Chapter Five

Harry walked the corridor of the dreaded prison searching for the human guard he normally traded with for extra food. As much as he hated being back in reality, he was glad that the delusion was over with. At least for now.

"Potter, what are you doing here?" asked one of the two human guards that normally fed the prisoners.

Harry stopped and backed up towards the wall away from the two men. He had no idea how he had gotten out of his cell nor did he really know where it was, but he wasn't about to admit that.

"Food," Harry said, almost timidly. "Trade."

"Potter, you've been freed. You don't need to keep coming back here," one of the two men said to Harry.

The other man, however, smirked and said, "Keep quiet Kendall, Potter here wants to trade. I say we let him."

"Benson, you know full well we can't do that. It's bad enough that you do it with the prisoners that are here for life, but this kid is a free man now."

"That's right and he came here by his own choice, so be quiet." Then turning from his companion to face Harry, the guard says, "Come on Potter, I know of a quiet place where we can trade. Just like old times."

"Benson, you know that the warden will have a fit. Not to mention what Dumbledore will do when he finds out," Kendall said to the man.

However, Benson and Harry ignored him and went into a dark room to trade leaving the younger guard to run down the hall.

x-x-x-x-x

"That's it Potter, you remember how to do it."

Well of course he knew how to do it. Any moron with half a brain could do this; all you really needed was a lot of spit and some patience. It's not like brain surgery or anything complicated.

"Oh yeah."

Well at least it won't be long now. Then Harry could have more food. That's been the deal since he got there, however long ago that was. It took Harry awhile before he got hungry enough to do it, but really it wasn't so bad as compared to some other things he'd been through in his short life.

However, before anything could be … completed as it were, the door of the room Harry and Benson were in blew open revealing the prison warden, Kendall, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and lastly and most unpleasantly Professor Snape.

Oh great, the delusions are back again. That's just what Harry needed, well not really. He hadn't received his portion of the trade yet and he really didn't need some damned delusion getting in the middle of it. Maybe if he ignored them, he would get his food without much fuss and went back to what he was doing.

"What, if I may ask, is going on in here?" Professor Dumbledore asked in a commanding and yet very dangerous voice.

"What do you mean sir," Benson asked timidly with his trousers down around his ankles.

Harry stopped what he was doing and looked up. Why was this guard talking to his delusions? Was a guard a delusion also? No, that wasn't right, this part seemed so real. So how is he able to see the delusions also?

"What does he mean?" asked the woman curtly. Harry felt that he should have known her also. She was a thin woman with black hair pulled back into a tight bun. She had something to do with his house. Maybe she had been his housekeeper. No, that wasn't right. She continued, "I would think that the question was amazingly simple to comprehend Benson, even though you were a bit slow in your lessons and haven't seemed to improve any."

"Mister Benson," the warden spoke up now. Harry knew who this man was, he had been making rounds a couple of times and Harry had seen him. "Can you imagine my surprise when Mister Kendall came up to my office just now to inform me of this … trade," he said with displeasure, "you have going on with this young man?"

"Well, he's known about it for some time now," Benson said as he shoved Harry to the floor and pulled his trousers back up again. "Why is this time any different?"

The greasy haired man who was standing beside Dumbledore looked like all his Christmases had come early as he stared down at Harry. Harry felt an instant hatred towards this man, whoever, he was. Something inside him seemed to move suddenly as if something was clicking into place. He DID NOT WANT this greasy man to see him like that. Something about it made Harry feel ashamed, but he didn't know why.

Dumbledore, however, was looking more angry and dangerous than anyone had ever seen him before. "This time, Mister Benson, or any other time for that matter, should not have happened. You have been employed here by the Ministry of Magic, to both guard and see to the nutritional needs of the inmates of this island. NOT to withhold food and then use it as a bargaining chip for your own purposes."

At this point the woman Harry thought might have been his housekeeper walked over to him and said, "Come on now Potter, it's time we were returning to the castle."

However, Harry was having none of it. "No."

Stunned, she asked, "What?" Everyone else in the room looked at Harry also.

"No," he replied. "Did trade. Food. Promised."

The woman looked over at the others, as if looking for something to help her. The warden and Kendall looked sadly back at them, while that greasy haired man smirked.

"Harry," the delusion of Dumbledore said, "I want you to return to Hogwarts with Minerva and you can have all the food you would like. Severus and I have something to do here and we will join you shortly."

"No," Harry said again. "Trade."

The older wizard sighed and felt a tugging at his robes. Dumbledore looked down and Harry followed his gaze to find a small house elf wearing a little pink dress with little yellow flowers embroidered on the hem.

"Eppy is thinking that you's should be taking Master Harry home. Eppy can be dealing with bad wizard."

"Home now," muttered Harry. This delusion was getting more delusional by the minute. House elves did NOT dress like this.

However, the house elf heard him and said with tears in her round eyes, "No Master Harry you's is not being home. Home is being where people who love you are and you's is going there you's is. You's is being freed and you's is needing resting and remembering you's is and it is being real!"

"Real?"

"Yes, Master Harry," the elf replied. Then turning back to the Headmaster she continued, "Eppy has been watching and knowing that you's is not being bad to Master Harry and that is the only reason Eppy is letting you's take him home."

Dumbledore started to say something, but Eppy cut him off. "Don't you's being worrying," she said as glanced over to the prison guard with a look that would have put any Slytherin to shame, "Eppy is dealing with him."

"Well, now that's been settled," McGonagall said to Dumbledore, "let's get him back to the castle."

"Real?"

"That's right Potter, this is all real," she said to him as she guided him out of the room.

"Real?" he asked again, but mostly to himself. No this can't be real. If it were real then that meant that there were no Dementors in Hogwarts to worry about, but they were everywhere. So this couldn't be real.

Once everyone was back in the corridor, Dumbledore closed the door to the dark room, leaving Benson alone with the young elf.

"Harry," he said as he looked into Harry's eyes, "I know that you are feeling quite a bit right now, but we do need to get you away from this place for your own safety."

Harry tried to look away from the older wizard but couldn't for some reason. Was he doing that thing again where he just stared at people? Harry hoped he wasn't, he knew it would irritate him if he did and then said he wasn't thinking anything again, delusion or not.

"No, Harry, I know that you are thinking this time. I'm sorry I said that you weren't before, but you seemed to have been successful in evading me."

Harry said nothing as the group distinctly heard a whip crack and then Benson screaming.

To Be Continued … Please Read and Review