Little six-year-old Harry Potter was in his cupboard under the stairs crying. He hated it here at the Dursleys. They punished him for the smallest things. He never got enough to eat, and they called him names. They even hit him on occasion. Never hard enough to actually hurt him, but enough to give him pause.
He was being punished now because he had once again gotten better grades than his fat cousin, Dudley. This happened all last year too, in their first year of primary school. Harry had learned the alphabet before Dudley and had been praised by the teachers for it. He had been put in his cupboard for hours with no dinner when he brought the letter home.
It followed that pattern all year. Harry never stopped though. He made sure that he got good grades and made his teachers proud. He felt a sense of pride when they did, like he was worth something to someone. To himself.
He won't bow to them. The Dursleys. He was tenacious like that. They aren't worth it. Stupid Dursleys. He was going to do well in school even if it meant that he had to spend the rest of his childhood in this stupid cupboard.
But, oh, how he wished someone would come and take him from this horrible place. He desperately wished for someone to love him. He was so lonely. He never had anyone hold him or tell him they loved him.
He had to listen to Aunt Petunia tell Dudley every day that she loved him, and that she hated Harry. He listened to her coddle Dudley and ignore him. He watched Uncle Vernon spend money on Dudley and then decry spending anything on Harry, even food money was too much for that fat man.
So, he cried, and as he cried, he wished. "I wish someone would please, come and love me," he said to the air. He said it over and over again and again. He prayed to whoever would listen to his pleas. He didn't know if there was a God, but he wanted there to be one. One that would grant his wish and take him away from here. He just wanted to be away from the Dursleys. He hated them.
His prayers didn't go unnoticed. Up in the heavens a goddess heard his wish and thought, "This could be fun."
This was a goddess of chaos. She was a minor goddess of little importance, not many people had heard of her. Eris was her name. She looked to the future and saw what chaos could be experienced if she did one little thing. So, she sent this wish to a man in a prison and a plan.
That man was curled up in his dog form and trying to keep warm in the dank cell he was currently housed in. Right now, he was dreaming of being free.
The goddess sent those words to the man and healed him at the same time. All the years of mental and physical ailments were gone. He was still slim, but not starving. His mind was clear, and he was thinking correctly for the first time in five years.
"I wish someone would please, come and love me." The man heard the little boy's voice in his head. He knew right away that it was Harry's voice. How he knew was instinctive. He had to get to his godson. He got up and looked around the cell to find a way to escape.
The window was too high up and too narrow. There was only one other way out of the room, and that was the door. The bars were just wide enough that his skinny dog frame could barely squeeze through them. He pushed his way through with a lot of effort. There was a moment when his chest stuck that he thought he might not get through, but he released his breath, and it collapsed his chest, and he squeezed out. He was free.
He sneaked down the corridor and stayed to the walls. The dementors didn't care that there was a dog running around the prison. They only cared about the humans and their emotions. Their sole reason for being was to make humans miserable. Dogs didn't even register to them.
The human guards might care if there was a canine there though, so he stuck to the shadows. It was difficult and he almost got caught twice and had to backtrack three times. Still, he made good time and was at the water's edge of the island in no time. It was bitter cold on the shore. The wind was biting into him down to his bones. He knew the water was going to be colder, but he was determined to get to Harry.
'I'm coming, Harry,' he thought to the gods and jumped from the lowest cliff into the water and started swimming. He was correct, it was freezing in the water, but the action of swimming helped.
His dog form was much better at swimming the currents than his human form, but it was still rough going. He was fighting the tide and struggling to make it to the shore, which was miles away. Sometimes he just drifted, letting the current carry him closer. Other times, he swam for all he was worth. Soon enough, he made it. Exhausted, he climbed to the sandy beach and collapsed.
A couple, watching the sunset, came by and saw him. He was resting there, barely breathing, looking like a victim of a boating accident. His long black coat was matted, and he had some scrapes from the rocks on the shoreline. They took pity on him and took him home and nursed him back to health.
"Come on, boy, eat something," the woman said, holding some ham to his mouth. There was a bowl of water near her knees.
He was lying on a bed of towels in a warm kitchen. A fire was going nearby and there was the smell of stew cooking on the stove. All in all, it was a nice scene to wake up to. He remembered similar scenes at the Potters when he got hurt fighting the Death Eaters, and it made him sad for a moment. Then he remembered why he was there.
Sirius Black, for that is who the man was, had enough wits about him to know that he needed to eat, so he nibbled on the meat. Then he sat slowly up and drank from the bowl of water, trying not to spill it on the clean floor. Lily hated it when he did that, so he tried not to.
"Good, boy," the man said, petting the dog. He rubbed him down with a towel and combed out the tangles in his fur.
Sirius was getting warmer and stronger by the moment. He would have to remember to do something nice for them when he got back on his feet. He wasn't sure what, maybe pay off their mortgage anonymously or something. But he would do something nice.
They nursed him for three days, until Sirius could stand on his own. Then in the middle of the night, Sirius disappeared. The couple was sad, but figured he went home.
Sirius moved like he knew where he was going. He knew that he had to get to Petunia's. She had Harry, he was sure of it. She was the only one who Harry would want to be rescued from. So, he moved north, swiftly away from London, dumping trashcans over to get the food out of them, and drinking from puddles as he went.
It wasn't until four days of wandering that he realized that he didn't know what Petunia's married name was. He also didn't know where she lived, only that it was outside of London. He had no idea how to find out either. He knew her given name, but she had been married for years, and hadn't gone by Evans since high school. He knew her fat husband's name was Vernon, but that didn't help him either. He couldn't look up Petunia and Vernon in the phonebook.
He sat depressed for all of ten minutes. Then he turned and headed to the only place he could go. His grandfather's.