Disclaimer: The characters and settings, including any sentences taken directly or partly from the books or movies, of Harry Potter are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, AOL Time Link and Warner Brothers. I do not make money from publishing my story.

It was somewhat of a miracle that Severus was even allowed to leave Malfoy Manor, mostly in one piece. Bribing the Dark Lord was not something people normally did, let alone survive it and thus Severus had installed his own protection mechanism, that when he would be killed, information about the horcruxes would go to Minerva McGonagall, the only one he trusted to be truthful to Lily's son.

Luckily the mechanism had been proven superfluous. He had survived, he had named his terms and the Dark Lord was no doubt trying very hard to find a way around them. Nonetheless they had made a vow, a vow that took away one's magic for a short while when broken, making sure that Severus had a chance to run when the Dark Lord changed his mind.

Once again in the safety of his chambers he sat himself down in one of the heavy leather chairs near the fireplace, unlit it brought him no warmth, warmth he so desperately needed. Still shivering from the abuse he had received, he raised his wand with the illusion of strength to light the fire.

Far away, another was treating himself for the after effects of violence. At Privet Drive number 4 Harry Potter, held an icepack rolled into a towel to his swelling eye. Dudley had found it funny to slam the door in his face and it would probably result in a black eye. Fortunately, Vernon was at work and since Petunia had taken Dudley with her to the store soon after the incident it left Harry home alone, able to attend to his face.

Even though Petunia had made no effort to help him directly, she had been kind enough to indicate that they had an ice pack left in the refrigerator, since she couldn't have him walking around wounded and that being traced back to them after all. Harry smiled grimly at that thought, but the tension on his skin made him gasp in pain.

Icepack firmly held in place, Harry walked up the stairs, back to his room. He only had to survive one more summer, this one was almost over and the next one would be the last. He had survived for over ten years, surely he could survive a few more weeks. He felt silly, counting down the days he needed to stay with the Dursleys, but that was how he felt, used, unwanted and above all alone.

Losing Sirius had hit him hard, he felt like professor Lupin blamed him, just what he needed, as if he didn't blame himself enough already. His mind had come up with all the options he could have taken instead of running off to the ministry. He felt so stupid, it should've been him! Sirius didn't deserve to die, he was finally free again! It should have been him instead.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he took the ice pack off his bruised face, automatically touching it and wincing when his fingers met the purple colored places. Downstairs the door closed with a loud bang, notifying Harry that his aunt was home again.

'Harry, come down and make dinner!', she shouted soon after, Harry went down, reluctantly, but made sure to hurry, not wanting to get on her bad side. Apparently she had done some extra shopping and made sure that Harry at least had the right ingredients to work with. His aunt had requested he make a ridiculously complicated dessert she had seen one of her neighbors make. She had given him the recipe earlier this week and he had studied it, until he could dream it.

He was halfway through tempering the chocolate and had his soufflé in the oven, when Vernon came home from work. From the way his uncle hung up his coat, he could tell that he was in a good mood, that was a relief, he might actually get some real dinner tonight, instead of the sandwiches he had been eating most of the summer.

Petunia invited her husband to sit with her on the couch, while Dudley watched television. She asked him how his day was and meanwhile motioned for Harry to hurry up with dinner. Vernon noticed this and gave Harry one more foul look. 'Hurry up with dinner, boy, some of us worked hard today!'

'Yes, like me for example', Harry thought, but he didn't dare voice it. The soufflé was almost done and the dessert only needed to be assembled. Harry went to lay the table, while Dudley quickly stood up and made his way to the toilet passing through the kitchen as he did.

The egg-timer indicated that the soufflé was done, but when Harry went to get it out of the oven, he noticed the over was slightly open. Enough to let cool air into the oven. Praying that the soufflé would be good anyway, he plated up for three and waited patiently for their verdict.

By now, he had noticed that the soufflé had collapsed and his only hope was that they wouldn't notice, but the expression on Vernon's face said otherwise. 'This is what you serve my family, this poor excuse for a soufflé, you should be ashamed of yourself, we have given you everything and this is what we get in return. No proper meal for you today, boy! Make yourself a sandwich and finish dessert!'

He had that coming he thought, he didn't deserve anything more. The sandwich didn't taste nearly as good as the soufflé had smelled, but he ate it anyway. Dessert had been good enough and he had been sent to his room directly after dinner.

He slept, somewhat peacefully that night. While he had dreamed of Sirius, it hadn't been as bad as earlier this summer. After refreshing himself, he quickly went into the kitchen to make breakfast, he hoped he wouldn't make a mistake, because he didn't know how his uncle would take it after last night's incident.

By the time Harry was done with breakfast, Vernon, Petunia and Dudley had sat down at the table, waiting for their nephew to serve them. Harry did what was expected from him and before starting on his chores, he went to grab the mail, which surprisingly held a letter for him. He opened it quickly and read it:

Dear Harry,
In light of recent events, it would be in your best interest that you be moved. Someone I trust will transport you to a secure location soon. I cannot be specific about the date, since this letter might be intercepted. Be ready to be moved at any time and inform your family.
Yours sincerely,
AlbusDumbledore

He had half a mind to jump for joy right this minute, but then he might actually be punished because he was happy. He didn't need to irritate his relatives further. He returned to the kitchen swiftly and gave the rest of the mail to his uncle.

They looked at him strangely when he read over his own letter again, but Petunia had already nodded to her husband when she had seen the person whom it was addressed to. Grumpily Vernon returned to his own mail, while he shoved in the rest of his breakfast.

After Harry cleaned up the table and had done the dishes, he excused himself and went to his room to pack his trunk. After all Dumbledore had said he needed to be ready any moment. He still wondered what inspired Dumbledore to sent it by muggle mail, but then again owl mail was more likely to be intercepted by death eaters.

Since Harry didn't have many items to put into his trunk, he managed to get it packed fairly quickly and return to his chores. His aunt had been creative this summer and had proposed he do some volunteer work in the community. She had said it would make them look good as a family and Harry had not objected.

He would do anything to get away from Dudley, cleaning public places, helping the elderly and babysitting children was way better than babysitting Dudley in Harry's opinion. Today he was to help clean the playground, his favorite place in the neighborhood.

Together with three other volunteers, Harry spent the entire afternoon cleaning the playground and by the time he was home he was nearly late to start dinner. Today's dinner was perfect and Harry was allowed a small portion of what he had made. Using the positive atmosphere he told them about the letter he had received earlier that day.

'This morning I received a letter from headmaster Dumbledore', Harry started, easing into the conversation and tiptoeing around his uncle's volatile temper ,'He informed me that someone is going to pick me up, someday soon and that I won't be back 'till next summer.'

'That's it?!' Vernon spat, while nearly holding the food in his mouth, he swallowed quickly and continued his rant, 'That is all the old coot has to say to us, no thank you, no nothing, he just informs us that you will be gone. Not that I mind it, we're better off without you, but he could at least show us some respect!'

Harry snorted at that, but covered it up nicely by acting as if he was choking, but decided not to react to his uncle's statement and clear the table. Every free minute of the day he thought about escaping the Dursleys, he hoped someone from the order would walk up to him and take him away.

By the time he lay down in his bed he was positively desperate to get away from them. The sound of the back door closing, however quietly caught his attention in his half asleep state. He knew his relatives were already asleep and a burglar was unlikely, just when he expected company. Harry knew it was someone for him. He quickly, put on some clothes and hastily put his pajamas in his trunk.

Attuned to the sounds of the house, he heard someone quietly walk up the stairs, momentarily stalling in the hallway and then opening his bedroom door. Harry had taken his wand in hand, just to be sure and waited to see a familiar face.

In respons to a review:
- A horcrux does age, it just doesn't die from old age. In my humble opinion: otherwise Nagini would have been long dead.
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