Consequences of youthful decisions

In Surrey a confused eight-year-old sat on his new bed in his new room. To call it a new bed was quite an exaggeration and the room was his spoiled cousins spare room. Up until tonight he had slept in a cupboard under the stairs.

Yes, a lot had changed in just a few hours. Little did he know that the changes had just started.

He had been to the grocery store with his aunt when a short man with strange clothes, most notably a high top hat, with a surprised look on his face said — "Harry Potter?". "Yes?" Harry replied, "Do I know you?". "No I suppose you don't, but I did know your parents — you look so much like your father Harry" the still unnamed man said laughing slightly at the shocked look on Harry's face.

When Harry finally got over his initial shock he did a quick look around making sure aunt Petunia wasn't in earshot. "You knew my parents?" he stuttered, "Aunt Petunia said my father was a no-good drunk". "What?" The man spluttered. "Well, we weren't too close, but he was no drunk! We fought You-Know-Who together in the Order. Shame what happened to them, the war was over an' all!"

"You-Know-Who? Wha' — Who? What's the Order? What war?". Harry Wasn't usually this talkative, and knew better than to ask questions, but he just couldn't keep himself. Here was a man who knew his name, and claimed to know his parents. He needed to know if the man was for real or just some pedophile stalker.

The frown that had been threatening to mar the man's face no shone through quite clearly. 'How can he not know' he thought. His train of thought was interrupted by a lanky woman with a neck that looked impossibly long. "What are you doing boy?" she almost shouted, "and who are you?" she added with no little disgust to the man with the abnormal fashion sense.

He could see her taking a steady hold of Harry's arm which seemed to be harder than necessary. "The name is Dedalus Diggle, and you must be Lily's sister. Imagine the surp...". That was as far as he got before the woman yanked Harry's arm with seemingly excessive force and pulled him away leaving her groceries and immediately leaving the store. Left in the scene was a confused Diggle with an obvious frown on his face.

When the initial shock passed, he disappeared with a small pop and only one thought in mind — 'Dumbledore should know'.

Albus Dumbledore was having a good day. Heck, call it a good decade. Since Voldemort was banished things had calmed down significantly - although he could see problems that would most certainly when Voldemort inevitably returned. People were complacent, ignorant and naive.

But other than worrying about the future being Albus Dumbledore was actually quite good.

That was how Dedalus Diggle found the 'Leader of the light' - laid back in his headmaster 'throne', hands behind his head, feet resting on the edge of his impressive desk sucking on what he knew to be the mans favorite candy. Dedalus couldn't help to smirk – if only he had a camera!

"Ah Dedalus - to what do I owe the pleasure" - Albus asked cheerfully.

Dedalus sobered immediately remembering what he came to discuss – "I don't know about pleasure headmaster" Making the ancient man frown. Then came the last question he was expecting – "When was the last time you checked up on Harry Potter?"

The headmaster took his feet of the table, straightened in his chair, and after a moment of silence he replied, "What do you mean my boy?" - 'and of course, there he goes with that infernal "boy" calling again - I guess it's a professors prerogative, but it's bloody annoying ' Diggle thought.

"I ran into him today, making one of my rare ventures into the muggle world. He seemed totally oblivious to our world, and gave me a look of mixed hope, shock and skepticism when I mentioned his parents." Dedalus paused not quite sure how to continue. "Go on" Dumbledore ushered, although there was a hit of caution in his voice. "We had only stood talking for half a minute when his aunt, Lily's sister, came up and quite forcefully yanked him away, and when I mentioned Lily she practically ran away dragging Harry behind her. If you ask me professor ..." Dedalus paused yet again not wanting to voice his thoughts as if they became real doing so. "If you ask me professor, I'd say he might be abused".

A second of silence and just when Dedalus started to worry Dumbledore wasn't going to take him seriously the Headmaster raised his hands and disappeared in a flash of fire. With a sigh Dedalus found a quill and parchment and wrote a quick note to Dumbledore telling him to make sure to let him know what happened, and stepped out through the floo, realizing he wouldn't get his errands done today.

At number 4 Privet Drive Petunia Dursley was livid. That awful boy had to talk to one of their lot, and now he had all these questions, about his parents, this silly war business. She had no choice but to give him poor Duddykins other room.

No Petunia Dursley was not having a good day, and with a flash of fire the day just got a lot worse.