Chapter Three

Albus Dumbledore was an old wizard, old and tired, so when he apparated onto Privet Drive, he didn't immediately notice that something was wrong. However, as he started off down the street, he began to feel a presence, he knew that he was not alone. The feeling disturbed him until he saw Minerva sitting on the steps of Number Four Privet Drive.

"Minerva!" He greeted. "How nice to find you here. I had a feeling that I wasn't alone." The stiff looking cat in front of him smoothly morphed into a stern looking woman.

"Really? Maybe you would prefer to be alone? You can't be thinking of leaving the child here, of all places!" A slight feeling of shame welled up out of Albus, but he quickly squished it down. Harry had to come here, he would be protected by the blood wards, and wouldn't have any outside magical influence until Hogwarts, where he could be moulded into the proper Saviour that the wizarding world would need. It would be best in the long run, for the Greater Good, if not for Harry himself. He knew that Lily and Petunia hadn't gotten along, but they wouldn't harm the boy, and that would have to be enough. He was the one that would have to kill Voldemort, the prophecy said so.

"It is the only way, Minerva. He must stay here, for his own protection."

"For his protection! Albus, what are you talking about? Why would Harry need protecting?"

"Voldemort may be gone, Minerva, but his followers are not. Harry can be protected here, he would be in danger from the death eaters without the protections that I can place around his Aunt's property."

"The Death Eaters! What on earth happened? I know what the rumours say, but…it can't possibly be true, can it?"

The conversation was making Murtagh's head spin. The old man…Grumblethore? was making him sick. He was thinking of a child, and planning on how to turn it into a weapon. The cat-woman didn't seem bad, but then again, Galbatorix's soldiers had only been following their leader, that didn't stop them from murdering Tornac. This Bumbleroar seemed to be fighting the good fight, those Death Eater people sounded like a bad thing, but that didn't mean that what he was doing was any better than the murder of his mentor. Murtagh knew how badly your childhood could screw you up, to purposefully place a child in a place that would 'mould him' sounded like the worst idea he'd ever heard.

The two professors were still arguing when a large, roaring metal contraption flew out of the sky. A large man got off it, he seemed to be someone that Prumblegore was waiting for. He was easily the largest man he'd ever seen, he'd probably actually be able to reach Shruikan's shoulder. Galbatorix hadn't been able to do that for decades. The large man reached into what seemed to be the metal contraption's saddlebags, and pulled out a bundle of cloth.

"I've got 'im right 'ere Pr'fess'r." The large man rumbled. "Fell asleep jus' as I were flyin' o'er Bristol."

To his horror, Murtagh realized that the bundle of cloth was the child that Grumbledore had been speaking of. It was a mere babe! The way they had been speaking, and thinking of the child, Murtagh had been expecting to see a small boy of about seven to ten years of age, this one didn't look like it could walk reliably yet! That old man was planning the abuse of a baby, he was expecting it to grow up to be the saviour of their nation! It was abominable!

Thorn looked down upon the scene below. Her human was upset. The wrinkly ones and the large one all acted terribly sad to be giving the hatchling up, especially the large one, but Thorn agreed with Murtagh. They were giving the hatchling up, to people that none of them trusted. Hatchlings were precious, and these humans were treating the infant like so much garbage. Saphira had told him that there was a possibility of her having an egg with Fírnen sometime soon. It would be the first new dragon egg in over a century. That hatchling would be coddled, protected, watched every second until it could defend itself. It wouldn't matter if Saphira and Fírnen both died, the Eldunarì, Eragon, the elves, even the dwarves would love to step in to protect the hatchling. Why should this one be any different? It made no sense to the dragon.

Murtagh watched as the large man dumped the babe on the doorstep of one of the dwellings along the street. Within minutes all three had left, the woman transforming back into a cat, the large man to return the metal contraption to a 'Sirius Black', and the old man to…Murtagh didn't know. He had vacated the old mans mind more than a minute before he left. The way he was orchestrating this child's, Harry's life was disturbing to say the least. Murtagh looked around once more, and, seeing nothing, allowed himself to slowly become visible once more.

"Thorn," he sent to his companion, "I would stay hidden for now. We still don't know how common dragons are in these parts." He loped over to the front porch and carefully picked up the infant on the steps. Murtagh didn't have much experience with small children, but he knew enough to keep the child safe for the night. He didn't even have to tell Thorn that they would be staying till morning, they had asked to be sent where they were needed, and there wasn't anyone else in that area that needed more help than little Harry Potter.

Harry was so very sleepy, but he was also hungry, and there was finally someone holding him properly, and he was warm, so that must mean…!

"Mama!" Harry asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. When he did so, however, he realized that it was not Mama. The person holding him didn't smell right, and didn't have Mama's pretty red hair. He was also a boy. Like Dada or Unc'e Si. But Harry didn't recognize the person holding him. "Who?"

The man startled, as if he had been asleep, but that was silly, cause who sleeps with their eyes open?

The child was awake. Murtagh had been holding him in his arms all night long, so when the infant started squirming, he noticed immediately. However, he was attempting to learn more about the world that he had found himself in. He and Thorn were stretching out their minds, lightly touching the minds of the people around them who had just started to wake up. It was so different. They didn't believe in magic, they believed in something called 'science'. He seemed to recall that the King of Surda dabbled a bit in 'science', but he'd always been something of a joke, not something to take seriously. These people were all so petty, too. He tried not to be too invasive, he'd never enjoyed invading other people's privacy, but these people! Even on the very outer limits of their minds, they were constantly judging other people, wanting things, when they had more than most people in Alagaësia could ever dream of.

"Mama!" The child's voice broke through his rambling thoughts. The child thought he was his mother? Murtagh looked down at the infant, just to see it's face fall. "Who?" Murtagh was surprised. He hadn't expected the child to speak so well.

"My name is Murtagh, little one." He murmured softly. "We're here to speak with your Aunt."

The child began to cry. Murtagh was panicking a little, until Thorn inserted himself into his thoughts. "The child is most likely hungry. Young dragons require at least a handful of meat every couple hours, human children should be similar. I see some rabbits, should I catch one for you?"

"No, no," Murtagh assured quickly, "human children aren't supposed to have meat until they grow enough teeth. I doubt this one is old enough yet."

Thorn grumbled a laugh. "Humans are so strange. No teeth? How do they survive? Your teeth are your only valuable weapons that you come equipped with."

"Well," Murtagh explained, "while young dragons are expected to fend for themselves, the parents of young humans must look after them for a significantly longer period, four, maybe five years."

"How odd." Thorn commented. "You strange creatures are so defenceless, so useless for the first years of your life. The care-givers have to waste those same years looking after them, their whole lives must revolve around the hatchling. Are you sure we should keep this one?"

"What?" Murtagh exclaimed, "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, silly human? We both know that you decided to claim the hatchling moments after you learnt of it. You believe that he is the reason we're here, the reason we're needed. Now, feed the child before its wailing wakes the entire neighbourhood."

"Ah, right. Now, where could we get food?" Murtagh looked around him. There still wasn't anything that looked like food, and he had no idea how to get somewhere where he could find some. He supposed there must be some inside the houses, in fact, the humans that were awake all had one thing in common, they were all thinking of breakfast, and their kitchen. However, one thing that Murtagh knew, was that babies drank milk, and he could not see any cows nearby, so these people must not drink it.

Murtagh began to sense a presence moving about inside the house. They had all been asleep until quite recently, but he didn't think it quite decent to bother them until a decent hour of the morning, however, the infant was beginning to wail, so up and about would have to do. He got up and knocked on the door, clutching the boy and the letter that Grumblethore had left tightly.

"Coming!" Murtagh heard an exasperated voice yell from inside the house. He ascertained that it was a woman, about twenty-five years old, before withdrawing his mind. He felt very rude for gleaning the minds of the others on the street, but he was actually going to meet this one, and he had boundaries. "I'm coming!"

The door opened abruptly, and Murtagh saw a tall, thin woman with hair that was already escaping the ties that she had attempting to control it with. "Hello." He greeted awkwardly. "I have something of great importance to discuss with you this morning, about a Mr Harry Potter. I believe he is a relation of yours?" The woman appeared frightened and went to close the door, before changing her mind.

"You said Harry Potter? Son of Lily Evans and James Potter?"

Murtagh paused, unsure of how to proceed. He decided to go for the direct approach. "I'm not sure, exactly. There was an old man, some professor, a lady that could turn into a cat, and a large man on a flying motorcycle that put a baby they called Harry Potter on your front porch. I sat with him through the night, to make sure nothing happened to him. The lady who turned into a cat might have mentioned a Lily and James, I'm not certain."

The woman was petrified for a few moments before she hurriedly ushered him inside. "In, get in, these topics are not to be discussed in public."

Murtagh stepped inside hesitantly. It was so clean. He was used to stone, or rough boards, with dirt ground into the floors. This, this was pristine. "Sorry about the mess. My Dudders is just such a handful now, I barely have time to clean up." He snorted.

"It's absolutely fine."

"Is that Harry?" The woman asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I believe so. You are his Aunt?"

"Petunia, Petunia Dursely. I don't know why you brought the child here. Lily and I haven't spoken in years." The woman, Petunia murmured bitterly. She did not seem to want her nephew.

"You are unwilling…" Murtagh began, before Petunia interrupted suddenly.

"Wait, Dumbledore was going to leave the child on the front porch? Alone? In this weather?"

"You forget," Murtagh added sarcastically, "he left you a letter."

"A letter." Petunia stated. "Albus Bloody Dumbledore left my nephew and a letter on the front porch? He's only a child, why, if you hadn't come along, the child could have died! Speaking of that, who are you? Why are you here?"

"My name is Murtagh. I am here, because the child needed me."

"Murtagh. What kind of name is Murtagh? Where are you from? Are you…different? Like Lily?"

"Different? I certainly am diifferent, at least to you. I'm not from around these parts. However, I do not believe that Lily was like me."

Petunia looked hesitant. "You saw the flying motorcycle, the lady who turned into a cat. Lily could do that. She was a…was a…a witch. Her husband was a wizard." Petunia sounded horrified and disgusted by the very idea, but Murtagh caught a glimpse of longing in her eyes, long suppressed, but still there.

"I am not a wizard." Murtagh stated. Petunia visibly relaxed. "However," Murtagh continued, "as I said earlier, I'm not exactly normal either. I would like to raise your nephew. I don't believe that you want him, and I believe that he needs me."

Petunia looked as if she desperately wanted to foist Harry off onto Murtagh, but she proved that she did care, only tempted for a minute. "What do you mean, needs you? I won't just hand over my nephew, even if I don't want him in my house. I certainly want what's best for him, and I don't even know you."

Murtagh was satisfied. He knew that Petunia didn't want Harry, that she was scared of him, in fact, but at least he could work with her. If she'd just handed the infant over, Murtagh truly believed that his anger would have snapped. "As I said before, I'm not from around here. I came here from another world, magically. I was sent somewhere I'd be needed, and I ended up right in front of little Harry. Magic thinks he needs me, and I learned early on, not to argue with magic."

Petunia stared at him sharply for a moment. "Prove it." She finally said. Murtagh thought for a bit, and came up with an idea.

"I can show you." He suggested. "Hold Harry, would you?" After passing her the child, Murtagh dug out a piece of slate from his bags. He'd prepared it before he left with all the pigments he could have needed to make a fairth. He knew just what to make. Murtagh concentrated on the newest map of Alagaësia that he could remember, and then added some of his own whimsical details. He had a tiny image of Thorn curled up in the far north, a little blue dragon's egg in the Spine, to represent Saphira, a tiny Tornac fighting valiantly in front of Uru'baan, Brom's tomb sparkling on the hill outside Dras'Leona, and other such details. It captured some of the moments that he wanted to remember about his old life. Murtagh handed the slate to Petunia. She passed back Harry. "That is the country where I come from."

Petunia was shocked. This man created an image on a stone without a wand, a potion, or any other nonsense that Lily was forever spouting off about. Therefore, she concluded, he must be different than Lily. That he could do magic made Petunia believe everything that he'd told her. She did not have the magical knowledge to doubt that a magic user could travel to another world, for all she knew, Lily could too. She didn't need the details. She only had one question for him.

"If you aren't from Earth, how do you speak English?"

Murtagh considered this, and answered with another question. "If you aren't from Alagaësia, how do you speak Common?" Petunia could not refute that logic.

"You…you want Harry?"

"I think he needs me." Murtagh replied.

"I…I won't be able to handle him." Petunia confessed. "Vernon thinks that my sister is a freak, and…and I don't tell him otherwise. I won't be able to love my nephew, but I do want what's best for him. Even if you aren't the same as him, you'll be able to relate to him better, to help him. You seem alright, you could have just stolen him in the night, or left him on the porch, but you stayed with him, and you met with me, instead of treating me the way Dumbledore does, leaving the child on the porch with a letter. Take him."

"There's one last thing that I need from you. Firstly, I was hoping that you might be able to advise me on what to feed the child, and then, how to acquire more of that food. I also need to learn more about this world, I understand very little."

"I see." Petunia murmured. "Of course. I can give you one of Dudley's bottles of milk for now, and perhaps a bit of cereal, or baby food. I've forgotten how old Harry is, children eat different foods at different ages. As for learning more about this world, I would suggest that you go to the local library. As long as you can read in English, it should be able to tell you all that you'd need to know."

Murtagh thanked her as she went to the refrigerator to prepare Harry a bottle of milk. He would have to look into this 'public library'.