Chapter 3 Its Nose Twitches

The small party appeared in a secured office in Gringotts right about the time the twins appeared at the apperation border to Hogwarts.

The twins all but ran to the school, such was their haste to warn their friend and financial backer of the trouble that seemed to be brewing. Once the two reached the school they slowed to a rapid walk. The first order of business would be to see the Headmistress and get her permission to visit Harry or failing that have her summon him to her office for a meeting. They would have been here a few hours ago but the aurors had been by the shop when they were finishing the clean up and had questioned the twins extensively about the break-in. What if anything was missing? Since they lived above their shop did they hear anything or see anything? Had they noticed anyone strange hanging around the alley before today? The questions just went on and on…

Once the two reached the gargoyle that guarded the door to the head of the schools office both were gobsmacked to see the statue standing to the side with the door wide open. It was kind of eerie and reminded the twins of when they first went downstairs this morning. After having spent six year in school here neither could ever remember seeing this door just standing open. Cautiously the two made their way up the stairs, wands drawn. They weren't sure exactly what they were expecting, probably a trashed office reminiscent of their shop but they were not expecting to see the Headmistress calmly sitting at her desk doing paperwork.

"Ahh Professor, did you forget to close your door?" George asked

"No George, I did not. So, what do I owe the dubious pleasure of a visit from some of our worst pranksters of this decade?" She answered and asked.

Despite the serious nature of their visit George just couldn't resist. "I'm Fred and he's George." He said pointing at his twin.

McGonagall set her quill down on her blotter then clasped her hands in front on the desk and studied the twins. With a small smile she shook her head no. "And what makes you think that will work now when it didn't when you were my students Mr. George Weasley?"

Fred couldn't help himself. "How? How could you always tell which one of us was which? Even our mother would get confused but you never did. How?"

She gave the twins her patented enigmatic look and raised an eyebrow. "I repeat, what may I do for the two of you today?"

Giving it up as a lost cause Fred pushed past his brother and came into the office. "We need to see Harry. It's important."

The Headmistress narrowed her eyes as she studied the two. "Does this concern a break-in perhaps? If so Mr. Potter has been informed and is presently at Gringotts checking on the content of his vaults. I am not sure how long he will be gone but if you wish you may wait for his return provided the two of you can keep out of trouble. I am of course willing to assign Mr. Finch the honor of escorting the two of you to lunch or a detention just for old time sake." She raised her eyebrow at these words.

George blanched at the threat of being placed in the care of the rebarbative custodian. Fred went one further and backed out of the office rather rapidly. So rapidly in fact that it was only quick reflexes on his part that prevented him from tumbling down the spiraling stairs.

"Thank you very much professor but I think my brother and I will just come back in a few hours if that's acceptable to you?" George said as he followed his twin with a little bit more grace.

Minerva almost giggled. Sometimes her job was so much fun.

Harry, on the other hand was not having fun. When the group apperated into Gringotts it was with the expressed idea of doing a quick inspection of Harry's vaults. It was never the intention of the group to make an emergency trip to Surry to visit his relatives but sometimes things just tend to go wrong which they did in this case.

When Harry left his relatives for good at the age of 16 they all knew that there was a possibility of them becoming a target so Harry had left them with a way to contact him in an emergency as well as a portkey to a safe location. Three times he had been contacted because of a real or imagined threat and twice the family had to use the portkey to get to safety. Harry's thoughtfulness in providing for a family that he strongly disliked and the fact that they knew he had cause to dislike them and yet still protected them had led to a grudging respect on their part for the boy. He would never be one of their favorite people and truthfully he could reciprocate the feelings but when all was said and done they were family and hence entitled to his protection. That was why when the amulet he had keyed to warm when and if he was needed by his family demanded instant attention when it once again warmed against his chest.

Pulling on the silver chain he cupped the amulet in his hands and informed his guard. "My family is calling me. Something's wrong. If you want to come along then you need to touch this portkey otherwise I'll return as soon as I know they are safe."

Kingsley made a disgusted noise deep in his throat. He had gone twice to render assistance with Harry once before and once after the destruction of Voldermort and neither trip had been what you would call enjoyable. The Dursleys were the epitome of why people like Voldermort had risen to power in the first place. About the only good thing you could say for the family was that they had a nice garden. Despite the fact that he did not like that family he reached out a finger and touched the portkey as did the rest of Harry's bodyguard.

The small group appeared in the living room of the Dursley's house. Petunia was standing in the far corner of the room holding the pendent that was used to summon her nephew. Vernon was slouched down on the couch with a disgusted look on his face. Of Dudley there was no sign.

"Aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon. What's going on here? Why did you call me?" Harry asked.

Vernon took in the appearance of the four men in navy blue robes and the two in dark brown robes. Figured, they summon the boy and get six extra men in dresses. "Can't you people even dress normal? You're like the damn Scotch people always wearing skirts."

Harry hastily wiped all expression off his face least he start laughing as he turned to his uncle. He was pleased to see that his body guard had followed his example. "Is that why you summoned me Uncle Vernon? You wanted to discuss the dress code of alcoholic beverages drinkers?"

Vernon's face purpled. "What do drunks have to do with anything? We called you because one of your damn cat things attacked our son and now he's running a fever and we can't get into your old bedroom and all of your junk is stacked in the hall. Fix it boy."

Harry didn't see any reason to mention that he didn't own any cat things, damned or otherwise. He also didn't know what Vernon was talking about when he said his junk was stacked in the hall. So far as he knew the only thing that had been left behind when he moved out was the amulet, the portkey and a locket that had belonged to his mother. The locket anchored the wards around the house or he would have taken that with him when he left.

Shrugging his shoulders Harry turned to make his way up the stairs before he remembered that he didn't know where Dudley was at in the house. "Is Dudley upstairs in his room?" He asked his back to his relatives.

"Didn't I just say that he was sick? Where else would he be but in bed." Vernon tried to add as much sarcasm to the words as he could because he had a sneaking feeling that the group was deliberately not laughing at him and it made him feel somewhat stupid. A feeling he did not like.

Once again Harry shrugged before he ran up the stairs. His eyes opened wide at the mess he saw. It looked like all of Dudley's old broken down toys and electronic equipment as well as the library that had shared room space with Harry when he had lived here had been moved into the hallway. Harry wended his way through the obstacle course and tapped on Dudley's bedroom door.

"It's open." He heard from his cousin.

Harry pushed the door open and said, "I rather thought it was closed which was why I knocked." He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the mess the room was in. Dirty dishes were stacked up around the computer; three bags of candy and a bag of chips were mixed in with the dirty clothes that occupied the floor. The room smelled like unwashed gym socks. "Your father said something bit you?"

Dudley was sitting at the computer desk in a pair of oversized shorts and a tee shirt. He had a white bandage wrapped around his left ankle. Harry was surprised to note that the shorts were oversized because his cousin had lost some weight. He now looked like a baby elephant instead of a baby whale. A definite improvement.

With a grimace Dudley leaned down and unwrapped his ankle. "The thing that bit me was in your old room cleaning. I heard it, them and went to see what was going on and couldn't get into the room so I broke open the door. There were about 10 of them and one of them ran over and just bit me." By the time he was finished with his explanation he had uncovered the bit mark. The area was puffy and had four little puncture marks in it about 6 millimeters apart.

Harry reached out and touched the puncture wounds. The skin was hot to the touch and each puncture had a small hard core that rolled under his fingers.

Dudley jerked his foot away from his cousin, "Damn it Harry, that hurts." He hissed.

"Sorry Duds. A cat did this to you?"

"It wasn't a cat. I think it was some kind of a monkey. It had white fur and it ran on two feet. I should have stomped on it when it attacked me."

Up to this point the team that had accompanied Harry had been quiet but now one of the unspeakables stepped forward. "Dudley is your name?" At the nod the man continued. "My name is Morgan. Can you give us a better description of the creature that attacked you?"

"Long white fur, they had pointy ears on top of their heads, they hissed and they move really fast. What else, oh yah, a black nose like a dog and it twitches. Short and they had hands or at least something like hands, sharp teeth and they smell funny. Nice but funny. I can't describe the smell." Dudley shrugged "I don't know what else you need to know."

Harry glanced at Kingsley and an unspoken message passed between the two of them. "Duds, I'm gonna go see my old bedroom. You stay here and talk to Morgan. Look, we'll want to take you to see a doctor as soon as I get back in here. We'll want to make sure the…whatevers aren't poisoness."

Dudley paled, "Poison!" he yelped. "Am I gonna die?"

"I really don't think you have anything to worry about young man but Harry does have a good idea there. We'll get the bite checked out just as a precautionary measure." Kingsley told him before the aurors and the other unspeakable left the room with Harry.

Once the others were gone Morgan sat down on the bed and began the serious task of extracting as much information about the creatures as he could from the teen.

Harry cautiously approached the door to his old room. Standing as far off to the side as he could what with all the junk in the hall he turned the door handle and pushed it open. The members of his body guard that had accompanied him had their wands drawn.

After seeing the mess in the hall and hearing Dudley's story the group expected something unusual and they weren't disappointed although what they saw in the room was in no wise what they would have expected. The room was immaculate and filled with flowers. Cut flowers in vases, potted plants in full bloom, a carpet of silk flowers adorning the bed. Toward the center of the room was what looked like a miniature priedieu in front of an easel that held one of the photos taken from the Daily Prophet. The one of Harry holding the snitch from the last game he played at school.

"What the hell?" Harry asked. "It looks like a church or something."

"My guess would be a shrine." Kingsley said.

One of the aurors snickered and said "All hail Harry Potter or is it all hail the game of quiddich?"

Harry glared at the would be comedian "Not funny." He put his hand out and pressed it to the open doorway and met resistance. Strange, the room seemed to be warded. Pressing a bit harder he could feel the wards slowly passing his hand. Taking a step forward he pressed his body up against the wards and pushed. It took a little bit of work but he finally passed the wards completely and was inside of the bedroom. Looking back at his bodyguards he was a bit surprised to see that none of them were able to pass through the wards. As a mater of fact he could see them fine and he could see that they were saying something but he couldn't hear them.

Harry smirked. Although he couldn't read lips this he could understand without hearing what was being said. They were ordering him back out in the hallway now! Oh well, he was in now so the damage was done. Harry took a good look around before he passed back through the doorway.

Once he was about half way through the other unspeakable grabbed him and tried to pull him the rest of the way through but as soon as he touched Harry he jerked his hand back and shook it as if in pain.

Harry pushed the rest of the way through and with concern he said. "Let me see your hand." The unspeakable held out his hand and Harry could see the burns across the man's palm. Harry gently took the man's hand in one of his and with a feather light touch of his fingertips he brushed across the wicked looking burn and as he subvocally said a spell the burns healed.

They took Dudley to St. Mungo's after Kingsley royally bitched Harry out for doing something so stupid as passing into a room without his body guards after he knew his cousin was attacked in that same room by some strange creature and … ect … ect. Harry tuned him out after about the first twenty seconds into thee rant.

Once at St. Mungo's Dudley was taken into an examination room to have his ankle poked at and prodded by the healer on duty. With a quick wave of his wand he removed the little hard nodes that Harry had noticed when he examined the bite. They looked like tiny yellow tinted, clear beads and after being put through a battery of tests for all known toxins and poisons the amazing discovery was made. It was basilisk venom but of a very weak strength. It was encapsulated inside of another unknown substance that melted at the touch of magic. If a witch or wizard had been bitten their innate magic would have melted the encasing stuff and the venom would have been released into the body of the one bitten. The healer said that the amount he found in Dudley wouldn't have killed but it would have made you very sick. Two bites would have been fatal though. Interesting, the little suckers were venomous.

After the healer was finished with Dudley Harry told him. "We'll be sending you home now. Look Duds. If those things come back leave them alone and summon me right away. Tell your dad that the junk in the hall is yours and I won't clean it up. Also tell him to leave my bedroom alone for now. We'll get back to you on that one when we have more information. Got all that?" After Dudley nodded in understanding an auror apperated with Dudley going side along back to the Dursleys house. The remainding party waited till the auror returned before making their way back to Gringotts for the delayed inspection of Harry's vaults.