Chapter 4

Up in the Headmaster's office, several items that usually sat there smoking or twirling or glowing suddenly stopped, then exploded. The noise woke up Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix. Fawkes squawked loudly, then went to wake up Dumbledore to make him aware of the problem. It took several pecks to wake up the old wizard, but he did, then Fawkes showed him what had happened in his office. Albus realized that all of these gadgets had one thing in common; they were all keyed to Harry Potter. One was for his health, one for his location, another for the wards at the Dursleys – all gone. The Headmaster grabbed onto Fawkes' tail feathers then told him to take him to the Hospital Wing.

Albus shouted, "Harry!" then ran to the bed where he'd left the young man the night before. He pulled back the sheets only to find pillows. The noise had woken up the mediwitch, Madam Pomfrey, as well as Hermione Granger.

Madame Pomfrey stormed in, "Albus! What is the meaning of all of this racket?"

"Mr. Potter is missing. Do you know where he went?"

She replied, "He was right there where you left him last night. Why?"

Dumbledore moved aside and showed her the pile of pillows left on the bed.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed.

Dumbledore turned to Hermione and asked, "Miss Granger, do you know where Mr. Potter is?"

"No Headmaster I don't." She said honestly. She really didn't know where he'd gone after he'd left her at the base of the Astronomy Tower.

"I thought you said he was in the toilet when the Minister and I were here earlier," he eyed the girl known for her honesty.

Hermione realized something must have happened and hesitated a moment then blurted out, "I tried to make him come with me but he wouldn't! I tried to drag him with me, but he ran before I could get down the steps of the Astronomy Tower. He said something about not being able to do this anymore. Oh, Harry, what have you done this time?" she sighed.

"There, there, Miss Granger. I'm sure Harry is just fine, but trying to recover from the emotional turmoil of last night," Dumbledore said, not convincing himself of his words.

The next thing they heard was a fourth voice saying, "Hey! What's everybody shouting for? Can't a guy get some sleep in the Hospital Wing of all places?"

The three other people looked at Ronald Weasley as if he was speaking in a foreign language before Hermione said, "Ronald! Your best friend is missing! How can you sleep in a time like this?"

Ron replied, "He's probably gone to the loo or the kitchens. I wouldn't worry about him," then turned back over and quickly started snoring again.

Before anyone could say anything else, a house elf popped up in front of them. Hermione recognized the elf from Harry's description from last year.

"Hi, Dobby. Do you know where Harry is?"

"I'm sorry Miss Grangey but I don't know where he is now. He gave me letters to have the owlses to deliver, but I have them here. Except for the one I sent out with his owl because he was worried his dogfather couldn't be found by the other owlses."

"Hello, Dobby. Could you tell me who the letters that you do have are for?" asked the Headmaster.

"This one be for Miss Grangey," handing her the letter, "this one be for Professor Whiskers, and this one be for Mr. Lazybones over there. I've gots one for Professor Kitty and one for Professor Snakey too. Should I takes them now or waits till they wake up?" Dobby asked.

Professor Dumbledore said, "Thank you Dobby. I'll take those and ensure they go to their recipients," and held out his hand for the other letters.

Hermione took her letter from Dobby and ripped it open:

Dear Hermione,

I know you're sitting there beating yourself up because I didn't come back with you, but don't. There's nothing you could do to make things any better. The ministry isn't going to listen to anything about Sirius being innocent no matter what we say. Nothing is going to change their minds.

Thank you for being my friend. You were my third friend after Hagrid and Ron. You've been there for me whenever I've needed you. You've helped figure out a strange riddle in our first year not to mention the Devil's Snare. You figured out that the monster in the chamber was a basilisk when people older and supposedly wiser sat on their thumbs and did nothing. I know we had a bit of a tiff with the Firebolt, but it all worked out, and I know you were just thinking about my safety.

I can't tell you how much you helping me with the problem last night means to me. You were willing to walk into a situation with a transformed werewolf, a supposedly insane, murdering escapee from Azkaban, and an enraged potions professor twice. I will never be able to thank you enough.

I've sent a letter to the goblins telling them to give you half of the money in my vault. I'm sure you can buy lots of books with it. Please make sure the twins get the map back. I know they can make good use of it. I don't know what to do about my cloak, since it's a family heirloom. Talk with Professor Dumbledore about that. I've already told Ron he can have my Firebolt.

I told Dobby to give Hedwig the letter for Padfoot. I'm sure she will decide where she goes to next. If she comes back to you, please take good care of her. She's a really smart owl. Try not to keep her in her cage any longer than you absolutely have to. She really hated it at the Dursleys.

There is no future for me if I go back to the Dursleys this time. After last summer, Vernon will kill me this time. Yeah, he's tried before. Anytime I tried to tell someone about it, it just got worse. I thought I was going to be able to be free to go with Padfoot, but that's not an option now. This is the best thing for everybody.

I can't be what everybody wants me to be. People expect me to save them over and over just because my parents did something that destroyed Voldemort. Or they're like Malfoy and think I'm nothing but dirt under their shoes. Then there are folks like Snape who think I'm a spoiled prince and hate me for something that my dead father did to him while they were in school. I'm not any of that. I'm just Harry.

Your friend,

Harry

While Hermione was reading her letter, the Headmaster was reading his:

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I know you don't understand what is going on, but I've tried to explain it to you each year. All you do is offer me a lemon drop and tell me the Dursleys are the safest place for me. It's not. I've been beaten, starved, and mistreated almost every day since you left me with them. They think the only thing I'm good for is to fix their meals and clean up after them. The only reason they sent me to school was that the government made them. I wouldn't have come to Hogwarts except they were afraid Hagrid would come back and do more than just break their door down and give Dudley a pig's tail.

Things were better the summer after my first year until Dobby came and they found out I couldn't do magic during the summers. That was the second time Vernon tried to kill me. He'd planned to starve me the rest of the summer, except the twins and Ron managed to rescue me. I know they told their mother about the bars on the windows, the locks on the doors, and Hedwig being locked up. Nobody believed them either.

Then last summer when I blew up Aunt Marge, I knew that was the end. I barely managed to escape before Vernon caught me. He was more concerned about Marge than me for once. I got a letter from Vernon a week ago saying, "Enjoy your last days with your freaky friends, freak. You don't harm my family and get away with it." I don't know how he managed to send it but it came by owl.

Sirius offered me a home with him. He didn't know me, but he offered me a home with no strings attached. Not because I was the boy who lived or because I helped rescue him. He offered it because he was my godfather and had promised to take care of me when I was a baby. Now that he's on the run again, I have nowhere to go.

I've told the goblins to split my vault between Hermione and Ron. Ron gets my Firebolt. I don't know what else I have that Hermione would want. I told her to talk to you about what to do with the cloak because it's a family heirloom. She knows of some other things I want to go to other people too.

I came into the magical world knowing nothing about it and I'm leaving it pretty much the same way. Nobody's told me what it means to be the heir of the Potter estate. Nobody's explained to me about proper etiquette. Everybody just assumes I know it. Or they tell me my magical guardian should have told me all this. Who is my magical guardian because I've never met them? Aren't they supposed to be checking on me and making sure I'm well cared for? They sure did a lousy job. Actually, I think they did nothing.

I hope you can find someone else to fight your battles for you, Professor Dumbledore. Heavens knows an eleven-year-old boy shouldn't be fighting trolls, smuggling dragons, or fighting the spirit of Voldemort, but I did. A twelve-year-old shouldn't be branded a Dark Lord by half the school just because he can talk to snakes.

A teacher shouldn't yell at and abuse a student just because they're the son of his schoolboy enemy. But he does and you let him get away with it. Professor McGonagall never listens to us when we go to her with problems. She just pats us on the head and says they have everything under control while Professor Quirrell is harboring Voldemort and is going after the stone. She never bothered to ask why we were out of bounds that night she took away all of those points. We were helping Hagrid send a baby dragon to the dragon preserve in Romania. She just took points, making us the punching bags of Gryffindor. Then there was the detention. What teacher in their right mind would send children out into the Forbidden Forest at midnight to search for something killing unicorns anyway? Professor Trelawny delights in predicting my death daily. She's finally going to get something right.

Then there are people like Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. They know they can do pretty much what they want and will get away with it. They've thrown things into other people's cauldrons in Potions but are never punished for it. Those whose potions are ruined are. Why should they get second and third chances with I don't even get the first one?

Hogwarts School has been a disappointment. We have some very good teachers in Professors Flitwick and McGonagall (although as a head of house, she's useless). Snape doesn't teach – he just put a recipe on the board and tells you to do it. No warnings about ingredient reactions or safety precautions. Do it or suffer the results. He is abusive and unfair. History of Magic is a joke. We learn nothing there except how to sleep. And you call this the premier school in England? HAHAHA.

But there's the one thing that I will never forgive you for – leaving a fifteen-month-old child on the doorstep of people you've never even met in the middle of the night in November with just a letter saying, "Your sister died. Here's her son for you to take care of. Oh, by the way, the terrorist who killed her and his flunkies may come after the boy, so if you don't take him, you could die too." You never checked on me. You didn't care what happened to me. What would have happened if Vernon had been successful in killing me the first time?

Goodbye, Professor Dumbledore. It's now your job to fix everything you expected me to fix. If Voldemort comes back, it's yours and the Ministry's job to kill him. Not mine. I will not fight for those who won't fight for themselves.

Hire some competent teachers, reign in the bullies, and put in some real disciplinary policies then things might improve. Or not.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter, The Boy who Hurts

When he finished reading the letter, tears were rolling down his cheeks. He had failed one of his students badly and there was no way of knowing if he could save the boy. Now was the time for action. He had to find the boy and hope it wasn't too late. But he knew in his heart he was already too late.

Hermione had gone over to Ron's bed and began waking him again. Once he was up; he was a little confused about what was going on.

"Ronald, your best friend is missing and all you can think about is food! Don't you care about him?" asked Hermione.

"But Hermione, I'll think better with some breakfast first," Ron said. Right at that point, another elf popped in with breakfast food for everyone. Hermione was literally bouncing off the walls until Madam Pomfrey gave her a calming drought. Once she was able to recover her faculties, she looked over at Ron who still hadn't opened his letter.

"Hermione, you worry too much! Harry's probably in the dorm sleeping instead of the hospital wing."

"Ron! Do you even care if something's happened to Harry?" she asked.

Ron thought for a second, then replied, "Well sure I do, but I'm sure the professors will find him," he said as he took a bite of eggs and shoved some sausages in after them.

Hermione was incensed. Harry was missing and Ron was content to sit back and let others search for his best mate. Well, she wasn't going to sit around. She turned around to see silvery wisps shooting out of Professor Dumbledore's wand.

"What are we going to do, sir?" she asked.

"You are going to remain in the hospital wing while the professors and I search the castle. I don't want to add another missing person to the list. The portraits have already started searching the castle. I'm sure the professors and I will find Harry," he added.

"Like you searched the castle for Sirius Black?" she said under her breath. The Headmaster heard the comment but chose not to reply. The young witch was correct. He'd already failed them once this year.