Story Summary: Harry Potter and his friends in the Amity Association prepare to start their second year at Hogwarts, but a strange warning from a house-elf puzzles them. Once at Hogwarts, an outrageously stuck-up Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and signs that the warned-of danger are coming true threaten to complicate matters.

Disclaimer for entire fic: I do not own Harry Potter and all related works. It is the property of the fantastic write J.K. Rowling and I am merely playing in her universe.

"Ugh," Harry muttered, grabbing his second pillow and placing it on his head. It was the second time that night that he'd been woken up thanks to Matt crying. True, Sirius had volunteered to put up some sort of Silencing Charm on Harry's bedroom door so that Matt's crying wouldn't wake him during the night. However, Harry had refused, since there were the drawbacks that the spell would also keep sound from leaving his room and if there was an emergency, he'd have to be told in person or (if it was in his room) he'd have to leave his room to tell someone.

A minute later, Matt's wails cut off as either Sirius or Lia dealt with whatever was problem. Harry removed the pillow and wondered when his adoptive brother would sleep through the night. He had a feeling that it wouldn't happen for a few months yet, and by that time, he'd be back at Hogwarts. He just hoped that next summer Matt would be able to get through the night without waking up. That was the most annoying thing about dealing with a baby, in Harry's opinion, though he supposed having to change a dirty nappy would be just as annoying if his godparents had actually expected him to do that. Fortunately, his main interaction with Matt had been giving him his bottle and rocking him to sleep, both activities Harry enjoyed (except for the one time he'd forgotten to place a towel on his shoulder and Matt had ended up spitting all over the back of Harry's shirt after being burped).

At breakfast, Harry asked, "When is Matt going to sleep through the night?"

"Not for at least six months, I believe," Lia answered apologetically. "If the being woken up during the night is getting too bothersome, you could spend a few nights over with Ron. Mum and Dad have said that you're welcome to stay anytime, and you know Ron would be happy to have you over for a sleepover."

"I might do that, Aunt Lia," Harry said. "I love Matt and all, but it would be nice to get an uninterrupted night's sleep every once in a while."

After breakfast, he spent a couple of hours working on his summer homework, with a little help from Sirius over the Transfiguration essay. When that was over, Harry fetched the AA notebook, as for some odd reason, he wasn't getting any letters from any of his friends that he didn't constantly visit, except for Justin, who had sent his two letters via Muggle post. Ron, Hermione, and Neville had no problem with getting post from the rest of the AA, which made Harry's situation look even stranger, so after two weeks of this, the others decided to send his letters to those three and have them pass it on to Harry when they visited or correspond via the notebooks. In Theodore's case, he communicated exclusively via the notebooks, since his father kept a strict watch on the post.

Theo, is anything going on since you last wrote? Harry wrote in his notebook. You said your father was angry at you after the first week of the holidays and then we haven't heard anything from you other than a brief message every few days to assure us that you're alive.

The message disappeared a few seconds after being written. Harry waited for a reply, but there was nothing from Theo. Instead, Daphne wrote, saying, "I'm really worried about Theo. Writing 'Hey guys, I'm still here, don't worry about me' isn't exactly keeping us from worrying. I know Mr. Nott has something of a temper at times, and I'm afraid he could take it out on Theo, especially as Theo's views towards non-purebloods have changed."

Harry shuddered, as Uncle Vernon's idea of taking out his temper had been to yell at his nephew and then beat him with a belt, not something Harry wanted any of his friends to experience. "Let's hope nothing has happened to Theo," he wrote back. He picked up one of his Muggle fantasy books to read while waiting for a reply from Theodore, but by lunchtime, there was still no response. The rest of the AA had written, all expressing worry over Theo, and Daphne even contemplated getting her parents to visit the Notts (even though they rarely associated outside of parties and other formal events) just to make sure he was fine.

It wasn't until Harry was making plans to visit Ron and spend the night that there finally was a reply from Theo. The handwriting was so shaky that it wasn't even recognizable as Theo's and it read, "Harry, this is Theo. Something's happened and I'm going to come over with my stuff. Expect me to be there in a few minutes with Peri. Tell your godparents that I ask for their aid and protection."

Harry stared at the note in shock until the writing faded away a minute later, then managed to recollect himself and went to the kitchen, where his godparents were preparing Matt's bottle. "Theo finally wrote back and said he's coming over here with Peri and his things. He's asking for your aid and protection, so I think something bad happened."

Lia and Sirius exchanged worried looks. "We'll take care of things," the former said. "Sirius, please feed Matt while I get Eric and Ellie over here. Harry, wait in the living room for Theodore and Peri, was it, and get me if they show up before Eric and Ellie do."

Harry rushed to the living room, inwardly freaking out. If Lia felt the need to have her two friends that were the Black family lawyer and a healer respectively present, then that meant she felt that things were really bad for Theodore. Harry paced the room for a couple of minutes, then realized that if Peri were to bring herself and Theo via the house-elves' form of Appariation they could potentially land on top of him and forced himself to sit down on the sofa. It was a good thing he had done so, for mere seconds after that, there was a crack and Theodore, a female-house elf dressed in a smock made out of a pillowcase, and the former's trunk appeared in the middle of the room.

Harry jumped up and screamed for his godparents, since a single glance showed that his friend was clearly in pain and had a bruise on his cheek. A second glance showed that he could barely stand and Harry immediately steadied Theodore and helped him lie, face-down, on the couch. The house-elf, Peri, looked extremely distressed and cried, "Master Theodore's father was hurting him! Please help Master Theodore!"

There were two cracks out in the hallway and seconds later, Lia burst into the living room, followed by Eric and Ellie. Ellie shooed Harry to one side and proceeded to give Theodore a Pain-Numbing Potion, followed by running a Diagnostic spell. Her eyes narrowed in anger upon reading the result and after getting his permission, she took a few pictures of his injuries for documentation purposes before continuing with the healing.

Sirius came into the room, having fed Matt and put him down for a nap. "What happened?" he demanded, taking in the scene.

"Someone, I expect Mr. Nott, has beaten Theodore with a cane and hit him hard enough to give him a bruise on his cheek and more on his arms," Ellie responded, her voice tight with anger.

"My father was fed up with my refusing to turn on my friends or stop being a blood-traitor," Theo whispered. "He decided today that he was going to teach me the 'error of my ways'. He did try to hit me with some Stinging Hexes, but I was wearing my ring, so the Shield Charm on it activated and causes the hexes to bounce off. I pretended that I must have subconsciously done some magic to protect myself from spells so he wouldn't know about the ring and take it from me. When it was over, he said that he would have done the Cruciatus Curse too if it weren't for the Trace."

"The Crucy-what Curse?" Harry asked.

"Cruciatus Curse," answered Eric. "It's one of the three Unforgiveable Curses and causes extreme pain. Tom Riddle and his Death Eaters liked to use it in the war to torture people. Performing any of the three Unforgiveable Curses on a person results in an automatic sentence in Azkaban."

"Your father would have tortured you magically if he didn't have to worry about being caught, Theodore!?" Harry exclaimed in horror.

"Yes," Theodore whispered. "Harry, please don't say anything about this to our friends just yet. I'm okay with you knowing what happened to me, since you understand what it's like to be hurt like this."

"I, Harry James Potter, promise by all I hold dear to not tell our friends without your permission," Harry vowed. "Is there anything I can do to help you, Theo?"

"Just continue being my friend and give me your moral support. And would you mind becoming my foster brother? I don't want to recognize my father anymore or live with him. Mr. Sirius, you said you ran away from home and went to live with your best friend. So can I do the same?"

"Of course," said Sirius. "You're welcome to live with us."

"And we'll bring charges against Mr. Nott for child abuse and get him punished for this, if that's what you want, Theodore," Lia added. "It would keep him from getting you back, since you're still so young and unlike Sirius's parents, he could choose to still try to force you into his way of thinking."

"Please do that," Theodore replied, shuddering. "I don't want to ever go back to him, and I just know he'll punish me even more for running away."

"Then I'll get started on drawing up a case against him," Eric said. "Lia and Sirius, don't bother paying me for this. Anything related to child abuse that I take on is strictly pro bono. I'd give up my monthly retainer as well, but I know you'd never go for that. Theodore, would you mind if I brought Tristan into all this? You know the Fawleys have connections, so between him and Sirius, they can make sure the charges against Mr. Nott stick."

"Go ahead, Professor Vicks. Harry told the AA that your quartet helped with his situation."

"You can just call me 'Eric', or Mr. Eric if you prefer, since I'm no longer your teacher, Theodore. I was only filling in the one year and Professor Dumbledore is hiring a new Defense teacher. Now, if the rest of you would please leave, I would like to question Theodore and his house-elf in private about what happened."

The others filed out the room, with Lia and Sirius discussing moving to the Black house in Grimmauld Place, as it had even more wards than Lia's home and therefore would be safer. Harry decided to cancel plans to spend the night at the Weasleys, since he wanted to be there for Theodore and knew that Ron would sense something was wrong.