AN: In the language of Dobby and Winky, I want them to add an s to the word we. However, if I do that, the word looks like wes. Therefore, I am incorrectly using an apostrophe so that it will be more readable. Therefore, the word will be we's to make it plural, not a contraction for "we is." I hope that makes sense--in a warped sort of way.

Chapter 5

When Harry arrived at number 4 Privet Drive that evening, Uncle Vernon met him at the door. He pulled Harry in roughly and slammed the door. "What do you mean by getting here so late? You were supposed to be here yesterday!" he yelled.

"I called Aunt Petunia to let her know," he said defensively.

Vernon grabbed Harry's old school trunk and threw it into the cupboard. Grabbing Harry's arm, he dragged him upstairs, threw him into his bedroom, and slammed the door. Harry smiled, hearing the locks click outside the door. "And you'll stay in there the rest of the summer!" Vernon yelled.

Harry waited until he heard his uncle stomp down the stairs. "Yes!" He whispered, pumping his fist in the air. "Safe Haven!"

He found Sirius and Remus sitting in the lounge. "So, how did it go with your uncle?" Remus asked.

"Great!" he said, flopping down on the couch happily. "I'm locked in my room for the rest of the summer with nothing to eat but stale bread, cold soup, and tepid water that Aunt Petunia will slide through the cat flap once a day." He grabbed a biscuit from the tin on the table and bit into it contentedly.

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other, and then grinned. "Congratulations," Sirius offered.

"Thanks. I couldn't be happier." He poured himself a cup of tea and added two cubes of sugar and some milk. "So, what are our plans? Do we start decorating or what?"

"We thought we might start doing that tomorrow," Remus said. "But we also talked about getting an early start on making the wolfsbane potion. If we bollix it up, I can always pay Severus to make it the first time. But after that, I want us to be able to do it ourselves. So, I thought we'd all work on it."

"Right," Harry said. "And on full moon nights, Moony and Padfoot can run around the Forbidden Forest in the Room of Requirement."

Sirius grinned. "Like old times, Moony."

Remus nodded, smiling. "Also, we need to read the instructions for the trunk so we'll know everything the trunk is capable of and how to use it."

"I want to set up some home bases," Harry said. "Maybe we could buy a place in Canada or the United States. We could look for a place out in the country and set up the fidelius charm and muggle repellant charms. That way, we'd have a place where we would be safe and wouldn't have to stay hidden all the time. We could go there on holidays."

"Yeah, we could find something with a magical community nearby for shopping," Sirius added.

"We wouldn't have to use elaborate disguises in North America," Remus said. "We'd just need to hide your scar, Harry, and perhaps shorten your hair, Sirius. Maybe both of you should lighten your hair a little."

"Ah, freedom!" Sirius exclaimed.

"We could also rent storage facilities in muggle areas of different cities around the world to use as home bases," Harry said, excitedly. "We could spend a couple of days in Rome, a couple in Paris, a few in Greece, a week in Australia! We could go anywhere we've ever wanted without leaving home!"

"I've heard the girls sunbathe topless on the French Riviera," Sirius commented.

"We could go there," Harry said casually, causing his guardians to laugh.

"We need to charm the trunk to receive owls," Remus said. "Your friends will be writing soon, and I'll be getting mail from the Order."

"I'll get the book," Harry said, getting up and going to retrieve the instructions. When he returned, he turned to the front, which showed a Table of Contents. The instructions for sending and receiving owls were on pages 6 and 7. Harry turned to page 6 and began to read.

"Before we can receive owls, we need to set up a home base," he said after a few minutes. "I thought we might use the Dursley's attic because no one ever goes up there."

"Why not just use your room?" Remus asked.

"According to the book, if I set up a home base at the Dursleys and charm it so that owls deliver my letters there, then even if I'm gone, the wards will show that I'm living there. They'll be strengthened even if I don't return next year or spend the entire two weeks there. So I'd rather use the attic so the Dursleys can't see the owls. And if we need to return for any reason, they won't know I'm back."

Remus nodded thoughtfully. "But I thought we could charm the trunk for the owls to deliver messages here."

"You have to charm an area outside the trunk for the owls to fly to, like a specific window or something. The window doesn't even have to be open. When an owl gets within a meter of the charmed area, it's transported inside the trunk. Any owl we send out will be transported from the trunk to within a meter of the charmed area. And from there, it will deliver the message."

"Clever," said Sirius, impressed.

Remus frowned. "Can we charm the window to receive both our mail?"

"We could, but if we do, the wards Dumbledore put on the house will show that you're here. We could charm a window in Grimmauld Place, though, or your cabin, since members of the Order will be using the house."

Remus nodded. "We could also use the cabin as a second home base. It's in the country, and there aren't any other houses close by."

"Which means," Sirius added. "We could actually go outside and get some fresh air."

"Could we put the property under the fidelius charm?" Harry asked.

"Owls wouldn't be able to get through, then," Remus said. "Not unless it was from someone who –"

"According to the book," Harry interrupted. "We can charm it so that owls will still be able to deliver. They'll just be transported a meter from the property instead of using a window."

Remus looked stunned. "Your grandfather was a genius, Harry."

Harry nodded, then said seriously. "That must be who I inherited it from."

Remus and Sirius laughed. "You definitely got your modesty from your Dad," Sirius said, throwing a cushion at him.

Harry caught the cushion and put it behind his back. "The book also says that the mail will be scanned for portkeys, tracking charms, and dark magic before the owls are transported into the trunk. It will refuse anything dangerous. The owls carrying something like that will just return the mail to the sender."

"He thought of everything," Sirius said. Harry and Remus nodded their agreement.

"Well, let's get your window and home base set up in the attic, Harry," Remus said. "Then, we'll move the trunk to my parent's house and set up the wards and charms."

Charming the attic and window involved leaving the trunk and placing magical runes around the window and the section of the attic in which the trunk would return. The charms were complex, and Harry had never taken Ancient Runes, but with Remus's help, it didn't take long to complete the work.

The next morning, Harry went downstairs to talk with his aunt. Vernon was at work, and Dudley was out terrorizing the neighborhood with his friends. Petunia was sitting at the dining room table sipping a cup of tea and reading a magazine. Harry sat down at the place across from her.

"Aunt Petunia, I need to talk to you about something," he said. "I think we could work out a deal that would make everyone here happy."

She looked up at him curiously, and then nodded for him to continue.

"I want to leave here. I want to go live with my magical guardian. But in order to keep the wards up, to protect you, Dudley, and Uncle Vernon from Death Eaters and Voldemort, you couldn't tell anyone outside the family that I was gone. Also, before I left, you would have to agree to let me consider this my home, even though I promise never to come back. That way, the wards will stay up and you and your family could live happily without me, and I could be happy with my guardian."

"What about Dumbledore? Does he know about this?"

"No. He can't know. He has to believe that I'm here."

"What if he comes here to see you? Or sends someone else?"

Harry sighed. "Aunt Petunia, I've lived here for almost 15 years, and with the exception of my friend Ron and his family, no one from the magical world has ever come here to check on me. But just in case, I'll write to Dumbledore and tell him that no one is to come to this house. I'll tell him that I'm going to stay here for the summer, and Uncle Vernon will take me to the train station on September the first."

Petunia looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded. "All right. But I want you to leave a letter here for Dumbledore in case something goes wrong. I want you to tell him that you left of your own free will so that he doesn't think that Vernon or I had anything to do with your disappearance."

"I can do that, if you'll promise not to give it to anyone unless they find out I'm not here and try to blame you or Uncle Vernon for it."

"All right," she said. "When are you leaving?"

"As soon as I write the letter for you. You won't see me leave because I have to sneak out. Dumbledore has people watching the house."

Petunia turned back to her magazine. "All right. Bring me the letter when you get it written."

After leaving Privet Drive, Harry's guardians placed the fidelius charm on Remus's house and charmed it to be a second home base. The official name became Home Base 2. They also charmed the area around the property to deliver owl post to the trunk. They persuaded Sirius to be the secret keeper, since everyone thought he was dead, and therefore no one would suspect him.

Over the next several days, they cleaned, painted, and repaired the cottage and furniture. They also worked in the garden, took walks through the woods, and flew their broomsticks around the property. Although they were actually living in the trunk, they didn't want Remus's childhood home to fall into disrepair.

Harry also worked on decorating his bedroom. He painted the walls, hung posters, placed his books and pictures on shelves, put his new clothes in the closet and chest of drawers, placed his inks, quills, and parchment on his desk, and put his toothbrush and bath products in the bathroom. This was the first time he could remember having a place to put his things without fear of them being disturbed or destroyed. He placed a perch for Hedwig in the library and charmed her so that she could enter any room in the trunk. Her favorite was, of course, the conservatory. He also made it possible for her to leave the trunk when she wanted to hunt for food.

Harry received letters from his friends and wrote back to them. He told them that his relatives were leaving him alone and that he was having the best summer he had ever spent at the Dursleys. Since he had just completed his OWL year, there was no summer homework, but in his spare time, he helped Remus and Sirius work on the wolfsbane potion, and he and his guardians read and studied the book of instructions for the trunk.

Since they had worked so hard over the past week, they decided they would go on holiday two days after the full moon, giving Remus time to recover.

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The wolfsbane potion had been a success, it seemed, and so Remus bravely took a dose the night before and the night of the full moon. Half an hour before the moon rose, he and Sirius went into the Room of Requirement, which had become a replica of the Forbidden Forrest.

It was Harry's first night alone in the trunk. Harry decided to spend the evening learning more about the trunk. He settled himself in front of the fire in the living room, turned to the Table of Contents in the front of the instruction book, and read.

Instructions for the Potter Traveling Trunk

Understanding the Safe Haven . . . 1-2

Securing/Changing/Adding a Home Base . . . 3-5

Sending and Receiving Owls . . . 6-7

Adding New Residents . . .8-10

Expanding and Adding Rooms or Compartments . . . 11-13

Shrinking and Invisibility . . . 14

Defensive Charms . . . 15-18

Offensive Spells . . . 19-29

Espionage (Observing/Listening/Photographing/Recording) . . . 30-32

Traveling from Place to Place . . . 33

Traveling through Time . . . 34

Traveling to and through Other Dimensions . . . 35-37

Transporting and Transport Keys . . . 38-40

Room of Requirement . . . 41-46

Control Room . . . 47-50

Potions Lab . . . 51-54

Conservatory . . . 55-59

Medical Facilities . . . 60-67

Library . . . 68-74

Charles William Potter's Portrait . . . 75

Miscellaneous . . . 76-100

Expanding and Adding Rooms or Compartments sounded interesting, so Harry turned to page 11.

The duplication or resizing of compartments (a compartment would be an entire floor or level of the trunk) or rooms does not increase the size of the trunk, since the rooms of the trunk are in a separate dimension. Therefore, new dimensions can be added. Any room or entire compartment of the trunk can be duplicated or increased in size. Say, for example, you need more guest rooms. You can duplicate the 6th compartment either permanently or temporarily thereby providing the trunk with an additional 8 bedrooms and bathrooms. Or if you are using the 7th compartment Room of Requirement for an extended period of time, you can duplicate it and have a second Room of Requirement to use for another purpose. The only rooms that cannot be duplicated are the control room and those that can only be accessed by a member of the Potter family. Should you duplicate the library, the books will not be duplicated. Therefore, you will be at liberty to add your own books to the second library.

To duplicate or resize a compartment or a room, select the specific room or compartment on the control panel, and then push the duplicate or increase size button. When resizing an area to certain specifications, set the controls to the appropriate measurements before pushing the increase button. Otherwise the area will double, as that is the default option. The room will remain changed for as long as you desire. Multiple compartments can be duplicated simultaneously. There are no limits to the size the inside of the trunk can become.

It is possible to allow temporary residents, who use the trunk as a safe haven, limited access to the trunk by assigning them to a specific compartment or room, including a duplicated area. For information on limited access, read pages 8 through 10.

Harry could think of several people he would like to limit access to, but he would think about that later. He did wonder about the rooms that could only be accessed by a Potter. So far, both Sirius and Remus had been able to enter all the rooms. He turned to page 75. His grandfather's portrait had not yet activated, and he wondered if there was something he was supposed to do. It would be nice to talk with him and learn about his family. He began to read:

The portrait of Charles William Potter will activate automatically at my death, but only after a member of the Potter family takes possession of the trunk.

Harry frowned and turned the page. That was all there was.

"That's odd," he said aloud, glancing up at the portrait. He was quite sure he was a Potter. The proof was in front of him. He looked like his father and grandfather, and he had his mother's eyes. And he knew that his grandfather was dead. Maybe it took a while for the portrait to discover there was a member of the family living in the trunk. Or maybe it was because they had spent so much time outside the trunk while restoring Remus's house.

He took the instruction book back into the control room and sat down at the panel. He moved the controls to travel to Hogwart's kitchen. He still had to talk to Dobby about coming to live with him. He was pretty sure he could work out a deal.

Dobby was thrilled to work for the great Harry Potter. Harry would pay him 5 galleons a week and Dobby would have two days off. But the deal was that Winky had to come, too. Looking at the drunken house elf in her filthy clothes, Harry wondered if it wouldn't be better to forget the whole thing. Dobby saw Harry's look of uncertainty.

"Harry Potter must be firm with Winky," Dobby whispered. "You must order her to stop drinking butterbeer, to take a bath, and to wear clean clothes."

"Dobby, I'm not sure—"

"Harry Potter would be good for Winky. Winky needs to be proper house elf with proper family. Winky is good house elf."

Harry sighed and went over to where the small elf was sitting in the corner. "Winky, do you want to come work for me?" he asked.

She stared up at him with big, sad eyes. "Master Harry would make Winky his house elf?" she asked.

"If you would like," he said. "But if you accept, you can't drink anymore butterbeer, Winky, and you'll have to take a bath and put on something clean. Are you willing to do that?"

Tears formed in her eyes and she stood up, leaving the half-empty bottle on the floor. "Oh, yes, Master! Winky good elf! No more butterbeer. Winky want to go with Master now."

Harry turned to Dobby. "Do you need to give Professor Dumbledore a notice or anything?"

"No, Harry Potter, Sir. Dobby and Winky free elves. We's come and go as we like. We's ready to go with Harry Potter now."

Harry let the elves into the trunk and moved it back to Remus's house. He showed them to their room near the kitchen. "It's more of a dormitory right now," he said. "But it's pretty big, and it's yours to do with as you like. You can separate it into rooms and make an apartment, if you like. If you want it to be bigger, let me know, and I'll increase the size."

Dobby and Winky looked around the room in awe. "Harry Potter, Sir, this is the best house elf room we's ever seen!"

"Well, it's all yours. Like I said, fix it up any way you want. You'll be living here, and I want you to be happy."

Two house elves grabbed him around the knees in a hug. "Oh, thank you, Master!" Winky said. "We's make good home for Dobby and Winky and little ones."

"Little ones?" Harry asked, confused.

"Winky and Dobby are mates," Dobby told him. "We is trying to make babies."

Harry felt himself blush. "Oh, well, that's—that's great, Dobby. Congratulations to both of you."

"Oh, we's not have little ones, yet, Harry Potter. We just trying to—"

"Yes, well—" he interrupted quickly, not wanting any details. "I need to get to bed. Remus and Sirius are in the Room of Requirement. There's a full moon tonight, so don't go in there. And don't go in the control room, but feel free to move around the rest of the house, I mean, trunk, and do whatever you need to do. Good night," he said, leaving the kitchen quickly.

"Good night, Harry Potter!" they called after him.