“I am Cornelius Fudge, Harry. The Minister of Magic.”

Harry already knew this, of course; he had seen Fudge once before, but as he had been wearing his father's Invisibility Cloak at the time, Fudge wasn't to know that.

Tom the innkeeper reappeared, wearing an apron over his nightshirt and bearing a tray of tea and crumpets. He placed the tray on a table between Fudge and Harry and left the parlor, closing the door behind him.

“Well, Harry,” said Fudge, pouring out tea, “you've had us all in a right flap, I don't mind telling you. Running away from your aunt and uncle's house like that! I'd started to think ... but you're safe, and that's what matters.”

Fudge buttered himself a crumpet and pushed the plate toward Harry.

“Eat, Harry, you look dead on your feet. Now then ... You will be pleased to hear that we have dealt with the unfortunate blowing-up of Miss Majorie Dursley. Two members of the Accidental Magical Reversal Department were dispatched to Privet Drive a few hours ago. Miss Dursley has been punctured and her memory has been modified. She has no recollection of the incident at all. So that's that, and no harm done.”

Fudge smiled at Harry over the rim of his teacup, rather like an uncle surveying a favorite nephew. Harry, who couldn't believe his ears, opened his mouth to speak, couldn't think of anything to say, and closed it again.

“Ah, you're worrying about the reaction of your aunt and uncle?” said Fudge. “Well, I won't deny that they are extremely angry, Harry, but they are prepared to take you back next summer as long as you stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas and Easter holidays.”

Harry unstuck his throat.

“I always stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas and Easter holidays,” he said, “and I don't ever want to go back to Privet Drive.”

“Now, now, I'm sure you'll feel differently once you've calmed down,” said Fudge in a worried tone. “They are your family, after all, and I'm sure you are fond of each other – er – very deep down.”

“No we're not!” Harry exclaimed. “They've never been nice to me! I don't think they want me around because I ruin their image of a perfect family by being a wizard! They always try to keep me out of sight! They forced me to live in the cupboard under the stairs until I got my Hogwarts letter before my first year! And they never gave me any presents until I started to go to Hogwarts even though they gave tons of presents to my spoiled rotten cousin!”

Fudge looked very concerned.

“Well... That is shocking to here. Especially after Albus, err.. Professor Dumbledore, said he wished you to go live with your aunt and uncle saying they would raise you like their own son.”

'A person who I look up to and think of as a grandfather wanted me to go live with my aunt and uncle!' Harry thought. 'What was he thinking!'

“It was quite controversial at the Ministry. Especially when he said for the matter of your own safety that you're parents' will shouldn't be read or executed. He wanted you to live with you're mother's blood relatives to keep a blood protection charm your mother placed on you when she died in effect to keep you safe from any of You-Know-Who's followers that were still on the loose looking for revenge on what happened to You-Know-Who. The Ministry cannot turn a blind eye to your aunt and uncle mistreating you, blood protection or not. I need to act. They are people in the Ministry who can think of some way to keep you safe if you live with some other people. I'm going to order a reading of you're parents' will. In the mean time, given the current state of things with Sirius Black on the loose, I suggest you stay here at the Leaky Cauldron and not to wonder around muggle London. Just keep to Diagon Alley and you'll be safe.”

“What about my punishment? I broke the law. I did magic outside of school.” Harry asked.

“It was an accident. The Ministry does not send boys to Azkaban for blowing up their relatives.” Fudge replied. “Now, excuse me while I arrange for a room for you to spend the night in.”

Fudge left leaving Harry to wonder if the only reason why he wasn't going to be punished was because he just told the Minister of Magic that his aunt and uncle had treated him awful. Fudge returned and said that room 11 was available and that he'll be getting an owl from the Ministry about he's going to be living with sometime in the morning. Tom helped Harry take his stuff up to the room. Harry spent the rest of the evening sitting on his bed stroking Hedwig, who arrived 5 minutes after he did according to Tom, thinking about the events of the evening and who he will be going to be living with from now on before he decided to go to sleep.

The next morning, Harry woke up and went down to eat breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. When he sat down, he noticed a copy of The Daily Prophet on the table. Harry saw couldn't help but notice the day's top story.

Boy-Who-Lived Abused

by Rita Skeeter

Harry Potter, best known as the Boy-Who-Lived, has been discovered to have had been the victim of child abuse and neglect at the hands of his muggle aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. They were sentenced to 20 years in Azkaban Prison after during a trial held by an emergency session of the Wizengamont which Minister Fudge called for yesterday evening. During the trial it was revealed that the Dursleys had forced Harry Potter to live in a tiny cupboard in their house for almost 10 years, treating him like a badly behaved house elf, calling him names such as useless boy and freak. They also confessed to having a strong hatred of witches and wizards proclaiming that all magical folk should be burned at the stake. Who knows what other horrible things the Durleys did to their poor nephew while he was in their care that they choose not to confess to...

Harry couldn't read any more. A newspaper reporting about his home life was the last thing he wanted. Last year people were whispering and saying things about him behind his back when they thought he was the “Heir of Slytherin”. Who knows what they would do now.

Suddenly an owl dropped a letter on Harry's table. Harry looked at the letter and seeing it was for him from the Ministry, he decided to open it and read what it said.

Dear Mr. Potter,

A reading of your parents' will was done last night. Your parent's will is a binding magical contract meaning that all parties mentioned in the will have to obey it after its reading unless they want to have horrible things happen to them. According to your parents' will, they wished you to go live with your mother's second cousin Severus Snape. He will pick you up from the Leaky Cauldron 10:00 this morning.

Yours sincerely,
Mortus Deadums
Office of Magical Inheritance
Ministry of Magic

Harry couldn't believe it. He had to go live with his most hated teacher. Snape was a little better then his aunt and uncle. It seamed like at times that Snape would go out of his way to get Harry into trouble. The only difference between the Dursleys and Snape was that Snape saved Harry's life in his first year though Harry was told that was because Snape felt he was in Harry's father dept for saving his life.

Harry ordered breakfast but he found that he had lost his appetite. He ate what he could and went back to his room. He checked the time on the clock on in his room and saw he had a couple of hours until Snape was supposed to come and get him.

'I should do my potions homework while I'm waiting for Snape.' Harry thought. 'If he finds out I had done it yet, I wouldn't put it pass him to give me detention.'

Harry got started on his potions homework and before he knew it, it was 10:00. Snape was going to arrive to pick Harry up at any moment. At that exact moment, Harry heard a knock at the door to his room.

“Come in.” Harry said in a very unenthusiastic voice.

“Mr. Potter, Mr. Snape is here to uhh, collect you. Let me help with your stuff Mr. Potter.” Harry heard Tom say.

Harry got up and put his potions book and homework into his trunk. Tom and Harry procceed to go down stairs, Tom had put some spell on his trunk to follow them. Snape was down stairs wait for them with an blank expression on his face.

“Come with me Po.. Harry.” Snape said.

'Snape called me by my first name. Now that was unexpected...' Harry thought to himself.

Harry dragged his trunk as he fallowed Snape to an alley near The Leaky Cauldron.

“We will be Apperating to my house. I will need to teleport your trunk separately. Your owl will be able to find you so no need to teleport it.” Snape explained.

With a flick of his wand, Snape made Harry's trunk disappear with a pop. Snape then asked Harry to hold his hand and then without warning, Harry felt like he was been pushed threw a tight tube.

Next thing he knew, both he and Snape where standing outside of a house that looked like it had seen some better days. It appeared as if it hadn't been painted in a long time. Its yard was overgrown with weeds. For a person who demanded perfection from anyone outside of Slytherin house, he apparently could care less what his home looked like.

“Your trunk is in your room Harry which is upstairs, on your right. Proffesor Dumbledore said the wards that keep you safe from people harming you have collapsed. He said he will come by later on today to reset up the wards and do some explaining.” Snape said with an annoyed voice. Apparently he too wasn't too happy about this situation.

Once they were inside Snape's house, Snape said, “Harry, there are some things I need to tell you so why don't you sit down.”

Harry sat down on a couch opposite of Snape.

“First of all, I am rather stunned to find out you are not the spoiled, arrogant brat that needed to be shown your place I thought you were. In hindsight it was rather foolish of me to think that because your mother and your aunt grew up not to far from here and I knew your aunt had a dislike of magic.”

“You knew my mom and aunt?” Harry asked, not believing what he just heard.

“Yes. I knew your mom better then your aunt. I knew her before she knew she was a witch. I was the one who told her after I saw her do some magic on the playground not to far from her. Her and I were friends up until the end of our fifth year despite us being in different houses at Hogwarts.” replied Snape.

Harry just couldn't believe it. His mother was friends with Snape? How could that be possible considering Snape and his father hated each other he thought.

“I thought you hated my father...” Harry said before being interrupted.

“I did. Your father was an arrogant young man who strutted about the castle like he owned the place, hexing every other person he met in an attempt to impress your mother. Your mother refused to give him the time of day until him and his friends put me in a life threating situation in our sixth year and then decided to rescue me when he realized that he could get expelled for what he did, not to mention sentence one of his friends to death if the plan worked. Your parents weren't what you would call a couple until their seventh year.”

Harry was stunned. Hagrid told him that his parents were the nicest people he had ever met. Surely Hagrid wasn't ling to him... But then again, Hagrid thought dragons made good pets...

Harry, almost afraid to ask, asked “What did my dad and his friends try to do you?”

“One of your father's friends is a werewolf. During the full moon, he was sent to a building on the edge of the school grounds known as the Shrieking Shack so he could transform in private and not pose a threat to the other students who were unaware of his condition. Your father and his other friends thought it would be funny to trick me into seeing what your father's werewolf friend was doing in the Shrieking Shack. With the exception of the night of the full moon, a werewolf is just like any other person. But on the full moon, a werewolf would turn into a vicious, mindless monster. If I had gone into the Shrieking Shack, I would have been been killed or worse, turned into a werewolf. Either outcome would have resulted in your father's werewolf friend being sentenced to death by the Ministry. I'm fairly confident that your father's werewolf friend wasn't involved in that plot. If he wanted to die, he could have come up with a quicker method that wouldn't have caused so much trouble.”

Harry just couldn't believe it. 'Was my father really like that or is Snape just make that up?' he thought to himself.

“If you don't believe me, you can ask Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, or go into Mr. Filtch's office and see the filling cabinet that has all the student punishments stored in it.” Snape said. “In the mean time, go finish your homework.”

Harry went to his new room. It was plain and had a desk, a chair, a bed, a perch for Hedwin, and a closet, and a window that was open. Pretty much everything he needed. He found his trunk was in his closet, took out the stuff he needed to do his homework, and proceeded to go sit down at his desk and do his homework. After a few minutes, Hedwig arrived and sat on the perch. A few minutes later another owl flew into his room and dropped a letter on his desk before flying back out. Harry noticed the letter was from Dumbledore. He decided to open it.

Dear Harry,

I believe I may not be your most favorite person right now after what Minister Fudge said last night and have a lot of explaining to do. I'll be at your new home at 1:00 this afternoon.

Professor Albus Dumbledore

'He better explain himself.' Harry thought as he went back to doing his homework 'I can't believe it was him that made me live with the Dursleys...'

After a quite lunch with Snape, Professore Dumbledore showed up. The usual twinkle in his eyes were missing.

“I very sorry Harry for what you had to go threw. I just wish you would have come to me or one of your professors, or Madam Pomfrey about it rather then tell Minister Fudge. I suspected your aunt and uncle weren't treating you properly when you showed up on your first day a little thinner then I imagined you would be.” Dumbledore.

“If you suspected, then why didn't you find out? If Fred, George, and Ron didn't show up last summer, I would have died of hunger after I got that warning from the Ministry!” Harry borderline yelled.

“That's no way to talk to your headmaster young man.” Snape scolded.

“Its alright Severus. I deserved it. I make mistakes like everyone else. Being smarter and more clever then most other people, my mistakes then to be bigger the other people's. And this time, my mistake has cost you a normal childhood, Harry. Not to mention the potential to set back wizard/muggle relations back a few centuries. I should have listen to your mother's friends and not have trusted your aunt. I placed you with your aunt believing you would be loved and be safe from Voldemort and his followers. Not given just what was needed for you to survive. I failed you and your parents Harry. They trusted me and I let them down. I assumed that the charm that protected you from harm your mother placed on you when she took a death curse that was meant for you was something that was done unintentionally. It was not. According to your parent's will, when they were informed that Voldemort wanted to kill you, they researched out ways to keep you safe from harm and appointed blood relatives of theirs to take care of you depending on who died for you. Your mother discovered she was related to Severus here...” Dumbledore explained.

“I am related to her? How?” Snape asked.

“Your father and her mother were apparently cousins Severus. She found out by going threw Muggle records. The blood relationship between the two of you is barely what is needed for a blood protection charm to work. Another generation removed and it wouldn't work at all.” Dumbledore answered.

“Did you know that Snape was related to my mom?” Harry asked.

“No. I normally don't go threw muggle birth records. When I found out your mother had died protecting you, I didn't have time to research your mother's family tree. I knew of only one blood relative who you could live with.” Dumbledore replied.

“And why does Voldemort want to kill me?” Harry asked.

“Its because of a stupid prophecy made by that fraud of divination teacher...” Snape groaned.

“A prophecy?” a shocked Harry said.

“That fraud divination teacher that your headmaster hired made a prediction that a boy born at the end of July to parents who had thrice defied the Dark Lord would have the power to defeat the Dark Lord. There was more to the prediction but I didn't hear it all. The Dark Lord believed the prediction and narrowed the list of possible babies that it was about down to you.” Snape replied.

“Now, now Severus, Professor Trelawney is not a complete fraud. Her predictions that are real are far and few between. The one about Harry and Lord Voldemort was one of them as that the Department of the Mysteries was able to detect it being made. I hoped you wouldn't learn about the prophecy until you were much older, Harry, but after facing Voldemort in some form two years in a row, I think you should know the full prophecy. It goes, 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.'”

“Does that mean that one of us will have to kill the other? And what is this power that I have that he doesn't know?” Harry asked.

“Its a stupid self-fulfilling prophecy that will only come true because the Dark Lord believes it.” Snape said in an annoyed tone.

“But what about this power I have that he doesn't have?” Harry impatiently asked.

“Love. Voldemort does not know love of any kind, even the kind you have between you and your friends. Voldemort may have people he calls friends but he does not care about them. He would kill them in a heartbeat if it would suit his purposes.” Dumbledore answered.

“Back to the original subject, Harry, the protection charm that your mother placed on you, it has collapsed but it can be restarted. I strongly recommend it be restarted as soon as possible, especially after Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban. He is one of Voldemort's followers and according to the Ministry, escaped to kill you. Even if you put on some sort of disguise, there's the chance that he may find and kill you. The charm will only work as long as you consider Severus' home your home as well but with the reading of your parents will, you don't have much choice in that...” Dumbledore continued to say.

“After the past two years, I think I'll need it...” Harry said while remembering his past two years at Hogwarts.

“A very wise choice considering your knack for getting into dangerous situations.” Snape said with an almost sarcastic tone.

“Very well. I'll get started on restarting the charm. Once again, Harry, I'm sorry what you had to go threw with your aunt and uncle and I hope I can make it up to you.” Dumbledore said, taking out his wand and walking out of the door.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore informed Harry and Snape that the charm had been restarted. Dumbledore left leaving Harry to wonder how the rest of his summer will be like.