The day before Remus was set to pick up Harry from the Dursleys, a few members of the Order came to stay at headquarters for a few days after a successful mission to stop a Death Eater raid on a muggle town. Tonks, Moody, and Shacklebolt had been spotted, and they needed to lay low and out of sight for a few days to until they could be sure it was safe for them to be seen again.

Remus was glad to have other people around, and he was sure Sirius was even more thankful for the company than he was. Of course, Remus himself spent most of his time around Tonks. She tried to help him in the kitchen, but he had long since learned not to hand her anything breakable, unless he wanted to spend more time performing cleaning and repair spells than actually cooking.

"So I heard about what happened with Umbridge," she said, leaning up against the counter while Remus poked at the bacon on the stove. "Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed."

"It was Harry's doing, not mine."

"Oh, I'm sure you had nothing to do with it."

Her cheeky grin made Remus's heart melt a little, but he forced himself to focus on his cooking.

She took a step closer, placing a hand on the back of his arm. "Harry really respects you, you know."

"So I hear."

"Any chance I might see him while I'm here?"

Remus nodded. "He's at his aunt and uncle's now, but I'm going to pick him up tomorrow and bring him back here."

She raised her eyebrows. "Why? Everything okay?"

"It seems they don't treat him well."

"Oh." She dropped her hand from his arm. "And you let him go back?"

"The situation is complicated." He didn't feel it was necessarily within his rights to explain the blood wards to her, and it was uncomfortable to go into detail about the exact nature of the abuse—that was Harry's story to share, not his. "We'll be able to protect him much better after he spends a couple of weeks with his family."

Tonks hissed. "Wish we could do more to help. Have you checked in with him since he's been there?"

"We had a Floo call the other day."

"And?"

"He says he's fine . . ."

She raised an eyebrow. "But you don't believe that."

Remus took a deep breath. "I don't believe he would lie outright. I offered to send food, and he didn't accept it."

"Maybe he was worried about getting caught."

"I offered to send it directly to his room."

"Has he been checking in by Owl?"

Remus shook his head. "Sirius wanted him to, but you know how teenagers can be."

Tonks winced. "You think he's hiding something."

Remus couldn't keep the worry from showing in his face, but he forced his voice to remain calm. "He's only staying there for a little while; he'll be okay. I put a protective spell on him. If anything really bad happens, we'll be hearing alarm bells throughout headquarters."

"If you're sure," Tonks said.

Just then, the alarms began to sound.

Harry stood in the wreckage of what used to be the cupboard under the stairs. He wasn't sure exactly what had hit him.

One moment, he'd been sitting in his cupboard, trying to read a spell book while Aunt Petunia sat outside of the door, quietly, almost absentmindedly, telling him stories about his parents. She'd gone through a few stories about bouts of accidental magic his mother had had, and how her parents had been afraid of her a couple of times before they figured out what was going on. She talked about her interactions with Snape, and with Harry's dad, and how they were all freaks.

But then she crossed a line. She talked about the wedding. About the family members who had refused to come because they saw them as freaks.

Harry wanted to be anywhere but where he was, but he couldn't quite drown out the stories his aunt was telling him. One moment, Harry felt so angry, his heart hammering so hard against his chest, that he thought he might explode.

And then, he sort of had.

There had been a loud BANG, and the next thing he knew, Harry was standing in ruins, the door to the cupboard torn off its hinges. Broken pieces of drywall covered the old mattress he'd been sleeping on, and his few belongings were covered in debris. He'd been lucky his outburst apparently hadn't destroyed anything that was structurally holding up the staircase, because Uncle Vernon had thundered down the stairs at just that moment, raining down sawdust and splintered bits of wood on Harry's head.

Aunt Petunia was staring in horror at the wreckage, while Uncle Vernon took a much more direct, hands-on approach—he reached in and grabbed Harry out of it by the arm. The protective spell seemed to interpret this as saving him from the site of the explosion, and it didn't prevent Uncle Vernon from gripping tighter and tighter, shouting red-faced threats into Harry's face as Harry stammered, trying to defend himself. He knew the spell wouldn't let Uncle Vernon hit him, but the grip on his arm was really starting to hurt, and Uncle Vernon was shaking him, and when he slammed Harry back against the wall, the spell didn't prevent it.

Uncle Vernon continued shouting, but there was a hint of a smile in his eyes. He'd found a workaround, and he knew it. Harry clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut—this could get ugly fast, but it was always best to take it quietly if he could. Uncle Vernon slammed Harry against the wall once more.

That was when Remus appeared.

Harry had never seen him so angry before. Certainly, Remus had earned his respect, but until that moment, Harry had never feared him, not really. And yet as terrifying as the sight was, Harry couldn't help but think that he had never felt safer in his entire life.

The Dursleys didn't seem to notice his arrival. Remus's eyes bore holes into the back of Uncle Vernon's head right up until the moment he drew his wand, and Uncle Vernon was thrown back away from Harry, slamming into the opposite wall.

"How dare you." Remus's voice was dangerously quiet as he came to stand over Uncle Vernon's cowering frame. Aunt Petunia began to cry and wail, while Dudley rushed into the room and into his mother's arms, whimpering.

"How dare you touch him." Remus raised his wand.

Harry darted forward and grabbed his arm. "Remus, it's okay."

Remus's dagger eyes turned on Harry. "What did they do to you?" Remus demanded.

"It doesn't matter." Harry forced himself to hold his gaze. "Let's get out of here. They're not worth it."

Remus turned back toward Uncle Vernon, who cringed and held both hands up. He lowered his wand and took a step closer.

"I spared you," Remus said. "Never forget that."

Harry held his breath.

Remus turned to Harry. "Let's go," he said.

Harry straightened up, rubbing the back of his head. "M-my things?"

Remus glanced back at the ruins that had been the cupboard under the stairs. "I'll come back for your wand and for anything else that can be salvaged. We'll buy you anything else that needs to be replaced."

Harry swallowed hard. He didn't want to say it, but he had to. "It—it hasn't been two weeks."

"And you could have been killed in that explosion. Thirteen days will have to do." Remus held out his arm. "Let's go, son."

With a trembling hand, Harry took his arm, and they Disapparated.