Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its associated characters.

Chapter 2

Meeting

Harry walked out the door of his Aunt and Uncles house and headed up the road toward the park, his Uncle had already left for work and being a Wednesday his Aunt Petunia had gone to visit one of the neighbours for their regular gossip session while Dudley had gone to a nearby mall with his friend Piers. As Harry approached the park he begun to worry that Flora wouldn't show up, or that both he and she wouldn't recognise each other as he stepped onto the grass at the park he realised that he was being ridiculous while he might not recognise her, Flora already knew what he looked like and would surely approach him, he began to look around trying to see if he could see her, while he walked to an empty park bench, he frowned as he sat thinking that it was strange that there was a free bench as the other couple of benches were already occupied and most parents sat on the benches while watching their children play. Harry begun to look around cautiously trying to not be to obvious, as he did he noticed a well dressed woman walking toward him or at least toward the bench he was sitting on, she walked as if she had every right to be there her brown hair was done up in an elegant hairstyle, Harry thought that his Aunt would be very jealous of this woman as she seemed to be everything that his Aunt aspired to be but would never be. The woman walked up to him and with a gentle smile introduced herself.

"Hi Harry, I'm Flora Hawkins, I am very excited to finally meet you," Said a voice that was quite aristocratic but still somehow quite warm, with a small amount of amusement in her voice she continued on "I see that you found our meeting place then."

"Erh, yeah I guess so," stuttered Harry "I just came to this bench because it was empty, but now I wonder why its empty."

"Well magic of course" Flora pronounced with a small chuckle, "though I am sure that you may have gathered that, you probably meant what type of magic, yes?"

Harry just nodded his head in answer.

"I used a notice me not charm directed at all non-magicals, I also cast a mufflaitio, this charm causes anyone outside the area to hear only a buzzing noise keeping our conversation just between us."

"Wow, that's a great idea." Harry said while thinking it was probably a good idea that no one would pay them any attention or be able to hear them if they passed close by. His expression darkened a little at the thought of how much trouble he would get into if anyone mentioned to his Aunt and Uncle that he was seen talking to such a well to do Lady, he would probably be punished for 'bothering' an obviously 'normal' person. Harry quickly fixed the look on his face so that Flora wouldn't notice as she sat down near him and they both began to ask and answer the many questions that were on their minds.

It was several hours later that both realised they were hungry, Harry watched in amazement as Flora reached into her small handbag and pulled out several wrapped sandwiches and a couple of glass bottles that had some unknown drink inside, he was quite happy to try this new drink which Flora called butterbeer. It was after finishing the food that Harry decided to invite Flora to see where he lived so that she could make sure that he had everything that he needed when going to Hogwarts, it would also allow him to ask some questions about the texts.

"Umm, would you be able to come over to make sure that I have everything that I need for Hogwarts, I feel like I must be missing things?" He asked hesitantly afraid of the answer.

"Of course, I am happy to help, lead on."

"Would it be possible to do that spell, that, ah, makes us, um, not noticeable? Please." He queried quietly while looking down, but also somehow looking around.

Flora looked at him a question on the tip of her tongue before thinking that maybe she could ask about it later, smiling at him " Yes I can, if that is what you want?"

"Yes, please it would just make things easier for me." Harry replied looking back up with a ghost of a smile on his lips, he watched eagerly as she pulled out her wand and with a few flicks of her wand and a muttered incantation they were ready to go.

Flora talked lightly to Harry of some of the antics his father had gotten into at Hogwarts, as they walked along the road towards Harry's house, while talking Flora kept an eye out for any wards, upon entering Privet Drive she could see two sets of wards, one looked fairly normal but the other set looked odd, as they got between the two sets she reached out and touching Harry's shoulder stopping him from continuing. He looked up at her with a concerned look, pointing to the normally warded house she asked "Who lives there?"

Turning his head to look Harry gave a small smile and replied "Arabella Figg, she sometimes looks after me when the Dursleys didn't want to take me somewhere."

"Hmmm, and that house is where you live right." As she turned and pointed to number four and the Dursley's home, Harry nodded, his eyes wide in wonder.

"How did you know? What made you point out those two houses?"

"Well," Flora hesitated as she considered what to say, " I can see the wards around those two houses, for a house to have wards then there must be someone who has magic living there or visiting regularly to keep the wards up. The house over there has just some basic wards, but the wards over where you live are definitely unusual."

"Oh, so does that mean Mrs Figg is a witch?"

"Not necessarily, she could have magical children or be a squib, either way she knows about magic, and the fact that she didn't say anything to you when it is obvious to everyone in the magical world who you are, well let's just say it is a little suspicious."

"Oh." Was all Harry could say in reply to that, but he did have to agree when he thought about it, turning back to the Dursley's they continued on, though Harry did begin to slow down as they neared the house. Flora decided to not question why he was slowing down, this gave her more time to study the puzzling array of wards that covered the house, she began to frown at some of the wards as they stepped into the front yard.

Harry interrupted her train of thought, "Are you sure that my Aunt or cousin won't notice us?"

Flora quickly reassured him, "Yes, Harry they will see us, but not think anything of it, they won't try to do anything different than they would if we weren't here, they also won't remember seeing us."

"Ok."

They both continued up the path to the door,Harry opened the door and automatically let Flora in first, smiling with a small nod she entered the house, as she passed the threshold there was a tingle as one of the wards checked her out, this was not something she had expected but let it pass, walking in she asked Harry to give her a quick tour of the house.

"Sure, through here is the kitchen then the lounge, laundry is over there and upstairs are the four bedrooms and the bathroom."

Flora looked around at the lounge room noticing that there was absolutely no sign that Harry lived here, she also noticed how clean the house was, if it wasn't for two of the couches having noticeable dips in them, Flora would have assumed that no one actually lived here, that was until she arrived upstairs, after a quick look into the other bedrooms before walking into Harry's room, the differences gave her a rather concerning idea of what Harry's life had been like. Harry began to mumble apologies about the state of his room, moving a few things so that his bed and desk chair were clear, so that they could both sit down somewhere and continue talking.

"Harry, I have to ask, but are you happy here?"

"Why do you ask? What makes you think I'm not happy here?"

"Lets see, there are no pictures of you in the house, your bedroom is the smallest and least maintained, you have barely mentioned your family and when you do, well you do not exactly talk about them fondly, you also seemed rather worried about their reactions to you being seen with me, though I am not sure whether it is because I am magical or something else."

Harry sighed, "You are right, I am not happy here, I have never been treated like a part of the family, any accidental magic that I did, I was punished for, normally by being locked in my cupboard without food for a couple of days, or with extra chores."

Harry looked away then continued. "Anything that Dudley did wrong I was punished for, I was punished for doing better than Dudley at school, they said I must have cheated as it was not possible that a freak like me could be smarter than their perfect Dudders, I cook most of their meals and only get a fraction of them to eat, I look after Petunia's garden, I keep the house clean, all this to pay my keep, all this so they can afford to give me Dudley's hand me downs, space in the cupboard under the stairs and some small fraction of the food that goes on the table. Yet for all that they can afford new cars every few years, Dudley ends up with about forty Birthday and Christmas presents each occasion, but I get nothing, but what other choice do I have, they are my only family."

"Oh Harry, you do have a choice, you have me, your mother and I became blood sisters, her blood runs in my veins, just like my blood ran through hers, I would gladly take you in." As Flora finished her sentence there was a rush of magic as the wards reacted and resettled with Flora as the anchor, she could feel that the wards while now anchored to her they currently had no solid building to surround and would probably need the rest of the holiday period to firm up. Looking around the room before settling on Harry, her path set she gently told him. "Pack your stuff, all of it, you are coming to live with me."

AN: I hope people are enjoying this so far, hopefully there are not to many mistakes as this is my first fanfic and I am still trying to learn how to use fanfic.