Summary: Harry's having an interesting summer. Even after visits from Dobby, falling ill, finding a family, moving house and being friendly to Snape of all people, it's nothing compared to what his second year of Hogwarts has in store for him. Who's opening the Chamber of Secrets this time around? What do his nightmares of falling out of windows mean? And is his brother really being too protective? Not a Severitus/Sevitus but inspired by some of the plots.

Disclaimer: Raunien and a couple of other OCs are mine, but the rest belong to JKR … Nooooo!!!!!

Author's Notes: Apologies to everyone who really wanted to witness the Dursleys get their comeuppance, but I do like to leave those sort of things to the imagination – it really is more fun that way.
I've also updated:
PP:THF
THNtS
WDYTYA?
I will be updating EaGL and SWaSL asap but I do have exams people!

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Chapter Two: Flea in Fear

Half an hour later, Harry was peacefully sleeping under the effects of paracetamol and one of Poppy's mild headache draughts in the Dursleys' spare room, in clean pyjamas and smelling a little more pleasant. He hadn't woken enough for Albus to give him a wash, but a good cleaning charm would do for now.

Back in Harry's room, whilst waiting for him to wake up, Albus had stripped his bed and piled the sheets in the laundry, scrubbed the carpet, recovered his school things from the cupboard under the stairs, fed and watered Hedwig and cleaned her cage, piled all of Dudley's old clothes in a black plastic bag with a mind to buying Harry some decent clothes, and sent all three Dursleys out with not so much a flea as an entire swarm in their ears – literally. Petunia and Vernon seemed more afraid of what Albus might do to them than their house, and left hurriedly, probably to buy up the nearest pet store's entire stock of flea powder.

Harry still hadn't woken. Albus paused, satisfied with his work upstairs, and just stood to watch him sleep for a few minutes.

"I left you with these people," he murmured sadly, brushing Harry's hair out of his face gently before taking his temperature. It had dropped slightly.

-----

"I don't know, Raunien!" Minerva snapped at the man pacing back and forth in front of her. "And will you stop doing that, it's getting on my nerves!"

The man glared at her. He looked quite young, though lined, and his face was twisted in a worried frown.

"Albus should have been back ages ago. How long does it take to check if a child is all right?"

"I imagine longer than usual if the child in question is in the Dursleys' care."

Raunien made a growling noise in his throat and paced harder. "Those -"

"If you're that concerned about Harry, you can go yourself," Minerva interrupted. "Stop doing that!"

"You know I can't," Raunien moaned.

"No I don't. And do you mean the incessant pacing or -"

"Going to the Muggles'," he said through gritted teeth.

"No, you never mentioned that. Why can't you?"

"Because – because -" He seemed to cast around for something to say, and then gave up. "I just can't!"

"Can't what?"

The bickering pair looked up. "Albus! You've been gone ages!"

"Harry's not in trouble," Albus said quickly to the unanswered question. "Just a bit under the weather. The Dursleys weren't being particularly good carers so I'm staying there till he's better. Okay, I'd better get back to him now; see you later."

He turned back to the fireplace but Raunien stepped in front of him.

"What do you mean by 'not particularly good carers'?" he said suspiciously.

Albus blinked. "Ada, what are you doing here?"

Raunien held up his hands as if surrendering. "Is it a crime for me to stop by once in a while? Anyway, forget that. What about the Dursleys?"

"They're probably emptying the planet's supply of flea powder as we speak."

"Flea powder?" Raunien blinked.

"It's a Muggle thing, Ada," Albus said tiredly.

"I know, thanks Albus. I'm not completely ignorant of the Muggle world. I meant what has that got to do with anything?"

"I – er – gave them all fleas. Don't look at me like that!" he added, hurt. "You would too if you were there!"

"What did they do?" Minerva and Raunien asked at the same time.

"Well, it's more a question of what they didn't do. Harry was completely neglected and is too ill to do anything for himself. Which is why I need to get back now in case he needs something, so could you possibly move please Ada?"

Raunien stepped out of his way, shocked into silence. It was Minerva who spoke as Albus grabbed the Floo powder.

"You can't send him back to that place again, Albus."

"I know," Albus assured her and left the room.

-----

Harry groaned and squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to go back to sleep. His head felt like it was splitting open and his stomach was churning.

"Ugh," he mumbled.

"Harry?"

He cracked an eye open slightly to see who was in the room with him. The voice sounded familiar but he couldn't place it. The room was quite dim and he couldn't see much.

"Who's there?" he managed to croak out.

The voice spoke again, a bit nearer this time. "It's me, Professor Dumbledore." A gentle hand felt his forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Ick," was all Harry could reply with. He shuddered slightly and repressed another wave of nausea, and tried to open his eyes a bit more. "What're you do'ng here?"

"Your friends the Weasleys were concerned you weren't answering their letters to you." Dumbledore was beginning to come into focus as Harry's eyes grew used to the dark. "I believe they turned up here to see you and your – er – charming relatives turned them away. After that they contacted me to make sure you were all right. It's a good thing I did too."

"Mm." Harry didn't feel capable of composing anything too long. "This isn't my room?" he croaked questioningly.

"No, you're in the spare room. I moved you in here yesterday when I arrived."

"Um … thanks Professor," Harry muttered. There was something in Dumbledore's tone that made him feel uneasy; made him feel sure Dumbledore knew too much about his home life. His stomach squirmed in embarrassment, which didn't seem to suit well with him.

Dumbledore moved with reflexes that would be more suited to a man of twenty, managing to move Harry over so he was facing the edge of the bed, conjure a bucket and get out of the line of fire himself. He rubbed Harry's back in what seemed to be a soothing gesture while he threw up, and a few minutes later he wiped Harry's face with a cloth and moved him back onto the bed properly before Vanishing the bucket's contents with his wand. Harry was shaking: vomiting on an empty stomach was worse than on a full one.

"Yuck," Harry muttered, closing his eyes.

Dumbledore murmured a spell and a second later Harry's mouth had lost the bitter taste, and felt like he'd just brushed his teeth. "Better?"

"Mm … Yeah, thanks."

"Not as good as the real thing I'm afraid, but it will do for now."

Harry nodded, and then winced and put a hand to his head as it jarred. "Ow."

"Headache?"

"Bad one."

Something was pushed into his hand. "This will help."

Harry opened one eye. It was a small bottle of dark brown potion.

"I got Madam Pomfrey to send it," Dumbledore explained as Harry took a gulp and grimaced. "It's the best one she has."

Already Harry's headache was ebbing away. "That's nice," he murmured appreciatively. "Professor, where are my aunt and uncle?"

"Ah …"

-----

Minerva looked up in mild surprise. "You're back! How's Harry?"

"A little better," Albus said tiredly, sitting down next to her. "Still in bed though."

"Didn't he think it was odd you were there?"

"No …" Albus stifled a yawn. "I just told him the Weasleys were worried. I don't think he took it in very well anyway, he was half asleep."

"Are you going back?"

He nodded. "I left him asleep for the moment – I knew you would be worried."

Minerva sighed. "Raunien was more than I was. I haven't seen him that uptight before. He said something strange too …"

"What?"

"He said he couldn't go the Muggles'. When I asked why he just shrugged it off. It's not anything to do with the protection, is it?"

Albus shook his head, frowning. "No, otherwise I wouldn't have been allowed in … Strange. What else did he say?"

"Just that he was concerned about Harry there. And with good reason. Albus, what are we going to do with him now?"

Albus sighed. "I don't know. The only place he can be protected is Hogwarts … there isn't anywhere else."

"You can't!"

Albus and Minerva both looked up in surprise. "Ada! We were just talking about you."

"You can't raise a child in a school," Raunien pressed, ignoring Albus' statement. "It's not right; he needs a proper home, a family …"

"He also needs a place where he can't be reached by Dark wizards, Ada. And since when have you been so concerned about what's best for him?"

"He's Lily's child," Raunien stated as if that explained everything.

"He's twelve years old, Raunien. He's nearly a teenager. He lives at Hogwarts most of the year anyway."

"Twelve is not that old -"

"Not to you maybe, but Harry's mortal," Minerva said quietly.

Raunien looked as if he was going to retort, before biting back whatever he was going to say and vanished.

Albus sighed. "As if my life wasn't complicated enough, now Ada's acting stranger than ever."

"He didn't even comment on the fact that I was in your rooms," Minerva murmured. "Albus, when are you going to tell him?"

"Not yet. I want to know why he's been so different ever since he was released … Besides, I need to get back to Harry." Albus kissed Minerva on her cheek and vanished in the same way Raunien had.

Minerva shook her head. Those two were impossible. Still, at least Albus hadn't been biting Raunien's head off, and Raunien hadn't acted coldly to her … That was too bonuses.

-----

Harry was still asleep. Albus checked his temperature before settling down with a book from Harry's room. He sat in the living-room with a mug of cocoa and the window open a little to let in a light breeze.

The book was one of Muggle fairy-tales. It looked fairly old, and inside the cover in miniscule but shaky script were the words Thes book bellongs too Harry Poter. It looked as if later Dudley had scribbled over it in crayon in an attempt to rid Harry of book ownership. Albus sighed.

The first story was the one of Cinderella. Albus smiled and began to read, subconsciously noting that he hadn't indulged in fairy tales since he was about nine and he rather missed them.

-----

A small girl, no more than two, was bouncing on her bed. The room was decorated ornately in a nursery style, the walls painted with mythical creatures and bright patchwork blankets over the toddler-size four-poster. She had intelligent grey eyes, a mop of dark red-blonde curls, and her ears were a strange shape, sort of pointed.

"What are you still doing up?" Raunien stood by the door, watching her in amusement. "You should be in bed, young lady."

He spoke in a strange tongue, the words flowing easily. The girl cried "Adi!" before hurling herself at him. He laughed and hugged her.

"Come on hîna, into bed."

"You've been away," she answered in the same language.

"I know, Lil, but I'm back now." He kissed her on the top of her head and carried her across the room.

"Linna," she commanded.

Raunien cleared his throat and began a lullaby. He sang of distant shores, of white sand and turquoise waves, of dense green jungle, of strong castles and palaces that rose above the tiny villages and towns, and of a family, with a mother and a father and six children – two girls and four boys, the first two being twins – playing merrily all together.

TBC …

AN: If you know me well then you know I like to see reviews that are informative as well as complimentary. If all else fails you, you should be shooting theories at me (I may well answer them, depending on what they are) – I should have raised enough questions by now. Things you should be thinking about by now may include:
What's wrong with Harry? (The obvious one)
Who the heck is Raunien and what does "Ada" (and "Adi") mean?
Exactly what is going on between our dear Albus and Minerva?
And so on. You get the picture.
FYI, 'Ada' is pronounced 'ah-dah' … and it's not a name.
For those who like to know beforehand, this fic will be a rewrite of Chamber of Secrets, the next in the series will be Prisoner of Azkaban, and so on. At the moment I have ideas up to and including Book Six/Fic Five (I'm not including HBP). I may do a Book Seven/Fic Six, I don't know, it depends how the previous one ends up. But I think there will only be five fics. Five to me is what seven is to JKR. It's my personal magic number.

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