Harry wasn't naive enough to ever think he could ever have a good day at the Dursley's but he really didn't expect things to unfold quite like they had. He'd only been back from Hogwarts about three weeks when the call came in that Vernon's grandmother had passed away. Harry had never met the woman before and if she was anything like her grandson he didn't really want to.

He knew though that a death in the family meant Marge would be coming to visit and Harry would have to pretend to be something he wasn't unless he wanted a serious beating later.

And he didn't.

He expected Marge to be horrible and when he heard that Vernon and Marge had a cousin from New York he resigned himself to the idea she'd be horrible too. However, the woman turned out to be the complete opposite of her cousins and wasn't horrible at all. They hadn't talked much in the few hours he'd known her but in that time she'd genuinely worried over him and stuck up for him when he was getting berated by Aunt Marge. She even told the woman off for bullying him.

Harry already liked May more than anyone currently in the house and then she punched the woman in the face and Harry decided that May was his favorite relative. In truth, she'd stopped him from accidentally using any more of his magic as he felt so close to losing his temper. And then, to top the whole evening off, she told him to get his stuff because he was going with her.

He had mixed feelings about this, he wanted desperately to go with her and forget the Dursley's even existed but he couldn't go to New York, he had school here and he had friends at Hogwarts! Not that he could tell her these things because he couldn't just tell a muggle all about magic and Hogwarts.

The idea of leaving was too sweet to ignore though and it only took telling him twice before he left the room and quickly grabbed up his things, his trunk that was stored in the staircase and Hedwig's cage and met May at the door, ready to say goodbye to Privet Drive for a good long time.

They were two streets over when May finally had him set the trunk down. She looked concerned and her complexion was pale as it seemed to finally hit her what she'd just done. She sat on the trunk for a moment and covered her face in her hands, breathing deeply before looking up again.

"This is really heavy." She finally stated, her voice carefully calm.

"Look, if you need me too, I can probably go back-it wasn't too bad yet." Harry offered. At the look on May's face it was the wrong thing to offer.

"No. Nope." She said firmly. "I'm going to figure this out and we're going to be fine." Harry wanted to doubt her since she'd had him pack up and leave with no plan on getting… anywhere. May's foot bounced from where she was sitting and after a long moment of silence she pulled her phone out and ordered them a cab. The ride was quiet as the lady seemed to be wrestling with herself and Harry thought it best not to disturb her.

The cab ride took them to a motel. The room was small, cramped, and smelled of cigarette smoke despite that May had asked for a nonsmoking room. There was a single bed in the room directly across from a tv. May helped him put his trunk in a corner of the room. He sat down on the bed and May sat next to him, neither daring to speak.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." She finally started after a moment. Harry looked up at her in confusion. "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that." She told him.

"Oh… it's okay… really. Honestly, I was sort of imagining what she'd look like, inflated up like a balloon." He confessed. May let out a small laugh and ruffled his hair before getting up, leaving Harry even more confused. How was this woman related to Uncle Vernon?

He's always wished a relative would whisk him away from the Dursley's but now that it had actually happened he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. Was this even allowed? The Dursley's sure hadn't tried to stop her from taking him. Honestly though, they were probably relieved they wouldn't have to put up with him anymore. Unless, a nasty little voice hissed in his ear, she's already regretting taking you with her.

May paced the length of their small motel room and Harry watched her, becoming increasingly concerned she was going to change her mind and send him back. Finally, she told him she had to make a phone call and asked him to stay where he was. Harry just gave her a small nod. He didn't know who she was calling but he hoped it wasn't the Dursleys.

He wished he'd had Hedwig because then he could write to Ron or Hermione and tell them about Vernon's cousin that wanted him to come live with her in New York.

May wasn't even sort of thinking about how to send him back and she wasn't even kind of regretting her choice to take him with her. What she was doing was quietly panicking over her financial situation. She just couldn't afford to take in another kid but she also couldn't leave a kid in a clearly unsafe environment. She had to figure out how to make this work. It would be okay, maybe she could explain things to the landlord and get an extension on when rent was due. Maybe she could get a second job? Maybe she could ask for a raise at work? Explain what happened to her boss and maybe he'd be understanding. He'd been very understanding when Ben passed and she was hoping maybe he'd show that same level of compassion.

She was also panicking about how to even get Harry to Queens as she was fairly certain it would take a lot of time and money to get a kid moved into another country. Neither of which she had much of. Feeling like she had little other option, she called in a favor.

"You want me to what ?" Tony's shocked voice came through the transceiver. May tried not to feel too guilty about it but, it would, technically, be breaking the law.

"I know it sounds crazy. But Tony I had to-I think they were starving him and-I couldn't just leave him there." May pleaded her case. Tony was quiet a moment, no doubt trying to figure out what May was talking about as she had just immediately jumped on defending her plan.

"Starving who?" He finally asked. May glanced back at the window of the motel and had to remind herself that the kid with super hearing wasn't there right now.

"Harry-He's my cousin's kid-or his nephew on his wife's side but-"

"Okay, okay. I get it." Tony cut her off and then let out a sigh. "And you think he was starving? How old is he?"

"I think he's twelve." May admitted.

"Shit." Tony hissed.

"He's younger than Peter, I know that much." She pressed. She heard him let out an irritated breath before he returned to the call.

"Okay. Isn't that what CPS is for?" He chanced.

"No." May responded firmly, remembering the two social workers she'd talked to in her life. One was right after Mary and Richard and the other was right after Ben. The encounter did not inspire much confidence in the social workers. "All that would do is launch an investigation and I couldn't leave him there."

"Okay." Tony clicked his tongue behind his teeth. "Okay. I'll be there in… a few hours. Sit tight and don't kidnap any more kids." He ended the call and May tried not to feel irritated with the man. She hadn't kidnapped anyone. The Dursleys hadn't even tried to stop her from leaving with Harry. Although, she did sort of threaten them with Tony Stark. He didn't need to know that though.

She briefly took stock of her situation and decided her first course of action should be to get Harry some food, get him to feel safe, and let him sleep. She should assess him for signs of physical abuse but she didn't want him to feel uncomfortable so the first thing on her list was getting him food.

Harry quickly shut the book he'd been reading when May came back in. She eyed him a little suspiciously but moved over to the desk where a pile of takeaway menus were stacked. He couldn't help but watch her as she went through the pile. She seemed to be much more at ease after that phone call. Was she waiting for someone to come get him?

"Are you hungry?" She asked him and the question shocked him so much all he could manage was a sharp noise of surprise.

"Hm?"

"Are you hungry?" She repeated, her tone gentle. Was she offering to buy him food? Maybe she wasn't calling someone to come get him after all.

"Well, I.." He started.

"That's a silly question, boys your age are always hungry." She said lightly. "I'm going to order you some soup, okay?" Harry just nodded in response. May got up and took the remote off the nightstand before handing it to Harry.

She was letting him choose what to watch? It wasn't like this was the first time someone had been nice to him but this was a lot to process. Was she sure she was related to the Dursleys? Then again, Harry was also related to them and he liked to think he was an okay person.

"Just try to keep the volume down so we don't wake anyone up." She instructed, not unkindly. Harry nodded, mutely. "I need a shower." He heard her exhale as she walked away to call the take away place and then went to grab her bag. She waited until Harry was settled in with his soup and moved off to take her shower.

Harry, having nothing better to do, turned the tv on and started flipping through the channels in an attempt to find something to watch. Too bad he didn't know much about Muggle serials. He settled on some weird American movie about giant earthworms.

May came out of the shower, took a look at what he was watching and for a moment, Harry was worried she was going to tell him to turn it off. Instead she started laughing.

"Peter loves that movie." She commented. "He'll be sad he missed it. He loves campy horror movies." Peter? Who was Peter?

"I've… never seen it." Harry admitted. "I don't watch a lot of movies, I wasn't really allowed." May's soft smile vanished and Harry worried he'd said the wrong thing. Before he could take it back he was being enveloped in a tight hug. He didn't know why, but it made his throat feel a little tight.

"Harry, listen to me." She pulled back to get him to look her in the eyes. "Things are going to be different now." She assured him. Harry wanted to believe her but something told him it wouldn't last. His luck wasn't this good and something was going to get in the way. He'd end up back at Privet Drive like he always did. "And you're allowed to watch whatever you want on TV." Her voice brought his focus back to her.

"Well… thanks." He told her awkwardly.

"You don't have to thank me." May stated, her voice firm. "You might be too young to understand this right now, but it would have been irresponsible of me, as an adult, as a parent to just leave you there." It was too bad no one else seemed to see it that way, Harry thought bitterly. It was always 'but they're your family.' Any time he made any vague notion that he wanted to leave the Dursley's forever.

She let him go, grabbed his half eaten soup and put the lid back over it. "If you get hungry again, your soup will be in the fridge." she told him. Harry nodded and watched as she stored the food away. He wondered if she'd still feel that way if he told her about the fact he was a wizard or if she'd turn him back over to the Dursleys. Would she also hate magic and how would he get to Hogwarts if he was living in New York? Would Dumbledore even let him leave the Dursleys forever? How was she planning to get him there? It wasn't like he had a passport and he's pretty sure muggles require them to leave the country.

He should probably tell her about the whole wizard thing, it was only fair that she knew. He started to open his mouth but hesitated. What if she really did turn on him? Then where would he go? He's not even sure where exactly they are.

"Light out in about twenty minutes, okay? I'm gonna go check in with my other nephew." May told him. He gave her a small nod before she stepped outside again.

And then it hit him.

She said she was checking in with her 'other nephew.'

She thought of him as her nephew?

(( This story is actually mostly complete so you'll get updates pretty quick. However, I am still in the process of writing the last chapter and then might turn it into a series idk. We'll see. ))/span/p