Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter, she does and yes I'm jealous.

A/N: I have a couple of directions that I'm thinking about taking this, so we'll just have to see how it goes. Dumbledore will not be evil, old and senile possibly but not evil. Ron will be his normal self, a stupid jealous moron, right in line with cannon. Tonks will not be as clumsy as cannon. The rest depends on how the story goes. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 1

Harry Potter lay on his bed in the smallest bedroom of Number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging wondering how much worse his life could get. In the month that he had been back he had only received one letter from his friends, and it only told him that they were together and weren't going to tell him anything.

Harry had watched as Cedric Diggory was murdered right in front of him the night that Voldemort regained his body. All because Harry had to be a noble idiot and insist that they take the Tri-Wizard Cup together. He started off doing what he normally did and kept all of his emotions buried. This trait had been beaten into him at an early age by his relatives. Never show emotions and never ask questions, never do anything that might draw attention.

A couple of sleepless nights into the holidays and Harry decided that this was not going to work this time. He needed to talk to someone about what had happened and about the fact that his scar was constantly aching since that night. Hermione would be glad that he was finally taking some of her advice on how to deal with things, or so he thought.

The first two weeks of holidays he had written several letters to her, Ron, Sirius, and even Professor Lupin, and had received only the one letter from Hermione in return. He had sent a last letter to each of them saying simply "I need to talk to someone. I need help." That had been two weeks ago.

The nightmares had him waking up screaming most nights. This had the unfortunate side effect of waking his uncle. The beatings weren't that bad in the beginning and were kept to areas that couldn't be seen. Until last night, that is.

Harry had been at the park down the street, his cousin Dudley was, as usual, trying to start trouble with him, when two dementors attacked them. Things seemed to happen quickly after that. He drove the dementors away with his patronus, found out that Mrs. Figg was a squib, and that Dumbledore was having him watched. When he got Dudley home several owls came through the house a few minutes apart from each other. One saying that he was expelled from Hogwarts and that his wand was going to be snapped, another saying that Dumbledore was taking care of everything, not to give up his wand to anyone and not to leave the house or do any more magic. The last one, surprisingly, was to his Aunt Petunia saying "Remember my last", whatever that meant. This was the final straw for his Uncle Vernon.

He was now lying listening to movement in the hall outside his bedroom. He knew that it wasn't his relatives they had left for the evening making sure that he was securely locked in on the way out. He knew it could be Death Eaters, but couldn't move very fast and frankly couldn't bring himself to really care. The only thing that really got any reaction out of him was when he heard someone cursing and then the sound of the locks on his door all opening at once. His only thought was "Wonderful, some more magic for the Ministry to blame on me" as the door opened.

"Harry?" They could barely make out the shape of a body on the bed in the dark room.

"Hello Professor Lupin." Harry's voice was quiet and emotionless. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to take you someplace safe, Harry."

Harry snorted and immediately regretted the action. "Safe? My opinion of the magical world's idea of safe is pretty low right now."

"We don't have time for this boy" Came a gruff reply.

"Ah, Hello Professor Moody, how are you these days? Also, are you, well, you these days?"

"Come on Potter, we need to get moving before those relatives of yours return."

"I agree you really do need to go before they get back, they won't be happy if they see you in their house." Harry's voice was still flat and quiet.

"Harry you need to come with us, it will be safer where were taking you."

"Professor, I've been told that there's no place safer than Hogwarts by just about everyone, yet four out of four years I've come close to being killed. Then Dumbledore tells me that this place is really the safest place for me, and we all know how that is turning out, don't we? Not my idea of safe."

"Those dementors attacked a few blocks away Harry, the wards would only cover the house."

"So Professor Lupin, I would have been safe if I'd stayed inside?"


Harry started to slowly sit up on the bed groaning softly.

"Would one of you like to turn on the light?"

The light coming on was immediately followed by a gasp. Harry's face was beaten to the point that it was almost unrecognizable, his eyes were swollen shut and his right arm had a couple of strange angles to it on the forearm.

"Bloody hell Harry, I've never heard of a dementor doing that to someone before." Said an unfamiliar female voice.

"Dementors? This is from my uncle. Seem to remember it happening in this room. I really don't want to know what your next idea of safe is going to be, so if you would just lock the door on your way out." With that he slowly lowered himself back onto the bed.

"Harry, we need to get you to a healer, if your uncle did this we need to get you away from here." Remus was almost growling.

"I said I'm not going."

"Harry we need to get you away from here quickly. Your friends are there waiting for you."

"What friends would those be? The ones who answer my letters? Oh, I don't have any of those do I? Tell me Professor, what did the last letter I sent you say?"

Remus Lupin just looked at the floor for several seconds before answering in a quiet voice. "It said that you needed help."

"What did your return letter say?"

"I'm sorry Harry, Dumbledore told us not to write to you."

"How about Sirius, Hermione, and Ron?"

"We were told it would be dangerous to put anything in a letter Harry. You need to understand that with Voldemort back things are dangerous. We can't risk any information getting out."

"How many other students have the Headmaster screening their mail? Am I the only one or do all students get this wonderful service?"

"We don't have time for this Lupin, Grab Potter and let's go."

"Professor Moody, what would the sentence be for kidnapping?"

"Ten years in Azkaban"

"So after I go to the hearing and report it, you'll all be facing ten years?"

"We don't have time for this, Tonks get his wand and other things packed and Lupin and I will take him."

A shriek came from Tonks as she started gathering thing off Harry's desk. Next to the cage was a lifeless Hedwig and a wand snapped in half.

"Harry what did you do to Hedwig and your wand?" Lupin's voice sounded angrier than he had ever heard it.

"You think I did that?" Harry's voice showed emotion for the first time. "You think I killed the only real friend I've ever had? Get out Lupin, all of you GET OUT."

Moody grabbed his arm and pulled him up, ignoring the hiss of pain, he let go when Harry was on his feet only to have him drop straight to the floor with a cry, his good arm clutching at his ribs.

Once Harry found his voice it was cold. "Get out. Put everything back the way you found it and get out."

Remus grabbed Moody and pulled him back towards the door, putting himself between them. "Harry we can help you, we'll get you out of here and bring Madam Pomfrey to heal you. You need our help, please come with us."

Harry was still lying on the floor silent for a long moment. "Tonks was it?"


"I need someone to take me to the ministry for my hearing on the 15th. Would you be willing to?"

"We have it arranged for you to go in to work with Arthur Weasley, you'll leave from where were taking you."

He just ignored Remus. "I just need you to meet me at the park down the street at seven in the morning to summon the Knight Bus for me. Without my wand I won't be able to. Would you do this for me?"

"Yeah Harry, I'll do it for you. Are you sure you're going to be ok here?" He could hear the catch in her voice but didn't get the chance to answer.

"He's not staying, Dumbledore wants him at headquarters so that's were he's going."

"How Mad Eye? He has to be able to see the paper to get in. He can't see anything until he's healed. You know Dumbledore won't come tell him the secret directly, so how are we going to get him in? I don't think our plan of brooms for getting there is going to work either, look at him, he can't ride like that." Tonks' voice rose to a shout by the end. Taking a breath to calm herself she continued. "Plus I need my job and just being accused of kidnapping will get me fired. I don't think Harry's the type to make empty threats. Unless you plan to keep him from the hearing and make him a fugitive, we can't make him go with us. We don't need to give Fudge any more ammunition against him or Dumbledore."

"She's right; I'll stay and take care of the Dursley's"

"No you won't Lupin" Harry growled. "You'll leave me be."

"Harry they can't be allowed to get away with this."

"Why do you care? I asked for help and you ignore me, now you're trying to force me to believe you care? This has been my life since Dumbledore put me here, and no one cared. So why now?"

"We didn't know Harry; if we had we would have gotten you out sooner."

"Mrs. Figg has treated my injuries every time that she babysat me. Didn't she tell Dumbledore anything?" He paused a moment waiting for a response, when none came he continued. "You can leave now. Tonks, you don't have to come to the park if you don't want to, I'll figure out another way to get there."

"7am sharp Harry, I'll be there. Do you need help getting back in bed, I could levitate you?"

A small smile came to his face for the first time. "I'll manage, but thanks."

"Sure, see you on the 15th. Let's go guys."

"I'm not leaving without taking care of the Dursley's. They can't get away with this."

"Are you going to kill them or just put them in the hospital?" Harry's voice let them know he was definitely pissed. "Because if you don't do either of those then you're just going to make things worse for me. My vote is for killing them, but no one ever really seems to care what I think. Go ahead and do what you want, you will anyway."

"They'll stop after we talk to them."

"You know Lupin; I used to think you were smart. Now I know why no one listens to what I think, I'm apparently wrong most of the time. You don't know Uncle Vernon; if you threaten him he'll blame me." Harry thought about it for a moment. "Then again if you make him mad enough maybe he'll have a stroke, either that or he'll kill me this time. Some of my problems will be over either way, so like I said, you do what you want, I really don't care anymore."

Tonks just couldn't take this anymore. She kneeled down next to Harry and spoke quietly. "Harry, you better not be wishing for death on me, we have a date after all, and I'm not someone who takes being dead as a good reason for standing me up." His small smile reappeared. "Play your cards right Mr. Potter and you may just get a kiss at the end of it. Not something you'll want to miss. I'll get these guys out of here, you just be careful and be on time, ok?"

"Yes Ma'am I'll be there. Thanks."

"No problem, sweetie, I'll see you."

Harry could hear them leave the room and the door shut, then the click of the locks. Struggling, he slowly got himself back onto his bed and tried to go to sleep.