Chapter 7: Surprises in the Dark

Albus studied the pallid boy in front of him. Harry tossed and turned in his sleep, kicking the covers off of his legs as he did so. His hair glistened with sweat and he roughly threw his arm over his head, and in the process pushed his wet locks away from his face. The scar stuck out like a sore thumb on the white, childish features, once again causing the headmaster's eyes to narrow.

Leaning closer the piercing blue eyes took in the unusual scar, one that he had never seen the likes of before. Not only was the shape unusual, but the dark magic it reeked of was like none that he had sensed before. Dark powerful magic indeed!

Dumbledore sighed pinching the bridge of his nose as he did so. If he did not even recognize the type of magic used on the boy, then it was sure to be something that is an almost forgotten art, an art that only a few would delve deep enough to learn….some one like Voldemort.

'So Tom took a personal hand in the boy's torture?' Albus thought to himself. 'What did the boy's parents or guardians do to anger Riddle so much? Usually Tom left the dirty work to his henchmen, unless the person had caught Tom's attention. Why did Tom let the boy live?'

Lost in thought Dumbledore rubbed his burnt fingers together, the blistering fingers did not give the headmaster any pain as he continued to ponder.

There were questions to be answered whether the boy was ready or not, for the answers may help them in this war.

Slowly Harry cracked open his eyes and looked blearily around the darkened room. He vaguely recalled a very strange dream in which Dumbledore was alive.

Rubbing his forehead he let out a slight groan.

The pain in his head was tremendous, but from years of experience he easily pushed it to the side and instead focused on his surroundings.

Where on earth was he?

His thoughts were clouded and sluggish as he looked around the room bewildered. His surroundings were vaguely familiar, but he could not quite place it at the moment.

As he once again placed his throbbing head in his hands the door quietly opened revealing an older wizard.

Immediately the headmaster found a wand leveled at his heart; following the wand's length to the person gripping it tightly, surprised blue eyes met cold calculating green ones.

"Who are you and where am I?"

The voice that asked the question was cold and held an edge to it that Albus didn't know what to make of. Before answering Dumbledore peered even more deeply into the boy's eyes and saw the cold eyes give way a bit…pain and something akin to longing entered their emerald depths.

Speaking slowly and clearly he answered the child's question, and made no sudden movements as to not frighten him.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore and you are currently at the Potter residences."

Confusion flashed across the young boy's features…finally as if a train had hit him surprise and understanding invaded his face. Turning red from embarrassment Harry quickly lowered his wand, and then stashed in up his sleeve.

"Sorry sir, I forgot where I was and just reacted."

The voice no longer held a trace of the ice that had be present previously, instead it now sounded rather sheepish, something that was confirmed as he blushed all the brighter in obvious discomfort.

"Not a problem my boy. How do you feel?"

Dumbledore smiled genially at the black haired child, but his eyes never lost their inquisitive look, a look that clearly stated that Harry Potter was something akin to a new mysterious specimen.

"Fine sir, but a headache relief potion would be welcomed."

Harry grimaced slightly as he spoke, not caring much for speaking at the moment since it was doing nothing beneficial for his pounding head.

Now Dumbledore was somewhat concerned since he new for a fact that Mary had given the boy an all-purpose pain killer not even an hour ago. The potion was fairly strong, and was of good quality, and therefore should still be effective for a few more hours at least.

Ever so gently Albus probed the boy's mind as to not startle him. Of course it was very unlikely that a ten-year-old would know how to detect someone in his mind, but then again after a month's worth of torture, both mentally and physically, it could have sharpened his mental defenses naturally.

Eyes widening fractionally as the extreme pain entered his head, Albus quickly tried to pull back out, the pain was almost crippling in its intensity. Letting out a low hiss of pain Dumbledore brought up a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Harry watched the display with a small amount of concern on his face, for he could guess, even in his muddled thoughts that Dumbledore had tried to look into his mind. Usually he would have had his defenses up, but at the current moment he REALLY didn't feel like they'd help anything, besides appearing not to have shields would be beneficial to him.

Once Albus had regained his bearings he immediately placed his aged hand on Harry's shoulder and quickly led him back to the large, comfortable bed.

"Rest Harry, I'll go get you something for your head. Just stay in bed."

Dumbledore said quietly, his voice full of concern, and his eyes roamed over the boy's features noticing more intently as he did so how sickly the boy looked.

After making sure the child was safely in bed, Albus left the room in search of the potion supplies. Questioning the boy could be left for another day.

Harry let out a long suffering sigh.

REALLY, he was honestly glad to see a very much alive (and a much younger) Poppy…just not under her excellent care.

After his fainting episode coupled with his crippling headache, Albus insisted that Harry needed some rest and relaxation. How any one could properly rest with Poppy near was absolutely beyond him. Since she had arrived at the Potters two days ago he had not a moment of peace. She had taken one look of him, drove everyone else out of the room, and began to perform a battery of tests.

With each result her face grew darker and darker, and her muttering became more pronounced and critical. Now two days later, he had been pinched, prodded, forced to take revolting liquids and required to endure non-stop berating about his health.

"What were those healers thinking…honestly letting a boy in your condition out of the hospital after only a few days medical attention. Tsk tsk. And taking him to get supplies only the day after he was released…clearly the poor thing over-exerted himself."

Harry from years of experience finally just tuned out the rattle, instead concentrating his thoughts on his current situation.

Truthfully he felt perfectly fine, but they insisted that he stayed in bed until they found out what had caused his collapse, or until Poppy was sure he was in excellent health.

Either way he was going to be here for awhile. There was no way he was going to tell them about his visions from Voldemort…that would go over just spiffy… 'Oh by the way did I tell you that I have a mind link with the Dark Lord and if I didn't know how to protect my mind he could possibly possess me and spy on the Order?' Then he would need to explain how he knew how to protect his mind and of course what the Order was. There was a more likely chance of a snow ball surviving hell in the summer. Harry snorted ruefully at the thought. Apparently he snorted at the wrong moment of Poppy's lecture for she shot him a very dark look and started to eye a particularly nasty potion.

'So much for getting out of bed any time soon.' Harry thought with a sad sigh.

Looking at the cards worriedly Harry shuffled them in his hands trying to figure out his best move. Finally deciding on one he passed it quickly, and as the card left his hand let out a sigh of relief. He had avoided disaster…this time.

The other black messy haired boy took the card gingerly, wincing at its heat, and then cringing when he saw what it was. Quickly he passed the card to the next boy who was barely paying attention to the game. Sirius took the card without hesitation and glanced down unconcerned.

BOOM!

Both Harry and James jumped in shock and looked at the third member of the card game. Sirius glared back with his singed eyebrows and sooty face.

The impromptu staring match went on for about ten more seconds before the two Potters exchanged glances. Suddenly gales of laughter rang out through the room as they clutched their sides in laughter and the two boys leaned against each other. Breathless from laughing the two wiped their eyes in merriment.

"That's right…laugh it up you two…your day will come." Came the threatening response from the glaring Black.

The statement was said in such a un-Sirius way that the two started laughing all the harder.

Once they stopped chuckling James was happy to note that Harry's face had regained a nice healthy red color, and his eyes seemed light and full of laughter.

It hadn't been until after the fourth day that James was allowed to see the younger boy…well 'allowed' wasn't quite the word for it.

&Flashback&

Harry groaned once again from boredom. Poppy finally decided to leave him alone for awhile so that he could get some 'rest'.

Twiddling with a loose string on his pajama sleeve he heard a slight creak from the door and winced thinking that the over bearing nurse was back again to berate him for not sleeping, like he needed any more sleep!

James peeked around the door believing the younger boy would be sleeping, but to his slight surprise two green eyes stared intently back at him, truth be told a bit of weariness in their depths, which immediately left when they recognized him.

For a moment neither said anything, just sitting staring at the other.

Finally Harry motioned the other boy in with a small smile.

'Finally! Entertainment….at least James won't be falling all over me in worry.' He thought gleefully.

Both the older Potters were walking on egg shells around him, almost as if they thought that if they were too loud he would flip out again.

James however was extremely worried. It's not every day that you walk in to find your cousin convulsing on the floor screaming in agony.

He slowly walked over to the boy's bed a little hesitant for he couldn't rid his mind of the image of the smaller boy in pain. Even though every one insisted Harry was fine James did not truly believe them. Why else would Madam Pomfrey have been here for the last three days tending to Harry? From what he heard her muttering you would assume that the younger boy was on his death bed, and he most likely was…his parents were just trying to spare his happiness by lying so he wouldn't be worried.

For a long moment James studied his cousin. While it was true that he didn't really know the boy, he did certainly like his younger cousin…well his only Potter cousin. He was happy to note that while the boy was still pale and scrawny he had certainly gained some weight while in Pomfrey's clutches.

"Finally! I thought I was going to die from boredom in here!" Harry said exasperatedly rolling his eyes to emphasize his point. "Pomfrey is determined to kill me with all this rest and relaxation…I think I am going crazy just from the lack of noise." Harry rambled on trying to set James at ease, for he could tell that the older boy was a bit uncomfortable. Of course he knew that James had seen him and his fit…something that would freak a grown man out.

The tactic seemed to work and James cracked a slight smile at the obvious jab at the school nurse.

"She always did seem fond of torturing us Potters." James muttered leaning in conspiringly, looking around as he did so as if expecting the mentioned nurse to pop out of thin air.

&End Flashback&

Since then Harry was confined to his bed for another four days until Poppy couldn't honestly say he NEEDED to stay in bed. With out a doubt he would have been bed ridden until September first if it hadn't been for Harold putting his foot down after visiting Harry and finding out that the boy seemed perfectly healthy if not extremely bored.

Harry was pleasantly surprised to find a smirking Sirius at breakfast the first morning he was allowed 'up'.

The last few days it had became very easy for Harry to separate James his father, and James the thirteen-year-old Gryffindor. He just couldn't look to James as a father figure when the prankster was busy trying to suck soup up his nose. The boy was just too young take that image, but he was making a very entertaining, if not immature friend. So when he saw Sirius the first morning the same thing happened with him. Sirius was not his godfather…this Sirius was an immature eating machine, something Harry learned when the dog attempted to steal his eggs after he had already finished his own plateful.

Today was the second day he was allowed up and about and the group decided that some Exploding Snap was in order for entertainment…well after nicking some food from the kitchens of course, which brought them back to the game.

"Honestly Potter…I will obtain my revenge on you in the most painful way." Sirius muttered twisting his lip into a snarl.

Of course this just made the older Potter to laugh louder.

"You do a great impersonation of Snivellus, Black." James said with a smirk.

Immediately Sirius lost his snarl and replaced it with a horrified look and cried out in mock rage.

Harry had to agree with James on that one…the impression was uncanny, but since he wasn't suppose to know who Snape was kept his mouth shut and watched the exchange with amusement.

The fight was about to continue when a young house elf popped in the room.

"Lunch is… to be …served in five minutes…masters." The female elf stuttered out a bit fearful.

Harry frowned a bit at the elf's fear…he had never seen the Potters mistreat their house elves, but then again he hadn't been here for very long.

"Thank you." Harry said kindly and bowed his head a bit in thanks.

The now wide eyed elf jumped a bit in surprise for being thanked by the boy…and what an odd boy at that.

Sparky examined the boy for a minute…there was something off on her new young master…she just wasn't sure what.

"What is your name?" Harry continued when the elf continued to stare at him a bit fearfully.

By this time both James and Sirius were both talking again about some prank or other.

"I is called Sparky, young master." She said a bit nervously…something WAS unusual about this boy.

"None of that master stuff with me, I insist that you call me Harry if you'll allow me to call you Sparky."

"Of course Master Harry, you can call me Sparky as you wish."

"Just call me Harry, Sparky, and thank you for allowing me to use your name." Harry once again gave the small elf a kind smile. Truth told he was a bit amused at the confusion written across her features.

"You is welcomed Mas…Harry." The elf cut off at the title and instead bowed before disappearing in a small cloud of smoke.

Turning back to the walking stomachs Harry poked both boys until they turned to look at him in confusion.

There confusion was put to rest when the boy said one word.

"Food."

Both James and Sirius rushed to the door and down the hallway before Harry even had time to stand…typical really. Sighing contently Harry slowly got to his feet and made his way to the dining room, but on his way there a voice yelled out from the living room.

"Harry come in here for a moment."

Veering off of his intended course the boy walked over to the sliding doors, slid them open and peered in to the darkened room on high alert for a prank by one of the other boys.

Not even two seconds after he opened the door lights flooded the room and a loud yell erupted from the now flooded shadows.

"Surprise!"

The boy jumped in shock and just resisted grabbing his wand and cursing them all to oblivion.

His confusion and shock must have shown on his face for James happily called out, "Happy birthday Harry!"