To Harrison Potter, Lord of the House of Potter

You asked about Healer Dane? I've only met him once, and that was several years ago, but I agree that he doesn't seem like the sort of person who'd just work with children. He's sort of like Dumbledore for St. Mungo's, but he never wanted to be in charge. He really enjoys healing kids, though – I think he honestly just wants to help children. It's rare you meet people like that.

From what I know about him, he was a Hufflepuff ten years or so before the war against Grindlewald kicked into high gear, and was pretty much at the top of his classes. He joined St. Mungo's in the Children's Ward, but helped heal Aurors in the war once it really got bad. Apparently Dane was such a strong Healer that when Dumbledore returned from the duel with Grindlewald, all of his magic exhausted and gravely injured, Dane was the one who nursed him back to health – and he was only 20 then. Now he's 67 or so, and he's in charge of the Children's Ward. Aside from handling the most difficult cases there and administrating, he's had lots of articles published on healing old wounds.

As for the ward itself, well, you have to remember that our world values young ones very highly. The Hogwarts Express and Hogwarts both have their wards recharged and strengthened by the best British Warders every year, at Midsummer, because of how important we are to the nation. So, the Children's Ward is also important – it's also very large, since children get hurt a lot more often than adult wizards. About half of St. Mungo's is the Children's Ward, the rest is all the other wards- dangerous creatures, misfired spells, all of that. Many of the best Healers work in the Children's Ward, although they often get pulled out to work on others who're in really bad shape.

Anyway, that's Healer Dane and the Children's Ward. I wish you a pleasant summer.

Drakael Malfoy, Heir to House Malfoy

Harry set down the letter from Draco, thinking about the room where he now sat. Healer Dane had brought him to what seemed to be an empty corridor, then told him that the private room of Lord Potter was number 144 of the Children's Ward, and a door had appeared, as though it had always been there without Harry noticing. The room beyond was spacious but not extravagant – it had a bed, a wardrobe, and not much else. Dane, however, had insisted on conjuring and transfiguring whatever Harry desired, and so now Room 144 also boasted a well-equipped writing desk, and two bookshelves, one filled with all the books Dane thought might interest him and the other with a selection of wizarding board games, all enchanted to be able to play against him without any partner required. Dane had then adjusted the plain white wallpaper to match the look of Gryffindor Tower – Harry wondered how he knew what it looked like, since Draco had said he had been in Hufflepuff.

After accomplishing this, Dane had told Harry to rest, doing nothing more strenuous than reading or writing a short letter, less than one page, which he could leave in the drawer of the desk marked 'out'. The reply, when it came a few hours later, had appeared in the 'in' drawer. Harry wanted to reply to Draco, but he had been limited to one letter, apparently. The 'in' drawer was now locked.

According the Healer Dane, treatment would start tomorrow.

Over the next week, Harry met several other Healers, all of whom pays special attention for several days to one part of him. Healer Sanchez worked on his joints, and after he was finished Harry felt very loose. Healer Cohen helped with his bones, mending his ribs carefully and fixing his knee. The curvaceous Healer Longbottom, who turned out to be Neville's mother, healed Harry's muscles. Every day, Dane came to check on him, and would usually play a game with him as well. Although he was usually angry when he entered and stern while performing the diagnostic, Dane's face always relaxed while they played.

After the first week, Dane entered with a smile. "You've made very good progress, Mr. Potter," he told Harry. "You'll be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow."

"Really?" Harry asked, sitting up from where he had been lying. "I can go home?"

"Yes," Dane nodded. "We've done as much as we can for now. You should return here for a check-up in another year, and until then you'll be taking a course of nutritional potions to combat the malnutrition your relatives left." As always, his face twisted in anger when he spoke of the Dursleys. "But yes, you're going home."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Nutritional potions?"

"Your relatives didn't feed you properly." Dane said. "You didn't get the food that you needed, obviously. I bet you got what, plain toast and nothing more, except maybe when there was company?"

Harry made a face. "When there was company, I was locked in my room and didn't get any food. But yes, nothing but toast. Occasionally I made myself oatmeal, but then Petunia stopped buying any."

"When was this?"

"When I was seven, I think. Nothing but toast since then."

Dane growled. "You should stick to plain foods at Hogwarts too. Have you?"

"Mostly."

"Work your way up to more interesting foods slowly," Dane instructed. "For now, let's play a game. Bridges of Mariane, perhaps?"

"Sounds good."

Harry went back to Hogwarts after breakfast the next morning, going through the Floo himself this time instead of being carried. Healer Dane walked him to the Tower, then bid him good day and went in the direction of Dumbledore's Office.

It was now July 10th, three weeks before Harry's birthday. Professor Snape visited to show Harry the potion which he had missed, the last week of term.

"It's called the Despard salve," Professor Snape said. "Because…"

"Um, a salve is applied to the skin," Harry said. "And Despard… is that old Atlantean?"

"It's the name of the inventor," Snape corrected. "Despard the Dastardly, an infamous Dark Wizard from the 13th century. He had a penchant for using particularly powerful spells which cause mage burn."

"Mage burn, sir?"

"When excessive magic from non-humans, like house-elves or goblins, is channeled through a wizard," Snape lectured, "the wizard's body becomes damaged, as though burned. The burns cannot be healed by magic, which merely exaggerates the problem, which is why the Despard salve uses exclusively non-magical ingredients. It works by drawing out the magic within the scar, turning it into a normal burn."

"So if mage burn is caused by other creatures' magic," Harry began, "how did Despard keep getting it?"

Snape frowned, and Harry got the impression that he didn't want to say. "There are certain rituals which allow the user to partake of the magic from another person or creature to accomplish a task. The creature is sacrificed," he said, eventually, "and the user then drinks its blood."

"Oh," Harry said. "Blech. Okay, so I'm guessing mage burn doesn't happen often?"

"Very rarely," Snape agreed. "It can happen when a house-elf transports a person carelessly, which is why they aren't used for transport, and it can also occur when traveling with a phoenix or diricawl. However, the Despard salve is one of the simplest potions with a counterpoint stirring pattern, so it's taught near the end of first-year to introduce counterpoint patterns."

"Counterpoint?"

"Stirring with two stirring sticks," he explained. "Each pattern takes up some portion of the bowl and goes differently than the other. The Despard Salve is simple, because one is simple enough to be created by a modification of the Stirring charm, like so." Snape demonstrated the difference for Harry, then retreated to his own cauldron, already filled with a thick, grayish potion. "If you have any questions, simply ask. Now then, where did I put the boomslang skin…?"

Aside from brewing with Professor Snape, Harry spent his time speaking to some of professors who lived at Hogwarts over the summer – for example, Professor Vector, the Arithmancy professor, a short, thin man with wispy hair and a pair of large round glasses.

"Arithmancy," he explained happily, "is the foundation of all new spells for the last millennium. It's impossible to modify spells or even create new ones without a thorough foundation in Arithmancy."

"But how does it work?" Harry asked, quite interested.

Unfortunately, it turned out that Arithmancy was more complicated than he had thought, but Harry was able to get the gist of it, even without fully understanding. Basically, every spell could be expressed as a set of seven equations, with each part factoring into them somehow – solving the equation set would result in a smaller set of three, from which the effect of the spell could be derived. Similarly, you could begin with a desired result and find the parts, creating a new spell. You could even entangle two sets of equations to cast two spells at the same time. And of course that was necessary if you were going to enchant an object, because…

At around that time, Harry was rescued from Vector's enthusiasm for Arithmancy by the arrival of a letter – an ancient grey owl that he recognized as the Weasley's owl, Errol, arrived, flopping onto the table right in between them.

"Oh, no," Harry said, sighing. "Tantalus!" The Potter family's owl, a large silver eagle owl with golden-tipped feathers, flapped down to perch on Harry's shoulder. "Tantalus, would you help Errol up to the Owlery, then go wait in my dorm for me to come write a reply?" Tantalus nodded regally, then hopped down to push Errol up from where he lay and get him into the air. Harry, having seen it before, turned his attention to the letter Errol had dropped into his lap, but Professor Vector appear fascinated.

"Is that your owl, Mr. Potter?"

"Tantalus is the Potter family owl," Harry said absentmindedly, opening the letter, "and Errol belongs to the Weasleys. He's probably 300 years old or something."

Dear Harry,

I heard from Hagrid that you went to St. Mungo's recently, and are only just out. What happened? Are you alright? Did whatever happened with Adams flare up again?

If you're feeling all better, I'm writing to ask if you'd like to come over to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. We could pick you up maybe at the end of July, and then you could stay until September first. We'll take you to Diagon Alley and to Platform 9¾ and everything.

Ron Weasley

Harry smiled, and was about to rise and go write out that yes, he would come to the Burrow, when he realized that another letter was contained in the envelope, from Ron's mother Molly.

Dear Harry,

If you're reading this letter first, please look at Ron's before continuing.

Alright, now that you're done, let me insist that you talk to Dumbledore before agreeing to come (unless you have other plans, in which case you're welcome next Christmas). He's very worried about your safety, dear, and so am I. If the Burrow's wards aren't good enough, he might be able to come and upgrade them for us. So ask him first.

And, for that matter, talk to Professor Flitwick as well. He's your Head of House and guardian, so he deserves to know if you plan to come somewhere for the break.

Now, I'm sure you're all better from whatever brought you to St. Mungo's. It was probably flying around on your experimental broom – I still say that you should have bought an established model, a Cleansweep 6, perhaps. Didn't that Cruinneas of yours malfunction in the first match of the year?

From there, it devolved into Molly talking about Quidditch for a page or so. Then she finished with what seemed to Harry to be somewhat disturbing:

If you come, dear, I'll put you in Bill's old room, so you won't have to sleep with Ron. I'm sure you don't want to put up with him every day and night for the summer as well as the school year. Perhaps you can spend some more time with Ginny.

Love, Molly.

Harry blinked. Was she… was she trying to play matchmaker with him and Ginny? Now there's a scary thought…

"…so may I go, sir?" Harry finished, looking hopefully at Dumbledore's lined face.

Next to him, Flitwick inclined his head. "I see no reason why he shouldn't," he fluted. "While the Weasley's aren't in very good straits financially, they're as strong as ever magically. The wards on their lands will be as powerful as most places."

"Nonetheless," Dumbledore said, "Voldemort would easily be able to break them down, especially if he brought in some of his followers."

"If He brought in enough of His followers, He could even degrade the wards of Hogwarts," Flitwick pointed out. "Although He likely wouldn't, with you here, it's still a possibility. There's nowhere safe from Him if you keep that as a possibility."

Dumbledore sighed. "If you will assist me, Filius, we can set up another layer of wards on the Burrow, and then Harry may go."

Harry smiled. "Thank you, Headmaster."

"It will take time," the aged headmaster warned. "It's good that they suggested the end of July, as it will take nearly that long to set up another layer of wards on the Burrow properly. Neither Filius nor I have any ties to the House of Weasley, so ours will have to be very carefully crafted not to conflict with the ones already there - the Arithmantic calculations alone will take at least a week, assuming that there are even records for the wards…"

"Now now, Albus, young Will became a cursebreaker," Flitwick pointed out. "I'm certain that for his Mastery project he wouldn't have overlooked the Deep wards on his own house. Certainly it would be easier to study those than get permission to study, say, the Malfoy's wards. He'll have kept records – I'll simply owl him for a copy."

Dumbledore nodded. "True, I had forgotten that. Thank you, Filius. Harry, why don't you run along and have tea with Hagrid? Filius and I should discuss the wards we'll be putting up. Filius, I think that the Silver Frame will do admirably for a base…"

A/N: I am aware that in canon, Professor Septima Vector was of about McGonagall's age and female. In my story, he's younger, male, and his name is Victor Vector. A youngish mathematician type. Imagine, if you like, that Septima retired and a younger relative took the post.

Recall that magical owls live for a very long time - Tantalus is nearly 200. Harry assumes, therefore, that Errol, who shows his age, is even older.