Warning: Not for fans of Dumbledore. Language. Brief talk of past sexual encounters.

I OWN NOTHING!

On a quite Sunday afternoon in the residence of number four Private Drive Mr. and Mrs. Dursley sat down for their afternoon tea. Dudley was off playing with his friends trying to make the last hours of his spring break as fulfilling as possible. The two adults had quite enjoyed the holiday with their son and were already making plans for the summer, but one little detail kept getting in the way.

"We can't take him back Petunia," Vernon Dursley growled. "For the first time we have been able to enjoy some quality time with Dudley without the little freak hanging over us. I can't stand to go back to the way things were before, I just can't. Plus, now he'll know how to use his freakishness. He's dangerous."

"I agree," Petunia said with pursed lips. "Trust me if there was anywhere else for him to go, he's be gone."

"Then lets just drop him off at an orphanage and be done with it!" Vernon exclaimed angrily, his face starting to turn blue.

"We've been over this," his wife answered annoyed as she narrowed her eyes. "That crackpot fool that runs the school he goes to has us under his thumb for now. Every normal person I've tried to pass the boy off to gets their memory wiped and the freak always ends up back here. The only person that might be able to take him would be someone from the freaks father side, one of their kind, that the headmaster wouldn't be able to steamroll over so easily. Sadly no one has ever come forward."

"There has to be someone," Vernon stressed not willing to give up.

Petunias hands tighten around her mug as she caught sight of Dudley through the front window. Her baby was saying goodbye to his friends out front, face flushed and eyes bright with happiness. She couldn't stand for him to be upset in anyway, much less in the constant danger he would be in if the freak came home. The incident with the pig tail from the summer before still gave him nightmares occasionally.

"There is one place I could check," the woman said hesitantly. "My sister left a truck of her things for the boy. It was left on the door step a few days after the freak and no matter how many times I threw it away it always came back so I eventually locked it in the attic. I've been to scare to touch it. My sister used to booby trap all her things with…it so I couldn't get into them. But she left it for her young son so it's probably safe."

Vernon didn't answer, instead he rushed for the stairs, glee and hope vibrating off him in waves. Even with his heavy girth he climbed up into the attic in record time, easily spotting the truck in a corner now that he knew to look for it. The man was already carelessly throwing clothing and books out of the case by the time his wife caught up to him. Petunia's eyes zeroed in on one of the books laying innocently on the floor that Vernon had overlooked but she easily recognized as a diary. The woman was quick to snatch it up and start leafing through without a thought for her sister's privacy. She started from the back, the last entry Lily made before she died, and worked her way from there. Lily had written things about the war, baby Harry, troubles with her husband and another dirty little secret that weighed on her as Harry grew. The kind of dirty little secret Petunia hadn't known she'd been looking for but was delighted to find none the less. Lily had an affair. And Harry wasn't her husband's child at all. In fact, if the diary was to be believed Harry was the child of a man who was still very much alive. Someone who maybe, just maybe, could go up against the headmaster and win.

So, there's the prologue! Just something that's been swimming in my mind for a little bit.

For fans of Within I'm hoping that if I have two or three stories to work on I wouldn't get burned out and lose my muse so easily. I'm hoping that having different fandoms to jump between will keep things fresh. There might be a Percy Jackson story or short story in the making, maybe a PJO/ Avenges crossover with the same idea as this one except with Percy instead of Harry. Sally dies and somehow Percy ends up in the care of Tony and Stephen who help him through his adventures much like they'll help Harry in this one. I'm thinking maybe Sally and Stephen can be distant cousins…It's a bit of a stretch for authorities to reach out to a distant relative like a first cousin once removed like I'm thinking, but with Percy's fathers side completely unknown and Stephen being the only family member left on Sally's side who could keep Percy out of the system I think it might work. What do you guys think?

Also what do you guys think of this story? I can't find any stories with Stephen being a paternal or mentor figure to Harry and it's just to perfect to not exist. And I can't find enough when the same is true with Tony. There're some really good ones out there but nowhere near enough to satisfy me. So why not have both? Plus I diehard ship IronStrange.