§ Meanwhile at the Order's headquarters at Number 12 Grimmauld Place §
Yet another group of survivors apparated into the entrance hall of house number 12 at Grimmauld Place, after having delivered the Death Eaters, they had captured, to the Aurors already awaiting them at the ministry, to finally imprison every last one of Voldemort's followers.
Molly Weasley, after sending the more seriously injured people upstairs to get medical treatment, ushered the rest of the group into the magically enlarged kitchen, where tea and a warm meal was already waiting for them. Something most of the people arriving were in dire need of, after hours of fighting, which had drained them physically and psychologically. Some of them had open wounds or were suffering from the after-effects of various hexes and curses and all of them were covered in dirt and other more ugly things, about which most of them avoided to think.
The red headed woman kept scanning the crowd of newcomers and, when she once more hadn't spotted the one she was looking for, got even more worried than she had been before. Every new group who apparated there without Harry being in it, made her heart feel a tad bit heavier. Thank Merlin, all of her children had arrived by now.
Fortunately, none of them were seriously hurt, just some scratches and bruises. The twins were still affected by a Furnunculus Curse, but they already had been treated with a counter-potion. They all were exhausted, of course, but a good night's sleep would hopefully cure that.
Having the knowledge that her children were save, she couldn't help but be sick with worry about the young man, who was like another son to her. After all, he was the one who had to face Voldemort, while the others merely had to deal with average Death Eaters. Not that You-Know-Who's followers were easily defeated. No, not at all. Many of her fellow Order members had been injured or had given their lives during the battle, but the Dark Lord was so powerful and Harry was barely more than a boy.
Molly asked the latest arrivals the same questions she had asked everyone before them. "Have you seen Harry anywhere? Is he alive?" Nobody could give her a valid answer to it, some had seen him, but that had been hours ago in most cases. She went again to her waiting position in the entrance hall and when she was sure that no more fighters would arrive within the next minutes, she slowly walked up the stairs to the makeshift hospital wing they had set up on the first floor.
She opened the door and was, once more, shocked at the large number of injured men and women, who were treated there. Many Mediwitches, Healers and Nurses had volunteered to help out in the Order's makeshift hospital, because there were too many people, who needed immediate medical attention, for Poppy to manage it alone and they had no other place to be at the moment. Unfortunately St. Mungos had been attacked and nearly destroyed by Death Eaters a month ago. It would have been so much easier to tread the patients there, but the reconstruction of the hospital wouldn't be finished for months and so they had to cope with what they had.
Every imaginable wound to be inflicted by a curse was present somewhere in this room and some of the darker curses had really gruesome results. Molly shuddered just from thinking about them. During the last weeks she had seen things she desperately wanted to erase from her brain, because they haunted her sleep. Vivid images of pain, destruction and horrible injuries followed her into her nightmares and wouldn't let her get any rest.
She had thought, more than once, about obliviating herself, but the outcomes of that spell were too unreliable, when cast onto oneself. Maybe, when this all was over, she would ask her husband to do it for her. She was a strong woman, but even she had a breaking point.
Trying not to look too much at the wounded or dying people lying in two long rows of beds to her left and right she gathered her courage and walked straight to where Albus was sitting in a chair, holding Remus Lupin's hand and talking quietly to the also present Sirius Black, who occupied another chair at Remus' bedside and was gently stroking the werewolf's greying hair.
"Albus," she interrupted their conversation as soon as she reached the bed, "Harry still isn't back. I'm beginning to go crazy, being confined to this house and not being able to go looking for him," she said, frustration evident in her voice. "I'm sick with worry over him, he is not much more than a child and shouldn't have to do a task as dangerous as fighting You-Know-Who. What if he is injured, lying somewhere in need of help and no one is there?" The tears that she had held at bay for hours now, finally began to spill and ran in small rivulets down her cheeks, while she quietly began to sob.
Sirius stood up and gently gathered her into his arms. "Shh Molly, we are all worried about him, but he will be all right. Harry is strong and powerful, he will defeat Voldemort. I'm sure he will," he said.
The same mantra, which he had been telling himself for hours now. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to stay with Remus, but would have run off to go looking for his godson long ago. But Remus' condition was critical at the moment and he couldn't leave his lover alone right now.
Sirius couldn't bear to lose his Moony again and he was afraid that the injured werewolf somehow would feel his absence and his condition would worsen because of it. So he had continued to grit his teeth and wait for any news on Harry's condition or whereabouts.
Once Molly's sobs had died down a bit, he led her to sit on the chair he had used earlier. Albus looked at the red-headed woman until her puffy, brown eyes met his bespectacled ones, then he began to speak to her in a comforting tone of voice.
"Molly, my dear, I know you are worried, but we can do nothing at the moment. It is going to be getting dark soon and we won't be able to look for him in the darkness," he said. "Tomorrow morning, I will personally lead the search if he hasn't come back until then. Furthermore, I think that Severus is with him, after all he was the one to anchor Harry during the Dominormundure spell, even though neither of them is currently aware of that fact. I thought that it would make matters easier, to not tell them about it and what exactly the implications of that position are, but if they are still alive, they are together somewhere. Do not worry, for Harry is not alone."
"But...but Snape of all people, you know they hate each other with a passion." Molly said, her voice nearly drowned out by Sirius' shouted "What the hell?"
Which gained him a stern look from Madame Pomfrey, who approached him and gave him a severe lecture on why exactly you never ever shouted in a hospital room full of injured people. After Sirius was reduced to a cowering heap and she was satisfied that he would respect her rules from now on, she went to tend to her patients again.
Once Sirius had recovered from the force, the nurse was, he turned his attention to Albus again and asked, this time less loudly, "What do you mean with implications of that position? What have you done to Harry?"
The Headmaster twinkled at him. "Why my boy, I have just done what was necessary to ensure Harry's safety."
"And what exactly has the Snivellus to do with my godson's safety?" Sirius spat out.
"Well, Harry needed someone who kept him grounded, while casting the spell, otherwise there would have been the possibility that his astral form wouldn't find its way back into his body. So I created a temporary link between their subconscious which would guide Harry back. Neither of them is aware of that link at the moment, but they will feel compelled to be separated no more than a short distance from each other, because of it," Albus said.
He chuckled quietly. "When Severus found the spell we decided to use, during his research, he wasn't aware of that matter. I only discovered it by accident in a very old scroll that somehow appeared on my desk at the right time. My office can have a mind of its own, in such matters sometimes. I have cast the necessary spells to create the link, the scroll described and have conveniently forgotten to tell him and Harry about it,"
"So you say that they are linked somehow?" Molly asked, because Sirius seemed to be at a loss of words, he just stood there gaping like a goldfish.
"Yes Molly, exactly," the Headmaster answered her.
"But the link isn't permanent...Albus, please tell me it isn't permanent," Sirius, who had finally rediscovered his ability to speak, said.
"No need to worry, my boy, the link is only temporary...at the moment." Albus said.
"A...at...the...moment?" Sirius stammered.
"Oh, didn't I already tell you?" Albus asked innocently. "If they were to spend a prolonged period of time together now and have a certain amount of skin on skin contact during that time, the link would eventually not only work on their subconscious, but on their minds and souls as well and would become permanent."
"What?" Sirius and Molly asked in unison.
"What is meant to be, will come to be." Was Albus' mystical reply.
"And that would mean?" Sirius asked angrily.
"It will all work out in the end." Was the only answer, Albus gave him.
The Headmaster patted Remus' hand once more, than he got up and headed towards the door in a swirl of green dotted, purple robes.
Molly and Sirius watched his departure open-mouthed, then looked at each other and sighed. Albus' words promised nothing good. They shuddered in unison at the mere thought of being linked forever, to the dour Potions master. He was certainly not the person they wanted for Harry to spend the rest of his life with, like such bonds demanded of the people linked together.
Their only hope was, that they would manage to find Harry soon enough, to avoid a permanent link arising between him and Snape.
A/N: Read it? Enjoyed it? Please review!