Monday, 3rd August 1992.

The last few days could be counted amongst the worst in Harry's life. That was saying something; considering he had only just turned 12, Harry had had more than his fair share of difficult days. Until he found out he was a Wwizard and started attending Hogwarts almost a year ago, he'd been an outcast. To his relatives, he was the freak; the only thing in their lives that wasn't ordinary. He was ostracised from the very beginning, but for the last two months at least, they'd largely left him alone for fear of him doing something 'abnormal' or casting a spell on them. He'd conveniently forgotten to mention the rules regarding the use of under-age magic to his relatives, believing that if they thought he was capable of doing something to them, they'd avoid him. To his astonishment, it had worked, until three nights ago that is…

The letter he'd received from Mafalda Hopkirk of the Improper Use of Magic office had shattered the momentary calm that had settled over number 4 Privet Drive. Harry knew it wouldn't last forever, but it was still painful. Especially as he'd done nothing to deserve the severe warning he'd received. His only defence against his relatives was gone, and he felt more alone and vulnerable than ever. He'd almost prefer the claustrophobic cupboard in which he'd spent the 10 years before his acceptance letter had arrived. There was no denying the place was far too small and cramped (as well as lonely) but he would feel much safer somewhere he was certain to be undisturbed. He was guaranteed at least some protection; after all, for the last 6 years at least, his oaf of a cousin had been unable to fit inside.

The one benefit of having a bedroom of his own (however small) was that he could see the sky through his tiny window. However, the view was now obscured by the ugly metal bars that had been placed across it to hinder the escape his uncle was certain he would attempt. He felt more caged than ever, but to be honest, Harry was quickly losing energy and didn't know if he'd be able to escape even without the bars. He lay miserably on his bed, staring mournfully up at the ceiling and tracing the multiple cobwebs with his eyes until at last, exhausted, he fell into a fitful sleep.

Harry came to awareness all at once. He found himself lying on an uncomfortable bed of what felt like straw. He realised with a lurch of his stomach that he was in a cage in a zoo. People gathered round to stare at him. They rattled the bars; laughing and jeering as they did so. He tried to ignore the whispers, and scanned the crowd. He hoped that among the unfamiliar faces, he would find someone who could help him. He saw Dobby in the crowd.

Harry tried to get up, but found he was too weak to manage it. His throat felt sore and dry, but even so he called out to him.

"Dobby," Harry croaked, cringing at the feeble sound of his own voice. "Please, you have to help me"

Alas, Dobby simply shook his head sadly and said, "Harry Potter sir is safe in there".

With that, he vanished.

Harry burrowed into the pile of straw and attempted to drift off to sleep, to try to escape this nightmare. The attempt was futile however; someone was rattling his bars.

He groaned, "Please stop, I'm trying to sleep. Leave me alone!"

Harry opened his eyes. He was in his room, and moonlight was shining in through the bars on the window. With a gasp, he realised that a familiar face was peering in at him through the gaps in the bars. It was Ron!

Harry jumped up and rushed over, a mixture of shock and excitement pulsing through him! He felt more alive than he had in days. His body didn't seem to want to obey him however. It felt like he was trying to walk through treacle, and he tripped and fell; down, down, down…

With a jolt, he woke up. A wave of despair washed over him as he got his bearings and gazed wistfully out of the window. Ron was not there, it had all been just a dream. Harry slumped back onto his lumpy matrass; the excited tension from the dream leaving him in an instant. He was dismayed to feel tears prickling in the corners of his eyes for the first time in years. What had he been thinking? No one was going to save him. The only hope he had was that uncle Vernon would relent and let him return to Hogwarts after all. Gripping that thought like a lifeline, and forcing the tears back where they belonged, he got up and ticked off one more day on the calendar. One day less to go until his only chance at freedom. He needed something to keep him sane in here. He dropped listlessly back on to his bed.

Harry noticed in a detached sort of way that time was passing. He couldn't tell how long it had been since his disaster of a Birthday; he'd long since stopped looking at the calendar. He just lay there; There was nothing else to do.

Sunday, 2nd August 1992: The Burrow, Evening.

Ron was worried. He'd been worried for some time now. This wasn't an emotion he'd been expecting to feel during the summer holidays. He wasn't at school after all, and while he did have some homework, there was plenty of time left to do it in. No, Ron wasn't worried for himself, or at least, most of him wasn't, not really. He was worried about his best friend, Harry Potter.

Ron had never expected to become best friends with Harry of all people. He'd been shocked when he realised that the boy sitting opposite him on the Hogwarts Express was in fact 'The Boy Who Lived'. Ron didn't think of Harry like that though, or at least he tried not to. To him, he was just Harry; his best mate, and partner in crime (although Harry always insisted that trouble found him, and not the other way around).

They'd stuck together since that first day almost a year ago, and with the events of last school year they'd understandably formed quite a strong bond. At least, Ron was fairly sure they had…

Stop it! he thought to himself irritably. He knew he was being stupid. Harry was his friend, and he'd seemed so excited about having someone to write to over the summer. And yet there was a part of him, a little voice in his head, which kept pointing out that Harry could be friends with anyone. Ron knew he wasn't anything special. The sixth child of a poor family. His brothers had already achieved everything that it was possible to achieve at school, so there was nothing he could do to stand out. He didn't feel particularly clever or talented, everything he owned was second hand, and in his mind, there was nothing really interesting or impressive about him. It wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone if Harry Potter decided he wanted other friends. People with something to offer him.

Ron shook his head angrily, trying to get the little voice to shut up. He knew the voice was wrong. Harry wasn't like that. He wouldn't just forget Ron like that. Anyway, he apparently hadn't written to Hermione either. She was clever and interesting, and her family was quite well-off. No, the real reason he was worried was not because Harry might not want to be his friend anymore, but because he thought that Harry's family might have stopped him from writing to anyone. Harry hadn't spoken about his relatives much, but Ron knew that they must be pretty bad people. He didn't know what they could do to Harry, but he knew he had to do something. It was this resolve that led him to find Fred and George. If anyone could help him, they could.

Some people thought that all they cared about was pranking people, but Ron knew they could be serious if they wanted to. And they liked Harry.

"So you say he hasn't replied to any of your letters?" Fred said with a thoughtful expression.

"No, he hasn't replied to Hermione's either."

"Hmm, that doesn't sound like him," George mused, "why don't we go and check up on him?"

Ron stared at his brother like he'd gone crazy. Fred however was nodding enthusiastically.

"What?" Ron spluttered, "you want to walk all the way to Surrey?"

The twins exchanged glances and rolled their eyes in unison.

"No of course we're not going to walk there," Fred said in the patient tone people usually reserved for very young children.

"We have a better way," George continued smugly.

Ron scowled, "will you prats please explain to me what your on about?" he demanded. "We can't apparate or use the floo. Our broomsticks won't be much help either and you know mum would kill us if we were seen flying by the muggles".

To ron's annoyance, his brothers exchanged superior glances once more.

"Don't worry little brother, we've thought of all that," Fred responded patiently, "trust us, we know what we're doing".

And so, later that night, when they were sure their mother was asleep, Ron, Fred and George embarked on their plan.

Percy was distracted. He had stayed up late, writing secret letters to his girlfriend Penelope. He had to write the letters in secret, because if his siblings, or worse still his mother found out that he had a girlfriend, his life would become unbearable. His siblings (especially Fred and George) would mock him and tease him more than they already did which was bad enough. But his mother… Well… Percy loved his mother, he really did, and he knew that her sometimes overbearing nature was simply her way of loving and caring for him and his brothers and sister. But that didn't change the fact that she had a tendency to get too involved in her childrens' lives. Percy was sure that if she knew he had a girlfriend, she would want to meet her and know all about her. She would insist upon inviting her for dinner one evening, in an effort to judge whether or not she was good enough for him. Honestly, he just didn't want to deal with all of the inevitable fuss. Right now he was perfectly happy with Penelope, and he wouldn't allow his family to change that.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, Percy rolled up his recently finished letter to give to his owl Hermes. As he stood by the window tying the scroll to the owl's leg, something caught his eye outside.

"What are they up to?" Percy muttered to himself as he saw Ron and the twins through the window.

It took only a second for Percy to make his decision. He would follow them. He didn't know what they were doing, but with Fred and George involved, it was unlikely to be anything good. He would hate to see them drag Ron in to their mischief. His youngest brother could do well if he pulled up his socks a bit at school he was sure. But that wouldn't happen if he became embroiled in the twins' mischief.

As soon as Hermes had cleared the window, Percy shut it behind him. He then went to the door, opened it quietly and made his way outside. No one seemed to have noticed him come out of the house. He watched as the three likely troublemakers entered the shed. He slowly and silently followed.

George was currently experiencing the thrill that he always felt when pulling off a prank. Mixed in with the excitement however was a fair amount of tension. This wasn't a simple prank, intended to make people laugh or to bring someone down a couple of pegs. This was serious. He didn't know what they would find when they got to Harry, but he had a bad feeling about it.

George new many people probably thought that he and Fred were the same person, but this was not the case. While of course they both had a lot in common, they did have their differences. Fred was more outgoing, but George was more insightful. He'd noticed certain things about Harry that made him concerned. The way he spoke about his relatives was telling, especially considering how little he spoke of them at all. Then there was the fact that they had clearly left Harry alone at Kings Cross, with no care at all for what could have happened to him. According to Ron, Harry had been shocked about receiving presents at Christmas. Also George had never seen Harry wearing casual muggle clothes, even on the weekends, and suspected that he didn't have any that fit him. Of course, he was used to wearing old clothes of Percy's after he had grown out of them, his family couldn't afford to waste good clothing. Still his mother always made sure to adjust the clothes as best she could, and it wasn't like no one owned any new clothes of their own. Yes, George was tense.

He, Fred and Ron entered the shed. So far their plan seemed to be going well. He'd been slightly worried when they'd spotted Percy in the kitchen on their way out. Percy might not understand the severity of the situation and certainly wouldn't approve of their methods. Luckily though, he had been too absorbed in whatever he was doing to notice them. George wondered briefly what he was up to, but dismissed the thought for later, this wasn't the time.

Now Fred was climbing into the driver's seat of their dad's newest experiment, a Ford Anglia. George followed, making his way around the car and into the passenger seat. AS he watched, Ron opened the back door to get in himself. Before he could do so however, the shed door crashed open.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked disapprovingly.

"We could ask you the same question," Fred retorted calmly.

"I followed you here," Percy explained, the irritation in his voice apparent. "I'll ask again, what are you doing?"

"Oh you know," George said airily, "we just thought we'd try camping out in the car. Apparently muggles do it all the time."

Percy scoffed at this. George didn't really expect him to believe him. He was trying to play for time, hoping against hope that Percy wouldn't ruin everything. Of course frustrating Percy at the same time was an added bonus. He really hoped Fred would think of something though, because he couldn't see a way out of this.

"Since when do you care about muggle studies?" Percy asked sceptically.

"We never said that we did," Fred pointed out, "we just thought it seemed like a fun new experience. After all, we're not going on holiday this year, why not try sleeping in the car?"

Percy's face became that of a logical person, who knows there's a flaw in the logic of what someone's just said, but isn't sure exactly what it is. After floundering for a bit, he seemed to think of something.

"Then why," he started pointedly, clearly thinking he'd won, "are you not wearing your pyjamas?"

Both twins wavered at this, it was a valid point after all. Luckily Ron, who had kept silent thus far, felt it was time to intervene.

"What about you Perce?" Ron demanded, "we saw you in the kitchen with Hermes, you've been using him a lot this summer. You're being very secretive all of a sudden. What are you up to?"

Percy flushed and George new this was their only chance.

"Yeah Perce," he joined in, "what's this secret you're hiding?"

Fred, realising what his brothers were doing, piled on saying, "yeah, are you secretly the new agony aunt for the Daily Prophet?"

Ron took this up with gusto, adding, "oh yeah, are you sending girls advice about their boyfriends?"

Fred guffawed loudly at this suggestion, and said, "what, perfect, prim-and-proper prefect Percy? Give advice about relationships? He's more likely to tell them that they should be focusing on their grades instead of distracting themselves worrying about boys!"

Got you, George thought. He'd been watching Percy during this merciless teasing. He'd been shaking with rage and indignation, but George saw him blush when relationships were mentioned. This would be the perfect time.

"Now then," he began calmly, talking over his brothers, "I'm sure we don't need to know what dear Percy was doing do we?"

Fred immediately picked up on where George was going.

"No of course not. We'll let you get back to whatever it was in peace Percy, don't worry about us. You ask us no questions we'll ask you no questions, and no one tells mum anything."

"I don't know," Percy said uncertainly, "taking the car could be dangerous. This isn't like stealing a toilet seat you know."

"We're not-" Fred began, but Ron interrupted.

"You don't understand!" he shouted urgently, "this isn't some stupid prank, we're going to rescue Harry!"

George grimaced. He understood Ron's desperation but not only was Percy not likely to understand, but Ron's shout might have drawn attention.

Percy stared at Ron as if he'd started spouting gibberish.

"What do you mean, 'rescue Harry'? He's at home with his family isn't he? Why should he need rescuing?"

"I think his relatives might have done something," Ron explained, "Harry doesn't seem to like them and he hasn't replied to any letters this summer."

Percy frowned in disapproval, "so you mean to say that just because Harry doesn't like his relatives much and hasn't bothered to write to you that you decided to steal dad's car and fly over there and what? Kidnap him!?" Percy exclaimed in disbelief, "honestly Ron, I know these two are a lost cause, but I really expected better from you. People don't always get on with their family as you well know, Harry might just be going through a rebellious phase. And really, did you consider that maybe Harry's just too busy with other things to be writing letters? He is the boy-who-lived after all."

At this point, George would have tried to soothe the situation and explain things properly to Percy to try to get him to understand. He wasn't unreasonable, he was just particularly bad at interacting with people. Unfortunately, George didn't get the chance to attempt this. Ron leapt at him.

A brawl soon ensued. Ron was enraged, presumably George assumed, because Percy had stated allowed the fear that Ron had been trying to deny almost all summer. He and Fred jumped in to try to separate the two, though in truth Percy wasn't really fighting back much. They'd just managed to drag Ron off a bruised and bloodied Percy, when things became much worse.

"What," Molly Weasley asked, her voice shaking with quiet fury, "are you all doing?"

A/N: We would both like to sincerely thank everybody who has followed, favourited and reviewed this fanfiction since we uploaded the prologue on Wednesday. We couldn't believe the amount of attention such a short chapter had garnered, and in thanks, we decided to upload the first full-length chapter early.

Unfortunately, our schedules mean that this won't be a regular occurrence, but we couldn't resist just this once.

We hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the prologue, and we'd be very grateful for more reviews. In particular, we'd like to hear from you regarding formatting. We're both blind, and whilst these chapters read okay for us, we appreciate that the experience might be vastly different for those of you with sight. As always, constructive feedback of any kind is welcome.

We don't intend to make a habit of thanking everybody individually on here as we know from experience that such lists quickly become ridiculously long. However, one of our reviewers brought up a good point, and since we can't message them privately, we would like to do so on here. We want to thank Covid-20 for their kind and constructive feedback, and reassure them that from now on, our chapters will be a lot longer. We didn't want to make the prologue overly long, but the actual chapters will never be as short as that. Of course, some will be longer than others, but we will attempt to keep them fairly consistent in both length and quality.

Hi, Truthweaver here. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. We had a lot of fun getting into everyone's points of view here and hope that you did too. :)

We'll be back on Wednesday with chapter 2.