Harry wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or worried to be taken from the Dursleys. He'd practically begged Dumbledore to let him stay over the summer for the past two years, and had always been told no. Harry knew better than to tell the Headmaster why he didn't want to go back. No one ever believed him and when they did and began to question the Dursleys, Harry always ended up worse off than before. This time someone had seen something though and reported it to the authorities.

A new neighbor had moved in behind the Dursleys on the next street over, the week before Harry had returned from Hogwarts for the summer. There was a fence separating the back gardens of both houses, but the new neighbor had been out mowing his neglected lawn when Uncle Vernon had roughly shoved Harry out of the house into the back to punish him for not getting his long list of chores done. The yelling alone was enough to make the neighbor peek over the tall fence, and neither Harry or Uncle Vernon noticed the onlooker or knew that anyone had seen until the police showed up at the front door half an hour later. Harry was in the cupboard under the stairs nursing his wounds and stilled at the sound of the doorbell ringing. He listened carefully as Aunt Petunia answered the door and laughed at the accusations from the neighbor as if they were absurd. "We only have one boy living here," she told them, "and that's our dear Dudley." There was a pause and then his aunt called into the living room for Dudley, who Harry knew didn't have a scratch on him.

"Son, would you mind telling us who lives here?" someone, presumably one of the officers asked.

Harry could tell Dudley had something in his mouth by the way he spoke. "Me, mum, dad. That's it. Can I go back to watching the telly mum?"

"Yes dear of course."

There was a muffled sound and then Harry heard another voice. "That's not true. That's not the boy I saw. He had black hair and glasses and he was getting the tar beat out of him! He has to be in there!"

"There is NO other boy here!" Aunt Petunia said right next to the cupboard door, and Harry took this to mean that he'd better keep quiet or he was going to be in worse trouble when his uncle got home. He'd gone for take out when he was done with Harry in the back garden. He always went for take out after punishing Harry so that he could further torture him by letting him smell the delicious food he wouldn't be allowed to eat.

"Maam, if you don't mind, we'll need to search the house."

"This is absurd," she said, and Harry could tell she was flustered. "What will the neighbors think?"

"He's got to be in there," the neighbor voice said again, and Harry heard heavy footfalls like people wearing boots had walked in.

"I'll check upstairs," one voice said and the other made a murmuring noise.

Harry heard footsteps above his head on the stairs and it was a few moments before the other office asked, "What's in there?"

"Brooms and cleaning supplies."

"Open it up."

"No, I don't think I will. You can just wait until my husband gets home to sort this all out."

"Step aside or I'll have to restrain you."

"Of all the-"

Harry wasn't sure what to do. He could make a noise and let them know he was there and spare himself another summer of torture, but if he did that he might not be able to get back to Hogwarts, because who would believe him that he was a wizard and a famous boy hero? He could silently send a locking spell at the door, but he knew that just for the police showing up looking for him there was going to be trouble when Vernon got home. Uncertain, he sat there, frozen in the darkness.

The door handle jiggled and then opened. Harry squinted as light flooded into his cramped space.

"It's all right son, come on out."

Having no choice now, Harry got up and came out. He was really too big for his room under the stairs now that he'd grown several inches, and he was glad to have the room to stand up and stretch.

The other officer came back down the stairs and Harry was able to get a good look at everyone now instead of imagining from their voices. The neighbor was on the porch looking in through the front door. He was rather scrawny and wore glasses just like Harry. Both of the officers were male, and fairly skinny though the one that had found him had large muscles.

"What happened to you?" big muscles asked. Harry looked at his nametag and read to himself, 'Officer Buckley.' Harry shook his head. No, Uncle Vernon would come home and talk his way out of this like he always did. They'd tell them that it was a misunderstanding and that Harry was bruised from picking fights with other kids and the officers would leave, and then Harry'd really be in for it.

"It's ok, you can tell us."

Harry looked to Aunt Petunia who shot him a venomous look while she covered her mouth, as if she were horrified that this was happening. Harry could tell the officer wasn't going to quit though.

"I get into fights," Harry said. "I go to St. Brutus' School for the Incurably Criminal." There, maybe his punishment wouldn't be so bad if Aunt Petunia told Uncle Vernon that Harry had tried to help.

The two officers gave each other a look and the nosy neighbor butted in again. "I know what I saw. The beefy man who lives here was wailing on him in the back garden."

"Is that true?" the officer who had gone upstairs, 'Hughes' asked.

Harry shrugged. He'd already lied, what else could he do?

"Come outside," Hughes said and Harry followed him out to the front with the neighbor while Buckley started asking Aunt Petunia more questions and she seemed too flustered to answer in complete sentences.

"Who lives here?" Hughes asked.

"Me, my aunt, my uncle, and my cousin," Harry said.

"And your parents, where are they?"

"Dead."

"How long have you lived here?"

"My whole life."

"And how often does this happen?" Hughes asked, motioning to Harry's face and arms. Harry hadn't seen himself in the mirror yet, but he knew he had a black eye and a split lip. His hair was probably a mess too.

Harry shrugged.

"Do you really go to St. Brutus'?"

He shook his head. "They send me to another boarding school most of the year, but they tell everybody I go to St. Brutus'."

"Do you have other family?"

Harry looked up. He'd been hugging his shoulders and staring at the grass up until this point. What should he say? He couldn't really pass himself off as a member of the Weasley clan, and in any case they had no phone so he wouldn't be able to give the officer a number to call them. He shook his head.

"And your uncle did this to you?" the officer asked. Harry shrugged. There was the sound of a car engine turning up the drive at that moment and Harry stood straight and stepped around the officer to put himself out of sight. Uncle Vernon was back.

"That's him," said the neighbor. "That's the man I saw doing this."

Buckley came out of the house then and Harry took advantage of the fact that both officers were now occupied dealing with an irate uncle Vernon. He backed away carefully and then turned and ran. He had his wand with him but that was all. Hedwig had gone to stay with Ron for the summer and he'd sent his trunk home with Ron as well. The only thing he ever brought back during the summer was a few pairs of clothes because he was always afraid his uncle would burn his possessions from school.

Harry turned a corner and went down Magnolia Crescent and then turned another corner. If he could hide out for a while then he could figure things out. He'd have to find a way to contact Hogwarts or else get to Ron's house. He didn't know of anyone connected to the Floo and he wasn't sure if he could try to wrangle just any old owl to send a message for him. Two years in the wizarding world, he mused, and he still didn't have a proper way to get ahold of anyone when he really needed it.

It had been almost an hour since Harry had run off when a police car rolled up next to him as he walked down the sidewalk and the window rolled down. Officer Buckley was driving and Harry noted that the back seat was empty. So they hadn't arrested uncle Vernon or aunt Petunia. Harry was right. They were going to send him right back there.

"Where do you plan on going?" Buckley asked.

Harry shrugged as he walked and said, "You're going to take me right back there."

"Am I? If I am it's only to get your clothes and belongings." He steered carefully as he followed Harry down the street at a snail's pace.

"What do you mean?"

"The house is empty. Your aunt and uncle have been taken into custody and a social worker already came by to collect your cousin."

Harry was skeptical. That never happened. The police had been out twice before in his remembrance and both times Harry had paid a heavy price.

"It's true," Buckley said. "Officer Hughes took them. Mr. Banks is going to make a statement against them and you should come downtown to make one too."

"And then what?"

"Then we can take you to a youth home."

"I don't have a choice do I?"

The officer looked sad even though he was still trying to smile, possibly to coax Harry into the car so he wouldn't run. "Unfortunately not. It'll be better than where you came from, that much is for sure."

Harry stopped walking and Buckley stopped the car and opened the passenger door for Harry to get in. He took him back to the house and watched as Harry stuffed his two shirts and one pair of pants back into his tattered bag from the cupboard under the stairs.

"That it then?"

Harry nodded.

"Come on. I'll take you for a meal before we go to the station."

After he'd bought Harry a box of take out he took him to the police station and took down a report where Harry gave them a minimum amount of information and a mixture of lies, including that his parents had died in a car crash when he was a baby. Hughes and Buckley were going off duty by the time they were finished with Harry, so another officer took Harry to a youth home for boys on the opposite side of town from Privet Drive.

"Wait," Harry said when the female officer stopped outside the Hamilton Home For Boys.

"What is it?"

"My cousin... he's not here is he?"

"There's another home for boys a few blocks away. I don't know which one they took him to. Why?"

Harry bit his lip. He was already in enough trouble as it was and didn't need Dudley there trying to kill him for causing all of this. "No reason," Harry said.

She took him inside and Harry was dismayed to find out that the door worked on some sort of lock that could only be controlled by the office, meaning he couldn't come and go as he pleased. When he was signed in, the officer left, and Harry was alone with more people he didn't know.

"Got another new boy this afternoon," the director said by way of a greeting as he lead Harry down a hall with ten or more doors. "Name's David but most call me Dave."

"Dudley Dursley?" Harry asked of the other newcomer.

"How did you know?"

"My cousin."

"Same home eh. Well he didn't come in looking like you. You'll have to see the nurse first." He opened the door at the very end of the hall, which lead to another hall, and at the very end of that hall was a nurses office. It was a male nurse and Harry doubted he'd be as gentle as madam Pomfrey was whenever he ended up in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.

"Sit there," the man said. "You got it good didn't yeh? Any injuries that aren't currently visible? No? All right, we'll get you some ice then for that eye and the bruise on the side of your face. Not much else I can do."

Harry stood patiently and waited for the nurse to come back with a baggie of ice from a freezer. "If you get hurt here, come back here immediately."

With a nod Harry was released with Dave who lead him off down yet another hallway. "We serve three meals a day and take care of any court appointments you might have. You'll go to the local school when summer's over." No I won't, Harry thought to himself, feeling grumpy. I'll have to get to London to catch the Hogwarts Express. They can just count me as a runaway.

"Do we get to go outside?" Harry asked.

"There's a garden in the back and there's a trip to the park three times a week, but you only get to go if you've got enough points. You get points for good behavior and doing chores, and you get points taken away for fighting and breaking the rules. Points count for everything here including phone usage, telly time, deserts, and trips into town."

Harry listened carefully to the rules and was soon given toiletries and deposited into a bedroom with four bunk beds and a desk. It was cramped and much smaller than his dorm in Gryffindor. Harry was dismayed to find that he wasn't alone in the room. Dudley was on a bottom bunk and he didn't look up when Harry entered.

"If you need something or are confused about the rules, ask," Dave said, and then he left when Harry didn't say anything.

Dudley looked up and Harry was surprised to see that he had a split lip and a bruise on his chin.

"What- what happened to you?" Harry asked. He'd never really seen Dudley hurt before and wondered briefly if Uncle Vernon had done it or if Dudley had gotten into it with the police.

"I hate you," Dudley said. "This is your fault. I would still be at home right now if you'd just done your chores."

"I lied," Harry said. "I didn't tell them anything. It was that neighbor."

"I still hate you. You always ruin everything. As soon as I got in they ganged up on me and did this. This would never happen at home."

"To you," Harry said bitterly. There was a bottom bunk across from Dudley that had sheets and a blanket folded up on the end, and Harry sat down on it. "Who ganged up on you?"

"The other boys here, who else?" Dudley gave Harry a good looking over too and didn't stop glaring at him even though Harry looked a lot worse off. "What did they tell you about mum and dad?" he finally asked.

"Nothing. I don't know what's happening."

"If mum and dad don't get out of jail I'll never be able to go back to Smeltings."

If they do or if they don't, Harry thought, he wasn't confident in his chances to be able to get back to Hogwarts. No one in the wizarding world knew where to look for him except at Privet Drive.

"Don't go out alone," Harry told Dudley as he started to make his bed. Dudley's still wasn't made yet as the boy was still sitting and looking sullen on his bare mattress.

"Who do you think you are telling me what to do?" Dudley asked angrily but without any real enthusiasm.

"The only person you've got right now to back you up," Harry said, and he could only hope that Dudley would have some sense and be there for him if any of the other residents tried to give him trouble. Harry had his wand in a hidden inner pocket in his jeans, but he didn't want to get in trouble for using it. He could use it and get someone from the Ministry to come out or send an owl, but he was more afraid of being expelled than spending the summer there at the Hamilton Home For Boys.