Disclaimer: yeah yeah, it ain't mine, it's JKR's yada yada yada...

A.N: "speech" 'thought' (simple bracketed drivel) "parseltongue"

Chapter 3:

Disappearing Act

Remus Lupin paced anxiously in Albus Dumbledore's crowded office, surrounded by felow members of the Order of the Phoenix. Just shy of thirty poeple were cramped into the headmaster's office at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. More than half the school's professors were in attendance, along with several other notable figures, ranging from Mundungus Fletcher, a known thief and petty criminal, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, a well feared and respected Auror, Alastor Moody, the retired but notorious ex-Auror and other such individuals milled about, conversing tensly among themselves. Abus had called a meeting, which, since the Dark forces were more or less on sabbatical could mean only one thing: something had happened with the twins.

Remus kicked himself for allowing himself to become so disconnected with reality, just over eight years ago, tragedy had struck at almost all those whom had ever seen him for who he was and not the beast he carried within his soul. Three of his best friends had been murdered, one at the hands of the last, Sirius Black, the only one still alive, rotting in Azkaban where he belonged. Yet Remus hated himself, he had allowed his grief to consume him, falling into depression and all but abandoning his duty to his surragate niece and nephew, the twin children of two of his friends, Lily and James Potter.

And now he paced in Dumbledore's office, ignoring Hestia Jones' repeated attempts to calm him.

"Remus, will you relax!" She cried, finally losing her patience "come here!" she then proceeded to grab the scruff of his frayed and tatty robes, throw him into an empty chair and all but sit on him.

Remus wasn't at all surprised by these actions, he had known Hestia most of his life, and it was never the best kept secret how she felt about him, truth be told he loved the bones of the woman, but had sworn to himself that he would never force her to be with a werewolf. Nevertheless, he felt a need to protest.

"Hestia! get off me! I'm-"

"Remus!" the irritaded woman cut him off "I know you're anxious, but burning a line in Dumbledore's carpet won't make you feel any better, all it's accomplished is to irritate the hell out of me! so sit, be silent and wait!" Remus made to get up, but one well placed poke and evil eye made him reconsider, choosing to do as he was told instead. He paused, sighed and forced himself to relax a little.

"Sorry Hestia" he offered sheepishly "It's just... Well, what if something's wrong with the twins?" he finished in distress, Hestia was about to answer him when Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody joined the conversation from his position leaning against the wall, facing the door, ever true to his paranoid reputation.

"Shut it Lupin" growled the scarred ex-Auror "it's pointless wondering, Dumbledore'll be here any minute, just wait. If you need something to occupy yourself, there's a room full of poeple you ain't seen in years, you must have a few friends among them, start a conversation or something and stop annoying the lass perched so earnestly in your lap" getting a brilliant blush and shift in position from the aforementioned 'lass'. Moony felt decidedly unsettled to be recieving a dresing down on being wound too tight from Mad-eye, so decided to switch the situation around.

"You're right, I'll talk to a friend" Remus began "so Alastor, how've the last few years treated you? last I heard, you'd retired from the corp" Moody looked momentarily non-plussed to be considered someone's friend, but reverted back to his grumpy form rather quickly.

"Stow it Lupin" he started angrily " if I wanted to talk I'd-"

"Oh come on now Moody, surely you wouldn't mind chatting to some friends for minute" Hestia told him sweetly "I insist" Moody now looked downright frightened of the diminutive woman as she conjured a chair and pushed him into it.

"Alright, alright, you've had you're fun" Moody tried to look menacing, but Remus could tell he was fighting a smile at Hestia's innocently eager expression.

Moody was saved further torture by Dumbledore's timely arrival, appearing in a brilliant flash of crimson flame, fawkes the phoenix perched elegantly upon his shoulder. The Headmaster, true to his own eccentric ideas of fashion, wore resplendant robes of eye hurting orange, with various multi-coloured animals prancing merrily across them. However one need not look too hard to recognise that something was wrong, many had said that Albus Dumbledore possessed a spry youthfulness a man his age shouldn't have, but now, he appeared every bit of his age, his posture almost slouched and defeated, and a deep, endless sorrow in his usually twinkling blue eyes.

Remus' breath caught, as well as quite a few other's, as Dumbledore slowly made his way behind his grand desk seemingly unaware of the small crowd in his office, the people parting before him like the red sea before Moses, it had been many years since any had seen this aged, frail version of the powerful old wizard, and it was never a good thing. Even Fawkes appeared fatigued and melancholy, swooping over to his perch and tucking his head beneath a wing.

Remus was on his feet now, before the Professor's desk, seeing nobody else was going to speak up, he decided to rouse Dumbledore from his musings.

"Headmaster?" he began, his own eyes widening in surprise as the Professor nearly jerked in his seat, his eyes flying to meet the Were's.

If possible, Albus appeared to age further still as his eyes and mind took in the group before him, his eyes lingering on Remus with an unenviable remorse before he seemed to gather himself, setting his jaw in determination and straightening in his squishy armchair.

"My friends" the legendary old wizard started, his very tone causing many in the room to worry "I am afraid that I have dire news, I return now from my search... for the Potter twins, who appear to have... gone missing several days ago." a gasp went round the room, Albus' tone and manner showing clearly that he felt no hope in the situation while Remus simply stopped moving, staring straight ahead in utter horror, the ever stoic Minerva Mcgonnagal had a hand over her mouth as tears threatened an appearance, while the Aurors' and Moody's eyes narrowed in suspicion and even anger.

Hestia hastely stepped forward as Remus swayed drunkenly, but the immense Rubeus Hagrid beat her to it, placing a steadying hand on his shoulder, making no effort to hide the bullet-sized tears that fell down into his beard. All the while Severus Snape skulked in the corner appearing his usual sneering, miserable self.

"Bah!" he snorted derisively "senseless little brats, only gone and got themselves found or killed in some childish game" he turned to stalk from the room, missing the sudden outrage of almost all those present, in particular the amber flash in Remus Lupin's eyes as he turned toward him, looking ready to murder the heartless bastard with his bare hands, but again, Hagrid was faster and in two great strides had crossed the Headmaster's office, seized Severus around the throat with one hand and slammed him into the wall, shaking the shelves and mantles with the impact.

Severus Snape found himself eye to eye with an enraged half-giant, his feet a metre of the ground, and while few had ever found the mammoth man the slightest bit intimidating, fewer still had ever seen him angry.

"One more word!" the truly gargantuan man roared "one more word from ya, an' I'll crush yer Ruddy head ya snivillin li'l maggot!" Snape's eyes appeared ready to pop out of his head, his face rapidly purpling as he sputtered and choked under Hagrid's powerful grip.

"Rubeus" Albus softly reprimanded, regaining some more of his lost composure "while Severus may never be the most compassionate man, I would rather you not strangle my potions professor" he had stood gently from his seat, not appearing at all threatening, but commanding all the same. Hagrid glanced back at his employer, seemingly torn, before he seemed to come to a decision.

Severus Snape colapsed in a gasping pile at Hagrid's feet, but before he could begin to regain his sneer, he was again bodily lifted, by the scruff of his neck this time, he reached up, scrambling to relieve Hagrids grip, he barely heard the door open, but he was well aware when he was hurled down the Headmaster's spiral staircase to land in a crumpled, bruised heap at the base of the Gargoyle.

Hagrid calmly closed the door and turned back to the Headmaster, not the least bit repentant, meanwhile Albus, while not really approving seemed to accept that had Remus got there first he might have needed a new Potions professor, hell Moody looked utterly infuriated too, perhaps he should count his blessings.

Deciding that that was indeed the best he could have hoped for after Severus's comment, Albus decided to quickly move on.

"Poppy, would you please see to Severus?" He asked his resident staff healer, who just so happened to be a good friend and additional member of the Order. At her rebellious look, he quickly continued "I assure you that I shall brief you on all that you miss from this meeting" thankfully, despite her personal reluctance, as she had grown exceptionally fond of the twins in the short year before Voldemort's banishment, her professional side won out, and she left to deal with the truthfully tactless potions Master, likely dragging him to the hospital wing by his ears.

Albus sighed as he turned his attention back to the resident Were in the Order, at seeing the utter despair and rage swirling in Remus' amber eyes, he cringed, momenteraly shrinking back from his penetrating gaze, well aware that had Remus not known that Albus was just as anguished, he likely would have been forced to defend himself from an irate lycanthrope.

Remus spoke only two words, summoning up the entire Orders opinions'.

"What. Happened?"

Albus knew that no half-truths or even lies could resolve this, though he really had no desire to do so for a change, had he trusted more people with his plans for the children, they likely wouldn't be in the current situation.

"At this moment" he began, again sinking tiredly into his squishy chair "I am unsure. I never told many of you where I placed the twins, and why I chose not to have raised by a notable light-sided family, and those whom I did inform heartily disagreed with me" here he threw a glance at both Minerva and Hagrid "for reasons too complicated to adequately explain, the manner in which their mother died, or perhaps even an obscure ritual performed prior to Voldemort's-" he paused to wait for the collective shrieks, gasps and flinches to subside "-arrival, she placed a form of protection upon her children that I knew I could not replicate or surpass, and it was using this protection that I managed to create nigh on impenetrable Blood wards around the Twins' new residense, however, for these wards to function, the Twins had to be in close proximity to someone of their Mother's blood" Remus paled in horrified realization "and thus, I left them at number four, Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey, in the care of their Biological aunt, Petunia Dursley and her family."

Remus colapsed into his seat, wracked with silent sobs, having met that hateful woman at the Potters' wedding, and only able to imagine an upbringing in her care, Hestia rushed to comfort him, though unsure of why he suddenly needed it, while Hagrid and Mad-eye, both having met the vile woman at the same venue dropped a hand on either shoulder in silent support.

"I was unaware" Albus continued, forcing his eyes off of Remus' broken figure "of the level of animosity that existed between Lily and her sister, and the sheer amount of petty envy and hate that Petunia held for her, or her husbands own cruel tendancies." Albus decided to put forth the whole truth as it was "after using legilimency upon Petunia, I discovered just what their life was truly like. The Twins never felt any love in that household, the Dursley family treating them how many would expect a darker family to treat a house-elf, as virtual slaves, though I take great thanks in that the Dursleys never resorted to physical abuse, the twins suffered criminal neglect and and mistreatment at the hands of the Dursleys"

As people around the room began paling in the wake of the information, Albus forged on, hoping to build back some support and trust from his friends and aquaintances "I did not of course leave them unmonitered, I asked a aquaintance some of you have met to move into the area and keep an eye on the children, a very friendly and jovial squib by the name of Arabella Figg." people began to nod in acceptance of that, many having known Arabella to be a fine woman, and Minerva's glare changed to a look of confusion, wondering how Arabella could have missed the signs.

"However, I again am to blame for my own mistakes" the Headmaster carried on "it seems that even before I approached her, Arabella was suffering from a severe muggle, mental condition of some noteriety, known as Alzheimer's Disease."

Several people gasped at this revelation, and Albus won back consideral support from his Order, they accepted that while he could have monitered their wellbeing better, he had taken steps to ensure their safety, and he could not realistically have been expected to have predicted a squib's fall to a mental illness.

"Moving on to more recent happenings" Albus drove on, taking strength from their understanding, and rising from his chair to a more authoritive position stood tall, at the head of the room "I returned from a trip to a convention of the ICW last night, to discover that the wards at number four, Privet Drive had not fallen, but simply ceased to exist, sometime earlier this week."

Remus spoke up at this point.

"Having met that... despicable woman, I will flat out tell you Headmaster that I will never forgive you. And I think I can safely say that when you pass on, you'll have to deal with an enraged Lily Potter." Remus' stare had many of those around him leaning back from him, but Albus met his eyes squarely and merely nodded, accepting the Werewolf blame and all of the responsibility.

"But" Moony continued "we need to work together to find them. So, what leads do you have? What do we do now?" Albus agan failed to meet the gazes of those around him, looking down at his desk as he composed his reply.

"I am afraid that... I have no real leads, I arrived at the house to find Petunia in the midst of cleaning out the cupboard that served as the Twins' room, a considerable amount of blood had been spilled within, nearly three pints worth, which as many of you can guess, is a massive amount, particularly in a child, it is in fact a dangerous amount to lose, and after closer inspection, I determined that All of that belonged to Harry, So time may be of the essence, as Harry may be in a critical condition, I am unaware of how Harry came to be injured or Anya's condition" many of those present looked ill at the prospect of a dead Boy Who Lived, but steeled themselves for the upcoming search effort.

Albus had finally regained his full composure, once again the commanding leader of the light made an appearance "Now, Alastor will organise the search party, I would like everyone available to see him about where to start, bear in mind that Harry cannot have gotton far in such a condition. Kingsley, I would ask you, as the most familiar with the muggle police force to see they are informed of the Dursley's crimes and procur their aid in the search, more eyes open cannot be a bad thing. Remus, might I suggest you wait untill the Dursley's ar taken into custody before you attempt to find a scent sample from the house, it would not do for you to be arrested by the Aurors or police, I will go now to Ministry to see them informed and attempt to aquire the aid of the on duty Aurors" as the Order geared itsef up for work, Albus alowed himself to hope, to hope that against all odds, the Twins would be found safe, and soon.

"You may of course use my floo" the Headmaster told the search party as he removed the restrictiond from his office fireplace, allowing anyone to access it "Arabella floo address is 'number six Wisteria walk', I would advise that as your arrival point" he advised as he grab his own pinch of floo powder "should they be found, I ask that you send me patronus message, I will then immediately ask Fawkes to bring Poppy straight to you" he gestured to his faithfull friend, who chose to repond with a rousing chorus of song, filling the Order with hope and support with his song.

"If that is all, I bid you good luck, Ministry of Magic!"

**********H&A**********

Two weeks later

"Well?" asked the Extraordinarily non-descript man, he was fairly short and very skinny, with a light wispy beard, plain brown eyes and large ears. Peering down his slightly larger than normal nose, at a small girl. Looking at her, you wouldn't guess her to be far off seven, In actuality she was nearly ten, as wierdly enough, was the man. She was small for her age, with pale skin, a cute heart shaped face and focused, intelligent green eyes, until recently she had had long flowing black hair, but after much discussion, they had decided that they would rather forge false personas and histories than hide indefinately, and a different appearance would go a long way for that. After a gruelling week of effort on both of their parts, Harry had managed to teach Anya a limited from of his shapeshifting abilities, unfortunately though, she felt as if she had hit a wall with how far she could take the power, she could now consciously control the length of her hair, but none of her other features could change. Hence she was now eight year old Anna Potts, proud owner of a cute pixie-cut that actually quite suited her.

Harry, weirdly enough, was now two people, he was Henry Potts, Anna's elder brother, a tall, slim, scarless young boy with eyes and skin tone to match his sister's, and long, slightly curly black hair that fell to his shoulders. AND he wastheir father Harold, the man waiting impatiently for an answer from 'his daughter'.

"Anya?" he nudged her from her thoughts as he shrank back into his 'Henry' form.

"Sorry, well what?" she turned to him, privately deciding she liked his longer hair, and promising to make him keep it.

"What do you think?" he gestured to their surroundings.

They were currently standing in a two bedroom apartment, in one of the more rundown areas of London, the apartment was old, grubby and dark, the wallpaper yellowing and peeling in places, a large water stain covered most of the ceiling and the furniture was mouldy and motheaten.

"The place is a dump, But-" she made to continue, but Harry cut her off defensively.

"Oi, just be grateful we got the place!" He threw out exasperatedly "I thought for sure the land lord was gonna click on to the less-than-legitimate documents 'Anna'."

He strode forward, his attitude screaming triumph "Think about it, we have our own home, as far as anyone knows we're the Potts family moving down from Liverpool and have all the documents to prove it!" he had a wide, slanted grin on his face as he fell onto the decaying couch.

"Harry!" Anya giggled "let me finish, as I was saying, it's a dump, but we have resources to patch it up, it was cheap, easy to get and far from Privet Drive, it's perfect, well done." she joined him on the couch, throwing her jean clad legs across his own and giving him a side-ways hug, Harry blushed furiously at having been ranting for no reason.

"I have to say though, I'm more than a little apprehensive about tomorrow"

Harry agreed with a nod and a squeeze, a lot had happened this last month.

After the decision to put the Dursleys behind them, Anya had come up with the perfect gettaway plan, After experimenting with Harry's new ability to heal himself, they had discovered that Harry could heal all minor injuries in moments though it took more effort to heal Anya than himself, and he also possessed the ability to replenish his blood reserves to normal from almost dangerously low levels over night. They had spent almost a week while Anya learned her hair trick, opening semi-deep cuts on themselves, collecting the blood, storing it in jars in the spare fridge in the garage, hidden behind the umpteen packs of 'extra' bacon at the bottom, before healing completely overnight, ready to continue the next day.

Once she felt they had enough blood stored, they had acted. In the dead of the night, they had smeared the blood onto the floor, his in their cupboard, and hers in the garage. The plan was simple, nobody would look too hard for you, if they thought you were dead. Anya new someone their age, couldn't lose that much blood at once and survive, and the beauty was, the Dursleys would likely go down for murdering them, they had a real laugh over that. And they knew that the police would never be able to prove how old the blood was, because Petunia's obsessive compulsiveness would have her cleaning it up with bleach before the police ever arrived on the scene.

However they had had a harder time of it once escaped, they had stayed in a few places over the first week, abandoned houses and warehouses and the like, and while they hadn't had trouble feeding themselves, Harry after all was the perfect thief, able to alter his on appearance and disappear and reappear somewhere else at will. They had no way to sustain themselves in any way but from day to day, sure they could probably aquire huge sums of cash with their inherent awesomeness, but they didn't really want to be thieves, and while money could buy anything, few people, even the less-than-legally employed, would sell false identities to someone who simply didn't have one to begin with.

Then, what appeared to be a miracle happened, the one day Harry forgot to be 'Henry', he had been recognised, by someone neither had ever seen no less. A man in his late twenties or early thirties had approached them in the street, introduced himself as a squib (whatever the hell that was) and asked them what their plans were, immediately suspicious and wary, the twins had bolted, unable to 'pop' away in public, but the grown man had outrun them, and trapped them in an alley, just as they were about to pop away he had shouted "Potter, WAIT!" caught completely of guard by his use of their real surname, they had paused, he had used their brief hesitation to back up and raise his hands in a none threatening manner, pleading with them to trust him, that he wanted to help them, the sincerity in his tone and face had passed their lie detector, and they had listened to what he had to say.

Mere moments into the conversation Anya had asked what in the blue fuck a squib was, he hadn't answered, seeming to suddenly understand something they didn't, before telling them that he hadn't the time to explain right then, before either could object, he had whipped out a moblie phone and taken a picture of each of them, he had then said to meet him the next day in that same alley at ten PM before promptly walking of into the crowd.

More than a little wary, they had done so, both in their Potts forms, at seeing Harry looking so different, he had been understandably confused, after they found out that he had returned with every false ID thinkable, passport, birth certificate, falsified school records the works, all with the pictures he had taken the day before on them, they had decided to trust him a little, revealing Harry'd 'morphing' ability.

Absolutely flabbergasted, he had asked if he could become an adult, Harry had demonstrated that he could. Seemingly surprised (though less than he should have been when they thought about it) he had asked Harry to take an average adult form, and then after taking a photograph of both the false Harrys, he had explained the idea of Harry becoming, Howard and Henry, and to meet him the same time the next day, for those documents.

After that, they had spent nearly two weeks searching for a suitable apartment for 'the Potts' to buy, and with their strange benefactors aid 'aquiring' a bank account in Howards' name, enough cash to make the transaction and anything and everything else they thought of.

And today, they had moved in. They had not seen their 'squib' for a few days, but he had promised to meet them that saturday 'to explain a few things', and it just so happened to be saturday tomorrow. Both kids were both excited and nervous about learning these 'things', not the least of which was how he knew them.

No more words were spoken that night, they merely sat together, basking in the others company, they fell aslep, as always, in each others arms.

Author's note: Well? review people! oh and brownie points go to anyone who can correctly guess which blond pureblood family the Twins' mysterious saviour comes from, as a hint, he is on perfectly friendly terms with them...