Alright, lovelings, a new story has been requested. Hope you enjoy and remember that I don't actually own Harry Potter.

-JazzyKat

(P.S. The italics and *s indicate passages taken from the original Harry Potter books.)

Chapter One:

The Boy Who Lived.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, Thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.* It was this disbelief in such mysterious workings and 'magic' that they happened to throw away the savior of the wizarding world. Mr. Dursley, a rather beefy man with a lot of girth and few brains somehow knew that the week was going to turn out to be a terrible one. Petunia, his rather giraffe like wife had lost favor in the ladies' bingo club when she insulted the neighbor's pie making skills and he himself had been docked his pay for the week at Grunnings. So it was with a heavy heart and mind that he lay himself down to sleep in the bed beside his already sleeping wife and drifted off into an unimaginative and restless sleep that would lead to the most terrible happening of his dull dreary life.

He woke the following Monday morning, dressed in his finest suit, (which made him look like a pig in a rug), kissed his wife, patted his squalling son on the head and headed out the door. He stopped short when his foot hit something and with a dread filled heart, he looked down. He held his breath as he stared at the small basket that held a slumbering infant and totally missed the cat staring at him from atop the mail box. He calmly reached behind him and fumbled for the doorknob. Finding it, he pushed clumsily back through the door, still not taking his eyes off of the bundle and called for his wife, who'd successfully wrestled their son into a nap.

"Vernon? Is everything all right?" She called, wiping her hands on a dish towel as she walked to the door. Vernon soundlessly pointed to the doorstep and Petunia stepped around Vernon to get a look at what had frightened him. She barely managed to stuff her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming at the sight that greeted her.

The child, innocent to the distress he was causing to the Dursleys snuffled into his blanket on account of the cold November air and slept on.

Petunia didn't hesitate to order Vernon coldly, "Get rid of it. I'll not have her kind in the same house as my Dudders." She sneered down at the innocent babe and walked back into the house. The cat looked even more murderous as Vernon followed his wife's instructions and placed the basket in the back of his car. The cat managed to wiggle in through an open window and crouch down in the back floorboard. Vernon drove around the long way to Grunnings, stopping at a little copse of trees to leave the basket. The cat slipped out and hid in the trees and waited for Vernon to drive off. Once it heard the car rumble off in the distance, the cat stalked forward and transformed into a rather severe looking woman dressed in tartan robes. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a crisp bun and she had square glasses perched on her nose. She leaned down and tapped the side of the basket with a stick and then tapped it again before picking the basket up and disappearing into the day.

Minerva McGonagall was no fool. She'd seen how Dumbledore, leader of the light manipulated people to his whims and she'd also witnessed the pettiness of one Petunia Dursley. Minerva had an inkling that Dumbledore would send young Harry to a lifetime of abuse and hurt with the Dursleys and couldn't bear to see young sweet Harry go through such a childhood. So, when Petunia ordered her husband to get rid of Harry, Minerva saw her chance to save Harry and acted quickly before her actions could be traced.

Minerva looked sadly down at the sleeping Harry, hoping the sleeping charm she'd cast would hold him over until she could get him hidden as she stalked through the muggle neighborhood and came to a stop between numbers eleven and thirteen. She thought of Sirius Black's childhood home and tapped her foot while she waited on it to materialize. The Order of the Phoenix had taken to using the old home as headquarters before Voldemort stuck against the Potters and was now only inhabited by Remus Lupin and Sirius.

Minerva prayed to the gods that Remus and Sirius had returned to the house to mourn the Potter's death before either of them did anything rash. She paused to tap a disillusionment spell over Harry and his basket before weaving her way through the celebrating wizards and witches in the front hall. She made her way to the kitchen where she found a rather hung over Sirius, Remus and Mad-Eye sitting around the table somber faced. Minerva's heart nearly jumped through her chest at the sight of Mad-Eye and had her wand drawn on him in seconds.

Remus and Sirius looked up at Mad-Eye's chuckle and started that the usually stern witch had her wand drawn on Mad-Eye.

"Relax lass; I'll trust your judgment in this." Mad-Eye stated, leaning back in his chair.

Minerva nodded sharply and put her wand down, but did not put it away.

"Minerva? Is something wrong?" Sirius's worried voice broke the heavy silence that followed.

"Do you have a quiet place that people cannot eavesdrop on?" Minerva asked shortly, ignoring the question.

Sirius looked back to Remus who looked just as bewildered as he and a glance at Mad-Eye's amused face revealed nothing, but slowly Sirius nodded and led the group farther upstairs to the master bedroom. He sealed the room with his wand and watched as Minerva added a few more wards of her own.

"Sit," Minerva motioned before waving her wand and removing the disillusionment on Harry.

"What?!" Sirius leaped to his feet.

"Quiet, Black! You'll wake him. Dumbledore decided that it'd be a wise decision to leave him with Petunia and the whale. Not even two seconds after they found him, Petunia ordered her husband to get rid of Harry. I followed and the muggle would have left him in the woods to die. I care not what happens to me now, but I will not allow Harry to be abused or killed by those ignorant muggles." Minerva snapped at him, her chest heaving with repressed emotions by the end of her tirade.

Remus spoke up slowly and quietly, "Harry was supposed to go to me and Sirius were Lily and James to die."

"Exactly, now, who is to care for him?" Minerva answered, not unkindly.

Sirius looked up from where he was pacing and muttering angrily. "Me and Remus of course. I want him out of Britain and out from under Dumbledore's thumb. We'll go to the Black estate in France."

Remus nodded, reaching out to pull Harry from the basket. He cradled the youth to his chest gently and pushed the tufts of black hair away from Harry's face. Harry meanwhile slept on, oblivious that his life had just changed and that he would spend the next few months being cared for in Grimmauld Place by Remus and Sirius until they could escape to France… He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices : "To Harry Potter—the boy who lived!"*