A/N: I should have done this MUCH sooner. Sorry Rose! I wish to thank my excellent beta, Rosaleen, who kindly puts up with my insane writing spurts.
Oh, and I reposted chapters 4 and 5 with the beta'ed and rewritten versions.
Sev's internal dialogue will be ita…itial…it will look like this.
Harry's search team.
"Listen, we KNOW that Harry has been here," Molly Weasley argued with a increasingly irritated Goblin.
"Mrs Weasley, first of all, I have not escorted anyone named Harry Potter to his vault. Second, even if I had, you do remember that Gringotts prides itself in keeping it's clients' confidentiality, don't you?"
"But you HAVE to tell us where Harry is," Hermione insisted, her hands on her hips.
Griphook eyed her coldly. "Young lady, I do not HAVE to tell you anything, even if I could. In fact, if I were to call my superior, he would INSIST that I do not tell you anything."
"Come on," Remus said, pulling the others with him, "We won't get any wiser here. I think the best thing is to ask the Dursleys."
When the group arrived at the Dursley residence, however, they found a huge truck, and the family supervising the move.
"Where do you think you're going?" Molly shrieked.
"Molly, shhhh," Tonks calmed her, "We won't get anywhere if you start yelling. Maybe you should…" The brave Auror crumpled under the older woman's stare.
"Mr Dursley. Moving, I see," Remus Lupin said politely to a very red faced Vernon.
"What…what are you doing here? The boy…I mean Harry…he's…"
"Not here," Remus kept his cool, but inside his wolf was growling.
"We know that, Mr Dursley. You were seen in London with Harry. Harry was seen in Diagon Alley, but he did not return with you. Would you kindly explain what is going on?"
Vernon Dursley stopped to think.
Harry should be long gone by now. He had the money in his pocket, and if the freaks were satisfied Harry left of his own accord, they might leave them alone forever. Their new house would make sure of it.
"The fre…I mean, Harry wanted to leave the house. We made a deal; I would help him get away and keep his disappearance a secret from you people for as long as I could, and in exchange, he got emancipated and will never come bother us again."
"So…?" Remus sounded dangerous now.
"I took him to London. He had to go to something named Gringotts to arrange the papers being filed, I guess." Vernon wasn't crazy enough to tell them about the money Harry had given him. They might take it away.
"After that he asked me to drop him off at King's Cross. He even advised me to move so my family would be safer. So that's what we are doing."
"And you have no idea where he went?"
"No. Could've been anywhere. He did say something about an inheritance from his godfather, though."
Molly looked at Remus.
"Did Sirius have other property where Harry might have gone?"
Remus nodded. "Several," he said with a sigh, "We'd best check up on each of them. Let's split up, that way we can have them all covered today."
Dudley Dursley was carrying out his computer.
"You know, why are you looking for him if he clearly doesn't want you to find him?" the boy asked, wiping sweat off his forehead and setting the computer down for a moment.
"He obviously doesn't trust you people," he continued, "Oh, I know, we've been pretty rotten to him. We never pretended that we were any good, though. But when he went off to that school years ago…I don't know, he seemed so happy. Like his life had become a fairy tale. But over the years, he became sad and depressed. Like he'd aged 50 years instead of five."
Dudley lifted his computer again.
"Truthfully, I never expected him to return here, I thought that once you all knew how we treated him, you'd never allow him back. But not only did you do that, you also locked him in the house so he couldn't even go out and stay out of our way like he used to when we were little. If I were you, I'd send him a message with one of those owls you're so fond of to tell him you're sorry and that you won't bother him if he doesn't want to be bothered. If it were me, I'd be pretty pissed off at the whole lot of you."
Leaving the stunned witches and wizards on the doorstep, and probably tired and confused by his long, sensible speech, Dudley Dursley loaded his computer into his father's car, and joined the rest of the family as they rode off into the sunset…oh well, into Whisteria Walk anyway.
York.
Soft. Warm. Nice.
Severus lazily opened his eyes, not at all wanting to be completely awake yet.
A strange room. And another bed. A mop of black hair. Oh. Harry.
"I'm 36."
But I feel six. How can I be 36? I guess it doesn't matter now. And if I'm 36, I don't have to worry about having to go back to Mother and Father. That's good.
"Hmmmm…." Harry turned and opened his eyes.
"You waking up too, Sev?" he slurred, still sleepy, "How are you feeling?"
"My feet still hurt."
Let's see how he reacts to that. Is he going to be mad at me?"I can imagine. We're not going to be walking much today, so you can rest them."
Harry sat up, swung his legs over the edge of the bed and walked over to Severus.
"Let me see if you have blisters."
Inspecting the little feet, Harry found several blisters.
"I have some cream for that. I'll put it on and then you have to lay down for at least 15 minutes so they can heal. If you need to go to the loo, you need to go now."
He…he's helping me! Maybe he really IS nice.
"What do you want in return?"
Harry raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"Why would you be kind to me if you don't want anything in return? What is it? Do you want me to brew, or…or…"
"Severus, I do NOT want anything in return. We're in this together. We're both trying to stay away from the same people. I'm going to take care of you because I want to, ok? You don't have to do anything for me."
Harry pulled the feet on his lap and started to apply the cream to the blisters.
Severus kept very quiet for the fifteen minutes that were needed to heal his feet, deeply lost in thought.
Hogwarts, Severus' search team.
"Where do we even start, Arthur? The child could be anywhere."
"I know, but he's small and on foot. We should search in the vicinity first. If that yields nothing, we extend the range of our search. Apart from that, this is an emotional situation for a child. We can expect some accidental magic from him. We know his magical signature, so we can keep an eye out for that."
Hagrid entered.
"Heard Sevvy's run off," he panted, "Been searching for Firenze. He has the Centaurs and some others in the Forest keeping their eyes open for any sign of the kid."
Arthur nodded his thanks.
"Alastor called about an hour ago. He managed, together with my son, Bill, to break the wards on Severus' rooms in the dungeons. He found that Severus placed some tracking spells on several low level death eaters. We don't know why yet; Alastor thinks they might be apprentices of his, or maybe he is recruiting them for our side. At any rate, it makes his job of leading the Order defense easier. He also found Severus' journal. I am reluctant to read it, even though Bill managed to break the charms on it, because it's such a personal item…but it might hold clues."
Poppy and Pomona hesitated. Of course it would help tremendously…
"How about only you read it, Arthur, and share what you deem important. That way, when we find Severus and get him back to his proper age, you can discuss with him if you should be Obliviated."
York
After breakfast, Harry ordered a cab for him and Severus to visit his house and go shopping.
The house had been empty for decades, and it showed. It was dirty. Very, very dirty.
EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWSeverus sneezed. And again.
"Yeah I know," Harry said, grinning, "We're not staying here anyway. There are no wards at all. I'll have something done about this in the near future, but not now.
So wards are important. Oh wait, Mother said something about that. Without wards, people can be found when they do magic. Mother doesn't..didn't…want people to know she did dark magic.
"Well, let's go buy some decent clothes for both of us, and then we're off to the Bungalow. I guess it'll need some work too, so we better also buy some supplies."
Paying the cabbie, they were dropped off in front of a store where the cabby assured them, they would find new clothes for both of them.
Harry quickly picked some clothes for himself. Jeans, a few dress pants, shirts and a jacket. Shoes and underwear.
Then they went to the children's department.
"Can I help you, young men?" a saleswoman asked.
"No, thank you," Harry said politely, "We'll find whatever we need."
"Are you sure? I have just the things for you…"
"No, thank you, Ma'am," Harry said a bit more forcefully.
"Oh, but you MUST let me help pick out something, he's such a little deary," she cooed, pinching Severus' cheeks.
Harry groaned and closed his eyes.
AARGGHHHH. She pinched me. She. Pinched. Me. SHE PINCED ME!"Does your boss know you pinch your customers?" Even as a child, Severus' Death Glare was very impressive.
Harry, after five years of Potions very adapt at reading Severus' moods, quickly took his hand and dragged him to the other end of the store, leaving a baffled store employee behind.
Severus had fun selecting his own clothes, and Harry let him. After paying, they went to a quiet corner, shrunk the bags and pocketed them, before going to get their supplies.
Finally, everything was bought, shrunken, and they were ready to go.
Harry touched the deer around his neck, and they felt the familiar tug of the portkey as they were ported to a very remote, very neglected bungalow.