Disclaimer: I don't own HP or The Guardians.

Chapter 1

The night Voldemort had first cast the killing curse at Harry, the Man in the Moon had been watching. It was one of MiM's jobs as a Guardian to chase away the darkness and to protect children from their fears. That had been what originally drew MiM's attention to the Potter house that night. He had felt Harry's fear for his parents and his fear of the dark wizard who haunted him. There was nothing MiM could do but watch. No matter how evil, Voldemort was a human and Guardians could not interfere in the affairs of humans. It didn't happen often. Usually human affairs made the most impact on adults and between the protection of their parents and the Guardians children were shielded from the worst of the world. The Guardians take their jobs seriously though. Just because MiM hadn't been able to step in directly that didn't mean he would abandon Harry to the darkness.

MiM had not liked the dark man's intentions that night. As an immortal, magical entity, MiM was aware of the prophecy that influenced the dark wizard's actions. He knew that the dark wizard hadn't really died. He also knew that at that moment when the spell rebounded, the little boy's fate had been tied together with that of the dark wizard. Harry Potter had been touched by Destiny. MiM recognized the sign when he saw it. Destiny had been telling him that her newly chosen would one day become a Guardian of Childhood and it was MiM's responsibility to protect Harry until he was ready to assume his role.

After the dark wizard had been defeated and after the dust had cleared, Harry had been taken to an old wizard on an empty street in Surrey. Bundled up in a blanket and basket he was left on the doorstep to his relatives' house. In the quietness of the night, MiM got to work. There had only been a little he could do at that time since Harry had been so young but MiM was a clever one. He bestowed Harry with a boost to his magical core. This was a trick that he had thought up after his creation of Jack Frost. Instead of waiting for Harry to grow up more to handle his full powers, MiM planted a seed of power within the magic Harry already possessed. That way it would grow slowly as the boy grew and could be discovered and learned in small increments. It also would allow Harry to remain mostly human until he finally defeated Voldemort once and for all. As MiM worked, Harry had slept the whole night though.

MiM had watched as Harry grew up under the care of his relatives. As much as MiM had disliked the dark wizard, he disliked Harry's relatives more. Voldemort had acknowledged his evil, embraced it, and everyone had known of it. The Dursleys' had no excuse for the way they treated Harry and hid behind their pretend 'normalcy'. Not only had his aunt and uncle denied him the love and support of a family, they had gone one step further in trying to deliberately crush Harry's childhood innocence. No, MiM definitely did not like them.

MiM called on every Guardian to watch over Harry and undermine the Dursleys. Of the four, only two had been successful. Despite North and Bunny leaving presents and eggs for Harry every year, the Dursleys managed to give all of them to Dudley. The sad part was that Harry had still believed in Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny but he didn't believe that he was worthy of their attention. Only Sandman and Tooth were able to reach Harry without interference.

Harry's first Christmas at the Dursleys had actually been the only nice one he had experience in that house. It had only been a few months since he was found on the doorstep and so far his family was cordial with him. He had gotten a soft comfy blanket from his uncle, a small stuffed bear from his aunt, and a chocolate from Dudley. At this point, Harry had been quiet and kept to himself and most importantly he hadn't done any magic. As long as they thought he had a chance of turning out normal they enjoyed his presence. MiM had not need to call on North for help yet so the toys left for the two boys had been things they both liked: Harry liked the blocks and the colouring book best of all, while Dudley had gone on the rest of the day making a loud racket on the toy drum he received. By the time the next Christmas came around, Harry was no longer welcome to join the family. As it was, he had only managed to save the stuffed bear and the colouring book before his aunt had taken the rest of his toys away every time he had done something wrong. If Harry had known then that he would be banished from Christmas time by the Dursleys he would have savoured that day much more than he had.

Harry's first Easter hadn't gone as nicely as Christmas. It possibly would have been had his aunt not caught him doing accidental magic. It had only been a few small instances: floating a crayon from the floor up to where he was colouring at the table, levitating himself up to the height of the kitchen counter to grab cookies for him and Dudley, or having his hair grow out over night. By the time Easter had arrived, Harry had been sleeping in his cupboard for a week. Unfortunately for the Dursleys, Harry had been still too young to leave at home by himself so they had taken him along with them to the neighbourhood Easter egg hunt in the park. Of course he wasn't allowed to actually participate in the egg hunt. His aunt had him stay seated on the bench beside her while they watched Uncle Vernon take Dudley around for eggs. Bunny had been madder than a cut snake as he watched on from the bushes. He hadn't been about to give up though. Before the Dursleys returned home he had place one specially painted egg in the corner shelf of Harry's cupboard. Later watching with a triumphant smirk at Harry's joy in finding the egg, his victory had been short lived as Dudley had caught Harry with the egg. Bunny could only watch in fury as Dudley quickly stole the egg for his own then got Harry in trouble by tattling to his father. He had been so close. Bunny had seen Harry's reaction before his cousin had come along. The boy believed. Bunny would have to be craftier to get eggs to Harry for the rest of his Easters at the Dursleys.

Sandy visited Harry personally as often as possible, especially after the first night he was put in the cupboard as punishment for displaying accidental magic in front of his aunt. He frequently chose Harry's happiest memory to base his good dreams on. In all his many years as a Guardian, Sandy had seen many different dreams created by children. Of all of them, Sandy liked this dream almost as much as Harry. It had a giant and a flying motorcycle in it. What's more, it was happy enough that Harry could recall the dream during the daytime and it provided a bit of comfort for him that way.

It was only due to luck in timing that Harry learned about the Tooth Fairy. A few months before Harry had lost his first tooth, his cousin Dudley had lost his after falling during a game of Harry Hunting. Harry had gotten pinned with the blame for that one. As he sat huddled on his small cot in his cupboard, Harry had heard his Uncle Vernon tell Dudley that if he put his tooth under his pillow then the Tooth Fairy would exchange it for a gift. Harry had actually smiled at the idea. It was a little strange to the 5 year old to think that his aunt and uncle were so adamant that there was no such thing as magic but somebody like the Tooth Fairy could exist. Nevertheless, when Harry lost his first tooth after being hit by Dudley he had put the tooth under his pillow and gone to sleep with a small bit of hope and a fat lip. The following morning, it was to his immense surprise to find a 50 pence piece when he woke up. Tooth and her baby fairies were able to store Harry's teeth and preserve his memories. More than that, finding a coin or a treat under his pillow after losing a tooth had been tangible evidence to Harry that someone knew where he was, knew that he existed, and was kind to him no matter what he had done.

While the Guardians did their best to keep Harry's belief in them alive, the power inside his magical core slowly grew. Though he didn't realize it, Harry's bouts of accidental magic were more focused and more controlled than any other wizard boy his age. Naturally, it would have been the hostile environment in which he lived that encouraged more accidents than he would have if kept safe but the power came from that bit gained from MiM. As Harry experience more bursts of magic, the incidents became more challenging and required more power: from the small levitation of objects to growing out his own hair, to changing his teacher's hair blue, to apparating to the top of the school roof, to freeing the boa constrictor at the zoo. Harry never realized it but the strength of these events had a lot to do with MiM's gift. Even though he was punished after every incident by his aunt and uncle, these strange occurrences gave Harry the one thing the Guardians could not – a subconscious belief in magic. So the day he received a strange letter addressed to his cupboard, he didn't need much to convince him of its validity.

It wasn't until Harry was at Hogwarts that North and Bunny could help restore his belief in them. His first Christmas in the castle, North had hidden himself outside the window just to watch Harry's joy as he muttered in disbelief "presents? I have presents?". On that first Easter, since Harry had by then been practicing with the quidditch team, Bunny left him and his friends a trail of eggs to find that eventually led Ron and Harry to flying to the tops of the castle towers on their brooms while Hermione watched anxiously from the ground. A tradition had been started and none to soon.

Beginning after Harry finished his forth year and survived the Triwizard Tournament, Sandy started losing his connection to Harry. Those first three years after discovering the Wizarding World had provided Sandy with so many happy memories to inspire Harry's dreams. Things changed after meeting Voldemort again and seeing the death of a friend. That was when Harry started having nightmares. Every night, Sandy had to try harder and harder to give Harry good dreams. Eventually Sandy couldn't beat any of the nightmares back. Once Harry started fighting sleep to avoid the nightmares, Sandy lost his powers to guard him.

It was when Harry was in his six year that the Guardians all had to step back. Sandy hadn't been able to reach Harry at all since he returned to Hogwarts. Tooth had also lost her connection to Harry since he had lost all his baby teeth by then. North and Bunny continued leaving presents and eggs but could feel the change in the wind. Harry didn't really need them any more. The power that MiM gifted him and the fate Destiny had chosen for him had merged. By the end of fifth year, when Harry learned of the prophecy and accepted that it would be up to him to finish off Voldemort he had inherited his role as Guardian of the Wizarding World. Dumbledore had been off the mark when he suggested that 'the power the dark lord knew not' was Harry's mother's love. Harry's strength, though he didn't realize it, waxed and waned with the belief the people of the Wizarding World had in him. Even when his world was darkest, Harry still had the belief of his friends to hold him together. So with his wand in one hand and the stone in the other, Harry bravely marched out to the Forbidden Forest to face Voldemort.

A/N: I'm not usually this quick at updates. It's only because this chapter was already half written when I posted the prologue that it's out so soon. I suppose I could have waited and posted them both together but I was just so excited to get the story out.

~*~ Sundance-gurl