Harry was unable to stop himself rolling his eyes as his Uncle Vernon glared at him in the rearview mirror. Harry's expression set his Uncle's large, walrus-like moustache billowing as the man's breathing grew labored in his anger.

"Don't you dare roll your eyes at me, boy," he snapped, and Harry sighed, supposing that the silence really had been too much to hope for. Rather than try to defend himself, Harry simply turned to stare out the window. He had a feeling that Professor Dumbledore himself was somehow behind his Uncle's arrival to pick him up at King's Cross every year. This year, he had been able to garner some satisfaction from the confrontation between the his family and the Order of the Phoenix, who had come together with a promise to defend or rescue Harry if he was being mistreated.

Before this summer, of course, it had always been Sirius who promised to set the Dursleys right…

Harry mentally paused, expecting his stomach to give the usual clench whenever he thought about Sirius Black, but instead felt only a sort of distant melancholy. He still missed his godfather immensely, of course, and most nights he still woke sweating from nightmares of Sirius, of his parents, of Cedric, confronting him and crying that it was his fault, all his fault that they were dead. But today, the grief seemed transfigured, and he was able to remember the happy times he had spent with Sirius as well.

Perhaps this was a stage of healing? He vaguely remembered one of his best friends, Hermione Granger, trying to lecture their other best friend, Ron Weasley, about what muggle psychologists called the Stages of Grief, but neither Harry nor Ron had paid her much attention. He felt a pang of regret for that, now. Sirius' time was over too soon, and Harry wanted nothing more than to sit and chat with the man again. Harry resolved quietly to do better by his friends and loved ones. Grudgingly, he supposed he had to include 'family' in that list as well…as long as the Dursleys didn't do anything too reprehensible.

Harry carefully stifled his snort at that condition, and heard a crinkle of parchment as he shifted in his seat. Wondering why, he placed a hand in his jacket pocket, and remembered. An owl had fluttered down bearing a letter for him as he had boarded the Hogwarts Express, and he hadn't had a chance to read it yet. Seeing a perfect opportunity to ignore his Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin for the duration of the short trip home, he pulled out the letter at once. The front was addressed simply Mr. H. Potter, but the wax seal indicated that the letter had come from Gringotts. Harry broke the seal and peered inside.

There were two pieces of parchment within, one very thick, the other thinner and rather finer. He withdrew the second one and found a short note, scribbled in tiny spiky script.

Dear Mr. Potter,
Please find enclosed a copy of the Will of Sirius Orion Black.
The Bank of Gringotts wishes to meet with you at your earliest convenience regarding its execution.
May your gold always flow.

Harry did not open Sirius' Will. The melancholy feeling grew stronger, and he felt both tears in the corners of his eyes and a slight smile tugging at his lips as he remembered his godfather debating the difference between Muggle and Wizarding Wills with Hermione at Grimmauld Place, and Arthur Weasley—fascinated as ever by anything and everything to do with muggles—watching their discussion with a look of fascination, his head bobbing back and forth as though at a tennis match.

It appeared Sirius had made up his Will before he died. Harry wondered, idly, why he was being called on regarding its execution, rather than, for instance, Albus Dumbledore. Professor Dumbledore—current Headmaster of Hogwarts and several other titles within the Wizarding World—was one of the only people who had ever believed Sirius' innocence, after he had been falsely imprisoned for crimes actually committed by one of his former best friends, Peter Pettigrew.

As always, the thought of Pettigrew, who Harry thought of mainly as his alias Wormtail, filled the pit of Harry's stomach with rage. Pettigrew had been one of Harry's father's own best friends, and had betrayed Harry's parents to their deaths before blaming Sirius.

Forcing his anger down, Harry tried to return to his original train of thought. If for whatever reason Dumbledore could not or would not act as the executor of Sirius' estate, Harry would have expected it to fall to his other best friend, Remus Lupin. But then, Harry thought darkly, perhaps there was a law preventing werewolves from inheriting property. It seemed the sort of twisted, bigoted law the Ministry was so fond of. Although, there had to be some legal reason Sirius was still allowed to bequeath any of his belongings at all, since he had never been legally pardoned for the crimes he had been imprisoned for without trial.

Still, at least the Ministry could no longer deny that the Dark Lord Voldemort had returned, since Voldemort had appeared within the Ministry itself not too long ago—

"Boy!" Vernon snarled, and Harry suddenly realized that his Uncle had been trying to get his attention for a while. He looked up at Uncle Vernon in the mirror again, politely nonplussed, and gestured for him to continue.

"As I was saying…though I don't know why I bother telling you except that I don't want to deal with your questions about her later…" Vernon rambled as the car pulled into the driveway of Number Four, Privet Drive. "You are not to interfere with our new…houseguest. Petunia's older sister has met just as sticky an end as your wretched family. Worse, maybe, or so I've heard. We thought we'd seen the last of her when she left the bloody country and married a foreign freak maybe even worse than your parents. But no!" he was getting himself properly worked up now, and both Petunia and Dudley quietly fled into the house. "Now both of them have died, too, and left their freak daughter with us. So you listen here, boy: I will have none of your unnaturalness around her! It's bad enough what her father was; I won't have her becoming like you!"

"What do you mean, 'what her father was'?" Harry asked, curious. Vernon's tone had made it sound like he was something other than magical. Not that any of this made sense to Harry, who had never even heard of his mother and Aunt Petunia having an older sister.

"Didn't I just tell you I don't want any questions?" Uncle Vernon thundered.

Harry simply rolled his eyes again and got out of the car, dragging his trunk out of the boot and up the stairs into his bedroom. As he reached the landing, Dudley pushed roughly past him and thundered down the stairs, meeting his mother coming out of the kitchen. The two of them left the house, piled back into the car with Uncle Vernon, and left without a word to Harry.

Harry pulled his trunk the rest of the way into his room, then padded across the hall to the Dursley's guest room, supposing that they must have turned this into the bedroom for his other cousin, whoever she was. He knocked softly, but there was no reply, so Harry gently eased the door open. The room was quite empty, and in the late afternoon sunlight slanting in through the window, Harry saw no indication that anyone had moved in.

Harry frowned. His uncle had made it sound as though his new cousin was currently in the house, but the only available bedroom was empty. Harry's own bedroom had been untouched—he had a feeling the Dursleys simply locked the door from the outside whenever he wasn't home—and Dudley was unlikely to willingly share space with anyone, especially if another room was free…

Harry suddenly stiffened. What if his new cousin wasn't near the same age as himself and Dudley, as he had been unconsciously assuming? What if she was younger, and smaller? And Vernon had made clear that he thought her parents had been worse than Harry's own "unnaturalness". Harry remembered only too well the Dursley's idea of an appropriate response to "unnaturalness"—stamp it out through rigorous neglect, starting with denial of the most basic private human need: personal space.

Hoping desperately he was wrong, but knowing already that he wasn't, Harry stormed back downstairs and wrenched open the door of the cupboard underneath, nearly pulling it off its hinges.

Blinking up at him was a terrified-looking girl, who looked to be barely five years old, with almond-shaped, sparkling green eyes the same colour as Harry's, bright pink hair that would have made Harry's Metamorphmagus friend Nymphadora Tonks jealous…and a Vernon-sized handprint on her cheek.

"P-please don't hurt me," she stammered, her words a little difficult to understand between her odd accent and the quaver in her voice. "I'll be good, I p-promise!"

Harry hushed her softly. "I'm not going to hurt you. It's okay now." He started to reach out to her, but froze when she flinched. Resolving not to come any nearer until she was calmer, he continued, making his voice as soothing as possible, "What's your name?"

"S-Sakura," the girl squeaked, her eyes still shut tight. She was wearing a simple red shirt decorated with a white circle, and plain black shorts, with a red ribbon in her pink hair.

"Sakura," Harry repeated with a gentle smile. "I think that's a very pretty name. My name's Harry. It's nice to meet you, Sakura."

Slowly opening her eyes again, she took in that he hadn't moved any closer, and had withdrawn his reaching hand, and relaxed very slightly. "It is good to meet you, Harry-san," she mumbled. Harry made a mental note to ask what '-san' meant later.

"Based on what I was told a few minutes ago, Sakura, I think that we're cousins?" Harry asked carefully. She could not very well be anyone else, but he was curious what Sakura herself knew.

Sakura curled up into a ball, though she didn't shut her eyes this time. She rocked gently, then nodded. "Aa. Vernon-oji-sama…" this time the extra sounds seemed to tremble, as though she was both terrified of saying them and of leaving them off. "He told me that I would have two itoko—I mean…" she trailed off, biting her lip for a moment, before continuing with a shiver, "two cousins living here with me for a few months during this summer. That they were the wonderful D-Dudley-san, and an awful boy." She looked up at Harry and whispered, "But you don't seem very awful, Harry-san."

"Uncle Vernon is a pig and an oaf, and I will be damned if I'm going to let him hurt you ever again," said Harry, his voice low but firm. She stared back at him, her eyes shining, and started to uncurl her tiny limbs. Very slowly, Harry reached a hand out toward her, stopping when it was within her arm's reach. "Would you like to run away with me, Cousin Sakura?"

She bit her lip, apparently thinking hard—likely thinking it was too good to be true, after her run-in with Vernon—but then she nodded and reached tremulously for him. He let her take his hand at her own pace, and gently helped her out of the cupboard. He glanced back in after her, and noticed that half of the space under the stairs had been taken up by a small packing crate, and a pink backpack sized for a five-year-old.

Harry lifted the backpack out, noticing a pattern of swirling cherry blossoms. It was very pretty, he thought, and he told Sakura so as he handed it to her. She nodded earnestly.

"It was a gift from Kaa-chan," she told him, sniffling. Then she flinched and corrected, "A gift from my mother."

"As long as you're willing to explain to me what those words mean," Harry told Sakura quietly, "You don't have to correct yourself like that."

Sakura nodded, tears of gratitude filling her eyes. She unzipped her backpack to show him the contents. "This is my journal, and these are books from Kaa-chan. And I have a picture of my family, and I have Kuma-chan," she indicated a fuzzy brown ear that Harry thought might belong to a stuffed bear.

Harry smiled down at her. The "books from Kaa-chan" were not insubstantial for such a small young girl, and the fact that she was apparently bilingual as well was not lost on Harry. He would have to have a discussion with Hermione about what to do with a precocious primary-schooler.

He retrieved the packing crate as well, idly noting the S.O.E. stenciled on the side, and asked Sakura, "Is this everything?" She nodded shyly, and he continued, "All right then, you wait right here by the foot of the stairs for me to get my trunk, and we'll get out of here."

She nodded again, and perched herself nervously on the edge of the packing crate, fiddling with the straps on her backpack. Harry bounded back up the stairs. Not having had time to unpack, and being unsure of how long the Dursleys might be out, it would be best if he and Sakura were long gone before they returned. He lugged his trunk straight back downstairs and deposited it beside Sakura, then set Hedwig's cage down beside the girl.

"Sakura, this is my owl Hedwig," he introduced, perfectly used to speaking to the owl as though to anyone else. "Hedwig, this is my cousin Sakura." The snowy owl blinked large amber eyes at the small girl, and hooted once. Sakura gave a slightly unsteady smile.

"Can I pet her?" she asked, still timid.

"When we get to where we're going," Harry promised. "For now…" he opened his trunk and fished out a packet of Owl Nuts. "You can feed her these while I nick some food from the pantry. Don't mind if she nips your finger," he added, as Sakura took the Owl Nuts from him. "Hedwig won't hurt you."

By the time the Owl Nuts were gone, Sakura was smiling happily, and Harry had thrown a half-dozen tins of preserved food and packages of crackers into his trunk. It wasn't exactly haute cuisine, and he hoped they wouldn't need them, but it would do in a pinch, and it was better to be safe than sorry. He forced the trunk lid shut with difficulty.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked. Sakura nodded earnestly, and Harry couldn't help but smile. He felt thrilled when she returned the smile, though shakily. He pulled open the front door, and handed Hedwig's cage to Sakura. "Hold on tight to this, okay?" This time her nod carried all the solemnity a young child could muster, and Harry's smile widened.

Harry hoisted Sakura's packing crate on top of his trunk, and heaved it out onto the front step. Harry darted back inside to shut the doors of the pantry, the cupboard under the stairs, and his now-former bedroom, before rejoining Sakura on the stoop and locking the front door behind them.

He dragged the trunk and crate as far as the end of the driveway with Sakura right behind him. "How are we going to get away anywhere before someone comes back, Harry-san?" she asked him nervously.

"With a little magic," he winked. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, but before she could ask a question, Harry continued, "But first, we need to talk to a friend of mine."

He turned back to face Number Four and barked, "Who's there?"

There was no answer.

"I know someone's there, after all the ridiculous things that happened to me last year," Harry insisted. "Don't make me find you!"

It was basically an empty threat, seeing as how Harry was underage and thus unable to use magic outside school, but it was all he could do. He could only hope that his Order guard today wasn't someone who would go tearing off to tell Professor Dumbledore that Harry had left Privet Drive. Harry had agreed to return himself, at the Headmaster's request, and knowing he could handle whatever the Dursleys could try to do to him by now. But he would not subject an innocent child—his own family!—to the Dursley's abuse.

"Wotcher, Harry," said a quiet voice out of thin air. Sakura jumped, and moved to hide behind Harry, looking frightened, but Harry gave a broad grin.

"Wotcher, Tonks," he replied easily. He put a hand on Sakura's head to reassure her. "It's okay, Sakura; this is the friend of mine."

"A y-yurei?" she asked.

He could feel her trembling, and he knelt down to put himself on her level without moving away from her. Rubbing his hand against her back, he said calmly, "I'm not sure what that is, Sakura. Do you know what that word means in English?"

"Uhm… S-spirit?" she translated, tentatively.

"Ghost, maybe?" Harry guessed. "Like the soul of someone who is gone?" Sakura nodded, but Harry shook his head. "Then no, this is not a yurei." He was sure he had butchered the pronunciation, and Sakura's lip twitched slightly. "This is my friend Tonks. She's just invisible right now." He glanced up at the spot where Tonks' voice had come from. "Help me out here?"

They heard a sigh, then Tonks said, "Oh all right, but only because she's so cute." A moment later, there was a sort of ripple in the air, and Tonks' heart-shaped face suddenly appeared, hovering there. She smiled at Sakura and spread the invisibility cloak a bit wider, so that the younger girl could see that it was merely a magic cloth wrapped around her. "You're good with kids, Harrykins."

Sakura, meanwhile, had gasped, "Sore wa honmono no kakuremino desu!" and immediately broke from Harry to touch the seams of the cloak, looking equal parts fascinated and ecstatic.

Looking at Tonks more closely, Harry thought she seemed paler than usual, and drawn, as though she was ill, though she was plainly trying to hide it behind her usual style. Before Harry could ponder any further what might be bothering her, though, Tonks blew and popped a bubble with her chewing gum, and said glibly to Sakura, "I like your hair, kiddo."

Sakura, noticing that Tonks' hair was almost the same color as her own, smiled back. Harry smirked up at Tonks. "I think Sakura's is natural, though," he told the Metamorph, who scowled down at him, causing Sakura to giggle. Tonks screwed up her face in concentration, as though struggling to remember something, and with a tiny pop Tonks' hair was suddenly exactly the same as Sakura's, except without the red ribbon the little girl wore as a headband. Sakura's eyes widened so much they seemed to bulge, but her face was split in a toothy grin.

Tonks looked back at Harry, and her face resolved into concern. "Where are you going?" she asked, eying the trunk and packing crate behind Harry.

"Right now? To get a room at the Leaky Cauldron," Harry replied, having no wish to lie to Tonks. "After that? Not sure." He shrugged. "But I'm not letting Sakura stay in that house. Tonks, being an auror, had not missed the bruise on Sakura's cheek, and nodded solemnly.

"Even if we have to disappear for a bit, I'll keep in touch somehow," Harry promised. "Hedwig can always find me. Though, we may well end up at the Burrow or even Headquarters."

Tonks shook her head. "We've had to stop using Headquarters since Sirius…"

Harry nodded. "I suppose that makes sense, doesn't it. Well, I'm sure we'll get that sorted out. Oh, and I never got to thank you for coming to save us."

Tonks rolled her eyes, her gauntness seeming to recede momentarily until she was almost her normal self. "You don't have to thank me, Harry. I was doing my job, as both an Auror and an Order Member." Her eyes seemed to dim on the last two words.

"Still," said Harry earnestly. "Thanks, Tonks." He glanced at his watch. "We'd better get moving. I know you won't lie to Professor Dumbledore, but I've got some things that need to be figured out before I can think about anything else." He rested his hand on Sakura's head, and—though Tonks didn't know it—was also referring obliquely to Sirius' Will, which still had to be settled.

"I won't say anything unless he asks, Harry," Tonks promised. "He will, though; I guarantee it."

Harry shrugged. "So be it. Take care of yourself, Tonks."

She waved him off, and vanished again under the cloak with a final, "Good luck!"

As Tonks disappeared, Harry turned back to Sakura. "Ready to see that bit of magic?" he asked. She nodded eagerly, and Harry prepared to call the Knight Bus.

Before he did so, he hesitated for a fraction of a moment. He knew that muggles couldn't see the Knight Bus, so what would he do if Sakura couldn't see it? Would they be able to board anyway? Could he somehow make her see the bus? Of course, there was the possibility she would be able to see it, meaning she was magical…he thought. You didn't need a wand to call the Knight Bus, you just had to stick out your wand arm. Well, if she couldn't see it, he'd have to find some way to carry or bribe Sakura on board, and if that didn't work, the two of them would just figure something else out. All this flashed through Harry's mind in that frozen instant, before he flung out his right hand toward the pavement as though…well, as though he were flagging down a bus.

There was a tremendous BANG, and the violently purple, triple-decker Knight Bus careened to a stop right in front of them. The doors swung open and a pimply, jug-eared young man in a matching violet uniform leapt out.

"Welcome to the–!" he began to shout.

"Thanks, Stan. Two to London." Harry cut Stanley Shunpike off by shoving two galleons into his hand, and then pointedly grabbing one handle of his trunk.

"Oh, it's oo, 'Arry!" said Stan happily, grabbing the other handle and helping Harry hoist his trunk on board. "You c'n sit righ' up front if y'like. Bot'om deck's all empty; shouldn' be too long to London at all. Righ', Ern?"

"Ar," acknowledged the elderly driver, Ernie Prang. Harry had met the two just before his thirteenth birthday, when he had fled Privet Drive to escape his Uncle's wrath after performing accidental magic.

Glancing back, Harry found Sakura staring up at him and Stan uncertainly. "Say, Stan, you told me a couple years ago that muggles can't see the Bus at all, right?"

"Nope," said Stan, shrugging as he helped Harry stow the trunk. "Like I told you, they never notice nuffink."

"Do you know if squibs can see it?" Harry pressed, as he hopped back out of the bus momentarily.

"Dunno," said Stan, slowly. "I don' reckon they can, though. Ern?"

"Ar," Ernie's grunt was negative this time. "Gotta have magic to see it."

"Well, Sakura, can you see the Bus?" Harry asked his cousin.

She nodded, then looked around and whispered to Harry, "Why is it so purple?"

Harry had to chuckle. "I'm not sure. But the fact that you can see it means you can see things that are hidden from most people. Maybe you can learn to use magic someday." Harry grinned at her and offered his hand. She took it more confidently than before, and Harry helped her clamber up the steps.

As they moved to take their seats, Stan said, "'Old up a momen'!" Harry turned to him, but found Stan with his eye on a pocketwatch. "Free…" the spotted young man mumbled. "Two… One…" As he snapped the watch shut, the squashy armchairs making up the bus's seating seemed to shimmer, before each turned into a brass-framed bed. "Now you can sit."

Sakura was staring at the nearest bed, goggle-eyed, so Harry scooped her up and settled her on it. She gasped at the sudden contact, then appeared to forget about it as she poked and prodded at the bed itself, as though expecting it to disappear.

Still grinning, Harry sat at the foot of the bed opposite, facing Stan, both to chat and to be prepared for–

BANG!

The Knight Bus leapt away from Privet Drive to a wide, empty road in the country, and both Harry and Sakura were flung flat onto their beds. Harry, who had been expecting it, recovered quickly and did his best to reassure his cousin that the bus was safe.

"Right, Stan?"

"Oh, safe as safe c'n be," said Stan airily. "We've not 'ad no accidents in free weeks, easy."

Not entirely reassured, Sakura remained laying down, clutching her backpack. Harry leaned over to tousle her hair, and she gave him a small, rather shaky smile.

"So, 'oo migh' this be, 'Arry?"

Harry smiled. "This is my little cousin, Stan. Her name is Sakura."

"I fhought your family was Muggles?" Stan asked curiously. Harry just shrugged.

"Sakura was born outside of the country," he said by way of explanation. "I think her mum was probably a muggle, but it looks like Sakura might be magical." He smiled fondly at the thrilled-looking roseate little girl. "I mean, you really can see everything around you, right?" he teased.

Sakura looked indignant. "Of course I can!" she exclaimed, forgetting to be shy. "I can see the bed that used to be a chair, and the chandelier, and the big purple bus, and–" she frowned at Harry's and Stan's laughter, starting to curl in on herself again. "You're making fun of me…"

Harry rolled off his bed toward her at once, shaking his head. "No, we're not making fun of you, Sakura. I was teasing you a little because you seemed so nervous and interested in the bed, but I guess that isn't fair, because you've never seen anything quite like this before, have you?"

Sakura shook her head as the bus juddered to a halt again.

"I'm guessing her father wasn't a wizard either," Harry said to Stan, who was tipping his hat to an elderly witch tottering down the steps.

He noticed Sakura open her mouth as though to correct him, but before he could even turn to look at her, she had closed it again. Being five, she didn't have a very good poker face, but Harry could see no reason to pursue the subject.

"Now," Harry looked back at Sakura, timing it as the doors closed and Ern started to pull back out into traffic. "I feel a little guilty for teasing you, and I feel like I should put a smile on my face. So I think the best plan is–"

BANG!

The Knight Bus jumped again, this time to a sleepy village square; parked cars and dustbins leapt out of the Knight Bus' path, and then back into place once it had passed, as the vehicle swerved wildly back and forth across the road. Sakura's head hit her pillow as she was flung backwards, but Harry—as he had planned—took a pratfall and went tumbling a little way down the aisle.

Harry climbed laboriously to his feet, groaning and rubbing his backside theatrically. Sakura giggled, and Harry slid back onto his own bed. Stan, meanwhile, had retrieved his customary newspaper. Harry rolled his eyes. To say he didn't much care for the Daily Prophet would be a gross understatement—the popular newspaper had spent the whole of the previous year casting aspersions on Harry's sanity, first implying, then later outright calling him an attention-seeking liar.

Still, he wasn't exactly up to date on current events, so Harry made himself ask, "Any big news? I haven't seen today's paper yet," he added, which was technically true.

Stan chuckled. "Told you back when we firs' met, ya ought ta read the papers more." He turned a page idly. "Big news is everywhere now You-Know-'Oo is out in the open. Gian's in the Wes' Country, we thinks."

Harry scowled, disliking the thought that Voldemort could be out committing atrocities while he, Harry, was stuck in Privet Drive. Well, he corrected himself as his eyes fell on Sakura, staring avidly out the window, he would have been stuck. Instead, he had a five-year-old's well-being to worry about. Harry could not continue to be complacent and reactive, so he decided to take a leaf out of Hermione's book and start getting the paper anyway. In fact, while he was at it, he would take out a subscription to The Quibbler as well—the magazine mostly printed rubbish, but there was always the chance of learning something interesting which would never be seen anywhere else. He would also need to withdraw some money from Gringotts bank, and change some of it for Muggle money.

Overall, Harry thought, he needed to be more proactive, and stop waiting for others to save him while he poked around on his own. There was no way he would stop being independent, of course, but better preparation could only be a good thing considering how often he, Ron, and Hermione wound up brushing with death. That was not acceptable anymore—while Harry would fight Voldemort until his dying breath, he needed to be able to make a better life for Sakura, since the alternative was her being returned to the Dursleys. In other words, no alternative he was prepared to accept.

Five jarring stops later, the Knight Bus pulled up in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Sakura, incredibly, had fallen asleep three jumps back, so Harry picked her up carefully and carried her off the bus. Stan hauled the trunk, crate, and Hedwig's cage down to the curb as a favor. Harry tossed him an extra few sickles, saluted the Bus as it vanished, then rapped firmly on the door of the old pub and inn.

After a moment, the lock clicked, and the door opened to reveal, not the wizened and toothless barman Tom, but a pretty girl around Harry's age, with long golden-blonde hair in two characteristic pigtails.

"Hannah?" he asked, bewildered.

"Harry?" Hannah Abbott sounded just as surprised as he was. "Who is that?" she added, her eyes on the sleeping little girl in Harry's arms.

"Little cousin," he explained again, shortly. "Er, Hannah… Do you know where Tom might be? I need to see if we can get a room."

"Uncle Tom isn't feeling well," Hannah replied. "But room 13 is free. One prince-sized double with attached bath; twelve galleons a night."

Harry blinked. "Er…yeah, thanks," Harry said, trying to retrieve his money bag without jarring Sakura, who tightened her arms around his neck in her sleep. Harry tried not to choke—she had a strong grip for her size. Finally, frustrated, he thrust a handful of gold at Hannah and croaked, "If that's not enough for tonight, I'll give you the rest once she's in bed."

Hannah nodded. "Follow me, then. I'll bring your things up in just a moment."

She led him up to a plain but polished door at the end of the hall on the second floor, and unlocked it for him so he could lay Sakura down on the bed. His cousin was still dressed, but her clothes were loose and comfortable, so he simply pulled off her shoes and slipped the backpack off her shoulders.

Sakura stirred at this, reaching sleepily for the backpack and mumbling something that sounded like, "Kuma-chan." Harry opened the backpack, and found the stuffed bear, which Sakura immediately latched onto when he offered it.

As Harry covered her up, he noticed that the bear had wings stitched to its back. What an oddity he thought distractedly, tucking Sakura in. He turned at a soft knock on the door, and opened it to find Hannah carrying Sakura's packing crate. He took it from her and settled his bill, then padded back downstairs to retrieve his own trunk and Hedwig's cage. Hannah followed him gracefully.

"Harry, what did you mean 'little cousin'?" Hannah asked curiously. "Neville said—Err, I had thought, I mean…" she stammered uncertainly. "I understood that the family who…brought you up…were muggles."

Harry shrugged, not sure why she had tried to hid that she had heard it from Neville Longbottom, who was one of Harry's dormmates and who he knew often partnered with Neville in their best subject, Herbology. Harry honestly didn't know Hannah very well, but if she was close friends with Neville…Harry was confident in Neville's judgment, and it wasn't like he was giving away any real secrets here.

"They are, that's my mother's older sister's family," he explained, giving more detail this time. "Apparently she and my mum had another older sister who left the country though. I don't think she was a witch, but it looks like Sakura may be."

"Sakura?" Hannah repeated.

Harry shrugged as he grabbed the handle of his trunk. "Not sure where she lived before, yet. I was more concerned with getting her out of that house."

Hannah took the other handle and helped him lift the trunk with only a little difficulty. "Why was that so important?"

Unable to shrug again, Harry jerked his head noncommittally. "It's not…the best environment," he replied carefully. "I'm plenty used to it, but if I can offer a sweet little girl better…" he trailed off, and Hannah did not press further.

She helped him set the trunk down at the foot of the bed, and smiled when Harry immediately checked on Sakura. She handed him the room key, which he realized he had completely forgotten about, and said, "I'll put out some food for your owl, and we'll square up cost in the morning when I let Uncle Tom know you're here. Good night, Harry."

"Thanks, Hannah," he said with a tired smile. "G'night."

After locking the door and dropping the key on the bedside table, Harry changed into pajamas and got into bed, snuffing the single lamp. It wasn't very late, but it had been a very tiring day. As he settled down, Sakura rolled over and sleepily murmured, "Oyasumi nasai, Harry-nii-san…"

Harry, naturally, didn't know the words, but he understood the intent well enough. "Good night, little Sakura," he whispered back, brushing his knuckles softly across her cheek, before shutting his eyes and missing the contented smile that flickered across her tiny sleeping face.

A/N: I'm not an "official" adopter of this story, but (although I didn't agree with large portions of the original execution) I always really liked the premise. So, respectfully, I am going to be rebuilding this story from the ground up, and taking it in my own (rather different) direction.

If you were like me and thought the idea was great but needed some polish, I'd be thrilled to have you along for the ride.

If you followed the original for the promise of a Slash OT3 between a 15-year-old, a 19-year-old, and a 32-year-old…then I'm sorry, but (again, respectfully) you'll have to keep looking. Truthfully, I don't know if any of the other Narutoverse characters will be making an appearance; if they do, it certainly will not be right away. Likewise, this story is going to be Gen, at least to begin with—I dislike (if you'll forgive the term) marrying a story to a ship before giving the characters a chance to actually interact.

I don't like writing super!characters or flagrantly breaking the established rules of a universe, so while admittedly some characters (even Harry) could be considered slightly OOC compared to canon, there are some extra background details that define this somewhat as an AU.

Harry (to use him as an example) is somewhat more grounded and responsible than he was in canon; he tends to think things through more thoroughly and generally learns from his mistakes.

I'm not worried too much about translations, at least at this point, because none of the Japanese terms are particularly special. Most of the time Sakura will offer Harry an explanation, and even when she doesn't, she's saying pretty much what you think she's saying.

Also, special shout out to Opinr for pointing out that all instances of 'god' had been replaced with 'Lord Helix'…causing Sirius to be referred to repeatedly as Harry's Lord Helixfather. This was not intentional; it was a combination of a malfunctioning Chrome extension and the ongoing trouble I am currently having with FFN. I caught it in the other story I updated tonight, but thought this one was clear. Thanks!