A/N

TW- Mention and description of Child Abuse in this chapter, if you don't want to read that then there will be a TLDR at the start of the next chapter.

"I don't think you'll need those books" Harry called across the near empty room.

The young girl who Harry knew to be Hermione Granger had been looking at a pile of the best selling kids books of the past ten years 'Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived'.

Hermione looked around, insulted by the idea that someone else would decide what books she should or shouldn't read. However when she saw the boy who had called to her she suddenly dropped all of her complaints. The boy was a spitting image of the boy on the front cover of the Boy Who Lived books, if only a lot skinnier and less muscular than the books portrayed

Hermione was taken aback and couldn't even get words out, which was a great surprise to her parents who had never seen her take what they perceived to be an insult with such few words. In fact it was Hermione's dad; who Harry regrettably had never learnt his name, who finally spoke up.

"I think you'll find that my daughter can pick whatever books she would like" The older gentleman spat out, clearly not happy with the boy that he saw in front of him. But before Harry could get his perspective out Hermione had jumped in to intercept her Dads comment

"Dad, if there is anyone who would know about these books, it's him", Hermione rushed over to Harry eager to learn.

"You can tell me everything right, even the stuff the books leave out".

Harry had missed the sound of Hermione's voice when she got excited about something but he knew that he didn't have much time before Hagrid returned and wondered why he didn't have his books.

Harry put his hand up to stop Hermione talking, a skill he had learnt over the years of being friends with her. He felt relieved that it worked on the eleven year old version of Hermione Granger who wasn't even supposed to have met him by now.

Harry finally spoke, "You want to know what those books left out, how about the truth. Neither me or my guardians (Harry refused to call them his family) have ever been contacted by the people who created this book. But believe me, if they did tell the truth, nobody would feel comfortable reading it".

Harry looked directly towards Hermione's parents with that line, he had a plan but if he could get them on side then it would be much easier for him to succeed. He knew that they both worked as Dentists and as such went through medical training, he hoped that they would be able to get the inference of such a statement.

However Harry didn't want Hermione to be left empty handed, she was clearly interested in Magical History, although Harry wondered how long it would take for dreary Professor Binns to bore that out of her.

Harry found one of the books that he had found most interesting to read whilst they were on their camping trick. "Magical History's Darkest and Brightest Days" by Sage Bragnam.

"Here, get this one on me, in fact" Harry quickly started writing down a note and slid it into the book "Here is a list of some of the best books that I know of about the wizarding World, most of them cannot be bought here but can be delivered by Owl Order".

Harry passed over the book to Hermione and quickly said his goodbyes. "It was lovely to meet you, sorry what was your name"

"Hermione Granger", a little squeak replied

"Well Hermione, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, I hope to see you again if not at Hogwarts". With that message Harry walked off, he had done what he believed he needed to and he felt safe in his belief that he had prevented any issues from knowing Hermione's name.

Hermione was stunned as the boy left that part of the shop, he had just told her that a book, her one true saving grace, was lying. She didn't know how to feel, but then he had gone and found her not only a book but seemingly a list of books that he believed she would enjoy. How could he have possibly known that?

But Hermione could tell that that was Harry Potter, the boy from the book. So if anyone would have known what had happened to him surely it was him. But something horrifying crossed Hermione's mind, Harry had mentioned that nobody had ever come and spoken to him or his relatives about the books and yet this picture on the front cover, whilst not being perfect was very close to looking exactly like the boy she had just been speaking to, From the messy hair and the bright green eyes, all the way to the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, how had the illustrator known what to draw?

Hermione squeaked to her parents that she wanted to go and get an owl for so that she could order the books that Harry had recommended to her, however Dan and Emma Granger made the promise to have a look at the booklist and see if they could find the books in Diagon Alley first. As such Hermione passed the book over to her parents and they opened it up to reveal the note that Harry had left, their faces dropped as they read what certainly wasn't a book list.

Dan Granger bolted out of the book store looking for the boy that had just been with them but through the crowded shop faces of Diagon Alley there was no chance to see such a small and scrawny boy. In fact in the bustling street, it was practically impossible to make out any one individual, the only person that stood out was a man right down the other end of the street who towered over everyone else. But Dan didn't realise just how important that man would have been.

With that towering individual was the exact boy that the eldest Granger was searching for, Harry James Potter. He was being led to get his first ever wand for the second time. Harry suspected that he would receive the exact same wand that he had in the original timeline, which was what Harry was hoping for, if he was to have the same wand then he would still have the same core as Lord Voldemort which would give Harry the advantage of pre-knowledge of the Priori Incantatem; Harry did hope that he would be able to take advantage of this knowledge and capitalise on Voldemort's surprise to hopefully defeat him.

Once again, when Harry was inside Ollivander's store, Hagrid left him on his own. Harry knew that Hagrid wasn't one of the smartest people at Hogwarts, which made him a perfect target for manipulation, but Harry wondered if Hagrid even remembered his blow-up about not letting Harry out of his sight; supposedly for safety.

Harry almost welled up when he saw Olivander, whilst he had always found the elder gentleman slightly unsettling, it was amazing to see just how much younger he looked than the last time Harry had seen him. Whilst it was only six year in the future, the old man had spent the better part of 18 months locked inside the dungeon at Malfoy Manor, compared to the frail, weak and slow man that Dobby had rescued, this Olivander seemed to have a spring in his step that Harry hadn't even noticed before.

The trialing of the wands caused just as much destruction as it had in Harry's memories and just as before Harry had landed on his trusted wand, Eleven Inches of Holly with a Phoenix tail feather core. Harry felt a wave of familiarity rush over him as the end of the wand glowed more powerful than Harry had expected. Even causing the people passing by to peak at the illumination of light coming through Olivander's front window

"Bloody Hell 'Arry", A powerful voice boomed in.

Hagrid had returned, with a familiar snowy white owl in a cage, held under his massive armpit.

"That was a powerful reaction, wow. Your mum and dad would be proud"

With the mention of that phrase Harry's mind flooded to all the people who had used that exact line on Harry. But the three people Harry found that used it the most were Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Hagrid, which Harry failed to see the irony that the people who put words in his parents mouth the most were the three people most directly linked with him ending up in the hell hole that was Number Four, Privet Drive.

Hagrid finally ushered Harry back out of Diagon Alley through the leaky cauldron (Doris Crockford had shaken Harry's hand again for good measure) and back out into muggle London. Harry wasn't sure where Hagrid was going to take him at this point but after his outburst in the bank he was quietly worried that he had direct orders of where to take him and outbursts from angry muggles with shotguns weren't going to change that.

As Hagrid and Harry started the journey south out of London, Harry had worked out that they were going back to Surrey and he started thinking about the best ways to avoid the Dursley's as much as possible, after all they were not going to be happy to see him back. Fortunately Harry had planned for this occasion and he just hoped that nothing, or no-one interfered with his plan; which if successful would see him be rid of the Dursley's potentially forever.

Harry wanted to check whether Hagrid was working under direct orders or if he was being forgetful about Uncle Vernon's threat so he asked, and unfortunately got exactly the response he was expecting

"You're safest with your family"

Harry was aware of this sentence as he had heard it every single year from Dumbledore himself. Once again a pertinent memory flooded the the front of Harry's mind as he remembered sitting down with Dumbledore in his sixth year discussing the memories of Tom Riddle. Harry remembered watching Tom Riddle ask Dumbledore to not be sent back to his orphanage and if he could stay at Hogwarts over the summer. As for the man soon to be known as Lord Voldemort, Hogwarts was his home. And maybe for the first time in his life Harry felt something towards Voldemort that he didn't expect, sympathy.

He knew exactly that feeling of being forced back into a home where you felt unloved and unwanted, but Dumbledore had known all of this, Harry had told him multiple times that he was abused and beaten at Privet Drive and yet every single summer he was sent back there, because he was "safest with his family". Harry assumed Dumbledore had a reason for this but he questioned whether Dumbledore had learnt anything from the rise of Tom Riddle.

Hermione was disappointed on their way back to Hamstead, her Parents hadn't been able to find any of the books that Harry had suggested to her and now they weren't even letting her have the list so she could find a way to get them herself. In fact whenever Hermione had bought up the list she had been shut down instantly and told that her parents would deal with it. Hermione felt betrayed, the relationship that she had with her parents was one where they promised they wouldn't keep secrets from each other as they believed that honesty was the most important quality a person could have.

Before they made it home Hermione's dad pulled the car over to the side of the road and quickly got out of the car, clearly feeling a sense of urgency. He ran across the road and entered the police station. Hermione was confused by this as she didn't know of anything that would cause her Dad to need to speak to the police. Then again he had been acting strangely ever since they had bumped into that boy, Harry Potter in Diagon Alley.

Suddenly fear flooded Hermione's mind as she wondered whether there was something dangerous about that boy, she couldn't be certain but all she knew was that until getting reassurance from her parents she was going to do everything in her power to stay away from him.

Dan Granger returned to the car shortly afterwards, clearly very upset about what had gone down inside the station. Emma had tried to ask what had happened but she was quickly shut down with a swift

"We will discuss it later"

When Hermione had left that day she had expected that the first thing she would want to do when she had got back home would be to run up to her room and begin to read all of the new books she had got whilst shopping. But there was something else on her mind, whatever it was that her parents were keeping from her. So when they told her she could go and start reading her books quickly rushed upstairs, dumbed the books on her bed before closing her door so her parents would think she was still in her room. But Hermione wasn't still in her room, she was sneaking towards the top of the stairs to see if she could catch what her parents were talking about. Hermione hated going behind her parents backs but they had promised not to keep secrets so she felt justified in her actions

"What did they say" came the soft voice of Emma Granger

"Honestly, they laughed me out of the building", Dan responded, disgruntled about the treatment he had received. "Although if you think about it, who can blame them. The letter literally mentioned Owl mail. If we had received a letter talking about messages being sent by owls before Professor McGonagall had visited us would you have believed a word of it?"

Hermione could hear that her mother was almost in tears

"But this is about a child who might not be safe, surely they have to do something"

"Right now, I don't know if that boy is safe, if he is not then we know what we need to do". The determined nature of her fathers voice, crossed with the words that she could hear made her mind up. Harry Potter was not a safe person, and Hermione didn't want to hang around with dangerous people. Despite how nice the boy had seemed in Diagon Alley, if her parents were saying that he was not safe then she wanted nothing to do with him.

(Somewhere in a dimension that crosses between here and there, the private Grim Reaper named Lister privately groaned at the boy putting himself further behind on one of his three goals than he had even been without any memories. Silently he wondered if this idiot was worth the risk he was bringing onto himself)

Harry was back in the place he wished he would never have to return to, the front porch of number four Privet Drive. Harry looked around at the street and as always found it funny how pristine and respectable it presented itself to be when a lot of the people who lived here were anything but. Mrs. Figg down the road ran what Harry could only describe as an asylum for cats, but Harry wondered whether he could trust Mrs. Figg as the squip was clearly a spy for Dumbledore yet had never reported anything when he had gone round her house covering in bruises, scars and often with two black eyes.

Harry had obviously heard Aunt Petunia gossiping about the ladies that lived either side of them on the street and the antics that they got up to. While Harry didn't understand all of what Petunia was saying he could understand that she believed what they got up to was unsavoury at best.

And then there was the Dursley's themselves, presented as the stereotypical nuclear British family, The father as a businessman who plans on sending his son to the same public school he had attended as a child. The mother as the doting stay at home wife who did all the housework and made sure the husband had a nice hot meal as he returned from work. But this was not who the Dursley's were and as Harry was once again dumped on the doorstep of Privet Drive having been delivered by Hagrid, he was ready to face the devils that truly lived inside of this house.

Dudley was the one who opened the door and immediately shouted out to his father that the freak was back.

Uncle Vernon came bounding down the stairs, moving as fast as his larger frame could before grabbing Harry by the shirt and bellowing in his face

"What the fuck are you doing here"

Harry had expected this welcome, Vernon was probably having the best day of his life having just this morning thought he had sent the freak away for good, yet here he was back on his doorstep, like a cockroach that just won't die.

Harry was tossed into the hallway, (Uncle Vernon had a reputation to uphold, can't be abusive in public) and crumpled to the floor. Vernon had a look in his eye that made Harry think that he may be visiting Lister a lot earlier than intended. By this point Aunt Petunia had made it to the hallway and was just as livid as her husband was to see the spawn of her hated sister back inside her house. She shouted expletives at Harry as she practically ripped the shirt off his back, calling Harry ungrateful for all of the things that they had provided for him.

With the shirt off of Harry's back, all of his scars were now clearly visible. All the remnants of the previous times Vernon and Petunia had lost control with Harry, all the times that they had given Dudley and his gang permission to use Harry as their own personal punching bag. Harry was aware that his gallery of scars was about to be added too as Vernon took his belt off as Petunia held down the helpless boy.

Uncle Vernon liked to wear a belt with studs decorated around the front, he liked to claim it was because he felt it was a symbol of his stature in the business world but Harry knew it was really because he wanted to be able to cause as much damage to his hated nephew as he could.

Harry groaned as his cousin got a few kicks into his stomach before Vernon finally struck down with his belt, the metal studs catching in the skin of Harry's back drawing blood from the first strike. Part of what psychologically hurt Harry the most was that this time around he knew that it wasn't supposed to be like this. The first time Harry had lived through the beatings he had believed that that was just what family was, as he hadn't known any better. But now he knew what a family truly was, he had seen it. It made him sick to his stomach that this was the family he was left with.

Time always passed by slower whilst Harry was being beaten down and Harry felt he was about to lose consciousness as the twenty-fifth strike of Vernon's belt, followed quickly by another solid kick to the gut by Dudley hit. Harry was just about to completely pass out when he heard a sound that he hadn't expected to hear. The gunshot-like crack of a Wizard apparating, Harry head hit the ground but his last thought was relief as clearly his message to Hermione had worked and he was about to be saved.

Harry slowly came too a few minutes late to see Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley laying around him, Harry recognised the effects of a stunner on all three of them, Harry looked around to try and find whoever his magical saviour had been.

Harry crawled into the front room where he could hear three wizards talking, Harry poked his head around the door to grab a glance at who they were. He didn't recognise the two wizards facing him but the other wizard was completely recognisable.

Harry felt a relief wash over him, the fact that this was who had come to save him must mean that all of his worries and the warnings from Lister must have been in vain. Standing in the front room at number four Privet Drive was the unmistakable figure of Albus Dumbledore.

One of the other wizards had clearly spotted Harry as he pointed him out to Dumbledore. Dumbledore turned around bearing the same grandfatherly smile that he had always used, which always calmed Harry and filled him with the belief that he was going to be safe.

But Harry would never have expected the next words to come out of Dumbledore's mouth

"Oh Harry, I really wish you hadn't woken up to see this, Obliviate, Stupefy"

Harry's mind went completely blank as he fell backwards falling again into an unconscious state

A/N

Since Chapter Two was published this story has reached over 700 views and 80 people with Alerts turned on and I just want to say thank you for every single one of you! I hope you enjoy this new chapter and leave a review to let me know what you think.