Fey Rhapsody

Chapter 1: Lily's ghost

One Albus Dumbledore walked along the street toward number four, a frown marring his ancient face. Last night Harry had vanished. The savior of the wizarding world was no longer at privet drive and no one else could understand where he could have gone. Needless to say when Mundungus Fletcher had awoken from his drunk daze this morning he'd been in serious trouble. He'd been the order member on watch and he'd been the one to let Harry slip away.

Albus arrived at the front door of number four only to find it wide open. This had been how they'd known Harry was gone while Mundungus was drunk. The alarms in the wards had gone off at Grimuald place but by the time someone had answered it was to late. He stepped through the entrance and looked around before slowly making his way to the kitchen.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" When no one answered he feared that the Dursleys might have vanished also in the night but a whimper soon assured him that there was still life in the house. His boots tapped on the linoleum as he entered the kitchen and discovered Petunia. She appeared to be having a nervous breakdown. When he entered she shuffled further back into her corner under the breakfast bar.

"Don't come near me!" She burst out and curled up tighter. There was pure fear in her voice. "Don't come near me! You bring Her! She's coming to get me! She took her son now she'll come to get me!" Dumbledore stepped back in confusion.

"Who Petunia?" He asked in his gentlest voice, unable to see into her crazed mind to call up the memory. The blonde woman on the floor tossed her head before she looked at him in a single moment of clarity that barely held through her own fear.

"Lily."

The slow beep of hospital instruments and the soft breathing of the boy on the bead were the only thing to be heard in the room where Harry lay, unconscious. He'd been out of surgery for a while now but still he showed no sign of waking and Rhiane had, not once, given up her silent vigil over him. She'd barely moved since he'd been placed here. Taping footsteps sounded behind her and a few moments later, a sandy haired streak flashed past in the reflection of the observation window and crashed into an open janitors closet at the end of the hall.

Rhiane remembered now why Alexander Sith just didn't go on field missions anymore.

Moving for the first time in a while she stretched like a cat, cracking most of her joints before she left her post and turned toward where the nurses of the ward where chewing out her unfortunate partner.

"Alex, I just don't know what I'm going to do with you." She said as she grasped his arm and pulled him swiftly to his feet. Alex gave her a bashful look and put his head down in embarrassment.

"We'll I just thought that maybe I should come down here, after all that kid..." He trailed off as Rhiane took up her position once more.

"The local cops are out there now." She informed him shortly. "Apparently his name is Harry Potter. They found out when they visited the house. The man who abused him, Dursley, made a run for it. They have him in custody at the station." Alex nodded and said nothing as he promptly found a seat across the hall and opened his laptop to see if him impromptu crash had damaged it at all. All was quiet for some time before Rhiane suddenly turned and strode through the door and into the room where Harry lay. Alex followed her, vaguely curious. Rhiane leaned down over the boy and brushed some of his messy black hair from his face. Harry groaned and blinked open his hazy bright green eyes.

"M...Mum?" Alex gaped at him, he'd called Rhiane mum! Rhiane herself looked taken aback until she shook off her surprise.

"Shhhh, now there, just rest." She cooed gently. The boy flopped back against his pillow.

"Am I dead?" he asked. Innocence radiated off him in waves as he lay there, looking incredibly small and fragile.

"No, little one." The red head answered, petting his hair. "You are very much alive and a good thing too." Harry's hazy eyes grew wide.

"But I can't be... mum... you died...?" Rhiane sighed. She could tell that he honestly believed what he was saying. He truly thought that she was his mother.

"Harry... I'm not your mother." She said softly, frowning slightly at his hurt look. "My name I Rhiane Maxwell. I was investigating something and I found you." Harry only just began to realize that he was no longer in his dark locked room back with the Dursleys. "Your in hospital." Rhiane went on. "The man why was abusing you has been arrested along with his son. Apparently the boy was responsible for assault on a girl in a nearby park... I guess in their case the apple really didn't fall far from the tree." Harry looked at her with a bemused expression.

To say he was confused was an understatement.

There was a woman standing in front of him who looked like his dead mother, he was in hospital, away from the Dursleys, Vernon and Dudley where arrested, there where no wizards around, he was sore all over...

And for once he was happy about it.

He had no idea why but lying there in the hospital bed he was feeling happier than he'd ever felt in his life. Looking at the woman above him he couldn't help but feel hopeful for no reason. Then it hit him... the order! What was he going to do? This woman, Rhiane, didn't know about the wizarding world or magic, and Dumbledore surely wouldn't want to loose the light's weapon against Voldemort.

There was a sudden disturbance from the direction of the door and Harry jumped violently as a doctor entered the room, followed by a gaggle of nurses and a detective. In that moment it all seamed like to much for Harry as they crowded into the small room. They stopped though when they'd seen his reaction. He'd taken shelter behind the one person in the room that didn't scare the crap out of him. Rhiane gave the newcomers a dirty look and put an arm around him. Harry calmed down as she did so, but refused to move from his place against her. Green eye's glared the intruders out of the room but did nothing else.

"The idiots should know about the insecurity issues that come with certain conditions." She muttered a few foul curses under her breath. She waved a hand at the door and it swung closed with a click, locked from the inside. Harry found himself gaping at the display of wandless magic.

"You..." he faltered for a second then continued. "You didn't use a wand!" Rhiane's breath caught briefly as she looked down at the teen slightly awestruck.

"So you are aware of your power then." She concluded mildly, this time making Harry the stunned one. Now that she knew he knew about magic she didn't bother to conceal the small things she'd been doing discreetly until now. She brought a hand up to the side of his face and ran it gently along the bruised skin, leaving an icy tingling feeling in its wake. Harry's eyes widened for a moment before he caught sight of himself in the reflection of the window. The large bruise that had been there moments before was fading out of sight completely.

"How..." Rhiane smiled mischievously.

"I'm Irish." She said as if it explained everything. "My mother wasn't human." Harry gaped at her in disbelief then suddenly a tiny smile lit his face, he liked this strange woman.

Dumbledore sat in his office, his elbows propped on the desk and his bony chin resting in his palms, thinking about the disappearance of Harry Potter. A little research had revealed Vernon Dursley and his son in prison awaiting trial while the boy himself had vanished from the face of the earth. Who ever had taken him had made sure that not even the queen of England could touch the files containing the Dursleys charges. The whole thing had been hushed up by someone much higher in authority and quite frankly Dumbledore was even more unnerved by that simple fact than anything else. The possibilities where endless when it came to who could have Harry now, and to make it worse, not even Fawkes could find him. Something was blocking his magical signature.

"Albus?" The old wizard looked up at the door as Snape stepped inside, closing it behind him. "None of the Death eaters know anything and the Dark Lord is clueless. Who do you think could have taken him?" Dumbledore sighed, a steely look coming to his eye.

"I don't know Severus, but it is vital that we get him back. He's the only one who can take down Voldemort and until we find him no one else must know he's gone." The resident potions master nodded and swept away leaving the headmaster to his thoughts once more.

Well............. I hoped you liked reading this chapter as well. It's still kinda a work in progress in my head so bear with me while I do this.

Don't forget to review

Cya