28. Missing

Harry had once again – and perhaps for the last time as in a few weeks Harry would be of age and out of Dumbledore's control – pretended to his friends and their family to see his uncle. It had been harden than usual due to the fact that everyone was worried about Harry's safety but somehow he had managed to give them the slip. In actual fact had run away as soon as he had exited the station.

The first time Harry had done this after second year Harry had genuinely seen his Uncle. Harry had been planning to obey Dumbledore and return to the Dursleys. It wasn't like Harry had anywhere else to go.

But soon as Harry had seen Vernon Dursley Harry had panicked as the flash backs started. The memories of what Vernon had done to him had flooded his mind. Harry had freaked out and couldn't bear the thought of returning to Vernon knowing he would repeat what he had done if he went back so ran from the station somehow dragging his heavy trunk along with him as he fled from his Uncle.

Harry was lucky enough to run into other street kids which was what he had become for that summer. They had seen his panicked state and understood what was going on in his mind especially when he said he had wanted to get away from his Uncle. The understood what Harry was going and through and why Harry wanted to escape; after all no child from a happy home ended up on the streets.

Harry had fit right in with the homeless kids apart from his trunk that Harry was careful to keep hidden and explained to his newfound allies that it was the only thing that his aunt and uncle would miss when Harry had decided to run away. Harry knew that they didn't believe him but in Dudley's old rags so he looked the part so they accepted it.

Harry had never informed them of his parents' wealth fearing what they would do if they found out he had bags of money even if he had none on him at the start of summer because galleons, sickles and knuts would have no value in the Muggle world. Harry hadn't trusted them and they hadn't trusted him as they had all learnt not to trust anyone but themselves long ago but they at least taught him how to survive. Harry was lucky that he only had to survive a few weeks on the streets before he met Sirius unlike the others who were probably still on the streets unless the authorities had picked them up and either sent them home or into care which Harry knew they wouldn't like.

Harry had never told anyone aside from Sirius and Remus the truth about his home life or rather lack of it now. Harry liked the Weasleys as friends but at the same time knew how loyal they were to Dumbledore. He knew that they would tell Dumbledore if they realised he refused to go back to the Dursleys and he would end up back in Privet's Drive before he had finished his sentence especially Mrs Weasley who wouldn't understand that their were some homes worse than living it rough.

Dumbledore was still, miraculously considering Fudge's opinion of Dumbledore now Dumbledore had attempted to make the stupid politician see reason that Voldemort had indeed return to physical form, Harry's magical guardian. Still it was probably best that Dumbledore was his magical guardian as he doubted with Fudge's influence he would be allowed to choose his own magical guardian. Harry would probably end up having some Ministry loyalist become his magical guardian if he was lucky or worse and more likely a Death Eater such as Lucius Malfoy and they wouldn't even listen to what Harry said about his choice of a guardian.

Still Dumbledore's continued guardianship over Harry meant that if Dumbledore realised that Harry wasn't where he was supposed to be Dumbledore would be well within his rights to send him back unless he could prove child abuse on either Dumbledore or the Dursleys part. Harry had learnt along time ago that people would never believe him over anyone else so if he said he was being abused people would most likely just forget about it as soon as they begun doing anything about it. It had every other time after all whether it was the teachers, the police, social workers or the hospital.

Only Mrs Figg had ever believed him and looked after him. Yet she was in Dumbledore's pocket. Harry didn't understand why. Was she acting? Or did she really care but like Harry, Sirius and Remus realised that they could do nothing against Dumbledore especially as she was only a Squib.

Harry hailed for a taxi glad that he had some Muggle money that he kept on at all times just in case he had to flee into the Muggle world again. Magical law enforcement and Dumbledore might be powerful but they knew very little about the Muggle world. It meant that Harry who had grown up all Muggle could hide in the Muggle world forever without anyone even suspecting where he was especially as thanks to his time on the streets he knew the less scrupulous characters who would only be too happy to provide him with a fake identity – for the right price.

'Grimmauld place,' Harry ordered the driver.

Before long Harry was once more entering Sirius' old home that had become more of a home to Harry than Privet Drive had ever been. It was just a shame that Sirius hated the place. Not that Harry blamed him due to Sirius' bad family relations.

If Harry grew up and was forced to hide in a decrepit Number Four Privet Drive Harry was sure he would hate it just as much as Sirius hated number twelve Grimmauld Place. It wasn't the house that Sirius hated more the memories attached to the place. People who had lead happy and carefree lives like Ron could never understand that there were more important things than money and fame.

Still at least it was the last place that the Ministry would ever expect Sirius Black to go as he was known to hate his family. Plus, as Sirius hadn't inherited his parents' house until after his imprisonment the Ministry didn't know he owned it. The goblins did but because Sirius had never been tried so they felt no need to have the vaults frozen until someone else legally claimed it at the time of the owner's death as they had done with other imprisoned Death Eaters such as the Lestranges.

Sirius spotted Harry as soon as Harry walked in the door. Harry opened his mouth to call out a greeting to his lover but found a hand clamped over his mouth. If it had been anyone else Harry would have regretted far more negatively but Harry wasn't frightened of Sirius so just raised his eyebrows.

Harry didn't know what Sirius problem with keeping quiet at that moment. It wasn't like he was going to wake his mother. Harry could tell his lover was worried glancing around the place warily. Harry wondered what the problem was this time; surely Voldemort wouldn't have attacked Grimmauld Place at least not yet as he was still recruiting.

'Keep your voice down,' murmured Sirius into Harry's ear. 'Dumbledore has decided to use this place as Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.'

Harry didn't know what the "Order of the Phoenix" was but he got the general gist of what Sirius was staying. The people who Dumbledore had got Remus to recruit were around meaning that if they heard of saw him here there would be uncomfortable questions and it wouldn't be long before Harry was sent back to the Dursleys. If Dumbledore tried he'd shout for the whole of his Order – whatever that was – that Dumbledore had knowingly sent Harry back to a place where he had been violated.

Harry didn't know what this Order was but no decent person would be happy with Dumbledore's actions. Unless of course they agreed with Dumbledore that though it was horrific what had happened to Harry it was better than being caught by Voldemort. If they did it would just show Harry wouldn't know how to deal with this Order.

Harry had been caught by Voldemort only days ago and Harry had spent years growing up in hell with the Dursleys as his guardians. If push came to shove Harry would chose Voldemort over the Dursleys any day of week although naturally he would prefer neither. Voldemort may enjoy torture but so did the Dursleys only Voldemort seemed to keep to the Cruciatus curse which was agonising but he had got bored and was going to end Harry's life relatively quickly.

Not like the Dursleys who were just sadists through and through scared on anything different, they couldn't understand. They were more than happy to keep Harry alive for over a decade just for the sake of beating him down or maybe they would have killed him if they weren't scared of the Wizarding World's reaction but Harry didn't think that was likely given the fact that they were brave enough to beat the shit out of Harry. Harry still wondered why they had even agreed to take Harry in.

'The what?' whispered Harry.

'I'll explain later,' Sirius said quickly.

Harry understood that it wasn't safe to speak here with Dumbledore's lackeys hanging around. It saddened Harry who had liked the decrepit old town house. It was warmer than the streets and had food and shelter and he wasn't scared of beatings or being raped.

'Luckily he doesn't care about the other properties I have,' Sirius said.

'Why?' asked Harry.

'London,' Sirius said simply.

Harry understood what Sirius meant. London was where the Ministry of Magic and the main hospital was and would probably be a huge target for Voldemort when the war got going. That meant Dumbledore would want his base of operations in London so didn't care about any other properties.

Sirius handed Harry an old and battered, black wizard's hat that might have one day been part of a Hogwarts uniform set but had long ago become faded and tattered. Harry felt the familiar jerk behind his navel that signified portkey travel. Harry felt a little sick whilst travelling remembering the last time that he had travelled by portkey only a couple of days ago.

Harry landed on his knees still stuck in his memories so it was a while before he was able to get his bearing and stand up. Looking around Harry realised that he had landed on a patch of grass. Looking around Harry realised he was in a massive garden in front of a three storied country house which had a Victorian look to it much like Grimmauld place.

Harry entered the house making his home in the kitchen. Harry began looking through the cupboards glad to see that they were well stocked with food, cutlery and plates. Clearly Sirius had prepared for Harry's arrival soon as he had known that Dumbledore was planning to turn his townhouse into headquarters for his Order of the Phoenix.

Harry set out making steak and mashed potatoes. Thanks to the Dursleys Harry was an excellent cook. It was one of the few things Harry had learned from the Dursleys that was useful especially when considering that he had learnt not to trust people especially adults, not to ask questions, and not to do as well as he could from the Dursleys.

Harry had cooked all last summer when he was living in Grimmauld Place alone. As well as the august the year before when Harry had realised that the sum of Sirius' cooking was toast. It wasn't really surprising if one considered that Sirius had grown up with house elves so cooking was never a big priority of skills he needed.

Harry did wonder what Sirius had done when he moved into his own flat at the age of seventeen. Harry could only guess that he had lived on takeaways, ready meals and noodles or spent his meal times at Harry's parents and grandparents home. Probably what the Dursleys did when Harry was at Hogwarts and had runaway considering he had never seen his aunt or uncle so much as put toast in the toaster and as for Dudley he would throw a temper tantrum at the very idea of lifting a finger to make the food that he craved.

Harry knew it would be awhile before Sirius or Remus showed up considering that they would have to make excuses to Dumbledore to come here and wouldn't want Dumbledore paying to much attention to Sirius' country home. Harry wondered if Dumbledore would be able to track him where he went if he found Harry not to be here or not. Harry hoped not but you could never really know.

About five minutes before Harry took the three steaks out of the oven Remus and Sirius turned up. Harry was glad he had made extra. He thought that they would be along soon but he couldn't be sure.

'Something smells nice,' Sirius smiled.

'Steak,' Harry said. 'Got about five minutes left to go.'

'Harry's a great cook,' Sirius said cheerfully.

'Better than you anyway,' Remus replied.

'Not that that's hard,' Sirius replied.

'Thanks to the Dursleys,' Harry snorted.

Remus and Sirius shared a dark look at this comment. Harry was initially on his guard at this look. Whatever had worried Remus and Sirius worried Harry who knew they weren't the type to get paranoid over nothing.

Harry wondered if Remus had been to speak to Mrs Figg as Sirius had planned. Harry felt a sinking feeling in his gut fearing that Mrs Figg didn't care about him and had only being pretending to on Dumbledore's orders. That would completely destroy Harry's trust in every and anybody but wouldn't surprise him at all considering how used Harry was to being let down.

'Did you speak to Mrs Figg?' asked Harry nervously.

'Yes,' Sirius said.

'You said you weren't going to go!' Harry said angrily. 'What if she had called the Ministry!?'

'Harry,' Remus said placating. 'Sirius didn't go in human form.'

'Oh,' Harry said embarrassed. 'Sorry, Sirius, I was just worried.'

'I know,' Sirius smiled, 'I'd feel the same way if it was you.'

Remus cleared his throat looking awkward at the obvious looks of adoration between the boy he thought of as a son and the man he thought of as a younger and slightly immature brother. Sirius and Harry quickly looked away. Both of them regarded Remus' acceptance of their situation in highest importance so were unwilling to push Remus' boundaries of their relationship just now.

'Okay. What did she say?' asked Harry nervously.

'She hid from Dumbledore the fact that you had run away,' Remus replied.

'She seems to really care for you,' Sirius said quietly.

'How many times were you removed from the Dursleys?' asked Remus.

'I lost count,' shrugged Harry trying not to show how much it hurt.

'Shit,' swore Sirius.

'Is that why you find it so hard to confide in people?' asked Remus.

'Dumbledore didn't help matters,' Harry said, 'I trusted him and he refused to help me.'

Remus nodded eyes dark, 'you'll never have to go back.'

'I won't,' Harry said, 'no matter what anyone else says!'

'I know,' Remus said, 'and you we'll do anything to help you.'

'Even kidnap you,' Sirius said.

'I'd like to be kidnapped by you,' Harry said with a grin.

Sirius opened his mouth Remus cleared his throat before Sirius could say anything. Harry and Sirius both shut up at this something that Remus was very glad about as he really didn't want to know about Harry and Sirius' sex – he shuddered at that idea – love life. Remus quickly moved onto the more pressing matter.

'The problem is Dumbledore has arranged a guard for you,' Remus said.

'So he'll know I'm not there, right,' Harry said grimly.

'Yes,' agreed Sirius.

'There is a way to make it seem like you are there without you being there,' Remus said.

'What?' demanded Harry. 'If it's Polyjuice potion forget I'm not going to let either of you suffer like that, or Mrs Figg.'

'It's not Polyjuice potion,' Sirius assured the boy.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, 'good. Then what is it?'

'We can make a mirage of you,' Sirius said.

'But?' asked Harry warily.

'Anyone magical who interacts with you will know instantly it's you,' Sirius said, 'and I don't know whether Moody will spot anything odd.'

Harry nodded understandingly, 'will they be able to tell who did it?' he asked.

'Yes,' Sirius said grimly. 'Dumbledore will test for the magical signature of the creator which will lead him to us.'

'Then don't do it,' Harry said.

'Harry,' tried Sirius.

'No,' Harry said. 'I won't be able to be traced here, right?'

Sirius shook his head, 'the wards won't allow anyone who is not head of the Black family know who is here or even where here is.'

'Then I'm safe and it's only until I'm fifteen anyway when Dumbledore loses all control of me,' Harry reminded them.

The two shared a look but it was clear that Harry wasn't backing down and has the spell needed a hair to bind the mirage the one image it was impossible to do it without Harry's consent. Remus hurried away to volunteer to take the first watch to at least delay the discovery that Harry was missing. It wouldn't stop it but it would help buy them a little time to find another solution that wouldn't be caught out.

/

Unfortunately it was only the next day that Harry was found not to be where he said he was. Remus had done the overnight shift. Then Moody took over and all hell broke loose. Moody reported that using his magical eye to scan the building he had not seen Harry Potter present inside the building.

Luckily Remus was not found out to be lying because he had reported that he had neither seen Harry leave or enter the house when he was there. As Remus did not possess a magical eye nobody could dispute that he had no idea Harry wasn't present. Most wizards were not aware that Remus would have been able to smell the difference between Harry being currently in residence and having at one point lived there.

Dumbledore's first response was to call an emergency Order meeting. That meant that he had presumed that Harry had been kidnapped by Voldemort. That was good it meant that they wouldn't be caught and lead Dumbledore to Harry.

'Albus, what's happened?' asked Remus.

'It appears that Harry has been kidnapped,' Dumbledore said heavily.

'What?' shouted Sirius. 'You said he'd be safe at his relatives.'

'He must have been captured before arriving there,' Albus said tiredly.

Snape snorted, 'if the Dark Lord had captured the boy he wouldn't have left Potter's family alive. That boy's arrogance knows no bounds running away just for attention. Typical attention seeking brat.'

'Severus,' Dumbledore said warningly, 'we do not know what happened. You are right; however, it's not Voldemort's usual style.'

'But he's trying to keep a low profile,' Sirius pointed out.

Albus gave a speculative look and nodded, 'that would explain the Dursleys being alive but so would Harry running away.'

'Harry wouldn't risk his life running away when he only narrowly escaped Voldemort last time,' Remus said quietly.

Sirius nodded in agreement, 'you saw what he was like after the graveyard. I've never seen Harry like that.'

'Has Voldemort made any indication of having Harry?' Remus asked.

Severus sneered, 'if he had he'd have called all the Death Eaters to celebrate.'

'So you say,' Sirius retorted. 'How do we know it wasn't you who lead Voldemort to us!?'

'Enough,' Dumbledore said. 'Severus go to Voldemort, tell him about the envoy to the giants he'll be expecting it anyway. Sirius, Arthur, Molly, Remus, has Harry shown any inclinations of running away?'

'No,' Sirius lied.

'No,' Remus lied.

'I haven't seen Harry since the summer,' Arthur said.

'He never mentioned anything to me,' Molly said, 'I can ask Ron.'

'Do that,' Dumbledore said. 'The rest of you start searching for him.'

/

Snape sneered at the fat Muggle boy who had been beating a small Muggle preteen up. It reminded Severus only too much of his own teenage years. Severus had looked carefully but not seen Potter amongst the bullies which surprised Severus considering what kind of a child the Potter boy was.

Severus had been to the Dark Lord who hadn't cared about his message as he already knew the information. Severus had surveyed the Dark Lord who seemed to be no different than he had at the end of term meaning one thing to Severus. The Dark Lord did not have the toe rag.

Severus had decided to Privet Drive where he knew Petunia Dursley nee Evans lived. Severus didn't know why Dumbledore hadn't got him to perform legimency on them in the first place considering if the boy had run away they would know and it would mean they could stop worrying about the boy being caught by the Dark Lord. It was true if they had been obliviated it would be difficult but not impossible to retrieve their memories.

Severus knocked on the door of the completely mundane house. Severus sneered at it. It was hard to imagine a place less likely to house a young wizard. Still they were well off which was more than the Snapes could have said when they were young.

A fat face with a walrus moustache who had to be the father of the blonde pig appeared at the door. Severus was surprised that with a family like this the Potter boy was so skinny. Severus supposed it was all the running around the boy did to keep him fit.

'Your one of the,' snarled the man trying to shut the door on him.

'I want to talk to you about Harry Potter,' Severus tried.

'I don't know any Harry Potter!' the Muggle lied.

Severus rolled his eyes. Honestly he would make Longbottom look intelligent. No wonder that the Potter boy didn't perform as well as parents could. It was clear to Severus that the Muggle wasn't going to help Severus any probably because of the lies the brat had spouted about his mean potions professor.

Severus burst into Dursley's mind. What Severus saw shocked and horrified him as much as anything. All this time he had thought that the boy was a spoilt brat when the opposite was true. It was no wonder the boy had run away two years ago.

The fact that he had done so without anyone knowing was shocking. It meant that Arabella must be keeping the secret to. Perhaps the boy was living with her. In Dursleys memories Harry always ended up being taken into custody when she was at Arabella's.

Then something else occurred to Severus. Dumbledore must know about the abuse and take measures into keeping the boy there considering that the same police officer had come by and not recognise the Dursleys. It explained why Black and Lupin had been so keen to paint the blame on Voldemort because they knew and were probably hiding him most likely at one of Black's properties.

Severus decided to leave things be for the moment until he could get a chance to speak to Black or Lupin, prefarably Lupin. Lupin may be a werewolf but for most of the month Severus preferred Lupin to Black. The boy was safe where he was and if he informed Dumbledore where he was he'd just be back here and considering what that … that … that pervert had done to him that wouldn't be good for the boy.