He left the shop and headed back to the Cauldron. As he passed through, he decided to get a carton of butterbeers. It had been months since he'd had one and figured that he'd earned it, offing old Snakeface.

Once outside the Cauldron, Harry apparated away. A bare second later, trees of the Forest of Dean, surrounded him. He stood in a familiar little hollow. It was only a few weeks ago that the Weasley's tent had been set up here.

Or at least, in his memory, it was only a few weeks ago. By the calendar it would be almost eight years before that was due to happen.

Harry shuddered and forced it from his mind, he refused to think about the war, just yet. It was still too painful, and he had things that had to happen.

The first thing he did was put up his protections. Shields, wards, notice-me-nots and repelling charms were laid about the hollow before Harry was prepared to drop his glamours. Letting them fall was like letting a weight fall from his shoulders. His magic may have responded as it did before he went through the veil, but his body was clearly that of a child and had little stamina.

He was exhausted.

And his day wasn't finished. He pulled his satchel open and summoned out the tent-in-a-box, placing it where Hermione had placed theirs, and let it enlarge. Inside the tent, he pulled the furniture boxes out and set them down, taking one with a bedroom suite, into the first bedroom to the left. A swish and flick of his wand and the pieces were placed, another flick and the shrinking charms were dismissed. A dig into the box of linen, pulled out a mattress and tossed it onto the bedframe, another flick and the mattress snapped to full size. More linen was tossed at the bed and more flicks of his wand directed it, within seconds the bed was made and ready for use.

Back in the main room, Harry quickly placed and unshrunk the other furniture, first the three loungeroom chairs, then the bedroom suite in the opposite bedroom. He had no idea why he'd put it up, but he was less likely to trip over a full-sized double bed, than a shrunken one. The only reason he'd bought it was his cover story, he couldn't see it being used any time soon. But better to be ready.

Expect the Unexpected and Take Advantage of it.

The Marauders' motto.

Into the kitchen and placing the three pantries, before fetching himself a plate of sandwiches, he was so tired that he barely finished them before stumbling in the direction of the first bedroom and falling into the bed, asleep before he'd even met the mattress.

Morning came and Harry rolled from the bed, surprised that he'd slept so well. Not having nightmares was a new thing. He grimaced at his clothes and summoned his satchel.

A minute later he had two changes of clothes spread out on his bed. Clothes that were sized to fit an adult Harry, not child-sized Harry. And of course, they wouldn't shrink well, muggle stuff rarely did, a size or two, sure, but not to shrink by nearly half. No, he'd be luck for them to last an hour, before starting to disintegrate.

But magic was a wonderful thing. A quick scourgify and his clothes were as clean as if they'd been freshly laundered.

He paused in the main room and frowning, redirected his feet from the kitchen to outside. He only had to walk a few yards to find a fallen tree, old and dried, ready to use. It took him a few moments to focus on what he wanted but when he cast the transfiguration charm, the tree trunk lifted into the air and split in half before beginning to melt into two different shapes.

As Harry re-entered the tent, a picnic-styled table and bench floated along behind him. He pointed his wand where he wanted them and continued his way to the kitchen. There, he made himself a pot of tea and brought it out to the table. Another summoning and he had the goblins' ID tests in front of him, he read the attached information and nodded to himself. Retrieving the crystal shard and phial from a bag tied to a parchment scroll, Harry set about following those directions. He finished his tea and a bowl of porridge before pouring a fresh mug of tea.

Waiting the stated five minutes wasn't easy, but Harry had learned that sometimes, you just had to wait, there were no other options. When the time was up, he reached for the parchment, turning it over so her could read what was written.

"Holy crap. You have got to be shitting me?" He whispered in shock.

He read the parchment again. No, it was still the same.

"How is that possible?" He dropped the parchment on the table, the letters constantly drawing his attention.

Harold James Potter

31 July 1980 – 31 October 1981

Mother – Lilium Jonquil Potter nee Evans (30 January 1960 – 31 October 1981)

Father – James Fleamont Potter (27 March 1960 – 31 October 1981)

Godfather – Sirius Orion Black (3 November 1969 – 31 October 1981)

Godmother – Alice Laura Longbottom (28 April 1960 –)

"What the hell do I do now?" Harry huffed.

He sat quietly for a few minutes.

"Right, leave it to set in and keep busy in the meantime." Harry knew that was how his mind worked. If his life wasn't actively being threatened, he needed time to work through things. Needed time to absorb information.

He retrieved his trunk and headed for the third bedroom, before stopping and sighing. Back outside and two more fallen trees were attacked, this time they became shelves and were sent into the third room. Opening his trunk, he summoned out two wizard space frames, studying them, he decided that they still looked like shallow boxes without lids.

He placed them back-to-back and pressed the rune to unshrink them, followed by the activation rune. A crackle of magic was initially created by the rune, but then absorbed by the trunk, before the frame became active.

"Let's see what we have here." Harry cast a series of detection charms, that all returned negative for any dangerous items. He stuck his head through the frame and was greeted be a large empty space.

He debated for a moment but remembered that both Carson and Albert had stated that you couldn't put a wizard space inside a wizard space, or an expanded space inside an expanded space. He also remembered Mr Weasley saying that wizard tents are made in a different way, they tend distort space rather than expand or create it. Something to do with the runes used and where they were placed? Mr Weasley had implied that it was a craft secret, known only to a few and jealously guarded by them. But the upshot of that was that tents followed their own rules and both wizard spaces and expanded spaces could be safely used inside tents.

And for the next three days, that was all he did. He set frames up and cast detection charms, inspected and tagged frames. Those that failed, and there were a few, mostly apprentice frames, but some had dangerous contents. They were reverted to their shrunken size, pulled apart and burnt, of an evening.

But day four saw that change. The morning was the same as those before it, but a late lunch saw his repeatedly scourgifiedjeans tear, right across the waist. Leaving him wearing a waist band with only a fly connected to it.

"Dammit." He grumbled. He Accio-ed a washer from the second bathroom and transfigured it into a pair of shorts.

A few minutes to tidy up and Harry was thinking about where to go to get some clothes. The only places he could think of, off the top of his head, were the second-hand shops and opportunity shops in the Surrey area.

"Surrey, it is." He sighed as he left the tent. He briefly checked his protections and once sure that they would hold, he apparated to a hidden corner of a car park, in Guildford and glamoured himself to look eighteen, again.

Down the street and around the corner, was the first of three shops that he planned to visit. In the first shop, he found a few shirts and a pair of shorts.

"They're a bit small for you, aren't they?" An elderly woman asked.

"My cousin and I are very different sizes, ma'am." Harry answered. "And guess who only packed two changes of clothes to go travelling with?"

"Ah. How old is he?"

"About this tall." Harry answered by holding a hand at the correct height.

"About ten?"

"Something like that. I don't take a lot of notice of my cousin, he's a bit obnoxious. Hence the second-hand stuff." Harry grinned.

"I see. Shirts, shorts, jeans, pyjamas? What about shoes? Underwear? Socks?"

"My Uncle would never let him have second-hand underwear… or socks. But the rest, yeah, sure."

"Right, then. Let's annoy him." She bustled around the store, adding something from here and a shirt from there. "Here we go." There was a not-so-small pile of things waiting on the counter. So much for having to visit three shops. "Six T-shirts, two button downs, four pair of shorts, two pair of jeans, two pair of trainers, two pair of pyjamas. Oh, and one pair of swim shorts." She counted them off. "£12.50. How's that sound?"

"Better get another pair of shorts. It's a long way from Leith Hill to Owslebury." Harry huffed.

"Ooh, I don't envy you, lad. I can't see you getting through that in less than three days."

"I could do it in two, I think, but my cousin? I'm thinking, more like four or five. He really doesn't like being away from his TV."

"Sounds like someone's spoilt." She said.

"Yep. Thanks." He handed over his money and lifted the bag from the counter. "I better get at move on. Oh, where can I get underwear and socks?"

"The Friary is your best bet, it's got Hollister's and Primark."

"Uncle prefers Hollister's." Harry sighed.

"Might be a bit expensive for a ten-year-old, but as long as they're paying…?" The old woman tilted her head in question.

"Yep." Harry huffed. "While the rest of us have to make do with Sainsbury's."

"Isn't that the truth?" She sighed. "Well, good luck, dear." She turned to serve the next customer and Harry left the shop.

As he walked down the street towards the Friary shopping mall, Harry discreetly shrunk the Oxfam bag and tucked it into an inner pocket of his rucksack. In the few minutes that it took to walk to the mall, Harry decided he needed to see Aunt Petunia. Not to talk to, just to see her. Once he'd seen she was fine, he could cross her off his 'ever think about again' list. It took him half an hour to get two pack of socks and the same of underwear, the shops were busy with parents getting ready for the summer.

Leaving the shopping area of the mall, he found a quiet out of the way spot and apparated to the underpass on Magnolia Drive and after a short debate with himself, he cast a notice-me-not on himself and began the short walk to the park and possibly on towards Privet Drive. By the time Harry reached the park it was filled with children just having finished school for the day and one of those children had a familiar pair of ears.

"Dudley." Harry whispered to himself before frowning.

Dudley wasn't nearly as rotund as Harry remembered him being and he was far more active, playing tag with another boy and two small girls.

"Huh, who'd have thought it? Dudikins can run without wobbling." The memory of running across this park, side-by-side with Dudley and seeing the rolls of fat bouncing, were enough to make Harry glad he had been underfed by the Dursley's.

He sat himself down under a tree and watched, trying to reconcile his memories with what was in front of him. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. No matter how he tried, Harry couldn't see the active sandy-haired boy running around the park, as the cousin he grew up with. And that was probably a good thing. As he watched, Petunia called and a laughing Dudley ran to meet her, she hugged him and spoke quietly to his friends before leading him from the park. Within the next few minutes, other parents appeared, and more children began to leave.

It took nearly twenty minutes, but eventually Harry was the only person left in the park. He stood in preparation to apparate, when a low, mournful howl echoed across the empty park. He looked around, trying to find the culprit.

There.

Under the hedge on the far side of the park was a shaggy black mass. It stood and Harry caught his breath, he knew that shaggy coat. His eyes narrowed and his lips twisted. If they'd seen it, Ron would have been grimacing and Hermione would have shuddered. That look was what Harry wore when he was planning something that they wouldn't like.

He threw a stupefy across the park, as he began to run, but his aim was just fractionally off, he got the dog with a glancing hit to the tail. The dog tumbled over its own feet, giving Harry time to fire off a second stupefy as it tried to climb to its feet. This time he hit the dog cleanly, right on the shoulder.

Harry stood over the prone form of a very familiar Grimm-like dog and shook his head. He flicked a wand and once the dog was in the air, he reached out and took hold of a skinny leg. He could feel the dirt and gunge clinging to the dog's coat. That would have to be dealt with.

Harry apparated back the forest and dropped his glamours, as approached his tent but paused as he saw a clump of dried mud fall from the still floating dog.

"Time for a bath." Harry's grin turned vicious.

Down to the creek, he went, the dog floating along behind him. Reaching the creek, he lowered his free hand to his leg and tapped his fingers against his hidden wand holster and the wand leapt into his hand. He'd never used two wands at once, but he was game to give it a try.

"Media calidus aguamenti." He chanted, softly, and warm water poured in a gentle stream from his wand. He twisted the other wand and the dog rotated in the stream of water. Once the dog was completely wet. He dismissed the water and conjured a bottle of pet shampoo and a heavy bristled dog brush. The shampoo was poured over the dog and the bottle banished, while the brush got to work scrubbing through the rough coat. In seconds, the foam that covered the dog went from white to a murky muddy brown and Harry realised that he'd have to rinse and redo this a few times.

Ten minutes it took, to have clean water sloughing off the dog. Once certain the mutt was clean, Harry cast a drying charm at him and started to laugh. The blasted idiot looked like a poodle with his hair all fluffed up from the charm. That lasted all the way back to the tent, inside he debated with himself, but as the dog was still out for the count, he figured he'd push on. There was no way in hell he was letting the mutt sleep in one of his beds until he was completely clean and so far…? Only the dog was clean.

Into the second bathroom and Harry focused on the animal in front of him, before casting the charm that would revert the dog back into his human form. Then it was a debate as to whether or not the human's clothing should be banished. But Harry figured that the man might have things in the pockets, that he considered important, so he just used a switching spell and left the filthy garments on the bathroom floor. They could be dealt with, later. He levitated the naked man into the tub and repeated the process from earlier.

Maybe it was the fact that his dog form was clean, that meant the human form wasn't as filthy as Harry expected. Regardless it only took two rinses to have the water run clear. Another drying charm and Harry headed for the second bedroom, a still unconscious godfather floating along behind him. He looked at the bed and at his godfather and turned towards the door.

"Accio adult pyjamas." He said and in the time it took to count to three, he had the pair of pyjamas that Hermione had placed in his rucksack, in his hands. Another switching spell and his godfather was no longer naked. Harry lowered the man to the bed and left him there, if he was still out from a pair of underpowered stupefies, he obviously needed the sleep.

The sight of his godfather wearing the pyjamas that Hermione had got for Harry, prompted Harry to remember the message she'd given him, just seconds before he entered the veil. He crossed the tent to his room and hunted up the box of cards. He settled on the sofa and studied the box.

He cautiously lifted the lid and saw a folded sheet of muggle paper, pristine white with sharp blue lines. He unfolded the paper and read her letter.

Dear Harry,

I'm sorry, so sorry, that you have to do this alone. I'm sorry I couldn't do more.

I've done the best that I can to get you some resources and thankfully the goblins were able to help.

Mr Malfoy said that I could give you five things, as long as they had no wizarding magic in or on them. Nothing was said about goblin magic, Harry.

When the goblins came to certify your Will, I went back with them and asked for their help. Gringotts' draughts are almost the same as bank notes, just with magic applied. A draught can be broken down into coins, you simply need to put your finger on the amount and pulse your magic through your finger into the draught.

The vault you left to me wasn't as ʛalleon rich as the ones you left to the Weasley's and little Teddy, but it was still far more than I'm comfortable with. I talked to my account manager, Snapblade, and he agreed to help, for a cost. The vault had ʛ28,000 roughly, I had ʛ11,600 converted into one hundred and six ʛ100 draughts and one ʛ1000 draught. Then Snapblade transfigured the ʛ100 draughts into replicas of the playing cards that I had provided. The ʛ1000 draught was transfigured into this sheet of paper and no, Harry, I won't tell you how to reverse it, not yet. You need to read the whole letter before acting.

He did something similar with the marbles but instead of them being draughts, they are gems and pieces of jewellery. Some of which, belonged to your mother. The smaller solid colour marbles are single gems of similar size. The multi-coloured marbles are combinations of smaller gems, or pieces of jewellery. The larger marble is made up of a diamond, an emerald, your parents' wedding rings and your mother's engagement ring.

And because these were transfigured using goblin magic and not wizarding magic, they won't register on any tests that the Wizengamot may do.

Now, how to reverse them?

They all have a password and yes, it is the same password for all of them. Just saying the password won't break the transfiguration, though, you have to hold an item or items in your hand and pulse your magic into them at the same time. Items not in contact with your skin, won't revert. I say 'your' and mean 'you', Harry, no one else. Snapblade tied them to your magical signature.

The cards and this letter will revert into draughts, but the box will stay as a box.

For the marbles, it is slightly different, you need open the bag and hold it in your cupped hands and speak into the opening, at the same time as pulsing you magic into the bag. This will revert the bag to a velvet lined jewellery bag and the marbles to their original forms.

It's the best I could do, Harry, I'm sorry I couldn't do more.

I love you,

Hermione.

P.S. The password is my password, the thing that I said to you every single day. It's three words and the letters are OHH. I said it just as much to Ron, but for him the letters would be OHR.

A noise from the second bedroom told Harry that Sirius was awake.