Harry hissed as the wind generated by his shield charm stung the cut that lanced his cheek. He put a hand protectively over the lump of Nio nestled at his belly. Professor McGonagall's fingers dug into his shoulders as she dragged him back toward the door. The thing that had struck his cheek collided with the entryway wall and ricocheted off Harry's shoulder to hit the floor. He wiped the trickle of blood running down his cheek with the back of his wrist.
"What's going on?" Nio hissed sleepily from Harry's navel.
"That was a scroll!" Professor McGonagall shouted.
"What?"
"Merlin's toenails! Someone enchanted the Post to attack us!" the Professor exclaimed as she stomped on the fluttering piece of parchment under her hard-heeled boots effectively eclipsing its pitiful wail as she crunched it in the most satisfying way.
"Oi! That's too sharp for a scroll!" Harry wiped at his cheek again. He tried to fill Nio in, but more objects struck his shield, shrieking in frustration as they landed, interrupting Harry.
"Potter! I can't see around your shield!" Professor McGonagall griped.
"Me neither," he muttered under his breath.
There was a splash of water from Mei's side of the room.
"Mei! Are you here?" Harry shouted.
"Harry? What's going on? Are you behind that brick wall? What's it doing there? Why is your fan mail attacking you?"
"I don't think it is fan mail," Harry grumped.
"As I thought! I think I can resolve this situation. I'll be right back," Professor McGonagall said, her hands making the stiff fabric whisper as she ran them over her robes.
Nio was squirming around in Harry's shirt, trying to find a way out, but making Harry convulse as the snake tickled him. He thought he should have run into Professor McGonagall as there wasn't much space behind the shield, but she didn't seem to be there.
Perplexed, Harry reached behind him with his left hand, while his right hand kept his staff's tip steady against the base of the shield, but he found only empty space. Then the shield rocked slightly as something substantial landed on top of it, hissed, and suddenly Professor McGonagall was on the other side of the shield shouting enchantments. Nio had managed to work his head out of a spot along Harry's waist where his shirt had pulled out of his trousers.
"I thought I smelled a cat!" Nio hissed in alarm.
"You can end your shield, Harry!" Professor McGonagall said, satisfaction lacing her voice.
Harry ended the charm, crouched as he put his arm protectively around Nio, and braced for another onslaught, but Professor McGonagall's spell seemed to have worked and the air was suddenly choked with ash and smoke as the projectiles went up in flame.
"Oi, Professor McGonagall! That was spectacular! And what are you doing here?" Mei asked as they splashed in their tank.
"I'm here precisely for this reason. Clearly, Harry is not safe. Not even in his dormitory," Professor McGonagall huffed. Her staccato footsteps made a beeline to Harry's area. She said an incantation under her breath and there was a pop of magic.
Harry took a moment to help Nio transfer to his wrist, then followed her, his staff sending the fragments of fried parchment skittering across the floor while others crunched under his trainers, asking, "What did you just do?"
"Vanished the lot of it."
"Oh," Harry sighed as he felt for his bed and sat down on the edge. "My mail? I didn't have a chance to read it yet."
"It's just too risky, Harry. Clearly, someone has been able to penetrate the Center's defences."
"Right. I thought we'd already established that," Harry said.
"Yes, but this is different. They know you are here now. They have been able to target you specifically," Professor McGonagall said in a voice that made his stomach swell with worry. "We're going to have to move you, and quickly."
"What?! No. I don't want to leave. I feel safer here than I have anywhere else," Harry insisted, Nio tightening on his wrist, reacting to Harry's alarm.
"But you're not safe. And there is no time to argue. Gather up your things." Professor McGonagall's voice echoed from inside his wardrobe… she was rummaging around, gathering up the few garments that he hadn't put in his staff.
Furtively, he stood up and summoned his invisibility cloak out of his staff, throwing it around his shoulders. He stood still for a moment while he thought about where he could go without making any noise. He wanted to ask Nio, but didn't want Professor McGonagall to hear him hissing.
The floor was covered with the crispy remains of the post. There was no way he could move through it without giving away his location. Slowly, he crouched into a small ball, felt for the frame of his bed and then lightly swept the floor with his hand to make sure he wouldn't crunch the charred remains of his post, and slipped under it.
Professor McGonagall was muttering about the state of his old trainers. He curled into a ball and pulled the cloak over his feet hoping that he was completely concealed.
"You can put these… Harry? Where'd you go?" Professor McGonagall sounded stunned.
"He's probably just in the loo," Mei said, water splashing as they moved to the side of the tank closer to Harry's area. There was something in Mei's voice that made him think that they had seen him hide. Nio seemed to understand the need for stealth as well and stopped pelting him with questions.
"Of course, the toilet. Er. Well, when he comes out… tell him that I'm going to be right back and he needs to wait for me here. Mei, can you promise me that you'll stay with him?"
"Yes, Professor. Certainly," Mei said in an ingratiating voice that made Harry's skin crawl.
"Thank you. I'm going to seal the dormitory so no one can come in or go out until I'm back," Professor McGonagall said as she hurried to the door.
Harry held his breath while the door closed with a suctioning sound, and then Professor McGonagall's receding footsteps echoed in the corridor. He waited a moment longer to make sure she didn't come back and then eased his way out from under the bed, fumbling with the cloak to get it off of his back.
"Why are you hiding from Professor McGonagall?" Mei asked.
"She wants me to leave the Center. I don't want to go," Harry said running his fingers through his hair. "Er, thanks for helping me."
"I'm not sure what good it'll do you. She's your head of house, isn't she?" Mei said as droplets of water splashed on Harry's face.
Harry wiped the drops away.
"Yeah," he confirmed. "But I'm not at Hogwarts right now."
"True."
"I need to talk to Healer Jordan," Harry sighed. "Oi! Can you take me to her? Are your Egresses working within the Center?"
"Naw. I don't have one to her office. And everything is pretty much cut off right now. Just call her on your staff. It does that right?" Mei said. "Have her heal that cut on your face. It looks bad."
"Oh, right. I forgot," Harry said and he crunched his way back to his desk and sat down, trying to put his thoughts in order.
He squeezed his staff, "Er, I need to speak with Healer Jordan, please."
"Harry? What is it?" Healer Jordan's voice spoke resolutely from his staff.
"Professor McGonagall… I think she's on her way to speak with you. She wants me to leave the Center. I don't want to," Harry explained.
"Why? What has happened?" Healer Jordan asked.
"I was attacked by my post," Harry said, his shoulders slumping.
"Oh. Well, that's not good. I'll send someone," Healer Jordan said. "Stay put."
"I can't leave… she sealed us in," Harry said, his surging heart threatened to escape his throat—an echo of all the times when he was thrown into his cupboard and the lock slammed into place.
He wondered who she'd send. He would have really preferred Healer Jordan but bit back the plea. He twirled the staff in his fingers as the water lapped against the sides of Mei's tank. Moments later, he heard someone at the door saying incantations and then there was a noise like a cork being extracted from a bottle. The soft whirring of a magical chair drifted over the threshold.
"Oh, my. That's smokey," Besel said as she approached Harry. He swivelled in his seat, feeling Nio's head sway as he tracked her progress toward them. She muttered some refreshing charms and the room lost the campfire aroma. She said other spells and Harry put out a tentative foot to feel the carpet in his area, guessing that she was vanishing the sooty remains of his post. He mused that Professor McGonagall must have been really worried if she rushed off without saying the spells that would have restored the room to a pristine state.
"Harry, Healer Jordan said your post attacked you. Mei, you were here when it happened?" Besel asked.
"Oi! It was pretty brilliant. I just heard a noise and then there was a brick wall in the entryway and Harry's post was going berk, pelting at the wall. Look what it did to his face! And then there was this cat that leapt over the wall, but then it was Professor McGonagall all of the sudden, and she was blasting all the howlers into fireballs," Mei said, water droplets raining around them as they gesticulated.
"She vanished the rest of my post, too," Harry said glumly as he ran his fingers over the Gryffindor insignia that Arig had carved into the front of the box he'd transfigured from an old sock. "I should have put it in my staff."
"Yeah, but then those howlers would have attacked you earlier."
"But they weren't in there earlier," Harry said, turning toward Mei.
"Right. They must have gotten through when the wards were down. The protections we had… they were all compromised by the null zone. Things got through," Besel said thoughtfully as her chair whirred and turned.
"Mei, I'm going to cast a privacy spell," Besel said.
"No worries," Mei said, followed by a big splash that indicated they had left the tank through their Egress. Harry wondered where they could go if the Egresses were sealed.
As the hair rose on his arms, the sounds in the room around them dulled under the canopy of the spell that Besel cast around them.
"I can see why Professor McGonagall was alarmed," Besel said, coming closer to Harry.
"But I don't want to leave the Center," Harry said with a steely determination, willing it so.
"I know, Harry. And it isn't safe right now. This is another illustration of how much we don't yet know about what has infiltrated the Center while the wards were down. We need more time to secure the Center. All the residents are going to have to return home until we can reopen," Besel said gently.
"Home," Harry repeated dully.
"We've already put a plan into place… you won't be alone this time."
"Why can't it be you or Godric, or even Healer Jordan?" Harry said, lifting his chin toward Besel.
"So, I gather Professor McGonagall told you?" Besel affirmed.
"Yes. She told me," Harry said. "She's not going to let me do anything."
"What do you mean?"
"She doesn't really understand what I can do," Harry struggled to put his concerns into words.
"Oh, she's making assumptions about your abilities based on her misconceptions about blindness?" Besel said.
"Yeah. That. And she's uncomfortable… like she doesn't know what to do around me. She's different."
"Do you think you can give her a chance to learn?" Besel asked.
"Er. I guess so… But why does it have to be with me? Why can't someone come with me who already understands what it is like?" Harry moaned.
"That's fair. I'll talk to Healer Jordan and see what our options are," Besel said. "Now let me heal that cut on your face."
Harry turned his cheek toward her and felt the tingle as her healing charm cleaned the cut and stitched the skin back together. He ran his fingers over the tender spot thinking about his healing tears… they healed more completely, but he hated having to cry every time he needed to heal a cut. It would be handy, he realized, if he was going to be around Dudley and his gang more.
"When is everyone going home?" Harry asked Besel, as comprehension permeated.
"Some have already left," Besel said. "We're working on helping residents reach their families and make arrangements."
"Some have already left?!" Harry said in alarm.
"I know this is a lot to take in. We've had to move quickly," Besel said.
"What about Gemma? Aminah? And Peter?" Harry said.
"Gemma and Peter are still here, but Aminah and her mother have left."
"Do we have any news on Aminah's father? Has the ministry released him yet?"
"I don't know, Harry. I'll let you know, though as soon as I hear something," Besel consoled.
"This is rubbish!" Harry said and Nio squeezed his wrist in response to Harry's distress. "We still have a week of training. I lost days while we were down in the tunnels already. There's so much that I need to learn. I'm not ready to go yet."
"I know. We don't want this either. We'll get you back here just as soon as we're able to secure the Center," Besel said and Harry could hear how tired she was.
The door opened and someone with hard heeled shoes was walking toward them briskly. Harry held his breath until he was sure it was Healer Jordan and then he let it out slowly.
"Harry?" Healer Jordan asked as she approached and sat down on his bed… the only available space since Besel's chair took up most of the room in his small area.
"Hi, Healer Jordan. I'm sorry to trouble you with this you when have so much going on."
"Harry, it's not a problem. This is our work," Healer Jordan said.
"It's just that… well, is there anyone else who can stay with me at the Dursleys? Or do we even have to return there… can't I go somewhere else?"
"Harry, I know this is hard. Believe me, I've searched for other options. But right now, with things at the Center in upheaval and having to have all hands on deck to restore our wards, Professor McGonagall's offer was the best. You are safest from these threats at the Dursleys… no other place in all the world offers the same protections… and Professor McGonagall will protect you from the Dursleys… the Ministry has been informed that you'll have a fully qualified wixen in the house with you… the restriction on underage magic, while it still applies to you, does not apply to her… and so any magic that happens in the area will be attributed to the professor and we have received assurances that you won't receive any reprimands from the Ministry of Magic on that count," Healer Jordan said.
Harry sighed.
"Harry, I know that Professor McGonagall does have some things to learn, but she is aware of her deficiencies and has promised to check in with me frequently. The fact is that I don't have anyone else to spare at this moment. I'm sorry. Well, Nicolas Flamel did offer, but well, I think Professor McGonagall will be a more suitable companion in a muggle household given her history." Given that Healer Jordan sounded even more exhausted than Besel, Harry just nodded dully.
The door was thrown open abruptly and the staccato of footsteps thundered in their direction. Harry tensed. He was pretty sure it was Professor McGonagall.
"Good. You're ready to go?" Professor McGonagall said.
"What? Now?" Harry grabbed the back of the chair he was sitting in. "But I haven't been able to say good-bye to anyone."
"Tsk, tsk. Now Harry. They are all leaving as well. You can send them owls once we're settled. Thank you, Healers Jordan and Geller. I'll patronus you once we've safely arrived," Professor McGonagall said.
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall. We've got to return to working on the wards," Healer Jordan said and then offered Harry her hand for a warm squeeze and the promise that he'd be back at the Center soon to complete his training. Besel pulled Harry down into a hug and wished him well. Harry felt a bit adrift as they left swiftly, already discussing how they were going to manage the wards.
Harry stood for a moment in his area, facing Mei's tank, listening to the constant lapping of waves against the sides—the sea inside never still.
Professor McGonagall jarred him out of his thoughts, "Harry, you have all your things?"
"Er, I don't know. You were rummaging around in my wardrobe."
"Ah right. Let's put those things in your staff, why don't we?" Professor McGonagall said, opening up the wardrobe doors with a sniff. She shuffled things around for a bit and then was quiet.
"Er, are you ready?" Harry said, opening up the storage on his staff.
"Ah. Yes, here you are," Professor McGonagall said as she stepped closer. Harry stretched out his other hand and found the stack of clothes and trainers that the Professor had stacked up, but he couldn't grab them and hold his staff ready at the same time and finally, he resorted to pushing the staff closer to the bundle until they fell into the storage.
"Could we try to find Gemma before we leave? I'd really like a chance to say good-bye," Harry pleaded as he transferred Nio to his neck.
"Yes, of course. We have to go to the reception area to travel out of the Center. We can look for her on our way there," Professor McGonagall said.
"And I have to get Hedwig… my owl," Harry said.
"Absolutely," agreed Professor McGonagall.
Harry's feet felt as though they were filling with sand as he followed the sound of Professor McGonagall's shoes to the door and out to the corridor. He couldn't believe that his time at the Center had been cut short so abruptly.
The corridor was abandoned and they didn't encounter anyone as they made their way to the owlery.
"Back so soon?" the portrait at the door interrogated.
"Er," was all Harry was able to manage. He didn't have the energy to fend off the portrait's queries.
Hedwig flew down to the post and Harry explained to her that it was time to go back to Privet Drive. She squawked and flapped her wings in protest, then turned on the perch as he tried to soothe her.
"I'm sorry, Hedwig. I don't want to go back there, either," Harry said.
Nio had dropped to his belly when they entered the owlery again and Harry twitched as the snake slithered around inside his shirt. He could tell that Nio wanted him to leave quickly.
"Hedwig, do you want to travel with us or meet us at Privet Drive," Harry asked as he summoned Hedwig's cage from his staff and opened the door. Hedwig's wing cuffing him across his forehead as she took flight was his answer. She'd meet them at Privet Drive.
Harry stuffed the cage back in the staff and then navigated back to Professor McGonagall who had engaged the portrait in a conversation while she waited.
"Well, Lord Jimbo Blishwick, we must be going—we have a portkey to catch. Please wish Dexter Fortescue well if you see him while you wander. I miss his charades," Professor McGonagall said as Harry made his way out of the corridor and asked his staff to take him to Gemma Boot.
Professor McGonagall was still muttering to herself as she walked behind Harry, "I don't know why his portrait was moved from the transfiguration corridor. I need to remember to ask Professor Dumbledore when he returns."
Harry started swinging his staff in an arc as he headed toward the Blackwood room.
"Harry, where are you going?" Professor McGonagall asked, hurrying after him.
"I need to say good-bye to Gemma," Harry explained.
"I'm not sure if we have time for this, Harry. The ministry has sent a portkey… we only have a quarter of an hour before it goes."
"I know where Gemma is. Please. I can't just leave without saying goodbye."
"Alright, but we have to be quick. The ministry portkey is the safest way to travel right now."
"What's a portkey," Harry asked. In his aftí, his staff told him to turn left and he swept his staff as he turned and found the door to the Braidwood room. He used his staff held against the door and rotating it like a lever to locate the doorknob.
"But how… ?" Professor McGonagall said as she held the door that he pulled open behind him.
"Magic," Harry said dully. Then feeling that he'd been rude, explained further, "My staff… it uses a navigational charm." He touched the aftí in his ear while he resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
Harry hadn't been in the Braidwood room much, and he liked the aroma it gave off… it made him think that the room was panelled in an oil-rich wood. Also, the room was filled with a bright light that seemed to come from a bank of windows on the west wall. It felt warm and inviting. Harry closed his eyes against the light and listened as his staff told him how to reach Gemma. Before he reached her, though, her hand was on his arm letting him know that she'd noticed him.
"What is it?" Gemma asked him, signing under his hand. The fluttering of her fingers under his made his throat tighten.
"I have to go," Harry said and then realized that he hadn't cast the Scribunt loqui charm and he couldn't hear the papers by his lips. He cast it and said it again.
"Go where?" Gemma asked.
"I have to return to Privet Drive," Harry explained.
"What's Privet Drive?" Gemma asked. "We all are going home. Gaius said the Center is closing."
Professor McGonagall shuffled impatiently behind Harry. Harry could hear others in the room as well, closer to the windows. Gaius and Peter, he guessed, but also wondered if Sharon was here. Who else took BSL classes with Gemma?
Harry tried to explain what Privet Drive was, what it meant. He refused to use the word 'home.' It was the furthest thing from a home.
"Ah, your not-home, right," Gemma's warm hands under his conveyed her understanding more profoundly than any expression or words he could imagine. He wanted desperately to run away… but where would he go?
"Why can't we go to Hogwarts?" Harry said turning to Professor McGonagall.
"We're still working on securing the Chamber of Secrets… Since that Skeeter article came out, the Ministry of Magic has been investigating and they want to make certain that Sirius Black can't get into Hogwarts."
Harry's breath quickened at the thought of that dog slinking around the corridors of Hogwarts while Gemma's hands peppered him with questions. She wanted to know what Professor McGonagall was saying.
"Professor, can you cast the writing charm so that Gemma can understand you?" Harry asked.
"Harry, we don't have time for this. We need to go now," Professor McGonagall said as she stepped closer.
Harry pressed his lips together. He didn't want to spend the short amount of time he had with Gemma explaining to Professor McGonagall why it was important to include Gemma in the conversation, so he repeated what the Professor said for Gemma and then pressed on to urge Gemma to write to him.
"Of course, I will, Harry." He smiled as she signed his name.
"Healer Jordan said that the Center will open soon," Gemma consoled. She surprised him with a tight hug that pressed the air out of his lungs. He squeezed her back.
Gaius and Peter had come over to say good-bye as well and then Professor McGonagall was steering him toward the door. He shook off her hand and marched toward the reception area where the portkey awaited, wondering how this form of wixen transportation would tally next to floo powder or apparition.