A/N: This isn't much longer than chapter one, but don't worry. Starting with chapter 3, pretty much every post will be a minimum of 2,000 words. I would like to stress the word "minimum." Hope you all enjoy it enough to hang around that long. Okay, enough of this nonsense.

CHAPTER 2 – Time to Depart

The remainder of the night had not gone well. After Harry heaved the contents of his stomach all over Uncle Vernon, the man's fury only increased. His uncle had absolutely no sympathy for him. Uncle Vernon cursed him, and then made him get up and clean the mess up that had been made. Harry was up cleaning the floor and washing his uncle's clothes for over an hour. When he had finally finished, the sun was peaking out over the horizon. There was no point in trying to fall back asleep. He wasn't even tired anymore. Besides, the thought of drifting away in to his dreams again, where he was practically defenseless, was not too comforting. On top of that, the day had already begun, and Harry still had to pack. Professor Dumbledore had not stated the time that he would be picked up; he only knew that it would be sometime during the day.

Harry spent the remainder of the morning gathering his items together and packing them away in his trunk, being careful not to forget anything. All the while, lingering at the back of his mind was the dream he had experienced only hours before. Everything had felt so real. His scar had felt as if it were literally on fire...as if it had been touched with a branding iron. And that sinister laugh, he recognized all too well. Had it merely been a dream, or was the Dark Lord entering his mind again? Harry hadn't experienced anything remotely similar since the summer holidays had begun. Sure, he had nightmares practically every time he slept, but nothing so extreme. They always contained pieces of past events. Only two nights ago, he had dreamed that the second task of the Tri-Wizard tournament had gone differently. Instead of him rescuing Fleur's sister, the merpeople had begun chucking spears in his direction as he tried desperately to pull them to the surface. Both Ron and Gabrielle had been struck with the sharp weapons, and by the time he reached the surface they were no longer alive. All the while, he heard the merpeople chanting something about him cheating, which was the ultimate crime. Needless to say, he had woken in quite a panic.

Still, as terrible as that dream had been, Harry knew it was not real. It had been an altered memory of a sort. Las night, though, Harry visited a place he was unfamiliar with, and the experience was unlike anything he had ever encountered.

He considered writing Hermione or Ron to tell them, but figured that they would merely give him the same answer that had been floating about in his mind all morning: He needed to talk with Professor Dumbledore. Figuring that he would indeed have the opportunity to speak with the Headmaster sometime later in the day, Harry decided against sending a note with Hedwig to one of his friends.

Around a quarter past one o'clock, Harry was laying on his bed flipping through one of his aunt's muggle magazines. He wasn't really absorbing any of the information contained on the gossip-filled pages. He just took it from the living room so that he would have something to help pass the time, and since he didn't want to take anything out of his neatly packed trunk (He had spent several hours organizing everything perfectly; again, in order to pass the time.), he had figured the magazine as good as anything. He had been staring absent-mindedly at a page devoted to a muggle actress who was only twenty-one years old and had just filed for divorce for the third time, when Aunt Petunia called him from downstairs.

"Boy, get down here! Now!" her shrilly voice echoed through the house as if it pained her to even admit he took residence in her abode. Wondering what he had managed to do this time, Harry trudged out of his room and down the stairs.

"Hurry up!" she cried from inside the kitchen.

He continued through the door to the kitchen, and once inside, found himself staring at a panicky Aunt Petunia leaning against the counter. The reason for her mood was evident to Harry once he turned his eyes towards the kitchen table, which currently had two occupants who were extremely out of place. Waiting patiently was none other than Remus Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Hello Harry," said Lupin casually. "How are you?"

Harry was so caught off guard by the mere presence of the two wizards and the fact that they were lounging comfortably at the table as if they visited the Dursleys regularly, that he was unable to return the greeting to his one-time Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He simply stared at the men in disbelief, mouth hanging open.

"Potter, are you okay?" asked Kingsley after a few awkward moments of silence.

Finally, Harry was able to regain his composure, and snap out of the state of shock in which he had momentarily been stuck.

"Er –uh, hello. Sorry. You, eh...caught me by surprise," he said to the men. I wasn't expecting you until tonight, after the sun had gone down."

"Well, we didn't see the need to be quite so covert with our mission this time around. Our intelligence reports show that Privet Drive isn't even being watched anymore," stated Lupin, who paused at the slightly surprised look in Harry's eyes. "Of course, we have still continued to watch the area closely, just in case."

"Remus," Kingsley broke in, "Perhaps we could discuss this later. We should get moving."

"Of course. Harry, have you packed your things yet?"

"Erm...yes. I took care of it earlier this morning." As he said this, he couldn't help but glance in the direction of his aunt, whose expression he found to be unchanged.

"Splendid. Kingsley, why don't you go with Harry to gather his things? I will wait here for you."

"Okay," responded the muscularly built auror as he rose from his seat at the table. "Lead the way, Potter."

Harry nodded, then turned and walked out the door. Once he reached the stairs, he stopped, remembering that he had just left his aunt in the kitchen with a wizard. Figuring that he should probably rescue both her and Lupin from each other, he turned to Kinsley and said, "My room is the first door on the right. Would you mind grabbing my trunk and Hedwig's cage for me? I need to...find something down here...I don't want to leave it." Harry felt bad lying to the man, but knew it was for the best. He couldn't even imagine some of the horrible things that might escape from his aunt's mouth if she was aggravated.

"Alright then. Just the trunk and cage?" asked Kingsley.

Harry nodded. "Thanks. I'll just meet you back in the kitchen," as he slipped past the man and quickly made his way towards the kitchen. Just as he was about to open the door, he heard an odd string of words spoken in what sounded very much like his aunt's voice, which caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

"...And he will be safe where you are taking him?" asked Aunt Petunia in a tone that sounded surprisingly concerned. Harry, desperate to hear more without alerting anyone of his presence, cautiously moved his ear closer to the door.

"Yes, Petunia. I promise that he will be perfectly safe until he returns to school, where he, as always, is in the safest of hands. Remember, he has many people who care greatly for him, and who would put their lives on the line in order to keep him safe. Dumbledore will always do his best to keep Harry from being harmed."

"I know. I just have a hard time understanding everything about...your world," she said. "The only thing I know for sure is that when he is here, there is no threat. That was made perfectly clear to me a long time ago."

"That is correct. You know the reason he remains here during the summer holidays. But, with Sirius' passing..." he paused for a moment. "With Sirius gone, Harry will now have his own home, as inheritance. The house is undetectable and extremely safe. Sirius made it quite clear in his will that he wanted Harry to be happy during the breaks that he spent away from Hogwarts. And even though you have been kind enough to keep him all of these years, Harry is unhappy when he is forced to stay here."

"You know very well that I wish things could be different," she protested, "but Vernon –"

"There is no need to get defensive. I understand. I know you Petunia. I know that you have –"

Harry wasn't able to hear the rest of the conversation, though, because he had just heard Kinglsey descending the stairs behind him, and had leapt away from the door. He hurried towards the bottom of the steps, where he watched the man as he descended. Still a bit shocked at what he had just heard, Harry tried to force his facial expression back to normal, though he found this task quite difficult.

"Everything okay Potter? Did you find what you were looking for?" asked Kingsley as he dropped the trunk and cage at Harry's feet, which he had previously been levitating.

"Yeah, I got it," he said a little too quickly.

Eyeing him suspiciously, Kingsley simply nodded. "Well, we'll just leave your things here until we leave." He then stepped past Harry and entered the kitchen. When Harry walked in behind him, he saw Aunt Petunia still standing where she had been earlier, and with the same expression on her face. He thought this was quite strange, considering what he had just overheard.

"We're ready, Lupin," said Kingsley.

"Wonderful," replied the werewolf. "Well then, Harry. Let's be off now. Say goodbye to your aunt."

"Er –yes. Goodbye then. I...umm...guess I'll be seeing you next summer." His aunt, obviously back to normal, merely stared at him, without so much as a nod of recognition. Harry, now even more confused, turned and walked out the door and in to the hall, closely followed by his fellow wizards. Once alone in the hallway with them, Harry turned to Lupin. He wanted to ask about what he had heard, but then realized he was eavesdropping and that Lupin wouldn't be very impressed by that. He didn't want to disappoint the man. Instead, he decided he'd just wait and see what his friends thought about the incident. "So, how are we traveling?"

"We are taking a portkey," replied Kingsley. "I sent your owl ahead, because they generally don't appreciate traveling by means of portkey. She should arrive there sometime later this afternoon." With that, he pulled an old and battered paperback copy of Cannery Row out of his pocket, and handed it to Lupin. Lupin tapped his wand against the book, while muttering something under his breath, and then turned his eyes towards Harry.

"Okay, Harry. This will send you straight to the grim old place you were last summer. We will apparate with your items and meet you there." He looked down at his watch, and then back at Harry. "Here, take it. It will activate in 5 seconds." Harry took the old book without saying a word, and within seconds felt that strange pulling sensation behind his navel, as he was whisked away to a new location.

A/N: Well, thanks to those of you who reviewed the last chapter. I wasn't actually expecting anyone to post a review, let alone ones that were decent. I hope opinions don't change too much after reading this one, though. Anyway, the next chapter will be up in a day or two. Please review!