Eight year old Harry Potter wasn't sure why nobody ever came looking for him when he hid in the backyard of 7 Privet Drive. Nor was he certain why nobody seemed to care that the yard was never taken care of. His Aunt was unusually critical of every other house on the street, but never mentioned number 7. Perhaps she knew that it was a waste, because nobody lived there? Or at least Harry had never seen anyone, or even seen the lights on.
Unfortunately, today he'd been locked out by his cousin, in the cold, without even his admittedly poor jacket. He'd go stay with Mrs. Figg to warm up, but knew that she was away for a few days. Sadly, that meant that he had nowhere else to go as the sun set. Sure, eventually his Aunt would come looking for him, likely annoyed, but that might not be until he wasn't available to make breakfast in the morning.
Knowing that none of the other neighbors would want him near their houses, he found himself wandering over to number 7. He had a small stash of items under the back porch, but he didn't think any of them would help keep him warm. Sadly, he couldn't quite fit under there himself, not like he could a couple years prior. A quick check showed that he was right, nothing he'd hidden away would help keep him warm. Worse, the bottle of water had frozen, so he couldn't even drink some of it.
Grumbling to himself, he wandered the backyard a little, if only to keep moving, but wasn't sure what to do. Not for the first time, he occasionally looked at the back door of the house and considered trying to go inside. Nobody lived there, so there wasn't anyone to care if he went in. Except that he'd always been afraid that whoever did own the house would find out and he'd end up punished. Besides, he didn't know how to get the back door open, since he knew it was locked from some exploration after he'd first found that Dudley couldn't seem to find him here.
As the sun had set he'd tried to get back into number 4, only to find the doors still locked and nobody answering his knocks. He was having trouble feeling his fingers and wasn't sure what to do. He could try banging harder, or ringing the doorbell, but he wasn't supposed to do either and Uncle Vernon would be very unhappy with him. His resolve crumbling, he headed back to number 7. And, for the first time, he went to the front door. It was closer, and he'd barely even looked at it before.
Not expecting much, he'd put his hand on the handle, not even noticing as the door to number 4 opened behind him. There was a click, and the handle turned, allowing him to open the door. Blinking in surprise, he pushed the door open and stepped into the house, unseen by his Aunt who was now wondering where he'd gone off to. Instead he allowed the door to close behind him as several flickering lights came on automatically in the hallway that he found himself in.
He probably should've been curious about the lights, but he was more concerned with the fact that the house was warmer than outside. Not comfortably warm, but it was noticeably warmer and the lack of the slight breeze definitely helped. Still moving out of a desire to warm up, he looked into the room to the right, finding that it was a living room. One that had a painting of an old man sleeping above the empty fireplace. He stepped into the room, and like in the hallway some of the lights on the wall lit up as he entered, and he didn't notice as the ones in the hallway went out at the same time.
No, he was very distracted from the mysteries of the lights by the sleeping man in the painting waking up. "Wha? Who turned on the lights?" Harry blinked a couple of times, staring at the painting. Which was looking around the room, until the man spotted Harry. "Oh, it's just a sprog. It's been a while since anyone visited here. I think." The man thought for a moment, then waved his hand. "Whatever. Come over here, would you? I'd rather not strain to hear you."
Harry carefully, and slowly, walked across the room, looking for any signs of a trap as he did so. But nothing jumped out at him, and he eventually made it to stand in front of the empty fireplace, looking up the painting. "Er, hello sir?"
"Hello there. My name's Thaddeus. And who would you be?"
"Harry. Um, Harry Potter."
"Well then. I, er...sorry, what are you wearing? Those clothes don't look like they ever fit you. Did you get into Tilly's rag pile or something?"
That had Harry blinking, before he shrunk in on himself a little. "They're Dudley's old clothes."
"And Tilly let you wear them?"
That was the second time that the man had mentioned that name, though Harry had almost missed it the first time. "Tilly?"
A moment later there was a small crack, causing Harry to jump. There was now a small...something, wearing rags in even worse shape than his own hand-me-downs standing there. Whatever it was, it was a couple of feet tall and had very large ears, as well as looking like it'd been eating even less than Harry normally got to.
"Who called Tilly?" the thing asked, looking around for a moment. At least until its eyes landed on Harry, at which point they went wide. "Master Harry?"
The...whatever it was, likely 'Tilly', stumbled forward and grabbed Harry in a hug while mumbling things that he couldn't make out.
It was a minute or so before Thaddeus coughed, and Tilly looked up at him. "Tilly, why do you look like you haven't been taking care of yourself?"
"Master James told Tilly to get the important things to storage and hide in the basement until Tilly was called," Tilly replied. "Tilly is a good elf and hid in the basement until Tilly was called."
He nodded slowly at that, before looking between her and Harry. "And how long ago was that?"
Tilly looked proud while answering the question.."Tilly stayed hidden in the basement for seven years. Paintings would call for Tilly, but Tilly returned to hiding as soon as she knew that no living master or mistress had called for her."
Thaddeus grimaced at that, then looked at Harry for a moment before getting a determined look on his face. "Right then. Harry, you look like you could do with some warming up. If you ask her to, Tilly can help you with that."
Harry looked at Tilly, who looked like she was worse off than he could ever remember being. Though she also looked hopeful. "Are you sure? I don't want to hurt her."
"Trust me, the best thing you can do for a house elf that hasn't had anything to do for their family for years is to give them something to do."
Not entirely sure what that meant, Harry decided that it couldn't hurt to ask the...house elf? If she couldn't handle things on her own then maybe he could help her as well. He looked around the room, then specifically at the fireplace. Nodding to himself, he looked at Tilly. "Can you start a fire to help warm up the room?"
Tilly nodded, and he felt something happen. He wasn't sure what it was. A moment later the house elf raised her hand and snapped, and there were logs in the fireplace. Harry's eyes went a little wider at that, and then another snap had the flames lit. Tilly then looked at him and the fire, and a third snap had a little fence-like thing in front of the fire to keep anyone from approaching it. Oddly enough, she looked a little better after that.
Harry wasn't sure what to say next, and his stomach beat him to the punch by growling. He flinched, since that was usually something that he'd be hit for. As if it was a sign that he was ungrateful for what food his Aunt and Uncle gave him.
"Would Master like Tilly to prepare him dinner?" Tilly asked, looking very hopeful.
Somehow, Harry didn't think that this was going to be a trick. Half of the houses in the neighborhood would make offers like that and then he'd get a beating for having the audacity to make others think that he wasn't fed well enough, but for some reason he couldn't imagine Tilly telling his Aunt or Uncle a thing. Given that he was hungry, and Tilly had asked him first, he figured that it was thus likely safe to accept. Somewhat. "If you'd like to."
Tilly nodded. "Tilly will be right back!" She then vanished, causing Harry to blink a couple of times.
"Now then," Thaddeus said. "She'll probably be a few, as she may have to go obtain food to prepare. I don't think any preservation charms are intended for seven years without refreshing, after all. Why don't you sit down in one of the chairs here while I ask you a few questions, and perhaps answer what I can of a few of yours."
Harry looked at the chairs, certain that he shouldn't be sitting on something that comfortable looking. At the same time, an adult...of sorts, at least, had basically told him to do so, which meant it should be okay, right? He mulled that over for a minute before deciding that his Aunt and Uncle weren't likely to find out either way, unless this was all some kind of incredible trick being played on him, so he carefully climbed into one of the chairs. He found it even more comfortable than he'd been expecting it to be.
"So, Harry," the man said after another minute or so. "I'm a little out of touch, given that I've probably been sleeping for at least seven years. Probably longer. What can you tell me about yourself, and the world at large?"
For some reason, Harry thought that this was going to be an awkward conversation.
It was a couple of hours after young Harry had entered the house, and Thaddeus had wandered off to another portrait frame to rant while the boy slept in the chair. Keeping a lid on his anger as his own knowledge 'woke up' while talking to Harry, despite the muted emotions that he had as a mere imprint of the original Thaddeus Potter, had been taxing. Luckily, now that Harry had called her, Tilly was willing to listen to paintings when it didn't directly countermand her Master's orders. She was cleaning herself and the property up, as it was likely that Harry would need it. Getting information from the paintings at other Potter properties was going to be important as well, but young Harry's safety and wellbeing were more immediately important.
To think that he'd personally complained when he'd been placed in a renovated muggle home, purchased by James and hidden as a place near Lily's family as an intended Christmas gift to try and make it easier for her to reconnect with her horrible shit of a sister. That purchase may very well have saved young Harry's life, given everything the boy obviously hadn't been willing to admit.
What they needed to do was find someone who should be watching over the boy, instead of the horrible muggle relatives that he'd been staying with. Wasn't James's friend...Sirius, was it? He was the boy's Godfather, right? Why wasn't he watching over the boy?
"Tilly," Thadeus called, and the elf appeared a moment later.
"What do you need from Tilly?" the elf asked.
"Can you tell if Sirius Black is still alive, and if so if he's Harry's guardian?"
Tilly frowned for a moment, then vanished. A moment later she returned with a book and placed it on a table in the room. Opening it, she flipped through it until it was on a partially filled in page, then floated it up in front of the painting. "This will tell yous. Tilly would read it, but Tilly never learned how."
Thaddeus nodded, not surprised at that. But he was able to read, and could see that the family register showed that James and his wife Lily had been dead for seven years. It also showed that Black was indeed Harry's Godfather and Guardian, which also meant that he was alive and not legally incarcerated somewhere that would be preventing him from acting as guardian. Which brought up the question of why he wasn't watching over the boy. It was possible, likely even, that outside forces were keeping him away, and if so they now had a possible solution to that.
"Tilly," he said after a moment. "Thank you, and I think we need to bring Sirius Black here as soon as possible. By force, if needed, because he needs to answer some questions about why he hasn't been looking after Harry. Can you bring him here?"
The book that the elf had brought vanished, and she looked thoughtful. "Tilly can bring the dog man here, but only if Master tells Tilly to."
"Very good. We'll see about getting Harry to do so when he wakes up in the morning. Speaking of which, you may wish to prioritize ensuring that things are ready for Harry to clean up and change into a fresh set of clothing when he wakes."
The elf's eyes went a little wider before she started nodding. "Tilly will ensure that everything is ready for Master when he wakes up!"
