He sighed, until he knew more about the link, not only could he not give Harry any sensitive information, he would also have to avoid the boy. The worst case scenario was that Voldemort would use the boy to legilimens the people around him. That meant that he would have to severely limit the time he spent with his favourite student. Pity, he hoped that Harry would eventually understand why he had to be distant from the boy.
"Aah, a lemondrop, that would hit the spot," he thought, as he grabbed one and popped it into his mouth.
Just as he was beginning to relax his floo flared to life with bright green flames and Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice boomed forth.
"Professor, we've got an emergency at Privet Drive. Mundungus was attacked, looked like a bone breaking hex to the head. I've taken him to St. Mungos but the house looks abandoned. I can't see the Dursleys or Potter anywhere."
Dumbledore sprang into action. He immediately moved to his fireplace. "Move aside Kingsley, I'm coming through," he ordered. He tossed some floo powder into the fire and seconds later he was gracefully stepping out of the fire at Mrs Figg's house on Wisteria Walk, where he found a nervous looking Mrs Figg waiting for him along with a tall black wizard in the robes of an auror.
"Tell me everything," he ordered.
"Dung hadn't checked in with me all day so I got worried and contacted Kingsley," said Mrs Figg.
"I immediately went to Privet Drive to look for him. He wasn't there so I cast a revealing spell, just to be sure. I thought he might be sleeping under his invisibility cloak, but the spell showed him to be nowhere near where he was supposed to be. He was knocked out, tied up and hidden under the bushes a few houses down from Number four," added Kingsley.
"And Harry?" asked Dumbledore.
"Didn't see him at all, and the house looked deserted" answered Kingsley.
"Come with me Kingsley, I need to check on the house myself" ordered Dumbledore, as he strode briskly out the front door and headed down the street towards Privet Drive. He was extremely worried. Had Death Eaters managed to penetrate the blood wards? Had Harry and his relatives been kidnapped? Was Harry even now in some Death Eater's dungeon?
Just as they reached number four Privet Drive, he felt a sudden chill, as though he had been doused in icy water.
Something had happened to the night. The star-strewn indigo sky was suddenly pitch black and lightless - the stars, the moon, the misty streetlamps along the street had vanished. The distant rumble of cars and the whisper of trees had gone. The balmy evening was suddenly piercingly, bitingly cold. They were surrounded by total, impenetrable, silent darkness, as though some giant hand had dropped a thick, icy mantle over the entire street, blinding them. He turned his head this way and that, trying to see something, but the darkness pressed on his eyes like a weightless veil.
Dumbledore knew that feeling very well. He shushed Kingsley and listened intently. Then he heard just the thing he had been dreading.
There was something in the street apart from themselves, something that was drawing long, hoarse, rattling breaths. Dumbledore felt a horrible jolt of dread as he stood trembling in the freezing air.
Dementors. Dementors had come to Privet Drive.
...
Earlier.
Harry collapsed on a nearby bench. His hands were trembling now that the adrenalin was wearing off. Had he really done that? Had he really been insane enough to go up against a Death Eater armed with nothing more than a spray bottle and a shovel? What had he been thinking? Damn these Gryffindorish tendencies. Why, oh why did he insist on going off all half cocked at the first sign of danger. It would have been so much smarter to simply walk away from Privet Drive under his invisibility cloak. Anyway, he really should concentrate on the immediate problem. Where was he to go and how was he supposed to get there?
Calling the Knight Bus was an option but not a very good one. He remembered only too well the last time he caught the bus, back in the summer before third year, after the incident of the inflated aunt. Cornelius Fudge had been waiting for him at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Clearly that meant that the Ministry had some means of monitoring who was taking the bus at any given moment.
Taking a normal muggle bus was also out of the question. Unfortunately he had absolutely no normal money as the Dursleys had never seen fit to give him an allowance. All the money he had was in Galleons and in the muggle world that was absolutely useless.
That left his broom. He vaguely remembered the direction the twins had flown the car in back in second year. If he got on his broom and flew in that direction he should be able to pick out some landmarks - Eventually.
"Wait a second. Why am I automatically thinking of going to the Burrow? That's the first place the Death Eaters will look for me. What would be the point in going there? For all I know they would insist on sending him right back here to Privet Drive. Well, probably not," he thought. "Not once I tell them about the Death Eater I knocked out." He winced as he imagined Molly Weasley's reaction to that little bit of news.
"Where else can I go?" he thought, rather morosely. "The Weasleys are the only magical family I know. I don't know where Hermione or anyone else live. I don't even know if Dumbledore is still at Hogwarts. It is the summer after all - he might be on holiday. The castle's probably locked up tight and shut down for the summer holidays."
"Damn it, looks like it's going to have to be the Burrow" he thought. He turned to Dobby who was huddled under the cloak with him. "Dobby, I think we should head to the Burrow, that's the Weasleys house. Why don't you pop on ahead and I'll fly up there on my broom? Do you think you'll be able to find the place?"
"Dobby can find the place Harry Potter, but Dobby wonders..."
"Yes, Dobby?" coaxed Harry.
"Why does Harry Potter not ask Dobby to pop him there?"
"You can do that?" asked a surprised Harry. "Why didn't you say anythi...We could have just gone straight there from Privet..."
Harry fumed in silence for a minute. He really hated how little he knew about the magical world outside of school. If only Dumbledore had not placed him with the Dursleys. He just knew that he wouldn't be half as ignorant if he had grown up in a magical environment. However there was no point in griping about the past. The past was over and done with. He would just have to make more of an effort in the future to learn more of the things that everyone else took for granted. Starting off with the full capabilities of house elves.
"Dobby, next time you see me doing something stupid like walking somewhere when you know you can just apparate me... Anyway, just speak up next time will you."
Dobby was nodding his head so fast that it looked like it was about to fall off. "Harry Potter is a great wizard. Dobby did not know that Harry Potter did not realise that Dobby could take him where he wanted to go."
"All right then, lets head to the Burrow," said Harry rather cheerfully. Now that he had some sort of plan to follow he felt a lot better. He would go to the Burrow, eat Mrs Weasley's cooking, play quidditch with the twins and hang out with Ron. Yes, surely he could take some time off to relax. After all the Burrow was sure to be quite safe.
"Dobby cannot go directly to the Burrow, Dobby has never been there before, but Dobby can take Harry Potter near to where he thinks the Burrow is. Then Dobby can find the Burrow."
"Okay then, lets do that then," said Harry. Dobby grabbed Harry's hand and with a loud crack they disappeared from Little Whinging.
....
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