A/N: Many of you seem to like my Dumbles bashing. I really hope this chapter doesn't disappoint! Poppy gets a wee bit annoyed towards the end...
Harry walked as casually as he could along the corridor. He had never directly broken a specific school rule, unless you counted that time after curfew which he didn't plan on doing again, and now here he was on the third floor in a place he was expressly forbidden to be. It had a sort of thrill about it, Harry thought.
He tried all of the doors and they all opened easily into classrooms, unused offices or store rooms. Until the last one that was. Hermione and him had been scanning their Charms textbooks for a charm to use for their christmas assignment and they had found the unlocking charm in chapter seven.
"Alohamora." Harry said quietly.
As the door swung open, a low growling sounded. Harry was scared stiff but he was a Gryffindor, he reminded himself and this dog was guarding something. Dumbledore had wanted him to overhear that conversation with Snape, so Dumbledore must have wanted him to come here. With that thought firmly in his head he took a step forward. The growling got louder and the three headed dog started to move to its feet. Petrified now that he could see how big the animal was, Harry started shaking. It was then he felt something push into his side from his pocket. He reached in to his pocket to stop it poking him when he remembered what it was - that tennis ball! Hermione had given it to him, saying she could get plenty more at home and it was a great way to exercise by throwing it to each other.
The longer Harry stood there, the lower the growling became as the creature realised that Harry wasn't going to come closer. Still rooted to the spot, Harry absentmindedly started throwing the ball up to himself and catching it, as Hermione had taught him. He heard some excited barks, very different from the threatening growling, come from one of the heads and for some peculiar reason that gave him courage.
"Do you want to play too?" he asked "Bet you're bored aren't you, stuck in here all the time..."
He threw the ball at the middle head which caught it neatly and spat it back out at Harry. It didn't quite reach him so he had to take another step forwards to pick it up. He did so warily, remembering the growls of last time. There were only more excited barks from the outside heads so Harry picked up the ball and threw it at another head, this time catching it as it came back at him.
This game of catch continued on for some time with Harry getting bolder each time he threw and received the ball. Soon all four faces had massive grins and Harry was running around the room, catching and throwing. He had just stopped for breath when he heard someone come clomping along towards them. Fluffy started to growl again, only to stop when he saw Hagrid standing at the open door.
"Hiya Fluffy, girl. I brought ya some meat today. S'chicken, an' a whole 'un at tha'." Hagrid stroked the middle head as he spoke. "Sweet girl aren'tcha? Wouldn't hurt a fly you, dunno why P'fessor Dumbledore is usin' you to guard that Stone of his."
"Hagrid? What's this dog's name? You seem to know her well." Harry asked coming into Hagrid's field of view.
"Blimey 'Arry! Didn't see ya there! She's called Fluffy this one 'ere and she's the sweetest Cerberus you'd ever see. What'cha doin' up 'ere Harry? This is the forbidden Third Floor this is!"
"I... I... I was playing catch with Fluffy, sir." Harry finally came up with.
"There'll be no sirring with me lad, Hagrid's the on'y name I'll ever need!" Hagrid winked at Harry "Catch eh? Bet she enjoyed that, didn't ya girl?"
Fluffy nudged Harry on the leg with a head, she wanted to play ball again! Unfortunately Harry wasn't expecting it and he tripped backwards, whacking the back of his head against the wall with a resounding thud.
Harry lay there dazed for a second before sitting up.
"Ow." he said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Harry!" Hagrid boomed "you okay?"
"Yeah, got a bid of a headache but that's all."
"You gotta go to the Hospital Wing. Knocks to the head are bad. Bad Fluffy!" Hagrid finished
Hagrid dropped his bag of meat on the floor and quickly carried Harry out of the room.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Poppy thought the staff medicals had gone fairly well so far. She had had to threaten to body-bind Severus if he didn't comply but that was to be expected. She was surprised he had turned up at all, let alone at his allotted time, but noticing Minerva's glare, she was fairly sure that the old witch had a fair hand in that!
Around five past three in the afternoon she saw Hagrid carry someone in. It was Albus who was in at that time. He is probably glad of any interruption, she thought as she went to see who her new patient was.
"Harry?! What happened?" Poppy's shock and concern was thick in her voice.
"I tripped and hit my head on the wall."
It was the truth; perhaps not all of it, but that didn't matter to Harry right now. He loved his auntie dearly but she worried about his health so much and he knew this wouldn't go down well.
"Made a righ' thump it did as well." Hagrid added.
Harry winced. Trust Hagrid to make his auntie more concerned. Poppy nodded then waved her wand over Harry's head, peering carefully at the results, the concern and worry now evident in her eyes as well.
"Hmmm there's a fair bit of swelling. That'll need to be monitored to make sure it doesn't get any worse." Poppy mumbled to herself.
"Does your head hurt?" she asked gently
Harry nodded and winced. Poppy, naturally, caught it.
"Lie down and try not to move your head, sweetie. I'll bring you a pain reliever."
As she went past the chair where she had left Albus sitting, she noticed that he had stood up.
"Don't go anywhere Albus I'll be two minutes." she said sternly.
"Why is Professor Dumbledore here?" Harry asked as she came back "Is it because of his knees?"
"Why would it be about his knees Harry? He's here for his three-yearly medical that all staff have to take."
"Oh no reason. He's probably a really busy man, I shouldn't keep him waiting."
"No Harry he can wait. Why did you think it was his knees?" Nothing had come up on her scans for inflammation or joint stress.
"It's just that he winces quite often when kneeling down, or using steps and it looks really painful so I thought he might come to you and ask you to make it better like you always do for me when I hurt."
Poppy was torn. Should she go and confront the old wizard about his lack of disclosure or should she stay with her nephew who was getting more distressed by the minute?
"Harry I will be back very shortly. Try to move your head as little as possible."
"Did I do something wrong?" Harry asked, his panic rising. The look on Poppy's face didn't bode well.
Poppy took a deep breath. "No Harry. You're not in trouble. The Headmaster hadn't told me about his knees so I need to follow it up love."
"I didn't mean to get him in trouble! I thought that was why he was here!"
Harry was almost hyperventilating by the end and Albus couldn't be happier. He knew that Harry must have got that bump from an encounter with Fluffy, likely from running away if that was the only injury the boy had. Just one more level, that was all he needed. Then Poppy would be too involved with her panicking nephew to remember he was supposed to be there and he could leave, scot free.
"Harry, shh! Breathe for me. In and out. In and out. That's my boy. It's not your fault. You weren't to know. But you understand why I have to help him now I know, don't you?"
Harry had calmed his breathing a little and began to nod, but he was stopped by Poppy's hand.
"No moving your head." she said "Not until I've examined it properly at least. Now I want you to take those two potions I brought and rest. I will be back as soon as I can sweetie."
Poppy ruffled her nephew's hair and gave him a kiss before going back to deal with a non-divulging Headmaster.
"Albus! I never said we were finished!" she said as she saw him putting on his robe.
"I'm terribly sorry Poppy. I thought with young Harry being in here you might prefer to postpone."
"Harry is resting under an alert charm. Which means we can continue here." She glared at Dumbledore before softening her voice. "I apologise for being slightly longer than my two minutes but I needed to ascertain exactly what my nephew knew. Now shall we?" Poppy guided Dumbledore back to the chair. "Good."
Poppy's wand went over him a few times in silence before she spoke again.
"I'm going to need you to kneel for this one please Albus. It needs your torso in the correct position."
As Dumbledore stood up, he realised that the effects of all his charms had vanished. They shouldn't have worn off yet but there was no way he would be able to reapply them without the mediwitch knowing now. Also he had to do as she asked or it would look suspicious. He couldn't suppress the grimace as he knelt down and of course Poppy spotted it.
"Albus is there something you're not telling me?" Poppy asked sternly. "You seem to be in quite a lot of pain. Let me check you over again. Maybe I missed something first time."
"Poppy I'm fine. I just knelt on something sharp. It's nothing."
Poppy looked at him sharply. "Are you telling me how to do my job? Now sit back down and let me check on you properly."
"No Poppy that won't be necessary. I think we are done here now." Dumbledore was quite firm.
"WE ARE NOT. DONE." Poppy yelled "SIT. DOWN."
Albus felt a burst of magic throw him into the chair. Poppy's wand was over him in a flash.
"Arthritis. You have SEVERE ARTHRITIS IN YOUR KNEES ALBUS! How long have you kept this from me? How long have you been using borderline ILLEGAL SPELLS to cover this up? Harry asked me if you had come in here because of your knees. He said I always make him feel better so he thought you would come too take the pain away. If you had come earlier Albus, I could have done something. You weren't going to tell me were you? I bet you even set up Harry getting injured at just the right time so that I would be too occupied with him and you could leave before I found out! YOU WILL HAVE NO MORE COMMUNICATION WITH MY NEPHEW IF I HAVE TO GO TO THE MINISTRY TO DO IT! Now get out. Expect a summons to St Mungo's to finish your assessment and I will be sure to tell them to use a magic nullifying spell before anything else. OUT!"
The angry witch made short work of Albus who retreated as fast as his painful knees would allow. Once she had calmed down, she checked on Harry who, to her utter relief, had slept through the entire thing. She made some tea and then flooed Minerva. It was nearly Christmas after all and they had a day of festivities to plan!