The Not-So Greatest of Secrecy

After some time in a state of blackened stillness, the first urge Harry felt was a lump at the back of his throat, which led him to open his mouth, choking like he'd never choked before.

"…It." he gasped.

Harry slowly opened his eyes again to faintly see Dr. Grant hovering over him, pressing his hands upon his chest. Lex was clutching his right hand with tears in her eyes, holding a barely conscious Tim close, whose hair was sticking up about as messily as his.

But there was one other face he hadn't recognized leaning over them;

That of a fair skinned man dressed in leather with lustrous black hair, a matching goatee, and striking grey eyes.

His throat was dry, so Harry had to cough and sputter a little more before working up the nerve to speak again.

"Dr. Grant…" Harry panted. "Lex… Tim… What happened?"

"You and Tim both picked up some nasty shocks there, Harry," Grant replied. "Take some deep breaths for me, okay?"

Harry did as Grant told him, too exhausted to care, though the nerves in his eyes were returning as his sight was becoming brighter.

"How long was I out?" Harry asked.

"Seven'een minutes," bellowed another familiar voice. "It was lucky we found yeh!"

At the sound of that voice, Harry felt a jolt as if he were awakening from a nightmare. He leaned up, while Dr. Grant and the Murphy children turned behind them, where they saw Hagrid looming above, looking like he'd come back from a safari. When he noticed Harry saw them, the goatee man stood up.

"Hagrid!" Harry cried. "What are you doing here?! And…"

He paused, not recognizing the goatee man, but Dr. Grant's gaze was kept on Hagrid's physique. Harry nervously eyed their interaction, remembering something he'd forgotten about secrecy, but Grant pulled him up, as if he were about to have a serious parent-like talk with him.

"How about few formalities here, huh?" Grant suggested.

"Right…" Harry exhaled, remembering himself. "Dr. Grant, Lex, Tim, this is Mr. Rubeus Hagrid the… groundskeeper at my school... they make good use of his height, especially at Christmas."

"Figures," Grant hesitantly replied.

Harry watched Grant eyeing Hagrid up and down before shaking him by the oversized hand, nearly forgetting the goatee man beside him.

"And this is…" Harry began. "Who is this?"

"You wouldn't remember me," the goatee man replied. "But I knew your parents. Your father was the best friend I ever had."

"Harry," Hagrid introduced. "Meet your godfather, Sirius Black."

"I have a godfather?!" Harry asked, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Harry felt another urge trickling down his spine, as this was the sign of shock being replaced with anger common for a boy bordering on adolescence.

"Why wasn't I ever told about this until now?" Harry demanded. "How did the lot of you even get here?! Or even know I was here?!"

"Calm down Harry," Sirius interrupted. "All we have to do is report back to Dumbledore and then all your questions will be answered."

Harry wasn't sure whether or not to trust the man, but reminding himself that Hagrid was there, he felt a drop of calm.

"Well, I reckon that answers my next question," Harry sighed.

"Which is?" Sirius requested.

"If anyone else back home knows about this," Harry replied.

But he still noticed the confusion on the faces of Dr. Grant and the Murphy children.

"On second thought, can we talk more about this over at the Visitor's Center?" Harry suggested.

"I reckon we can contact Dumbledore there," Sirius replied. "What about you, Hagrid?"

"Sure," Hagrid confirmed. "So long as we don't have 'o fly, eh?"

"Dr. Grant says it's just down this road, isn't it?" Harry replied.

"Let's get down to business, then," Grant sighed.

As he picked up an exhausted-looking Tim, Harry noticed that his blue bandana was tied around his left hand, with Dr. Grant's red bandana on his right.

"What's that for?" He asked.

"The burns on his hands," Grant replied. "It boggles my mind you didn't sustain any, what with how you loosened yourself from those wires."

Harry held out his palms, only to realize that covering them were merely small, blistery red marks. Though with all the injuries he sustained in his lifetime, he couldn't imagine how.

He felt a slight burn in his right hand, only to realize someone was grabbing it. It was Lex holding his hand, presenting him with a tearful smile, her face completely flushed from the excitement.

"And by the way Harry," she added. "Some sparks came out of your hands after you fell. It was like the fence's electricity flowed through you, but came right back out."

"Really?" Harry murmured with a hint of concern.

"How do you explain that to the Red Cross?" Lex suggested.

But now, Harry felt partly stiff, not because of the intimacy between them. Under the Dursleys' ward, seeing a doctor might have been frightening enough. But now, there were certainly other things he'd have to reveal.

Starting down the road, Harry made out something olive green with a few brown spots being swung in Lex's other hand.

"What have you got there?" he asked.

Lex drew her hand to reveal Harry's Costa Rica bush hat, covered in some patches of mud, including on the embroidered iguana.

"It fell off your head when you got stuck," she explained.

"Thanks," Harry replied, feeling less stiff.

"Sure," Lex concluded.

She outstretched her arm towards Harry's head, who backed away a little as Lex skillfully propped his hat on. Then, reaching her hand into her pocket, she removed her purple baseball cap, perfectly folded, before placing it back atop her head.

Harry noticed Lex's blush was starting to disappear as she presented him with a smile, not unlike the one she offered to Dr. Grant just before they'd started the tour.

"Well, well, well," Sirius interrupted. "Who knew my godson would already be a big hit with girls?"

Now, Harry and Lex were flushing again, as Sirius walked behind them, shoulder to shoulder with Hagrid.

"Did either of you know?" Sirius teased.

"Oh, shut it!" Harry insisted, trying not to laugh.

But Harry and Lex couldn't spare themselves the embarrassment, since a chuckling Dr. Grant was walking shoulder to shoulder with them, carrying a giggling Tim.

"So, who's this Dumbledore?" Grant began, trying to change the subject.

"He's my headmaster," Harry replied cautiously. "My best friend's dad says he doesn't miss a trick… whatever that means. Hagrid's told me all the same things about him, haven't you Hagrid…"

Harry swung his head over his shoulder, but neither Hagrid nor Sirius were walking behind them anymore. Instead, there was a fading cloud of white smoke that may have just been a little humidity. But it was rising upwards, so Harry cocked his head after it until he saw another trail of white smoke in the sky, moving slower than the last one.

Bursting from the tip of it was something even more cloudlike and less smoky, in the shape of a large dog with tiny gray spots around it. Had it been going the opposite direction, Harry would have thought the dog would have been sniffing the cloud. But up in the sky, Hagrid was covering up his broomstick with another smokescreen spell. Sirius sat in front again, this time casting a patronus message of his own.

"Albus," he began. "You'll be pleased to know that my godson and I are on our way to the Visitor's Center… wherever that is."

Once he finished speaking, the grey speckled dog began prancing in the direction that the road was going. Back on the road, Harry sighed, watching them plunge ahead. He had no idea what was going on up there, but in his mind, they were probably going the wrong way, so he had to answer his own question.

"Well, they don' mean Barnabus the Barmy, do they?" Harry choked, trying to sound like Hagrid as much as possible.

His voice cracked slightly, after which he gulped, but he knew that probably wasn't the only reason Lex was staring at him funny. If there was one other thing Harry did know, it was that explaining Barnabus the Barmy to her was going to attract an innumerable amount of laughter from the others.

When they reached the stockade gate where the tour began, the doors were still wide open, no doubt from Nedry's escapade. To the others, it may have appeared lucky, but Harry eyed it with suspicion, as he'd learned to do before even starting Hogwarts.

"Anyone reckon something else wrong is going to come out of that?" He suggested.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Grant reasoned. "Before that fence turned back on, anything else could have happened without us seeing it."

Harry had an idea of what Hagrid would have said in response, so he swiveled his head backwards, to not let the others see his lips moving.

"Better stay close together," He growled.

Harry turned his head back quickly so the others would be less likely to look back.

"What he said," he answered.

Harry then cocked his head back up to look for something else to distract the others. Watching the sky again, he'd have expected the dog patronus to dash through the doors like a real dog. Much to his surprise, it seemed to jump over the gate like a greyhound jumping hurdles on a racetrack.

Passing through the gate, he found the Visitor's Center on their left, seemingly untouched from the previous day.

"This is it," Harry announced.

He watched as Sirius's patronus kept on running, still visible to the naked eye. But once it reached the central roof cone, it slid on its haunches a little before seeping through one of the back windows. Harry sighed in relief, but little did he or Dr. Grant realize what they were most concerned about had yet to come;

Around the corner, Sattler was about halfway down the road when she placed her headset back on.

"John… the raptors are out!" She cried over the screeching and blue explosions behind her. "And if you hear that, you can guess out of the three of us that escaped to maintenance, one survived, two didn't."

"Christ…" Hammond whispered through static.

"Stay in the bunker!" Sattler ordered. "I caught one in the shed, but either she or one of her pals finished off Mr. Arnold and Muldoon! So keep a close watch on the Grangers! I don't know what kind of survival skills they rely on!"

"I'm starting to recall how much I've been known to ask for miracles," Hammond commented.

"I'll be coming back through the center in ten to fifteen," she promised. "Over and out."

Back inside the bunker, Hammond dropped his walkie, stuffing it into his pocket.

"Well, you heard her," he commanded. "We're staying in here until she gets back."

"If it's all the same, Mr. Hammond," Paul interrupted. "We'd like to get back in the control room… and see if anything will refresh our memory."

"There's also that principle of trial and error one can apply, isn't there?" Jane added.

"People are dying…" Hammond warned. "Especially children."

"Exactly…" Paul resolved, starting back up the stairs.

"In the meantime," Jane began, ushering her daughter along, leaning into her ear. "Hermione… while we're busy, why don't you… go off and gather some kind of a lunch for us, yourself… and your professors."

Hermione bit her lower lip again, furrowing her eyebrows. Realizing the way she was being spoken to, she could feel a tiny bout of adolescent irritation heating up inside her. Still, she did consider the way her mother emphasized last three words.

"Fine," Hermione sighed with a slight huff.

"Alright then, shall we go?" Paul exhaled nervously.

"Yes…" Jane replied. "We shall."

"In the meantime, this man needs help," Hammond replied, gesturing to Malcolm.

He was at the center of the table as Hammond pulled up a stretcher from underneath, laying it flat on the surface.

"Hey I've been rich and I've been poor," Malcolm grumbled. "But hoist me up like I'm some kind of god among geniuses and I'll be fine."

Around the corner, Harry awaited as Dr. Grant opened the doors to the Visitor's Center, carrying Tim inside. Lex pulled Harry's arm forward, but twisted his head around one last time, spotting Sirius and Hagrid, who slowly descended to the road, carrying out a perfect four-point landing on all four feet.

When Lex didn't feel Harry move, she turned around as well, finding Hagrid and Sirius coming up the steps. Before she pulled him in, Harry saw Hagrid stopping to admire the sculpture of the T-Rex skeleton above the doors, finding they saw perfectly eye to eye.

When he finally allowed Lex to pull him again, Harry held the door open to reveal to him both skeletons of the Rex and the Allosaurus awaiting in the rotunda, once again well-lit in the mid-afternoon sun.

"I bet you never thought you'd see something like that without wings, did you Hagrid?" Harry quietly teased.

Hagrid's width hadn't gotten him stuck through the doorway while entering, but Harry was quite astonished to see that Hagrid's height wasn't quite eye to eye with the actual skeletons. It was probably because of the rocks they needed to support themselves upon.

While Hagrid tilted his head up for a better look, Sirius shared a similar expression of shock and awe.

"What do yeh reckon they call this 'un?" He pondered.

"Perhaps you should have consulted someone else," Sirius replied.

He gestured overhead to the When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth banner, which thankfully didn't read backwards on the other side. Even Sirius let out a low whistle when he stopped to read it.

"I wonder if they can make a set of dinosaur hide boots, eh Hagrid?" He snickered.

Meanwhile, Harry, Dr. Grant, and the Murphy children were awaiting in the middle of the rotunda, for a familiar face. But the warm silence indicated that aside from the six of them there, the place was deserted.

"Hello?" Grant called. "Hello?!"

With no reply, Harry gestured to another sign atop the doors at the back of the rotunda.

"Over there!" he called out.

The sign, appropriately enough, read Restaurant 'Les Gigantes', as the doors were just right of a particular mural. It was unquestionably the same mural that Hammond, Dr. Sattler and the Grangers shared some late night ice cream behind.

"Not a bad place for a stopover, is it?" Harry suggested.

"It's better than any of my choices from the last couple of days, I'll say that much," Sirius agreed.

Dr. Grant threw the restaurant doors open and carried Tim inside as Lex led Harry in by the hand. She pulled out a couple of chairs from a couple of tables pushed together, seating herself and Harry while Dr. Grant set Tim on the right tabletop.

"I am gonna have to find the others and get you boys to a doctor," he grunted. "Will you look after them, Lex?"

"Yes," Lex replied.

Even as she said that, Harry noticed her red flush had switched to a slight pale. Yet he couldn't blame her for it, especially not after being abandoned by Genarro. Also, this wasn't the first time he'd seen a girl look that way.

"Hey, your hair's all sticking up!" Grant teased, ruffling Tim's hair. "You look just like Harry, a couple of human pieces of toast!"

"He gets it from his father," interrupted the voice of Sirius.

Harry slightly flinched as Sirius entered the restaurant, having forgotten he was there, as he leaned over the table, pressing his hands down to support himself.

"His mother could never manage it, so his grandfather came up with the perfect remedy," Sirius continued.

As Sirius chuckled, Harry stared at him blankly, like he'd been missing something. Dr. Grant and the Murphy children presented him with the same expressions, as all four of them seemed to be giving him the silent treatment.

"I'm sorry, there are some things we said you should know about, right?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Indeed," Grant replied, dryly. "Why wouldn't I like to know, what about the other people around here? It's not like they haven't had enough surprises for the last couple days… But there is one other person I'd like to find first."

Harry felt Dr. Grant ruffle his hair this time, which was indeed the first fatherly gesture he'd ever received that summer. Because of this, Harry could have sworn he saw a slight look of jealousy in Sirius's eyes.

"I'll be back soon," Grant assured them. "I promise."

Harry, Lex, and Tim watched Dr. Grant gently slip past Sirius, out the restaurant doors that Hagrid's dustbin lid hand held for him. Through the translucent mural, they were able to see him cross the rotunda, back out the doors, which explained why the mural was reversed on the other side.

Harry noticed Lex was still pale, most likely from having three strangers around, two of which only he knew. Hagrid's dinosaur sized eyes watching them weren't exactly helpful either.

Something brushed past Hagrid which, might have felt like a fly or even a rabbit to a smaller person. Whatever it was, Harry saw it was coming for him, though he could only make out the back of a bushy, brown-haired missile colliding straight for the table where he sat.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice cried.

She slowed down, as she had to go around the table to get to Harry, who was seated at Lex's right. His hand became dislodged from hers as Hermione leapt into his chair, thrusting her arms around him, completely knocking the chair to the floor.

"Thank goodness you're alright!" Hermione cried. "We've all been so worried and…"

"Good afternoon, Harry, Miss Granger," interrupted a soft, elderly voice Harry remembered awakening him in Hogwarts' hospital. "I believe someone else in this room has delivered

"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry gasped.

Hermione loosened her grip on him, causing him to tumble backwards as Dumbledore approached their table. She picked up his chair for him as Harry stood up for Dumbledore to wrap him in his own grandfatherly embrace.

"Professor, how did you find us?" Harry queried.

"Alas, I had hoped the day I answered this wouldn't come until later…" Dumbledore replied. "But we owe all of our thanks to your neighbor, Miss Arabella Figg."

He felt Harry stiffen and dropped his arms from around his back, as if he hadn't even thought about Miss Figg for the longest time.

"What?" Harry requested. "How do you know Miss Figg, sir?"

"When I moved you to your aunt's house, I had asked that she move there to keep an eye open for you," Dumbledore explained."

"But why her… of all the people in Britain?" Harry pleaded.

"I truly am sorry Harry," Dumbledore sighed. "But there is much I have yet to explain, more than you know. I'd felt it best to wait until you were older, but now, I fear a much greater concern has already befallen us…"

"Professor," Harry interrupted. "I wonder if we can talk about that over a bite of something?"

"Good idea," Lex interjected. "Don't worry about me, I don't have to get any of this!"

"And you two must be Mr. Hammond's grandchildren," Dumbledore deduced. "I have heard him speak of you two quite a lot about you for the last half a day… Alexis and Tim."

Harry noticed Lex still looked torn between looking awestruck and nervous at the sight of a strange bearded man in a Hawaiian shirt with no signs of dishevelment on him.

"I'm sorry, we were about to discuss food, weren't we?" Sirius interrupted.

"Indeed Sirius," Dumbledore exhaled. "I expect Harry will want to know everything about his godfather as well."

Harry pulled out seats from the left table for Dumbledore and Sirius, while Tim and Hermione made for the all-you-can-eat table on the other side of the room. Also, both of Hagrid's dustbin lid hands were grasping either side of the restaurant doorway.

"Sorry Hagrid," Harry apologized. "The ceiling might get in the way of your head and…"

But before Harry could finish, Hagrid squeezed himself perfectly through the doors. When he stood back up, the hairs on his head were only a mere few inches from the ceiling.

"Never mind," Harry dismissed.

He joined the other children at the table as Tim hauled over a chocolate cake and a lemon meringue pie. Lex, naturally, filled herself a plate with sliced vegetables and papaya, along with a cinnamon bun and a plastic dinosaur egg cup filled with lime Jell-O.

Hermione stopped at the cake table after grabbing some cherry tomatoes, then some pasta from a nearby chafer. Remembering her parents weren't there, she shrugged before serving herself a slice of the pink cake with strawberries.

Harry sampled some pasta before his eye was caught by the roast Dumbledore had sampled earlier. He carved himself a few slices before picking up a long roll, followed by some sliced cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and onion.

At the table, he took a chunk of the chocolate cake, setting it aside before cutting his roll open and making himself a sandwich too large for his mouth. Savouring five different tastes in one bite, he almost didn't notice Lex playfully swat his bush hat off his head.

Harry ignored a giggling Tim as Lex too the seat across from him, her baseball cap already removed, while Hermione off to her right was rolling her eyes with her arms crossed.

"Hey, pretend it's Rex meat," Harry suggested. "Remember, she tried to eat us first."

"Not gonna eat all of that, are you, Harry?" Sirius asked cheekily, leaning over his shoulder.

Harry hadn't flinched, but rather jerked his head around at the sound of Sirius's voice. He was used to surprises like this, so he let out gentle breath before picking up a knife and cutting his sandwich in half, handing Sirius the end he hadn't bitten into.

"Best bite I've had in almost twelve years," he sighed with his mouth full.

Hagrid watched Harry and Sirius bask in their sandwiches almost enviously before getting up to put together one of his own, or rather five of them.

Hermione clasped her hands over her mouth again as Harry bit into his sandwich. She was trying to cover up a laugh, but she decided if anyone asked, she'd say Harry was looking like a smaller version of Dudley with his food.

Harry and the other children kept biting into their meal, too occupied to share much else but smiles, though the other adults in the restaurant each attempted their own smile of reassurance? Except for Dumbledore, who cleared his throat, gesturing to the lemon meringue pie next to Tim's plate.

Remembering what Dumbledore kept in a jar on his office desk, Harry picked up the pie's serving knife and sliced the pie, dropping one on Dumbledore's plate.

"So Professor Dumbledore…" Harry began. "As we were saying before…"

But right in the middle of his sentence, Harry noticed Lex had frozen with her dessert halfway to her mouth. Tim was about to take another bite of chocolate cake when he noticed his sister's eyes widened, the Jell-O on her spoon quivering in her hand.

Off to Lex's right, Harry noticed Hermione's equally wide eyes, though she was biting her lower lip again.

"What?" Harry mused. "What is it?"

Hermione twirled her index finger, in which direction Harry and Tim turned behind to discover a large silhouette cast through the mural. But the frightening thing was that its shape and pose was not unlike the velociraptor painted on the mural.

Harry double took at the shadow, which was now cocking its head, before spotting the metal kitchen door in the back right corner of the restaurant.

"Hagrid!" Harry whispered. "Take Professor Dumbledore and Mr. Black… Get out of here, now!"

"Harry, no!" Hagrid gasped.

"If they can't see us, they won't know who's gone where!" Harry insisted.

He burst from his seat, speedily pulling Lex, Tim, and Hermione through the door, into the kitchen. Hagrid, on the other hand, simply shrugged and picked up the other two wizards, leading them out of the restaurant.

In in times like these, he could never stop Harry from doing things his way, but he and Sirius stared at Dumbledore, who was looking quite nonchalant, as if he'd expected the whole thing. Of course, Hagrid had seen this over the past two years at Hogwarts, but Sirius felt his distrust in Dumbledore may have been brewing again.

Outside the Visitor's Center, Dr. Grant walked down the road, shifting his head in every direction to make out just one sign of life. There was no trace of any automobile, whether parked or coming down the road, but there was the faintest squish of grass that Grant noticed coming from around the bend.

There also was no doubt as to who was that one other person he'd been searching for.

"Ellie!" he called. "Ellie!"

As he went further down, he was still twisting and turning, perfectly unaware who was standing on the opposite side.

Dr. Sattler clambered across the grass, almost on her knees from all the running. Her hair was drenched in sweat, her pink shirt was gone, possibly to stay cool in her blue violet tank top.

She panted heavily, which made Dr. Grant turn finally around, but she was trying to muster up the energy to keep moving.

"Run!" she cried through clenched teeth.

"Ellie!" Grant repeated.

Both of them ran toward each other, but Sattler was faster, jumping into his arms, wrapping her legs around him as he caught her.

As a man of science, Grant needn't say "Thank God", as Ellie was still on the verge of tears. But he missed two patches grass behind her being squashed, more strangely in pairs, no doubt by an invisible Lupin and Tonks.

"Get to the emergency bunker, now!" Sattler growled. "Where are the kids?!"