Gellert snapped awake to the muffled groans of Harry. He was thrashing in bed, the covers tangled around him. Ron was already climbing out of bed and the other boys were beginning to stir. It only took him a glance to realise this was no ordinary bad dream. Dark magic was coiling around the boy, pulsing in time to his moans and mutters.
He was out from his covers in seconds and leaning over the boy.
'What's wrong with him?' One of the other boys asked from their bed. Gellert snapped an order for two of the boys to hold him still and they complied immediately. He levelled his wand between the boy's eyes, surprised when nobody objected.
'Legilimens!' He cried, forcing his way through the barriers of the boy's sleeping mind. Suddenly he was seeing a corridor from the eyes of something low to the ground but the vision was fuzzy, third or even fourth hand. The only explanation was that Harry was seeing something in the mind of someone else, maybe someone who was already performing legilimency one another person. The person – or animal – in the vision moved closer to a man he recognised, then suddenly lashed out. The man cried out in agony as two massive puncture wounds scarred his arm, blood sprayed out as Harry finally jerked awake. For a moment Gellert had the disorientating experience of staring at himself – was his hair really that dark? Then he withdrew from Harry's mind as the boy leaned of the edge of his bed and hurled his guts up.
'Ron, wake your family. Hermione too. Your brothers will have a way past the stairs.' He ordered, casting a levitation charm on the boy-who-lived as he incoherently started to try and explain what he'd seen. He ordered the remaining boys to say nothing to Umbridge if she came asking; fortunately it seemed even the Finnigan boy seemed to realise the severity of the situation because he nodded along with the others.
He hurried down to the common room where a confused and sleepy looking huddle of children waited for him. They followed him without his having to tell them, hurrying through the darkened corridors of the school. It was so late that even the patrolling teachers had gone to bed, so they encountered nobody.
Albus was already awake, although wearing a set of purple sleep robes that would have been old fashioned when Gellert was young but with a pattern that would still be considered garish today. He sat at his desk, looking as infuriatingly in control as normal.
'Weasley's been attacked by a snake. Harry saw it.' He said promptly and efficiently. There was a moment of silence, then pandemonium erupted as the children began asking questions, each trying to shout above the others. Albus didn't waste a moment, spinning to speak to two of the portraits. Within moments he had them hurrying out of their frames. Gellert conjured a polished wooden throne carved with ornate snakes, which was an annoying quirk that was sure to incriminate him in the eyes of the light. Dumbledore especially would notice the change from his old predisposition to wolves.
He dumped the black-haired boy into the chair and turned to one of the massive windows. From here he could see Umbridge's office, a candle illuminating the inside. Even as Dumbledore sent Fawkes to act as a lookout, he poked one of the small triangular panes of glass out with his wand and sent a powerful sleeping charm into her room. A moment later he conjured a strong gust of wind to extinguish the candle. When it wasn't relit he knew that she had fallen victim to the spell.
'Umbridge is pacified.' He announced, interrupting Harry's shaky retelling of the story. His old friend sent him a troubled look as Gellert gave an irritated sigh. 'She's asleep.' He clarified. He strolled over, leaning on one of the carved snake heads on Potter's chair. 'I'll talk to you about it later. For now they need to go to London.'
Even the obtuse Englishman must have been able to read the message on Gellert's face because he busied himself turning an old black kettle into a portkey. A minute later the students had disappeared in a flash of blue light and Gellert was left alone with Dumbledore.
He took a seat in one of the chairs.
Albus watched him.
'If Voldemort wasn't aware of their connection, he certainly will be now.' Gellert pointed out into the silence. Dumbledore nodded sagely and stood, crossing to one of his delicate tables and lifted a miniature Petous. He carried it to the table and tapped it lightly with his wand. Both wizards watched as miniature puffs of green smoke started to spurt from the top.
'Where did you find this? A tip?' Gellert asked derisively as the instrument began to hoot warningly. Albus sent him a scathing look that lost much of its effect as a cloud of the smoke obscured his beard and he spluttered.
'Not all of us came from a family with connections like yours.' Albus finally wheezed as the smoke began to coalesce into a solid shape. 'You could help you know.'
Gellert probably could have helped, even if he hadn't already read the answer Dumbledore sought from the twists of dark magic that surrounded the Potter boy. People with divination training could always get better answers from a Petous, even more so if they had a touch of sight.
'I just wanted to see if that pile of scrap actually worked.' He laughed, Albus just gave him a frustrated glare. 'Potter is a horcrux.'
Albus froze, in fact, the entire office fell silent, the portraits that had been whispering quietly among themselves suddenly paying rapt attention. The sound of Gellert unwrapping one of the sherbet lemons on the desk was startlingly loud.
To his credit, Albus didn't doubt him for a second, delving straight into questions that Gellert couldn't answer. It wasn't a subject he knew much about, having done only enough research to discover that one became a wraith before giving up. Any texts that he may have owned on the matter were in his family estates, all of which he suspected were under watch.
For now, further knowledge on the horcruxes was beyond his reach.
He managed to get away just as the sun was beginning to creep over the horizon, borrowing a school broom to fly to his apparition point in the forest. He apparated to London, arriving just after Molly Weasley hurried around the corner. She recognised him immediately, rushing to envelop him in a motherly hug as almost sobbing her gratitude for his intervention as he stood stiff as a board, unsure how to react in such an unfamiliar situation. He tried to subtly shake her off as she bustled him into the house, finally getting relief when she caught sight of Hermione, Harry and her children. The mother swept towards her brood and Gellert was quickly forgotten.
A hand touched his, and he was halfway to his wand when he recognised Hermione. He almost considered putting a sleeping charm on her and escaping – he'd been avoiding her since their argument. The only time they'd spoken he'd thrown enough spells at her that she didn't have a chance to talk to him which was an excuse that was unlikely to work this time around.
'Am I allowed to ask what you talked about with Professor Dumbledore?' She asked gently, that lack of accusations coming as a pleasant surprise. He considered his answer carefully – Hermione would have to know eventually, but now was not the time to tell her.
'Just theories on what Harry saw, how he's connected to Voldemort.' He answered vaguely.
'Does it go both ways?' That was why he liked her so much; she was well beyond her years when it came to working out the true issue rather than getting hung up on the immediate effects.
'Yes but we think Voldemort hasn't been aware of the connection.'
'He is now?' Hermione asked.
'It's the only explanation for how we discovered him so quickly.'
'So what next?'
'We try to teach Harry to defend himself.'
They both turned to watch the skinny, black haired boy as he helped his godfather crack eggs into the frying pan, the Weasley family arrayed around them as they celebrated the news that their father would recover.