Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

By Stag01

Chapter II - Free At Last

Air; it was real clean air. No stench of a week's old uneaten meal, rotting corpses, or faeces. This was the first thing that hit the severely weakened Harry Potter; his bid for freedom had taken a hell of a lot out of him. At last he was free, he could once again feel the heat of the sun upon his face, taste the delicious tastes of freshly cooked food, and wash in water that was clean of bodily fluids.

But the truth of the matter was that he wasn't free, not in the sense that he could walk down the street at any time he wanted. No, there was a long way to go before he would be able to clear his name, once again be truly free.

He sat on the top of a hill, he had been here before. The last time that he had been here it had been a joyous occasion, a time where he was surrounded by friends and loved ones. The last time he had been here was of course the time that he had gone to the Quidditch world cup with the Weasley family and Hermoine Granger.

Those where people that at one point he would have put his life over theirs, with no second to spare for thoughts, he would have took the killing curse for any of them. Now… now he looked at the Weasley household on the far horizon with something close to pity in his eyes, he wished he could just forget, forget that they had turned their back on him. But he couldn't, never again would he be able to look back at his time at Hogwarts and remember times when he truly happy, now he would look back and remember that these where the people that turned their back, left him alone to hear the screams of his dieing parents for the rest of his life, without hearing his side of the story.

He had sat there for a long time, he couldn't remember how long, watching the small figures of the Weasleys playing Quidditch on the field. He could just make out Ron in the goals and the small figure of Hermoine sat on the grass reading a book, some people never change he thought to himself.

It had only been six hours since his escape from Azkaban in the early hours of that morning, it wasn't until he was finally free that he realised he had nowhere to go. He had craved for some normalcy in his life and his first thought was of the Weasley's, the people that he had once counted as his family. He had no intention of making his presence known to any of them, no, he had just wanted to see people that where happy, the way that he could have been.

He would have to get moving soon, he didn't know where he was going to go, what he was going to do, or even how he was going to get something to eat when he would need it. He had planned nothing in his time in Azkaban, in the times that his mind was truly his own he could only think of the betrayal he had felt when the people he was looking at had turned their backs on him, well now was a time to think of such things.

He stood as he saw the distinct shape of an owl in the sky; he knew it was a Daily Prophet delivery owl bringing the Weasley's the news of his escape. For the first time in many years a true smile crossed his worn features and he chuckled ruefully as he imagined the looks on their faces when they read the front page.

It seemed he imagined for too long as he saw a lone figure of Molly Weasley come running out of the Weasley household and call her children from their game. He heard her scream for her children to get into the house and couldn't help but hear the definite note of panic that was held within her voice. Once on the floor I seemed that Molly informed the once time friends of Harry's escape.

He was transfixed to this, he kept telling himself that he must move and he must move quickly, but no matter what his body just wasn't listening to him. He had to see how they would react to the new, he had to see if they would jump in joy at finding out that their once time friend was once again free and among them. He was sadly mistaken if he thought that this might happen, the Weasley's demeanour at hearing the news had changed, it had changed to one of anger, hate and pure venom, at once Harry knew that this was directed towards him.

He watched as they started to look around as if fearing that he would appear at any second and kill them without second thought, Harry felt saddened that they would truly fear him. It was then that it happened, he locked eyes with the youngest Weasley male, Ron Weasley, and the closest thing to a best friend he had ever had. He saw the look of shock on his face that was shortly replaced by that of intense anger.

It was now that Harry snapped out of his thoughts and apparated away without second thought to where he was going. He had been seen, it really wasn't the most satisfying thing for a recently escaped convict, and he knew that the auros would soon be on their way. It wasn't until he landed that he realised where he was.

The Weasley family had never been rich, but what they had lacked for in money they had always had in love, they sometimes even loved people that didn't deserve to be loved.

Molly had woken up that morning at six o'clock as usual, she had always been an early riser, the morning was the best time of the day for her, and a time when in this otherwise full house she could get some peace and quite. She was in the process of making breakfast when the owl carrying the morning paper came in through the kitchen window, the news had not been good recently, attacks on muggles were now daily news, and tales of Voldemorts rising power were frequent.

Today however she was in for the shock of her life, it had taken her a long time to get over the boys deception, but right in front of her, there written in black and white was the reminder of love she had misplaced.

Potter Escapes: Askaban guards destroyed

Harry Potter once known has 'the boy who lived' has escaped from Azkaban prison. The man who as spent ten years in the prison made his escape last night during a visit from the minister of magic himself. Details are sparse at the moment but it is widely believed that Potter had suffered no mental damage at the hands of the Dementor guards and was fully sane for the time that he was incarcerated.

"I have never seen anything like it" said a Auror who wished to keep their identity a secret "the minister stopped at Potter's cell to evaluate his mental condition, Potter said plain a day that he could escape anytime that he wanted, the minister said that he was delirious. That's when it happened we were walking away when the door was blown off, I turned around and saw Potter, and that's all I remember"

For those of you that are not aware of the story Potter was jailed ten years for…

Molly stopped reading there, she had just heard noises from outside of the house, voices that where shouting. Her heart dropped into her stomach at once; rushing over to the window she couldn't help but fear the worst, that Potter had gotten his hands on her children. Her heart lifted again has she realised that they were just playing Quidditch, they weren't usually up at this time in the morning so the boys must have really felt the urge to play.

But what if Potter is on his way she thought, she had hardly processed this thought before she was running out of the house towards the makeshift Quidditch pitch. She would not lose her children, not now, not to that person, the person she had spent ten years trying to forget about.

"GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

They looked on in shock as they heard their mother screaming, true it was not such an unusual thing, their mother was regularly heard shouting at someone, but never this early in the morning. They descended to the ground sending looks to each other, trying to figure out what they had done that had got their mother so riled up.

It wasn't until they landed on the ground that they noticed their mother wasn't angry, she looked panicked. Hermoine who had been sat quite a distance away was still walking towards the group at an accelerated pace, she would be there in a few seconds.

"Mum what's happen?" asked Ginny, the youngest Weasley child.

"Here" was Molly only reply has she thrust the paper towards her daughter.

"Oh my god!" where the only words that she could make out, Hermoine who had just arrived and was reading over her shoulder couldn't keep the look of complete and utter shock of her face. At the enquiring look from the males Ginny silently passed the paper over to Ron. She watched as he read, his face first showed shock at the revelations of the article, but that was soon replaced by anger, undiluted anger.

Ron couldn't believe it, he had thought that he would never have to hear that name again, and now here was the paper telling him that his once best friend was now out amongst decent people again. He threw the paper down in disgust, he could read no more, the more he read the more he would remember, and the more he would hate Harry Potter. Looking out towards the horizon he tried to imagine were Harry would go after escaping prison, what would you do after you had been imprisoned for ten years? That was when he saw him; there standing on the hill in the distance was the unmistakable figure of Harry Potter.

He thought he might be imagining things at first, he blinked just to make sure, but the figure was still there, staring down on them like some king of god watching over his creation. He just had time to replace his shocked expression with anger before the figure on the hill disappeared, gone in an instant.

"GET IN THE HOUSE NOW" he shouted to his family.

"Ron, what's wrong?" asked an obviously panicked Hermoine,

"He was here moine, he was here" he said pointing to the top of the hill where they had once taken the trip to the world cup.

Harry took in the site of the house in front of him; he had apparated away from the Weasley's so fast that he hadn't thought of where he was actually apparating too. It was amazing that he should end up in the place that he had always hated so much, that he ended up in a place that he hoped he would never again have to see.

It was ironic that he arrived at number four Privet Drive, the home of his only remaining family.