Disclaimer: This is a fan fiction using characters, settings, and plot lines from the Harry Potter world owned by J.K. Rowling. I own nothing except original characters.

June 24th, 1990

Under the guise of darkness shadows moved from room to room in the modest two-story building located at number four Privet Drive. They quietly and quickly collecting valuables and baubles. One swiftly went from room to room taking down all the pictures and picture frames. Another carted a large duffel bag into each of the house's bedrooms where the occupant's clothes and shoes were unceremoniously thrown. In the kitchen all food was disposed of and the water and gas mains turned off. When the group reconvened at the house's entrance no personal touches remained. The couches and chairs and television and appliances were still there but no items that could have identified the family that lived there remained. All those incriminating pieces sat in the back of a black SUV. The group exited the building and dropped the keys in the mailbox. They would not be returning.

As the sun began to rise in the distance the sleepy neighborhood woke up to discover that one of its own had suddenly left. Without a word one of their fine upstanding families had left Privet drive. It would be the source of gossip and speculation for years to come.

June 23rd, 1990

Harry quickly flipped bacon on a griddle and tried to avoid the popping grease. He glanced at the clock. 8:25 AM. Five more minutes. Platting the bacon, he grabbed a carton of eggs and expertly began to scramble them on the still hot pan. Behind him he could hear the rush of springs as the toaster's timer went off. Two more minutes. The eggs were slid onto another plate and placed beside the bacon and toast. Orange Juice and milk were placed on the counter beside a stack of cups. A jumble of plates and forks were slid onto the table. One more minute. Harry turned the stove off kicked his footstool under the sink. He scrambled across the kitchen and hid himself in a dark corner. He could hear the other occupants of the house rising for the day as several shrill alarm clocks pierced the air. A couple minutes later picture frames on the walls began to bounce and thunderous footsteps could be heard beating down the staircase and hallway. Harry stifled his breathing and shrank deeper into the shadows. He was coming. He was almost here. He was –

"SURPRISE!" Harry leapt from the shadowy corner and laughed with delight as he watched his cousin perform an excellent impression of a heart attack as he jumped in the air and choked on his own saliva. "IT'S THE BIG TEN BIG D!" Harry loved birthdays. Especially Dudley's. Every year Harry would cook breakfast on Dudley's birthday and every year Harry would hide and try to scare Dudley as he got up for his "big day." You would think that after five plus years of this Dudley would be a little more prepared, but it appears not.

"Harry! You almost gave me a Heart Attack you wanker!"

"Wanker? You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Harry danced away from Dudley's fists shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth "Aunt Tuney would be so disappointed in you diddykins" Harry snarfed, pieces of half chewed bacon falling out of his mouth.

"It's what the cool kids say! And I'm the coolest. Plus, I'm ten"

"Uh huh" Harry flashed a smirk at Dudley before screaming through the house "AUNT TUNEY DUDLEY'S SAYING WANKER!"

"What! You really are a wanker Harry! It's my Birthday!" Dudley hissed as they heard Petunia's house slippers clack down the hall.

"Dudley? What did you say popkins? Because I know my diddykins would never say something so foul"

"Nothing Mum! I didn't say anything! Harry's the one who said it! He's always trying to get me in trouble!" Dudley's eyes misted and his voices hitched as he stared miserably up at his mum. Dudley was in Harry's opinion a miserable actor, but his gullible Aunt fell for it every time. Harry couldn't count the times that Dudley had wiggled out of trouble with Aunt Petunia by crying and hanging his head. Harry had tried the same stunt once when he broke a vase and got called out immediately. He had been grounded for two weeks. Harry scowled as Dudley smirked at him from his mother's shoulder. Insufferable git.

"Are you all ready to go? We're going to the London Zoo for your birthday popkins"

"Is Piers coming?"

Aunt Petunia hesitated before glancing at Harry. Piers hated Harry. He called him strange and said his parents must have hated him for leaving him at the Dursleys. Harry hated Piers. In Harry's eyes Piers had an uncanny resemblance to a rat and the attitude to match one. But Piers was Dudley's best friend and today was Dudley's special day. Harry knew this so he was not surprised when Aunt Petunia gave a strained smile and replied "Yes, well I talked to Mrs. Polkiss last night and she said Piers could go"

Dudley bounced on the balls of his feet and smiled excitedly. Harry shrunk into himself. While Harry was an excitable child with his family the same could not be said with everyone else. With his curly untamable black hair, unnatural shade of green eyes and scrawny appearance his was a favorite target of bullies. Even worse was that strange things happened to people that hurt him. It could never be traced back to Harry and he honestly had no idea what had happened to them but that didn't stop the rumors from spreading. If someone kicked him, they would find their shoelaces tied together. If someone pushed him, they would fall for no reason. To the other children he was unnatural, weird. To the adults he was a unruly troublemaker. The Polkiss were the same way. Despite being Dudley's best friend Piers made his school life hell and egged the other children to do the same, and his mother believed he could do no wrong and that everything was dreadful Harry's fault. If the Dursleys hadn't been friends with the Polkiss Harry had no doubt in his mind that Mrs. Polkiss would have tried to get Harry expelled. All in all, this resulted in Harry being a morose child that socialized little outside of his family.

The doorbell sounded through the house announcing the arrival of the Polkiss. Vernon paused from shoving toast and jam in his mouth to yell at Harry. "Go open the door!" Harry scowled but opened the door with a polite smile.

"Good morning Mrs. Polkiss" Mrs. Polkiss clutched her purse tighter to her chest and sniffed as she looked down at Harry.

"Yes, well, Piers dear are you ready to go?"

"Yes mum! Bye!" Piers pushed by Harry and stuck out his tongue. Mrs. Polkiss sniffed again. Harry shifted from side to side and nodded.

"Goodbye Mrs. Polkiss. My Aunt will call you when we get back from the zoo."

"See that she does boy" Mrs. Polkiss sniffed again as she left.

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He was squashed between Piers and the car window. Piers was describing a new motorcycle his dad had just bought with wide expressive gestures that drove is sharp elbows into Harry's side. Harry winched as a particularly enthusiastic hand movement drove Piers's elbow into his ribcage. He was sure he would have bruises after today.

The London Zoo was everything Harry could have hoped for and then some. He made sure to walk a ways behind Piers and Dudley and looked at all the animals with amazement. There were animals from all over the world pacing in big cages surrounded by throngs of people. But he couldn't help but feel a little bad for all the animals. The cages were big but they were also empty. And while the animals had room to walk they had no room to run. It seemed like a sad existence.

But no one else at the zoo seemed to think that. They 'oohed' and 'awed' at the great beast before quickly moving on to the next one. Piers and Dudley were the same. No exhibit held their attention for more than a few seconds. They were at the lion exhibit now. Piers and Dudley had made it to the front of the cage and harry struggled to follow. Using his small size Harry weaved between peoples arms and legs and muttered a impassioned 'sorry' when he stepped on people's feet. When he finally managed to reach the front of the crowd Dudley and Piers had already become bored and were moving to the next exhibit. Harry could see the tops of Mr. and Mrs. Dursleys heads as they moved to follow the two boys. They trusted Harry to follow them without checking. But Harry didn't want to leave. He just got to see the lions. Not that there was much to see. The lions laid despondently in their enclosure with just a water dish. There was a lion and two lionesses. Harry griped the bars In front of him as he looked on sadly. He wished the lions were in the Savannah somewhere and not here. He had learned in school that lions lived there.

As Harry gripped the bars and thought this, he felt the metal give. Staring in shock He watched as the bars of the cage swung inwards. The lions that had been lounging around perked up in interest and tracked the doors movement with predatory yellow eyes. The lions were not the only ones that noticed the bars movement. Several people began to scream as they watched the bars give way and the panic soon spread to the rest of the crowd. Within seconds the crowd had dissolved into a screaming mob as the lions began to slink towards the exit, their eyes turning predatory.

Harry felt his lungs constrict and his mind blank. He could distantly hear people screaming but couldn't turn his eyes. He couldn't even turn his body. He was locked in the glaze of the lions, with their gleaming yellow eyes and sharp fangs and rippling muscle that promised to tear Harry apart. He was stuck in place. He couldn't move. He was going to die –

A large gust of wind tore through the encloser. It battered people away and rattled the trash cans. And then it grabbed the metal bars that had been swinging inwards and with an almighty clang push the door closed with enough force to shake the entire cage. The lions roared in frustration and stared bayfully out at the people beyond. The pounding in Harry's ears receded and he became aware of a pair of hands dragging him away from the lions. He was the only one left in the lions' exhibit except for the zoo keeper that was currently dragging Harry. The man looked down at him with a combination of relief and anger and harry couldn't help but wonder what he had done to make the zookeeper angry at him.

"Where are your parents lad?"

"I'm with my Aunt and Uncle" Harry wondered if he was in trouble for not running away.

"Their names?"

"The Dursleys"

They stopped outside a large tan building with the word's "security" and "employees only" painted on a large steel door. The Zookeeper swiped a card and opened the door motioning for Harry to follow. Even though he wasn't an employee Harry figured that exceptions could be made. The building was as plain to the inside as it was the outside with beige walls and plastic chairs and a cork board full of ripped up flyers. Harry viewed the board with interest, someone had shaped the extra tacks into a penis. The Zookeeper saw this and blushed, hastily reaching to rearrange the tacks while pushing Harry towards a chair. "Sit here while we get your relatives alright?"

Harry shrugged an affirmative and slouched into the seat peering at the man through his bangs as he talked into a speaker. Harry caught the words boy and picked and on purpose. There was a crackle on the other side of the mike with the sounds of affirmation and the Zookeeper turned around to give Harry a hard look. Harry slouched down further in his seat. It sounded like he was in trouble. But why? Sure, he had left his family, but kids did that all the time and he hardly thought he deserved the hard look he was getting now like he was some delinquent.

When the Dursley came they were escorted by two police officers. Mr. Dursley was red faced and sputtering while Mrs. Dursley demanded in a high shrieky voice to be taken to her nephew and no; police officers were not needed; this was a misunderstanding. When Mrs. Dursley saw Harry, she pushed past the police officers and gathered him in her arms. Harry was smushed uncomfortably against her chest as she tried to drag him to the exit and past the two officers at the door.

"Ma'am we understand your position but we must question your nephew; he might have though it to be a joke but he endangered countless people today" Vernon swelled up even more as his weight seemed to redistribute from his belly to his chest. Harry wondered what he had done.

"My nephew did no such thing! Now see here – we're good, upstanding members of this community so what absolute knob head accused us!" The police officers shifted uneasily and raised their hands to try to appease Vernon who was still sputtering.

"Sir we're not accusing you of anything we just need to speak to your nephew. Witness say he was touching the cage when the door opened" Harry stiffened in his Aunt's arms. They Thought he had opened the lion's cage? How? He was only ten years old. It was at this time that the zoo Official who had been standing quietly spoke up.

"We have proof! Several people saw him touching the encloser and we have him on camera; SEE!" the zoo official vindictively pointed at one of several monitors which showed feed of before the cage opened. The camera showed the back of a little boy as he faced the lions. Sever seconds latter they watched as the cage opened and pandemonium break out. The zoo official jab his finger at the screen. "SEE! This is his fault! He did this! You should lock him up in a school for troubled Boys!" The man ranted panting and trembling from excitement.

Vernon roared and brought his fist down on a table. Harry and several others jumped as the table creaked under the force of the blow. "You call that evidence? A couple of people saying that he was touching the bars, which all children do, and a recording of his back? Are you Daft?" The Zookeeper sputtered and tried to interject but Vernon was on a roll "No your Zoo fucked up and are now trying to cover their own asses! By using a child! I wont stand for this! We are good law-abiding people, and this is utter nonsense!" Vernon wheeled around from where he had been shouting the man into a corner and faced Harry "Boy, did you open that cage?" Harry twisted in his Aunts arms and vigorously shook his head no. "Well there you have it! He didn't open the cage" Vernon sneered at the zookeeper and faced the police officers. They looked at each other before shrugging and stepping away from the door. Petunia grabbed Harry and hustled him out the door where he could see Dudley waiting on a bench. Dudley frowned at Harry as he sulked. Harry winched. Dudley probably blamed him for ruining his birthday.

Uncle Vernon harrumphed as he peeled the car away from the zoo. Harry shifted Uneasily. Dudley continued to sulk. Aunt Petunia worried her hands and opened her mouth several times.

"Vernon, we have to go. Th – the incident this time was too large, attracted too many people. I saw some of them." Harry perked up in interest. Them? Who was them?

"You saw them?"

"They were very noticeable. One was wearing a purple dress over orange trousers and house slippers" Harry saw Vernon grimace in the rearview mirror. He sympathized. It sounded like these people were regular nutters. But still, why was Aunt Petunia worried?

"We'll have to leave. Leave everything. If that is traced back to us…"

"as long as we get lost in the muggle world, they'll never find us, they're absolutely useless in our world" Muggle world? Harry scrunched his face up in confusion. This all sounded so secretive. He could see Dudley from the corner of his eye also listen while the adulted continue to talk as if they weren't there.

"Did you give anyone our contact information?"

"no but I did say our names"

"Then we have a little bit of time"

"we'll have to change our names"

"we can live out of motels until the paperwork is processed. We have enough money to pay cash upfront"

Harry jerked. Motels? Why would they live in a motel? And why were they changing their names? Harry glanced at Dudley. Dudley glanced at Harry. Harry jerked his head at the adults and raised his eyebrows.

"Mum? Dad? What's happening?" Dudley screwed up his face and let his small blue eyes water. Harry had never been more thankful for Dudley's ability to cry on demand.

"Oh diddykins everything's going to be alright we're just going on a trip"

"Mum I'm not stupid you said we were going to change our names. You said someone was look for us. What is going on?" Harry watched as his aunt hesitated and glanced at her husband who was ignoring the conversation. Dudley saw as well and went in for the kill.

"Mummy are we going to die?"

Petunia jerked back as if slapped and grabbed Vernon's arm. "Vernon, we need to explain. They think they are going to die! Just look at how panicked they are!" Harry quickly arranged his face into his best panicked expression. Vernon eyed them in the rear-view mirror and grunted. "you can explain it to them when we get to the motel. I'll get rid of the house" Get rid of the house?! Harry's eyes widened as he listened. This was more serious than he thought.

The motel they were staying at was old and dingy with flickering yellow lights and vomit colored walls. Aunt Petunia told Harry and Dudley to sit down and they gingerly eased onto the probably flee ridden mattress. Harry watched as his aunt paced in front of him and Dudley muttering to herself. Finally, she turned to them and fixed them with a hard glare that Harry hadn't seen since he and Dudley broke a window three years ago.

"What I say next I cannot have you interrupting. You will not ask questions until the end and no matter how crazy it sounds it is all the truth. Do I make myself clear?" Petunia stared hard at each of them and Harry squirmed under her glaze before nodding. Satisfied his aunt smoothed her skirt and sat on the bed opposite to them.

"There exists a secret society. They have their own government, their own police, their own world. And no one knows about this society." His Aunt paused and Harry furrowed his brows. This sounded weird. But it also sounded exciting. He refocused and his aunt continued speaking. "The reason why me and Vernon know about this world is because my sister – your mother Harry; was a part of this world." Harry felt his heart lurch and he leaned forward. He didn't know anything about his parents. Every time he had tried to ask in the past his relative would get a strange look on their faces and refuse to answer. He figured that they were dead. It was probably a car accident. They were common enough. "You see the people that live in this world are special. And I know it sounds crazy, but these special people have special powers. Your mother had these powers Harry, and they were amazing. She could make flowers bloom and could turn teacups into mice; she had magic."

"Magic?" Harry blurted forgetting his aunt's rule on no talking. For her part his aunt looked briefly startled and then smiled sadly before replying

"yes, Harry magic. And you have magic just like your mother. Tell me has anything unexplainable ever happened around you?"

Harry thought back to his time at school. Plenty of weird things happened at school. It was one of the reasons why he had no friends. "once a kid threw my lunch away and all the food in his lunch box got eaten by rats? What about that time that I got on a roof of a building while running and didn't remember how? Was that magic?"

"Yes, Harry that was magic. And what happened today was magic also. Harry what were you thinking before the bars of the lion's cage opened?"

"I was wishing that they were free. I thought they looked sad." Harry hunched over. Suddenly magic didn't seem cool anymore. It was his fault that the lion's cage opened and it was his fault that someone could have been killed.

"Yes, harry that was you. And that's why we're running." Harry glanced up in shock. He was the reason they were running. So not only had he almost killed people, but his magic was making his family hide?

"why" he whispered

"people that have magic live in the magic world. You have family in the magic world. If they find out you have magic, they will take you away from us, so we are hiding because your magic with the lions was large enough to attract the attention of these people."

"I have more family?"

Harry watched as his aunt hesitated then winched as she opened her mouth and said, "Your father." With those two words Harry felt his world tilt sideways. He had a father? If he had a father, then why wasn't he with him? As if sensing his questions his aunt hurried to explain. "In the magic world there are people that are born without the ability to use magic. They are called squibs. After you were born it was believed that you had no magic so, you were given to us."

Harry felt his eyes prick with unshed tears and tried to quickly blink them away. He was not going to cry. "so, I was given up."

"yes"

His aunt looked at him sadly before continuing. "we saw the signs of magic in you as you grew up but at that point you were our son. We didn't want to give you up. So, we didn't tell your father about your magic. We're running now because if they find out about you, they will take you away."

"good. I don't want a father that doesn't want me anyways."

His aunt looked at him in surprise, but Harry didn't look up from his clenched hands. If his father didn't want him then he wouldn't want his father either. And that small, tiny part of him that hurt could be balled up and thrown somewhere deep inside himself until he forgot about it. This was his family. Right here, right now.