be fun?" Harry nodded, already planning what he would have to do.
"All right. What will I do? I can put stuff on the table, but I'm not good at wrapping. My hands don't know what to do. Uncle Vernon got mad at me when I tried, and then I didn't get food, but it was okay, 'cause I only missed dinner." He didn't notice the horrified look on his new grandmother's face.
"No, you don't have to do anything for the birthday. You just have to go there and have fun!" Stephen said.
"Here, let's show you your new room," his grandmother spoke up. Michael nodded, before being led up a set of stairs to a bedroom painted blue with two beds.
"This used to be just Luke's room, but now you two can share." Stephen said. Luke grabbed his hand and dragged to the bed under a window. A stuffed bear sat by the pillow.
"This one is your bed. That's Little Bear. He used to be mine. Mum said you don't have any toys, so I give him you."
They showed Harry around the rest of the house, and introduced him to his new aunt and uncle. Harry was a little wary, as he hadn't had good experiences with "aunts" and "uncles", but Alistair and Rose were very careful with him, and Harry quickly realized that they were very different from his old guardians.
After some bonding time, Stephen checked the clock on the wall. "Oh, it's getting late! Time for bed. You guys want a bedtime snack?" Harry shook his head, but Luke jumped up excitedly.
"I do!" The family went into the kitchen, where Luke and Elizabeth were each given a treat. Harry looked toward them uncertainly.
"Here, Harry!" Elizabeth broke her treat in half and handed one half to Harry. Maria was about to interrupt and say that if Harry wanted his own treat, they would give him one, but Stephen put a hand out first and gave her a look that she understood to mean, "let them do this."
"Thank you, 'Lizabet," Harry said, with a quick look of confirmation at Stephen and Maria.
"You're welcome!" Elizabeth said. Harry ate his treat quietly, but smiled at his sister..
"Alright, guys, time for bed." Over the next few days, the new family settled into a pattern. There were a few mishaps, including Harry being startled by the sounds of an argument between Stephen and Maria. There was also the instance where the excitement of his new brother's presence began to wear a bit thin for Luke and the two bickered a bit.
Still, overall the new family came together well. Harry was pleasantly surprised to learn that he got to have cake and join in the fun things at Max's birthday party. He grew happier, and somewhat louder as he truly became a part of a family.
In a small room only entered once a year, no one noticed as the name "Harry James Duncan" appeared on the list of magical children in England.
In a small house near the Duncan residence, a little boy slept, lulled by his mobile. On his dresser, there rested pictures showing him smiling at his parents. The family in the picture moved in every picture there. Beyond his room, the dishes were washing themselves and there was a glass jar labeled "Floo Powder" beside the fireplace. In his parents room, two wands rested on a bedside table and Alistair and Rose Smith snuggled together under the covers. Rose bit her lip as she was reminded of a thought that had been troubling her for a few weeks now.
"Harry couldn't possibly be," she trailed off, uncertain how to phrase the idea without sounding mad.
"Harry Potter?" Alistair guessed. He had to admit that the idea had occurred to him as well.
"Right, that would be insane!" Rose said. "I mean, the news…"
"Yes, it would be quite a story if Harry Potter disappeared from, well, wherever he's being kept."
"Yes, exactly, a passing resemblance to James and Lily Potter," though of course it was much more than passing, "doesn't mean anything. And Harry is a fairly common name." She could feel herself grasping at straws.
"But Harry James Potter isn't." Alistair spoke what they were both thinking. Maria had told them both his first and last name early in the adoption process. Both had thought it simply a coincidence. But recently they had heard his middle name, and combined with the boy's looks, and his behavior, it made quite a convincing picture.
"We could look for the scar," Rose whispered, unable to believe she was even voicing the thought. Harry's hair was always a mess, and his forehead was rarely completely visible.
"Yes absolutely. That will prove we're just being silly." Alistair said. Neither truly believed his words.
In his office, Albus Dumbledore stared at the files he had received earlier that day. Normally, such information would be unavailable to anyone outside the Child Services agency, but he'd made some inquiries and discovered that a Jennifer Kersten had worked on the Dursley case. Luckily, one of her childhood friends was a Muggleborn. He had contacted her discretely and explained the situation. She had been eager to help, and it wasn't difficult for her to set up a meeting to "reconnect" with her friend. She did feel a bit guilty using magic to get the files, but it was for a good cause, and hey, she had been in Slytherin for a reason.
The files revealed that both children had been taken from the home. Dudley was currently with a foster family, but Harry had been officially adopted by Maria and Stephen Duncan. They family had two children already.
Dumbledore thought the name was familiar and found why in his own records. Rose and Stephen Duncan had been a rare case of twins where one child is magic, and the other isn't. There had been some surprise over that, but ultimately, things worked out, and he believed Rose and Stephen remained close.
Now he had to determine what to do. Though the wards had reactivated over the Duncan household when Harry moved in, they were not nearly as strong without the blood magic connection. However, Dumbledore couldn't take the boy away from the family. Not only was it illegal, it was unethical. The family had bonded and he didn't want Harry to suffer, as it was clear he had when he stayed with his relatives. Dumbledore was grieved to hear about that, as he had not wanted the boy to have to trade love and affection for protection.