Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter as much as I wish I did. Please don't sue. You'll get about $20 for your trouble!

The ride back to Privet Drive was the least pleasant in Harry's memory. "What were you thinking boy having those . . . those FREAKS accost us at the train station? Don't expect to be let out of your room at all this summer threat or not. They can't scare Vernon Dursley," Harry's uncle had shouted the moment they reached the brand-new SUV that Vernon had purchased with the money from his last big deal. "And that ruddy owl of yours will be under lock and key as well," Vernon added.

"If I don't send a letter to those people every few days they'll come over for themselves to see what you've done to me," Harry answered back bitterly. His heart ached for Sirius and now he had to put up with these muggles for the next four weeks. It was going to be a long summer in Harry's opinion.

"We'll see about that boy. Now don't talk back," Vernon said. He raised his beefy hand and struck Harry across the face hard enough to knock him unconscious before they had even left the parking lot of King's Cross. Hours later Harry was roused from this beating by another even stronger punch directed at his ribs. "Get inside now before someone sees you," Vernon bellowed, his face a deep magenta color that nearly matched Voldemort's eyes.

Harry dragged his trunk and Hedwig's cage up the stairs to his closet of a room. Once he was inside, he heard the familiar click of the key in the lock. He quickly grabbed a scrap of parchment and scrawled a note to the Order that he wouldn't be able to write anymore for the summer as his owl was locked up and whatever they did to NOT come to Privet Drive no matter what and sent Hedwig off before the window could be barred or her cage locked as Harry was sure Vernon would do.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO WRITE TO THOSE PEOPLE," Vernon screamed unlocking Harry's door and throwing it open with a bang that should have woken all of Privet Drive and most of Magnolia Crescent. "That's it you're going to pay for all the freakish things you've brought to this house boy," Vernon said. Harry screamed only once as Vernon pummeled him repeatedly and then threw him across the room to land with a thud against the chest of drawers.

The silence was deafening. Harry could barely breathe but willed himself to stay conscious and quiet through whatever came next. Never give him the satisfaction of hearing me cry, Harry thought. A few moments passed as blood trickled from a rather large gash on Harry's head made by the corner of a drawer. Only when it began to pool under his head did Harry start to get nervous. Vernon thundered out of the room closing and locking the door behind him and Harry let out a nearly inaudible whimper, clutching his head in his hands. As he did so white light with a touch of gold surrounded his fingertips and the pain ebbed away along with the flowing blood. All Harry could do was stare at his hands wondering if he would get an owl from the Ministry for somehow using magic. He didn't know what he was more worried about, the inevitable hearing for underage magic or the beating he would receive for getting the Ministry owl in the first place. Thankfully, as Harry crawled painfully into bed several hours later neither had happened.

Two weeks of constant beatings followed and Harry was almost ready to risk sending Hedwig out again to send word to the order. He wasn't sure he'd be alive in another two weeks when he was to take the Knight Bus to Grimmauld Place. Harry hadn't eaten in four days and his supply of water was nearly gone. He had to use a bucket in the corner for his personal needs and he couldn't sleep without constant nightmares of Sirius falling through the veil. On the final night of the second week of hell Harry fell into a troubled sleep, more from sheer exhaustion than Harry wanting to sleep. He was surprised when he drifted to sleep without any dreams, at first anyway.

At Grimmauld Place the members of the order were ready to go get Harry despite what Dumbledore told them. They hadn't heard from Harry since the day he had returned to the Dursleys house and everyone was worried, especially Remus. "He should have written by now. I thought we showed his uncle how serious we were that we needed to hear that Harry was okay," Remus said to Moody. Two weeks passed without a word, except for the scrap of parchment they had received the first day. Remus had tried writing to Harry but somehow the owl hadn't been able to make the delivery which worried the aged man even more. Owls simply did not fail in delivering their messages.

"He did say he couldn't write again Remus. Oh I hope those muggles haven't done something stupid like hurt him," Tonks said, changing her hair absent-mindedly from bright bubblegum pink to an angry fire-red color and then to sickly puce. "They always threaten him. If only they knew how important Harry was to both our world and their own pathetic lives they would treat him the way he deserves to be treated. Did Dumbledore ever tell either of you why Harry is stuck with those muggles for a month every year?" Tonks asked curiously. Her hair flipped through several colors and styles as did her eyes before she settled on short baby blue hair and matching eyes.

"It's for his protection. After the threat we gave them at the station they wouldn't dare hurt him," Moody said, jumping into the conversation as his magic eye spun wildly. Little did they know what was about to happen to Harry that very night and how it would change everything.

Harry woke with a start a few hours later. He was trembling and his heart was racing, but to his relief his scar wasn't burning as was usually the case during his dreams. He closed his eyes to picture the details of this latest dream and smiled. It was about his father and Sirius when they were still students at Hogwarts, in fact they looked to be about the same age as Harry was now. Remus was also there, looking pale. A full moon must be coming up, Harry thought. He pieced together fragments of the conversation that the three were having under the seemingly peaceful whomping willow. Harry wasn't fooled, he knew that one of them had given the knothole a good prod, or they had finally come up with a freezing spell that worked on the branched menace.

Harry forced his mind to focus on what he had heard. Lupin was silent, but Sirius and James were speaking in animated tones. "Only two more potions and an incantation and we'll have finally done it," James said, holding out an old cracked black leather book that Harry knew must have come from the restricted section.

"Put that down James, unless you want to be found out before you can finish the animagus process tonight," Remus said, his voice tired, sounding a little like a growl. Tonight must be the full moon Harry thought. He glanced at the book memorizing the title as a deep ache filled his heart. His deepest wish was to become an animagi like his father, since he was so much like him in other ways.

Harry jerked again as a much darker vision entered his mind. He heard the all too familiar hissing voice and his scar seared with pain and an intense burning he had never felt before even though the rest of his body was quite cold, like ice.

"We are almost there Wormtail, I can feel the weak Confundus curse and Fidelis charm cast to conceal him. We can now counter them thanks to the boy's inability to clear his mind," Voldemort's voice hissed. The pain in Harry's scar increased tenfold, leaving his body shaking as if he were under the effect of Crucio. Harry jumped out of bed with all the strength he had and before he quite knew what he was doing Harry had grabbed his glasses and his wand and had nearly thrown himself out of the second floor window. He performed magic accidently as he levitated himself the remaining 3 feet to the ground. The stars, Harry noticed, were no longer visible. "Dementors," Harry said. Then he noticed a figure in the shadows and recognized Mrs. Figg, his secret-keeper and watcher while he was stuck with the Dursleys. He knew that since he had seen her that Voldemort would know she was here as well.

At that moment an eerie green light flashed and Harry faintly heard Mrs. Figg mutter an incantation before screaming and falling to the ground. She was dead before the sound of her scream had faded only to be replaced by Voldemort's thin cruel laugh. "Foolish squib! No matter she cannot have done anything in that pitiful useless spell of hers," he roared. His snake-like eyes searched the dark for his prey and Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid a confrontation. Harry stepped out of the shadows. "So we meet again Harry Potter. CRUCIO," Voldemort screamed.

From somewhere deep inside Harry a bolt of golden light stirred and then surged and just as the curse was hitting him Harry was surrounded by a warm golden light. Voldemort was livid as evidenced by the unholy pain Harry was now feeling in his scar which nearly destroyed the shield. It held, luckily, as Voldemort's next spell would have meant instant death. "AVADA KEDAVRA," Voldemort screamed. Harry screamed as well and then mercifully all went dark and silent plunging Harry into an unnatural sleep from which he would not easily be awoken.

The dozing portraits in Dumbledore's office all stirred to life at the same moment. It was hardly necessary. The silver-white head of Albus Dumbledore appeared followed a moment later by the rest of his old yet still agile body. "Something's happened, and it must be important to wake you out of your endless slumber," he said. Dumbledore sprang to life, ordering various past headmasters into their other portraits.

The final order was given to one particularly frail looking wizard who disappeared with a half-sleepy grunt. Seconds later he came rushing back. "She's sent the sign. Don't know how she did it being a squib and all, but she sent it," reported Emeraldus Dumple in a state of shock.

"How is she?" Dumbledore asked, knowing the answer somehow before he spoke.

"She is dead sir. The other portraits say that Voldemort used the killing curse on her and then continued his attack on the boy," Emeraldus replied.

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked in shock and grief.

"He is laying in the road sir, the Dark Mark on the door of the muggle house that kept him safe. The other pictures report he blocked the killing curse with a golden shield unlike that which they had ever seen," Emeraldus replied gravely.

"So it has begun this soon. I'll summon the order. Someone needs to go see what has become of the treasure we all risk our lives to protect. Nobody will give up because they won't be able to believe he's gone from us so soon," Dumbledore said, rare emotion in his all-seeing eyes. "So Harry your transmutation has begun. Much like everything in your life it is remarkably early and brings on great perils," Dumbledore said. He pulled out a sack of purple powder which he threw in the fireplace, clearly saying the names of those who needed to know about Harry. Finally he added two young names, hoping they could bring Harry back from the point of death, "Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger," whispered Dumbledore sadly. His was the daunting task of telling them Harry may not survive. At that moment all he could do was wait, and hope that withholding the final pieces of Harry's destiny would not mean an end to all the work of so many who had made sure that he was 'The boy who lived.'