Chapter thirty five - 'You slept with the job Tonks!'
"Oh, Charlie what are you doing here?" Percy asked curiously, sitting up on the sofa as his slightly older brother walked lazily into the little flat.
"Well I was kind of stopping over for a few days. Fleur let me in about an hour ago and Bill's just gone off to do something with dad I think."
"Err, where you sleeping?"
"On sofa, why, what you doing here anyway?"
"I'm sleeping on the sofa, I've been here a while, since I lost me job. This is my kipping spot, go piss off somewhere else. Fleur isn't going to let us both stop. Bill isn't that good in tha' sack." He complained sitting down on the sofa and whacking his younger brother who merely whacked him back.
"Actually William is, but you 'is quiet right, there is no way I am going to be putting up with you both 'ere.' She paused to flick her long hair out her face then continued a little more pleasantly.
'Even if you're both actually rather useful some times. The temptation for Molly to come walking in is just too much, I will not risk it so you will just 'ave to go!"
"Oh so you're kicking us out then?" Percy asked sadly looking over to Charlie who judging by his slightly scruffy appearance probably needed the sofa just as much as he did.
"No, my William is too nice for his own good and would happily let you both stop. 'Owever!' She began forcefully standing in front of them both with a pan in one hand and her wand in the other.
'I am not! So as a compromise I'm going to let one of you slee'p on the sofa and the other can 'piss 'off back to your mothers. I really don't care which one it is as you are both very annoying, and in any case, o'whoever is staying, will be leaving tonight because 'ee is coming home soon and I don't want you ruining 'our evening again like last night, Percy!" She snapped then smiled before quickly rushing back to the stove to finish cooking a tea for two before something looking in danger of bubbling over. It didn't.
"Huh?" Charlie asked a little confused by Fleur's extra odd manners. Not that she wasn't always odd, it was just he'd never seen her do anything that he could remotely consider a natural blush.
"Walked in on em at it like, well like Bill does and she wasn't too happy about it!" Percy explained grabbing his rucksack and checking everything was still in it alright.
"Oh, so she's kicking us out in the cold so Bill can have hot steamy sex all night long. Again!" Charlie complained bitterly jealous of his older brother and even the pleasure of seeing his younger brother in just as bad a situation as he was didn't help much.
"Yes I am. O'whoever's stopping can come back tomorrow at about half past 'eleven but I'll probably be kicking you out quiet often." She explained coming back with two smelly pairs of shoes held at arms length as she dropped them in the lads laps.
"Err, I think we might have to brave mother tonight Perc?" Charlie whispered, picking up his trainers and holding them in one hand bag in the other.
"Really, coz I was kind of hoping to get away from her for a bit." He sighed heavily.
"Yeah well do what I do. Get in really late and sneak up to Bill's old room then sleep through till late on, then, when she goes out to hang the washing up sneak out the front door while she's not looking." He explained quietly.
"That never works?" Percy asked completely flabbergasted by the thought.
"No, not really but hay, it's worth a try. She can't catch us both now can she?" He explained in his stupidly annoying optimistic way.
"Yeah I guess but who's gonna go home and who's gonna get to stop here."
"Err, might have to be alternative nights?" Charlie sighed sombrely, heading to the door with his shoes off which was being held open elegantly by Fleur.
"Oh hello. What ya doing here?" Bill asked arriving back with a bag of shopping surprised to see his two younger brothers putting there shoes on in the outside hall.
"Err, Charlie's taking me to the err, pub. Aren't you?" Percy explained hitting his brother in the leg from behind and smiling forcefully.
"Yeah we'll probably be out all night so don't stop up." He added seeing Fleur's dangerous warning look from behind Bill's back. If only he knew the things she did to organise pleasant evenings in together and what it cost the rest of them, Charlie sighed enviously.
"Oh well don't spend too much money, I aint lending either of ya any more until at least one of ya finds a job." He explained leaning away from Fleur quietly as she pulled her pinafore off and put the food out ready for Bill.
"Fine we won't, err, bye Bill."
"Yeah bye Bill." Percy quickly added as he finally got his shoes on and headed down towards the stairs.
"What you got sacked?" Charlie asked as they headed towards an empty muggle ally both with a rucksack of a few clothes each on there backs, it wasn't quiet all they owned but it was all they seemed to need or be able to use at the moment.
"Not exactly, I'm been redistributed to another bit of the ministry after being given a few weeks un-paid off. I should get another job though because they want me quiet but still, the pay will be crap, the job will be crap and I'm never gonna get my half of the mortgage back off Penelope.' He sighed.
'If I'm lucky, she's packed all my stuff up by now in suitcases so I can collect them soon. Apparently I have to wait for an owl from her mother, before I'm allowed any more than a hundred yards of my own sodding house." He sighed again heavily, showing just how fed up he was with life.
"You're looking really quiet dreadful Percy, you sure you're up to a few days of mum's err, temper. She's not got any better since you left and well, to be honest she's got much worse since Christmas. Ginny keeps refusing to reply to any of her letters and stuff. Apart from arguing back she didn't say a word over Christmas to her."
"I know, well I haven't got anywhere else to go and I'm desperate enough to put up with it, and miserable enough to think about something else when she's talking to me."
"Yeah, Bill told me what happened with Penelope, it's a shame, you'd have made a nice dad. Well, not as nice as Bill but still, better than me, Fred, George and Ron anyway." He explained positively as they started along the driveway to the Burro.
"Thanks, do you think they're in?" He wondered looking up at the half shut curtains over dark empty rooms and clearly bolted shut front door.
"No they've got err, stuff to do tonight so they'll probably be out quiet late. We could easy nick some dinner from the panty and crawl into a bed. Mum won't notice I'm sure." He explained pulling out a key his father had given them all in case of emergency to unlock the kitchen door. Mr Weasley never wanted one of his kids to have to hang around outside waiting to be let in, it wasn't safe and he couldn't bare to worry about them all. It was just too much for one man to cope with.
"Err, Arthur did you remember to lock the door properly before you went out tonight?" Tonks asked seeing the half turned key in the other side of the door.
"Yes of course, I never forget something like that." He replied quickly pulling back from the front door to look carefully through the window.
"That's not where I left them." Mrs Weasley quickly hissed peering through the door at a two knives left out on the table as Podmore came striding over.
"What's the matter, we should get inside, its late?" He whispered.
"We think someone's in the house." Tonks replied quickly pulling up her hood and yanking out her wand as they moved in front of the Weasley's.
"Do you think we should call on the others?" Mrs Weasley whispered quietly hiding behind her husband.
"No it'll be ok, Arthur's far from useless in his own house." Tonks replied as Podmore nodded in agreement.
"Molly stay out here, we're going to go have a look." Arthur explained firmly, pulling his own wand out and carefully unlocking the door.
"What, no Arthur, you're not going in there it could be anybody?" She shrieked as quietly as she could.
"It could be just Charlie again but it'll be best to check, I thought he'd been sleeping on Bill's floor and he usually gives me warning if he's coming home for a bit."
"Warning?" Mrs Weasley snapped back as it became quiet clear to the other two that Charlie never gave his mother any such thing as warning.
"Not now Molly, wait here." Arthur snapped turning the handle slowly so the door creaked steadily open.
Spanning out slowly the two aura's and Arthur started on the ground floor and steadily and (surprisingly quietly for Tonks) snuck through the house and up the stairs to start checking the bedrooms.
The first floor was clear but upon reaching the second Podmore and Tonks clearly heard the sound of two rustling noises from two separate bedrooms. Taking a door each as Arthur stopped by the stairs watching on, they silently opened one each and found a rather amusing yet surprising sight.
Yanking the sheet back in the old hardly used room of Percy's, Podmore found none other than Percy fast to sleep, in the bed and after grumbling a bit, he yanked the sheets back over his shoulders and continued to snooze in case it was his mother. However surprised and relieved he was, he came back out to find Tonks already pushing the other open before he could stop her.
"Arrgh piss off I'm asleep." Charlie yelled as Tonks flicked the lights on and saw to her horror, Charlie completely naked under a rather flimsy looking sheet before turning on her heel and rushing out the room. This was accompanied by far too many flashes of mental images passing though her head, mainly to do with what Charlie was surprisingly well practiced at naked in and quiet often out of bed.
"Ya could have told us they were here?!" She snapped hotly when she'd made it down the stairs with Arthur, looking highly flustered and stumbling on the bottom steps with her long robes.
"I didn't know and Charlie usually comes with us if he's stopping in his old room and well, Percy's not stepped foot in the house in over a year now!" Mr Weasley explained coming into the kitchen and trying his best to apologise to Tonks, knowing full well Charlie was always a bit lax about wearing anything in fact in bed since he was about five and judging by Tonks's pink cheeks she probably got an eyeful of something she didn't really want to see.
"Well, never mind, I suppose if you didn't know, we can't be too carefully." Tonks grumbled pouring herself a very large, cold, glass of water in the hopes her cheeks hadn't flashed too red and she'd be back to normal by the time she got to see Remus later.
After this she was heading home for a few hours kip and a change of clothes before safely, before dawn, she'd promised to sneak into Grimmauld place to spend some time with Remus and Sirius and the still rather ill Harry on her day off. The explanation soon got out partly from Podmore's sniggers as to what had happened, Molly was just trying to start on her soothing over baring mothering role. When Charlie, (now thankfully) fully dressed came down stairs to see him in the hopes he'd get fed some more. Percy however had decided, sleeping and pretending to be might be the best way to pass as many hours as he could without actually having to speak to his mother.
"Oh err, hello Tonks." He smiled weakly, looking nervously over at Tonks sat down unfortunately with his mother, Mrs Weasley missed the difficult looks between the two as did Arthur and quickly got up rushing over towards Charlie, not quiet sure weather to chid or fuss over him.
Neither of them were quiet a happy prospect for Charlie but Podmore, had finally realised something that he'd been suspicious of for quiet a while. Taking her by the arm he pulled Tonks to her feet and headed over to the door.
"We have to go now Weasleys, I need to see to something before I go to work this morning." He explained firmly.
"Oh ok, bye then Podmore, Tonks." Arthur replied but Podmore never gave Tonks the chance to speak as he'd dragged her out the door closed it behind him and they were hiding in the garage before Tonks really had a chance to think properly.
"You slept with him?" He hissed quietly as Tonks barely had chance to register why she was standing in a junk infested garage with another aura.
"What? Err...what?" Tonks stumbled out quickly stopping herself from saying anything else.
"Don't lie, I've been watching you ages, your always quiet odd around him and you never leave Remus alone in the room whenever he's around, and you were still blushing before he even came down stairs just then, when really you should have had plenty time to calm down."
"What does it matter, it was ages ago?"
"It still affects you now!" He explained firmly.
"I'm just embarrassed sometimes that's all. It doesn't affect anything else I do!" She snapped back quietly.
"When the hell did this happen anyway?" He asked firmly, sure she hadn't done anything too wrong, Tonks figured she best cough up to Podmore.
"When Moody said I could look in to him, make sure he was alright."
"Well no wonder you got such a good view of him. We all thought you'd slipped something in his drink and were covering for you. There was no way you'd be that good as to go though Bill as well."
"I wanted to look good."
"You don't work to look good Tonks!"
"I know that, but I wanted you all to see that I wasn't a big screw up all the time."
"Oh yeah and hot steamy sex on the bathroom floor was just a by-product of a rather convenient situation."
"It wasn't on the bathroom floor. And anyway, I didn't break any rules and I got the job done."
"YOU SLEPT WITH THE JOB TONKS!" He hissed quietly.
"Oh and you've never done that have you!" Tonks replied sarcastically rolling her eyes.
"No I've never done anything as daft as that." He replied firmly, quiet sure Tonks didn't know anything that didn't make him look squeaky clean.
"No of course you haven't, apart from that little time when you decided you'd sample a blow job or two in the back rooms of that Passion Fruit Joint before arresting the manager!" Tonks hissed back.
"You knew about that?!" He suddenly gulped.
"Of course I knew about it. You weren't that good, I wiped that girls memory a bit so she wouldn't go and blab in her statement. What did you think you were entertaining enough to keep her quiet? She was going to sell you out for thirty gallons."
"She was? The little slut! I paid forty for that!" Podmore exclaimed crossly.
"Now keep your trap shut about this and I'll keep me trap shut about that." Tonks finished evenly.
"Fine, but I've got one more to make us more even!" Podmore put in quickly determined to have more on Tonks than she had on him it was only safe.
"What, I haven't got anything else to hide?!" Tonks replied confident in her secrets.
"Oh really, what about the time, quiet recently as it happens, when you turned up nearly three hours late for work and collapsed from exhaustion!" He explained watching carefully to see Tonks reaction.
"What about it?" Tonks replied as calmly as she could.
"You weren't tired coz you'd been working too hard, you were tired coz you spent all night and all probably all morning having hot rampant sex with Remus Lupin! My cousin was a werewolf too and he was a right rampant thing sometimes. Could keep going for hours and hours and hours when he was in his heat. But then, he always paid for it afterwards. Remus was quiet off for quiet a while afterwards wasn't he? Past out in the middle of an order meeting didn't he? Practically bed ridden I heard for days. It was for the same reason you did Tonks! Too much hot werewolf sex and not enough sleep!"
"How the hell did you find out about that?!" Tonks hissed shocked that anyone could guess her dirty little secret and quiet sure Remus hadn't mentioned anything to anyone about her.
Although as she became increasingly aware, out of most the order, other than Sirius and Arthur, Podmore was probably the one person he did talk to regularly and could possibly mention her in a manly chatty way.
"I've seen his sneaky looks at you, he may be as subtle as hell but he still checks you out when you deliberately offer up a view for him. And so does Charlie for that matter and usually gets a slap from his brother for it too! There that makes us even. Now you toodle of home for a bit while I go get ready for work. And I don't want to hear another thing said about that time. Otherwise I tell Molly Weasley she's been offering up the wrong son to you!" He hissed quietly opening the (car-less) garage door and checking the coast was clear.
When she got home the first thing Tonks really wanted was a wash, preferably a long cold shower. Climbing the stairs she grabbed her things from her room and slipped into the bathroom. Placing a silencing charm on the door she turned the taps on and stripped off before climbing into the cool bath. Her mother had already been for her mid-night wee, so it was quiet alright to lay in the bath for a while.
Tonks didn't really have time for a proper sleep now, all she could do was dose, so at three in the morning she climbed out the bath, dried off, pulled on some clean clothes and tidied up after herself.
Heading out the house and walking for a while in the cold air taking a few breaths as she did, Tonks appereated from a side ally near a busy Liverpool street, after walking carefully down that for a while blending in she slipped down another alleyway and apperated to the safest spot near Sirius's house. Slipping through the night she carefully opened the door and was slightly surprised to find it unblocked.
Remus must be up and about already or someone must have just entered the house. Closing the door behind her quietly, she could hear someone rushing about muttering spells quickly above her and another voice yelling up at the top of the house as she turned around. First she looked down the hall but then looked up to see Harry's limp body tumberling down the centre of the stairs into a simple large magical net stretched across the gap, two floors up, barely held in place by Lupin as Harry flopped into it.
"Remus what happened? How did he fall?!" Tonks asked rushing over and up the stairs as she suddenly heard the distinct sob from Sirius much higher up as he jumped on to the floor and forced himself to move over and look at what had become of Harry's little body.
"It's ok Sirius I got him. But you'll have to help me get him down."
"Oh thank god you caught him! Is he awake?" Sirius cried out rushing down the stairs to Remus and relieved enough to hug anything even Molly at that very moment. Reaching over with Tonks they grabbed hold of Harry's shoulders and legs and hoisted him out the net and onto the stairs where Sirius could hang onto him tightly.
"I heard you shouting and I could see there was no way you'd be able to reach him so started stringing this up just in case he jumped off."
"Jumped off what?" Tonks suddenly asked noting just how close to being hysterical a normal person would be if they were Sirius. He wouldn't let go of Harry as his limp limbs laid out in his arms. He was still ever so thin and hardly capable of doing much jumping at all.
"How did he even get up there in the first place?" Remus continued looking down at Sirius as he gently stroked Harry's face.
"He, err, he climbed up the ladder and then blew it up. I couldn't follow him and then finally, he wanted to come down, he couldn't see and I hope... I hope he thought I'd be able to catch him, because, he just sort of slid out the hole." Sirius sighed checking Harry hadn't hurt himself in the fall and making a blanket appear from his bed as soon as he saw Harry shiver slightly in his sagging trousers and thin baggy t-shirt that used to be fitted.
"Do you want to get him back up to his room and we'll err, put things back together?" Lupin explained leaning over Sirius's shoulder and touching it softly. He could see his friend was still visibly shaking inside at the thought he'd lost Harry to this mad outburst like so many he'd had recently.
Only last week did Harry forget completely who Sirius was and tried to fight him off as he thought he'd been captured by death eaters or something and before that, he'd been convinced Sirius was Lilly and Remus was Sirius and shouted horribly at Remus because he frightened him. And he couldn't even remember who James would be.
"Yeah, ok. Err, can, can you put some more permanent, err, I don't want to risk him falling down the stairs again?" Sirius explained standing up and lifting Harry into his arms.
"Of course, I can stick some child barriers up on the landing so he can't run off like that again." Lupin explained, looking sadly at Sirius's miserable face, Harry had been doing so well yesterday afternoon. He was talking about school normally for a while until Sirius found out he had a horrible buzzing in his head and it was steadily getting too much to cope with.
"Ok, well I'll take him back upstairs. Will you be around tomorrow to take him to Woolnough's?"
"Yes of course. You go put him back in bed and get laid out for a nap next to him. He must be worn out by now surely."
"I can't count on it!" Sirius replied starting slowly up the stairs to the mainly used landing and kicking past what was left of Harry's door laid him out on his bed with his favourite blanket.
"I honestly have no idea at the minuet what caused that, only that it wasn't what he intended and was purely an accident." Woolnough sighed at his desk after Sirius had finished explaining what had happened on the stairs for the benefit of Woolnough and Dumbledore. Harry had brought his pillow with him and after laying it down on Sirius's lap, had curled his head and arms comfortably on it and was now fast to sleep like he had been for the past half an hour.
"He's been really sleepy since, it's hard to get him to stay awake long enough to eat, he just drops off half way through his food." Sirius sighed lightly so not as to move much and wake Harry up as he slept peacefully. Not that it would anyway, Harry was out like a log at the minuet and likely to be so for hours and hours if he could.
"Well it's obviously the potion causing that, it's got quiet a strong sedative in it. But I just can't understand why the headaches. If anything I was expecting it was that he'd fall asleep a lot and be a bit too sensitive to things like bright light and loud noises but that was it."
"Yeah, he won't have half the lights on when he's awake, he said it makes him feel sick."
"Did he just eat what you gave him?" Woolnough wondered as Sirius tried his best not to be tetchy that he was repeating himself.
"He only ate what I put in his mouth. It was just lucky Lupin woke up when he did." Sirius mumbled again still in a small state of shock. Up until now he'd never allowed himself to think about the possibility he may lose Harry forever because of it.
"It was, but hopefully we've already sorted out Harry's suicidal instinct and he's still doing magic by accident so he may have made his own way to safety just as a reaction to falling. Though I wouldn't test the theory ever. Always assume he won't Sirius in case he suddenly changes his mind for some reason.' It was hard to imagine that sleeping form in front of him the almost angelic lips was so ruthlessly causing such a headache for Woolnough.
The mind had always been quiet a logical thing for him, a series of cause and effects that you simply had to de-code and he enjoyed the challenge. But Harry, he was literally a class of his own, some times he played by the cause and effects rule and sometimes he felt like doing something for no apparent reason just to confuse matters. On other occasions Woolnough was sure he liked to confuse matters further by twisting and tying the linking logical lines of cause and effect in to knots just to be awkward.
If it wasn't for the very strict patient confidentiality, Woolnough was sure he had enough notes from Harry to fill at least three books and gave him a whole knew way of looking at how people worked, and they hadn't even reached the end yet, weather Harry was to get over this or not.
Woolnough was proud of what he'd learned through Harry and had finally found the answer to that age old question of what had triggered the same effect in the Longbottoms as in another of Woolnough's patients, David Wollerton who had gone mad after seeing something truly horrific happen to his wife despite there being no magic involved.
Up until now everyone had assumed it was a different part of the brain that caused madness from stress to what had happened to the Longbottoms. Of course the sad realisation Woolnough often had, was that out of all his patients, the worst effected were in some way directly related back to Voldermort one way or another. Surely someone like that should never have been given the chance to get so evil, he should have been stopped sooner. But as he was well aware, it was too late and a waste of time thinking about what should have been done in the past.
'Does he still only feel safe when he's around certain objects? Last time you said he never wanted to leave a room unless he had a particular blanket with him."
"Yeah that's still the case.' Sirius sighed looking down at Harry as he twitched his nose slightly, Sirius knew what this meant and was checking to see how Harry's hands were, he didn't half have sharp nails sometimes. When he looked up though, he saw Woolnough's slightly confused face.
'It's stuffed into the pillow case, I think it makes him feel too warm now. Err, I think he's going to change again." Sirius warned watching Harry's twitching nose. After a few seconds, he stretched out slowly and rolling his neck around changed steadily into a cat before shuffling a bit on Sirius's lap and resting him mouth on his paws went back to sleep.
He was stretched out now with his front legs on Sirius's lap and his back two on his own chair with his tail, occasionally flicking back and forth in his own twitching way.
"I still can't believe you let him learn how to do that?" Woolnough asked with a slightly shocked smile.
"It runs in the family." Sirius explained calmly stroking the back of Harry's ears for him. Sirius was never quiet sure if Harry even recognised he was doing it but it calmed Sirius to stroke the back of his ears as much as it calmed him when someone would give his dog head a bit of a scratch.
"Oh I know that, I'd love to work out why people chose there animals and get me hands on what goes through your head sometimes. And I know perfectly well how closely it runs in the family. But Harry told me he doesn't want me looking into you unless you get really sick." Woolnough explained casually showing more of his rather odd curious personality that loved pulling things to pieces to try and see how they went back together again.
Dumbledore knew this and was often reminded of a time when as a pupil of Hogwarts, young Weatherly Woolnough had pulled a book sorting device to pieces to see how it worked out which book went into what pile after a short time working as a library assistant. The only reason he was there was because he could never get enough books out at once and liked to read constantly everything and anything when he had a spare minuet.
"He doesn't?" Sirius wondered, sure there was nothing that weird about him. Sure, he had a few bad habits, but Remus didn't complain that loudly about them anymore.
"No, he said it's not fair that you would get to be normal when he isn't. Seems to like you more for being odd and so I'm not to help you behave more err, rationally."
"I am rational!" Sirius answered a little hotly feeling a bit like a naughty child again.
"Well I told him just a few twitches in your diet and it'll sort out that pesky ADAH you have but he won't have it, seems to like you just as you are, irrational, moody, awkward and all."
"I still haven't worked out what that is." Sirius sighed as Woolnough noticed Dumbledore's slightly amused look as Sirius absentmindedly scratched behind Harry's cat ears some more.
How the hell was he supposed to know if he was nuts or not, it was hard enough trying to keep on top of Harry's weird behaviour without worrying about his own? Sirius was sure it was unfair of Woolnough to scoff at him like this because he only ever did it when Harry was asleep or not listening. Therefore it must be something that Harry wouldn't like to hear and as far as Sirius was concerned, if you cared about Harry you shouldn't do things that might possibly upset him.
"Does he often do that in his sleep?" Woolnough asked gesturing towards Harry's furry ears.
"Yeah more than when he's awake. But I don't think he's found a use exactly for it when he's awake." Sirius explained softly moving his hand back away from Harry's ears now.
"Well I suppose that makes sense and it doesn't exactly effect his behaviour. He's still exactly the same weird Harry when he's like that as to when he looks human. Now I think we're going to have to send him cold turkey again and then start him on this. I hope it works to be honest. After my last err, shot in the dark I was feeling really quiet ashamed by how bad it turned out and now after this week. Well best to move on again I think."
"How long do I give him to go cold turkey?" Sirius asked rubbing his eyes a little now.
"Nine days should do it. I know it's quiet along time but I really don't want this and the last to clash because it will cause no end of troubles if it does. Make sure you soak his tooth brush properly again just before you start him on the new batch. I know it sounds picky but I really don't want this to get a chance to cross wires even just a little bit in his saliva."
"Ok I understand. Any changes in what I try and get him to eat?"
"Err, not particularly, though he will probably need more water over the next few days so keep getting him to drink it and make sure he passes it regularly otherwise he'll end up doing it involuntarily in his sleep and I know how much he hates it." Woolnough explained plainly as Sirius was painfully reminded of the humiliated tears he got from Harry the first time he woke up after wetting the bed with Sirius laid on top of the sheets next to him.
"Yeah that more than being sick most the time." Sirius sighed. Personally he preferred it when Harry wet himself to when he was sick on himself. Partly because it was much easier to clean and partly because it was far less destructive than having him heave up his stomach contents. After all people were supposed to piss everyday not puke.
"Well unless there's something more either of you want to add I have nothing else I need to see to. I've got some more of his blood and until he's gone cold turkey and you've started him on that next batch there's not much I can do so there isn't much point in you coming back until he's had his first two days of it."
"Ok, we will come back then." Dumbledore decided as he stood up pulled his wand out and flicked it over Harry so he turned back into a skinny boy still fast to sleep. Slowly Sirius tried to wake him up. He managed to get Harry on to his feet but his eyes were still closed and he was hanging on to Sirius as he near enough slept standing up.
"How are things with the ministry?" Sirius asked quickly aware Dumbledore might rush off again as soon as he'd seen Harry safely back to the order HQ.
"Stale mate I'm afraid. They know he's not at school. They know he's ill with something and they know he's not at this hospital. I believe they think I've hidden him in some remote muggle hospital and they seem to be working through systematically, starting with those closest to Harry's home. I've had to step in twice recently to stop them from forcing information out of his aunt and uncle. His cousin is at school still most the time so I've posted someone near by to watch over him just in case. If they had any idea the problems being caused over them I'm quiet sure they would be quiet terrified."
"Hmm. Well I'm not sure they deserve it." Sirius decided bitterly, but knew better than to comment on Harry's aunt and uncle too much.
"They are his only family Sirius and well connected to Harry however little they know about it. Scrimgeour needs only his aunt or his cousin's blood to do a locator spell and the moment he steps out of the building with you, they would be able to trace him within a close enough distance to get you both."
"Which is why I destroy all my samples as soon as I am done with them and consequently, need new drops every time I test something." Woolnough sighed as Sirius held Harry up with his arm and picked the cloak and pillow up under his other arm.
"It is time to leave now I believe. Sirius if you help me get Harry nearer to the door I'm sure I'll be able to manage with him from there." Dumbledore explained as Sirius eventually past the standing, sleeping form of Harry over to the rather strong headmaster who managed to support Harry too easily to be happy about it.