Special thanks:

Queen of the Jungle, my beta-reader and great friend! It's her birthday today, so this chapter is dedicated to her.

 Also thanks to valeries26, who reviewed no fewer than fifteen times! Thank you very much for your support, and I hope that this chapter lives up to your expectations!

Chapter Two:

Harry and Sirius stood inside the small shepherds hut, Harry shivered slightly, it was dank and cold here, and he didn't like it much.
Sirius looked at him and sighed. "This life is hard, kid, and I would never choose it for you if I had any choice in the matter, believe me," he told him.
Harry smiled wearily. "I know Sirius, but you don't have a choice and neither do I. This is what happened and we may as well make the best of it," he said.
"You know, that sounded exactly like Lily used to," Sirius remarked. "Scary. She had a selection of sayings and was always telling us them. Well, she is your mother, so I guess you can be like her."
Harry laughed. "So, what are we going to do now, Sirius?" he asked, he wasn't sure how to take this being on the run, and Sirius had been for two years, so he would know what he was doing more than Harry did.
"Now? Sleep,' Sirius replied with a grin. Harry rolled his eyes, but he was tired enough and so he lay down too and slept. Sirius had changed form to a dog and lay in the doorway as if to protect him.
It was night fall before Harry woke again, and that was to Sirius gently shaking him. "Come on kid, time to wake up now,' he said softly.
Harry looked up at him, nodded once and stumbled to his feet, regaining his balance quickly, he followed Sirius out into the gathering darkness.
Sirius was in human form for his journey, not seeming to think that people would see them, and Harry had to agree with him, the forest was rumored to be haunted, or to have some sort of murderer hiding out here, and no one ever came in here unless they had to, but never at night. He was a little nervous about that himself, but if Sirius was here he had no doubt that he would be completely safe.
They were heading back to the other house, Harry realized, maybe there was food or something there. His stomach growled reminding him that he had not eaten since breakfast.
Sirius looked behind at him and grinned. "Not too much farther now, once we get there we can eat and talk about what's going to happen next.'
Harry simply nodded his head and kept walking, trying to forget all of the rumours about the forest, and having very little success, the harder he tried not to think of it the more things he could remember.
"Here we are," Sirius remarked, stepping into the pale light of a just past full moon, the house illuminated and looking very creepy, they went inside silently. Sirius gestured to Harry to stay put while he searched the house in dog form.
A moment later he was back. 'Ok, it's all clear,' he said, after changing to human form again.
Harry nodded and they walked inside. Sirius went straight to what would have been the kitchen and opened one of the cupboards, careful not to break it, and pried up one of the floor boards. Beneath it was quite a stash of food.
"Remus insisted on giving me a lot of food," Sirius remarked. "He said that while I might be used to not eating that much, you probably weren't, since your still a growing boy."
"I'm not all that used to eating much either. It's not like the Dursley's ever gave me all that much. They nearly starved me last summer, but that was because the entire family was supposed to be on a diet,' Harry replied with a shrug.
There was a silence, and the next time he looked up, Sirius was staring out towards the town with a look of pure murder on his face. "Someday they'll pay for every wrong thing they ever did to you. That is a promise," he said, his voice had a quiet conviction that was hard and cold. Harry knew that Sirius would do as he promised.
"It's alright Sirius, I'm used to it," he said, knowing that it would mean nothing to his godfather, who simply smiled at him.
'Do you want to make a fire for me? It's your wand, and it'll work for you better than it does for me.' Harry grinned, nodded and waved his wand towards the fire place.
Immediately blue fire sprang from the tip of his wand and lit up the hearth. Hermione had taught him how to do that in second year, before she'd been petrified by the basilisk, as it had been very useful the year before.
'Ok kid, we need to talk about what's going to happen now. First of all, I think that we should head over to Remus's and dump most of your stuff there, everything that you won't need. He can help me get a disguise together – the Marauders discovered it in school, and no one else knows this way – and then go to Diagon Alley. There we can get anything else you might need, as well as getting me a wand, which will make things easier.
"I'm going to teach you what you'd learn in Hogwarts this year myself, when we get the time, that's as well as basic survival stuff that you might need. Maybe after that we can head around to the Weasley's place, Arthur already told me that if I needed a place to stay for a night or two, that I could come there, and I doubt that will have changed now that your with me. For now, we'll go over some of what you already know magic wise, and I'll teach you a few small spells that you might find useful, then we'll go tomorrow night. Much safer moving through the night.'

***

The next morning:
Ron Weasley opened the Daily Prophet not expecting to see anything interesting but wanting something to do until the rest of his family came down for breakfast.
The first thing he saw was a picture of Harry watching him wearily, it had been taken just after his recovery from the Third Task. As he read the article that went with it, he felt a mounting anger, and pity for his friend.
Accused of murder, but not being there when the Aurors came to arrest him, not being able to be found, he'd run away from home, but was it because he'd got wind of what was going on, or for some other reason? The reporter wondered. The Captain in command of the squad that first went to look for Harry Potter said something about that if the boy had run away to get away from his relatives, he wouldn't have been surprised.
Ron shook his head slightly. Both reasons were likely enough, he knew that his father had sent an owl to Dumbledore the night before last, and maybe that had been the information that had likely saved Harry's life.
He'd ask his father when he came down for breakfast.
Ron put the newspaper away, he didn't want to read about his friend being a murderer, and couldn't be bothered to look past that page. He'd admit Harry was a murder when Harry himself gave him proof that he could believe, which wouldn't happen.

Somewhere else that morning:
Draco Malfoy, soon to be fifth year of Hogwarts, was also up before his family, but he had breakfast, thanks to a house elf. When he read the article on the front page of the newspaper, his reaction was one very different from Ron Weasley's.
"Well Potter, it seems that I came out on top after all. Pity you escaped before they could arrest you, but everyone knows your face and they'll all be against you now!' He wore a pleased smile as he waited to tell his father the good news. Potter was out of the way now!

Yet another place:
Albus Dumbledore smiled sadly when he saw the newspaper, even though he knew that it was happening. Well, at least Harry had gotten out before it was too late.
At that moment there was a crash and most of the Hogwarts staff piled into the room, all babbling about the article, demanding that something be done about it.
Severus Snape was the only one who look moderately calm, but even he appeared somewhat shaken. He mightn't like Harry Potter, but he knew how much the wizarding world needed him – Harry was a symbol of hope for many people.
Dumbledore sighed slightly, he would have to tell a lie here. "I'm afraid I do not know where young Mr. Potter is, I expect that he simply ran away, I have since heard from his friends that his family was less than pleasant. I will keep you posted if I hear more.
'Minerva, Severus, would you please remain behind?' he dismissed them without seeming to notice, a man who was upset and possibly angry about something.
The two named remained where they were as the others slipped out of the room quickly. No one said anything.
Once he was sure they were alone, Dumbledore looked to the two of the teachers that he trusted enough to tell the truth. He wished that he could trust the others, but one of them might tell someone that they shouldn't and it would ruin everything.
"You know where the Potter boy is, don't you, Headmaster?' Severus asked coolly when Dumbledore relaxed.
"Yes, he is with Sirius, who'll take care of him until we can prove that the Ministry was wrong to accuse him as they did. I do not know where they are now, and I do not want to. If I know then the Ministry might begin to suspect me, and this way if they question me, they won't find out much more than they knew already,' Dumbledore replied.
Minerva had been told Sirius Black's true identity the night after the students had left. She'd been surprised for a moment, but she knew both that Dumbledore would never claim anything unless he was completely sure of where he stood, and that it made more sense the way that it was now explained to her.
"So what do you want us to do?" She asked him, she was smart enough to know that he hadn't held them back just to tell them that.
"I want you to keep an ear on the rumors that will circulate the school when the students come back, and among the teachers as well, and keep them from getting to out of hand. Keep it simple, find ways to disprove of the rumours in ways that won't get tongues wagging even more."
"That shouldn't be too difficult,' Severus remarked. "May I go now?" Impatient to be away from Minerva, those two just didn't get on.
"Certainly Severus, you may leave too, Minerva," Dumbledore replied, and watching them walk stiff backed out of the room with a faint sigh.

***

It was still early morning, only a few hours since Harry had got to sleep after his lesson with Sirius, but he was wide awake and alert, he could sense … something.
"Sirius, something's wrong, we have to get out of here,' Harry said, shaking his godfather awake gently.
Sirius stirred and scowled up at him. "What's going to happen?" He demanded irritably.
"I don't know, but I've got a feeling, and it's better safe than sorry, isn't it?" Harry replied, frowning slightly. What was wrong? He couldn't quite place it.
"Quite right, and if this is a false alarm, then we'll know that we don't need to trust your feelings anymore," Sirius replied, with all the cheerfulness of someone who has been woken up at a very unsavory hour of the morning when they had only just got to sleep. In other words: None.
Sirius was obviously not a morning person, Harry didn't mind, some people were like that. "Come on then. The food is already in packs so that we can be on the way for Remus's tonight, and so is most of the other stuff," he said.
Sirius dragged himself out of the makeshift bed and stumbled downstairs after Harry, collecting things that Harry shrunk to fit in their pockets, until they slipped out.
Sirius looked around, and then gestured to one of the large trees that made up the forest. Harry nodded and handed his godfather the wand. Sirius made platforms appear so that they could climb up easily, and then got rid of them when they reached the first branch.
Harry took out his invisibility cloak and threw it around both his and his godfathers shoulders, hiding them from the eyes of anyone who might be looking for them.
Not a minute later, a party headed into the clearing, wizards, as was made clear by the fact that they were all carrying wands, and they were wearing the oddest of Muggle clothes – wizards didn't really know much about what Muggles wear.
Sirius's breath came out in a sharp hiss in Harry's ear. "You could have just saved our lives kid," he told the boy.
"Shut up," Harry replied. "They're still just down there, remember!" Sirius smiled and ruffled his godsons hair.
It was a very tense situation, with the Aurors underneath them, searching the house. They heard some of the conversation from down below brought up on the wind.
-"Was a wizard here, or more than one …"
"For a day or so-"
"-Maybe they were just resting here to do some magic or some…"
It was half an hour before they left, and every minute made Harry and Sirius even more tense. Finally they left agreeing that though someone had been here, they were no longer, and probably wouldn't return.
They did a quick check over the clearing and the forest around, but found nothing there, so they came to the conclusion that they had left the area completely.
"It seems that Potter has left the area completely," the leader of the group said. "We will take that back to the Ministry and send out the order to keep a close watch on the area around here, he can't have got far."
Then they were gone and Harry and Sirius slipped down the tree, pulling the cloak from their shoulders. "Remind me to pay very careful attention to you when you say that you sensed something in the future," Sirius told him, looking slightly awed.
Harry simply nodded. "Now how about we get some more sleep so that we are refreshed for the journey tonight. I suppose we are still making it?"
"Certainly. Just because they won't be looking for us here for now, that's no reason not to leave. We have to get your things from Diagon Alley and I would rather do that before anyone who might be suspicious of us will be there. Like anyone who knew you in school, because you might forget and greet them, which would ruin everything," Sirius replied.
Harry sighed and nodded, heading inside.
Something caught his eye on the rotting kitchen table. He touched Sirius's arm and pointed to it.
It was, to all appearances, a note. Harry and Sirius walked over to it, they would not touch it for any reason, but were surprised to find it open and a quick few lines hastily scrawled over it.

Potter, Black, yes I know you're here Black, I'm the Captain here, just thought I'd let you know that I support Dumbledore, not Fudge, though I must keep up an appearance at least of obeying Fudge, for fear of losing my job, I'm sure you understand.
Should I be able to help in hiding you without letting my people know what I am doing, then I will do so. Should I be able to help you escape if you are caught, I will do so. So long as it cannot be traced back to me.
I hope you do well, I've bought you a few days at least to get yourselves together.

It was not signed, but Harry didn't expect it, and apparently neither did Sirius. "It's good to know that we've got a supporter, even if not an open one, but remember Harry, if you're on the run, there isn't anyone you can trust that you don't know personally, and even then you can only trust them so far. We can't trust the words of this letter, and that he knows we are here bodes ill. Still, we need rest, and we'll just have to trust in this letter for the minute. You sleep under the invisibility cloak, I'll stay in my animagus form."
Harry merely nodded and they headed upstairs together.
Harry learned very quickly that trying to sleep with an invisibility cloak was both difficult and uncomfortable, maybe Sirius would teach him how to become an animagus. If this happened very often, he hoped he would.
Once asleep, however, very little could have woken Harry again, and indeed, nothing did until end of the of the sun was setting and it was time to go.
He had to wake Sirius up, otherwise, his godfather confessed later, they probably wouldn't have gotten started until the next night.
Nothing had changed downstairs, the note still lay were they'd left it, and nothing else was changed from when they had gone to sleep. "Can't trust appearances," Sirius remarked coolly, "so let's go."
Harry was only too happy to follow this suggestion, and so they left the house with Harry on his Firebolt with the invisibility cloak on, and Sirius as a dog again.
Sirius claimed that he could smell Harry perfectly well so they wouldn't get lost, and he was leading the way, so it didn't matter too much. Harry often swooped up into the air and dove downwards at a breakneck pace, just playing around, having fun with the fact that he was in the air, where he liked to be.
Sirius had them moving at quite a fast pace for a dog, but since Harry was on the broom, he didn't really notice it, and they headed away from Surrey with the setting sun at their backs.
Halfway across the flatlands, they suddenly heard a yell: "There's the beast! Catch it!" And suddenly a very large group of people were running towards them, pointing at Sirius. Harry recognized some of them as parents of Dudley's Gang, and knew that they were after Sirius.
He dropped down quickly and murmured in Sirius's ear, telling him who they were and what was happening. His godfather gave him a doggy grin, and suddenly spun, snarling and growling like a mad thing.
Up in the air hovering over the scene, Harry could not help chuckling as the group of people hurried away as fast as they could go. Sirius simply started out again, ignoring them.
It did not matter if they went to get help, Harry and Sirius would be far away by the time they got back with any help that they could find at this time of the night.
They moved quickly, for the most part paying little attention to one another, just enough that Harry kept Sirius in sight, and Sirius occasionally barked, the signal for Harry to come down and tell Sirius that he was still here.
The better part of the night passed this way, but at around one in the morning, Sirius clambered up behind Harry, and they took off the invisibility cloak, which was unneeded now, as they were over a forest that was unoccupied by human beings.
"About three hours more of flying, Harry, it's much quicker this way, and we might just be able to get there before the sun comes up," Sirius told him over the whistle of air as they hurtled through the night sky, Sirius clinging to Harry as the younger boy took the broom to the fastest speed it could do.
Sirius didn't even try and tell him to slow down, Harry was glad that his caretaker (if you could call Sirius something like that) was just as much a kid as he was in most ways, and understood the fact that teenagers liked doing dangerous things. It's always good to have a kindred spirit.

As Sirius had said, it was just before dawn when they reached Professor Lupin's hideout, which was deep in some woods, Harry realized that this must be because it had just been full moon. Sirius nodded in agreement when Harry asked if that was the case.
They landed on the lawn in front of the building and Sirius knocked on the door. "Hang on Padfoot!" Lupin's voice rang out from inside, and a moment later the door was pulled open by a worried looking Professor Lupin.
"Harry! Thank god, I didn't know if Sirius here had been in time, we didn't get the warning until quite late- excuse me, that was babbling. Please come inside," Harry's old teacher said.
Harry had to smile at that. "Hello Professor Lupin," he said.
"Remus please, Harry, I'm not your teacher any more, or failing that, at least call me Moony," the man replied absently.
"Alright Pro-Moony," Harry said, "but if I forget at first, just remind me."
"I'll do that, or Sirius will. He doesn't seem to like it when one of his old friends, especially one of the Marauders, has – god forbid – a respectable title," the werewolf replied.
Harry and Sirius both laughed at that. "Now, I suppose you'll only want to stay here for most of today. I'm going to be leaving about midday, so if you like, you can go to sleep now for a while, and I'll wake you up when I'm leaving, you can fly to Diagon Alley and then take floo powder from there to the Weasley's," Remus told them.
"Sounds good Moony, you just wake us up," Sirius said sleepily.
"Maybe we should send an owl to the Weasley's to tell them that we're coming?" Harry suggested after a moments thought.
"Good idea," Remus remarked. "But maybe tell them that I'll be coming, that's a normal enough thing to be happening these days, I've been there a lot. Then I'll tell them that you're coming later on."
"Ok, will you take care of writing it then? I'm not sure that I can think of what I should write," Harry asked.
"Of course Harry," Remus replied with a smile. "Sirius knows where to go to sleep," he added.
Sirius and Harry went towards the back of the house where there were a few rooms that were only a little torn up by a werewolve's violent rage.
This was apparently the best place to sleep, there was a bed in one of the rooms, which Sirius insisted Harry take, Sirius himself changed back to dog form and flopped down in front of door like a guard dog of some sort.
Harry sighed slightly, even if they were on the run, Sirius appeared to want to take care of Harry, and so he'd have to look out for his godfather and make sure that Sirius didn't try and keep Harry sheltered by taking it on himself to do the harder things.

The morning came far too quickly in Harry's opinion, Remus shook him gently awake. "Come on Harry, time to wake up now," he said softly, in a gentle but firm voice.
Harry groaned, but stood up wearily, feeling as if every bone in his body was protesting not being able to simply rest and not do anything.
Sirius was already awake, but hadn't stood up yet, when he saw Harry up and about, he seemed to scowl before standing also and changing form.
Sirius, Harry now knew, was deffinately not a morning person, whether he had gotten a proper sleep or not. Not that last night's sleep could be called "proper" but anyway…
There was a brunch on the table when they got to the kitchen, Remus aparently had some skills as a cook. And acording to him, Sirius didn't. "Do not let Sirius near the food if you have to eat it as well," he warned Harry, while Sirius glared pure murder at his only remaining loyal friend from school.
"I won't," Harry promised, and shrank back as Sirius turned the glare on him. Suddenly Sirius seemed to register his slight fear and the glare was gone completely, replaced by a brilliant smile that made him look much younger, almost making the dead look that twelve years in Azkaban had given him disappear. Almost, but not quite.
Harry forced himself to relax, he couldn't help it, he knew that Sirius would never hurt him, but he knew what was coming whenever his uncle got that expression on his face.
The brunch was delicious, and Harry ate quite a bit, even though he was almost full before he'd sampled much of the array of food. Ten years of nearly starving made him able to eat very little, in fact, it would be difficult to eat a lot now, but he was sure that he would manage.
Finally it was time to go, there was a quick goodbye, but Remus maintained that he would see them again soon, and that if they ever needed a place to stay for a while, his place was always open.
Sirius thanked him for that, and then dragged Harry incide as Remus Apparated to the Weasley's place. "Here," Sirius said, handing Harry what looked like a bright blue lolly, he himself was holding a bright red one.
"If you eat this and think of a different look, this will give it to you. Try and be inventive so that no one will even link you to who you really are," his godfather explained.
Harry smiled faintly and nodded, watching as Sirius did his first. Suddenly the familiar face melted slightly, becoming narrow, black hair became shoulder length brown-blonde, grey eyes became hazel green, and he became shorter and thinner than he had been.
Harry blinked several times, before popping the lolly in his mouth and concentrated hard. The next second Sirius gave a yelp of surprise and Harry opened his eyes, looking in the mirror, he grinned.
He was taller than usual, his face had a more mature look, his body had filled out a little, green eyes had become light purple, black hair became brown with blonde streaks, and he had a peirced ear.
But the lightning bolt scar on his forehead was still clearly visible, it wouldn't be if he brushed the fringe of his now longer hair down though.
"Why didn't the scar go away?" he asked Sirius. "I concentrated particularly hard on getting rid of that."
"Maybe it's something more than just a scar, something that shows that you defeated the dark lord once, and it won't go away no matter what. I guess we'll just have to disguise it a little," Sirius replied, frowning.
Harry simply nodded his head, and handed his wand to his godfather. Sirius took it and tapped Harry's forhead gently. There was a slight burning sensation, but it was gone before Harry could hardly realize it was there.
"Ok kid, how does that look?" Sirius asked, holding out a mirror. Harry looked in it and smiled faintly, the lightning bolt had been covered up by some sort of make up that faded against his skin so that he didn't notice it at all.
There was nothing to suggest that any scar had been there, and Harry was relieved, if anything could give him away, it was that.
"Perfect," Sirius stated with a proud smile. "Let's get going then, you know about floo powder of course?"
"Yeah, I know it," Harry agreed. "By the way, do we just use our normal names? Just in all of the movies I saw, the people always changed their names."
"I hadn't thought of that. Ok, I'm Peter, your James, sound good?" Sirius asked.
"Sounds fine Peter," Harry replied with the slightest emphisis on Sirius's new name. Sirius grinned.
"You'll do good at this kid, mark my words. I won't forget and get your name wrong, you remind me of James enough, that's for sure," he said.
Harry smiled and took a handful of floo powder, throwing it over the flames which instantly turned green. He stepped into them and spoke clearly, "Diagon Alley!"
A few moments of dizzying spinning, he was there, and moments after that, Sirius arrived on the scene.
"Now James, come on, the entrace is this way," Sirius said calmly, playing as if they had never been there before, or at least that Harry hadn't.
Harry followed him quickly out of the room, though the people inside scarcely glanced in their direction, it felt to him as if they were all staring at him and muttering amung themselves, pointing and ready to call the Aurors in a second.
Sirius went straight to Olivanders Wand Shop, but sent Harry to the book shop instead, telling him to find some books that looked interesting, and if he could find any that he would be needing during the year at Hogwarts.
Harry walked inside glancing around. He'd always wanted to buy some of the books here, giant leather and metal bound books full of curses and all sorts of interesting things, but not right now.
He strode over to the counter and the man behind it leaned forward slightly. "Can I help you?" the other man asked, voice quiet so as not to disturb anyone who was brousing thorugh the shop.
Harry spoke in a voice just as quiet. "I'm looking for the books that Hogwarts will be needing this year, fifth year mainly," he told him.
"Are you a student?" The man asked, the question was not out of place, but to Harry it seemed as though the man was deliberately trying to trick him into answering in some particular fashion, maybe to admit that he was Harry Potter or something.
None of his doubts showed on his face as he answered. "No, I've been homeschooled, but I wanted to see what Hogwarts will be doing through the year, I haven't really thought about it before, but my parents were always going on about how great Hogwarts was."
"Well, we don't have all of the books yet, but we do have some, if you would just come and take a look, I'll show you," the man offered.
Harry accepted the offer and walked behind the man as they wandered around the shelves, the man picking up this book or that one and explaining what it was and who would be using it this year and a heap of other stuff.
Harry made comments that he didn't really think of, his eyes were on the bigger books again, and one of them seemed to be calling to him, a large book with a gold cloth cover.
"Excuse me, but what's that book?" Harry asked, pointing it out to the other man. "The gold one?"
"That? It's a book on Elementals, I believe. Yes, a very interesting read, I've been told, though I haven't read it myself," the man told him. Harry added it to the pile that was growing quite fast.
Suddenly there was a crash on the other side of the store and the assisstant hurried over to see if anyone had been hurt and what the commotion was about.
Harry was about to come out of the shelves when he saw a face that he had hoped not to see again now that he was on the run. Completely forgetting that he was disguised he ducked backwards again, just before Draco Malfoy's eyes swept the place where he had been.
Had the other boy seen him? Harry felt slightly panicked, and jumped at a touch on his shoulder.

***************************************************************

So, I've got a cliffie. First one from this story. Who was it that touched Harry's shoulder? Review so that I'll update and you can find out!

Thanks to:

Queen of the Jungle, Hermione-potter, Zeva Blackrose, kateydidnt, Lady Foxfire, spacecatdet, Katy999, BlackDragon, Arkayas, The Red Dragons Order, valeries26's 16 reviews, bob, bob, Songbreeze Swifteye, Heather, brion, Maxx77, ER, fanfiction reader, Clare, Anaxandra, Rachel A. Prongs, wquad, Clare, Queen of Redwall, and Pringle.

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