Heartless

Chapter two - Elena

Harry had called his newly acquired task Elena, not that he thought looking after the child was a task or anything, no he loved having her around. Dumbledore had explained that the spell required to discover who her parents were was only able to work if the results were compared to the DNA of one of the parents.

That afternoon each Slytherin had to have a spell done on them so that there DNA could be compared to that of Elena. Dumbledore would do the deed which was a tedious one at best. Harry had already been given his own rooms at the beginning of the year because he was head boy, now the headmaster had added everything that Elena would need as well.

Harry was also excused from classes until the parent could be found and the child returned. The punishment for said parent had not been determined; it was questionable whether or not to let them have Elena at all.

Harry had already been sent all of his work assignments for that day and as Elena had been settled in her crib he decided that he should attempt them before she woke up for a bottle. When classes let out Ron and Hermione dropped round to see where he had got to all day, he ushered them inside but before he could explain a wail from Harry's room caused him to scurry off.

"Oh God!" Ron said as his best friend remerged with a baby tucked under one arm as Harry feed her a bottle. "How…"

"She's not mine, she was abandoned I'm looking after her until the parents can be found." Harry explained to his dumbstruck friends. Hermione was the first to recover.

"She gorgeous!" She exclaimed going to peer over Harry's shoulder as Elena finished her bottle and burped. "What's her name?"

"I called her Elena."

The three friends spent the hour before dinner talking as the baby girl slept, as Ron and Hermione were about to leave a house elf appeared with Harry's own meal. He certainly could get used to this treatment.

His next guest was not who he would have expected to be, Severus Snape entered the room, without knocking, Harry made a mental note to do the same to the potions master one day, or at least pay him back for the intrusion in some way. The two were never going to be best friends but they were at least civil to one another now.

"How is…" He paused before realising that he did not know the child's name.

"Elena." Harry told him, "She's fine."

"May I see her?" Harry nodded and motioned for him to come forward. He opened his bedroom door a crack and allowed the potions master to peer inside where he could clearly see a small form sleeping softly in a crib.

"It took her a while to get to settle down and go to sleep; you don't mind if we don't go in I don't want her waking up." Harry said shutting the door as softly as he could manage.

"No that is fine."

"How is it going, the search I mean?"

Snape raised an amused eyebrow. "Eager to get rid of her Mr. Potter?"

"No, not at all, I love having her here but it's not going to do any one any favours if I get attached to her, I've already felt too much lose Sir, I don't want to feel it for her to."

"Voldermort will not touch her while she is at Hogwarts Potter."

"I wasn't talking about Voldermort Sir."

An understanding glance past between them before Severus swept graciously from the room without giving Harry an answer to his question. Hermione came back alone after dinner; apparently she had forbidden Ron from coming as he already had mounds of homework to do and coming to see Harry would only serve as a distraction.

They talked for a long time about Elena mainly and her and Ron's relationship and Harry's lack of a boyfriend, it wasn't as if he didn't have any offers, there were at least half a dozen gay or bisexual guys who would drop everything to date Harry but he didn't want a fan. It was well past midnight when she finally left and Harry had had to feed Elena twice and change her as well, a task Hermione helped him with. He knew it was going to be a very long night if the little girl had anything to do with it.

The night turned out to be fine however at around half past one Harry couldn't get her to settle down, it might have had something to do with the storm outside but in the end he carefully put her in his bed and made sure she could see him and they both drifted off to sleep together.

When morning came he was awoken by Dumbledore entering his chambers, Harry sat up and at once looked over at Elena who was still asleep wrapped in his bed covers. He made a low 'Shhhh' sound and pressed an index finger to his lips before slipping out of bed, pulling on a t-shirt and going to see the headmaster. He left the door a jar so he could hear her if she woke up for her bottle.

"I see things are going well." Albus said in a low tone which Harry appreciated.

"Yes, how is the search going?" Harry asked hoping that the headmaster would not take this question in the wrong way as Severus had the previous day.

"I have ruled out all students with surnames beginning with A and B." he said, his method of searching meant him going through each student in alphabetic order, this was going to take a while, Harry could tell.

"Thank you for coming down, is there anything else you wanted?" Harry asked knowing full well that there was going to be more and he wasn't going to like it.

"Well yes, since you are out of class I have suggested that you start training, I realise that you have already started training your body but I think we should stop that until Elena is out of your care, I will be sending Severus to help you to train your mind."

"But Professor, I can already keep Voldermort out of my mind."

"I know you can Harry, but the starting point of learning wandless magic is exercising the mind, I know you can already do a little but to gain better control I think you should accept Severus' help."

"Of course, whatever you think is necessary, when will he be coming?"

"I'll send him down before dinner, is that ok?" Harry nodded as Elena started crying in the other room. "I will let you get back."

Harry bid the headmaster farewell and went through to his bedroom and curled up in bed next to Elena stroking her chubby cheeks and smiling. She had stopped crying, reducing it to a whimper. Harry summoned a bottle for her and fed the baby girl. This wasn't good, he was getting far to attached to her and this was only the second day.

Ok here's a slightly longer chapter for you. I know it's not brilliantly long but I have coursework to do, hope to get another chapter out soon. Review xxx.