I would just like to apologise for the long wait between chapters I had writers block, sorry.

Harry Potter and its associated characters are not mine in any way.

Chapter 3

A New Home

Harry stared, stunned, no one had ever said that they wanted him, he found it hard to believe, the problem being that throughout his whole life he had always been told that no one wanted him, he was a freak and nobody would want a freak in their house, with tears in his eyes he asked.

"Are you sure? Do you mean just for the rest of summer?"

"Yes, I am sure I have no problem with you moving in with me and no, I don't mean just for the summer, but until you are at least an adult. And don't worry about your Aunt and Uncle, I will sort everything out legally with them, so that they will no longer have any say in your life and neither will anybody else."

"Really? Well, um, that would be great."

"So lets pack, is everything you own in this room." Harry nods. "But not everything in this room is yours correct?" Harry nods again. "Well that means we will have to pack by hand and not by magic, magic would have been quicker, but you also shouldn't get used to using magic for everything, it makes you lazy and dependant on it, just because you can use it doesn't mean you should. So let's start, first I will expand the inside of your backpack, then we can sort through everything in the room for what you will need and want to take with you the rest we can leave, ok?"

"Yeah, sure that sounds great."

An hour later, the two of them had finished sorting through everything and had it all packed away in Harry's backpack, it would have been a more impressive feat if there were more things that Harry wanted to take, he was going to take more of his clothes, but Flora had convinced him that she was more than fine with buying him new clothes that actually fit, the argument that she used to win was that as his soon to be guardian, she was responsible for his welfare and that included ensuring that he wore suitable clothes. Once finished she told Harry to send Hedwig to what would be their new home as the mode of transport they would be taking was not really suitable for owls.

"Now, will your relatives notice if they don't see you for the next few days?"

"Ugh, no, I don't think so, they haven't paid any attention to me since Hagrid came to get me and gave Dudley a pigs tail." Harry responded thinking back over the last week.

"Hagrid did what? No, don't say it, that does sound like Hagrid, did he it least fix the tail?"

"Noo, should he have?"

"Yes, someone showing up at a normal surgery to get a pigs tail removed when there is no evidence of that person having one previously, well that could break the statute of secrecy, I will have to remove the tail and change their memories of the event, try to make it a little less intimidating. If I don't and someone finds out about it then Hagrid could get into some serious trouble."

"Oh, I definitely don't want Hagrid to get into any trouble, but I, I doubt they will let you get close enough to them, to fix the problem."

"Let me deal with them, I should be able to fix everything without them even seeing me. You wait here while I go and fix everything and then we can leave. Ok?"

Harry thought a little bit then nodded his head before sitting down on his bed and watching Flora cast a couple of spells over herself before turning and leaving his room, ten minutes later Flora had returned.

"There, all fixed, I made them think, that the tail had disappeared by the next morning, making it seem like the magic couldn't hold, which makes it appear a little less dangerous as it is not permanent. Right, grab the bag, we need to walk down the street a little ways before I can side-along apperate you, to our new home, lets go."

As they left the room Harry asked in confusion "What's side-along apperate?"

Flora smiled and tilting her head down the stairs replied "I will answer as we walk. Right so apparition as it is called, is one of four main ways a magical person has of getting around, the others are flying on a broomstick, portkey, loosely described as a magical charm that spins you to your destination and what we call flooing, this is when you use a special powder in a fireplace connected to the floo network, you call out the name of the fireplace you want to go and it sends you spinning down the network to your stop, its a little bit messy but a popular one for families. Now as for apparition, when you apperate it feels like being squeezed through a small tube and when you take someone with you, you take them side along, most magicals use this mode of transport but only after they have gotten a license and normally they don't take anyone with them. Now this won't be pleasant but it will be easier if you relax and trust me, I need you to take my hand and don't let go, ready?"

Harry clutched his bag tighter before grabbing a hold of Flora's hand and nodding his head, so with a slight twist they were gone from Privet Dr.

Harry thought that saying that apparition was not pleasant was an understatement, it was absolutely horrible, it did indeed feel like someone had squeezed him through a narrow tube stretching him and pulling him to his new home, as his feet hit the ground his hands and knees soon followed, he was then left trying not to heave up his lunch. After a couple of minutes, his stomach settled enough that he could finally stand up and take stock of where he was. About two meters in front of the two magicals ran an old stone wall, in the middle of the wall a wooden gate sat slightly ajar with a brick path running through it towards a lovely little cottage, Harry could see what looked like quite a large garden out the back, in the front yard there were what looked like several rose bushes as well as many other flowering plants, the whole image was rather picturesque and Harry thought really very homey.

"Welcome to the Garden Coop, your new home."

All Harry could think was, that it was so different from Privet Dr where everything was the same and anything different was frowned upon, this place, this home, it felt warm and welcoming, it even smelt different more earthy, no petrol fumes or the smell of disinfectant that his Aunt always used. As Harry was musing about all the differences, a sudden cry from above had him turning in fright towards Flora, seeing her calmly looking up, had Harry calming down and also searching the sky for the source of the noise, there circling above the two people standing in the clearing before the house, was a hawk, it seemed to Harry that as soon as he sighted the bird that it was swooping down towards them, he watched as Flora put out her arm and the hawk backwinged to land gently on her wrist, as he looked closer he could see that several wing feathers on each side had bright blue tips, Harry didn't think he had ever heard of any hawks that had blue spots before.

As if Flora could hear what he was thinking she spoke "This is Gianna a Blue Spotted Hawk, the Blue Spotted Hawk is a rare species of magical hawk, it is somehow invisible to non-magicals, but still suffers from loss of habitat" Flora gestured around "here and in the property next to this are several breeding pairs, due to both properties being owned by magicals and being hidden from the non magical world, both still have large tracts of natural forests and several large fields that attract and breed the small animals they prey on."

"Wow, I didn't know that there were magical versions of ordinary animals, are there any other normal animals that have a magical version?

"Oh yes, there are several, you are supposed to learn about them at Hogwarts, there is a class offered as an elective from third year called Care of Magical Creatures, or COMC, if you want I can teach you all about the animals over summer breaks that way you can take one of the other elective subjects but you can still take the COMC OWL."

"Owl?" Interrupted Harry

"Yes, O, W, L stands for Ordinary Wizardry Levels, they are a set of exams held at the end of fifth year, if your marks from the exams aren't good enough you won't be able to continue on to NEWT classes in that subject. NEWTs or Nastily Exhausting Wizardry Tests are held at the end of your seventh year and the results from them will help determine what jobs are available to you after school."

"Huh, that's pretty similar to the non magical world and it makes sense."

"Come on let's go inside and get you settled." Flora then gave a throwing motion and the hawk on her wrist flew off across the open field before swooping up into a tree on the edge of the clearing, once out of sight Flora led Harry toward the cottage.

Harry sat at the small table in the dining room eating breakfast two days after arriving at Aunt Flora's, as she insisted on being called, he thought about all the changes and didn't think that he could be any happier than he currently was, he had his own generously sized bedroom with a comfortable bed, a desk that had what looked like lots of small draws but each draw was bigger on the inside, there was a perch for Hedwig and a window that was open but charmed to not let in any weather or bugs but through which Hedwig could come and go at any time. Harry was also encouraged to eat at least three good sized meals each day and Aunt Flora had been teaching him more about the magical world, including stories about his parents, the only problem he currently had was that Aunt Flora had invited a healer to come see him today, as he hadn't been to see any doctors while living with the Dursley's he was a little nervous about what the healer would find, his nerves must have been visible to his new Aunt as she interrupted his musings with a soft voice.

"Harry, don't worry about the healer, we will deal with any problems she finds, she has also sworn to be discreet, once this is done, I can finish getting full custody of you in both the magical and non magical worlds, allowing us to truly be family."

"I know, it's just, I keep waiting for something to go bad, because that's all I have ever known, until I received my Hogwarts letter, anything good that happened was always followed by something bad." Harry finished off quietly looking down with a frown on his face, as he remembered his life from before, he was startled to feel a hand gently grip his chin and lift his face till his green eyes met the blue eyes of his Aunts.

"Harry I cannot promise that you will never have anything bad happen to you, but I can promise that I will do my best to be there for you, OK?"

Harry was looking her straight in the eyes as she said this and could tell that she meant every word, he felt his chest loosen as many of his fears were put to rest by her words, he nodded to show his answer as he didn't think he could speak as his throat felt tight with emotion. After his nod he felt his Aunt wrap him in a gentle hug, it took a lot of effort to not flinch away from the physical contact, as he was still trying to get used to being touched without any pain, he knew that Aunt Flora knew that he would still have negative reactions to any physical touch for some time, as years of pain cannot be wiped out over just a few days, and while he might know intellectually that she wouldn't hurt him, his body's reactions had become instinctive.

As she pulled away from the hug she glanced toward the time telling clock on the wall and seeing the time stood tall and gestured for Harry to follow her into the lounge.

"Come Harry, your healer will be arriving by Floo, it is one of the ways in which magicals travel, I mentioned it to you when we left the Dursley's, this way of travel uses fire and a special powder, called surprisingly enough, Floo powder, now you can't just use any fire, it has to be a fire that is connected through the network that the ministry maintains, many households have a registered Floo address." With a wry grin she continued on, "Travel by Floo is a bit dizzying, as you basically get spun through the network until you get to your destination and step out covered in soot."

As she finished speaking the fire turned a brilliant green colour and out stepped a young woman with golden hair done up in a bun, her robes were a lovely shade of green but seemed to somehow be rather practical, her overall appearance came across as very professional, except for the fact that she was covered in a light dusting of soot, which she quickly removed with a small wave of her wand.

"Good morning Flora, good morning young man, now why did I have to make a special home visit instead of you just coming in to the clinic as you usually do or is this young man to be my patient?"

All this was said in a gentle voice with a smile on her lips, making Harry believe that she really didn't care that the appointment was here instead of the clinic and that her and his new Aunt got along quite well, realising this Harry soon began to relax especially as his Aunts response backed up his thoughts.

"Welcome Healer Grant." Was Flora's formal response before she moved forward to give her friend a brief hug. "How are you today? I hope you don't mind, but I thought it better if Harry here, was not seen going into St Mungo's. I can just see the problems if the Prophet were to get hold of that information."

"Hhmm, yes I can see where that could be a problem" she muttered as she looked him over, before stating clearly "well then let's get on with this, I will just get you to lay down over on the sofa, over there and we'll get started."

Harry moved over to the sofa curious at what was going to happen, he quickly sat down before swiveling around and laying down with his head at one end of the couch and his feet touching the other end.

"Very good, are you comfortable?" Sounded Healer Grants voice from beside him Harry just nodded his head a little to indicate that he was as comfortable as he was going to get since his nerves still had him feeling a bit uptight.

"Okay, now what I am going to do is set up a parchment and quill that is already bespelled to write down the results that I get from the diagnostic spells that I will be using, now there shouldn't be any poking or prodding or any pain, okay?" Harry just nodded his head slightly as his stomach started to unknot as more of his nerves left him, he was unsure whether he wanted to watch what was going on, as it was more magic that he hadn't seen before, or to just close his eyes and try to relax until it was all over.