CHAPTER 2: ABANDONMENT

Harry couldn't believe his luck. For once, his aunt and uncle were bringing him to a neighbourhood get-together! Those get-togethers were rare and the only occasions it had happened in the past, his aunt and uncle had left him with someone else. He still remembered the last time it had happened. The Dursleys had brought him to Uncle Vernon's sister, Aunt Marge. Harry hated it there, and the woman seemed to think that she needed to offer proof that she didn't like Harry. Every time they were in the same room, she would say something against him or his parents.

She annoyed him when she mentioned his parents. Harry didn't remember them. He had asked a few months before where they were and her aunt had snapped at him, saying that they had gotten killed in a car crash and left him behind. Harry didn't truly understand what 'killed' meant but, even at four-year-old, he knew that it was bad.

He had often wondered why his aunt and uncle didn't treat him like they did Dudley, his cousin. After all, Dudley was easily their top priority. Harry believed that it was simply because he was their nephew — not their son — and never really saw anything wrong with it for a long time. He hated how they treated him but he thought it was normal. He had started to believe it when Uncle Vernon or Aunt Marge would call him an ungrateful brat.

That belief came crashing down when Dudley invited his first friend home that summer. That friend had been treated a lot better than he — Harry — had ever been. Shouldn't he be treated worse? After all, Harry was treated worse than Dudley but that was because Dudley was their son while he was their nephew. But this boy was Dudley's friend. The friend of their son. Shouldn't Harry have higher priority over him as their nephew? Yet, every time one of Dudley's friends came home, he would be treated a lot better than Harry had ever been.

As much as this line of thoughts pained him, little Harry decided not to think about it today because he was going to his first neighbourhood get-together! He was wondering if he could meet someone new and make a friend. Harry didn't have a single one. For some reasons, Dudley's friends never wanted to be his friends. Today's get-together was hosted by a new family that had moved in Privet Drive. The Grangers were dentists and, because of that, his aunt and uncle wanted to become their friends. Harry didn't understand why being a dentist appealed to his relatives. Maybe they had a few bad teeth?

Uncle Vernon parked the car near the Grangers' expensive-looking silver-coloured car. Harry saw the look that crossed his Uncle's face at the sight of the car, a look he hadn't given to any other car stationed around the house. While he didn't know what that look meant, he thought it was similar to how his cousin looked every time he saw a plate full of pancakes. Did his uncle want to eat the car?

"Here we are." said his Uncle, turning the engine off. Dudley and Aunt Petunia immediately got out of the car and Aunt Petunia led Dudley toward the house. Once the doors of the car had closed, Uncle Vernon turned back toward his nephew.

"Now, you!" he started. "I don't want to hear anything about freakish business while we are at the Grangers or you will be in your cupboard until the Christmas Holidays are over. Understood?" he asked sharply.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." quickly answered Harry. Harry knew that by 'freakish business', his uncle meant anything like what had happened a few days ago. His Aunt had been tired of his hair and had decided to shave him bald — all except a small fringe to hide the scar on the forehead. Harry had barely slept that night, terrorised of how people would react the next morning when he and Dudley would be dropped-off at pre-school. Fortunately for him, his hair had somehow grown back during the night, vanishing any proof that her Aunt had shaved his head. His relatives hadn't been happy and had locked him in his cupboard for the entire week — excluding when he was attending school. The only reason he had been allowed out today was because they couldn't leave him home alone. Nobody was available to watch over him so they had no other choice but to bring him.

"Good. I better not hear someone say that you annoyed them. Now, get out." said Uncle Vernon before himself leaving the car. Harry followed him a few seconds after.

Harry was nervous. His mind kept switching between the excitement of meeting other kids and potentially making friends and the fear of annoying someone, causing him to not only be excluded by other kids but also bring his uncle's wrath on him.

As he and his uncle arrived at the front door, — where his Aunt Petunia and cousin Dudley were already standing — a man with brown hair answered.

"Good afternoon!" said his aunt. "I'm Petunia Dursley and this is my son Dudley. Welcome to the neighbourhood!"

"Thank you Mrs. Dursley. My name is Daniel Granger and welcome to our new home." he said with a smile before he noticed Uncle Vernon and Harry who was walking in the larger man's shadow.

"Vernon Dursley." said Uncle Vernon gruffly, introducing himself.

"Daniel Granger." repeated Mr. Granger. The men shook each other's hand before Mr. Granger he looked at Harry. Harry looked down, flushing slightly. He wasn't used to being the subject of one's attention.

"Ah, this is our... nephew, Harry Potter." said Uncle Vernon, nearly growling the word 'nephew'. Mr. Granger noticed the tone of voice and raised an eyebrow but didn't comment any further.

"Well..." he started before holding the door wide open for them. "Come in!" he said. The Dursleys quickly entered the house, followed by Harry. A lot of families from around the neighbourhood had already arrived. Not caring about the adults, Harry looked around for other kids of his age. Harry saw Mr. Granger walk toward a woman in the living room. The woman had curly dark-red hair and was talking to another adult. A small girl was wrapped timidly around the woman's legs. The girl looked at Harry nervously.

Harry was disappointed that the only kids he saw were Dudley's friends. Dudley immediately went toward his friends and ignored everyone else. Harry knew that Dudley's friends didn't like him so he didn't dare come close to them. The only kid he didn't recognise was the girl wrapped around the woman's leg. She had brown, bushy hair and chocolate brown eyes which, Harry noticed, were the same colours as Mr. Granger. Harry realized that she must be his daughter, which would make the woman Mrs. Granger. Harry didn't dare approach her either. Not because he didn't want to meet her and get to know her but because she was close to a lot of adults — including her mother — and he didn't want to bother them. Instead, Harry took to wandering around.

Unknowingly, the girl had noticed him. Hermione Granger was timid and she didn't like when there were strangers in the house. She hated it when there was so many of them at once. Her parents had told her that the get-together would be the opportunity to make friends. Hermione never had friends before and she had hoped she would at least one in this new neighbourhood. When the first children of her age had arrived, she had tried to talk to them, to make friends but the kids had told her off and said "Go annoy other people."

It had taken everything for Hermione not to run to her new bedroom and cry. Instead, Hermione had come to her mother and hadn't left her presence since. As families arrived, so had children. The ones of her age had all met together with the original kids that Hermione had approached and all looked like they were friends so Hermione hadn't tried to get closer again.

The last family to arrive — the Dursleys — had come with two boys of her age. One was fat and looked spoiled, just like most of the other kids. Hermione had quickly decided not to come closer to him either. The other kid looked small and thin. He had a messy mop of black hair, a lightning-like scar on his forehead and bright green eyes. The boys' eyes looked around nervously. Hermione was glad to see that, when the boy's eyes met the group of kids where the fat one was walking toward; he hadn't looked pleased at seeing them. It seemed like the boy shared her opinion of the group of kids. His eyes then glanced toward her. For a moment, his face showed hope, until he looked to her mother and then all the adults she was talking to. He then looked resigned before he looked around the house and started wandering around.

Hermione might have lost hope of making friends today when the bad kids had pushed her back but she didn't want to lose that opportunity as well. She could see in his eyes that she and the boy shared a similar view about the whole situation. She decided to let him walk around for a few minutes — just to be sure he wasn't friends with the other kids — before she approached him.

"Hi." said Hermione to the boy, nervously.

"Hi." he answered, as nervous as she was.

"I'm Hermione." she said. "Hermione Granger."

"Harry. Harry Potter." said Harry.

The two children looked at each other for a few instants before both said "Would you like to be friends?" to each other. Both looked surprised before they started giggling.

Unknown to the two children, two couples had noticed their interaction. Harry's family, the Dursleys, looked that them with irritation while Hermione's family, the Grangers, were happy, smiling at the two children.

"I would like to be your friend." answered Harry.

"Thank you!" said Hermione, giving him a hug. It startled him. It was the first time he had ever been hugged. Before he could hug her back, she released him and said "We just moved; I don't have any other friend."

"I don't have any other friends either, you are my first friend…" admitted Harry.

"Then we can be each other's best friends!" exclaimed Hermione. Harry gave her a huge smile.

"And that's how Mummy and Daddy first met." said Harry, smiling sadly.

"That's so cool!" said Rose, not noticing the sadness in her father's eyes, for the next part would be hard to tell. "Does that mean I already met my future husband?" she asked. Harry couldn't help the 'eep' that escaped his mouth.

"What!?" he exclaimed.

"Well, you met Mum when you were four. I'm five! Maybe I already met my future husband!"

"Please, Rose, don't say that in front of your poor father!" said Harry, holding his heart dramatically. Rose giggled in her bed. "It's not something you should have to think about until you are at least thirty!" he added quickly.

"But you once said that you and Mum got married really young!"

"So?"

Rose huffed in a way that reminded Harry very much of Hermione. She would let her father win this round. She would just not tell him about her dreams of meeting her own prince charming. "What happened after that?" asked Rose. Harry smiled sadly.

"Your mother and I stayed best-friends for the next year." said Harry. "Hermione and I would almost always meet at your grandparents' house. For the following year, we were the best of friends, always spending time together. Doing so brought me to the attention of grandpa Dan and grandma Emma. You see, your grandparents were noticing things about me. For instance, I was always wearing worn-out clothes that were too big for me — I was always eating like I was expecting to starve for a long period of time — I was hiding food like cookies or slices of bread in my pockets — I always refused to invite Hermione or her parents to the Dursleys, things like that.

"It didn't take long for Dan and Emma to get an idea of what was happening at the Dursleys. They didn't know to what extent, nor how long it had lasted. Unfortunately, they didn't really have any concrete evidence of how I was treated except for my behaviour so they weren't able to do anything. However, it wasn't because they couldn't get anyone to help me that they didn't try to do so themselves. They knew that I wasn't happy living with the Dursleys while the Dursleys weren't happy with me living with them. So, your grandparents got the idea of adopting me into the family." said Harry. "Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan..."

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" asked Dan to Emma while they were walking down the road to the Dursley household.

"Yes." answered Emma. "Let's do this."

The Grangers' stay in Little Whinging wasn't as good as they originally expected. Emma and Dan's goals when they moved in was to find a nice place to settle-in, a place where they could further progress their careers as dentists. They also wanted Hermione to make a lot of friends.

Many problems had erupted in their short stay in Privet Drive. First, they had a hard time finding a job. Dan and Emma had dreamed of building their own practice ever since they had started dating back in university. Unfortunately, they realized soon after moving to Privet Drive that there simply wasn't a market for it in Little Whinging. There already were a few practices opened and it was more than enough for the small town. Both found jobs available but not in the same practice, which was a problem since the couple wanted to work together.

Their second problem was that they didn't like the neighbourhood, especially the neighbours. The Grangers weren't in gossiping but it appeared everyone else was. Dan had once said that Privet Drive collectively had something stuck up their arses. The Grangers had quickly gained an unpleasant reputation at Privet Drive — not because people saw them as an unsuccessful family but because they weren't into the same social circles as the rest of the neighbourhood.

The third problem was Hermione's friendships, or rather her lack of. Her only friend was Harry Potter, the nephew of the Dursleys. The Grangers liked Harry but they had hoped Hermione would make more than one friend. Instead, Hermione had often come back home crying because the other children in her classes were mean to her. Every so often, it was because they didn't appreciate that Hermione knew more than them and spent more time studying than playing. Sometimes, it was because they didn't want anyone to be friends with Harry. Hermione's loyalty to her friend never faltered but it had resulted in multiple occurrences where she had arrived home crying because the other students were mean to them.

The only reason the Grangers hadn't left Privet Drive yet was because of Harry. Sweet little Harry was Hermione's best and only friend. Both were complementing each other very well. However, the Grangers had quickly noticed Harry's odd behaviour. As medical professionals, Dan and Emma had realized early on that Harry was mistreated. They had subtly tried to make him open-up about it but Harry always withdrew whenever they got close to the subject of his home life. They wanted to help change Harry's situation but the lack of evidence — apart from Harry's behaviour — didn't help them.

The Grangers had also heard about the rumour around the neighbourhood that Harry, a four-year-old boy, was a delinquent. The first time they had heard it, they had laughed, not believing it for a second. After all, how could a four-year-old child be a criminal? They were baffled when they realized that everyone else in the neighbourhood believed the rumour. The couple wouldn't have been surprised if the Dursleys themselves had started the rumour.

After a year in Privet Drive, the Grangers had enough. They decided to leave the neighbourhood. Dan's father had recently been diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer and had been moved to the hospital permanently. The Grangers wanted to be closer to the dying man and spend as much time as possible with him before he passed away. Dan's father — upon learning that he would never leave the hospital — had decided to leave his house in Crawley to his only son and his family. The house had been in the family for a few generations so the Grangers didn't feel too bad moving in so soon.

However, before doing so, Dan and Emma had decided to see if they could adopt Harry. It wasn't a secret to the Grangers that Harry wasn't happy at the Dursleys, nor were the Dursleys happy to have him. Since the Grangers liked him and that he was Hermione's best friend, the Grangers decided to try and see if they could adopt Harry or — at least — get guardianship of the boy before leaving to Crawley. They decided to ask the Dursleys first and — if they were agreeable — ask Hermione for her opinion after. They didn't know whether or not they would go through with it if she refused, but it wasn't something the couple expected to happen. The Grangers had already started filling the proper paperwork and even had a social-worker visit them.

It was because of this reason that the Grangers were currently walking down Privet Drive. They were seeking the Dursleys to see if they would accept. The Grangers walked up to the front door of Number Four before Emma pressed the doorbell.

Harry had been locked-up in his cupboard ever since he had come back home from school. Harry and Hermione had been surprised that their teacher's hair had turned blue during one of their classes. Neither had mentioned it any further, both embarrassed about it. Their teacher had then spent the rest of the day giving dirty looks to Harry and — unsurprisingly to the five-year-old — the moment he had arrived home, his relatives had locked-him in his cupboard for doing some 'freakish thing'.

Harry suddenly heard the doorbell ring. He knew that he now had to be silent. It was the second most important rule at the Dursleys behind Don't do anything freakish. If someone rang the doorbell while he was in his cupboard, he had to stay silent.

Harry heard Aunt Petunia open the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Granger! What a surprise!" she said in a sweet sugary tone. Harry couldn't help but freeze nervously in his bed. The Grangers were here?

"Hello Mrs. Dursley. Can our husband and I talk to you?" asked Mrs. Granger with a kind voice. Harry was hoping that he hadn't caused any trouble at the Grangers. He began to wonder if Hermione was here to but then remembered that his friend had mentioned she was going to the restaurant with her grandmother, who was in town.

"Is the boy causing problems?" immediately asked Uncle Vernon the moment he had entered the room. Clearly, he had been thinking through a similar line of thought as Harry.

"No, no, nothing of the sort. Harry has been a perfect angel." said Mrs. Granger.

"But it is about him..." said Mr. Granger.

Harry could practically hear the frown in Aunt Petunia's voice. "What about him?"

"Listen, we will make it short." said Hermione's father, immediately sounding colder. "It is obvious for both Emma and I that Harry doesn't like living here nor do you like having him in your home."

"And how is this your business?" snapped Aunt Petunia. Harry could easily imagine Aunt Petunia's face. She probably looked like she had bitten in a lemon.

"We want to adopt Harry." said Mrs. Granger. Harry's eyes widened in shock. "Or at least get guardianship of him."

"We want Harry to live with us." added Mr. Granger. Unknown to the adults, Harry had begun tearing up in his cupboard, a smile on his face. He was going to have a real family!

"You want to adopt him? Why?" asked Uncle Vernon with disbelief.

"For many reasons, really. We always wanted another child but, due to complications with Hermione's birth, it just wasn't possible." said Emma sadly. "Another reason is that we are soon moving to Crawley and we want to bring Harry with us — both as Hermione's best friend and, hopefully, her future little brother."

Harry's little heart was bursting in joy. He was going to have a family, a real family! He was going to live with the Grangers and leave Privet Drive!

"Fine." he heard Aunt Petunia say. "Do you have the papers?" she asked.

"Not yet, I am afraid." said Mr. Granger. "We wanted to seek your opinion first before moving forward."

"Then, when you get them; you can come here and we will sign the papers." said Uncle Vernon in a tone that didn't let anything open to discussion.

"So grandma and grandpa wanted to adopt you?" asked Rose.

"They did." answered Harry with a small sad smile.

"Why didn't they?" she asked.

Harry sighed. That would be the first part of his tale that would be hard to tell. He didn't want Rose to think badly of her own mother but he couldn't avoid it — for now. It was an integral part of the story. "That would be because of what happened when they asked your mother her opinion about the whole matter..."

Today was the last day before Halloween. After classes had been over, the Grangers had taken Hermione to eat one last ice-cream before winter settled in. Dan and Emma brought their daughter to the local ice-cream parlour. They did not have to wait long to order as the shop wasn't attended all that much at this time. The three took their usual selection of chocolate ice-cream for Dan, strawberries for Emma and peppermint with chocolate chips for Hermione.

Hermione had already eaten more than half her small ice-cream cone by the time the Grangers had sat at one of the empty tables. The family had done small talk until they were all finished with their ice-cream. It was then time for the important talk.

"Hermione, we have to tell you something. Our family will be moving back to Crawley soon." said Mr. Granger.

Hermione gaped at her parents. "We are moving? Again?" she asked sadly.

"I'm sorry but yes." answered her father.

"When?" she asked.

"In the next few weeks, probably."

"Where?"

"You know that your grandfather is sick and left us his house, right?" At Hermione's nod, he continued. "We decided to move there. Your mother and I already checked to see if we could open a practice there and we found that the demand was a lot higher than here."

"But what about Harry?" asked Hermione with teary eyes.

"Hermione..." started Mrs. Granger. "Do you remember when you said that Harry wasn't happy at his home?"

"Yes. It was this summer." answered Hermione, not seeing where it was going.

"Well, we decided that we wanted to bring Harry so that he could live with us. We already started looking to adopt him and the Dursleys agreed to sign any adoption of guardianship paper we would give them. Before we do that though, we wanted to ask about your opinion. We won't bring Harry with us if you don't want to."

Hermione was looking at them with wide eyes. She was about to say 'Yes, of course' when a she heard a wordless whisper. Suddenly, her feelings toward the situation shifted from happiness to anger. She didn't know why but the idea of having Harry live with them now felt repugnant.

"NO!" she shouted. Hermione had the face red in anger.

"W-What?" asked Mr. Granger, shocked. They thought that asking for Hermione's opinion would only be a formality. They had never expected her to reject the idea, especially not so violently.

"Why?" asked Mrs. Granger, as shocked as her husband.

"I DON'T WANT HIM WITH US!" she spat.

"That's not a valid reason!" exclaimed Mr. Granger, his voice raising.

"I DON'T CARE!" screamed Hermione.

"Alright young lady. We are going home right now!" said an angry Mrs. Granger before she and her husband dragged their daughter toward the car.

Unbeknownst to any of them, a small boy with messy black hair, bright green eyes and round wired glasses had witnessed everything. Harry Potter's heart was hurting, just like someone had punched him hard in the guts. He had just seen his best friend, his only friend angrily reject the idea of him living with her family. Hermione didn't want him to be her little brother.

Quietly crying, Harry turned around and walked home. He knew his friendship with Hermione was too good to be true. He had wondered many times why people didn't like him, why he wasn't loved. Being Hermione's friend had helped him see that he was worthy of it, or so he thought. Seeing Hermione so casually spitting on their friendship broke Harry's heart. The young boy believed he just seen the proof that nobody would ever like him — would ever love him.

From within Harry's arms, Rose was looking at her father with wide eyes. Her mother had rejected her father? She had refused to have him join her family? She was confused and heartbroken. Looking at her father, she could see that he appeared lost in his memories. Father and daughter held each other. Finally, Rose spoke.

"Why?" she asked, almost pleading.

Harry gave her a sad smile before he wiped her cheek. "She didn't do so willingly." answered Harry, green eyes looking at green eyes. "There is a reason why she acted how she did that day. Rejecting her parents' idea was not her intention. The reason why will come up later in the story... Never doubt the heart of your mother, Rose." he said. Harry had felt Rose relax in his arms. Looking at his watch, he realized it was starting to be rather late so he decided to end the story there for that night. "Now, I think it's time for you to go to sleep. We will continue the story tomorrow, okay?"

Rose nodded and laid back on her bed. Harry raised on his feet and put his chair back in the corner of the room. He made sure that she was fully covered by her blankets and snuggled properly in her bed before he gave Rose her pushy unicorn and one last kiss on her forehead. He saw her green eyes stare back at him. As he approached the bedroom door, he turned, smiled and said "Goodnight, Rose."

Harry closed the door behind him and leaned back on the door. He allowed himself to sigh. He had never imagined how hard it would be to tell that story to Rose. Telling a child how their parents met should always be something that brought smiles to everyone. Harry and Hermione's story had turned into a sad story. Partially because of what a certain someone had done and partially because of what happened later on. Sighing to himself again, Harry climbed down the stairs back to the kitchen.

"I is preparing a sandwich for Master Harry." squeaked a small female House-Elf when Harry entered the kitchen.

"Thank you, Winky." said Harry.

Six years later and Harry was still baffled that Winky was part of their household. Harry had originally come with the idea of hiring a House-Elf a few days after Hermione announced that she was pregnant. Harry knew that both she and him had busy lives and with a child to take care of, they might not have enough time to do simple things like cleaning or cooking. Harry had expected to have to convince Hermione to accept the idea but, to his surprise, she had quickly agreed. However, the real shock came when she asked Winky if she wanted to bond with them. Winky had been ecstatic to join the Potter family, especially when she learned that Hermione was pregnant. When Harry asked her later that day why she hadn't minded bonding with a House-Elf, Hermione had revealed that she had spent the previous year researching intensively about House-Elves and realized her previous approach of trying to free them was the bad one. Instead, she had refocused on trying to give them more rights and moving mistreated House-Elves to families that would treat them better. Since then, Winky had been an integral part of their household, something that Harry was very grateful for, especially when he was working long shifts at the Auror Office.

Harry sat down at the kitchen table. "Were there any problems when Rose came back from school?"

"No, Master Harry. Missy Luna brought little Mistress here after her treat-or-tricking was done."

"Good. I'll have to thank her for that." muttered Harry.

It had been an unexpected surprise to Harry when his friend Luna Lovegood had applied for a teaching job at the primary school. Harry had always believed that Luna could be a good teacher for young children but he had never expected her to go into the profession. He had believed she had wanted to be a Magizoologist. Luna had proven to be a godsend to the school as she rapidly won the hearts of all the children she taught. Harry had been happy when Rose ended up in her class and Rose had loved Luna ever since.

"Thank you." he said when Winky posed a plate with a sandwich in front of him.

As he ate, he pondered on what he would do the following day. He already knew he wanted to quit his job as an Auror. While things had calmed down a lot since the end of the war, being an Auror was still a dangerous job and having her father end up in St-Mungo was not something Harry wanted Rose to experience. Plus, being an Auror was a very busy job with all the paperwork he had to do. It also didn't help that he didn't really like many of his colleagues. The only Aurors he had a good working relationship with were his best friend Ron Weasley and Harry's partner, mentor and honorary older-sister, Don't-Call-Me-Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin. He knew that both Ron and Tonks would understand and would support him. He decided he would quit the following morning.

When he came back home, — because he knew his boss Director Robards wouldn't want him to do his two weeks — he would contact Headmistress Minerva McGonagall and ask if the Defence Against the Dark Arts post was still available the following year.

With a nod to himself, Harry finished his sandwich and retired to his bedroom.