Revelations of the past, Presently.
Harry sprinted from the platform as fast as he could, running down a long cobbled lane with stone walls penning him in on either side. If these people were to attack him, he realised, he had no hope of escape. He kept running for several minutes until he saw a side road up ahead. He threw himself against the wall of the side road and ducked down. He hadn't heard anyone chasing so he quickly poked his head above the wall, there was no one there, he was safe.
He sat for a time and caught his breath, looking around he realised he was at the entrance of a small town. Breathing a hopeful breath, he rose to his feet and cautiously began walking through the town. Glancing around furtively, he searched for an open shop; he had been told growing up that if he needed help after dark, that was the place to go. After a short while he found an open pub with a couple of men outside, he ran up to the older of the men, threw himself into the man's arms and sobbed "please, you've got to help me, I think they kidnapped me! Please help!"
After the man managed to detangle from the sobbing 11 year old, he took him gently by the shoulder and led him into the haggard barkeep. "Abe! I've got a lad out here who was cryin' and saying something about needing a nap! Figure I best leave 'im with you!" The man said, and then turned to leave again, stopping only at the bar to holler at the serving waiter for another.
Aberforth Dumbledore looked down at the scared young boy, with his burned clothes and tear stricken face, and felt a rare pull of compassion. "Right, everyone!" He shouted to the array of patrons, "I want you all out in half an hour! Finish your drinks then piss off!" And with that he stumped his way to a back room, leading Harry to follow.
He sat Harry down, gave him a cup of water, and shut the door. "Now then little man, what's this fuss all about then?" Abe asked, as close to kindly as he could manage.
Harry flinched at the man's gruff words, he tried to sip his water but was shaking so much that more went on the floor than in his mouth.
Aberforth muttered something to himself a moment, scribbled down a note on a ragged bit of parchment and stepped outside the room. He returned a moment later and sat back down, refilling Harry's cup in the process.
He sat and watched the little redhead boy. He was clearly terrified, seemed to be wearing very burnt clothes but looked physically unharmed himself. He was a little short but seemed in good health apart from the jitters, as if coming down from something. Aberforth had met enough Weasleys to be aware of the joke that every poor ginger would eventually turn out to be a Weasley but he doubted it in this case. The Weasleys for one thing all had brown eyes, and this young man had green eyes, the same shade as the old copper pipes running through the bar. Also, his hair colour was wrong, a Weasley would have orange hair and a ruddy redness in their face. But this boy was much redder than orange, his hair looked almost hot to the touch. In fact to look at the boy it almost seemed some of the burns on his clothes could have been caused by his hair! Finally, unlike a Weasley he was pale, very pale, as if he had never seen the sun at all. He could clearly see the blue blood running through the boys trembling wrists, as if only tracing paper separated it from the air. This boy was not a Weasley, which was good because if Molly found out something like this, whatever this was, had happened to one of her boys, hell wouldn't come close to what would be raised.
He was about to ask the boy his name when a sudden cacophony of shouting erupted from the bar area, just as he was rising to his feet he heard a loud Welsh woman bellowing out: "I don't care if he gave you half an hour I've given you 30 seconds! Now get out, Out! Out! Now! Move it! Watch it Gulliver i know where you've been going don't make me tell your missus! MOVE IT!" she screamed. The main door finally slammed shut and a heavy sigh was heard, before the side door into their little room opened and a middle aged woman came in, wiping her hands with a cloth. She folded it twice and then placed it neatly on the table. "Sorry about that pet," she said to Harry, "I just thought you might prefer to have a chat without people getting loud next door. Call me Poppy when you need to, but Nurse Pomfrey when you can ok?"
Harry nodded slightly, a little taken aback at the difference between the bellow and the polite and friendly greeting, plus a touch confused by the different names bit.
"Lovely, now then poppet, did Mister Aberforth get around to asking you your name or did he just sit silently at you like he normally does?"
Harry stammered a little bit before answering," oh, um, he hadn't, he hadn't asked yet i guess, sorry ma'am , um, Nurse Poppy, Pomfrey, i mean. Sorry..." He trailed away awkwardly. "Never you mind dear, not your fault he's a grump but at least he called me. And Poppy is fine as i said, so then young one, tell me: what's your name, and how come your clothes are all burned and you're not?" The kindly nurse asked brightly.
"Oh um, Harry, Harry Potter, and um, i was on this train, people were trying to kidnap i think, um, i mean, i got on the train willingly i guess but by the time i got off i could hear them trying to send me to a boat and I learned that was bad because that meant they were trapping me and selling me so I ran, but before that i got scared and when i get scared or upset or something fire happens? I don't know why, that's why they keep me sedated normally, no i don't, but it wore off, do you have more? I don't want to hurt anyone?" The young boy had started hesitantly but as he got talking it was clear he needed to speak, as if he had been pent up for too long.
The room was silent as the two adults looked at him.
"You're Harry Potter?" Aberforth asked, as Poppy stepped out of the room looking troubled
"Um yes, why have they reported me missing already? Were people looking for me? I should have been back by 7:30. I don't know what time it is now but I'm guessing it's later than that."
Poppy stepped back into the room, folding a bit of parchment into an inside packet of her jacket.
"It's 9:15 lad, and I don't know about the first bit but people have been certainly curious if not actively looking for a very long time, years even. You must know that?" Aberforth pushed.
"Um no, not, not really, why have people been looking for me? I've been at the orphanage for years?"
A silence filled the room again.
A deathly quiet whisper escaped from Madam Pomfrey's lips, "The orphanage?" She hissed.
Harry looked worried, "y-yes, I'm s-sorry? Should I have been somewhere else?"
"Yes!" The nurse and the barkeep said together, "But it's not your fault you weren't!" Poppy added. She went on, "We are going to want to know more about that later ok pet? But we're waiting for someone else to arrive first ok?"
"Um, ok?" Harry responded, bewildered at the fact these people clearly knew who he was, but he had no idea why.
"So Harry, why did you think this was a trap? Surely someone explained it all to you? Explained what Hogwarts was?" Poppy asked? Calm once again.
"Well i got a letter, which i thought was cool because an owl dropped it off, so i gave the owl a bit of paper that said ok and i didn't hear anything else. So i assumed it was a cool trick with a well trained owl but no one explained anything, i only knew about the cool platform because i followed a large family talking about it so they must have got the owl as well i guess."
Aberforth muttered about bloody Weasleys under his breath, confident in the knowledge they were the only large family with such a shortage of tact around muggles.
"So how did you get your equipment, and your robes?" Poppy pressed on, ignoring the old man.
"Um, I didn't, I didn't know where to get them so I didn't. Is that going to be a problem?"
"Not for you lad, Not for you." Aberforth said. Before muttering about useless old men. Poppy stood up, left the room, and returned a few moments later.
"Right pet, you sit there and have a sip or two of your water. We're going to pause while we wait for the headmaster to arrive, I'm going to shout at him a bit, and then we'll pick things back up again ok?" Harry nodded, incredibly confused about what was going on but broadly of the belief he was probably safe, at least with this lady.
He pitied this headmaster though, she seemed like someone who was good at shouting.
They all sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping various drinks until the door to the bar creaked open. An older pair walked into the room, the woman in a severe black gown and pointy hat. The man was in vibrant robes, with a gentle concerned look on his face. "ALBUS!" Poppy shouted at him as he entered, and suddenly he looked quite nervous.