A/N: This one is a more Harry centred chapter! Thanks to all the new followers, and of course, all the old who have stuck with me! :) Means a lot to me, you guys! Happy reading!


Little Whinging, August 10th, 1995

It had been a month since the wedding. One. Miserable. Month. He'd spent his birthday, alone, sweltering in the heat. It was the first birthday Harry had spent alone. His Aunt Jules had always made sure that she showed up and frightened the whole neighborhood to start his birthday celebrations on a properly bitter note towards Petunia and Vernon. As the summer sun beat down and coated Little Whinging in an insufferable heat, Harry wandered around the old suburb until he got to an old park.

He missed Lucy. He missed Remus. He missed Sirius. He even missed Jules' overbearing, overprotective coddling. Harry didn't understand why the Ministry was so adamant about keeping him here, why Dumbledore was so stern. He'd been to the wedding, but he hadn't been allowed to stay over night.

All in all, things at the Dursley's were miserable. Even though Lucy had been sending letters, along with Hermione and Ron, they all seemed vague and uninformative. Harry just wanted real information. He wanted to be told what was going on. After all, he had been the one to see Lord Voldemort come shouldn't he know what was happening?

Even Sirius' letters were frustratingly vague, but he seemed empathetic and sounded as though he was fighting for Harry to be brought into the loop.

Stay out of trouble, Harry. Don't do anything rash. It's frustrating, I know, but be patient.

Be patient. Harry turned the corner and ran a hand through his hair. How patient could he be when they were all being so obviously secretive. That was when he ran into Dudley. Dudley, or Big D as his mates were calling him these days,

"Hey, Big D!" Dudley spun to face him and made a face of disgust.

"You," He grunted.

"You'll always be Ickle Diddykins to me," Harry teased. He could see the blood boiling in Dudley's veins. Harry supposed that this was exactly the sort of rash thing Sirius hadn't wanted him getting into.

"Shut it," Dudley snarled. He turned away from Harry and kept walking.

"Hit a nerve?" Harry taunted. "Don't your mates know that's what your mummy calls you, popkin?" Harry was seething. It didn't matter now if he egged on a fight with Dudley. Maybe if Dudley knocked him out cold, then Sirius and Jules would be forced to come and get him...

"Shut your face," Dudley snapped.

"D'you kiss your mum with that mouth?" Harry kept walking behind him. Taunting him as they went. "Beating up ten-year-olds again?"

"This time he deserved it," Dudley growled. Harry snorted.

"Oh yeah?" Harry shook his head. "You think you're so brave don't you?"

"You think you are, carrying that thing," Dudley said. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"This thing?" He pulled out his wand. It gave him such pleasure to watch Dudley blanche as he held out his thin wand.

"You're not allowed to do magic," Dudley said quickly as soon as it was out. "They'll kick you out from your freak school if you do..."

"Maybe they've changed the rules..." Harry snapped.

"They haven't," Dudley said meekly, as though he was trying to convince himself more so than stating a fact. Harry smirked, suddenly feeling proud of himself for his trump card. "Wait 'til I tell my dad you've had that out again."

"Running to your dad?" Harry sneered. "You know he won't touch me, or else my father's sister will show up here, and she is allowed to do magic outside of my school."

Dudley gaped at Harry for a moment and then, as though the hamster wheels in his brain had started moving again, he said, "Well you're not this brave in bed, are you?"

"What? Am I supposed to be frightened of pillows?" Harry said. His eyebrow raised and he had no idea what to think of how daft Dudley was being.

"You talk in your sleep," Dudley retorted. "'Don't kill Cedric! Don't kill Cedric!' Who's Cedric, Harry? Your boyfriend?"

Harry's mouth went dry. Dudley, realizing he'd struck a nerve, continued on. Then, suddenly, everything went pitch-black and deathly silent. Harry had thought, perhaps, he'd unintentionally done magic out of anger... But nobody had the power to turn off the stars like that...

"St-stop it!" Dudley's terrified voice called out into the darkness.

"Don't move," Harry said.

"I c-can't see! You've made me blind!"

"Shut up!" Harry snapped. Dudley's whimpering continued in his ear, and just then Harry felt his skin prickle. Everything felt cold like winter around him. Dementors.


4 Privet Drive, August 10th, 1995

It had all happened so quickly that when Mrs. Figg, the batty old neighbour appeared, Harry sat in shock for a long time as she told him not to put his wand away. Mrs. Figg was a squib. Jules had never mentioned, neither had Dumbledore or Remus, that, even when he was at Privet Drive, there was someone watching him. Harry felt almost betrayed by that truth. As he stood in the living room at Privet Drive, staring at the letter from the ministry in his hands, Harry had never felt angrier. If he had just been at Jules', if she had been allowed to see him, if they had told him about Mrs. Figg... Instead, he had a hearing in two days. Harry bet he wouldn't even get to see Jules or Sirius before then. Let alone Dumbledore. The howler with the awful voice... Petunia's scream...

He was so distracted by this, he didn't notice Petunia and Vernon arguing.

"We have to call her, Vernon."

"Petunia, I will not have any more of this. Look at what it's done to Dudley."

"If we don't call her-"

"ENOUGH, Petunia. They've given him to us permanently. Your sister and that awful boy were one thing, but I will not have her here again. Don't you remember the-"

"I do, but Vernon!"

"I said no, Petunia. We'll sort this out without anymore of them. They've already sent enough owls to ruin our reputation permanently. If she comes here- No. The boy will leave. But she'll not come here."

"Vernon, he has to stay."

"No."

With that Vernon stormed out of the room. Petunia glance at the kitchen phone and quietly made her way over. As if by memory, she dialed a number that Jules had once burned into their lawn for emergency purposes.


12 Grimmauld Place, August 10th 1995

Something was ringing in Grimmauld Place. Lucy stared at the muggle contraption that she assumed her mother and father kept as some strange form of modern art in their kitchen. She had no idea that it worked, until her mother came barreling down the stairs and grabbed onto it. It had been a ridiculous night, thought Lucy. All shouting from the Order members. Sirius and Jules had been fighting over Harry again, and it had travelled throughout the house. Molly Weasley had shooed her and Ginny out of the kitchen as soon as the rest of the Order had arrived to deal with the new Harry issue. There had been so many owls sent from the kitchen that Lucy had lost count. Now, as her mother, her eyes still red from crying after the argument with her father, was speaking on a muggle contraption.

"Petunia?" Jules said quickly into the receiver. "Is he hurt-"

Lucy opened her mouth to ask a question, but before she could, her mother was by the fireplace with a handful of floo powder. The last thing she heard was her mother's voice calling out "Number 4 Privet Drive!"


4 Privet Drive, August 10th, 1995

The plume of green smoke made Petunia scream as a very disheveled black haired woman with her glasses on a slant over her straight nose appeared in the tiny fireplace. Perhaps Vernon was right, Petunia thought, perhaps she had made the wrong decision.

"Aunt Jules?" Harry said with shock evident in his voice. "What are you-"

"Vernon wants to kick you out," Jules said quickly running over to him. "There were dementors here... Something about a howler-"

"And I've been kicked out of school," Harry said miserably. "Because I did a patronus and-"

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Jules started fussing over him.

"I'm fine," Harry grumbled. He swatted away her hand as she tried to push his hair out of his eyes. It wasn't that he minded the fussing so much as he was extraordinarily angry at his aunt for suddenly appearing when he had already lost it all. "Did you miss the part where I told you I was kicked out of Hogwarts?"

"Dumbledore will sort that out, love," Jules shook her head. "You were defending yourself. It's not as though you were torturing the prick."

Harry looked at his aunt's warm hazel eyes and shrugged his shoulders. As Jules looked at her fifteen year old nephew, she thought that he looked older even in the month that he'd been out of her sight; like he'd grown very quickly.

"Who told you then?" Harry said.

"Petunia," Jules said as though that revelation meant nothing. "I have one of those tele-things for emergencies."

"You have a phone, but you can't call me when I'm here?" Harry snapped. "I mean, even Sirius has sent me letters, so don't tell me you've been busy."

"Don't give me cheek, Harry," Jules defended herself. "I'm sorry I haven't written you but I've been busy working for Dumbledore and trying to get you back, which just became exponentially more difficult that you've used magic outside of school."

"I wouldn't have had to if I was at your house," Harry growled.

"Oh, I know that," Jules straightened her shoulders. "Pack your bags. You're coming back with me."

"He's not going anywhere," Vernon stormed back into the living room. Both Potters turned to face him. "H-he's to stay right here. There's been owls telling him just that."

"You don't know that's what they've been saying," snapped Harry.

"They've all been from our kind," Jules replied. "He'll be leaving with me, Vernon. Why else did you bloody well ring me?" Suddenly, as though an after thought, she turned and saw the trembling Petunia, all dressed in salmon pink, and nodded her thanks. Petunia, shaking quite terribly, smiled a small smile and nodded back. They might be from two different worlds entirely, but they had lost the same thing that night in Godric's Hollow.

Vernon's fat face started turning purple with rage. Jules pulled out her wand and raised an eyebrow as a challenge. The moment for bonding over dead siblings was once again gone. Jules grabbed Harry's wrist and dragged him up to his bedroom. She waved her wand around his room and his things packed themselves up in a matter of seconds. Harry didn't say anything. He simply skulked around behind her, trying to keep up the facade of being cross while he was really elated to be leaving.

"How will we get there?" Harry grumbled. "I don't think they're going to let us use their fireplace."

"We'll just apparate outside and then- Oh bugger," Jules suddenly accioed a parchment and a quill. "Ruddy fidelius charm, ruddy headquarters..." She grumbled as she scratched out a note and tied it to Hedwig's ankle. She sent the owl out as fast as she could.

"What have you done that for?" Harry asked.

"Never mind, we'll just apparate outside and hopefully Dumbledore'll be done with the ministry by then and can let you in on-" Jules said. It was then that there was a cacophony of cracks.

"JULIANNNE!" An all too familiar voice shouted up the stairs. Petunia's shrieks of distaste could be heard as she paced around the room. "YOU DON'T BLOODY WELL GO LOOKING FOR OUR GODSON WITHOUT ME! Hullo, Petunia. Vernon. Good to see you again, shame you couldn't make it to James and Lily's wedding... Upstairs, are they? I CAN'T BLOODY WELL BELIEVE YOUR NERVE, MS. POTTER!"

"It's MRS. BLACK, no thanks to you!" Jules shouted out Harry's door.

"Is that-" Harry looked at his aunt, who was now making a face of frustration mixed with confusion, as she faced the door.

"She had to tell her father," Jules grumbled. "She couldn't bloody well keep her mouth shut..."

"Jules, come on, we had orders from Dumbledore not to!" Remus' voice joined in. Harry stood up now. "You only had to wait two days!"

"Don't you start with me, Remus John I'm-Too-Much-Of-A-Monster-To-Let-Love-In-But-Don't-Mind-Me-While-I-Endanger-Your-Kids LUPIN!" Jules shouted back.

"They're both here?" Harry blinked as he turned to face the door. Jules did something then that was both daft and rash. She locked the door and folded her arms. "Are you joking? What have they done this week?"

"Shut up, Harry. Do you want to stay with me or-"

"Alohamora," The door unlocked and swung open. "Honestly, woman," Sirius and Remus looked in at the two Potters in Harry's room at the Dursleys. As soon as their eyes fell on Harry's shocked face, they both broke into smiles.

"Oh, don't you honestly woman me, Sirius Black!" Jules waved her wand threateningly and made a few of the pieces of furniture tremble.

Downstairs, Petunia and Vernon were standing in complete shock. They stared at each other while listening to the muffled yelling upstairs. There was a smash, a shriek of rage and then Petunia's trembling hand lifted up to her mouth as she chewed away her perfect manicure.

"I shouldn't have called her," Petunia said weakly. "Oh, Vernon..."

"They'll wake the neighbors if they keep this up," Vernon swallowed. The pair of them stared at each other for a moment longer before Vernon finally came to the conclusion that he'd ask them to leave. As he made his way up the stairs, one fat leg at a time, Vernon worked himself into a rage again.

He stormed down the hallway, making photos shake on the wall with each step, and pushed open Harry's bedroom door where the fight was at its peak.

"DON'T YOU LECTURE REMUS ABOUT LETTING PEOPLE IN, MISS IT-TOOK-ME-FIFTEEN-YEARS-TO-MARRY-YOU."

"OH! it took ME FIFTEEN YEARS? AND WHY WAS THAT, PUPPYDOG? IF I RECALL IT WAS BECAUSE YOU WERE IN BLOODY AZKABAN FOR TWELVE OF THEM, YOU WANKER!"

"MERLIN'S BALLS, YOU SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD! When are you going to just let it go, Jules! He's innocent! He didn't kill Peter! HE IS STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE A RIGHT PRAT ABOUT IT."

"I SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD? ME? A BROKEN BLOODY RECORD? THAT'S RICH COMING FROM YOU, WOLFBOY! D'YOU EVEN SEE HOW THAT GIRL LOOKS AT YOU? DO YOU? And don't you get me started on the years I spent listening to you moan about-"

"EXCUSE ME!" Uncle Vernon bellowed into the bedroom. All three wizards, with their wands in their hands turned to face him. Harry had never been happier to see his Uncle Vernon than he was in that moment.

"What!?" They snapped in reply. Suddenly, Vernon's rage felt significantly deflated as he stared at the three wild freaks with their magic sticks pointing back at him.

"Er- I d-don't suppose any of you f-fancy a... A cuppa?" Vernon's normally low grumble came out as a high squeak as he stared down the barrel of three wands.

"That's so thoughtful, Vernon," Jules' shoulders loosened from their stiff, straight position and she smiled sweetly. "I'd love a cuppa."

She turned to face Sirius and Remus who were still staring at her with their jaws open. Harry looked between his paternal aunt and his maternal uncle. He hadn't quite decided if this was officially the worst summer he'd ever had or one of the better ones. After all, it wasn't often the brutish Vernon Dursley squeaked like a twelve year old boy hitting puberty.

"Y-yeah, I cuppa tea'd be nice," Sirius shrugged his shoulder. His wand lowered and ushered out a loud hiss of breath from Uncle Vernon. As he tottered back down the stairs, Petunia's bird-like stare was waiting for him.

"Petunia, put the kettle on, please..." Vernon said as firmly as he could manage.

"Put the- Are you telling me you invited them for a late night tea?" Petunia swatted Vernon upside the head, and for once he didn't make a sound. "No. That's it. I'm calling in reinforcement."

"Reinforcement?" Vernon and Dudley said simultaneously. Petunia threw her hands up and stormed across the street with as much composure as she could manage. Knocking on Arabella Figg's front door, she stood her ground and waited for the old, feeble woman to answer.

"What is it? Hasn't Dumbledor-" Mrs. Figg stared at the livid muggle on her doorstep for a moment.

"No. Worse. Julianne is here. So you need to get her and her band of... Of miscreants out of my house. They're not listening and they're causing a loud, intolerable mess in my home while Vernon and I could be getting poor Dudders to the doctor," Petunia said quickly. "Now you are one of their kind so will you kindly get them OUT OF MY HOUSE!"


12 Grimmauld Place, August 10th, 1995

It had been such a long time since Harry had been in this old house. It looked different now... Cleaner. Voices carried down the hall as Jules walked in front of the lot of them, while Sirius had his arm wrapped around Harry's shoulder and Remus trailed behind them. He could hear the volume in voices raise, just like the tones and he noticed Jules run a hand through her disheveled hair as though she was preparing for a battle.

"Two days," Remus muttered behind Harry. "You had to wait two days."

"And I would have if Petunia hadn't-" Jules started.

"Aunt Jules, Uncle Remus... Can we not do this again?" Harry cut in. "I'd rather have some-"

"HARRY!" A door at the end of the hall revealed a smiling Molly Weasley and it cut the tension in the narrow foyer in half. "Oh, it's so good to see you, dear! You're looking a bit peaky though. We'll have to feed you up, won't we? Go upstairs and I'll send you up a snack, love. As for you three," Molly's gaze fell upon the three sulking adults. "We'll talk later. The meeting's in the kitchen."

Molly rushed Harry upstairs with his trunks and he heard laughter carrying down from the top floors he hadn't explored before. He heard a familiar shriek and some cracks that signaled apparating was occurring within the walls. Fred and George, Harry thought. They were finally 17 and must have passed the test! He glanced over his shoulder just before he rounded the corner of the first set of stairs and saw Sirius wrap his arm around Jules. He pressed his lips to her temple and she murmured something unintelligible. His heart warmed a little knowing that they weren't always bickering.

Some heads peaked out from one of the top sets of stairs. Six sets of eyes peered down at him. He could count all twelve sets. There were the soft, light brown eyes of Hermione, Ginny's deep chocolate ones, Ron's light blue, and the twins' brown eyes. Finally, there was a set of familiar rounded gray eyes that crinkled at the corners a little more dramatically than anyone else's.

"Harry! Oh, I missed you!" Lucy elbowed her way past all of the Weasleys and the Granger in her way. She barreled down the staircase and threw herself into her older cousin's arms. "Mum made me swear that I'd ask you not to ask too many questions, so promise me you won't make the rest of the summer difficult for me! It's been so lonely here, and everyone keeps whispering! I've been the only-" Here, Lucy was cut off by the rest of them, "Oi!" "One of the only one's left out of the whole thing!"

"Goose, Goose, you're talking too quickly," Harry laughed as he hugged his younger cousin. Molly cleared her throat behind them and said something about getting the rest of the luggage upstairs. There were two loud cracks and the Twins appeared behind her.

"We've got it, mum," They said in unison. "You get back to your meeting."

"What meeting?" Harry looked around. Hermione and Ron grinned at him from the landing and promised to explain once they were all safe upstairs. As he walked up the narrow staircase with Lucy bouncing and yammering away, Ginny talking over top of her, Hermione's outrage at the Ministry hearing, and Fred and George apparating to and fro with bits and pieces of his things from the Dursleys, he could almost forget the vague letters and the unanswered questions. Almost.


A/N: I don't often pay much attention to our dear Boy Who Lived... But I thought I'd give it a go, mostly because I'm currently reading OotP to the kids that I nanny. They're loving it, and so am I. I'm remembering old parts that made me fall for Sirius Black when I was just a wee lass. (I promise to never say that again if you promise not to hold it against me! xo) Anyway, please review! Feedback is always welcome, and it more than makes my night.

Also, I've been updating almost on the daily because during my hiatus this story PLAGUED my mind, so I kept notes. More to come, and soon!

All my love, my darling readers! xo, Sophie