A/N
Disclaimer: All rights belong to JKR for the characters, storyline and name. I am just using them for the purpose of entertainment.
Harry Potter was absolutely fuming.
He glared back at the door he had just walked out of. The house where he lived with Remus on Cygnus Close, North Yorkshire. The house that Harry had called home since his parents died eleven years ago. Remus had taken Harry in when there was no one else left for him. Remus was, if you please, the only choice left.
With James and Lily murdered, Sirius locked up in Azkaban and Peter also killed, Remus was the last Marauder left to raise Harry. Not that Remus ever saw this as a bad thing.
He loved Harry deeply, more than an uncle and nephew relationship. Sirius and Remus used to talk about how Harry felt like more of a son to them than anything else and James never disputed this. In return, Harry cared for Remus deeply, viewing him as a second father; the first he could not remember.
But now, Harry, in his teenage angst, did not care for anything at all.
Barely a year had passed since he had received his warning from the ministry for underage magic; a warning that he should not have even gotten seeing as it wasn't his fault.
A house elf named Dobby had apparated into Hermione's bedroom and performed magic while Harry was at her house last year, and, seeing has her parents were muggles, the ministry detected the magic. Remus had been far from pleased when he had come to collect his child.
Until he heard the full story of course.
Very much so like today, apart from Remus knew the whole story and it wasn't favourable for Harry.
Harry knew that another bout of underage magic could lead to expulsion for Hogwarts School but with Sirius Black on the loose, Remus had allowed Harry to keep his wand on him if, merlin forbid, he found himself in a bad situation.
Apparently, the accidental magic of causing a boy to inflate and fly away didn't apply to those conditions.
With only a few sickles and a small backpack of clothes, the teen jogged down towards the end of the road and turned a corner on to a road that he knew led past the playpark.
One of Matty Chuck's hotspots for terrorising the children of Cygnus Close.
Matty Chuck, or just Chuck as he was known, had been notorious with bullying the children that lived in surrounding houses. Harry had been unfortunate enough to be in the same yeah as Matty and thus, had been subjected to his tormenting at home and at school.
Remus had stepped in to try and stop this bullying, of course he had, but writing to the school and the boy's parents apparently did not do anything to quash Chuck's behaviour.
Harry had been walking around the little muggle village where Remus lived that evening when he had come across Chuck bullying a child much smaller than him, likely 9 or 10 years old, at the play park, demanding money.
It had been almost a year since Harry had seen him and, in that time, Harry and grown considerably in height and strength, and while he was still no match for Chuck's six-foot physique, he remembered when he was once in the place of that small child and often prayed someone would come and intervene.
"Hey! –", Harry had called out from afar. "Chuck, HEY! – Leave him alone!"
Harry was jogging now.
Once Harry had gotten up to Chuck, he had watched the older boy stash money into his trouser pockets, sneering at Harry.
"Get lost kid," Harry spoke down to the boy next to him and the small boy wasted no time running away.
"Nice of you to pick on someone your own size" Harry said sarcastically, fists balled either side of him.
"Oh – don't worry, I'm about to." Chuck replied as he shoved Harry backwards.
If there was one thing Harry hated, it was being shoved. He absolutely hated it.
"You think you're so hard – but you're not! You never bully someone your own age!"
"I do – but only when he comes back from his poxy boarding school that his fake Dad send him to."
"What did you just say?" Harry almost shouted. He knew the muggles thought he went to private school during term time and that was fine with him. The fake Dad comment, however? Not so much.
"Everyone knows Mr Lupin is your fake Dad. You look nothing alike, but you are both just as scruffy," Chuck scoffed, seemingly pleased with himself that he had managed to rile Harry up so much.
"Don't say a word against him." Harry felt his breathing speed up as he got angrier. He knew he'd never win in a fight with Chuck, but he did have his wand stuffed in his jeans pocket.
"I'll say whatever I want Potter. What are you gonna do?" Chuck paused as if he was waiting for an answer. "Run home to your fake Dad and get me reported again? How did that go the last time?"
Harry wasn't sure what came over him, but he charged forward, fists raised and landed a solid smack in the centre of the boy's face.
Fist stinging, he stumbled back and embraced for impact, for when Chuck undoubtably retaliated.
It wasn't until Harry opened his eyes that he realised not only was Chuck's nose bleeding, but Chuck had also begun inflating up like a balloon, beginning with the fist that was ready to punch Harry's cheek.
"POTTER! – What's happening to me?" Chuck screeched out.
It was the first time Harry had heard genuine fear in his childhood bully's voice.
"I – I don't know! I don't know!" Harry was frantically trying to pull his wand free from his pocket but even once he had, he didn't know what spell to cast. "I'll get help." Harry called to Chuck who was now completely inflated and beginning to take flight.
Harry's house was a two-minute jog away from the park and Harry knew Remus would be there to help them.
Sprinting through the front door, startling Remus who was making dinner in the kitchen, Harry jumbled out the story of what had just happened.
"You punched someone and then inflated them?" Remus scolded in disbelief as he rushed around for his wand.
"Yes – but that isn't important right now."
Remus paused to glare at his teen as eyebrows furrowed deeper.
"Well, I guess it is but Chuck is in danger. Can you please just help." Harry spoke in desperation as he watched his guardian getting ready to leave.
Remus hastily slipped on his shoes, wand in hand as he turned to Harry. "You stay here and don't even think about going anywhere. You're in enough trouble as it is"
Harry's mouth fell open, "Trouble – what for?"
Harry began following the man down the drive. "For defending someone against a bully? That's not fair!"
His Guardian was being completely unreasonable.
Remus stopped so abruptly that Harry nearly crashed into the back of him.
"You've been taught how to control accidental magic since you were four years old. If you had kept your temper, this wouldn't be happening. I am not saying bullying is okay because of course it isn't –"
Harry opened his mouth, but Remus held up his hand sternly.
"However, neither is punching someone or inflating them." Remus sighed. "You'll be lucky if the ministry doesn't find out about this."
Harry simply glared at his guardian.
"Go back inside, lock the door, and wait for me to return. I'll deal with you then."
Harry didn't even question Lupin as he stalked off in search of Chuck. He knew he wasn't sticking around to see the aftermath of this.
Running upstairs, he shoved some clothes in a bag along with his invisibility cloak. In his teenage defiance, he purposely left his toothbrush.
No one could tell him what to do!
He had taken his house key and some spare change from the side and left without thinking twice.
Afterall, it wasn't the first time he tried had run away.
He had threatened to run away as a young child, as so many do, but one time when he was seven or eight he had actually packed a bag. Harry couldn't even remember exactly why. It was probably something trivial like Remus wouldn't let him play on his tiny broom in the house or stay up late and eat chocolate ice-cream. All Harry could remember was that he had gotten as far as the end of the drive when a clap of thunder had forced him to run back to Remus's open arms. A trip over the man's knee had deterred him from ever trying to run away again.
Until now.
This time Harry wasn't worried about the consequences. He was twelve now anyway. Far too old for any childish punishments and old enough to be able to survive on his own in his opinion.
Hurrying past the playpark, Harry decided to make his way to the only road out of the little village, past the Primary School. That way he could at least leave the area quickly if he needed to.
Eyeing a bench for sit down on Harry happened to notice sudden and swift change in the weather; what once was a clear night, with the half-moon that was lighting up the sky was now nothing but dark clouds that loomed heavily overhead.
A blind man could see it was going to rain; another inconvenience to an evening that had been cursed from the start.
Harry hoped the Knight Bus would come and collect him soon so that he could get a room at the Leaky Caldron for the night. He knew he was likely running short for time. His guardian was a well-trained wizard, capable of reversing accidental magic and performing a, short-term memory, memory charm.
If Remus could find Chuck that is.
Coming abruptly back to reality, the teen felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as shivers flowed through his body.
Turning slowly, he saw a large black dog making his way towards him. Harry whipped his wand out of his pocket and gripped it hard; so hard that his knuckles turned white.
As the dog ventured closer, Harry rationalised that if he was already about to be expelled for blowing up Chuck, he may as well defend himself, underaged magic or not.
The rain began to pour as there was a rumble of thunder overhead. The black dog was continuing to walk towards him and was now barking at Harry. Harry began to slowly walk back to the pavement when he tripped and fell hard on his backside.
The child thought he had hit his head during his fall as two bright lights blinded his eyes as he tried to open them, followed by the release of what sounded to be breaks.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, m' name is Stanley an' I'll be your conductor for this tonigh'."
Harry blinked frantically to get his eyes adjusted to the new light. Opening one eye, followed by the other, Harry realised he was staring at the Knight Bus he had heard Remus talk about before.
"Choo want a lift or not?" The man asked again, dropping the queue card he had held in front of him to stare down at the child.
"Yeah – yeah I do please."
Harry began to stand up. One of his hands was grazed and his lower back was aching from his fall. He suddenly remembered what had caused his fall and looked round the back of the bus, over to where the black dog had once stood.
"Wha- choo looking at then?"
"There was a dog, a really big one. - It was barking at me - right before you came."
Stanley gave him a look of disbelief, "Well, let's get choo out of the rain before you are soaked to the core. No luggage?" the man questioned.
"Just my backpack." Harry replied. Still starting intently at the bush behind the bus.
"Come on," Stanley called as Harry rushed back to the bus. "We haven't got all night son."
"Sorry," Harry replied as he followed Stanley back onto the bus and found a vacant bed.
"Now then, where do you want to go?" Stanley asked as he took a firm grip of the over head hand rail; seemingly unbothered at the pace in which the bus had just pulled away at.
"Diagon Alley please," Harry replied as Ernie nodded. He also attempted to stable himself to the best that he could on the beds, which were, for merlin knows what reason, on wheels.
"What did you say your name was then son," Stanley questioned, running his fingers on his chin as his eyes squinted slightly at the teen.
"I didn't, but it's – Seamus." Harry replied shortly, quick to hide his real identity.
"Well, Seamus, what brought choo to be walking bout these streets at this time?"
"I don't know, just bored." Harry lied rather bluntly. The man's questions were getting nothing short of irritating; considering the day he'd had, he just wanted to get his head down for some rest.
"Choo want to be careful; especially in these times..." the conductor warned as he turned around to head up to the front of the bus with the driver.
Harry couldn't find the energy in his to muster up a reply as he felt nothing short of pleased that the man seemed to have got the unspoken message that the teen wanted to be left to himself.
Harry decided that it was best to try and catch a little bit of sleep before arriving at Diagon Alley where he was also almost positive that aurors were on their way to tell him he had been expelled and his wand snapped. That's if Remus didn't get there first.
In hindsight, Diagon Alley probably wasn't the most the most obscure place he could've gone but he just hoped he could at least check into a room before someone showed up for him.
The child let scenarios float around his head, each time coming to the conclusion that he was about to be expelled; occasionally thinking that Dumbledore might let him stay on Hogwarts grounds like Hagrid.
He lay down on his assigned bed and slowly closed his eyes, his breath evening out slightly as his attempt to fight the itchiness in his eyes, from his lack of sleep.
Remus willed himself to get control of his anger. It had taken him nearly half an hour to find the Chuck boy, and then another ten minutes to put him back to normal and mildly modify his memory.
Technically memory charms were frowned upon, but Remus had thought about the risks of not doing so and it was the really the only viable option that didn't end in his son being expelled.
Remus had had some stern words with Chuck about bullying and sent him on his way. Luckily Remus's threat of telling Chuck's father about exactly what he was doing to the children of the village seemed to have an effect on him this time.
Remus would've bet 10 sickles that the message of Chuck's bad behaviour had only ever gotten back to the child's mother and not his father…
Remus was beginning to feel a bit guilty with the way he had spoken to Harry when had frantically left the house earlier. He was, after all, very proud that Harry had stepped in to stop a bully. This guilt was furthered when he realised, he didn't know the entire story in detail about why Harry had punched the boy.
The verdict was in.
Remus was a massive prat.
In that moment, despite losing control of his magic which had caused numerous problems in Primary School, Remus decided that he wouldn't punish Harry for this. A serious conversation about what happened and what went wrong would suffice Remus thought.
Rounding the corner of Cygnus Close, Remus noted that the house was in complete darkness. This was odd considering Remus had instructed Harry to wait for him to come back, but perhaps he had gotten tired and taken himself to bed. It had taken longer than he thought to track and fix Chuck than Remus had originally anticipated.
Walking up to the front door. Remus cursed when he realised, he had forgotten his key. The wards around the house also meant that unlocking charms and apparition did not work on their home. Even the floo wasn't connected to most places on the network.
Knocking on the door, Remus hoped his teen wasn't asleep already.
On the fourth round of knocking, Remus began to get worried at the lack of response coming from the house. Deciding to try his luck, Remus pushed the handle down on the door, which to his surprise, was open.
Walking inside, Remus called his child's name continuously throughout the house to no response. Fear was rising in his chest slightly as he performed a 'point-me charm' which usually told the man where exactly Harry was in the house. When the charm did not work, Remus immediately sent a Patronus to Dumbledore, alerting him of the situation.
Fearing the worst, Remus ran to Harry's room, looking for the teen's wand. Hopefully if he had that, he might be alright and simply left off his own accord. Rummaging through the wardrobe, Remus noted that Harry's backpack and more importantly James's invisibility cloak was missing.
Harry had run away.
Hearing the floo roar to life downstairs, Remus ran to the banister, "Harry?" He called with hope in his voice. But instead, he heard commotion with numerous voices coming from his living room.
Taking the stairs two at a time, Remus walked in to find Dumbledore, McGonagall and a very sour-looking Snape in heated conversation.
"If he were my child I would blister–"
"Fortunately for us all, he is not Severus", Remus half-joked as he stepped into the room and saw the look of concern on everyone's faces.
Since the death of Lily and James, Snape had become somewhat of a friend to Remus, although Snape wasn't a man who had friends. He would watch Harry for Remus sometimes during a full moon if another member of Hogwarts staff was unavailable, much to Harry's dismay, and would brew Wolfsbane so that Remus could transform in the shrieking shack once a month without losing his mind completely.
"I am nearly certain Harry has run away. He's taken his wand and James's cloak. Some of his clothes are also missing." Remus reported as everyone in attendance began to sit down on the sofas.
"Do we alert the aurors to help find him, Remus?" McGonagall asked, voice full on concern. It was no secret that Harry was one of her favourite students; just as James was all those years ago.
"I have performed several charms since we arrived. There is no sign of dark magic or forced entry Remus. I am certain that your assumption that the child has run away is correct." Dumbledore spoke as a scroll appeared before him.
"So, what do we do then?" Remus asked with a slight tone of exasperation as he began pacing the room.
"We wait for him to check in at the Leaky Cauldron" Dumbledore replied matter-of-factly.
Remus stopped and looked at the headmaster in disbelief. "How do you even know he's going there?"
"Harry boarded the Knight Bus at ten o'clock his evening heading for London."
"If I may Headmaster," Snape interjected, "what if Potter has decided to bypass London?"
"Then I will apparate and retrieve him. In the meantime, however, would anyone like a lemon sherbet?" Dumbledore held out a hand full of sweets.
If Remus didn't have so much respect and trust in Dumbledore, he would've rolled his eyes at his lack of concern and urgency. As it was, he was sure Dumbledore was correct and Harry would be arriving in London any minute. "No thank you."
"I have alerted Tom to let me know when Harry arrives so that you can go to him Remus." Dumbledore informed the man.
"Thank you. - Apologies for causing all this trouble at this hour. If it wasn't for Black being on the loose, I don't suppose I would have been quite so concerned." Remus replied, cupping the back of his neck with his hand.
The bus came to a screeching halt as Ernie announced that they had arrived in Diagon Alley. The journey only took around 2 hours; likely due to the speed they drove at, as well as the invisibility features to weave in and out of traffic.
Harry grabbed his backpack and exited the bus; paying them a small fee which was a great chunk out of his dwindling funds.
The Leaky Cauldron was not far from where the bus had dropped him off but Diagon Alley at night seemed creepier than during the day. Wasting no time in getting to the Inn, Harry opened the door to find many guests still in the main pub, drinking and singing away.
Walking up to the front desk, Harry was greeted by Tom, the Innkeeper, and was given a key to his room.
Feeling utterly exhausted, he made his way up the stairs to his room, 77, which was down the corridor and to the left. The inn itself wasn't particularly in the best shape but it would do until morning when Harry could figure out what his next move was. With the Weasley's in Egypt and Hermione in Paris, he didn't have too many other options anyway.
As he made his way down the corridor and turned left, he saw a very unhappy looking man leaning with one arm against the door.
Crap.
Harry sheepishly made his way to towards him. How they had found him so fast, he didn't know. Remus looked plenty cross and plenty exhausted; just as Harry felt.
Walking up to the man but keeping a decent distance away, Harry's downcast eyes briefly met with his guardian's before lowering them again.
"I hope you enjoyed your little adventure – huh," Remus scolded, holding his hand out for the key. Secretly he was remarkably pleased that Harry had made it to Diagon Alley unharmed and in one piece.
Harry put the key in his guardian's hand before finding his shoes increasingly interesting once more. "Remus, I'm really sor-"
"Save it." Lupin cut him off. "We will discuss it more in the morning."
The door clicked open as Remus held the door open with his back, allowing Harry to walk through.
Once he was past the threshold, Harry felt the man take a hold of his upper arm, turning him slightly and landing two smacks to his backside with firm precision.
"Hey – oww!" Harry whined as he tried to pull away before the second landed.
Remus released the child, almost regretting his actions as it didn't seem to lessen his disappointment in his son. "Get ready for bed." Remus instructed as he sat on the side of one of two twin beds, with his back to the boy.
He could hear the child's sniffing and hitched breaths as he changed into his pyjamas.
Perhaps leaving the discussion until morning was a bit harsh.
Once Remus heard Harry zipping up his backpack, Remus stood and walked to the teen's bed, drawing back the covers, allowing Harry to slip underneath.
"Do you understand why I am so upset with your behaviour?" Remus asked, forcing the sternness out of his tone as he sat down next to Harry.
Harry nodded, quickly wiping a rogue tear away.
"Running away at a time like this is not just teenage disobedience Harry; it is dangerous. Now more than ever."
Another tear escaped the boy's eye, "I know," he croaked.
Remus wiped the tear on the child's cheek with his finger.
"When we get home in the morning, you can spend the day in your room. I would like you to write an apology letter to Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall for having to take the time out of their night to help find you. Any other free time you have, you can spend working on your summer assignments."
"Okay," Harry replied, shifting further down in his bed. He took the fact that he was in bed as a positive sign for his backside.
"Your broom is also on the ground for at least two weeks and your trip to the burrow next week is cancelled."
Harry was going to protest before a warning eyebrow from the man halted his attempt.
"You're lucky you're older now, otherwise that backside of yours would not have been very happy." Remus warned as Harry shifted uncomfortably in his bed, cheeks flushing a slight shade of pink. "Not that it is completely off the cards yet, young man if actions repeat themselves."
Harry didn't say anything to the man's remark, just thankful that he had been let off with being grounded. He was gutted about his burrow trip being cancelled but he would see Ron in a few weeks anyways, so it wasn't completely the end of the world.
"While I am not happy at all with your behaviour today, I would just like to say I am proud of you for standing up to Matthew Chuck today. It takes great guts to do that."
Harry gave the man a small smile.
"I would also like to apologise at how I spoke and reacted back at home when you had informed me of what had happened. I was partly worried the ministry would find out and partly terrified that the boy you inflated might start telling others what had happened."
"Is Chuck okay?" Harry remembered; it probably should have been the first thing he had asked.
"He is fine. I managed to locate him, reverse the accidental magic and modify his memory slightly. I also sent him on his way with a stern talk." Remus replied, not missing the small smirk on his child's face at the last comment.
"I want you to know that on my way back, I had decided that I would not punish you for what happened in the park tonight, therefore, the consequences I just gave you are for running away and not for standing up to a bully. Understood?"
"Yes Sir," Harry replied as he shifted further down the bed and turned on his right side. "I really am sorry – for everything."
"I know cub," Remus replied, ruffling his hands through the boys messy hair and planting a small kiss on the top of his head. "Just don't let it happen again – hmm"
"I won't," Harry replied as a large yawn shook his small frame. The side of the bed his guardian sat on rose as he stood. Harry watched as he walked around to his own bed, slipping his shoes, socks and robe off.
A pang of guilt hit his stomach as he realised Remus didn't bring any clothes with him.
Remus watched the child as he rolled onto his other side. He was thankful that they had discussed the events on the evening with very little tears and attitude; something Remus had been expecting.
He just hoped it was enough to deter the child from ever doing anything similar in the future because he was sure is nerve could not take it.
Casting Nox to darken the room, Remus also slipped under his covers.
"Remus?" Harry called from his bed sleepily.
"Hmm?"
"Thank you for not going completely mental,"
Remus smirked at the teens comment. "That's alright,"
"I love you,"
"Love you too cub – goodnight."
