Harry Potter held the small boy his arms as he cried and found himself singing a song he couldn't remember hearing. After his voice had broken, he had turned out to have a nice voice and slowly the child quieted. No-one else was in the Dursley house and he was happy to be able to just sit with the child. Although he was actually quiet looking forward to Dudley's return, just to see the other man's face as it had only been the previous night that he had put his son in the cupboard under the stairs.

The other man would probably think Harry was using his magic to watch his family and in a way he was. Unlike most seers no-one knew his talent until the nearly the end of his seventh year. Most started coming into their powers aged fifteen, which of course had corresponded with Voldemort's return and as he only ever saw Voldemort they had just assumed it was the link between them. After Sirius' death, Harry had got some books about Occumencly and had built walls so thick not even the Headmaster could get through.

He had had the dreams all the way through sixth and seventh year, once or twice a month and had thought they were just that dreams. It hadn't been until April of hiss seventh year that he had finally worked out they were visions. The Headmaster had asked a friend to test him and they had found out he was a low level dream seer.

A Dream seer meant he could only see things if he was asleep and the what he saw was normally happening at the same time, occasionally the past but never the future. Because the dreams didn't happen all that often he wasn't very powerful. Telfor his trainer was muggle had explained it like a charging battery, it took time to charge the power but then it was all exhausted in one dream. Telfor had helped him remember his dreams, make himself have them about a certain person if he wanted to and save up the power so he got them when he wanted.

It was this skill that had made him aware of Dudley's child, it had been only two days after he had used his skill to make sure Seamus and his wife were alright in Australia that he had been dragged into the small boy's birth. The use of power left him weak and listless for nearly week.

He hadn't understood why he had seen the birth until the previous evening when he had watched Dudley put his nine and a half month old son in the cupboard under the stairs. The little one, whose name he didn't even know, had done a skill he had been famous for as a baby (or so Remy had told him) a wild magic Accio. The baby had been his crib and his mother had left his bottle on the draws across the room, the baby had called his food to him. Dudley's wife had seen her son do and had been shocked, once Dudley had finally got an explanation out of her. He had glared at the baby, called him a freak and dumped him in the cupboard without a blanket or anything.

As with the the first vision of this child's birth, it had come only a few days after his previous one so he hadn't woken until ten at which point he had apperated straight away and removed the baby. A spell to change the child's nappy that he had learnt from Molly Weasley and wrapped up in his cloak. A bottle of milk he had got from Dobby before leaving had been drank with much enthusiasm and Harry had been pleased to notice that it had refilled itself. The now sleeping, clean and full baby had a death grip on his shirt and was drooling on his shoulder. Harry couldn't have been happier.

The young wizard was drifting to sleep when he heard the front door then someone opening the cupboard, and finally a woman crying. The mother, he assumed as he stopped into the hallway and saw her kneeling by the cupboard.

"He said he wouldn't get rid him until tonight, he promised," she was mumbling over and over again.

"And he hasn't," Harry said quietly.

The woman jumped to her feet and stared at him then to the bundle in his arms, "Alex, oh thank god he's okay."

Harry smiled and handed her son to her, "I've changed and fed him for you."

"Oh thank you so much," She said without taking her eyes off her son, then she seemed to realise that there was a stranger in her house, looking after her son, "But who are you?" She seemed to care a lot more for her son than his dream would have let him believe, he guessed Dudley had threatened her in some way.

"Oh sorry, I'm used to everyone knowing. I'm Harry James Potter, I was brought up by Vernon and Petunia, your parents in law but don't worry about the little one. I know what he is, he is much like me and don't blame Dudley too much. He was brought up believing magic was something freakish and bad. Come on into the kitchen, you need some tea."

Harry knew he had picked up the infuriating habit of offering people tea or sweets in the face of a crisis from the headmaster but as it normally worked he didn't complain too much.

"Of course," she said and led the way, ready to juggle her son and make tea at the same time.

"Sit," Harry ordered, "I could cook a Sunday lunch by the age of five, I think I can manage tea and biscuits," he chided and smiled at her when she smiled back. She was an attractive woman he supposed, long thick brown hair and nice brown eyes, pity he was a bent as a three dollar note.

"You're the cousin he talks about when he drinks, the one who went to St Brutus," She said quietly.

"I am no doubt the cousin he curses when drunk but I never attended St Brutus. I went to and graduated from, with honours, Hogwarts school for Witches and Wizards. But the Dursleys preferred to let the neighbours know they were kind enough to take in an insane maniac because he was their nephew rather than they had a wizard in the family."

"My grandfather always told me that my his gran was a witch and could do all sorts of things like turn people's hair green and change into a leopard at will."

Harry nodded, thinking maybe she was from a line of squibs. Even if Petunia wasn't a wizard she probably had a higher magical level than most muggles, which would have passed onto Dudley, and squibs had a higher level of magic than muggles do the two met and then there was Alex.

He found cups and tea bags while the kettle happily started to boil before answering, "She was probably an Animagus, she could change into a specific animal at will and changing someone's hair happened a lot of the time at Hogwarts. I even once turned my Primary teacher's hair blue, before I knew I was wizard, Wild magic. It's what your son did last night."

"He di-did do magic then?" She asked in amazement, looking down at the sleeping face.

"Yes, apparently it was one of my favourite tricks as a child. We call the spell Accio, to call things to us but he did wild magic, he just wanted his bottle so much. Why didn't you stop Dudley?" Harry asked as he sat her tea down and then sat opposite, there was no need to tell her that he had slipped a calming potion into it, he needed to know all the details.

"When I told him what Alex had done, he just grabbed him and stormed off, he came back ten minutes later and made me have sex. It hurt so much, I heard Alex crying from downstairs and started to go and see him, he hit me again and then surrounded me. He's stronger than me and there was nothing I could, he watched me closely this morning, even going so far as to drive me to work. He said Alex would stay there until tonight then he would drive the freak to an orphanage.

"I couldn't let him put my little boy in one of them, I quit and came back as quick as I could I was going to run away, I didn't care what he was, he was still my son."

Harry nodded, "Where were you going to go?"

"I have a few friends but I'm not sure, I have little money that he doesn't control, I couldn't go to my parents or Dudley's and like Dudley I am an only child."

Harry sighed and made his offer, "I have a home, a rather large one, you and Alex may come and stay with me for as long as you like no strings attached."

She looked up at him, her eyes wide, surprise written in the pale face, "Really?"

"Yes really, it is a huge house and as much as I love Dobby and Winky, human companionship would be nice."

"Dobby and Winky?"

"Two house elves that followed me from school, they clean and cook for me, make sure I eat and look after the house. Now I think we should leave here as soon as possible but I really must ask, why on earth did you marry Dudley?"

She looked ashamed for a few seconds than straightened her head with pride, there was something familiar about that gesture but he couldn't place it, "My father arranged it for me. I prefer my own sex and he wanted a grandson to carry on the family line. He blackmailed me and Dudley kept me in the house until I was pregnant, once I was carrying his child, he held him as a threat for my good behaviour. I knew in a court fight he would win, with his and my parents on his side. I had nothing to run away with but with Dudley doing this I had no choice."

"I'm sorry that had to happen to you, now then the packing, let us start with Alex's stuff."

She nodded and finished her tea before leading up the stairs to what had been a very nicely decorated baby room before Dudley had had a temper tantrum. She looked she was about to start crying, "Don't worry," Harry said as he took out his wand and sent out various repairing charms. He could see the amazement on her face, "Now do you want it all?"

She nodded, harry just smiled at and pulled a bag from his pocket, it was about five centimetres by five centimetres, one of Fred and George's best inventions. The never ending, light weight, tiny bag. From the bag he removed a square wooden box about the size of a tea box. He took the lid off and grabbed the already packed changing bag from beside Alex's crib before backing to the door way with Alex and his mother.

A few flicks of his wand later and the contents of the room was shrunken and transferred into the box, keeping the same positions as it would when unshrunken. He picked up the box and exchanged it for an empty on in his little bag. "Let's do you now."

"His stuff will be okay?" She asked nervously but led the way into the Master bedroom.

"It'll be fine, most things have a limit of how many times they can be shrunk and unshrunk unless they are designed to do that but that limit is normally around a hundred. Now what about you, where is your stuff?"

"My clothes are in the wardrobe but I don't want many of them, Dudley bought them for me and I don't like them."

Harry understood, she was a trophy wife and didn't want to be one any longer, "Why don't you just put all your clothes that you want on the bed and while I shrink them you can go through the house and get anything else you want to take. But remember I am rich and if there is anything you need but don't want to take, tell me and we can get a new one on the way."

"Thank-you Harry," she said with a smile and passed Alex to him, he took the sleeping child back and smiled at the same figure as a small hand found his hair this time.

He sat on the floor as she sorted through her clothes, throwing some on the bed but most on the floor. He could tell she had finished when she started staring at the pile on the floor and the much smaller pile on the bed, he saw her reaching for some of the clothes she didn't want. "Don't, I told you I have plenty of money, we will go shopping."

"You shouldn't have to pay for me."

"I grew up with nothing, hand me down clothes, little food and my room was the cupboard under the stairs for my first ten years. No person should grow up like, you loved your son enough to run away from everything you knew. I have far too much money for me to ever spend in this lifetime, it would be my honour to spend it you and your son."

She blushed but didn't change her piles, instead vanished from the room to collect up things from the house. Less than ten minutes later the three stood outside of the house, ready to go. Harry knew brooms were out of the question, as were Apparation (It was bad to apparate such a small child), PortKey (he still tended to fall when he landed and didn't want to hurt any one) and floo (his house wasn't connected but with a child he might end up doing it). His only choice was therefore the Knight's bus.

Holding Alex in one arm he used the other to stick his wand out, realising that he didn't even know her name, he turned and asked. The young woman blushed and answered just before the Knight's bus popped into Existence beside them. "Paige Dursley no not Dursley, I am Paige Jane Snape and my son Alexander Nicholas Snape."

With the arrival of a huge purple triple decker bus, Paige never noticed Harry's astonished look and then his chuckle as he thought about the fact that his aunt and uncle had made their son marry a squib. But not only a squib, one that was at some point not in the too distant past was related to his Ex-Potion's professor and war hero.

He shook his head and pulled her onto the bed, Stan met him, looking much the same as he had over a decade earlier when Harry had first caught the bus: his purple uniform looking like it had made to fit wrong and large protruding ears, the only difference was less pimples. He still only looked about eighteen but was still as friendly as ever. "Harry Potter good to see you again, where are you and the lady off too this time?"

"Draconian Place, watch house please."

"Do you want Hot chocolate?"

"No thanks Stan."

"Alright, take any pair of beds you want and it'll be twenty sickles."

Harry pulled the required payment from his pocket and handed it over before leading Paige back to on of the beds, having her sit on it before giving her Alex and sitting down himself.

The next hour was spent with her asking questions about him and wizards in general, about half way through Alex woke up but soon quieted down when Paige gave him the refilled bottle, then falling quickly back to sleep. Harry guessed that Dobby had slipped a weak sleeping potion into the milk but didn't mind, the baby needed to sleep and recover after his night in the cupboard.

When the bus finally pulled up to the watch house of his mansion, the furthest any muggle, wizard or squib could go without his permission, Harry was the only one still awake. With a smile he cast a sleeping spell on Paige and left the bus with her floating behind him.

"Thanks Stan."

"You're always welcome Mr Potter."

Harry nodded and started the work up to his home, it was only about two hundred metres but had charms on in it to make it look a lot further. Because they were with him the pair passed through his wards with nothing more than a tingle. Although that tingle seemed to wake the baby sleeping his arms, Alex snuffled and opened his eyes to reveal huge green ones, ones that looked a lot like his did. He laughed again, wondering how much that must have annoyed Dudley.

"Are you awake little one, you like the feeling of the magic."

Alex babbled at him and pointed over his shoulder, "Mama," the small boy said, the only word Harry had understood.

"Your mama is sleeping little one."

Alex babbled at him some more, obviously expecting Harry to understand everything, Harry did the same thing he had done for years while talking to people from the ministry, nodded when Alex paused. Harry had no idea what he had just agreed to but neither did he mind, Alex was a precious little feller.

Dobby met them at the door, the very brightly dressed house Elf smiled at the sight of his Master and the small child. "Master Harry is back and he is bringing a baby."

Harry smiled at the small creature, "Dobby I would like you to meet Alex and his mother Paige, they are going to be staying with us from now on."

The Dobby looked as happy as he had the day Harry had said he could stay with him, "What can Dobby do sir for Master Harry, Master Alex and Master Alex's mother?"

Harry sniggered, knowing Paige was going to be stuck with that name the entire time she was here. "Could you take Paige and her belongings," a bit of juggling and he handed Paige's boxes over, knowing Dobby could return them to their normal size, "Up to the Gryphon room, put this box's belongings in the Phoenix room and make sure the door between them is open." Harry handed over the other box and took the sleeping spell off her, meaning she would would wake up when she was ready. "Alex and I will be in my office, can you keep an eye on her and when she wakes up can you escort her to my office. Can you ask Winky to make us nice meal with a bottle for Alex and some mashed potatoes and peas and some warm custard."

"Yes Master Harry, Dobby glad to help Master Harry."

"Thank-you Dobby," Harry said, patted the ridiculously bright and multicoloured hat and wandered to his office. With only two elves to look after the mansion, all twenty bedrooms, seven bathrooms, three living rooms, a library, a dungeon, an attic, a ballroom, two kitchens and a garden the size of a Quidditch Pitch, it was a lot of work for them. But as Dobby had never complained and Winky was finally happily after Barty Crouch Jr's death, Harry didn't say anything.

That didn't mean he didn't always say please and thank-you.

In his office, Harry finally took his robe off the small child and got a smile in return, showing him at least four white teeth. "Now then little one I have some forms and letters to sort out so that your daddy can't get you back."

"Dada," Alex said, his grin vanishing and speaking in a language only he understood for half a minute before saying another word Harry could understand, "Bad."

Harry smiled and lifted the smaller boy up so he tickle a small stomach, making the small boy squeal with laughter, "Yes he was a bad dad but no more little one, no more."

Alex sighed contentedly and settled back onto Harry's shoulder, small arms around Harry's neck, holding him in place. Harry chuckled and hugged the small body before settling the baby on his knee and starting to write a letter to his lawyer so that Dudley would have no power over Alex or Paige.

TBC