Sorry it took so long to update. It's been a hectic few months between working on moving and having a migraine for nearly four months now.

.-

Boom, BOOM! Went the flimsy wooden door between flashes of lightning.

"It's just debris ," called the oversized father unbelievably.

Boom, rapt, it came again.

"Tha-that sounds like knocking," noted the pudgy child.

"Impossible!" Bellowed Vernon.

"We're on an island for Pete's sake. But these kinds of people are relentless," mutter Petunia with mild spite and a touch of fear.

"Open up ya fat oaf," barked the grounds keeper, "You know that I know yet in ther'."

Minerva pulled out her want and pointed it at the door. A soft whisper and a twitch of her wrist made the door tick. She looked up at the imposing man with her callused palm on the rusted bar.

Hagrid shook his mane slightly and nodded towards the muggles.

"Let me in or I'm coming in!"

The two children in the hut shook visibly as the lightning cracked around them and the giant's pounding thundered through the room. Harry glanced at his cousin who for a second made genuine eye contact with him. The boys never really got along, but right now they had an odd kinship within thier terror.

"Five, Vernon open up!

"Four! I'm getting him one way or another."

Three rapid strikes of lightning accompany his threat.

"Three.

"Two. I ain't playin' yet game ya filthy muggle!

"Last chance."

A crack shook the shack as it hit the land bridge slowly resurfacing.

"Aberto," shouted the usually demure witch with more force than intended.

The door flew off it's hinges across the islet and into the sea. All occupants watched as it thrashed around the top of the waves and shattered after cresting over a meter. Petunia shuddered as images of her sibling flashed through her brain.

The hairy giant squats down to the eye level of the preteens.

"Ho'er'ya Harry!? Look alot like yer pop at th' age."

The spell that seemed to hold the room hostage for a time popped. The mother clenched at her heart; nearly weeping with relief. The pudgy child looked up at his father quizzically. But his parent was far too enwrapped in a dominance stare with the wizard to care. The frail black haired boy did what he did best: stood in the shadows observing but never interfering.

It wasn't until the seven foot tall bushy bearded man took a few steps towards that Harry saw her. His face lit up and he nearly slammed into the game keeper as he flung himself into McGonagall. His aunt threw out her hand trying to stop the boy from hurting himself. Although it wasn't that madman they were still of her kind.

"Mim! I knew you'd make it, you always make my birthday!"

"Course I did. You'll always be my boy, even if you're old enough to go to school," the normally resigned woman visibly swelled with a mixture of pride and sorrow.

"Old enough for school? I've been in school for six years Mim?"

"Yer headed to Hogwarts 'Arry."

"Hogwarts? I thought that was just a story."

"YOURE NOT GOING!" bellowed the pot bellied man.

"You are a foul man, and have no right to separate him from our world."

"Your world abandoned him at our door step ten years ago!"

"I came back, I always came back. But he was safer here; you both should understand that. I appreciate you trying but you have been nothing but violent to him his whole life."

"We fed him, we housed him, what has he ever done for us?"

"He's a child," barked Hagrid from the corner.

The two children just sat wide-eyed along the wall. Heads swiveling from one pair of adults to the other. Harry couldn't believe it, not only was there Mim making Vernon cower before her but this new imposing man was looking at him so fondly. He seemed to be simultaneously welcoming an old friend and trying to figure if he were here at all.

"Can we go home now?" whined the fat boy.

"Tha's a great idea come along Harry we're are taking you home."

The birthday boy stood up on wobbly knees; inching along the wall. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his bicep. His uncle was digging nails into his frail flesh. His mustache twitched with disgust at having to touch him.

"He stays."

Before she could stop him Minerva watched as Hagrid took out his battered umbrella, pointed it at the other boy and transfigured the boys backside into a curly, pink, fuzzy, tail.

Dudley let out a yelp and grabbed his buttocks.

"Good day," the professor's head said as it leaned into where the door stood an hour ago. The tail fiasco gave her just enough time to extract and position Harry into the sidecar.

The giant took his cue and left. Before long the grounds keeper, lighting marred child, and his cat with abnormal square markings were flying above the turbulent sea watching the storm to the east.