Chương 1: Prologue
The residents of Privet Drive woke up one Wednesday morning to a startled shriek. The shriek was emanating from the stick-like figure of Petunia Dursley. She stood there in her bathrobe, looking down upon, what with closer inspection seemed to be a baby in a basket! Perhaps sensing the neighbours prying eyes, the basket was hurriedly rushed inside.
Unbeknownst to the rest of Privet Drive, the baby inside this basket was perhaps the most famous one-year-old child in the world. However, even if this baby's name was told directly to them, the denizens of this street would remain blissfully unaware of who exactly he was. The names James and Lily Potter were meaningless to them and would remain that way.
Inside the perfectly organized, neat house, an argument was occurring. The object of this argument was currently crying, while his pudgy overfed cousin poked and prodded him. "Petunia, I don't care what the letter said, I refuse to have one of them in our house! What if…"
" Vernon, you know I don't want him here, but we may be in danger if we don't take him" "WE'RE IN DANGER IF WE DO!"
"Shhhh! We don't want to scare Dudders"
"Think of what it would be like if we kept the freak- With who-knowswhat after him, with his unnatural goings-on, think of how that would scare Dudley Pet".
Petunia breathed in, perhaps too sharply. She felt deep pain, but also rage. Her sister, dear little Lily was dead. And now she, with her lovely normal husband and her lovely normal son and her lovely normal lifewould be saddled with her sister's freakish son. She couldn't take it. How could they expect this of her? Vernon was right, it would be terrible for her Duddy-kins to have to be around him.
"What can we do with him, Vernon?"
"We'll take him to an orphanage, let them take care of him, what are our taxes going to otherwise".
"But Vern dear, what if they come back?"
"We'll deal with that then."
With that, the Dursleys and Harry Potter left 4 Privet Drive. 500 Miles away, an oddly shaped silver instrument began to whirr and let off a plume of smoke in the office of Albus Dumbledore. In less than 24 hours since their erection, the Blood Wards around 4 Privet Drive had fallen.
It was the next day. The Dursleys had settled back into their normal routine, opting to forget all about the bit of unpleasantness that had bothered them, and instead had a remarkably ordinary day. Vernon had shouted at several underlings and sucked up to several overlings. Petunia had watered the begonias while discretely observing the family that lived in number 10. She was sure that Mr.
Peterson drank, she just had to continue compiling evidence. The way he winced at the sun this morning, added to the bags under his eyes and his 5 o'clock shadow seemed to hint at that. Dudley had a wonderful day, he managed to hit one of balmy Mrs. Figg's cats with a tennis ball ("Little rascal has a good arm on him") and had a tantrum until Petunia gave him a third ice lolly. The day was excellent until an unexpected visitor interrupted their dinner.
It was approximately 7 o'clock when the doorbell rang.
"Get the door please dear, I'm just bathing Duddy" Petunia called out from upstairs.
Putting aside his newspaper, Vernon shouted "Hold on, be there in a minute" as he struggled out of his armchair, his face purpling from the effort. When he opened the door, his brain took a few minutes to comprehend what he was seeing. He just stood there, wide-eyed.
"Good evening," Albus Dumbledore said cheerily, "From your slack jawed expression I will assume you were not expecting me".
From inside the house, above the sound of a boisterous child came a voice "Vernon? Who's there?" Vernon couldn't seem to answer.
"Let us pretend you have invited me in, I shall only take a few minutes of your time and then I shall be off"
Vernon stood mutely by as the tall man strode into his house. After several seconds he walked back in, just remembering to shut the door behind him.
"Petunia dear" he called in a strangely high-pitched voice, "come here".
"One-minute dear, just finishing up…"
"Now!" He seemed to have regained his composure, and his voice was returning to his normal tones.
Petunia hurried down the steps, thinking to herself about what could have gotten her husband into such a state, not allowing herself to think of the obvious situation-Them. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a tall man, dressed in a velvet blue robe with halfmoons on it. What's more, he had a beard down to his waist.
"Who the ruddy hell are you, and why are you in my house?" Vernon had been meaning for it to come out as an intimidating growl, but his intrusive thoughts seemed to have transformed it into a squeak.
"Ah, I apologize for my rudeness, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts." Petunia and Vernon looked at each other as the man continued
"We communicated once, Petunia" at this,
Vernon seemed extremely shocked "Pet? What?"
"But enough about old times. I am here because apparently, Harry is not."
At this, Petunia and Vernon glanced at each other again. Petunia paled, while Vernon seemed to be drawing all his strength to himself.
"Of course he isn't! We didn't ask for him, we didn't want him, we had no desire to-" "Where did you take him?" Albus still seemed calm, even in the face of Vernon's outburst. A careful onlooker, however, would be able to notice the twinkle having disappeared from his eyes.
"He's in an orphanage, in London. Where he should have gone in the first place might I say" "Did you read the letter I wrote you?" Albus' words cut right through the other man's speech.
"Well, of course, we did, but that still doesn't mean-"
"Then you should be aware that many followers of the man who killed your sister and brother-in-law are still at large, and that they may bear a grudge against any member of your nephews family" a pregnant silence followed these words, unhurriedly, Albus continued "You would also know that your nephews presence here would allow wards to be maintained which would protect your family against magical harm."
"Now you listen here! The only reason we would be in danger in the first place is because of him! It seems to me, that the smartest thing to do would be to get him as far away from us as we could and-"
"And the fact that you are his only surviving family means nothing to you?"
"He's one of you!" Petunia's shrill voice rose, slicing straight through the previous words "A freak! He shouldn't be with normal people, polluting us and spreading his freakishness and bizarreness around us. If he must be with normal people, at least my family and those I care about will not be exposed to his aberrant madness!"
Albus pinched the bridge of his nose, weary beyond what he had thought possible. "Very well then. You will not be bothered again."
He turned to leave, Petunia breathing harshly, Vernon appearing surprised by how well it had turned out. Framed by the doorway, without turning his head, Dumbledore spoke to the Dursleys one last time "If, and I hope this always remains just an if, those who despise your very existence ever come after you, I will still oppose them with every ounce of strength I possess. You should pray that your nephew feels the same way" With that, Albus Dumbledore left the Dursleys to their normal life.
"Minerva", was that Albus' voice, she wondered to herself? She'd known him for many, many years, throughout war and peace, but had never heard him sound so defeated as he did right now.
"Minerva, please gather up some of the crowd, Mundungus, Sturgis perhaps."
Now fear was coursing through her.
"What is it Albus, surely it isn't him ?"
"No, no no. I'm sorry to have frightened you. Harry Potter has been placed in a muggle orphanage. I just want the place watched for the next while. Just until things calm down at least. After that, we can check in on him at monthly intervals or so."
Her first thought was to tell Albus she had told him so, leaving TheBoy-Who-Lived with such horrific muggles as the Dursleys could never have come to anything good. Instead, she just said, "Certainly Albus, where is this orphanage?"
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