The next time he woke up, Sirius and Remus were waiting beside him, already having been released. Sirius was sleeping, so Remus quietly said, "Hey Harry."
"Hey Remus," he said, sitting up.
"You alright?"
"Sure." Remus was looking at him doubtfully, so he added, "-as can be." He didn't really want to dwell on it -because he felt awful. "What happened anyway, did it work?"
"You planned that?"
"Yeah, but did it work?"
The other man nodded. "I was.. injured -but I remember a bright light, and a feeling of peace." Harry grinned; Then frowned. "Injured?"
Remus waved it off and said, "I'm fine. They said you turned into a unicorn…? Harry just gave him a look that indicated he knew the man was trying to put him off the subject.
Harry noticed some movement and looked to see Dumbledore walking in, "Hello, sir."
"Harry. Please continue."
He could tell Dumbledore was mightily curious himself, but hiding it. "It was side effect I hadn't planned on. I had just managed to turn into a Hawk before I went to sleep… I believe that has something to do with it. But I can't have two animagus forms, can I? So it must just have been the spell."
"It was a rather impressive feat Harry. I believe it is now being referred to as the 'Lightning Patronus.' And, have you considered, that maybe you can have more than one animagus form?"
Well, no. It was impossible -but here Dumbledore was, implying that it wasn't. He would test that out later…
As Remus asked Dumbledore what time it was, he moved his legs over the side of the bed. "Nearly midday…" Dumbledore trailed off as he noticed Harry getting up, and raised an eyebrow.
Remus watched and said, "Padfoot's going to try to shove you back in bed, you know…"
"Well don't wake him up then."
As he tried to move past the chair containing his godfather, an arm shot out and grabbed his. Without opening his eyes, Sirius said, "Nice try Harry."
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Harry walked down one of the rows between two of the incredibly long tables. The Great Hall was rapidly filling with children, the noise was somewhat of a shock after being in the hospital wing. He had convinced Sirius, after 'a while' to let him leave the hospital wing. After that, they had to smuggle him out under Madam Pomfrey and the other doctor's noses. He'd bumped into a student who had sparks coming out of his nose, but the kid just frowned and looked around.
He walked up to the long staff table and sat between Sirius and Remus. After all the sleepy students had filled the hall, he slowly started into his food. He was in the middle of a sentence when he saw a flash. He paused. "I'm going to pretend I didn't see that."
Snape, who had been ignoring the three from his position a couple chairs down from Harry across the table, said "What do you expect Potter? Creevy is climbing the walls with joy that you are receiving another award." Was it Harry, or was that more benign then it could have been?
Ah, that lovely sinking feeling. "Award?"
"You didn't know!?" asked the woman across from him, with only a light hint of her Irish accent.
"No…"
Remus and Sirius had exchanged smirks. "Sorry Harry, looks like you've got another Order of Merlin, second class this time."
"Why?" asked the Lord of the Dumb Questions
"Come on Harry, you saved an entire alley full of 'important' people, not to mention the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement…"
Harry dropped his fork. "Oh." He expected a snide comment from Snape about now, but none came. So instead he listened to the talk, and one particular conversation caught his notice.
"Did you here about what Weasley did?"
"That seventh year?"
"Apparently she promised the twins -her brothers- to play a prank for them." Harry tried not to grin -he'd help her plan it…
"So she is the one that turned the Great Hall's floor into ice last week?"
"Are you serious?" Harry grinned. He'd gotten Colin to take pictures for him… he liked to call them 'Wizard's on Ice.'
He quit listening when he heard Sirius say, "Enough Harry? -Geez, are you pregnant or something?"
He looked at his plate and realized that he'd just eaten a boatload of chocolate. Now, he really did eat a lot, but he did not normally consume massive quantities of chocolate.
"You are one to talk about eating habits, Padfoot." Sirius put his hands in front of him in surrender as Remus snorted.
He eyes caught Ginny's and he smiled at her. She grinned back, somehow figuring that he'd heard about the prank. Then the charms professor for the lower grades took the chance to question him. "Where did you get the idea for the Lightning Patronus?" the man asked, eagerly sitting forward in his chair.
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After the meeting Dumbledore shuffled though the papers in front of him. Harry, Daelin, Arthur, and Hermione had put forth several ideas for using muggle technology. Their proposals left much to consider…
He glanced up as Harry approached him. "Sir, I need to visit someplace later -just thought I'd let you know." He tried to keep his face blank, but Dumbledore sensed his feelings anyway.
"Where?"
"-the Dursleys."
Dumbledore knew that this was a touchy subject with Harry, that he hadn't liked the Dursleys. He had been perfectly willing to go through all manner of training during the summer, rather than stay with them. Which made him wonder why Harry would want to go there. "May I ask why?"
"They are -dead."
He stopped shuffling the papers in front of him. "When?" he asked.
"Before the attack in Aureus Alley. Malfoy and his cronies caught up with them.
"Harry." came the stricken voice of Ronald Weasley, who along with Hermione was now standing beside Harry, waiting to talk to him.
Harry turned and looked at them. "Yeah."
Dumbledore resisted the urge to sigh. This had to have happened right before he faced the Dementors, and Harry still managed to defeat his own bad memories to fight them. "I see. Just take someone with you, if you would. They may be watching."
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Not the most action filled chapter, I know, but I needed the follow up -And so, I shall post another chapter tomorrow.
In case you are wondering, he's at Hogwarts for two reasons: security and familiarity.
…and I'm in the middle of writing chapters 37-40.
