Remus had given him a handwritten list the next morning. There were more than thirty spells written down and Harry was thankful that next to each one Remus had written a short note about what it did. There were things like, 'Lumos - Torch' and 'Alohamora - Unlocking Spell'.

"Five per day," Remus told him as Harry looked down the list. "I want you to learn five per day. I know that's asking a lot considering your age, but we have to get these down. If you can handle more then we'll do more, but five is the goal right now."

Harry was ready. He'd dreamt last night of learning spells that turned aunt Petunia's hair blue and gave Dudley large mouse ears and made all of Uncle Vernon's work papers disappear whenever he was looking for them. Harry thought all of those would be useful things to know how to do.

"Some of these are first year spells, and others are second and third year spells. When you get your own wand next year these will be easier to preform than with my wand."

"What's wrong with your wand?"

"Just that it's mine," he explained. "They say that the wand chooses the wizard. The wand has to cooperate with the wizard for the magic to flow through it. My wand is used to my magic and may not be willing to work with yours, so it may take extra energy on your part to channel the magic through it. Ok, now watch closely and I'll show you how to preform a Lumos. It's one of the easiest charms." He waved his wand and said the incantation and then handed the wand to Harry. "You try."

Harry waved the wand and said "Lumos," and the tip lit up feebly.

"Did I do it?"

"Yes, you did. Could you feel the flow of magic from you to the wand?"

"It felt- strange. Like something was pushing back."

"It was the wand. Imagine the wand like a funnel and your magic is going through it from your hand to the tip of the wand and then out. The wand is resisting... like a blockage in the funnel. You may have to focus and force your energy through the wand. Try again."

Harry tried for almost twenty minutes before the wand tip lit up all the way, and when Remus was satisfied that he had that down, he used a pencil to check it off the list and they moved on to a levitation charm (which took Harry a full two hours to learn) and then an unlocking charm which Harry practiced on the lock on the outside of the wooden trunk.

"We'll break for lunch and then start again after to get the next two spells down." Harry felt rather pleased with himself having learned three spells already. His Wingardium Leviosa still left something to be desired, because he was struggling with the wand to get anything to levitate more than a few inches off the ground, but he'd managed the unlocking spell with almost no trouble at all.

Remus made cold sandwiches and finished his own quickly so that he could read aloud to Harry. Harry could tell that Remus felt a sense of urgency about teaching him certain things and wanted to use every spare moment to do so. As Harry ate his sandwich, Remus read to him from a history book about Voldemort and all of the chaos and terror he had caused.

"And Dumbledore thinks he'll come back to life?" Harry asked after Remus read him the last part about the attack on his parents and himself as a baby.

"He thinks the spell that bounced off of you reduced Voldemort's power but didn't kill him."

"What do you think?"

"I think it's a possibility."

"So I'll have to fight him eventually?"

Remus looked at him as he took Harry's plate and began cleaning it to put away.

"I think that we should cross that bridge if we ever come to it. Right now we have more important things to worry about, like getting through the list."

Harry nodded. Remus exuded a sense of purpose and Harry felt it too. He didn't feel in danger from Dumbledore because Remus was there with him and he'd never really encountered anyone else with magic in his memory except Remus, but the fact that Remus thought it was important to know the things on this list made Harry feel like he had to hurry up and learn them.

By dinner Harry had only learned four things. He'd hit a roadblock with number five, the Expelliarmus charm. According to Remus it was supposed to send a wizard and their wand flying, but Harry hadn't managed so much as a colorful sparkle out of the wand while trying it.

"That's ok, it's a third year spell," Remus told him after dinner, scanning down the list. "Let's try something else to get our five in today and you can practice that spell for a while until you get it. Here, let's try this one." Remus pointed his wand at the fire and said a spell and the fire went out, then he handed the wand to Harry.

"Point at the fire pit and say Incendio. Your hand will feel warm. Channel that through the wand and the fire should light. This way if we're ever separated at least you can keep warm at night."

Harry pointed and said the spell and though his hand felt warm the magic never passed through the wand. Remus showed him again twice more and by bedtime Harry had gotten the fire to light again.

"That's good Harry," Remus beamed at him. "That's five spells and you already know more than others your age." Remus put the fire back out and lead Harry inside the tent.

"I'll read to you while you get ready for bed," Remus said. But as he started to read, Harry was surprised to find that it wasn't out of the history book. It seemed to be some sort of bedtime story.

"What are you reading? Is this true?" Harry asked skeptically. The story was about a character named death and three brothers.

"It's Tales From Beetle The Bard. It's a childrens book."

"Oh... no one's read to me like that before."

"Do you want me to stop?"

"No. I like it." Harry sat crosslegged on his cot and listened until the story was over and Remus set the book down on the chest that was between the head of the two cots.

As Harry lay down on his pillow Remus said, "We're moving to a new location tomorrow after breakfast. We'll be apparating again. I'll show you a spell that's not on the list so you can help me pack. The faster we can pack when we have to move, the better."

"Where are we going?"

"Another forest. We'll have to stop for food first. We need to be certain that people don't recognize you. I have a hat for you to wear to cover your scar and we should trim your hair. You'll need to give up your glasses too."

"I can't see without them."

"There's a temporary spell that will fix your eyesight for one hour. It's one of the spells on your list, and we'll need to use it whenever we go for food or supplies. You can't use it more than once in a 24 hour period but it is useful for our purposes."

"Too bad there's not a potion to change my appearance."

"There is, but the ingredients are expensive and hard to come by."

"Oh, ok. Night Remus."

"Good night Harry."

The next morning Remus woke Harry before daylight and showed him the spell to pack up the tent. Harry tried but couldn't get it to work, so after Harry had his backpack on and everything he needed inside it, Remus said the spell and the tent collapsed in on itself and folded itself into smaller and smaller portions until it was small enough to fit into Remus' pocket. Remus also said shrinking spells for their chairs and a few other things and put those in his pocket as well. Harry took his hand again and they disappeared. When they came back out of the stifling blackness again they were on the side of a deserted road.

"We'll get food in the town a mile ahead. Something to remember is that we'll never get food in a place where we're going to stay nearby. We'll apparate again once we have our supplies."

As they walked Remus told Harry about the statute for secrecy and about how they couldn't use magic in front of other people. He also told him about the wizarding prison, Azkaban, and about Dementors, which he told Harry they would learn more about when Harry was older. It was just getting light out when they came to the edge of town and to a grocery store.

"Stick with me," Remus told Harry and Harry was determined not to leave his side. He didn't know how to apparate and was afraid that Remus might forget about him and leave him there. He didn't even know what town they were in. Remus put things like bread, eggs, canned goods and cereal into a basket and surprised Harry by putting a bag of candy in there as well. Harry didn't dare to ask if it was for him because no one ever gave him candy, but was surprised when Remus gave it to him once they were out of the store. They walked back to the edge of town, Harry eating his candy as they went and when there were no cars on the road, disapparated to their new camp location. They were deep in a forest where light filtered down through the tree canopy but there were no open spaces to roam around like the meadow they had been in before.

Harry watched as Remus pulled everything from his pockets and said spells to make them go back to their normal size and make the tent set up again, and then as he put up a spell around the area to keep Muggles away and make their location un-plottable. Remus explained things to Harry as he did them and Harry liked that. He liked hearing about the un-plottable spell especially, which would keep others from using map spells to find their location.

Once camp was in place, Remus had Harry go through the spells he'd learned the day before to practice them (which was a good thing because Harry had forgotten how to do the unlocking spell already) and then they started in on the list again. It was difficult, but Harry couldn't deny that he was having fun. Remus had informed him that if he ever did get to go to Hogwarts, he'd be ahead of his peers and be able to earn house points for knowing these spells. They stopped at lunch because Harry had learned all five spells (he could tell that Remus was surprised) and Remus pulled out a book, "The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1."

"I want you to read for an hour. Use a bookmark to mark your place. Then I'll ask you questions. If you can answer them all then you can keep the bookmark where it's at. If not, you have to move the bookmark back to a place where I tell you and start from there tomorrow."

Harry picked a soft spot at the base of a tree covered in moss and sat to read. The entire first chapter was about how useful certain spells could be and about the international statute for secrecy and why it was important. It took Harry the entire hour to read the chapter.

"Ready to answer some questions?" Remus asked, and Harry nodded. He did have to move the bookmark back several pages, but didn't feel bad about it and liked that Remus didn't scold him for answering two of the questions wrong. Remus gave him a break when they were done and Harry took the opportunity to explore for a while before Remus called him back and they talked about what Harry was supposed to do if they were caught.

"My priority is keeping you out of Dumbledore's hands," Remus said. "If we're caught... if someone comes walking into our camp, you're going to have to get as far away as possible."

"I can't apparate though. Are you going to teach me?"

"No, you won't be able to learn that until you're sixteen or seventeen. It's very difficult and dangerous if you don't do it right. One of the spells you're going to learn tomorrow is a masking spell. It will keep others from being able to find you, like the unplottable spell. It requires a password. Anyone with the password can find you. You and I will have the password."

"What's that?"

"Moony."

"Why moony?"

"I'll explain that to you when we're done talking about this. Now if someone were to come into camp, you're to take my wand and your bag and run out of earshot and preform the spell, and then continue to run and hide wherever you can. From now on when we go to a new camp location we'll walk around together and look for good hiding places."

"But what if they take you and I'm left alone?"

"That's why I'm teaching you the spells on the list. I'm also leaving Muggle money in the outer pocket of your bag so you can go into town if you need to for food. I have a map I'll show you before bed. It's charmed to show wherever we are and if you speak to it, it'll show you where you want to go. You'll need to start keeping that in your backpack."

"Can you find me if I have your wand?"

"I can. The particular spell you're going to learn only requires the password to be said to show me where you are."

Harry didn't feel good about this plan at all. He was only ten, how was he supposed to survive on his own?

"I'm confident it will be some time yet before anyone catches up with us, and in that time you're going to learn a lot about spells and we'll talk more about what to do and where to go if they catch up with us, but until then, this is the plan. Do you have any questions about it?"

Harry did but Remus was able to put some of his fears to rest as they talked more about it.

"Now about the name Moony..."

As Harry ate dinner that night in the darkness sitting next to the warm campfire, he shot Remus a curious look every few minutes, trying not to be too obvious that he was looking. Was he really a werewolf? He had said that he had potions to take to keep him safe, and showed Harry the magical metal stake that he had to cuff himself to a boulder or tree for three nights a month away from camp. Harry was worried though. Not so much about Remus coming to eat him alive, but about being left alone for three nights a month. He felt the pressure more to learn that list now than he had a few days ago when he'd left Private Drive with Remus.

"There's still 20 days," Remus told Harry, noticing how quiet he was.

"What?"

"20 days until the full moon. That's almost a month, and by then you'll have the list learned."

"Is the list really going to be enough?"

"It's a good start. The main thing is practice and knowing what spells to use in a given situation. You're going to have my wand while I'm out of camp. If you were older I'd be able to teach you some wandless magic."

"Can you do any?"

"Some, yes. It works the same as channeling your energy through a wand, only you have to have concentration enough to channel it through a hand, a foot, or any part of your body. Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort are both very skilled with wandless magic. That's also known as magery. There is also wordless magic and they are both skilled at that as well. Don't be fooled by anyone, especially those two if they don't have a wand or aren't speaking. That doesn't make them safe."

"I want to learn."

"You will, but you have to have all the basics down of learning with a wand first. I wish I was able to give you your own wand so you didn't have to struggle with mine."

"Can we somehow get another adult wizard's wand so we can both have one?"

"If we knew someone else we could trust, then yes. Many times an adult's wand is passed down to other family members when they die. Some families have boxes of them and others burn them because they have no use for them."

"I don't want to run off with your wand Remus. You know more than I do and you'll be defenseless and I'll be useless."

"I don't want you to worry about it Harry. I've already put enough on your shoulders. I want you to just concentrate on learning. Just do the best you can."

"I will." For the first time in his life, Harry felt like his best would be good enough. His best never cut it at home with the Dursleys, and he was always punished for his failures. Remus embraced his failures though and used them as teaching moments and had praised Harry for his successes. It made Harry feel wanted, and even special, and he didn't want to lose that by losing Remus.

* * *

"He is unstable. To take Harry from his relatives in such a manner... I don't understand why he would do such a thing."

Severus Snape stared blankly at the Headmaster. He seemed aggrieved and Severus could tell that Albus was leading up to something he wouldn't like. He knew the aging man too well. He was going to ask him to go and look for the brat and his idiotic kidnapper so they could return spoiled, pampered prince Potter to his family. He was willing to bet a galleon that the wolf was further spoiling the child, taking him to Quidditch matches and filling him full of sweets and teaching him how to respond to his fan mail.

"What do you wish me to do about it?" Severus said with a drawl. He didn't know why he even bothered to ask.

"You are a skilled spy and tracker. I would appreciate your help in finding them. I want to keep this out of the papers so we don't alert former Death Eaters, and that means keeping it away from the Ministry."

"School starts in five days. Do you expect me to give up my position to chase after the wolf?"

"Of course not. You've already turned in your lesson plans however and I am aware that your house is ready to receive it's students. You could get a start on searching before the start of the term, and also on weekends."

"And you want me to search nights too I suppose?" Severus almost spat it out. He had better things to do than running across the country and back. If the wolf wanted to get himself thrown in prison for kidnapping the Potter brat than so be it. Why not let the Ministry deal with it? They'd find him before any ex-Death Eaters could. Even Lucius Malfoy had other things to be getting on with other than searching for Potter. He knew for a fact that the man was busy running a scam aimed to rake in hundreds of Galleons to pay for another year of Draco's private tutoring before the boy started at Hogwarts next year.

"Severus, Harry is in danger. Imagine the full moon. I cannot pretend to understand Remus' reasons for taking him, but I believe he is unstable and perhaps mentally unable to comprehend the consequences of his actions."

That Severus couldn't deny. Anyone who was willing to kidnap the boy hero and go against Albus Dumbledore wasn't all there mentally. Not with the power the old man had with the Ministry. The idiot wolf had to know he'd never get away with it.

"You know of no reasons?" Snape asked skeptically.

"I do not."

"I know little about the wolf other than his inability to gain employment. Where do you suggest I start?"

"You're the tracker Severus. There are spells and potions to help you, are there not? I know you've been able to find people before who do not wish to be found..."

Severus sneered. Leave it to the old man to bring that up. He'd gone searching for Lily even though they'd had an unplottable house and a secret keeper and had found her. He'd been the one to remove the crying Potter brat from the house after Voldemort had left it in ruins. He had not betrayed their secret but Albus had once accused him of it before discovering that it was the criminal Sirius Black.

"I will not let this interfere with my duties here. My house and classes come first. I will however search for them before the term and when I have time."

"That is all I ask Severus."

Severus turned to leave and as he went out the door, he said, "Do not expect me to pamper and coddle the child when I find them."

Albus steepled his fingers in front of him as Severus left. If anyone could find them, it was Severus Snape.