Edited: 5/6/2015

Beta's

'SAY IT!'

A beaten figure huddled on the ground before stuttering, "I will not make T...Tonks talk like a country bumpkin…"

An awkward moment passes as the powerful Beta points her finger at the huddled author before her, "I don't believe you. Evisceration!"

The author on the ground immediately began screaming clutching his abdomen. After a few moments the pain slowly ebbed from his twitching form. "Well?"

"…I'll never do it again Mistress Polgara…" the author wheezed.

She buffed her fingernails on her shirt before blowing on them "Next time it will be Defenestration." Mistress Polgara stated as she turned majestically and left.

The pain racked author left alone in the dark room chanted softly to her departing form. "I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy..."

Chapter 2: Blowback

Ellen Granger sat on her daughter's bed wondering how it could have come to this. No, if she was truthful with herself, and she always tried to be, she knew exactly how this happened. Hermione was after all, her mother's daughter. That didn't make the situation any less heartbreaking however.

Everything about Hermione's room was the same as it always was. Two walls dedicated to books all sorted in her own system. Vanity decorated with pictures of her times at Hogwarts. Every one featuring the reason why this room was empty. As if the pictures knew how she felt every single image of Harry Potter looking worried, half hiding behind the images of Hermione. The images of her daughter looked defiantly when she looked at them as if daring her mother to try and remove him.

Ellen shook her head in despair. They looked everywhere they could think of. Headmaster Dumbledore assured them that they would expend every resource to find their wayward daughter and see her returned home. Even going so far as to cover the cost of purging the potions that was believed to be in her system.

With a sigh and a frown Ellen rose from Hermione's bed closing the door behind her. Unlike her husband she wasn't so sure that Hermione was being controlled. It didn't feel right to her. Not with what she knew of Hermione's young man from their talks over the years. Over the last few days though her opinion wavered. Until she talked to Hermione she just didn't know anymore.

The knock on the door acted like a gunshot on the distraught mothers nerves making her jump. Ellen remained at the top of the stairs until she heard the knock repeat. Not knowing who could be calling at this time of the day, Ellen walked to the door to see who it was.

As the door opened the caller turned out to be the postmen. "Evenin Miss. Got a letter for ya. Sign here please."

Bemused Ellen signed her name and took the letter from the man. He tipped his ball cap to her and left. Not knowing who could be writing to them by registered mail she flipped the envelope over and froze.

She easily recognized her daughters elegant script before her name even registered. Quickly she raced up to her bedroom throwing open the door.

"I don't care what you think!" Jake yelled into the receiver. "You're in the business of finding people. I'm willing to pay what it cost. Are you going to take the job or NOT?"

Ellen watched her husband flinch from the phone in his hand scowling. "Bastard!"

She winced when he slammed the handle back into its cradle. "Call me a nutter because I try and explain to him that she could be anywhere!"

"Jake…"

The frazzled visage of her husband turned to his wife finally noticing her pale expression. His outrage immediately turned to concern. "Sweetheart? What's the matter?"

Not able to reply she held up the letter seeing his eyes widen as he too recognized the script. Both moved to their bed sitting down tearing the letter open drinking in their daughters words.

Dear Mum and Dad,

First I want you to know that the only reason I am writing this letter is because Harry asked me to. I know you both are terribly angry with me for running away, but you did not give me a lot of choice in the matter. Professor Dumbledore told you a lot of unflattering things about Harry, and despite all the things I told you about him, you treated him as if he were pure evil without even giving me the chance to explain. It was very unfair to both Harry and I. Harry loves me with everything he has and had proven it time and time again.

I love him with everything I am as well. Harry is everything to me, and you two tried to take that away. Needless to say I am not very happy about it. However, Harry asked me to write this letter so you two did not worry too much about me. I am doing very well, and I will tell you a little about what is going on with us.

Understand I will not be telling you about where we are going, and by the time you get this letter, we will have already moved on. Dumbledore and his people are looking for us. Voldemort and his people are looking for us, and knowing Dad, he has hired an investigator to find us. Save your money, if they can't find us, you won't.

For the last few days we had taken rooms at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. Yes, I know you looked there, but Tom is a friend of Harry's and hid us very well. We spent some time shopping, again I know you asked around and no one said anything, but again, most of the shop-keepers are friends and/or, at least, respect Harry and did not say anything. Not even to Dumbledore and I doubt to Voldemort either. We gathered everything we needed for our trip, and as I am writing this, plan on leaving tonight to where we are headed next.

Yes, I have eaten well, and we are not saying in bad places. Harry has been taking very good care of Crookshanks and me. Currently, Harry is sitting across from me writing his own letters while watching cartoons on the telly with Hedwig, his owl. I have never seen such a little boy look on his face before, and it really warms my heart to see him so relaxed. I told you a little about what his…relatives…were like. I almost wanted to cry when he told me that this was the first chance he had to even see a cartoon without fear of being caught. You should have seen his face when we went to the cinema yesterday. It was like Christmas had come early for him, He was so happy.

We have decided that we are going to take a tour of the world together. I know from our travels how much there is out there, and Harry has never even gone on one vacation. Don't worry about us, Harry is quite well off, and we are very well set for our travels. According to my calculations, we should want for nothing for years if we traveled this way. Rest assured, things are well on our end. I know you think we are too young to do what we are doing. I can understand your thinking on this, but what you do not understand is that since I have been going to Hogwarts, I grew up. Harry never had the chance to be a child, and really, neither have I. Young in years we might be, but we are more than capable of handling ourselves.

Despite how mad I am at you, know that we love you very much, and I miss you. Yes, even Harry loves you even though you treated him the way you did. We will drop you post when we leave where we are. Do not bother to send post to us since we will be long gone by the time you could. Owls will not even find us. So please, don't bother. Maybe after a while, if you two calm down, I might call the house. Don't expect it for a while however.

If you love me, you will accept my relationship with Harry. Do not blame him for me running away. It was as much my choice as it was his. We love you and hope you are doing well. We got a nice camera, and Harry has already used several rolls of film playing with it. Next post we will see if we can send you a few pictures, though they may not be enchanted as we are unsure how to make the film solution as yet.

Harry, Crookshanks, and Hedwig say Hi.

P.S. No I am not pregnant.

Love,

Your daughter Hermione.

XxXDaRXxX

The Order meeting had just broken up a few moments ago. Not that it was much of a meeting. It had consisted of Dumbledore orchestrating everyone to search for Harry Potter. For his part, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody was sitting back in his chair with a small smile on his scarred face. His good humor was not lost on the few Order Members who had stayed behind.

Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Hestia Jones, Minerva McGonagall, and Arthur Weasley were still sitting at the kitchen table of the Burrow. Since Black's death, they had been unable to get back into the old Headquarters. So they had been attending to business here. Molly Weasley was thrilled since it meant huge upgrades to the wards about her family's home. Free was always welcome to the hard up couple.

"What's got your fancy tickled Mad-Eye? Look like little boy who's seen his first tit." Drawled Tonks. McGonagall sniffed at the lewd comment.

Moody, for his part, only smiled a bit wider, ignoring the shudder that came from Jones. "Looking forward to the chase. Should be interesting to see what Potter's got."

"He's not a piece of meat or one of your Dark Wizards, Alastor. He's a troubled teen who has no idea what he's getting into." McGonagall sternly reprimanded him.

The old Auror chuckled. "Didn't say he was. Truly, I am looking forward to seeing how Potter handles his newly stolen freedom. The Granger girl with him should make things pretty interesting as well. It's not everyone who can get under Dumbledore's skin like those two have."

Arthur nodded with a slight smile on his face. "She's Muggle Born, Harry's Muggle Raised. Hermione has the knowledge while Harry has the drive. I worry for the two teens, but they are not going to be easy to catch because of it. Quite the team."

Remus snorted. "If Sirius was alive, I'd owe him fifty galleons."

At some of the strange looks he was getting he shrugged a shoulder. "He bet me that if Dumbledore pushed Harry, this would happen sooner or later. It was one of things he argued about with the Headmaster on more than a few occasions. I told him there was no way he would leave Ms. Granger. Sirius nodded and said I was right, she'd run with him."

"I remember telling him there was no way she would do it. Friends don't just take off and run together like that. Sirius smiled at me and told me, 'Friends don't. Lovers do. Mark my words Remus, if they're not yet, they will be by Christmas.' Looks like the mutt was right."

Hestia Jones seemed puzzled. "I thought they were just friends? That's what the rumor mill was spinning anyways."

Mad-Eye was chuckling again. "That's the best part. I say they had been more than friends for this year at the least. Possibly longer. I remember them being awfully chummy and close back when I got released from that scum Crouch."

"Here's the real kicker, those two managed to hide their feelings from the public eye for only they know how long. And at their ages too! They fooled all of us. They fooled Albus! They did exactly what I use to teach the Auror recruits. If you got family, you keep it quiet. Dark Wizards can't hurt your loved ones if they don't know they exist. Potter and Granger did exactly that, and no one was the wiser. THAT'S Vigilance." He ended with a nod of approval.

He looked around to see if anyone else was listening before he leaned into the table. "Bet Albus never told you lot about the Great Harry Hunt of '86, did he?"

Everyone gave him puzzled looks and shook their heads.

"I had just retired from the Auror corps the year before. We caught all we could of the old ranks. The rest of 'em had slipped away back to being 'honest citizens'. Albus floo called me saying Harry was in trouble, and he needed my help."

"Course, he's Harry Potter, I made my way to Privet Drive to help. We all owed that kid a lot. Didn't matter if it was some fluke of magic or something divine, he made the peace happen. I wasn't going to let him down."

Everyone had leaned in close to listen. Mad-Eye might have been unpleasant to look at because of all his battle scars but when he talked like this, telling a story, people couldn't help but listen. Maybe it was the fact he had been there, in the dark, maybe it was the way he told a story. Either way, people listened.

"I met Albus at the house and right from the off, I didn't like them Dursleys. Couldn't understand what old Albus was thinking, but that wasn't the time for it. We discovered that something had happened at the school, and Harry had disappeared. Didn't take us long to figure out he was getting bullied. The surprise was he apparated to get away, ended up on the roof. A teacher saw him up there, surprised. Soon as he saw the teacher he panicked, and he was gone again."

Tonks held up her hand. "Hold up. You're telling me Harry accidentally figured out how to Apparate, and then started doing it on purpose? You know how much power that takes. That doesn't seem right."

Moody was nodding with a huge smile on his face. "Yeah, so like I said, we started tracking him down thinking he couldn't have gotten far. We didn't pick up his trail again until the next day, London. Turns out, he appeared there and this old priest took him into his shelter, got him fed up some and a place to sleep the night."

Various mumbles of 'My word' and 'London' rang out as Mad-Eye kept up his story. "Yup. London. The Priest felt for the kid and showed him some pictures of his vacation he took through Ireland telling him stories until young Harry fell asleep. Next day, Harry was gone again."

"Now Albus thought he was still in London, but I got to wondering if maybe Harry didn't try to go where the pictures showed. So while Albus was looking about London I made my way to some of the those places. Don't you know it, I caught a sniff."

"Seemed Harry had started figuring out he had something special. I spent almost a week tracking him all over that place trying to find him. He was like a ghost, touching on everything but never leaving a print. Harry started figuring out how to survive on his own, and was doing a damn good job of it too."

"He taught himself how to summon wandlessly. No mean trick that. Took to lifting food at restaurants, stores, name it and he was working the angles to get what he needed. Need a place to kip? Find a shelter. Need food? Snag and dash. Made professional pickpockets look like amateurs. Knew I wasn't gonna catch the little urchin on my own. So, I made contact with Albus when I was getting close. After him being gone two weeks we finally caught up with him in one of those big shopping places the muggles like."

Remus was sitting back listing with a proud little smile on his face at Harry's young antics. It was more than a little accomplishment for a six year old to evade an Auror like Moody. James would have been proud. Moody started chuckling as he continued his tale which drew him out of old painful memories of his friends.

"So, here we are, and Albus is right cheesed at the boy. Me, I'm tickled. Never had a kid give me a run like that. Finally, we catch him in the act. He's in this food court when we spotted him and see him summon a plate of chips while the bloke that had his back turned. Then, as cheeky as you please, does the same thing to this lady's drink, and then a sandwich from the waiter as he was walking along. Right in front of the whole damn place. No one caught him. Bold as brass he was, just sat at an empty table and started in on his ill-gotten booty. A bigger smile I never seen on kid. Right pleased with himself he was."

By this time the whole table was laughing at the story. Tonks was actually holding her side and Remus had tears coming out of his eyes. Even McGonagall was fighting to keep her laughter in. It was a battle she was losing.

"I couldn't believe my eye. Right then and there, I liked the kid. No knowledge of his world, and he turns a bit of accidental magic into a new life. Like a duck to water he was, and he didn't even have a wand! Seemed to know not to let anyone see him do it, and no one did. Albus was not amused and stormed right up to Potter."

Here Moody puffed up his chest and mimed the Headmaster walking up from his chair which only had everyone laughing even harder at the mental image. "Mr. Potter, it is time for you to go back to your relative's home. This is not the kind of life for you." Moody said miming Dumbledore at his most pompous to the roars of his audience.

Settling back Mad-Eye nodded with a wicked twinkle in his eye. "Potter though, he had other ideas. Got to give it to the kid, he was a quick study. He told Albus that his Aunt and Uncle did not want him. They were mean to him, and his cousin was the one who was bullying him at his school. Told the Headmaster he was better off on his own, at least he got to eat."

The mood seemed to deflate a bit but Mad-Eye still had a lot of laughter in his eye. "Dumbledore was not impressed. Grabbed Potter's arm and then all hell broke loose. Potter started screaming. Loud. He was tugging at his arm trying to free himself shoutin 'Stranger! Stranger Trying to Get Me!'"

Moody was laughing so hard at this point he words barely came out as a chocked wheeze. None of the people sharing his tale were in any better condition. "It came out of nowhere because he was calm one moment and screaming the next. Shocked Albus so bad he let the kid go. He quickly got his mind back on track and made to grab young Potter again, but it was the wrong move."

"See, the Muggles in the eatery were not just letting it go. No, the second Potter started screaming about 'Strangers' everyone started watching. Before either of us could say anything we had three muggles on each of us pinning us to the ground."

Mad-Eye was laughing hysterically at this point trying to keep talking. "Thing was, Harry was standing there lookin like he was crying and this muggle guy was holding him telling him he was okay. Muggle security came and made to take us along. We had to, too many witnesses now, but I looked at young Harry and saw something I will never forget."

"He was standing there with his little hands over his eyes sniffing. It was real convincing but I saw him peeking. When we made eye contact he smiled at me. SMILED! The muggle who led him away from us, you won't believe this, was the same bloke he nicked the chips from!"

By this time both Remus and Tonks had fallen out of their chairs from laughing so hard. Minerva was holding a handkerchief over her mouth to stifle her own while Mr. Weasley was guffawing and smashing the table with his hand.

"It was great. Bested by a six year old. Out played by a little snot nosed minor. I loved it. Kid earned his nicked meal that day."

It took quite a while for everyone to calm down a bit before he picked it back up. "Our problem was that he was on to us now. Found out he nicked another picture book of sites around the isles. Now we had no idea where he was, and he never stayed in one place very long. Took us another week to get a real lead on him again."

Tonks was still trying to wipe the tears out of her eyes and was shaking her head. She didn't even bother to try and get back into her chair until Remus offered her his hand. "Wow, six year old Harry managed to avoid both you and Dumbledore for a month. Unbelievable."

Mad-Eye nodded still smiling insanely. "It's true."

After a moment however his expression darkened. "Only reason we caught him at all was he got scared. Started pushing himself real hard. Ended up exhausting himself. Caught up with him outside of York. Bad business. I figured he must have passed out after appearing because he was just lying there in the open."

Mad-Eye took a fortifying drink from his flask. "Here's where things got dicey, second we get back to Privet Drive. Dumbledore starts talking about how things were not right."

"I told him then, the muggles were a bad lot. They were gonna ruin the boy. Asked to let me take him. I'm strict, but I had loads to teach him. Help him control his gift because Potter had real talent. I coulda brought the kid up right! Shown him how to be the kind of man James was… Dumbledore said no. Said he had to stay with them Dursley's because of the wards. Hell, my place is about as secure as it gets, even better than those wards on Privet Drive. No luck."

"The thing that bothered me the most was that Dumbledore said he had to Obliviate the boy. Couldn't let him remember what he done. I was mighty shocked about that personally. Oblivation is dangerous on young minds; Dumbledore had the skill so that was not really the issue. It was just the idea you know? Then he placed all kinds of charms on him to keep him from running off like that again. Obedient, loyalty, all kind of gray stuff. Don't get me started on the blood trackers he made. Didn't like that one bit. Dumbledore said it had to be done though."

The laughter had pretty much gone out of the room at that point. The old Auror took a drink from his flask and sat quite a moment before he started back up. "Once he was gone, I undid everything I could." He confessed with a nod.

"Never was one for Memory Charms so that one stuck, nor could I do anything about the tracking devices he made. Personally I would have set up the Charm under time delay so that when he was around sixteen or so it would come off. Shame to let all that experience go to waste. Would have aced his test without a care or try. Not to mention wandless summoning would have come in handy had he ever been disarmed."

"Anyhow," Moody stated with a grin that would have made a preacher cringe. "That was the Great Harry Hunt of 86'. If it took me a month to find him when he was six, I am looking forward to seeing what he and Granger got."

Authors Notes:

Okay, Chapter Two revision is done. For those of you interested in the story instead of my drivel, by all means leave a review telling me what you think of this chapter, and then hit that 'Next' button. Enjoy the read. As always thank you to all reviews and readers. You are noticed and appreciated.

Credit where credit is due: The idea for the Great Harry Hunt originally came to me back when I first started into Fan Fiction and wrote that scene to get it out of my head. Ended up in a collection of such notes and forgotten about till I make the decision to continue this story for the summer at least. Funny thing was before I made that decision I came across a similar reference in another fic. The Harem War by Radaslab. After reading his rendition of it I found my old file and took a look editing it quite a bit and fleshing out the details a bit more. Later when I decided to continue this story though Harry's summer I adapted it to fit this story.

Fic Recommendation: The Harem War by Radaslab.