Rescue

Prompt: Harry POV to Voldemort's hot girl summer, either him getting rescued from the Dursleys or meeting Sirius for the first time.

Harry hears it only distantly, but he's got a hair trigger for raised voices: hearing those around the Dursleys rarely means good for him. So Dudley bellowing "MUM! Someone's here about the freak!" naturally draws his attention.

The freak can only be him, obviously, but who's at the door? A teacher maybe? Or—Harry's stomach sinks—a copper maybe—he's been so careful—but maybe Mr. Drinkluss down at the corner store figured out it's Harry lifting candy from the shelf out front—

If it's a copper Harry might just run.

He inches towards the back door. Voices float out to him—not loud enough to make out words but he hears a voice so low it's probably a man, and not Uncle Vernon's, and then the other is Aunt Petunia—and then a sound he knows all too well, namely that of Dudley storming off upstairs in a snit.

Okay. So Dudley's out of the way and not going to come barreling out back to catch Harry eavesdropping. Good. Also, Dudley's bedroom window is out of sight from here, the big lilac bush means you can't see the back stoop from it. Harry's safe to get closer.

The door is closed. Harry eases the latch aside. Tugs it open a tiny inch. Puts his eye to the gap and his ears to work.

"We swore," Aunt Petunia's saying shrilly, "we’d stamp it out of him—if that, that man sent you, you can just tell him—”

She's in the way but Harry makes out the silhouette of a tall man standing just inside the front door. Who says, in a cold voice: “I beg your pardon?” 

Harry can't see her face but he hears that horrible sneer she gets. "That Dumbledore fellow—” 

She doesn't get any farther. Just—freezes. Silent.

What?

And then she crumples to the floor. One second standing, the next a puddle on the ground. Harry barely stops himself making a noise. The man hasn't moved! What did he—

Now that Aunt Petunia's not in the way, Harry can see the man making his way down the hall: dark-haired, skinny— He lifts one hand, snaps long pale fingers, and—

The door to Harry's cupboard blows off its hinges.

Oh no. Oh this is so bad. Harry's stomach turns over. So so bad. They're gonna blame it all on him, he knows it, Dudley even said it, this stranger's here for Harry—this crazy person who can do things that aren't—

The crazy man steps over the broken door. Turns to look down at Aunt Petunia. As he does the light catches his eyes and they're bright blood red.

This time Harry can't stay quiet. He claps a hand over his mouth, too late: the crazy man stills, turns, and very clearly sees Harry standing there.

"Harry Potter?" the man says.

Bollocks. Er. Oh well… Harry opens the door a bit more. Shrugs. "I'm… I'm Harry."

"Come here."

He's not gonna disobey a crazy person who can do… whatever that was. Harry inches into the house.

Then the crazy man offers to kill Aunt Petunia for him, which is even crazier than Harry thought this man was to begin with, and then he insists that Harry is—is a mage. That Harry has magic.

Which can't be true.

He's just Harry.

But, Harry thinks—but there are those odd things that happen around him—things he can't explain—

Plus the crazy man, who's called Thomas, can do things too.

Thomas, who might not be crazy after all, and who knew Harry's mum.

On the one hand—a little piece of himself cracks and dies when Harry learns for sure his mum and dad are dead. At night he used to lie in his cupboard and screw his eyes tightly closed and imagine them coming to get him. He remembers… a laugh. A curve of nose seen above him. He remembers warmth and… and hands holding him, lifting him up.

They're really gone.

They're never gonna come back for him.

On the other hand… here's Thomas, who's a professor, which means maybe he likes books; and who looks at Aunt Petunia the way Aunt Petunia looks at Harry—like she's the dirty freak instead (Harry vaguely thinks he shouldn't like that as much as he does)—Thomas who who offers to take Harry away.

Harry's been told all about stranger danger, obviously, but also, the Dursleys are horrible. Thomas can't be any worse. Thomas can teach him about magic. Thomas knew his mum.

So he reaches out. He takes Thomas's hand. And life isn't like a storybook, Harry learned that long ago, but he really does get whisked away to a special, secret land of magic…

Which means maybe, just maybe, Harry can be special too.