Chapter 04 – Vigil

Security was indeed a problem, Harry had been right with that thought. At Privet Drive, he was protected by countless wards and spells which he wasn't aware of, not to mention the magical protection that the proximity of his blood-relatives provided him with. But that protection did not stretch out to Little Whinging Hospital, and Remus hurried to Arabella's place because he didn't want Harry to be left without a wizard around for too long. Chances were good that Voldemort and the Death Eaters had not yet gathered information that Harry had left Privet Drive, but one could never be too careful.

There was hardly anything Remus could do about that now, he placed some smaller monitoring charms around Harry's room that would tell him if magic was used there, but other than that he could only hurry to get back to the hospital as fast as possible. Hopefully, Kingsley had already reached Albus Dumbledore and told him about the events of the day, Remus would be far more relaxed if he knew that his former headmaster would take care of Harry's protection.

This time Arabella was not all that surprised when Remus opened up her back door and came into the living room, even though he was hurried this time as well.

"How is Harry?"

Remus knelt down next to the fireplace, but halted his movements to place a floo-call to answer her question.

"Better. He woke up about an hour ago. He's still a little worse for wear, but he'll be all right in no time."

Arabella seemingly hesitated before she asked her next question.

"Did he tell you why he did it?"

The big question, Remus could only imagine what had been going on in the minds of the Order members involved during the past hours.

"He was pretty shocked when I asked him that. From what he told me, he tried to brew up a sleeping potion and didn't realize that he royally botched it."

Remus could see that Arabella wanted to ask more, but the look in his eyes made her stop.

"Did Albus call through? I'm a bit worried about Harry's protection in the hospital, I'd rather get back there as soon as possible."

Arabella shook her head. "No, but Kingsley called up shortly after you left, he said that it would take a bit more time until he could reach Albus. Shall I call up headquarters and tell them that Harry is awake?" Seeing the look on Remus' face, she laughed. "I can see that you want to get back to the hospital as fast as possible. And it's surely safer for him if you were there instead of me, being the squib that I am."

Remus smiled gratefully and got up from his crouch.

"It would be great if you could do that. Tell them that Harry is well, and ask them to find Albus and send him over quickly. At the moment I only have some small monitoring charms on his hospital room, I'd be more relieved to know that another wizard except from me was around."

"Sure Remus."

With a smile Remus bent over towards her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, Bella."

Arabella blushed and playfully swatted Remus' head. "You should know better than to waste your charms on an old lady like me, young man. No off you go."

With another smile Remus headed out of the backdoor and apparated back to the hospital.

Albus Dumbledore was not having one of his better days. Normally, the Hogwarts headmaster was able to see the positive side of nearly anything, and even with Voldemort back in power and the wizarding world in a confused uproar he had not given up at least the attempt to keep that attitude. But even Albus Dumbledore reached his limits from time to time, and today of all days this had happened once more. Since the early morning hours he was sitting in an office at the Ministry of Magic, trying to explain to the completely helpless and overtaxed – not to mention stubborn, that was extremely important – Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge what would be the best course of action to take. Now dusk was already settling outside and Dumbledore could imagine quite a number of places he'd rather be in than here. Unfortunately, though Fudge had finally relented and openly admitted Voldemort's return, he refused to act according to everything Dumbledore said, and for the past two hours they had talked each other in a dead-lock of opinions.

So he was even a bit glad when suddenly a knock on the door sounded and a brunette thirty-something secretary poked her head into the room.

"Minister Fudge, Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but there is a Mr. Shacklebolt who says he needs to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

"I have explicitly ordered not to be disturbed, Cynthia!"

The secretary blushed and cowered a little from where she was standing in the doorway.

"I know, Sir, but this Mr. Shacklebolt has been trying to reach Professor Dumbledore for the past hours, and I have to say that he is getting a bit unnerved. He said to tell the Professor that it is urgent and concerns Harry Potter."

Before Fudge could say anything more, Dumbledore rose from his seat. Not only was he glad for an excuse to end the unfruitful meeting with the Minister, but also his worry was rising from the small pieces of information the secretary had delivered. If Kingsley tried to reach him, constantly, saying that it was urgent, then it was urgent.

"Cornelius, you'll surely not have any contradictions against postponing this meeting until tomorrow afternoon. I have other duties to attend to right now."

Barely waiting for the stunned Minister to nod his agreement, Dumbledore brushed past the secretary and out of the meeting room. In the corridor, Kingsley Shacklebolt rushed towards him with a relieved expression on his face.
"Albus, finally! I already thought I'd have to stun my way through to you."

He started towards the elevator that would bring them to the public fireplaces in the atrium, and Dumbledore fell into step beside him.
"What is it, Kingsley? The secretary said it was about Harry? Has something happened?"

As he didn't want to explain it while walking, or worse while queuing up in front of the elevator or fireplaces, Kingsley looked left and right to make sure they were alone in the corridor – one could never be too careful – and stopped near a window.

"Yes. This morning, Arabella called up headquarters, quite panicked I have to say. She said that some of the alarms had gone off as Potter had left the wards around the house."

Dumbledore frowned, but didn't interrupt. It was not forbidden for Harry to leave those wards, yet if he did there was always an Order member to be in sight of him, even if Harry did not know about it. They simply could not afford an attack on him right now. Kingsley continued.

"She immediately used the tracking-device you had given her and then called us up to tell us that Potter was in Little Whinging Hospital. Alastor sent Remus there to find out what was wrong."

Inwardly, Dumbledore was surprised to hear that Remus had accepted that task, but somewhere beyond all this rising worry for Harry he was a bit glad that Remus had at least been temporarily torn out of his lethargy. He had begun to worry extremely about his former pupil. Kingsley continued to talk.

"It seemed at first as if Potter had tried to poison himself, Remus called back and asked for Snape to be sent to the Hospital. That was when I started to try and reach you, but those blasted secretaries here did not even tell me which corridor or floor you were on, otherwise I'd have tried to call you out earlier. Snape reported that he had given Potter an antidote, and an hour ago Arabella called up again with news from Remus. He's back at the hospital with Potter, and as it seems that he will have to stay there for the night he asked for somebody to take care of the protection around the hospital."

"What do you mean, it seemed as if Harry tried to poison himself at first?"
Kingsley shrugged. "Potter obviously told Remus that it wasn't so, that he tried to brew up a sleeping potion and failed, at least that's what Arabella said."

"Who is with Harry at the moment?"

"Remus returned, and as he asked for somebody else to come there in case the wrong people got to know, I sent Arthur and Dung over. Dung is pretending to be a homeless drunk waiting for the social service to pick him up, he's guarding the entrance hall. Arthur dressed up as a electrician, and he's watching the back entrance. He got really excited about that task, said something about a collection of slugs…no wait, it was something else…plugs, yes, a collection of plugs, but I didn't really get what he meant by that, to be honest. In addition to that, Remus put up monitoring spells, in case everything else fails, so we'll know immediately and can get there."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Good, that should indeed be enough for now. I'll get there as fast as I can, see what I can do to further ward the place. Maybe we're lucky and Harry can leave tomorrow morning already."

Kingsley gave Dumbledore a court nod and continued walking down the corridor towards the elevator that would take him to the atrium from where he would floo back to do what Dumbledore had told him. The old headmaster remained standing in the corridor for a moment, then he pulled his wand out of his sleeve and hesitated for a moment before he apparated away. Normally it was not allowed to apparate out of the Ministry, but Dumbledore decided that it would be far easier than take up a lengthy floo travel right now. Most probably on his way he would only meet people who would delay him even further. Cornelius would surely not make a fuss out of it if he got to know, and for once Dumbledore relied on his reputation and the respect that most of the Ministry workers – mostly former pupils of his – had for him. He would not be arrested on the spot for a small offence like that.

Dumbledore apparated into the same small side alley across from the hospital which Remus had used a couple of times already this morning. He made a step forward to cross the road, then stopped and with a small mirthful smile pulled out his wand again. His dark blue robes were hardly inconspicuous, he had to admit that. Albus Dumbledore did not feel all that comfortable in muggle clothing, but with a quick flick of his wand he had transformed his clothes into something more suited of the occasion. It were not usual muggle clothes, they still resembled robes more than anything else, but a little obscuring charm took care that nobody would notice anything unusual about his appearance. Then Dumbledore pocketed his wand again and stepped out of the alley.

The first thing he noticed in the hallway was Mundungus Fletcher sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting area. He gave no sign of recognition as Dumbledore entered, but Dumbledore could not suppress a bemused smile as he saw how the nurse behind the counter was throwing worried glances into Dung's direction every other moment. The Order member indeed had the perfect appearance for pretending to be a homeless muggle, he had merely exchanged his always slightly rumpled robes for dirty muggle clothing. Though it was a bit worrisome that he had hardly had to change all that much more of his appearance for this role. Dumbledore approached the nurse and put on a charming smile.

"Good afternoon, Miss. I was informed that Harry Potter has been brought here this morning, can you tell me which room he is in?"

The nurse looked up at him, scrutinizing him for a moment, then she gestured for the corridor.

"Down that way, at the end of the corridor you turn to the right. Mr. Potter's room is the second on the left side, number 105."

"Thank you, Miss."

Dumbledore walked the way the nurse had indicated, but nearly missed room number 105 on his first attempt. He could have sworn that the last room he had passed had been number 103, but then he stood in front of number 107. The old wizard shook his head, turned around and concentrated really hard on finding room number 105. The door was a bit hazy at first, and with a slight smile Dumbledore noticed that Remus must have cast a Privacy Charm on the room Harry was in. He would not have expected any less from his former pupil, he knew very well how much the younger man cared about Harry and his safety. And the fact that his charm had even fooled Dumbledore at first only proved how serious he was taking this.

Dumbledore knocked on the door, waited for a beat and then silently opened it, not wanting to disturb in case Harry was sleeping. He did not immediately see the bed Harry occupied, the first thing his eyes fell onto was Remus standing in front of said bed, his right hand resting on his wand in its holster, ready to draw it any moment. As the younger man saw just who had entered the room, he relaxed and stepped aside.

"Albus, thank you for coming so quickly."

"I would have come earlier had Kingsley been able to reach me. Hello Harry, how are you feeling?"

The old wizard stepped beside the bed, his eyes taking in the machines which had not yet been put away again, but also noticing that Harry's skin had a rather healthy colour, and that he was looking quite awake and attentive.

"Fine, thank you, Sir. Sorry if I'm causing trouble."

"Don't you worry about that now, the main thing is that you're on the mend already. Did the doctors say anything about when you can be released?"

Harry shrugged. "Earlier they told me that they want to keep me for the night and if nothing changes I can probably go home tomorrow morning already."

"That's good news", Dumbledore sighed. "But still we have to place some more wards around here for tonight, just in case. I don't expect anything to happen, but better safe than sorry, just as Remus thought earlier. I'll tell Mundungus to place a slight Concealment Charm on himself, otherwise he's far too conspicuous the way he's sitting in the hall right now. I'll have a talk with Arthur shortly, a couple of other wards around the room, that should be safe enough. Is there anything else you need, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. "No Professor, I'm all right. Thank you."

Dumbledore smiled and looked at Remus. "Will you stay here tonight?"

Remus immediately nodded, though Harry's astonished face told Dumbledore that he had not voiced that thought before.

"Sure I will. I was only worried that I alone would not be enough in case something happened, that's why I asked you to come over."

"Now the protection should be sufficient, that's true. I'm going to place the wards now and talk to the others. If you need something just let me know, otherwise Remus will see to you getting safely back to your relatives once you're released. Remus, I'll be in touch with you tomorrow afternoon at the latest, I don't know yet how long the Minister is going to keep me occupied. Good night, Harry. See to it that you're getting better, will you?"

Again Harry nodded. "Yes. Good night, Professor."

With a nod of goodbye to Remus Dumbledore left the room and closed the door behind himself. Remus sat back down in his chair next to Harry's bed, noticing that again the teenager was fidgeting uncomfortably with his blanket.

"What's wrong, Harry?"

Harry bit his lip, then he looked up.

"You really don't have to stay here. I'm sure you've got something better to do than spend your night on an uncomfortable chair next to my bed."

Remus smiled. "It's all right, really. That means, if you're not all too uncomfortable with me staying here. And I surely do not plan to spend my night sitting on this chair. After all, I didn't go to Transfiguration classes for seven years without learning something."

"Thank you." It was barely audible, but Remus' sensitive hearing caught it and he smiled at the far too shy teenager. Remus shifted into a comfortable position on his chair and tried to think of what he and Harry had been talking about before Dumbledore had arrived.