Chapter 4

Amsterdam was one hell of a fun city, Harry decided. The two weeks he had spent there so far had been exceedingly pleasant. Decent enough weather, canals everywhere, local food that tended to be heavily fried and breaded and thus utterly irresistible to Harry and a population filled with people who spoke English very fluently as a second language. Unfortunately, he had missed seeing the tulips at Keukenhof, due to it being the wrong time of the year, but the vast plethora of museums more than made up for that. His favourite by far had been the Van Gogh Museum where he had spent hours enthralled by Vincent's masterpieces. Oh, he had not much cared for the Dutch Artist's earlier works; paintings like The Potato Eaters were much too dark and depressing for his taste. The Irises, now that was much more to his taste. The still life of the irises in a vase against a yellow background had to be one of the most spectacular sights the young wizard had ever seen.

It had been quite easy for him to flee Britain. Dobby had offered to pop him over to France. While there was a distance limit to how far the elf could apparate the two of them, Dobby had been quite sure that the short hop across the channel from Dover would pose no difficulty.

Harry had however decided that he wanted to try travelling by plane and so the two of them had used his invisibility cloak and sneaked onto the first plane they found that had empty seats on it. Looking back Harry was quite pleased that he had not been able to board the plane to Berlin. That had been the first plane that was leaving London, but unfortunately it had been quite packed. After that, he had sneaked around looking at passenger lists over the shoulders of airline personnel until he had finally found a flight that had two adjacent empty seats. The seats had even been in business class so Harry had enjoyed a most pleasant flight to Amsterdam. The minute the plane had landed, he had felt an incredible sense of relief. The release of an enormous tension that he had barely realised he was under. Finally he could relax. Surely the Death Eaters would never think of looking for him here.

The only regret that he had about coming to Amsterdam was that he was still too young to legally sample all the delights the city had to offer. He had briefly considered trying to get his hands on some ageing potion but had eventually deemed that too risky. He would have had to find and enter the city's magical district, if it had one, and then find a apothecary to but the ageing potion. Harry did not want to go anywhere where he might be recognised. Even sending Dobby was too risky for him. The elf had belonged to the Malfoys which meant that there were probably many Death Eaters around that would recognise him. All it would take was for one of them to wonder what Malfoys elf was doing in Amsterdam and the trail might lead them right back to Harry. No, he would not be going anywhere near any of the magical districts or areas.

He had no idea if he was as well known in the Netherlands, probably not, he thought, but he had no intention of putting it to the test either.

He had in fact, taken quite a few steps to avoid being recognised. Gone was the distinctive mop of unruly dark hair and his glasses. He was currently sporting a crew cut and brown tinted contact lenses. He had even gotten himself a fake tan and gotten some make up that he dabbed on his forehead each morning. It was surprisingly effective at concealing his scar. All in all he looked remarkably different from the pale young wizard that had fled Privet drive.

"Has it been only two weeks?" he mused. It seemed like a lifetime ago at times. It seemed like ages since he had been able to relax and have fun like this. Truth be told he doubted that he had ever been able to relax like this. At Privet Drive he had always had to deal with the unpleasantness of his relatives and in the magical world it had always felt like he was under constant scrutiny. Even during the good times at the Burrow he had never quite felt truly at ease. There had always been something, like Ginny continuously staring at him and being nervous around him for instance, that had made him uncomfortable and kept him on edge.

He was currently sitting in a small cafe snacking on a plate of bitterballen. Every once in a while a bitterbal seemed to vanish as Dobby who was sitting next to him under his invisibility cloak snacked on them as well. The little elf seemed to be having the time of his life as he invisibly accompanied Harry everywhere.

"Must be quite the change for him," Harry thought. "I doubt the Malfoys ever let him out into the Muggle world."

"So Dobby, what should we do tomorrow," he whispered surreptitiously. "Should we go and see the windmills?"

"Yes, Harry Potter, Dobby is wanting to see the windmills very much."

"Excellent, so that's tomorrow taken care off. What should we do tonight? Should we go and see what's playing at the theatre?"

"Yes, Harry Potter, Dobby loved the last movie with all of the exploding things. Can we see another movie with lots and lots of things going boom. Please, please, please," said the little elf as he bounced up and down in his seat.

Harry grinned widely as he flipped open a newspaper to see what was playing. Who would have ever thought that Dobby would turn out to be such a film buff?

~oo00oo~

Dumbledore had not been having half as good a time. The last two weeks had been extraordinarily stressful for him. Harry Potter had disappeared into thin air and no one seemed to know where he had gotten to. It had taken the order the better part of a week just to track down the Dursleys and they hadn't even gone that far. Kingsley had eventually tracked them down to a small hotel in one of those towns with unpronounceable names in Wales. However instead of clearing things up, the Dursleys had only confused matters more.

According to Petunia, Harry had burst into the house and told her that Voldemort was about to attack any minute. He had ordered her to go into hiding before leaving the house moments later.

However, there had been no attack on the house. Apart from the assault on Mundungus there had been absolutely no Death Eater activity at Privet Drive. So why had Harry told his Aunt that Voldemort was about to attack? Had Voldemort sent Harry some sort of a false vision? What could have made Harry run away on his own? Why hadn't he stayed to ensure the safety of his relatives? Could it be that there had been a force of Death Eaters about to attack the house? Had Harry led them away to ensure his family's safety? It was quite conceivable that the boy had witnessed the attack on Mundungus and then decided that the best way to keep his family safe was to make the attackers chase him.

But then, why had Harry not gotten in touch with him? Surely, the boy was aware that he would keep him safe. Why had Harry not sent him an Owl? As far as he knew the boy still had that snowy owl. It had not been left with his relatives, nor had it been left behind at the house. So why had Harry not contacted him?

It was all very worrying. He frowned as he looked at the disassembled components of his deluminator that were currently laid out in neat rows upon his desk. He had a lot of work to do. Harry had always been extraordinarily difficult to keep a track of. While it was true that most tracking charms lost precision the further away the caster was from the target it was still relatively easy to track most people.

Unfortunately, Harry had always been a special case. His mother's protection upon the by had always made most charms fail shortly after they were cast. So years ago, he had obtained a small amount of Harry's blood and incorporated it into a tracking device. This had needed to be tied into a array of runic stones that he had planted all over Britain. His deluminator worked in conjunction with this runic array and as long as Harry was within the magical net created by these stone he was always able to track him to within a few feet.

Now though, his detection array was absolutely useless as Harry was no longer within Britain. That meant that he had to come up with an entirely new way of tracking Harry.

This had been quite difficult even for a wizard of his vast experience.. There were several rituals, of course, that could be used to pinpoint Harry's location using his blood. However, they all suffered from one severe drawback. He would have to use the only sample he had of Harry's blood to power them and the nature of the rituals and charms usually inevitably destroyed the sample. That meant that he would have only one chance if he used such a rituals.

Since Harry had disappeared from England so suddenly, there was no guarantee that he was still not travelling. If he used his only sample in one of those rituals and Harry moved from that location before Dumbledore managed to get there then he would never be able to find him again.

Dumbledore knew that he could not take that chance. That was the reason he was constructing a new homing device. It stood on a small workbench looking for all the world like an oversized compass suspended within a gyroscope. One that had a few too many dials. It was almost completed although it was still open with many large and small gears displayed within it. All it needed was one final component. The one he was currently extracting from his disassembled deluminator.

He sighed tiredly as he picked up a tiny component and peered at it through a large magnifying glass he had floating in the air. He waved his wand once over it and the casing split apart and unfurled like a flower. A tiny vial of crystal was revealed - one that was filled with a dark red almost black substance. Dropping the remains of the casing upon his desk he strode to the workbench where he carefully inserted the vial into a slot deep within the device. With a series of clicks and whirls the vial locked and sunk into the device. Gears shifted as the device closed up with a crisp clicking sound and started to spin. Finally it settled after spinning wildly around on all three axles. Dumbledore peered at the dials displayed upon the face of the device.

The main dial was pointing to the south-east while the other dials were flickering randomly at different markings across the face of the device.

"Hmmm, an error margin of 18.5 percent, signal strength at 36 millifeys. If Harry is somewhere to the South-east, and if the signal strength degrades at a linear rate then...hmmm..."

He strode over to a bookshelf and pulled out a large roll which he opened and kept suspended in mid air. It was a large map of Europe. Conjuring up a protractor and T-Square, he spent the next several moment furiously drawing and measuring lines upon the map. Finally he was done. He tapped furiously at a spot upon the map. How had Harry managed to get there? Why had he gone there? If he had been forced to make a guess, then he would have chosen France or even Bulgaria. After all, Harry had gotten somewhat friendly with the other Triwizard champions. But this? Did Harry know someone who lived in that country? He did not think so.

"Well, it seems that Harry has somehow managed to find his way to the Netherlands. The boy will never cease to amaze me."

Dumbledore sat down behind his desk and started writing out several quick notes.

"Fawkes, could you please deliver these to Remus, Severus and Nymphadora."

As his phoenix flashed away in a burst of flame, Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He would soon have Harry Potter back where he belonged, safe and sound.

~oo00oo~

Nymphadora Tonks frowned at the area marked on the map.

"Are you sure you can't narrow this down further Sir? Only, that's an awfully large area to cover. You've got Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam, all within the section marked here."

"Unfortunately it is the best I can do at the current time my dear. I will of course endeavour to get a more precise fix on Harry's whereabouts but that will take time. Time we do not have. Still things are not quite as impossible as they seem at first glance. There are only a few magical settlements within that area. Harry must be in one of those. The largest settlement is in The Hague, it contains their Ministry of Magic and their largest shopping district - their version of our Diagon Alley. That would undoubtedly be the best place to start," said Dumbledore.

"Wouldn't we be able to get a better fix on his position if we took your uhhh...compass with us?" asked Remus, looking at the large homing device that Dumbledore had constructed.

"Perhaps, unfortunately I am still working on it. It is much too fragile to move at the present time. There is also the fact that it is much too risky to carry it out into the field. If it were to be lost or damaged in any way then we would have absolutely no way of tracking Harry," answered Dumbledore.

"I fail to see why you insist on me going along on this wild goose chase," sneered Snape. "Surely, you have someone else who could search for the boy."

"Out of the three of you, it is you who knows Harry best, Severus. Lupin only taught him for a year, you have been his teacher for four years. Who else could I send?"

"Oh, I don't know - Hagrid? Why not McGonagall? She is his head of house after all. How about someone who actually wants to search for the arrogant brat?" said Snape.

"Enough, Severus, Hagrid is far too conspicuous and Minerva is far too busy with her duties as Deputy Headmistress. You will go with Remus and Nymphadora..."

"Don't call me Nymphadora," interrupted Tonks automatically.

Dumbledore grunted with irritation.

"Yes, as I was saying, Severus you are the best person for the job. You will go with Tonks and Remus and you will find Harry and bring him back safe. Is that understood?"

"Of course Headmaster, after all heaven forbid that I should ever get to spend my time doing things I want to do..." muttered Snape. "And how am I supposed to explain my absence to the Dark Lord? I suppose that is my problem as well."

Dumbledore wished he could put his head in his hands. These were the people he had to work with. Why could no one just do what they were told? Why did they all...Unfortunately they were the best that he had at the current time. Sirius could not leave Grimauld Place. Alastor...how he wished he could send Alastor. Unfortunately the man was still recovering from his imprisonment at the hands of Barty Crouch Junior. He could hardly send him traipsing all over Europe.

No, Snape, Tonks and Lupin were his best bet. They would find Harry.

~oo00oo~

Nymphadora Tonks was in a hurry. They had gotten into Amsterdam quite late the night before and she had been dead tired. By the time she got up she found that Lupin and Snape had already left for the day, leaving behind a note telling her to meet them at Magischstraat, the magical shopping street in Amsterdam. It had taken her several cups of coffee before she felt ready to face the day.

So far searching for Harry had been quite frustrating. There had been absolutely no trace of him in The Hague. The local magical government had no records of any incoming portkeys or apparatition from Britain during the time period in which Harry had disappeared from England. Nor had they been able to find anyone who had seen him.

She was also quite upset with the two men who had accompanied her. They had not even thought to ask if she knew how to get to Magischstraat. As it was, she was lucky that she had picked up a guidebook before leaving England.

She was waiting to cross the road when she saw him. There he was sitting at a small cafe having a cup of coffee. His hair was shorter than the pictures she had seen of him, but his profile was unmistakable. She couldn't believe her luck. She had done it. She had found Harry Potter. She hurried across the road, dodging a couple of cyclists as she ran. She caught up with him just as he was standing up to leave. She grabbed his arm and spun him around.

"Harry..." she started as she found herself looking into a pair of startled brown eyes - brown, not green. She stared at his unmarked forehead. Oh dear.

"I'm sorry," she said, terribly embarrassed at having grabbed the arm of a complete stranger. "I thought you were someone else."

She apologised again before rushing off, and then a thought struck her. She pulled out a standard bit of auror field kit, a pair of glasses that could see through most glamour charms. She looked back at the boy through the glasses; nope his eyes were still brown. He was definitely not Harry Potter. Thank goodness the other two had not been with her. They would never have let her live it down - her thinking that a random stranger was the boy who lived. Oh dear, she was starting to see Harry Potter everywhere.

She hurried along and a few moments later found herself at Oudekerksplein. She was surprised to see Lupin and Snape just standing around there. They seemed oddly embarrassed when they saw her.

"What's the matter?" she asked. "I thought your note said we'd be meeting at Magischstraat."

"We ah...we couldn't find the entrance," explained Lupin.

"They seem to have moved it since I was last here," said Snape. "We were just waiting until we spotted someone who could tell us where the entrance is."

"Honestly, did none of you bother to check out a guidebook? They put in a new marker a few years back. You need to find the bronze bust that's embedded in the sidewalk."

"A bronze bust?" asked Snape.

"Yes, it's should be near the church. You have to tap the stone at the bottom of the bust. Once you do that the entrance to the street becomes visible."

"Oh, I think I saw something like that on the other side of the church. Follow me, it's in that direction," said Lupin.

A minute later, Tonks was stamping on a stone at the bottom of a strange piece of sculpture - one that had been embedded right into the surface of the road. As soon as her foot lifted from the stone, the three of them saw a door that had not been there before suddenly appear. They walked through it to find a narrow brick lined alley, one just wide enough for a single person to walk through at a time.

"Let's go," said Tonks. "As far as I know, the street is at the other end of the alley. The Dutch Aurors have an office somewhere on the street. We should check in with them first."

~oo00oo~

Harry's heart was hammering like a freight train. He couldn't believe it. He had been recognised. He had been so sure that his disguise would be good enough to protect him. Well, it had, but it seemed like the woman only thought he wasn't Harry after she had gotten a good look at his eyes and forehead. What if it had been someone else? Someone who would have cursed first and asked questions later. He ducked around a corner and quickly got under the invisibility cloak with Dobby.

"Who is that woman?" he wondered. "Is she a Death Eater? Well, she could also be with the Ministry," he thought, "Not that it makes much difference."

He decided to follow her and hurried back around the corner to see the woman rushing down the street. He quickly raced after her, pulling Dobby along with him.

"Has to be either a Death Eater or someone from the ministry," he explained to Dobby. "Not likely that there's anyone else looking for me. Well okay, I guess Dumbledore might be looking for me as well, but I don't see the Headmaster of Hogwarts working with someone who has pink hair. Do you?"

Harry followed the pink haired woman, he was careful to keep her at some distance. He saw her meeting some men. He could not make out their features at this distance so he had Dobby remove the omnioculars he had bought at the world cup from his backpack. He raised the omnioculars to his eyes and looked for the woman through them. It was always a little difficult for him to locate something in the omnioculars field of vision. It usually took him a few seconds to find whatever he was looking for even if he had been staring right at it. He found the woman in the omnioculars just as she disappeared. She had seemed to suddenly vanish in thin air followed swiftly by the men she had been meeting.

"Looks like she's entered a magical area," he said. "Probably something hidden like the entrance to Diagon Alley."

He rewound the omnioculars to play back the last few minutes. When he replayed the footage he was shocked to see that the pink haired woman was in fact keeping company with two men that he recognised. Two men that he recognised very well indeed, even though they were wearing muggle clothes instead of the robes he was used to seeming them in.

He snarled in hate and anger. Lupin, one of the men was Lupin and the other was Snape.

"Looks like I was absolutely right about Lupin," he said. "Since he's not working at Hogwarts any more he should have absolutely no reason to be keeping company with Snape. That means he's definitely a Death Eater as well. Why else would he be with Snape?"

"Dobby, it looks like we're going to have to leave Amsterdam sooner than we planned. It's not safe here any more. Can you pop us back to the hotel? We're just going to grab Hedwig and whatever else we left there and then we're going to go straight to Schiphol Airport and catching the first plane out of here."

~oo00oo~