Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also references to canon child abuse & abuse of authority. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: I would like to remind my readers that it is NOT bashing if it's canon. Just because a character was never given consequences for it in canon does not actually make it right.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Post Term 16); MC4A (Year 5)
Individual Challenges: Red Dress (Y); Not There; Red Lights; Red Bull; Red Wave; Happy Birthday (Y); Infinite Cakes; Gryffindor MC; Magical MC; Magical MC; Shifter MC; Criminal MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Disabled; Tiny Terror; Claimed; Hold the Mayo; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift (Y)
House: Slytherin
Other Hogwarts Challenges: 365 [24](Draconian); 1000 Prompts Challenge [524](Reconnecting with someone); Hogwarts Gardens [Toys 19](Remus Lupin)
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [2B](Wind/Breeze); SuB [5B](Sky); AU [3C](Professor/Teacher); Chim [Kyrie] ("Carry on My Wayward Son" by Kansas; Race Bend; Ball);Hunt [Su WD (Pagan); Su Set (Busy; Park/Playground)]; Fire [x3](Family Matters); Garden [Soils (Small Town/Village); Flowers (Royal Purple); Bait (Royal Purple); Harvest [A&B (Signing; Throwing); AUs (Canon Divergence); Items (Ball); Tropes (Unlawful Custody Change)];
Representation(s): Desi Harry Potter & Bi Remus Lupin; Silent War against Dumbledore; Marauders as Pack; Chim Song Prompt
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Second Verse (Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Unwanted Advice); Chorus (Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Peddling Pots; Rediscovery; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade); Demo 1 (Most Human Bean; Under the Bridge); Demo 2 (Creature Feature; In the Trench; Sitting Hummingbird; Getting On)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: Once (Inchworm; Santa Fe); War (Orator; Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Intercept); FR (Gestation; Satisfaction)
Word Count: 1578 words

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Stranger Danger
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Remus watched the children playing in the small park. He was careful to not make it too obvious that he was watching the children more than the plants swaying in refreshing breeze. Thankfully, this park had a paved path meandering around the outside of it. That gave him an excuse to be there despite clearly not having a child of his own to supervise. Walking the path also gave him an excuse to keep changing position to see if the adjusted viewpoint helped him spot who was looking for.

This was the sixth park that Remus had visited in the last three months. A part of him was honestly a bit surprised that such a small village as Little Whinging even had that many parks. Most of him was just frustrated that this was taking so long. Each park took at least two and a half weeks to properly observe before he could move on to the next one on the list. Unfortunately, his spell work couldn't narrow down the location any further.

Of course, this whole search would not have been necessary if Albus Dumbledore had not taken it upon himself to kidnap Harry in the first place. Alice and Sirius had both been vocal about wanting the toddler returned to the only family he had left. Then Sirius had been arrested for allegedly betraying the Potters (a crime that Dumbledore knew Sirius couldn't have done, having been the one to cast the Fidelius Charm in the first place) and sent to Azkaban to await a trial that he still hadn't received nearly five years later. Then the Longbottoms had been attacked in their own home, under wards that seemed to spontaneously failed completely. Both Frank and Alice had been rendered little more than vegetables, barely recognizing their surroundings most of the time.

Remus knew when it was best to at least look like he was submitting. It might make his stomach ache with all the teeth he swallowed to do so, but it was the only choice. If something happened to him, there would be no one else to find their pack's stolen pup. Neville was safe in Augusta's care, receiving what little treatment there was for prolonged exposure to the Cruciatus Curse that injured his developing magical core. Remus was free to focus on finding Harry and recovering him.

Dumbledore had been incredibly secretive about where he had placed the so-called Boy-Who-Lived. There had been rumors of people that might know. Remus had chased down a few of those leads over the years. The two best leads had been McGonagall and Hagrid. By the time that Remus had been able to speak with them, the information had been obscured from their memories in a very familiar way.

The old headmaster did favor the Fidelius Charm like some wixen favored glamours.

But Remus knew the weaknesses of the charm, having helped Lily research it before she had agreed to hide under it. The information was hidden only as long as it remained true. If any part of the secret was fundamentally changed, the magic binding it into the Secret Keeper's soul would dissipate. Another weakness was that any information adjacent to the secret but not a direct part of it was not protected by the magic. A diviner with enough precision could potentially work their way around it.

Of course, divination was a bit of obscure subject in most of the world, but it was especially obscured in the Isles. It was still taught at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore had done almost as much of a number of the class as he had on the History of Magic and Defense against the Dark Arts classes. Muggle Studies was just as bad really, with no information after the first World War. Remus still had the research condemning Albus Dumbledore for the way he handled Hogwarts. The plan had been to deal with it after the war had ended. Between the Houses of Potter, Longbottom, and McKinnon, they would have enough political power to loosen Dumbledore's draconian hold over the school. Getting old Arcturus Black onboard would have been a boon but not necessary.

With the way the war had ended, that plan had obviously not come to pass.

Fortunately, Dione Lovegood was far more talented than the hack that Dumbledore had hired to take over for the hack he had hired shortly after taking over as headmaster. It was her skill that had narrowed down Harry's location from the whole world to a small town in Surrey. Unfortunately, it couldn't get any closer than that.

Which was why Remus was checking out parks for hours at time like some kind of perverted pedophile. He would also check the playgrounds of the primary schools, but he had to be even more careful while doing so. Schools tended to have better security than parks.

Remus was distracted from his reminiscing by a royal purple ball bouncing over the path. It stopped at the base of a tall oak that marked the outermost boundary of the park's small copse. Wanting to be helpful, he diverted off the path to pick up the ball and throw it back to the group of boys who had been playing with it. He thought nothing of it when none of the boys thanked him for doing so.

He was about to go back to his walking when he spotted the hunched figure peering around the trunk of the tree. The boy had dark tan skin that had a grayish tint to it and was stretched over his bones like hide on a drum. There was a dark bruise on his jaw and disappearing into his hairline. His black hair stuck up in wild tufts that suggested the might turn into curls if they were even the tiniest bit longer. And his wide eyes were a distinct and unnerving shade of green that Remus had only ever seen on two people.

And Lily, goddess bless her soul, had been dead for nearly five years.

"Hello," Remus greeted the boy. He crouched down to both avoid drawing more attention to them and to not tower over the boy. He had a feeling that any towering would frighten the boy. Without thinking, Remus started matching his words with sign, just like he would have with his pack. "What are you doing back there?"

"Hiding," Harry said simply. His gaze tracked the motion of Remus' hands just like they had when the boy had been an infant. Just like then, Remus could practically feel the curiosity burning away inside of Harry. Yet he didn't ask the obvious question. Instead, Harry just said, "Not supposed to talk to strangers."

"That's very true," Remus agreed, even if it wasn't strictly true that he was a stranger. "My name is Remus. What's yours?"

Harry frowned, clearly giving the question more thought than it should have warranted. His eyes darted from the gaggle of kids kicking the ball around to a cluster of gossiping women seated on a bench about ten meters back along the path. His hands disappeared into the opposite sleeve of the faded red jumper he was wearing. Remus frowned at the motion, so reminiscent of Lily's nervous fidgeting.

"Ha-ha-Harry," he finally answered, sounding as unsure about the answer as he did scared. Remus felt his frown deepen. Harry hunched his shoulders like he was bracing for a blow. Moony howled in the dark corner he lived during the majority of the month.

"Well, Ha-ha-Harry, we now know each other's names. That means we're not strangers."

Harry let out a startled bark of laughter. He looked as surprised by the sound as Remus felt. Unfurling like a flower blossoming at dawn, Harry straightened out of his defensive pose.

"It's just Harry, sir," he corrected meekly. Remus smiled gently, trying to hold back a snarl at the idea of someone grinding the vivacious boy Harry had been as a toddler and should have continued being in the care of his family. It would do no good if Harry saw and assumed the anger was aimed at him.

"Just Harry," Remus accepted. "I'm feeling a bit peckish. What do you say about escorting an old man to the cafe across the street for a nice cuppa and pastry?"

"Aunt Petunia doesn't like it when I wander," Harry said, his eyes darting to the gossiping women once more. Remus grimaced at the slipped information. Of all the trice-cursed people that Dumbledore could have roped into his scheme, he just had to involve Lily's sadistic sister who had disowned her years before her death, the very person that Lily had taken great strides to ensure her son never even met let alone ended up living with.

"We won't tell her then, will we?" Remus suggested, already knowing that there was no way that Harry would ever be subject to Petunia's whims again. He stretched out a hand to the boy. After a moment of hesitation, Harry took it and accepted the help standing up.

No one stopped them as they left the park together.

By the time that Petunia even noticed that her nephew was nowhere to be found, both of them was long gone. Rather than waste anyone's time on the ungrateful runt, she decided against reporting the boy as missing. It wasn't like she had actually wanted him, after all. As far as she was concerned, everyone was better off this way.