Safer than the Fidelius Charm
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.


'I'm not going to return to the Dursleys,' Harry resolved when he returned to Gryffindor after Madam Pomfrey had finally released him. 'I'm going to hide.'

It was only by accident that Harry had discovered a few weeks ago that he was able to transform into objects. In fact, he had wished to be a fly on the Potions classroom's wall when Professor Snape had assigned Ron detention, and apparently, his wish had been strong enough, so that he had all of a sudden found himself in the form of a fly. To his disappointment, however, after a fifteen-minute fight between professor and student, the detention had not been as interesting as he had assumed. While he was sitting on top of the ingredients shelf, he had been so bored that he had just for fun tried to transform into an empty potions phial - with success. He had almost fallen off the shelf upon realising that he found himself in the form of a small phial and had hurriedly transformed back into his fly form.

When he made himself comfortable in his four-poster bed that evening, he made up his mind. During the last few days of the school year, he secretly practised a shrinking charm and an enlargement charm, so that he could hide his luggage in his robe pocket and if necessary access it again. He also thoroughly examined the Gryffindor common room in order to determine in which form it would be the safest to spend his holidays. 'I can always change forms though,' he thought.

Together with his friends, he headed outside as if to board the carriages, pretending to leave Hogwarts for the summer after his first Hogwarts year just like everyone else. However, while they walked, he whispered into Hermione's ear that he was not going to board the Hogwarts Express but instead going to hide somewhere.

"Oh Harry, I'll be so worried," the girl whispered, horrified. "Can you send me an owl from time to time, so that I know you're all right?"

"I'll try but I can't promise anything, and you'll not be able to write back, as no owl will be able to find me," Harry replied, urgently. Seeing that everyone else seemed busy with their own friends and matters, he quickly transformed into a fly and slowly flew back to the Gryffindor common room, sighing in relief upon realising that the window, which he had opened earlier, was still open.

'I can't remain in form of an animal,' he thought, 'because I'm going to get hungry. It's better if I change into an object.' He flew up to the top of the bookshelf and wished himself to be a book with a cover in a similar design to the other, older, books on the shelf. With the happy thought 'Hogwarts is my home now and no one will be able to kick me out, as they first have to find me', he drifted off to sleep.

HP

Unbeknownst to Harry, later the same day, an alarm went off in the headmaster's office.

"What's that sound, Albus?" McGonagall queried in apparent surprise.

"The blood wards around Harry's home seem to be coming down," the headmaster replied in confusion. He glanced at his wrist watch and asked, "Should Harry have already arrived at home?"

"Maybe yes, at least the train was supposed to reach King's Cross at six o'clock this evening," McGonagall replied, crisply. "Shall I call Arabella Figg and ask her to check on Harry?"

"No," Dumbledore replied, hesitating. "The wards aren't completely down. Let's wait and see, and if they go further down, we'll go and check what's wrong."

"You shouldn't send him back to that hellhole anyway," McGonagall said in a firm voice, glaring at the headmaster. "He even asked you if he could remain here. That should tell you how bad his home life is, as Harry wouldn't ask you if it was evitable."

"We'll see, Minerva. I'm sure Harry will be fine," Dumbledore replied in a soothing voice, causing the Scottish lioness to let out a snort of disbelief.

HP

By the time Harry's mind returned to awareness, it was already dark outside. 'I wonder if they're already missing me,' he thought. However, he felt fairly safe, knowing that the Dursleys would rather throw a party because of his absence than alert anyone about the matter. 'It's a bit boring to remain in a book form for two months though,' he thought. 'Maybe I should transform into various animals and explore unused parts of the castle or even the Forbidden Forest. If I'm in the form of a fly or a worm, I can always find food on the grounds.'

He toyed with the thought of transforming into his human form and do his assignments, however, he was too afraid to be seen by house-elves coming into the common room or even his dormitory and quickly dismissed the idea. 'Sometime in a few weeks' time, I need to transform back and do my summer assignments though,' he thought. 'Maybe when enough time has passed so that Dumbledore won't send me back to the Dursleys'. Oh well, if he sends me back there, I'll just escape and fly back to Hogwarts in some kind of bird form.'

HP

When the headmaster descended into his office in the morning, he realised in concern that the blood wards, which were supposed to keep Harry Potter safe at his relatives' house, had come down completely.

'Oh no,' he thought, horrified, and summoned his most trusted colleagues, Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Severus," he addressed the Potions Master, "I need you to go and check if everything is all right with Harry."

"Me?" the Slytherin countered, seemingly terrified. "No way, Albus."

"I'll go," McGonagall announced and left through the fireplace before he could do as much as contradict.

'Oh well, she'll make sure that Harry is all right. She should know better than to bring the boy to Hogwarts,' he reassured himself, before he turned to his youngest colleague.

"Severus, do you still have any contact to former Death Eaters?" he queried.

Snape shook his head. "No Albus, not at all," he replied in a firm voice.

Before Albus could even dismiss the Slytherin, the deputy headmistress stepped out of the fireplace with the news that Harry Potter had not returned to his relatives the previous evening.

The headmaster leaned into the fireplace and called Molly Weasley. "Molly, do you perhaps know if Harry Potter arrived at King's Cross together with everyone else last night?" he asked the mother of seven children.

"I'm sorry Albus, but I didn't see him," Molly Weasley replied in apparent surprise. "Let me quickly ask the children."

The three professors impatiently stared at the fireplace, however, it took two minutes before the red haired woman returned. "Apparently, he travelled together with Ron and Hermione, but neither Ron nor the twins know where he went after arriving at King's Cross," she informed the headmaster.

"All right, Molly. Thank you very much," Albus thanked the witch and ended the call.

"I have no idea what could have happened to him at King's Cross," he said to his colleagues, seemingly devastated.

"Albus, this is ridiculous," Severus spoke up. "The boy can't get lost at King's Cross. No Death Eater would be able to abduct him from the cramped platform, where hundreds of people wait for their children. It's obvious that the boy decided to not return to his relatives, which I for one can well understand. Petunia has always been horrible, and she absolutely detests magic."

"Albus, can you send Fawkes to find Harry?" Minerva suddenly spoke up, white-faced.

The headmaster sighed, glancing at his phoenix familiar who was slumped on his perch, uncharacteristically silent. "Fawkes is ill with the phoenix pertussis," he informed the others. "Don't worry though, Twinkle has seen to it that all of you received the preventive potion with your dinner last night," he added, before he addressed the phoenix.

"Fawkes," he asked in a gentle voice, "are you feeling well enough to flash? Could you perhaps go and see if you can find Harry?"

To his relief, the phoenix agreed, even if only grudgingly, and flashed away.

HP

Harry woke up, startled, when Fawkes suddenly appeared on the shelf right next to him.

#What are you doing here, nestling?# he queried. #My familiar is looking for you.#

"Oh no," Harry groaned. "Can you please not tell him where I am? I'm hiding here, because I don't want to return to my horrible relatives. Hogwarts is my home, and I don't want to leave." He told Fawkes everything about his relatives and that the headmaster insisted that he had to return there because of blood wards. "I don't believe in those," he said, sighing. "I feel much safer at Hogwarts."

#I won't give you out, nestling,# Fawkes replied, tiredly. #Be careful that he doesn't catch you though. He can look through invisibility cloaks and concealment charms.# With that the phoenix flashed away with a bright flash.

'I just hope Fawkes will keep his promise and not tell Dumbledore where I am,' Harry thought and decided to sleep a bit more, feeling relatively safe in his book form.

HP

"I wonder where Fawkes is," Minerva spoke up, sounding slightly worried. "It's already fifteen minutes since he went to look for Harry."

"Well, he isn't feeling well, and maybe he can't easily find him. I don't have a clue," the headmaster replied, just when his familiar flashed into his office and let himself sink onto his perch in apparent exhaustion.

"Fawkes, where is Harry?" he enquired, urgently.

#I haven't seen the boy,# Fawkes replied, before he closed his eyes.

"Is Fawkes all right?" Minerva asked, worriedly.

"He'll be all right," the headmaster reassured her. "Misty, the healer of the elves and Poppy's house-elf, is looking after him. But where is Harry?"

"Are you sure that he's still alive at all?" Minerva asked in a stern voice. "Who knows what the Dursleys did to him when he returned last night."

"No, he's alive, and his life is not in danger," Albus replied, calmly. "Otherwise, a different alarm would have alerted me to the matter."

"Very well then there's nothing that we can do right now," Severus added, seemingly relieved. "If I may go and begin with the brewing of the supply for the hospital wing? Poppy gave me a long list yesterday."

Albus nodded. "We can only wait and see," he said, pensively. "Maybe an owl can find him. I'll try to send him a letter."

HP

During the following days after Fawkes' visit, nothing happened, and Harry slowly began to feel safe in the Gryffindor common room. The window, which he had opened before everyone left, was still slightly open, although house-elves were popping in and out the common room, so that Harry could easily get in and out in the form of a fly. He spent many hours roaming the grounds and also headed into the forest to find food, before he returned to the common room and changed back into his book form to get some rest.

However, one day, about a week after Fawkes' visit, he suddenly woke up feeling horrible. He felt hot and cold at the same time, and he developed a horrible cough.

'Oh no, how could I get this?' he wondered, horrified. 'I can't get ill now. I can't simply fly into the Potions classroom and brew a potion let alone steal one from the hospital wing.' Having no clue how to help himself and feeling too miserable to further ponder the matter, he just went back to sleep in his book form.

HP

Misty popped herself back to the elves quarters after checking on Fawkes, relieved that his condition slowly seemed to be improving. Since she was not only the personal house-elf of the humans' healer but also the healer of the elves, she did not have any holidays - unlike many other elves, who were playing games together all day.

All of a sudden, three elves popped up in front of her. "Healer Misty," one of them spoke up, "in the Gryffindor common room, there's a book with a bad cough. We thinks that it need yours help."

"A coughing book?" Misty asked in disbelief. "Since when get books ill?"

"We don'ts knows, but it's coughing badly," one of the other elves supplied.

"If that's a joke, I'm going to complain to Twinkle," Misty said sternly, however, realised from the younger elves' expressions that they were not trying to joke.

'I better go and check that out,' she thought and popped herself into the Gryffindor common room, where she indeed found a book that was coughing permanently.

She waved her hands towards the book that was standing on the top bookshelf, realising in surprise that the book was in fact a young wizard who was ill with the phoenix pertussis.

'I'm going to take him with me,' she resolved. 'When his condition improves, I'll ask him what he was doing here.' Unable to reach up to the shelf, she carefully summoned the book and popped herself back into her own room. Not wanting to have to give the preventive potion to all elves, she decided to nurse the boy back to health in her own room. 'Thank Merlin I have my own room due to being the healer's elf,' she thought, smirking. She transfigured the book back to his original form and spelled a few potions straight into the boy's stomach, before she went to search Cicero, the Potions Master's elf.

"Cicero, please tell Master Severus that one of the elves has caught the phoenix pertussis from Fawkes and that I need more of the potion for it," she informed her best friend among the elves.

"Who has taken ill?" Cicero asked, alert.

"Don't tell anyone, but it's a human boy," Misty whispered. "He was in the form of a book, so probably Master Albus mustn't know."

"All right, Misty," Cicero replied, smirking. Since neither Misty nor he were bond to the headmaster, he could easily agree to Misty's request.

HP

When Harry woke up, he found himself in a comfortable bed and, to his horror, back in his human form. A small elf was sitting on the edge of his bed.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, before he let out a series of harsh coughs.

"You don't have to be sorry," Misty replied in a soft voice. "You caught the phoenix pertussis from Fawkes, and I brought you here to the elves' quarters to nurse you back to health. I'm Misty, the healer of the elves.

"I'm Harry," Harry replied in a small voice. "I'm so sorry to be such a burden."

"You're not a burden," Misty told him. "However, you're very ill and need to stay here in bed for a few weeks, maybe a month."

"The professors mustn't know that I'm here," Harry whispered, terrified.

"They won't," Misty reassured him. "Misty has put a charm on you, so you're invisible to everyone but Cicero and me. Neither of us is bond to the headmaster."

"Thank you so much, Misty," Harry whispered in absolute relief.

"You're welcome, child, but now you need to go back to sleep," Misty instructed him, before she spelled his next dose of potions right into his system.

HP

It took four weeks until Harry felt well enough to even think about getting out of bed, and three more weeks before Misty allowed him to return to Gryffindor in his book form. However, during the three weeks, he was able to do his complete summer assignments, and Cicero was even so kind and bought all his new school books for Harry, taking the money from the Potter vault.

By the time Misty allowed him to leave the elves' quarters, she and Cicero had taught Harry how to make himself invisible to everyone but her and Cicero and to pop himself throughout Hogwarts, so that he could spend the time in Gryffindor in his human form without having to worry about being seen by anyone. They also instructed him to return to the elves' quarters three times a day to take the meals together with them.

Harry thoroughly enjoyed the remaining weeks of the holidays and spent much time exploring unused parts of the castle. 'This was the best summer ever,' he thought, when he popped himself to Hogsmeade to unobtrusively mix under the students upon their arrival.

Only when the platform was full with students did he slowly make himself visible to everyone and was soon pulled into a fierce hug by Hermione.

"Harry, are you all right?" she asked in concern.

"Yes, I'm fine," he replied, smiling. "I had wonderful holidays."

HP

However, when he was sitting at his house table enjoying the welcoming feast after the Sorting, his head of house came over to the Gryffindor table and addressed Harry in a crisp voice.

"Mr. Potter, the headmaster wishes to see you in his office right after the feast," she informed him. "The password is blood wards."

"Yes Professor," Harry replied, groaning inwardly.

Feeling his appetite diminish immediately, Harry merely waited until the headmaster left the Great Hall, before he hurried behind the old wizard.

"Harry my boy, how nice of you to visit an old man in his office," the headmaster greeted him, while Fawkes let out a series of trills that sounded as if the phoenix was chuckling.

Harry merely gave the headmaster a questioning look, when the old wizard continued, "Harry, I must ask you where your spent your summer holidays."

"At home," Harry replied, simply.

"No Harry, I know for a fact that you did not return to the Dursleys' at all," Dumbledore corrected him in a stern voice.

"The Dursleys' house is not my home," Harry informed the headmaster.

"However, due to the blood wards, you'll be safe there, and it is important that you return to your relatives' home..."

"No sir," Harry interrupted the professor, sighing. "Since you weren't able to find me during these months, you have to admit that I was at a very safe place."

Dumbledore's face fell in defeat, while Fawkes let out a series of trills showing his apparent amusement.

#The nestling's hiding spot was safer than the Fidelius Charm, old man,# the phoenix trilled, pleasantly.

The End