"You want to meet him?" Remus asked

"Yes, absolutely, please."

"Come on."

They walked down to the basement and he knocked on the door and then opened it a crack, "Doritos and Oreos."

Harry relaxed but didn't tucked his wand back his into pocket, "Hello."

"Harry this is Sirius Black. I'm pretty sure we can trust him."

Harry nodded but kept his distance.

"So Harry." Sirius tried to pull him into a conversation, "How do you like your school?"

"It's fine."

"Do you have any friends?"

"A few."

"What's your favorite class?"

"Recess."

"What class is that?" Sirius asked.

"It's not a class per say." Remus chuckled, "It's play time."

"Oh, that's my favorite class too." Harry gave the barest hint of a smile with Sirius' response.

A week later Harry was wrestling on the basement floor with Sirius. For the first three days Harry stayed at least five feet away from him and only gave one or two word answers to the questions Sirius asked. But he had thawed some when Sirius finally managed to catch his interest. It actually took snuffles to break the ice. Harry had returned with Remus to find a black dog on the couch. He was sprawled on his back with his feet up, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and he was snoring. Sirius had woken to find Harry rolling on the floor laughing. After that it was a free for all. Sirius tended to stay in his dog form because Harry was most comfortable with it.

On his last day of school before the holiday Remus gave Harry a mirror without Sirius knowing, "If it warms up I'm trying to call you. Get to a private place and look in the mirror. If I don't call you don't come home."

"Be careful." Harry admonished, "I can take care of myself but I don't want to have to do it."

"I will." Remus hugged him, "Sirius doesn't know our safe place and he doesn't know about the mirror. I trust him with my life but people can be controlled."

"Imperious." Harry said.

"Exactly. We're meeting at two o'clock. Be on the watch for wizards today." Remus reminded him.

"Don't worry." he responded patting his wand in his bag, "They don't know what I'm capable of."

"I don't think I know what you're capable of." Remus chuckled.

They gave each other another worried hug and Harry went to his bus stop. His teacher realized immediately that something was going on with Harry. He was inattentive and jumpy. By lunch she had put up with all she could so she pulled him aside and asked him what was wrong.

Harry had been through sudden moves enough he knew what needed to be said, "Sorry, I just found out last night my uncle is being transferred to another city. He's going to find out today when we have to move. I'm afraid it's going to be soon and I just can't concentrate today."

His teacher patted him on the head and told him not to worry. She was sure the afternoon party would help him relax. The party was to run from two to three in the afternoon. That was the same time as the meeting was to take place. Try as he might Harry just couldn't enjoy the party. By three his mirror still had not warmed. He got onto the bus and road to a stop a few blocks from his home. He needed to get off before his stop so he turned to his friends for help. So at the next stop they caused a diversion so Harry could slip off unnoticed.

He hid behind a tree until the bus left then he moved off to go to the safe place. Part way there he slipped into an alley and cast a few transfiguration spells and then a brown haired boy with blue eyes went out the opposite end of the alley, soon as he was out of the small town and into the fields. Once light diminished some he transformed into his animagus form and took off. It took some time but he reached the safe place. The first thing Remus did with every move was find a place to go in case they got separated or scared. He made sure it was far enough away but yet close enough for Harry's animagus form to get him there. They wouldn't plan to apparate there as Harry could be tracked with the trace. But the animagus transformation was different once the transformation was complete it no longer gave off a magical signature. As long as he stayed animal they couldn't find him.

He reached the safe place after dark. He smelled around but didn't detect any human presence. He curled up in a dark area and relaxed. He was hungry but wouldn't risk transforming to eat. If he got hungry enough his animagus form could find something.

Remus was angry. Albus was late. He should have arrived thirty minutes ago. Not only did this make Remus worry about them not being honest with him, it also would make Harry worry about him. If he couldn't contact Harry in thirty minutes he would leave for the safe place and Remus wouldn't be able to contact him until Albus was gone.

"Relax." Sirius said, "It just a minor delay. International portkeys are notorious for being late."

"Easy for you to say." Remus muttered, "I'm the one going to Azkaban for kidnapping."

"He gave me a wizard's vow that he wouldn't do that." Sirius said.

"I believe you're telling me what you think is the truth." Remus said, "I just not sure if it's his truth."

"I know." Sirius chuckled, "I didn't want to have anything to do with him at first. It was just a way to find Harry. I didn't want to believe he could be so negligent to put me in Azkaban without a trial. I promise not to let them do it to you."

"Good luck with that." Remus said, "Of course being a werewolf didn't help my cause when I was trying to get you one."

"Did you read the excerpt in my testimony?"

"About punching the stupid werewolf?"

"He made sure I knew you had begged for a trial." Sirius grinned, "Here they are."

Albus Dumbledore walked towards them along with Amelia Bones. They stopped a few feet away from Sirius and Remus, "Hello Remus, good to see you again."

"Likewise Albus." he replied and then nodded at Amelia, "Ms. Bones."

"Sorry we're late, hold up on our end." Amelia stated, "You didn't bring Harry with you?"

"He's in school." Remus supplied.

"Bring him home Remus." Albus said, "He needs to return to England."

"Our life here has been quite peaceful." Remus said, "Why would I want to return such a dangerous place?"

"He needs to go to Hogwarts." Albus said, "I need to teach him the skills he's going to need."

"We can return in time for Hogwarts."

"Remus he needs more protection than you can provide." Albus pleaded, "We can have the best protection the ministry can provide. We can have the best protection the Order can provide. Surely you can see how much safer he would be there."

"So the ministry is all cleared out of Voldemort's supporters?" Remus asked.

"No." Amelia replied, "But they would not try to attack Harry without their leader."

"Sorry but I don't accept empty statements such as that." Remus shook his head, "If we were to return it would be under my conditions."

"What are your conditions?" she asked.

"First and foremost the trace must be removed."

"But we can't…" Amelia started.

"With Voldemort's supporters still wandering around getting whatever information they want you think I should return with him? What if he has a bout of accidental magic?" Remus was demanding that they see his side, "All they have to do is watch for it and apparate to our general area. The trace has to go."

"I'll see what we can do about that." Albus said, "What else?"

"He stays with me. He is not going back to Petunia." Remus stated.

"That's fine; we have no problem with that." Albus allowed.

"Let's move to a more comfortable location shall we?" Amelia asked.

Remus had reserved a private room at a wizarding restaurant for the meeting. They spent the next five hours discussing demands and plans. Remus received vows from Albus and Amelia before they finally left. They would be in touch in the next couple days to let him know how preparations were going.

Harry was getting tired so he decided to run around outside and check for intruders. Lucky for him it was a dark moonless night so he would be able to move about undetected. He smelled around the perimeter of the area which was about half a mile from the barn that was the safe place. Smelling no one he decided to climb a tree nearby and see if he could see anything coming his way. He sat in the big oak tree and surveyed his surroundings he didn't see anything so after half an hour he decided to go back to the barn. He hit the ground without a sound and started to walk away. But he froze when he heard the sound of apparition that happened just to the south of him maybe a forth of a mile away. Harry could see two people and he could tell they were walking at an angle away from him and towards his barn. Silently he moved towards them so he could hear what they were talking about.

"If he can meet my demands I'll see what Harry wants to do." Remus said, "I won't put him in a possibly dangerous situation without him agreeing to it."

"I don't see how you can stand to live here." Sirius commented, "I mean they talk funny and their food they use the wrong names for stuff. A cookie is a biscuit and a biscuit is bread how weird is that?"

"It takes some getting used to but you'll get the hang of it." Remus chuckled.

"So how much farther until we get to Harry? He's probably scared to death and hungry." Sirius said, "In fact how did he get all the way out here?"

"That my friend is a secret. If Harry wants you to know he'll tell you." Remus grinned at the confused face on his friend.

"Should we be calling his name or giving a password?" Sirius asked.

"No he already knows we're here."

"How? Do you have spells around this place?" Sirius asked.

"No this is a completely non-magical environment, perfect for hiding from wizards." Remus said, "They'd never think to look here. They'll be looking for heavy wards and detection spells, that's the beauty of the plan, they'll just walk right by."

"So then how does he know we're here?"

"He's been following us every since we got here. He must have gone out to patrol because he was board or sleepy." Remus stated.

"Then why are we still walking?" Sirius was dumbfounded.

"When he's ready to show himself we'll stop otherwise I don't want to sit out here, I'd like to be in our safe place."

"How much farther?"

"Just ahead there."

Sirius noticed a darker shape not far from them, "A barn?"

"Yep, come on." Remus went inside the barn and found a comfortable place to sit.

They had been sitting for several minutes when Sirius stiffened, "Something's out there and I don't think its Harry."

"Nonsense." Remus replied.

Just when Sirius relaxed something jumped out of the dark and pinned him to the ground. He was so shocked he didn't even scream when the large black cat landed on him. He could hear Remus laughing off to the side but he was frozen with fear. A few seconds later the black panther started to shrink.

"Uncle Sirius you better breathe or you'll pass out." Harry snickered.

Sirius breathed and he tried to talk but he ended up doing a pretty good imitation of a fish out of water. Harry joined Remus in the laughter at the expense of Sirius. By the time they had gotten it under control Sirius was able to talk.

"Anima… you… you… wow… I mean…" Sirius could talk but just barely, "A cat?"

Harry fell over laughing again.

"Panther actually, it was the first bit of magic I taught him." Remus said, "In case of an accident with Moony."

"Good idea." Sirius was finally able to talk, "But what about the trace?"

"Americans have a much more relaxed view on underage magic. If it's not dark and it's not meant to harm someone then it's ok." Remus said, "I teach him to be careful for when we return to England."

"Are we going back?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Maybe." Remus said, "I've extracted some good promises out of them and if they can deliver we'll go if you want."