"I don’t need anyone." That’s what a five-year-old Harry said, bruised, bleeding, and shaking in his cupboard under the stairs. Of course, he didn’t say this out load for fear of big uncle Vernon getting out his belt to hit the freak again. After Harry burnt the eggs this morning uncle Vernon had hit him so hard and now Harry was thinking of ways to go away from the auntie, uncle, and cousin that hurt him so bad.
Harry brainstormed all through the night until he was confident that he had a fool proof plan. Here’s what would happen; when Aunt Petunia let him out of his cupboard then he would run to the door and head to the park where he would camp out until one of the nice moms that always bring their kids there would take him home with them. what could go wrong?
When Harry glanced at the cracked watch that he had stolen from Dudley he realized that it was almost time for step one; run past Aunt Petunia and avoid Uncle Vernon out the door. “GET UP YOU FREAK!", there came the familiar calling of his apparently cooking impaired aunt. The click of weak heels and the clang of locks told him that it was now or never. Harry leapt up and before Aunt Petunia could even register his presence, he was out the door. Harry dashed into the neighbors’ hedges to avoid Aunt Petunias beady eyes scanning the street for a sprinting little boy. Only when Harry shifted among the hedges did he remember the welts from the night before. He could barely feel them! "Like magic" whispered Harry. Aunt Petunia always became hysterical at the mention of such freakish and odd things. Though it looked like Aunt Petunia could do with a little magical help in finding Harry. She was half ways down the street before she turned around with a little shrug and went back to finish preparing the tea.
"Well time for step two then," thought Harry, feeling completely unbothered with Petunias neglectful attitude towards his care. Harry continued down the street towards the public park in more of a leisure stride than the sprinting he had planned for. “This is nice, no Dudley or piers," thought Harry as he neared the park. The playground appeared empty at this hour with all the children of the neighborhood most likely still in bed. The park was only occupied by a homeless woman feeding the crows with a bit of bird seed and two benches down sat a peculiarly tall man with a vast expanse of scars running across his arms and face. Curled up at the man’s feet was a large, shaggy, black dog. Harry could have sworn he saw this dog before at the London train station when they went to see aunt marge. "Must be another stray" thought Harry.
With the strange dog and the man with the funny scars in mind, Harry opted to set up camp in the opposite side of the slide. Harry got a funny feeling in his stomach as he walked to the bench. He could practically feel the dog and man following his movements. Just as he leapt up onto the bench, he heard paws slapping on concrete. He looked up just in time to see the dog take a seat right in front of him. “I don’t have any food to share, sorry boy." The fog just lightly tilted its head at this. "Go back to your owner please", said Harry a little more timidly this time.
The dog obediently trotted to the scarred man and lightly nudged him in Harry's general direction. The man turned his gaze to the frightened expression on Harry’s face. He stood up with a light creek of his knees and headed to the bench next to Harry. For a moment they both just sat and pretended that the other was not there. Then with another whine from the dog, the man cleared his throat. "Hello, my name is Remus."
"I’m Harry."
"Harry, do you have anybody with you at this park?"
"….no"
"How come?"
"Cause I font have a mommy or daddy and my auntie and uncle was being mean."
"Harry, do they know that you left?"
"…. They saw me and tried to stop me but they didn’t try super hard."
Remus took in the light bruises and the scar running across Harry’s soft looking face.
"Harry, were they hurting you"
The dog gave a little whine at the scarred man, no, Remus' question
"My uncle always hurts me. See he gave me this scar on my nose just like yours."
"I see…. Harry you are very brave for leaving them and I’m sorry that they hurt you."
"It’s ok I get hurt because I was doing bad cooking and being a freak."
The dog gave a large whine and bark at that.
"Aright" Remus choose to ignore that alarming answer in favor of a necessary question.
"Harry, where are you going to stay now that you aren’t with your relatives?"
"Right here on this park bench! It’s even bigger than my cupboard!"
"Ok……What if I offered you a nice warm bed. Harry, I recognized you because I was friends with your mommy and daddy. Padfoot and I have been trying to find you because your mommy and daddy said that we needed to take care of you if something happened to them. We have a place that you could stay if you wanted to."
"How do I know that you’re not one of the bad mans from the telly? You are a bit tall sir."
Remus laughed at the comment.
"Harry have you ever done something you couldn’t explain or a super cool trick when you were in trouble?"
"YAH!! I don’t like to do it too often cause auntie gets mad."
"Can you do it whenever you want Harry?"
"Yah but I have to squeeze my brain and think really hard."
Another topic that’s getting put on hold.
"Ok so I’m going to tell you something super cool, are you ready?"
"Yeah!"
"Harry I can do tricks like that too and it’s called magic. Your parents where magic and you got it from them. I went to a magic school with them."
"Woah…. So, Remus I’m not a freak?"
"Oh no Harry there are lots of kids lie you that do magic and even some have scars as well."
Harry gave a happy shimmy in his seat at that.
"So, Harry what do you say about a trip into the ministry in London to make sure its ok that padfoot and I bring you home."
"Alright, but if you’re a bad man then I’ll use my magics on you Remus and you to padfoot." Harry replied to halfheartedly with a slight glare at the dog.
And that’s what happened when Remus stopped Sirius from going for Peter and the aurors got the right guy. Remus and Sirius then spent years tracking the Dursleys until they landed in that very park on the fateful summer day. Sirius and Remus went on to get custody of Harry much to Dumbledore’s displeasure.