Chapter 46- Childcare 101, does this thing comes with instructions? (part 2)

"Yes, I know," Dumbledore acknowledged, looking honestly perplexed. "Somehow, Mr. Potter has become...untrackable. We have tried various location charms with no success," he reported, filling in recent events. "While it is possible that this may be young Harry's doing, the amount of energy needed to produce this type of defense is enormous. I don't know if any witch or wizard could accomplish it alone for an extended period of time. The phenomenon also seems to have started suddenly within the last few hours. A colleague of mine from the International Confederation of Wizards was able to successfully cast Point Me earlier today, but that same spell will not work for him now."

The Headmaster paused for a moment to let that sink in, before continuing. "That said, it seems much more likely that some sort of protective magic has been accidentally activated. I had hoped Minerva's registration quill would be proof against any such magic, but it appears things are not going to be that simple." He turned and met his Charms professor's bewildered stare. "That is where you come in, Filius. You were part of the Ministry Team that put additional protective measures in place after the Blood Charm was cast, and wards were set around Mr. Potter's Muggle home were you not?"

Flitwick blinked, then nodded slowly. "Yes, Albus, now that you mention it, but that was almost fourteen years ago!" he protested, after getting over his shock. "It's true I was part of the team, but I don't recall everything that was done," he admitted, thinking back to those wild and confusing days.

By the time the team had finished enchanting Harry Potter's folder, no one could swear that they knew every single spell that had been cast. He told his colleagues as much, then added, "They may not be complete, but I do have the notes I took, and I know of several good reference materials for identifying unknown Charms."

"Good. We will obviously have need of them," Dumbledore said, giving his Charms professor a small smile. If they were indeed dealing with protective magic, the spells surrounding Harry would have to be identified before they could be broken or circumvented. Fortunately for them, Filius Flitwick was almost without peer as a Charms Specialist. He, above anyone, had the best chance of figuring this mess out in a quick and expedient manner.

"Very well," Flitwick agreed, looking a little unsure. "I will need to go to my office, and the library to gather materials," he said apologetically.

"I can help, Filius," McGonagall offered, finally shaking off her dazed disbelief. "I can fetch the reference materials from the library if you like."

"Thank you, Minerva," Flitwick replied with a grateful smile. "That would be most helpful."

"Excellent," Albus said, clapping his hands together, and turning to survey the room. "I don't believe this is the best place to have this discussion-it's getting a little crowded. We'll allow time for everyone to finish what they're doing and move to the Charms classroom in...half an hour?"

"Albus! That's barely enough time to gather the materials!" Minerva protested.

Dumbledore held his hands up placatingly. "Time is of the essence, I am afraid. You are both good at reading and listening at once, and I will fill in any details you miss. Bring the materials with you, and we'll let the others begin."

__________

"Pig Out! Pig Out! Pig Out!"

Harry raised a haughty eyebrow at the two chanting sisters as he shook two tiny, rubber pigs in one hand, then let them fly like he was rolling a pair of dice. "Come on, come on! " he encouraged, as they bounced on the table before coming to a halt. When they did, both the little pigs landed on their feet. "Hah! Double Trotter!" he crowed, adding twenty to his tally and scooping up the pigs again.

He and Kitty and Becky were playing a simple but strangely compelling game called Pass the Pigs. There wasn't a lot to it, really. One simply rolled two rubber pigs and gained-or lost-points depending on how they fell. The object of the game was to throw the pigs and score as many points as possible in one turn. According to the instructions, the first player to get 100 points was the winner.

It sounded simple, but Harry soon discovered it wasn't so easy. He'd rolled the infamous "Pig Out" and by doing so lost all his points more than once that evening. It hadn't really mattered, though. The Wrights liked to play a slightly modified version in which each player racked up as many points as they could before they rolled "Pig Out" or an "Oinker." Whoever had the highest tally before losing all points won that "hand".

Grinning at his hecklers, Harry rolled the pigs again. They'd been at it longer than he'd expected, although the real "competition" was mainly between Kitty and himself. The older girl was a pretty fair sport, but she despaired over her baby sister's inability to play "right," and grumbled a bit about the way the toddler was accommodated.

Becky had a rather limited grasp of numbers, so she didn't really understand the scores. She liked to play with the little pigs and generally had to be coaxed into rolling them when her turn came. She also still had the unfortunate tendency to put small things in her mouth. Harry had quickly learned to keep a sharp eye on her whenever she had the game pieces in her possession.

They played a few more hands before Kitty called a halt. "Let's do something else now."

Becky seemed to be growing weary of the game as well, so Harry shrugged agreeably. "Okay," he said, gathering the game pieces and replacing them in their slim, black case. I might have to look into buying one of these for myself, he speculated, eyeing the case appraisingly. It was made of hard plastic and no larger than a Muggle checkbook. Harry hadn't purchased a lot of frivolities, since he was limited by the size of his trunk, but this tiny thing would probably be all right. Heck, if things got tight, he could always carry it in his shirt or jeans pocket.

A glance at the clock brought some of Janet's instructions to mind: When it starts getting late, try and interest them in a quiet activity, she had advised. It will be easier to get them down for the night if they've slowed down enough to realize they're tired!

Good point, Harry thought, then faced his small charges. "So, what do you want to do now?" he asked. "Shall I read you another story?" he offered.

"Can we pay wif Dollies?" Becky asked hopefully. "Peas?" she added, giving him her best and most adorable pleading look.

Aw, jeez! Harry groaned inwardly, holding his forehead. That was absolutely the last thing he wanted to do, but it was really hard to say no to that face. And she probably knows it, too! he thought uncharitably.

On the upside, if he did get dragooned into playing "dolly" again, he could write Ron a very interesting letter...

Dear Ron:

Today was quite educational. I undressed a beautiful blonde and I held a naked babe in my arms...

Harry wiped his hand down his face until he had his mouth covered and fought down the urge to giggle. Tempting as it was, he wasn't sure he could run fast enough to escape Ron once the redhead discovered that Harry had, in point of fact, lifted a freshly-bathed toddler onto a changing table, and changed a doll's clothes.

And the payback...

Harry winced a little at the teasing he was in for if Ron and his brothers found out what he'd really been up to! Hmmm. Maybe writing a prank letter isn't such a good idea...but it would be funny for a little while!

Fortunately, Kitty came to his rescue. "Sparky doesn't like dolls, Becky," she said authoritively. "Think of something else."

Now there's a tall order, Harry thought, watching in amusement as Becky crossed her arms and stuck her lower lip out in an exaggerated pout. Playing with dolls might be the only thing they haven't done yet, come to think of it. Harry shook his head and smiled. They'd had a grand time coloring, reading, having tea parties, messing around with loads of toys, and playing Pass the Pigs .

Unfortunately, it was beginning to show. Harry glanced around and cringed. Janet's once-lovely living room was something of a disaster area now, because Kitty and Becky kept bringing things downstairs. "I know," he said brightly, trying to make it sound like great fun, "let's tidy up, then we can watch a video!"

"Tidy up!" Kitty protested, looking at the scattered items with distaste. "Do we have to?" she asked, making a big show out of stretching and yawning. "I'm tired!"

Ah, so that's the way you want to play. Harry looked down at the younger girl, and arched an eyebrow. Sorry, but you're not fooling me. I lived with the King of Manipulation most of my life, he thought, recalling how Dudley would try-and succeed-to get out of doing chores. Eyes glinting with mischief, Harry shrugged, and tried to act sympathetic before dropping his bombshell. "Of course not, Love. I can clean up, but if you're really that tired then you should go to bed straightaway. Go on now, both of you, and I'll see you in the morning."

Kitty blinked at him in surprise, not expecting this tactic, but Becky was having none of that. "NO!" she objected immediately. "No wanna go bed! Want moobie!" she urged, picking up a stuffed cat and tugging on her sister's hand.

As her majesty commands, Harry snickered to himself, then smirked knowingly when Kitty mumbled something about not being that tired, and bent to gather an armful of things. Gotcha! he thought, before moving to help. Unfortunately, they'd brought down more than he realized, and it was going to take multiple trips to get everything put away. "We need a container," he mused aloud. "We'd save ourselves some time if we had something to put all this in," he continued, looking around hopefully. Janet appeared to have broken down all the empty moving boxes, but surely there was something else...

"What about the laundry basket?" Kitty suggested.

Harry brightened. Good plan! "Perfect!" he said with a grin, enjoying the way she reacted to his praise. "Where is it? We can chuck everything in there, then I'll carry it upstairs for you."

Kitty nodded, growing more enthusiastic about the project. "I'll get it!" she said, then dashed out with Becky dogging her heels.

Harry grinned after them. Kitty, he could tell, got heartily sick of her baby sister tagging after her, but most of the time she was rather good about it. He was glancing around, trying to figure out if anything should be put in the basket first, when a loud crack made him jump. What was that?! he wondered angrily. It sounded familiar, like the sound of a gunshot, or a car backfiring, or...

No.

Oh, no.

Harry swallowed tightly, feeling as though someone had him by the throat. He hadn't expected to be found so soon, but someone had definitely arrived. He could feel them looking right between his shoulder blades. Heart thumping fearfully, Harry slowly turned, and found himself looking into bright green eyes the size of tennis balls that shone with blatant adoration.

Dobby the house elf stood before him, looking both pleased and relieved. "Harry Potter, sir! Dobby is glad to see that Harry Potter is not hurt!" he bubbled excitedly, then his ears drooped and his expression turned sorrowful. "Harry Potter is being very naughty-causing much worry at Hogwarts!"

What?! Harry blinked at the little elf. "But I just spoke to Professor Dumbledore-and Sirius-and a whole load of people just this evening!" he spluttered indignantly. "I told them I was fine! Besides, I can't leave! I'm babysitting!"

Now it was Dobby's turn to blink. "Dobby has not come to fetch Harry Potter. Dobby is running an errand for Master Dumbledore," he explained. "Dobby is just stopping by to check on Harry Potter since Master Dumbledore is worrying," the house elf explained. Harry was about to reply, but a loud thump in the kitchen startled them both.

"Becky! You...are...not...helping!"

Harry started at Kitty's exasperated shout, and her sister's indignant wail. Oh my God! They'll be back any second!

"Dobby, you've got to get out of here before they see you!" he hissed desperately, making little shooing motions with his hands.

Nodding his understanding, the house-elf snapped his fingers, and disappeared with another crack!

Harry heaved a great sigh of relief, then closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. I really could do without so many close calls in my life, he thought wryly, holding his head in his hands.

He stood there for a few seconds before it occurred to him that it had gotten awfully quiet. Harry frowned behind his hands. That was odd. Kitty and Becky generally took a little longer to settle down once they started shouting and crying. Removing his hands, he spotted them standing in the kitchen doorway, looking quite stunned. Harry raised an eyebrow at them, then put his hands on his hips. "Well, come on then," he prompted, nodding at the basket Kitty held. "The work's not going to get done on it's own."

"But..." Kitty glanced at him, but made no move to come closer. Her attention seemed riveted to something behind him. Becky, her eyes huge, unconsciously shifted closer to her older sister.

Concerned now, Harry frowned. "What is it?" he asked, starting to feel agitated himself. "What's wrong?" Instead of replying, Kitty pointed behind him. Sighing, Harry turned to look and felt his mouth drop open in shock. It seemed the well meaning little elf had left a "gift" for him before taking his leave.

The living room was completely spotless.

________

Back at Hogwarts, the impromptu meeting of the Order of the Phoenix had re-convened in the Charms classroom. The blackboard Remus had been writing on was brought along, and Remus, Sirius, Arabella, and Arthur were standing in front of Flitwick's desk, preparing to share what they'd learned.

"This is what we know," Remus Lupin stated, pointing to some items listed on the blackboard with his wand. "According to the Weasley family, Harry arrived at King's Cross Station with the rest of his peers on July first. His uncle was late arriving, and Molly needed to leave. She didn't feel comfortable leaving Harry alone, so she invited him to come home with her until things could be sorted out.

"As they were leaving, Harry spotted, or claimed to have spotted his uncle. He thanked the Weasleys for staying, declined Molly's offer to escort him over, and the two parties went their separate ways.

"There's a space of a few hours that can't be positively accounted for, but Harry did eventually arrive in Surrey," Lupin went on, tapping the board with his wand. "Arabella Figg noticed his hand on her locator clock was still pointing to "Traveling" before the Order meeting on July first. This was unusual, but he didn't appear to be in any danger, so she cast a monitoring charm, and came to the meeting. When Harry's status was still "Traveling," a few hours later, she became concerned. When Professor Dumbledore called a break, she and went home to investigate.

"While she was there, Harry's hand finally moved to number four Privet Drive. We estimate his time of arrival as approximately eleven o'clock in the evening-significantly later than usual. We took it for granted that he was simply late getting home for whatever reason, and didn't investigate further. Harry has been corresponding with several people on a regular basis. He mentioned getting a summer job, and seemed fine. We didn't suspect anything was amiss until July fifteenth.

Remus paused to take a sip of water, then continued. "Arabella, having only just returned from a mission, immediately went to check on Harry. When she arrived at the Dursley's residence, she found that the property was being offered for sale. She made a few inquiries, and discovered Harry's Uncle Vernon had been transferred to Australia.

Naturally, we thought that meant that Harry was in Australia as well. We contacted Albus immediately. He contacted a colleague of his, Nathaniel Baker, from the International Confederation of Wizards. Baker was asked to find Harry so that we could make arrangements to bring him back to Britain.

"Sirius, Arabella and I returned to her house in Surrey after leaving the Headmaster's office. Sirius changed into Padfoot, and caught Harry's scent. He also found a note that Harry had written to Mrs. Figg," Remus said, pointing farther down the board. "We do not know the purpose of the visit, but some time between the first and the fifteenth of July, Harry went to Wisteria Walk. The note itself didn't contain any useful information. It was undated, and seemed rushed. At first we thought he must have written it out while his relatives were waiting for him, but he may have simply been anxious to be on his way."

Sirius and Arabella came forward, and Remus moved off to the side. Sirius swept the room with his pale blue eyes, but for once there was no joking humor in his demeanor. "Remus has told you what we know," he stated. "Now Arabella and I will tell you what we think. These are things we jotted down as they occurred to us, so unlike the professor there, ours are not necessarily in perfect chronological order."

Nodding, Arabella took her cue. "We started at King's Cross, and spoke to several station employees who were on duty at the time Harry should have been there, and quite a few people remember seeing a boy who fit Harry's description. Those green eyes of his evidently stay with people," she said with a sad smile. She paused a moment to collect herself, and noticed she wasn't the only one reminiscing. Finally, she shook herself out of her reverie, and continued.

"From what we were able to gather, he waited quite a while. Several people recall approaching him, and asking if he needed help. "No one remembers seeing Harry leave, but I checked the schedules while I was there," the old witch continued. "There's a commuter train from King's Cross to Little Whinging that leaves around 9:00 p.m.," she said, pointing to another line on the blackboard. "Since we know Harry was on Privet Drive at approximately 11:00 p.m., it seems likely that he caught that train, and made his own way back to his uncle's house from Little Whinging Station."

"It was by accident that we discovered Harry had gone to Arabella's house," Sirius stated. "I changed into Padfoot, and found a fairly recent trail. Remus also thinks he may have picked up Harry's scent at the Leaky Cauldron, but he isn't sure. I followed it to the edge of the street where it suddenly stopped. Unless Harry's learned how to Apparate, we think he may have summoned the Knight Bus."

"Actually, we're fairly certain that's what happened. I make it a point to check the Knight Bus logs when I've been away," Arabella added. She paused a second, then shrugged matter-of-factly. "It's part of my monitoring of the the neighborhood for unauthorized witches and wizards. The Knight Bus staff are used to me dropping by, so no one looked at me twice when I showed up a few days ago. Their travel logs indicate they responded to a call on Wisteria Walk very late in the evening on July first. We do not have irrefutable evidence supporting our claim, but we believe Harry must have summoned the bus. I was at Hogwarts at the time, and Harry and I are the only witch and wizard who live in that neighborhood."

"Diagon Alley was one of the stops on the Knight Bus log after Wisteria Walk," Sirius added. "That may have been Harry's destination. To date, the Knight Bus has not returned to Wisteria Walk or Privet Drive." He stopped and heaved a great sigh. "After that, Harry simply disappears," he said waving his hand in a circle. "He isn't registered at the Leaky Cauldron, but we have reason to believe he's been there. He has also been corresponding regularly with several people-Ron, Hermione, Albus, Remus, and myself." He sighed again, and looked exasperated. "He hasn't asked for help, in fact, he hasn't even hinted that anything was wrong. We know from his letters that he is employed somewhere, but we don't know where."

"We spoke with Grunnings Drills, the estate agent that was hired to sell the property on Privet Drive, and some of the neighbors, but we didn't learn very much," Arabella stated, scrunching her nose in annoyance. "We do know from several sources that the Dursleys left in a hurry. They originally planned to stay through the summer, and leave closer to the beginning of the new school year, but something came up and they suddenly changed their plans. We know Vernon and Petunia left about the same time Harry was due back." She paused a moment, then continued with a troubled frown. "On a side note, the neighbors seem to think that Harry goes to a place called St. Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys, and no one remembers seeing Harry at all. I think we can safely say that he didn't approach any of the neighbors for help on the night of July first."

Dumbledore nodded. "Thank you Arabella, Remus, Sirius. Your initiative has saved us a great deal of time, though I wish you would have shared your suspicions earlier."

"I'm sorry, Albus. I just couldn't believe that Harry could be running around without being recognized," Arthur said sadly. "I've seen how people spot him..." he said with a shrug, then turned to the dark haired man up front. "Sorry Sirius. I guess you had the right of it after all."

"Let's just find him, all right?" Black responded gruffly, though not unkindly. He frowned thoughtfully, then addressed the room again. "We're just guessing, but we think someone may be helping him. We also suspect he's using an alias, and since he hasn't been spotted, we presume he's found a way to disguise himself, and his scar as well."

"Indeed?" Albus raised an intrigued eyebrow and steepled his fingers in front of him.

"It stands to reason, Headmaster," Remus said a bit defensively.

"No, no, you are quite right," Dumbledore agreed. "I merely meant if young Harry figured out how to hide his scar, he has outsmarted some of the premier Charms specialists of the day-myself and Filius included," he explained, exchanging a rueful look with the little Charms professor.

"Oh, my yes," Flitwick said, looking up from the notes he was reading and putting his two Knuts in. "I've never seen such a stubbornly resistant mark. We tried Glamours, Concealers, and every Healing Charm we could think of..." he trailed off, then lowered his voice as though sharing something illicit. "We even tried the Mark Remover."

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