Chapter Five
At the same time that Harry disappeared, or actually right before that when his magic instinctively reached out to that other nearby source to drain it dry, a small silvery object on a high shelf began to whistle and tweet on a shelf in a castle somewhere in the mores of Scotland. An elderly man, looked up in sudden alarm. This was the same man that had appeared to take his memories away as well as those of the men who had helped Harry after his teleportation accident, though Harry couldn't remember anything from the incident.
Moving with far more speed than a man his apparent age should be able to, he pushed himself away from his desk rounding it quickly and moving over to the number of devices and odd gewgaws that lined the shelf. Before he could get there however the small device that had initially whistled a warning suddenly shattered, flinging small shards of silver everywhere.
Quickly the man raised a hand and a shimmering energy field appeared in front of him. The shards of the explosion smacked into it falling harmlessly to the ground, and then the shield dissipated. After the last of the pieces fell to the floor the man pulled out his wand from one of his many pockets, running it over the devices while frowning. Turning he stared at a large bird with fiery plumage sitting on one shelf. "Fawkes to me." He ordered crisply.
The bird obeyed alighting on his shoulder, and a second later the office was empty. Seconds later he appeared without even the slightest hint of sound in the Dursleys backyard. With a single gesture from his wand, the man disappeared from anyone's normal senses, while the bird alighted on a nearby tree.
Looking around him he moved quickly to one of the corners of the garden, then gasped before hurrying to each of the other corners. In each corner he found the same thing, a small flat stone, crumbling quickly to dust. They had previously been so well hidden no one would have been able to find them, but that didn't matter now. The old man stood up from the last corner, and if anyone had been there to see, they would have noticed how his eyes seemed to gleam with unnatural light as he looked around him in consternation and growing worry.
The wards are gone! Not just the blood wards, but the unplottable and anti-mail wards! And not just gone, the very magic that made them has been somehow drained! But how could that be?! As long as the boy lives here the blood wards should still be viable and taking power from him, and I have never heard of anything that could simply drain magic from wards like that, not so quickly at any rate.
Resolutely the old man moving to Number 4's backdoor and without a pause teleporting through it easily after a single glance through it's window. He made to move past Petunia who was cleaning up dinner muttering angrily about the 'freak jinxing them', which caused the old man to frown even more, pausing in his steps.
He looked around the house, his frown turning into a scowl when he didn't see a single thing that showed there was a second boy living here. All the pictures on the wall were of a boy and a man who resembled one another strongly and the woman in front of him.
None of them showed the young boy he had seen so many months ago after that irritating incident. What is going on here? Where is the boy? Wanting an answer to that question, he lifted his wand, pointing it's tip at Petunia. "Immobulous!"
The woman stilled instantly, but before she could do more than gasp, another spell hit her. "Silencio! Now Petunia, let us see what has been going on here…" With that the old man moved her around from the sink to where he could glare into her eyes over his small spectacles.
After a moment he pulled back, his scowl much more pronounced as he moved off, leaving her where she was for a moment. Quickly he opened the cupboard he had seen in Petunia's memories, looking inside and gritting his teeth angrily at the blood.
Staring at the cupboard he made a small gesture with his wand. The air inside the cupboard shimmered for a moment in glaring pink and white light, so much he blinked in shock. Signs of an apparition, but it also looks uncontrolled. Could the boy have attempted another blind jump? But then where would he have gone, and what happened to the blood wards? He began to wave his wand again, but most of what he got was flooded out by the magical residue of the apparition. Some uncontrolled magic, that's to be expected, but… I can't get anything else here blast it, the apparition residue is too powerful!
With that thought, the man moved out of the cupboard, standing upright with a creak from his knees and back. Still, even that tells me something. Such a powerful residue could only have been made by a long distance jump. But how long a distance is the question, I've never seen such a powerful splash before…
With a sigh, he moved back over to Petunia, scowling angrily at the woman as he glared into her frightened yet belligerent eyes. "I left your nephew here thinking that you and your husband would abuse him somewhat, but this, this is too far by half! Forcing a boy as young as seven to cook for you, constant beatings? There is treating him as an unwanted guest, and then there is outright cruelty! And now, because of you and your family the boy has run off to who knows where and the blood wards are gone, nothing I can do could bring them back!"
Something in the woman's eyes told him she was happy the boy was gone, and the man smiled thinly behind his beard. "Well Petunia, if the boy is no longer here, then the money your family received to take care of him is no longer required." The woman paled slightly even immobilized, an interesting feat, though her pallor continued to worsen as the man went on. "If you are very lucky I will not be forced to share the news of what happened here with anyone else. If word gets out that you abused my world's savior, well…" he shrugged eloquently. "The so-called 'freakishness' the boy was responsible for will be the least of your worries."
"Goodbye Petunia, I do hope nothing happens to you and your family because of this night's business…" With that Albus walked off, only cancelling the spells on Petunia only as Fawkes alighted on his shoulder. By the time the woman had enough breath to scream, he was gone.
Back in the castle in Scotland, the man sat down at the desk, writing out a short message which he handed to Fawkes. The bird disappeared with it, and the man stood up, gathering up the small devices that had been on the same shelf as the one that had exploded. Waving his wand over them, he scowled as none of them responded as he expected them to.
After a moment he shook his head, speaking aloud to the empty room. "Not one of them working, which means that all of my tracking spells on the boy are gone. Could they have been drained like the blood wards, or did something else happen there? Still, there are other ways to find him."
He stared off into the distance, thinking hard, then tapping his fingers together. Still if I cannot find him, there needs to be both a scapegoat, and a secondary plan. The scapegoat, or rather scapegoats will be simple enough. But the secondary plan, that might prove more difficult.
After a moment he got up again, moving to pick up a large piece of blank parchment, stuffed into a book on a shelf as if it was being used as a bookmark. He tapped it with a finger, intoning "All I do is for the Greater Good."
A second later the parchment was no longer blank but filled with scrawls, some kind of mathematical formula filling up half of it, and several notes in different languages filling the rest of it. After a moment the man nodded, smiling thinly. Three to four years then until he is strong enough to do anything. And I cannot imagine any of his servants would go in search of him, not any of the ones free anyway, good. That gives me time to see if I can find the boy, and also to prepare a replacement if I cannot.
With that in mind, he gestured with his wand and a small silvery bird that resembled Fawkes appeared. "Minerva, could I speak to you for a moment please, something has come up." With that the silvery creature shot off, passing through the door at the far end of the room.
For a few minutes the man bustled around the room, filling up a small bag with far more things than it should have been able to hold. He stopped however as a faint ting echoed in the room. Working his face for a moment he assumed a sad expression. "Come in Minerva."
The door opened revealing a tallish woman in a tartan green robe. She was a somewhat elderly woman, possibly just out of middle aged, with a stern face that made her seem older and wearing a witch's hat on her head. "You wanted to speak with me Albus?"
Albus smiled at her wanly. "Yes Minerva, I hate to do this to you but I'm afraid I will not be here for the next few months. As such you'll have to handle any of Hogwarts paperwork that needs doing. I fear a friend from Asia who I have corresponded with for many decades is dying and I wish to do what I can to make his final days as happy and comfortable as possible."
Even while Minerva gave him her condolences, Albus was already making plans to see if he could find Harry Potter, thinking of the places he would have to visit and the rituals he would have to do to pick up his trail. Yet for all the effort Albus would put into it, his search would be in vain.