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Not with the Durseleys…

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It wasn't everyday when Dumbledore was startled by something. Even with Voldemort's return, the scathing attacks of the media and the minister of magic calling him a liar, the old wizard had maintained a calm persona. However, when he walked into his office on a Tuesday morning, a week after the term's end, the sound of a small trinket on his shelf shocked the wizard to new bounds. He hurried over and picked it up. It was a hollow glass orb, about the size of a golf ball secured in a cylindrical container. It contained a red liquid inside it. However, the thing was almost empty hence, the reason why it was making that sound.

It was an indicator connected to the ward which Dumbledore had put around the Durseleys' place. The ward was charged by Harry's magic whenever the boy went to his relatives' during summer holidays. However, with the red liquid in the trinket almost gone it indicted that the ward was almost out of magic. Dumbledore wondered how it could be possible as it had been a week since summer holidays had started. The ward had ample time to charge with Harry being there. However, because it hadn't, it meant that something was wrong.

A lot of bad thoughts came into Dumbledore's mind, one of them being that Petunia and Vernon had finally lost it and had done something terrible to Harry. While that would be a terrible thing to happen it wasn't impossible and if that is what the Durseleys had done then Dumbledore needed to pay them a visit at once. So he looked at his familiar phoenix who understood what the old wizard wanted and immediately flew over to him before the two disappeared in a ball of flame.

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Harry walked into the main hall and saw Sirius and Matt talking to a woman. He recognized her immediately as Amelia Bones. She was the head of the DMLE and her niece Susan Bones was in Harry's year. He wondered what she was doing there when Ann's voice caught his attention from behind.

"Are you done with your practice?" Daphne's mother asked as she came up to him.

"Yes, Ann," Harry said. Daphne had been teaching him occlumency every morning ever since Harry had arrived at the Greengrass manor a week ago. Her father and Sirius on the other hand had taken over the task of sharpening his dueling skills and sometimes Remus dropped by as well to help him learn more about runes and charms. In just one week Harry had learnt more than he could ever have in an entire year at Hogwarts making him realize how terrible the school's curriculum was. He had asked Matt about the same and the man had sighed tiredly in response before telling him that it was so because Dumbledore didn't want the students to learn about the dark arts or the many complicated magic which in most pureblood households and other magical nations was otherwise considered important for an individual's magical development. When Harry dwelled into it he immediately thought of the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students, remembering how advanced they were compared to Hogwarts' students in terms of their magical knowledge and skills. No wonder they all saw Hogwarts' students as incompetent when they arrived for the Tri Wizard Tournament.

Daphne arrived and also saw Amelia in the main hall before she looked at her mother. "Mom, there is something we…err, Harry wanted to ask your help with," she said.

"Oh, what is it?" Ann said looking at them.

"Are you free today evening?" Daphne asked knowing her mother had her own practice in Diagon Alley.

"I have two patients who are coming today but I will be free by seven," Ann said. "We can talk then if you want."

Daphne nodded before Ann walked away. Harry looked at her. "What exactly is it that I need your mother's help with?" he asked.

"Your mother's blood protection," Daphne said. "I told you that my mum would probably be able to help you know more about it. Did you forget?"

Harry smiled guiltily. "I honestly did, with everything going on," he said. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Daphne said when they heard the three adults in the main hall stand up.

"Well, thank you for coming, Amelia," Matt said hugging her before the DMLE head looked at Sirius.

"I…I can't thank you enough for what you are doing," Sirius said.

"The trial is yet to happen so don't thank me yet," Amelia said before she hugged him. Their hug lasted longer than normal which made Harry smile. Rosmerta had told him about Sirius and Amelia and how the two were rather close during their Hogwarts years. Maybe they still were Harry thought when Amelia looked at him.

"Harry Potter," she said before coming over. "I didn't think I will be seeing you here."

"It is nice to meet you, Madame Bones," Harry said.

"Oh, call me Amelia," she said before she took a good look at him but not in a way that would make Harry feel uncomfortable. "You look just like your father, more so in person. Well, except for the long hair," she said. "Although, I suppose you hear that a lot."

"Not more than the fact that I have my mother's eyes," Harry said smiling. Amelia smiled back before looking sadly at him.

"I'm sorry for what you had to go through," she said. "I wish I could've done something. I didn't even know about Sirius being wrongfully incarcerated. I couldn't be of any help."

"You didn't know," Harry said. "So don't blame yourself for anything. Besides, it's all in the past. Dwelling on it will do nothing. Especially now because…well, you know."

Amelia sighed. She was surprised by how mature Harry's words were. "It's bad enough that hardly anyone believes you or Dumbledore," she said. "Even most of the aurors are saying that you two are lying about you-know-who's return. Even with Mad Eye saying that you and Dumbledore are correct the aurors are in denial and Moody is a well-respected guy in the DMLE even after his retirement."

"Well, denial won't help them," Harry said. "When Voldemort shows up everyone will know who was telling the truth. Besides, I don't think that even if people were to believe me and Dumbledore that it would help us prepare for the looming threat."

"What do you mean?" Amelia asked.

"It's just something I realized during the Tri Wizard Tournament," he said. "And it's that we are too soft regarding our educational curriculums that we teach to the students. Hiding behind the excuse that dark spells are morally bad to learn is probably what made us weak in the first place. So weak that Voldemort was able to come to power last time with barely any effort and the same will happen again. When I saw what the students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were capable of I realized that Hogwarts' students were nowhere near them in terms of magical knowledge and skills. I may be speaking out of inexperience here but disarming and knock-out spells won't help us defeat Voldemort or his death eaters. Even though it's only about a decade old the education board did put the dark wizard's rise in our curriculum, boasting about how he was defeated by a child despite all of his powers. They failed to mention the number of people who lost their lives simply because they couldn't stand up to a bunch of death eaters casting the unforgivables because we were too morally concerned to fall down to their level. If the same happens this time then I am sorry, but we will lose against him. The only reason why I managed to defeat him was because I was very, very lucky and was protected by my mother's magic. That is not the case this time. I faced him in that graveyard that night and I can tell you that even if I had a hundred years to prepare myself to fight him, I would still stand a high chance of losing against him."

Everyone looked at him. Daphne slowly put her hand on his shoulder as Harry realized how much he had rambled before he looked at Amelia apologetically. "Sorry," he mumbled quietly.

"You don't have to apologize," Amelia said. "You are right. We could've won with a lot less casualties on our side if we weren't too conscious about our own morality. I hope things will be different this time. That is, if people manage to reel themselves out of the horrors of facing you-know-who from over ten years ago. It was nice to meet you."

Harry nodded before Amelia left. Once she was gone Sirius walked up to him. "Are you okay?" he asked looking at Harry.

"I'm fine," Harry said. "I'm just feeling a little tired."

"That's the occlumency exercise," Daphne said. "Maybe take a break from practicing your dueling skills today?"

"That won't do me any good," Harry said.

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Dumbledore appeared inside his office in a ball of flame before his phoenix flew over to its perch. The old wizard had a look of shock and worry on his face as he slowly walked over to his chair where he sat down. He couldn't believe that Harry wasn't at the Durseleys'. It had been a week since the summer holidays had started. Dumbledore couldn't believe that he didn't know about it sooner.

(A few hours ago…)

Petunia was in the kitchen, washing the tower of dishes – a courtesy of her son Dudley, who liked to eat all the time whenever he was home – when she heard a swooshing sound in the living room. She came out of the kitchen and yelped seeing Dumbledore there with a weird looking bird on his shoulder.

"So now you are barging into our home unannounced?" she said scathingly but with also a hint of fear as she looked at the old wizard.

Dumbledore didn't say anything as he completely ignored her and walked around before taking the stairs to go to the first floor. Meanwhile, Petunia just stood in the living room looking helpless. A few minutes later Dumbledore came downstairs and stood facing her before he leaned in a little closer.

"Where is Harry, Petunia?" he said slowly but clearly.

"How…How should I know?" she said. "The brat never showed up when Vernon went to pick him up from the station."

"Did he?" Dumbledore said. "Or did you and Vernon do something to him? You know how much I hate those who lie."

"We didn't!" Petunia said when suddenly the hair on the back of her neck stood up as she felt the air inside the room become dense. "He never showed up," she said shakily this time. "Vernon was angry because his time got wasted."

"And you didn't think to notify me?" Dumbledore said.

"We…We thought that he was staying at Hogwarts…" she said, "…or went to one of his friends'."

"Now, why would you think that?" Dumbledore said standing straight. "I have told you that Harry will stay here during every summer holiday after the end of his term. You know how important it is for him, right? You also know how important it is for me, too."

"L…Look, I told you that we don't know where he is," Petunia said. "Besides, it's not like we can track him like you people do. If he didn't want to live here then it's better that he doesn't. He is a good-for-nothing brat anyways…

SMACK!

All the decors inside the living room exploded all of a sudden, eliciting a fearful scream from Petunia who fell on the floor with her eyes closed and hands covering her ears. Once the chaos had stopped after a few seconds she looked up at Dumbledore with her entire body trembling. The old wizard looked at her with dead eyes and an expressionless face.

"If he is in any danger and if you and your family are the reason behind it, then I suppose you know what will happen to you," Dumbledore said before he vanished with a ball of flame leaving behind a trembling Petunia who blacked out as soon as the wizard was gone.

(Present time – Dumbledore's office)

The old wizard sat in his chair looking at the trinket which no longer had the red liquid in it as he wondered where Harry could be. He could've asked Ron or Hermione but it wasn't like Harry was friends with them anymore. He then thought of Neville. The boy had become a recent friend of Harry's. However, visiting the Longbottoms would mean facing Augusta's wrath. The Longbottom matriarch didn't like him for several reasons; one of them being that Dumbledore never helped her with Neville's parents when they were attacked.

He then thought of Sirius or Remus. Surely one of them would know of Harry's whereabouts. It was possible that Harry was with Sirius. However, with that man on the run and Remus barely surviving on his own it didn't make much sense that either of the adults were capable of looking after the boy. Suddenly something clicked inside Dumbledore's mind as he thought of another possibility. He felt stupid for forgetting about it.

Daphne Greengrass.

She was the one who had informed McGonagall about Barty impersonating as Moody. She also knew of the death eater's plan to use Harry in order to bring back Voldemort. One couldn't know of such things about a person unless they were very close. As Dumbledore thought about it he also realized why that girl had been chosen as Harry's goal for the second challenge.

He didn't know what Harry had done after severing his friendship with Ron and Hermione but he had definitely acquainted himself with Daphne. That also created a possibility that Harry was with her right now if he wasn't with Sirius or Remus. However, Dumbledore couldn't just leave out the latter of the two possibilities. It was risky, leaving Harry on his own, and so Dumbledore decided to find Sirius to see if the boy was with him. If he wasn't then it would mean that Harry was with the Greengrasses.

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Thanks for reading…