AN: Thank you so much for the amazing reviews. I hope to communicate some trepidation in this chapter, let me know how it does. I'm also hoping that you, as the reader who knows what the Dursleys are actually like, are feeling your stomach churn a little bit. When I wrote this chapter I pictured Harry at the very top of a roller coaster, that minute or two before the car begins it's descent.

Harry walked beside his father, trepidation seeping into his very bones. Usually the clicking of his father's shoes and the snapping of his robes felt comforting and powerful to him, but today there was no comfort. His father was dressed in muggle clothes, though he still dressed in black, with his hair pulled back simply. Though his clothes looked odd on him and somehow diminished, Harry still saw him as looking like a formidable wizard. Nobody in their right mind would mess with him. Harry was wearing muggle clothes as well, but he was far more accustomed to wearing them than his father was. He knew what his father was going to have to say, and he knew he was going to be separate from him, but he knew little else. His father had told him long ago of the existence of his aunt and how his aunt had declined to raise him on that early November morning so long ago, but she had never seemed like a real person to him. Harry did not dare to hope she was a good person, he simply hoped that she just wasn't too awful.

"They wanted to meet in a neutral spot," his father reminded him, talking more to fill the silence than anything else. "I believe this place is about as neutral as they come."

"But you'll know where I am," Harry confirmed.

"You know that," Snape told him. "There is nowhere they could take you where I could not find you. But the ministry is watching, so I will have to be discreet and can't risk visiting you often, and it might be better if it is not at all. But I have a monitoring spell on you, and if you are in distress I will be there that night. If it is life threatening I will come at that moment, but if I do the cover is likely blown, so I will try not to do that."

"What if you can't come?" Harry asked.

"I've told you this," Snape sighed. "If the wards are tuned to keep me out or something like that, I will send Mrs. Weasley or Remus Lupin to you in my stead. Unless Dumbledore erected the wards I can probably smash through them, but that would alert the ministry, and we will try and avoid that."

"It should be Remus," Harry told him. "I mean, I like Mrs. Weasley, but if I'm hurt she'll make too much of a fuss and might blow the whole thing trying to get revenge or something. Remus understands a lot more and can be sneakier."

"That is an astute observation," Snape agreed, surprised at his son's deductive skills. Apparently his training wasn't entirely wasted.

"Can I write?"

"If they allow it," Snape nodded. "We also have that notebook that we can write back and forth in."

"That's right," Harry nodded. For his birthday his father had given him a notebook where his father had the matching one, and they both could write messages in the notebook for each other. They hadn't used it much, mostly just asking questions to each other, but Harry realized that might be really helpful. "Will it work over that distance?"

"It will work over any distance," Snape nodded. "You write in it whenever you want and I can write back. It's more convenient than an owl."

"Too bad I can't write like that to Ron and Hermione," Harry shrugged.

"Yes, it's too bad," Snape acknowledged. "For that you will need your new guardians to let you use your owl."

"What if they don't let me keep my owl?"

"I will try to convince them," Snape told Harry. "But ultimately, if they refuse, I will keep her and bring her to you at Hogwarts."

"Do you even want me to have her?"

"Of course I do!" Snape answered, a little offended. "Why do you think I wouldn't?"

"You're always saying I owl Hermione and Ron too much."

"Perhaps," Snape nodded. "But I think that's a common complaint with parents. I hope that you are able to continue."

"What if they lock my trunk?" Harry asked after a minute, trying to think of every contingency.

"You know that no lock on that truck can stand against your hand," Snape told him. "That's a pretty standard anti-pranking mechanism you get with the nicer trunks. And given my experience at Hogwarts, a sensible addition."

"But if they do lock it I will have to be sneaky," Harry nodded.

"People who abuse children are usually good at not getting detected," Snape told him with a sigh. "And often devious in how they find ways to make children miserable. We cannot anticipate every way they may try to hurt you; that is why we have failsafes. But the best failsafe we have is that you must present yourself in a month to school, safe and unharmed. So there is a limit to what they can do."

"It's only a month," Harry shrugged, looking down at his snowy white owl with affection. "How bad can it be?"

"Do not tell yourself that," Snape said sharply. "There is a difference between realizing their limitations and underestimating your enemy. You have always been around kind people, do not make the mistake that that will continue. You are to be on your guard at all times. Do not underestimate the fact that they are muggles, there is still much they can do, especially as you are wandless."

Harry paled. Being without his wand was going to be the worst part; he felt helpless without it.

"You have been schooled in many ways to protect yourself besides your wand," Snape reminded him.

"I wish I had learned some Karate."

"Perhaps we can work on that," Snape stifled a grin. "But I doubt your Uncle knows any, so you should be fine."

"It's still not fair," Harry looked down, his face darkening.

"It's not, and it's likely to get even more unfair," Snape acknowledged. "But try not to provoke it. Keep your head down, your cheek in check, and mind your manners. I will not have them think I raised a hooligan."

"Yes, sir," he answered sullenly.

"And Harry, should it be life or death?" Snape eyed him sternly. "Get your wand. Underaged wizards are allowed magic to protect their lives."

"I will," Harry promised.

"And Harry, you know I'm going to have to say some things I do not mean?" Snape said, his eyes meeting the heartbreakingly green ones.

"You told me you were going to have to."

"It's for your own safety," Snape told him. "The more indifferent they think I am towards you the better off we are. But know this now; listen well. You are the most important thing in the world to me and I will stop at nothing to get you back. Your presence in my life has been a gift."

"I've not been the easiest kid . . ." Harry mumbled, looking away in discomfort at the unexpected sentiment expressed.

"You have not," Snape agreed. "But I would expect nothing less, given your fathers. Both of us. Now look smart, here come the muggles."

Petunia and Vernon appeared then in the park, walking steadily towards Snape as he stood like an austere statue next to Harry. Harry watched them approach, curious but suspicious. Petunia wore a flower patterned skirt suit that seemed hot and tight for the warm weather, and a fluffy tie tied around her long neck. She glanced nervously around, as if she was working up the courage to approach them. Vernon glanced forward with more purpose, his large beefy face fixed on its target and his lumbering body following suit.

"Vernon and Petunia Dursley," he introduced himself, slightly out of breath. "We're here for the boy."

"I see," Snape answered coldly. "I am professor Snape. Harry Potter is here, as you see, in good health and reasonably clean."

"Do you have his baggage as well?" Vernon demanded. "I don't want to have to buy him a whole new wardrobe."

"I have it shrunk in my pocket," Snape told him with an air of unconcerned bother. "I can un-shrink it at your car if you wish. And he is carrying his owl, as you see."

"His owl?"

"Yes, his owl," Snape replied calmly. "It's part of what he needs for Hogwarts. She should be no bother to you; Harry is capable of caring for her."

"I don't want a bloody owl in my house!" Vernon protested, his face reddening.

"If I don't have the boy, I don't want the silly thing either," Snape shrugged. "You'll have to talk to Dumbledore about it."

"I don't want that filthy thing in my car!" Petunia objected.

"She's really very nice, Aunt Petunia," Harry told her, beginning to panic about not having his owl with him. "And she has a cover for her cage. I can put it on, it puts her to sleep and keeps the feathers in."

"Nobody was talking to you, boy," Vernon growled.

"I believe the boy does have a good idea," Snape smoothed over. "Perhaps the cage cover could help. Or we could summon Dumbledore here now to help, I believe you talked to him before?

"Bring it then," Vernon ordered, flustered and clearly not wanting to talk with Dumbledore. "Come, boy."

Harry followed, flinching a bit at Vernon's order, knowing instinctively that Vernon was dangerous. Snape had been right to warn him. He held Hedwig close to himself as he followed behind Vernon, who walked to the carpark.

"If you need anything you can get in contact with me," Snape told them, watching Harry cover the owl's cage with the cover and then put himself in the car. He was happy he had done at least a few things in the muggle world so it wouldn't be completely new to Harry. But he still knew that his preparation had been far too little given what Harry was likely to face in the house he was going to. "I will be taking some much needed holiday time now that I am unencumbered, but Dumbledore will know how to reach me."

"We can handle one kid," Vernon growled. "Even one of your kind."

"He can be a bit of a handful," Snape warned. "Look who his father was."

"We can handle that, too," Vernon smiled wickedly. "Put the trunk in there and we shall be gone."

Snape placed the trunk in the boot of the car and then un-shrunk it. It hurt his heart to see the trunk in there, but his face was a mask of indifference. He was a good judge of character most of the time, and reading Petunia and Vernon was as easy as reading a book. He felt like he was sending Harry off to go and live with a pack of lions that saw him as an injured gazelle. But what he couldn't guess was how bad it was going to be. Verbal abuse? Physical abuse? When he did a cursory look in their minds he could only find how they treated their own son, and he had to admit that brat lived in luxury. But he knew they had no such intentions for Harry.

"Carry on, then," Snape told them, the same cold indifference in his voice. "The trunk is full size."

"Don't think of interfering," Petunia said, eyeing Snape with suspicion. "He's ours now. You had the chance to fight and you didn't."

"I didn't fight because I had no desire to do so," Snape told her, his heart breaking a bit as he lied. "I only took him as a favor for Dumbledore, and to be honest he has been very difficult the last year. This is a relief to me. I'll see enough of the brat in Potions class."

"I'm still not sure about sending him to that ruddy school . . ." Vernon grumbled.

Snape shrugged. "I suppose it would be your choice. But most wizarding youth don't do well at muggle schools, a few 'incidents' and they get expelled usually. There's some other wizarding schools of course. There's one in France . . ."

"French?" Vernon scrunched up his face. "How very un-British. No, I suppose you're right. He'd terrorize students at a normal school. We'll see for now, maybe we can get the magic out of him."

"A good day to you, then," Snape nodded, dreading actually seeing Harry pull away but finding it nearly impossible to talk to this man any longer.

"Good day," Vernon nodded, slamming the trunk and getting in his car. Snape turned away, not able to will himself to see Harry drive away.