Harry Potter and Future's Past

Chapter 33: Spiders and Goblins

July 4th 1996

It was two am when Hermione came through the vanishing cabinet dressed in her dressing gown. She had just been awakened by a house-elf who had been requested to keep an eye on the Hogwarts' Headmaster as she pretended to work at Hogwarts. She yawned but then smiled as she gazed upon her sleeping husband. Hermione sat on the edge of the bed and bent to give him a few kisses. When he finally stirred, she said. "Winky said Dumbledore went to bed about an hour ago…he should be in deep REM sleep by now."

"It's a good thing Winky and Dobby still work at Hogwarts isn't it?" Harry replied with a grin as he came instantly awake. "Shall we start the fun?"

"Would there be another reason for being here at 2am?" Hermione asked.

"Well…" Harry smirked as he patted her side of the bed.

"Go…" Hermione said as she pulled her husband out of bed and gave him a little shove toward the door. "But I'll be here when you get back."

In Dumbledore's private chambers at Hogwarts, a small device started chirping insistently. The noise slowly pulled Dumbledore from a deep sleep. As he realized what the noise was coming from, he quickly brought himself awake. "Trying to sneak out of Grimmauld Harry?" He asked the air around him as he climbed out of bed and snatched his wand from the bed table.

"Wake up everyone," Dumbledore commanded Kreacher a few minutes later when he came through the floo to the Black ancestral home. "We need to find out where Harry is…he's snuck out as I knew he would."

"What do you mean Harry's gone?" Sirius asked with a not so fake yawn when he appeared a couple of minutes later. He had been visiting Isabella until late in the evening. "He's up in his room."

"I have reason to believe otherwise," Dumbledore replied testily. "Now that everyone's awake, start contacting the rest of the Order…we have to do this quickly and quietly. If Voldemort finds out Harry is outside the protections of this house, there is no telling what he'll do."

"Look before you start waking up the whole city," Sirius said, "let me go see if he is in fact in his room."

"If you must, but make it quick," Dumbledore said with a hint of exasperation. He knew Harry was not there because his detection spell would have quieted the instrument if Harry had passed back through the door returning to the inside of the house. Once Sirius had left the room, he turned to Moony. "Remus, are there any werewolves you can trust to help in this search?" Before Lupin even had a chance to answer Albus had already moved on to Tonks. "Nymphadora, see if you can contact Shacklebolt….." He started but stopped when Sirius appeared leading a grumpy looking Harry down the steps. "I told you Albus. He's right here. What made you think otherwise?"

Unfortunately Bill, Fleur, Remus and Tonks had not been informed of the prank or of the reason for it, so their looks at Dumbledore were laden with the frustration they felt at being awakened in the middle of the night.

"I appear to have been misinformed," The Headmaster replied to Sirius as he kept his gaze upon Harry. Finally he turned to the others and continued. "I apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you realize that I only have Harry's safety in mind."

"Next time keep in mind our sleep as well," Sirius grumbled.

"Why did you think I had left?" Harry asked.