(A/N): Some odd terms will be used in the initial few chapters of this fic. The reason why will be explained at the end of this chapter. Apologies for any and all typos and grammar errors. This initially started as an idea I didn't plan to do and I couldn't stop, hehe.

"Boy, get in here!"

At his Uncle Vernon's trademark screech, a 7-year old Harry Potter sighed depressedly. He had just finished putting his school things into his cupboard after coming "home" from a strange day in school. No doubt his uncle had learned what happened and was going to let him have it, as he always did when anything slightly out of the ordinary happened.

"So," Vernon Dursely said simply as he entered the living room, expecting that Harry knew what was about to be said. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Harry knew from experience that it was useless to plead innocence. As far as Harry could tell, he was the source of anything strange and bizarre. And strange and bizarre things did seem to dog Harry's heels. Today his elderly primary school teacher's wig somehow turned blue without anyone seeing how it happened. Dudley had been poking Harry's ribs to annoy him. Harry had began poking Dudley in return him to get him to stop, and naturally the teacher managed to catch him retaliating.

She had walked up to Harry and said abruptly, "Causing trouble, Mr. Potter?"

Harry yelped in surprise, not having seen her coming. He felt a strange tug within him, and when he looked up at the teacher, he noticed that her wig was now blue instead of the dulled brown of a few minutes prior. Within a few moments, the entire class (Harry included) erupted into laughter at the ridiculous sight, thinking it to be a prank. There teacher hadn't taken kindly to it.

"The school called to tell us that you pranked the teacher, turned her hair blue. Funny thing is, she couldn't figure out when or how you'd done it," Vernon said, building up a head of steam clearly, as his face was turning a fierce puce. "I believe I told you what would happen if you misbehaved at school again."

Harry nodded and prepared for it, trying to hold back the tears as he knew they wouldn't help things in the least. Vernon went to the hall closet and pulled out "the switch", the striped, thin tree branch he favored for punishment. He used to use his belt, but he said that it lacked the right "oomph" and lasting reminder that a proper switch had.

Harry dropped his pants and Vernon bent him over his knees and began to give Harry his just deserts.

Thwack!

"You keep that unnaturalness inside!" he said firmly. Harry began to cry from the sharp pain from his backside.

Thwack! Twack!

"We didn't take you in and give you a home to let you become another freak." Harry tried to suppress the outcry of pain. He just wanted to be out of here, away from this sham of a home. He felt "the tug" from before but held it in, instinctively feeling it would make things worse if he let it out.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

"But I'll set you straight. You'll not burden us by being like your abnormal parents, boy." Harry couldn't help but think that if he could just leave this he'd gladly not bother with his last bit of family. Number 4 on Privet Drive had never felt like a home for him, it was a prison he had to return to because there was nowhere else for him, no one else to take him in. But anywhere else had to be better than this place, surely...

Feeling that the boy had been properly punished, Vernon had Harry pull his pants back up and sent him to his cupboard with until dinner time came. Later than night, Harry couldn't repress the shudders as his painful behind ached from his whipping a few hours back. He didn't understand why these things happened to him and no one else. It was currently October the first, but back in September he had somehow regrown his hair overnight after his aunt Petunia cut nearly all of it off to make him "more presentable" as the school year was about to start.

Harry steadied his breathing and waited for sleep to claim him, wishing more than anything that he could get away from the beatings, the hunger, the isolation.

A few days later, school had started off well enough. He had gotten an "A" on his math work; he quite liked doing addition and subtraction. Even Dudley hadn't found an opening to ruin the otherwise ordinary day, allowing Harry to daydream about a different life, one where he was able to do whatever he wanted without being blamed for everything.

And then recess came. Dudley and his gang of miscreants had made it clear that Harry was a no-go zone as far as playing went, with bullying him and making him generally miserable serving as a warning of what would happen if they tried to. As the dozens upon dozens of other children were playing all around the schoolyard, Harry had been sitting off to the side of the playground on a bench, enjoying the surprisingly warm afternoon and imagining that he had left everything behind. Suddenly Dudley shoved him off the bench, sending hims sprawling onto the ground.

"Hey, what's the big idea, Dudley?" Harry yelled out as he stood back on his feet.

Dudley and his crew began laughing at the question. "I believe it's time for a good game of Harry Hunting, don't you think guys?" Pierce Polkiss and the rest of the bunch nodded enthusiastically; it was a favored pastime, especially at the playground near the Dursely residence.

Harry ran off as soon as Dudley had asked the rhetorical question, knowing it was anything but a threat. His aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon never asked nor cared about the occasional bruise or bump Harry would sport afterwards. "Rough housing", they called it.

Harry was scared, as he doubted very much that his teacher would believe him if he said what happened. The wig incident had likely cemented her belief that Harry was nothing but a troublemaker. It was annoyingly unfair.

'I've got to find somewhere to hide until they get bored,' he thought in a panic. As he rounded the corner to the back of the school, he jumped behind some of the electrical equipment and loud fans that were outside the school. He didn't know what they were but they were big enough to hide behind.

"Come on boys," Dudley's voice rang out from nearby. "He's got to be hiding around here somewhere, crying I bet," he said smugly.

'Don't let them find me, don't let them find me...' Harry thought desperately. He was tired of being hit, he was tired of it all and he didn't want to be here.

This time around, he didn't fight against "the tug" in his gut and allowed it to do whatever it did. Suddenly, Harry found himself being pulled in the strangest of ways. It was as if he were being squished from all sides through a small, dark tube. After the sensation left, he opened his eyes in a daze, only to find himself on the rooftop of his two-story school building.

"What was tha-" he started to say before he felt an awful clenching in his gut. And then he puked up the lunch he had just eaten before recess. It was a shame too, the school cafeteria actually gave him enough food to feel full before the Durselys happily gave him scraps for dinner. The way he was going, he'd look like a pencil in clothing by the time he was grown.

After the hurling fit ended, Harry began to get scared and was near to crying due to being so high up and alone. But then he began to think about how he had gotten up so high in the first place.

"Hm," he mumbled. "There was that… that… Squishing thing and I ended up here," he said. He peeked over the side of the school building to look back down at where he had been hiding. Dudley, Pierce and his goons had moved on to look for him elsewhere.

'Let's try that again,' he thought. He imagined Dudley was coming to beat him up again until that weird feeling in his stomach returned. Once again he embraced the sensation instead of trying to hold it in and pictured himself being down behind those loud fans again.

And much to his delight - despite how uncomfortable it was - he got The Squish again and appeared back where he had been hiding before. Just as he began to celebrate, his stomach protested the action, though he was able to avoid puking again. Just barely.

"I've got superpowers!" Harry shouted believing he'd found the answer to his prayers.

But alas, all good thing must come to an end.

"Harry Potter!" yelled his teacher as she came around the building, having obviously been looking for him.

Harry flinched at the sound of her voice, not considering that he might get caught by the teacher for disappearing from the schoolyard and playground. He knew he'd be in for another whipping when he got home, but he felt strangely unconcerned.

He knew he found a way to get away from these crazy people at last. He just needed to master his newfound power.

(5 months later, beginning of March)

It had taken some doing, but Harry knew that he had found a way. As soon as he realized he had superpowers, he had begun to spend his recess periods in the library most days. Aside from the fact that Dudley's gang wouldn't be caught dead in the library (even to torment Harry), the library had a number of old comic books to read. And one common thing Harry saw in the stories repeatedly was that superpowers always had a limit, there was only so much they could do. He was particularly taken by Superman comics, given the character had a variety of powers at his disposal, but kept his true self a secret to the world so he could live a normal life and protect his friends. Harry hadn't yet tried to do anything besides the Squish, but he recalled the odd things he'd seen before and began to wonder what else he could do. After a few failed attempts, he confirmed heat vision was not in the cards. Was it the glasses?

As the days and weeks passed, he practiced "The Squish" whenever it was safe to do so: when he was alone in the school bathroom, when the Durselys locked the house door to force him to stay outside whenever the weekends weren't too cold, but especially when the Durselys left for the evening and locked him within his cupboard early for the night. He soon found out that Squishing was loud. At school, when he tried to Squish from the bathroom stall to outside of the stall, a teacher barged in a few seconds later saying they thought they heard a gunshot. After practicing during one of the Dursleys nightly outings for hours on end, he was finally able to get the sound down to small pop like a popped bubblegum bubble. This allowed him to practice the superpower at night, even when the Durselys were at home.

There was even one scary incident in mid-November where he Squished and left behind half of one of his toenails while practicing transporting to the rooftop at night. He realized he had to take it slow and really concentrate to bring all of himself along for the ride. By this point he was becoming comfortable with repeated Squishing, and his stomach didn't get nearly as upset as before, saving what precious little food he had for his sorry body's nourishment.

But it was over the course of February when he started hitting breakthroughs that made him think he could really escape. The first was the discovery that he could teleport to places he saw in photographs. He had been looking at pictures of the exhibits at the zoo in the brochures given out at school to announce an upcoming field trip. The snake exhibits in particular had caught his eye.

He found himself wishing he could go see the London Zoo like some other kids had as the beginning of spring began to eat away at the bitter winter in Surrey.

And then the thought occurred to him. "Couldn't I go there?"

The Dursleys had gone to visit Vernon's sister, Marge, and had left Harry in the care of Mrs. Figg, the local crazy cat lady. Well, Harry wasn't sure if she was crazy but he figured you couldn't be quite normal owning that many cats…

Mrs. Figg had fallen asleep on the couch while watching the morning news, and Harry was close to doing it himself. Deciding to test his theory, he quietly made his way to the upstairs bathroom and closed and locked the door.

Harry took a deep breath and concentrated on the brochure's picture of the snake exhibits. He felt himself being Squished through the darkness and found himself outside of the Reptile House at the ZSL London Zoo. To his surprise, there was no one else near him in these early morning hours.

Deciding to have a bit of fun before he returned, Harry walked up to the nearest exhibit, one containing a Boa Constrictor. To Harry, the snake seemed rather sad being trapped by a large glass wall. He could empathize with the predicament.

"Hey there," he spoke to the glass sadly. "It can't be fun in there. At least I get to go to school and outside sometimes."

The snake stretched its head up, looking almost curious to Harry's eyes.

"You speak the Tongue? You must be a mage, friend."

Harry didn't know what the term meant. "What's a mage? And what's the Tongue? I don't get it..."

"It meansss you can do magic. The Tongue allowss you to speak to me and my serpent brethren," the boa said simply.

Now that Harry thought about it, he was talking to a snake. He could speak a whole other language and he didn't even know he was doing it! And magic? So he didn't have superpowers, he was…

"Wait so you mean I'm a magician? Awesome!" he said ecstatically. It made perfect sense; no wonder all those weird things happened.

"Indeed friend, something like that." The snake seemed to find what Harry said funny but he wouldn't say why. "Now I've helped you, mind helping me too?" At that, he jabbed the glass container with his tail.

It took a moment, but Harry understood the request. "You want out?" At the snakes nod, Harry replied, "But how? I only know one magic trick right now. Well, I guess I could appear inside the glass and get you..."

The boa began to shake its head, an odd sight to see. "Make the glass disappear, make it turn into nothing."

Harry mulled over the request for a moment. He wasn't sure how to do it. It had taken him awhile to get Squishing down, wouldn't hocus pocusing a pane of glass take too long to learn as well?

Figuring he owed the snake to at least try for helping him know what he was, Harry nodded and began to focus until he felt "the tug" once again. But this time, rather than try to appear somewhere else, he directed an outstretched hand at the glass in front of the Boa Constrictor and tried to tell it to go away.

To his surprise, after concentrating very hard "the tug" answered his request and the glass vanished from existence, fading away as if removed by some cosmic eraser. This sensation was quite strange, much different than when he Squished to another place. Instead of pulling himself somewhere else, it felt as if he were pushing out some indescribable part of himself into the world and issuing a command to change something into something else. Once the change had occurred the part of himself that he had pushed out returned to him.

"Thanks again friend. Brazil, here I come".

Despite what it said, Harry was pretty sure it wouldn't get to wherever "Brazil" was. Feeling quite proud of what he had learned and done that day, Harry quietly Squished back to the bathroom at Mrs. Figg's house. Unknown to the seven-year old, the boa constrictor caused quite the uproar once it entered populated parts of the zoo. Nor did he see that several individuals had "Squished" to the exhibit just a few moments after he had left...

Back at Mrs. Figg's, Harry's quiet Squish brought him back to the bathroom in an instant. Exiting the bathroom, he went downstairs and saw that Mrs. Figg was still asleep on the couch. Harry turned to look at the clock and saw that it had only been 20 minutes since he had left.

Smiling at what he had learned today, he began plotting his escape from the hellhole that was the Dursley residence. He had to to continue being careful; all the comics he read said bad things happened if anyone knew you had superpowers… or magic, whatever.

(Late May)

Today was the day, Harry could feel it in his bones. Over the last couple of months he had carefully built up a stash of what he would need once he had left. He had read in a survival book in the library that honey never went bad, and that rice could last for a long time without spoiling. So he figured they would make good enough emergency foods if he was ever in a bad spot. But for more reliable sustenance, Harry planned to nick food and money with his magic. He knew it was a bad thing to steal and he really didn't like the idea. But as his choices were to suffer in silence with the Dursleys or take a bit here and there, well, he'd take his chances with a bit of thievery.

For storage, Harry had found one of Dudley's old backpacks from early in the school year. He eventually complained to Petunia and Vernon that the pack was "too small" for school. Dudley just wanted more space to sneak toys and such into school. As no one paid it any mind, Harry snuck the backpack from the back of the hall closet and stored it under a floorboard Harry had loosened from the ground using a bit of magic. It made a nice hidey-hole for what he would need soon.

A few pairs of clothing for various times of year were essential. This was the easiest bit. His Aunt Petunia was adamant that Harry only received Dudley's oversized hand-me-downs as his clothing, so there was a decent selection for him to choose from as Dudley blew through clothing nearly as quick as he did his toys. He had a few sets of pants, sweaters, a a large winter coat in addition to the clothing he had already been given.

He had even worked on a bit more magic while out and about on weekends, although it was harder than he expected. Magic was hard to control and hard to contain, and doing it more than a few times in succession made him feel a bit tired. He'd learned how to make a small fire and even how to create a puddle of water from his hands among other things. However, he noticed that if he made the magical effect too large, a group of adults in strange outfits would Squish nearby, as if they knew what he was doing but unable to find him. Luckily, Harry had gotten quite good at hiding. A few times he lured them out and Squished somewhere nearby to hide and watch them. Everytime he did it, they would show up and stop whatever magic he did and search for who had done it, at which point Harry would Squish back near Privet Drive. He soon noticed that they always used a sort of stick whenever they would use magic.

A magic wand he soon realized. It was too bad he had no idea how to get one himself.

And today was the day, as Harry knew it would be. Uncle Vernon was the director of a drill manufacturing company known as Grunnings, and had been boasting about some deal the company had made for weeks now. It must have been quite a big deal, as he soon announced to the household that they were having some sort of party at the office this very evening and were inviting their families. This left the Dursleys in predicament. Vernon's employees were told their children could accompany them, but thus far he had done everything he could to avoid mentioning the existence of his abnormal nephew. And with Mrs. Figg out of town on some sort of personal matter for a few days, the Dursleys seemed to have no choice but to bring Harry along.

Harry had seen the opportunity before him. "Uncle Vernon, please let me go. I'll be on my best behavior, honest. Nothing strange will happen."

And as Harry knew he would, Uncle Vernon immediately flew off the handle.

"COMPLETELY out of the question. My colleagues don't know you exist an I aim to keep it that way. We'll not have your unnaturalness ruin a good party. You'll eat a quick dinner and then off to your cupboard you'll go."

'Perfect', Harry thought, feeling a sort of giddiness that the Durselys would probably outlaw if they could manage it.

As 5 o' clock came around, the Durselys dressed to impress after feeding Harry a bit of dinner.

Vernon led Harry to his cupboard after letting him use the bathroom and said, "Alright boy. You'd better not get any funny ideas while we're gone. If I even suspect you broke the lock on your cupboard, you'll be in for the switching of your life. Do I make myself clear?"

Harry had to fight down a giggle at the sight of the man's twitching mouth. It made his mustache look like a furry animal was trying to vacate his face.

"Yes sir, Uncle Vernon," he said.

The cupboard was locked, the driveway was left, and Harry found himself alone in the house, his plan at the ready.

Harry gathered all of his stored things from beneath the floorboard. He double checked to make sure everything was there; luckily he had kept a notebook as he gathered everything. After storing it all in the bag, he glanced around his cupboard one last time before he Squished outside it and into the living room in a faint pop.

After grabbing a spare plastic bag from underneath the kitchen sink, Harry proceeded to raid the fridge and pantry of an assortment of foods and snacks the Dursleys had stored away. With a man as large as Vernon Dursely, and Dudley seeking to surpass his father, Harry wasn't exactly short on options where food was concerned.

With that done and stored in his backpack, a peculiar feeling arose within Harry. Despite having hated the place for as long as he could remember, part of him wondered if he should be feeling something for the home he was leaving. But then the cumulative experiences and memories he had of the place hit him like a train and the feeling left him.

He walked right out the front door, turned around and felt for his magic. He turned it into a sort of pushing force and blasted the door into the house, if only to annoy his so-called family. Sure, they might say it proved they were right about him all along but Harry was passed caring. He refused to be imprisoned with people who despised him for existing.

Speaking aloud at Number 4 Privet Drive for the last time, Harry said, "This place was never my home anyway."

Harry then took out a photo he had prepared for the occasion, focused on it and then Squished away, never to return there.

Little did Harry know the consequences his words and actions would have in the world he belonged to. The wards surrounding the property came crashing down abruptly, though this went completely unnoticed by the Muggles who could neither see nor detect the change. However, hundreds of miles away the change was caught my the magical monitoring equipment of a certain aged wizard.

(Hogwarts)

Albus Dumbledore had been in the middle of written correspondence with the current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, when various pieces of equipment monitoring the wards around residence of the young Harry Potter suddenly ceased functioning.

The change was noticeable due to the absence of the usual, constant noise the equipment filled the otherwise dead air with. Dumbledore rushed to the equipment, hoping it was just a glitch of some sort and would sort itself out momentarily.

But after running a few diagnostic spells he confirmed that the wards surrounding the Dursley property had indeed gone away. Given Lily's family had taken him in as a baby, Dumbledore doubted a boy as young as Harry could have undone the wards by declaring it no longer his home. As a result, he feared for the worst: The defenses must somehow have been breached by a subordinate of Voldermort's, if not the man himself given the overwhelming power that protected the place.

Summoning his phoenix Fawkes, Dumbledore had the amazing creature use its unique form of Apparition to teleport them from his office at Hogwarts to the Dursely's house. The sight before only seemed to confirm his greatest fear. The door had been knocked in from the outside by magic, clearly a sign of attack.

Rushing inside with wand in hand, Dumbledore didn't know what to think. Aside from the damage done by the door being knocked into the living room, there didn't seem to be a sign of a struggle. Not even so much as a lamp had been knocked out of place. And given the intruder hadn't bother to restore the broken door, Dumbledore doubted they had undone the damage using magic.

After a quick detection spell to be sure, he determined that the only magic used had been on the door. And strangely enough, he couldn't unearth what spell had been used. Had Harry been intimidated into leaving after seeing the magic? And what of the Dursleys? Had they been taken as well?

There were too many unknowns, so Dumbledore decided he needed to summon some of the old crowd for a most crucial rescue mission.

Pulling out his communication mirror, Dumbledore setup a message that would be dispensed to the members of the old Order of the Phoenix. The Order had learned its lesson when the forces of Voldemort caught them unawares as they snaked their way into various high positions in society before striking. It wasn't a full time operation, but a number of members endeavored to keep abreast of things should Voldermort (or some other dark lord) make a play at power again.

"This is an emergency," Dumbledore spoke clearly into the mirror after setting it to the emergency call setting. "Harry Potter has been kidnapped by sources unknown, likely Death Eaters or their sympathizers. As soon as you receive this message, Apparate to my location." As the mirror allowed the user to see out the other person's mirror, it also functioned as a sort of beacon to allow others to Apparate to the location they saw through the mirrored image.

Dumbledore didn't need to wait long. About 30 seconds later, several figures began popping into the neighborhood. Acting quickly, Dumbledore grabbed what appeared to be a silver cigarette lighter and used its magical ability to remove the light sources surrounding them in the Muggle neighborhood. He then cast a charm to silence the area they were in to cover the entrance of the arriving Order members.

The first to arrive was the every-shabbily-dressed Remus Lupin, who began looking every which way, as if hoping to spot whoever had taken Harry. Next was his old friend, Alastor Moody, who immediately began his own observations with his magical right eye. Several others appeared, such as Kingsley Shacklebolt, with his deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall pulling up the rear.

"Albus, what have you learned?" Minerva asked quickly. It was a question everyone was dying to see answered.

"Just a few minutes ago, the devices I setup to monitor the wards defending Harry's home ceased, indicating that the protections here no longer held. I had Fawkes here Apparate me to determine the cause and found the front door had been shunted in by an unidentified spell," he summarized quickly while gesturing at the front door to his right. "There was no one in the house, and no sign of a struggle, and no sign of where Harry was taken."

Lupin looked frantic and no one questioned why. With James, Lily and Peter dead, and Sirius entombed within Azkaban prison for doing it, Harry was the only tie to his friends he had left.

"Do we have any leads? Anything at all?" Lupin asked through his ragged breaths.

Dumbledore's head dropped. "Nothing, I'm afraid. There was no magic used in the house besides the one I mentioned. No signs of Apparition nor of a Portkey having been used. Harry's muggle relatives don't appear to be around either, so they might all have been taken."

Moody coughed loudly into his hand to gather everyone's attention. "That's not quite Albus, although I'm not surprised you didn't spot it."

"What do you mean? What have you found?" Dumbledore asked.

Moody pointed behind the group toward the street where the Dursely driveway met the road. Dumbledore could see a slight warping of the space there, and understood what Moody had meant.

"It's hard to spot it without an eye like mine, but I can clearly see signs of Disapparition right over there. Whoever it was is long gone now," he growled.

This quieted the group for a moment before Kingsley spoke into the silence, "How did they breach the wards? It just seems inconceivable."

Deciding they had deliberated long enough, Dumbledore said "I don't know, perhaps they used a proxy to get passed the defenses, but that is irrelevant now. We need to find Harry and find him quickly. The wards only dropped minutes before I arrived. We need to split up and search for him."

"Have you got anything with Harry's sent, Albus? Perhaps my Animagus form can pick up his scent somewhere?" Minerva asked. When Dumbledore shook his head, Minerva quickly strode into the house to find an article of clothing to assist with the search. Meanwhile, Lupin, Shacklebolt, and Moody proceeded to Disapparate to various locations to search out the boy or any who might have seen him. Kingsley in particular went to search out his contacts in the Accidental Magic Reversal Department, figuring they might pick up Harry using magic somewhere if he became frightened by his capturers.

"Albus?" Minerva called out from the house. Dumbledore rushed inside, hoping she had spotted something he missed in his own rather cursory examination of the household. Upon re-entering, he spotted Mcgonagall standing in front of a small cupboard beneath the staircase of the Dursley residence.

"What have you found, Minerva?"

Minerva turned toward him with a confused look on her face. "What is this? Why are his school things and bedding in a cupboard?" Glancing into the cupboard in question, Dumbledore could see what McGonagall meant. The space was barely large enough for the boy to fit in, and had a number of spiders ambling about on the walls and ceilings. On the floor were a few school papers involving basic arithmetic, as well a comic book. Dumbledore's blood went cold at the realization.

"D-don't tell me," Minerva said. "Did they room him in a bloody closet?"

Dumbledore had no response, given the obvious answer to the question. He only hoped it was a very temporary arrangement, perhaps one of the upstairs rooms had an infestation…

Before the two could look around any longer, they heard a car pulling into the driveway, followed by a shout after the occupants exited the car.

"What the hell is going on here?" shouted an enrage Vernon Dursley when he spotted his front door had been knocked in as if by a wrecking ball. When he saw the two remaining wizards in the house, wands out identifying them as such, he wasn't sure if he should lose his mind or keep quiet given their power over him.

McGonagall's expression turned fierce as she saw the man who was supposed to be raising the child of two of some of her favorite students.

"We should be asking you that question. You left Harry in the house alone and locked in a cupboard? Are you out of your minds?" she asked.

Vernon summoned courage even he didn't know he had as he responded, "We'll raise the boy any damn way we like. We swore we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense, we're not raising one of you in our normal household. Blasted troublemaker, he is."

Minerva just barely resisted hexing the man into oblivion when Dumbledore placed a hand on her shoulder which clearly said 'Calm down'.

"Mr. Dursely, is it? In your haste to attend whatever business you had tonight, you neglected to inform any of us that you would be gone," Dumbledore said. "I told Petunia years ago that she was to leave Harry in the care of Mrs. Figg when needed."

Puffing up his chest, Vernon said, "For your information, Mrs. Figg isn't in town at the moment. And would you kindly tell my why the hell you broke our front door," he said angrily.

Dumbledore and McGonagall shared a look before Minerva said, "Harry was kidnapped about 15 to 20 minutes ago. The door was like this when we found it." Despite her words, Minerva was beginning to suspect a different series of events had occurred. From the cupboard used as a room to the way the Dursleys head of house made clear Harry was as unwelcome as could be, and wouldn't even say Harry's name. She had noticed that there was scarcely a sign in the house that a second boy lived there, not even being present in family photographs.

The only thing preventing her from outright believing her idea was that no seven-year old should be able to Apparate, let alone purposefully use their magic the way the state of the door indicated. Every wizarding child use magic accidentally from time to time, but this was nearly unprecedented if true.

Voicing her suspicions, McGonagall said in barely suppressed fury, "What did you do to that boy? Have you been laying your hands on him?"

As if to intimidate her, Vernon stepped into her personal space and said, "The boy got off easy as far as I'm concerned. Turning the teacher's wig blue? Regrowing hair after getting a decent haircut? No, I clearly wasn't hard enough on him."

And that did it for McGonagall. She brought her wand to them man and transfigured him into a great big pig. At the sight, the two Dursleys still in the care began to wail and cry at the sight of Vernon having been made into an animal.

"Minerva, was that necessary? Ugly as it was, this won't let us find whoever kidnapped Harry. We should get everything back in order and leave at once," Dumbledore said.

She rounded on Dumbledore and said, "I told you Albus. I told you these were the worst sorts of Muggles imaginable. But you didn't listen. Don't you understand what you've done? What we've allowed to happen?"

"I don't understand what you're suggesti-" Dumbledore began.

"He's run away Albus. No one took him, he was escaping from these... these hateful monsters we left to raise him. That's why the wards fell. He left of his own free will," she said angrily at the realization that the boy might be hurt or worse out all alone in the world.

Dumbledore realized the implications of what McGonagall was saying. Then, the fading distortion of the Disapparition from before…

"It can't be..." he muttered. "A boy that age cannot Apparate. It takes months of practice at a minimum."

McGonagall shook her head and said, "It's the only explanation I can conceive that fits all the evidence. No signs of a struggle, clear magic use, a single Disapparition point and the disgusting treatment by these… people." After steadying her voice, McGonagall said, "We have to find him. He's not coming back here anymore Albus. Not so long as I have any say in the matter."

McGonagall walked back into the house and grabbed Harry's blanket so as to have a source of his scent. She then Disapparated to begin her own search, leaving Dumbledore to clean things up.

Dumbledore reverted the pig Dursleys back into Vernon, who nearly squealed like a pig before realizing he was a human again.

"You are to alert the Muggle authorities that your nephew has run away. I'll sort your house in order before I go," Dumbledore said with an uncharacteristic edge to his voice. "What you have done is unforgivable, but I'll leave it to your own authorities to sort out. And believe me, I'll know if you don't notify them."

With a casual flick of his wand, the Dursleys front door was reattached to its frame. He did not know what fate would befall the Dursleys once the police saw the conditions Harry was subjected to, but his empathy lay more with the child they neglected.

"Let us hope us hope I am not too late," Dumbledore muttered. He was certain that Harry was the one spoken of in Sybill's prophecy. With Voldemort still alive, in some form, somewhere in the world, Harry needed to be protected to ensure he had the best chance of coming out on top in the end.

(A/N): So what did you think? Drop me a review on your thoughts and suggestions, and follow if you wouldn't mind! If you didn't see the tags, yes this will eventually be an H/Hr pairing~

So you'll have noticed the use of some strange terms, like "Squishing" and the like. Now the reason for this (temporary) oddity is that it just makes sense. In this fic, Harry is a kid who doesn't know about other wizards (aside from noticing some of the Accidental Magic Reversal Department guys), and so he doesn't know the correct terms for what he's doing. So to me, a kid would come up with s name based on how the thing made him feel. Since Apparition in canon is described as feeling like "being forced through a very tight rubber tube", I just came up with a name a kid might use to describe that. And if a kid was told he could do magic, wouldn't their natural response be to think they're a magician? xD

And since Harry in this fic will start off rather Riddle-like - in the sense of exploring what his powers can do, not become a dark psychopath - I thought it would be funny if he was convinced he had non-magic superpowers initially, and thus thought to seek out comic books for answers. Now I know some will say it was unbelievable that the boa constrictor at the zoo would know Harry is a wizard. Aside from being lazy and needing an excuse for him to try more magic (hehe), my defense for this point is that in canon the boa in question didn't need Harry to speak Parseltongue before he realized what Harry could do. He initiated contact by winking at Harry while he was watching the snake, which I will assume for this fic means he could tell Harry could do magic.

Anyway, going forward (if I continue this fic) Harry will start off trying to make it on the streets. This will necessitate him getting one more ability, one he didn't have in canon, for it to make sense to me. Hopefully it doesn't annoy people. I'll try to stagger and balance things out over time so he isn't some megawizard who can do anything because wish fulfillment. He'll get to Hogwarts not too long from now. If you want me to continue this, Favorite, Follow and Review please!