Shacklebolt knocked the Dursley's door. Petunia opened and took a step back. She obviously seemed frightened.

"It's about Harry isn't it? He has been telling lies again? Broke something? What did he do?"

Shacklebolt mustered the lady that did not resemble her sister at all.

"No Mrs. Dursley, he has not. Harry never complains. However, I have to say that I am worried about his welfare. He does not fit his clothes, he is dressed inappropriate for the weather... He is not always clean and he seems to be hungry a lot. The school nurse also says that he shows bruises that are definitely man-made and is underweight."

Petunia looked around to see if Harry was coming out his shed, but he did not. She also looked at the neighbours houses, but no one... but Mrs. Figg again, seemed to be watching. As much as Petunia liked Arabella, she was quite glad that her hearing was going and she couldn't hear the conversation.

"Mr. Shacklebolt. As you might have noticed. Harry is different from other children. He frightens them. He steals, he does not care about personal hygiene. He also refuses to eat and hits himself. If you want my opinion, he is a freak. I should never have raised him. Out of the kindness of our hearts we took him and he gives us no reason to be proud of him. He is just like his mother. She was a freak, too you know..."

Petunia suddenly stopped, she obviously realised that she had said too much. Kingsley could hear a loud crack behind him. Snape had come out the shed. Kingsley threw a quick look inside and saw that the shed was clean, bigger and a little magic fire was burning. It also had a bed in it. Harry's bruises were almost gone, his glasses fixed and he had an astonished look on his pale, thin face. Snape gave a quick flick of his wand and a big, steaming plate came flying out the kitchen towards the shed Harry was sitting in. He then gave another flick and the shed door slammed shut. Dudley came running to his mum, sobbing.

"My breakfast mum, it just flew away! Mum! Muuuuuuuum!"

Shacklebolt and Snape mustered the fat pig-like boy with disgust. When Dudley saw the two men, he ran inside and upstairs. Dudley must have been very scared to forget about his dinner, Kingsley thought. He turned around to Snape, whose back was turned to him ad Petunia. He was looking through his bag, probably searching for the right potion.

"Mr. Shacklebolt, I can assure you, the boy is fine. He was in a huff and decided to hide in the shed to play hide and seek with his favourite cousin Dudley. If it was my choice, I wouldn't have him here. He is a monstrosity, you need to be very careful around him. His mother was a monstrosity. She had to go to St. Brutus when she was a teenager. Incurable."

Suddenly, Snape pointed his wand at Petunia and from here on, Kingsley Shacklebolt was merely a watcher. Quck-witted, he cast a silent muffliato spell, so that the boy and the neighbours wouldn't hear the conversation. He did wonder, why the potions master suddenly seemed so agitated after Petunia's last words.

Petunia's face expression changed to... a mocking and amused one.

"Look who came to visit. Scum boy. I am not scared of you. Tell me, have your drunk parents killed each other yet? I am so sorry I'm not up to date with the Spinner's..." her spite would have been good enough for a Death Eater "...End gossip. Maybe you can fill me in."

She sneered.

Snape seemed to have lost his voice.

"Have you finally found a pair of trousers that is not too small? Still weeping every day Snivellus, eh? Did you know I came up with that name in primary school? You were such a crybaby... Still wetting your bed? Have you washed your hair since I last saw you - let me think, more than ten years ago? You stopped coming to our house, thank God! Put that thing down, how could I be scared of a loser like you..."

"SILENCIO!"

Snape roared. But Petunia was faster. She bent down to escape the spell but at the same moment took the wand out of Snape's trembling hand.

"Oh Snivellus. Did you not know that every family who has a freak amongst them gets that book. 'Defense for muggles'? No? I bet your filthy father couldn't even read. You are such freaks, always expecting magic, never thinking that normal people can defend themselves, too. Came by surprise, didn't it?"

Shacklebolt turned towards Snape. He got such a fright when he saw his face that he took a step backwards. Petunia examined Snape's wand with curiosity and then looked back up to Snape, still with an amused expression. Snape's face had turned into an ugly grimace, pure hatred and anger as well as raw - raw pain. Kingsley's jaw dropped. Snape looked as if he was going to kill that muggle woman. She seemed not scared at all and with a loud crack she broke his wand.

"Had to do it to defend myself, didn't I? Did you know muggles can break wands?"

It took Shacklebolt a while to find his breath again. This was not how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to put her under pressure, not the other way around.
Petunia gazed at Snape, not being at all intimidated by his murderous expression. Maybe she had seen it before?

"Neither of you are allowed to curse or in fact cast any spells. The ministry will know within seconds and will arrest you. And besides - Snivelly - I don't know if you really want them to find out that it was in fact you who are responsible for this. It is your fault I have to bring up that disgusting child. I cannot believe your hipocricy. First you have her killed and then you tell me what to do? Why did you do it? Jealousy? Stupidity? Powerhungry?"

Shacklebolt had a suspucion what they were talking about and knew he had to act before something deadly happened. Snape was frozen, his fury almost inhumane. He seemed in shock, not able to do anything. And, he didn't have a wand. With a flick, Petunia threw the wand into the fireplace behind her. She did not stop looking at Snape. Arrogantly and with disgust.

"You are despicable." She hissed and spat on Snape's shoes.

Kingsley pointed his wand at the disarmed professor and shoved him inside the shed where Harry Potter was. Then he walked up to Mrs. Dursley and pointed his wand at her throat, tightly clutching it.

"Listen, Dursley, listen. No one will be arrested by the ministry for casting spells here because I AM the ministry."

It was a bit of an exaggeration but Kingsley hoped she didn't know too much.

"If you do not feed the boy and look after him properly you will go to Azkaban. This is illegal. Harry Potter is a wizard, just like we are and thousands of other people are. You muggles would all - ALL be dead without the wizardry world. Do you understand? Do you know about Azkaban? An expression of horror crept over Petunia's face. She looked at the shed where Harry and Snape were sitting in. Then she nodded.

"I will keep him alive Mr. Shacklebolt. I will make sure he is physically unharmed but that is all I can promise. Take him away."

We will be back. And we will. And remember, until then, I am deputy headmaster. I will check on Harry every day and will question him. Professor Snape here, he is a very gifted legilimens, in muggle words, a mind reader, and if Potter refuses to give information because he has been threatened by you - the professor will read his mind and see everything. Everything. We will be taking him away shortly, there just needs to be some bureaucracy done. Now get out of my sight. And something else..."

He came up with the deepest voice he could muster..

"YOU are the despicable human being."

Harry hadn't heard any of the conversation.
Shacklebolt flicked his wand again and the front door slammed in Mrs. Dursley's face. He then turned around and crawled into the shed to see to Potter and Snape. Harry was eating. Snape had his back turned towards Harry and, with shaking hands, mixed some kind of potion, only to administer it to himself.

Harry seemed to be moving faster, his face had brightened up and the swelling was gone. Snape mixed another potion, turned around to Shacklebolt and asked wordlessly for his wand.

After a second of hesitation, he passed it to him. Snape produced a small bottle of light blue potion and ordered Harry to drink it. Shacklebolt smiled a little. Usually all of Snape's strengthening potions smelled disgusting and tasted even worse. This one smelled of Eucalyptus. Snape was perfectly able to make all his potions taste nice.

Shacklebolt pointed his wand at the shed and it returned back to how it was. Only clean, tidy and with fixed bikes. He also cast a protective spell at Harry, not too noticable for the muggles, but enough to keep him from being seriously harmed. He also filled one of the cupboards with different kinds of food.

"Harry Potter?"

The child sat up quickly.

"We will be back soon to get you. You cannot stay here."

Harry nodded and the two men apparated at a spot close to Hogwarts.
They had a short walk ahead of them. Kingsley hoped, that they were able to convince Dumbledore that Potter was in grave danger not only of being beat or starved to death, but also to lose his magic.

Shacklebolt gave Snape a quick look. The potions master looked completely burnt out. Beyond exhaustion. His skin was white, nearly green. At the first bench on the way to the castle Snape sat down and stared at his trembling hands.

"Go" he croaked. "Go, I am right behind you, I just need to..."

Shacklebolt shook his head. They were both supposed to give a report immediately. And the professor didn't look well at all. Snape, who had completely sank down in the bench raised his head a little, but did not show his face.

"GO! NOW!! Leave. Me. Alone."

"I will send an owl to Ollivander so he can get a new wand made for you. If you don't appear in Dumbledore's Office within a few minutes, I will send him here.

He turned away from the professor and ran towards the castle. A confundus spell hit him in the back, so hard that he fell. A stern and angry voice murmured something to him.

"Shacklebolt. You have seen nothing out of the ordinary today. Potter was well looked after by his relatives, he looks healthy. The bruise Mrs. Figg was talking about came from an incident where Potter tried to hex his cousin just because he discovered that he could. He is just like his father but the Dursleys have accepted Potter and are doing everything to make up for his loss. They spoil him."

Kingsley blinked and seemed confused. For a moment he didn't know what he was going to do before he remembered. He had to tell Dumbledore that Potter was doing just fine.