A/N: I apologize in advance for the horrible, horrible, hideously inaccurate court scene in this chapter.

Mr. Harrison James Potter,

You are hereby summoned as a witness to the hearing of your guardians, Vernon Gareth Dursley and Petunia Evans Dursley, on two charges of child abuse.

Harry stopped breathing for a moment. "This… this can't be right." He read it again. "This… Molly! Mr. Weasley!"

Mr. Weasley appeared at the door a moment later. "You know, Harry, if you call my wife Molly, you may as well call me Arthur."

Harry blinked. "Um. Okay, well, read this."

Arthur took the letter and scanned it. "Child abuse? Is it true?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't think of it like that. What confuses me is 'two counts'. They weren't that good to me, but–"

"What did they do to you," Arthur said flatly in a cold voice.

"Not much," Harry insisted. "They didn't love me and they made that clear, and they… they didn't get me anything for my birthday. Or for Christmas, really. Or ever."

"Is that all, Harry?" Arthur demanded.

"Um…"

"Molly!" Arthur called. After a minute or two, he slipped out his wand and cast a spell, "Expecto Patronum." A silver lion burst from his wand and regarded him with cool white eyes. "Nuntia Patronum." Harry blinked and the lion was gone. A moment later, Molly came down from the second floor.

"What is it, dear?" she asked. Arthur wordlessly handed her the letter, and she read it several times. "Child abuse? Harry, is this –"

"So it seems," Arthur said gravely. "Harry, did Dumbledore know of this?"

Harry nodded. "I told him a few weeks before December."

The rulers of the Weasley clan exchanged a glance. "Excuse us, Harry," Arthur said after a moment.

"We'll be back soon," Molly promised.

"But we need to speak to Albus."

They went back inside, and a moment later Harry heard them shout in unison "Hogwarts!"

Several hours later, Harry was posing for Ginny to sketch him, one leg on a table and a clean white skull they had found in Fred and George's room in his hand. "Alas, poor Yorick!" he declared.

"You know, Harry, I can appreciate the aesthetics, but I don't get this reference."

"Hamlet," Harry said. "You know, Shakespeare?"

"What and who?"

"A very famous play, and a very famous author," Harry said. "Don't you have to read him in… no, you're homeschooled, I forgot."

"We had to read boring old stuff, sure, but it was all wizarding stuff," Ginny said. "I guess this Shakespeare fellow must have been a muggle."

"I guess so," Harry agreed.

"Well–"

They were interrupted by a double-fwoosh as Arthur and Molly returned through the Floo. "Mum! Dad!" Ginny cried, set the pencil down, and dashed out her room towards the Floo. Harry followed somewhat more cautiously, and his fears were realized a moment later when he heard another fwoosh.

"Professor Flitwick will only be here for a few minutes, Ginny," he heard Arthur say. "Is Harry still up?"

"Yeah, he'll probably be down in a moment."

Harry stepped in to the room and it instantly grew quiet. "Ginny," Arthur said after a moment. "Why don't you go up to bed."

"What is it, Dad?" Ginny asked.

"The three of us all need to have a talk with Harry," Molly said. "In private."

Harry glanced between them. "She already knows about the…" he fumbled for the word momentarily. "…the abuse, I guess."

"Ginny, why didn't you–" Molly began, voice rising quickly.

"Because he told the Headmaster not five minutes later!" Ginny snapped. "And to be frank it's Harry's business, not ours!"

Molly opened her mouth in shock, took a deep breath, and then Arthur clapped his hands over her mouth. "Later, my love," he whispered into her ear. "Harry, do you understand what's happening?"

"Not really, no."

"Professor Flitwick attempted to go through the magical system to get you away from your relatives," Arthur explained. "But Headmaster Dumbledore didn't believe that your relatives would really treat you like that, and so he blocked it."

"He didn't believe until you told him," said Flitwick.

"So Filius had to go through the muggle system."

"It took quite a while," Professor Flitwick said, "and quite a lot of Polyjuice potion – do you know what that is?"

"No."

"It's a potion which turns you temporarily into another person," he explained. "It can last for between a half hour and three hours, depending on how much is taken and how well it's brewed. Most people can get an hour."

"Okay."

"I had to use Polyjuice to become a normal human," Flitwick said. "I don't exactly blend in well with muggles. Anyway, it took a long time, but the court date is tomorrow. And it seems that the investigation turned up evidence that your cousin was also being abused."

"In what way?" Harry asked.

"Malnutrition – not enough fruits, too many sweets - no survival skills at all, etc..." Flitwick said. "It might not be enough to get him taken away on his own, but combined with the likely result of the case on your behalf they'll probably lose guardianship of him entirely."

"Which means that they won't have any say in who gets custody of him while they're in jail, right?" Harry asked, beginning to understand.

"As I understand the muggle courts, yes," Arthur agreed.

"So, Harry's cousin is also being abused?" Ginny asked.

"He's incredibly spoiled!" Harry burst. "He gets everything he wants, and he has no chores! Or didn't until I left, anyway, I don't know about now…"

"They hired a housekeeper, I understand," Flitwick said. "In any case, they never fed him properly – he was never made to eat anything he didn't want to and so he's never had any vegetables or fruit, and he was pretty much raised on bacon and sweets."

"I can confirm that," Harry agreed.

"And no moral guidance whatsoever!" the professor cried. "He's a budding sociopath, I swear!"

"I can confirm that," Harry agreed.

"But Harry will need a new guardian in the muggle world, right?" Ginny asked. "What'll we do for that?"

"That's covered," Molly assured her.

"I'm polyjuicing into a halfblood named Jonathan Dellian," Flitwick explained, "and I'm supposedly a professor at the boarding school your parents left money for, Slabmore. I noticed the signs of childhood abuse when I had you in class and filed on your behalf. We chose Dellian because there's a lovely squib couple who're his cousins, and they're registered as being willing to become a foster family."

"Oh, so you'll take in Harry in the muggle world," Ginny realized, "and then because you're 'related' to the Dellians…"

"…they'll be likely to be chosen as the foster family," Flitwick finished.

"But what about the real Jonathan Dellian?" Harry asked.

"There actually is a muggle boarding school called Slabmore," Arthur said. "It's for squibs who intend to live in the muggle world. All muggle-born children are also registered as going there and have false backgrounds as rather quiet students there, and Harry's also registered since he was raised by muggles. Jonathan actually works there, and has agreed to the deception. He's taking a vacation t o Australia at the moment to assure that they'll be no interference."

"Every year, when the government comes to check on us, we'll travel out there and I'll Polyjuice into him again," Flitwick said. "We'll probably go a bit earlier than the actual visit, of course, because we have to look comfortable, like we actually live there, but it should go just fine."

"So, what will I have to do at the trial?" Harry asked.

"You'll be called up to testify your treatment at their hands, and otherwise just remember you go to Slabmore," Flitwick assured him.

"Hold on a moment," Ginny broke in. "The Dursleys know that Harry goes to Hogwarts, but they won't know about the Slabmore deception. What if they challenge it and get the courts to contact someone from Slabmore?"

"Hermione Granger is also registered as a Slabmore student," Arthur pointed out.

"That's true," Flitwick agreed. "I'll arrange to have the teachers at Slabmore remember her as one of Harry's friends, and I'll talk to her about it as well. No one can prove that she doesn't go there."

"I don't really like that word," Harry ventured.

"You don't need to hide from the truth, dear," Molly said, hugging him. "Besides, you'll never have to see them again after next Monday."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter, that will be all. You may sit down now," said the elderly judge.

Harry returned to sit next to the Polyjuiced Professor Flitwick. In the form of Jonathan Dellian, he was a tall, simply clad man with salt-and-pepper hair and a tanned complexion. Harry wondered if Slabmore was in the tropics.

He glanced over at the Dursleys where Vernon and Petunia were sitting. Vernon's face was bright red and the vein in his forehead was throbbing. Always a bad sign. Fortunately there was a watchful bobby right next to him.

Petunia, on the other hand, was apparently completely calm. Her face was like a granite statue, rigid and with no expression whatsoever. But Harry's practiced eye could see through it. She was seething with rage underneath, and would likely explode into a rant before long.

"Mr. Dursley – the younger Mr. Dursley," the lawyer corrected himself as both Vernon and Dudley began to rise. "Please step up."

For the next half hour, Dudley was questioned on his life with Vernon and Petunia. He managed to evade most of the questions, but the lawyer seemed to successfully pull out the fact of his malnutrition and lack of chores. It was of course obvious how unhealthy he was from his rotund shape, and the jury didn't look very sympathetic to him.

Less than half an hour later, the jury unanimously agreed that the Dursleys were guilty and both Harry and Dudley should be placed in foster care. The judge declared that Harry was to be taken from the custody of the Dursleys and placed into "Jonathan Dellian's". "And we also need someone to take the younger Mr. Dursley," he said, slowly and haltingly. "Will someone bring the registry? Now, let's see here…"

"Your honor, may I make a suggestion?" Professot Flitwick asked, standing.

"Of course you can, young man, what is it?"

"My cousins, Adam and Mildred Dellian, are registered for foster care," he said carefully.

"Excellent idea, Mr. Dellian, and we'll certainly take it into consideration," the judge told him. "Now then! Vernon Gareth Dursley, you are hereby sentenced to 5 years in prison for the heinous crime of physical, emotional, and moral child abuse, with parole possible after a minimum of 4 years. Petunia Evans Dursley, you are hereby sentenced to 4 years in prison for the heinous crime of emotional and moral child abuse, with parole possible after a minimum of 3 years. Do you understand your sentences as they have been presented to you?"

Petunia and Vernon nodded, stony-faced. Dudley's jaw dropped – he probably hadn't considered it as a possibility for it not to go their way. Harry merely grinned.

A/N: I really hate the trope where all the great people from the past were actually wizards and/or squibs. A few of them, maybe, but certainly not all of them.

I am aware that in canon, Polyjuice always lasts one hour and no more, no less (it must be taken every hour, on the hour, as Dumbledore says in GoF). But in CoS, the golden trio's Polyjuice didn't seem to last a full hour, and in DH it seemed to have lasted a bit longer. This would seem to support a sliding scale of effectiveness.

Another apology for the terrible court scene.