OK People next chapter. Anyone watching the Olympics?? Australia headed the medal tally for a while on day three! Above USA and China! Did you guys watch the thrashing the Americans got from the Puerto Rican's? Absolutely fabulous! GO SUZY BALOUGH!

Harry was no longer aware of where he was. How he could have moved was beyond him. His strength ebbed from him until he was no longer able to move and he had settled in a tight space waiting for the next wave of pain. His mind was no longer registering the agony. It was as though it had overloaded his senses, and now he was floating in a foggy space, unable to even think. A horribly detached feeling overcame his body, and he felt sure it was his soul leaving his body behind. Time stretched and he could have been sitting there for days or seconds, he couldn't tell. Then all of a sudden he was floating, physically, he was sure. He couldn't open his eyes, but amongst the shooting pangs of torture, his skin's senses were stimulated by a new sensation, one that seemed some how familiar. He was flying, and it was freezing. He could remember the fog in his mind parting for a few seconds and he saw a dark sheet wrap around his body blocking off the reviving sting of the cold air, and two black eyes staring frantically and worried into his own before another seizure caught him and his consciousness retreated to the fog once more.

'Harry? Time to wake up. It's Ok. You're alright now' a familiar voice roused him.

He dared not move, afraid to tempt the pain back, but he had to say he was feeling a great deal better than before. Experimentally he opened one eye slightly, and allowed a slit of bright light to enter. He could see a shadow. No... two shadows hovering over him though he could not tell who they were. No pain gripped him or dragged his thoughts from his body, and so he opened another eye.

'Where am I?' he attempted to say, though it came out as an incoherent croak, the air forcing itself through his strained vocal chords, throat still tender from the violent dry retching.

Snape stood back in the shadows watching he boy struggle to comprehend his situation. It was definitely a wonder he survived with any semblance of sanity remaining. To go through the changing untreated and unassisted was dangerous enough, but the adaptation stage as well. Even with his experience he couldn't begin to comprehend the pain.

He looked on with sympathy, though he made sure that his face returned to one of cold detachment when Dumbledore or Poppy looked at him. Despite his hate, he couldn't begrudge this boy of his sympathy. What he'd been through would have made any man crumble ten times over, and yet he was only fifteen. Harry's body lay on the bed, his long frame clothed in hospital pyjamas barely leaving an indentation in the covers. His skin was white, so white that it would be easy to believe that he had no blood at all left, and his eyes, now flickering open were horribly bloodshot and watery.

Poppy trickled a potion that Snape recognised as an extreme strength and rehabilitation potion to aid in blood production down his throat. Immediately the colour returned palely to his face and he laboured to sit up.

'Easy Harry, not so fast' said Poppy placing pillows behind his back. She turned to Dumbledore, allowing Harry a chance to recover from his exertions, and said 'Don't over do it. It's amazing that he is even up at all this early in the recovery, so don't expect much from him'

Dumbledore nodded and sat on the bed next to Harry while Madame Pomfrey went off to concoct some more potions.

'D..Drrumbledrroore' Harry rasped as his eyes focused on the figure beside him.

The headmaster smiled kindly 'I can't say I've ever been called that before. But please, call me Albus. After all it's not school term now is it?'

Harry seemed to comprehend as he smiled and repeated 'Al-bus' as a small child would trying out a new word.

'Where?' he questioned quietly.

'You are in the hospital wing. I should think that after so many visits you would start to recognise it by now.'

'What... h...hape-ned?' his words were jumbled but Dumbledore understood.

'Are you aware of the changing stage Harry?'

He nodded.

'I know you suspected that that is what you were going through, however Poppy has informed me that not only were you going through a quickened changing, but also the next stage, the adaptation. Do you follow?'

Another nod.

' We don't know why but we suspect that the stress of Sirius' Harry flinched 'as well as Voldemort and the prophecy may have contributed'

'Will I be OK? Did I gain or lose my magical core in the changing?' said Harry, his voice slow and slurred but quickly growing stronger.

'We are fairly certain that you gained, the fact that you healed so quickly should be enough to prove this.'

He gestured to the bandages around Harry's arms covering what Poppy said were now just angry inflamed scars, remarkable considering the state they were in before.

Harry looked at them with barely contained shame.

'Don't fret Harry. Poppy tells me that doing what you did could quite possibly have saved your life. I am curious though how did you know to do it? It is a very ancient technique that hasn't been used in many years'

Harry looked a little lost until it dawned on him that Dumbledore thought that he had done it to save himself. Quickly he improvised.

'Read it in 'witch and wizard developmental stages''. He said. It was doubtful that Dumbledore had read it and would pick up on his bluff. He reddened, as though he was admitting to reading sex education books. Though he had only known about the process for a few days, it had taken on the level of taboo as puberty did in the muggle world.

Dumbledore chuckled.

'Dum... Albus, how come I was never told of this before? I mean it was only by pure luck that I found the book just before the pains started?'

Dumbledore looked at him in shock. 'No-one ever told you?'

Harry shook his head 'I know it is not the usual topic of conversation but surely this would have been important to tell me.'

'I believe that was my fault Harry. It was my responsibility to tell you, after all it's not likely that the Dursleys would know about it and I was your next carer. I always just assumed that you would find out from your friends. It is the sort of thing that teenage boys talk about late at night in the dormitories if you know what I mean. Besides, I didn't expect it to happen so soon' Dumbledore said quietly, half trying to convince himself at the same time.

Harry didn't like the way the headmaster blamed himself and tried to change the subject.

'Why can I see you?' asked Harry. He had just realised that through this entire conversation he had been seeing the professors with perfect vision. He could also see his glasses on the side table with perfect vision. What had happened?

'What do you mean Harry?' asked Dumbledore curiously. Harry merely reached over, painfully, and lifted his glasses off the side table. That simple task seemed to sap strength right from him. He brought them to his eyes and his sight instantly turned unfocused and blurry. Dumbledore nodded in understanding.

'Most likely just a side effect of the changing'

Well that was one less thing to think and worry about Harry thought grimly. Just several thousand things to go.

'So what do I do now? I don't think you'll send me straight back to the Dursleys, and I can't live in the hospital wing. Perhaps I should go to the Gryffindor rooms. I'm sure I could make it there if I tried'

Harry was trying to make it sound like what he'd been through was nothing, and Dumbledore looked grateful for it.

'I'm afraid that's not a very good idea. We have no idea if there will be any after effects as this sort of thing has never occurred before, so we agreed that we should place you somewhere where you can be looked after.'

At Dumbledore's usage of 'we' Harry grew curious. At first he thought he referred to Pomfrey, until he saw a dark figure in the corner. Black eyes gleamed out at him laced with worry, until they noticed they were being watched. They quickly glazed over and turned into an awfully familiar glare. Surely not...Snape. Those eyes, he remembered them from between bouts of oblivion during his changing, but never before had he seen that expression reflected in them. Perhaps he was concerned over Dumbledore, the same as he... but that didn't explain the way he looked when Harry had seen him during the changing.

'Professor...' Harry said quietly, his energy levels had fallen and he yawned before resuming '... you saved me didn't you?'

Snape didn't respond except for an almost imperceptible nod of the head.

Harry felt exhaustion wash over him as he slid further down into the covers. His eyelids quickly grew heavy, but still he managed to mutter 'thanks' before falling into sleep.

Dumbledore smiled and turned to him.

'I believe it is safe if you take him now and get him settled in. The house elves would have finished their changes by now. It would be best if you made yourself present when he awakes, so he doesn't get disorientated. And get some sleep yourself, you look like you've battled a box of ultra sour mega warheads'

Snape just grunted, ignored the old wizard's goads and quickly cast a mobilicorpus on Harry, walking out the hospital with the boy floating in his wake. Dumbledore chuckled and mumbled to himself 'this will be interesting'.