Dumbledore strode down the quiet suburban street. It seemed like an affluent neighbourhood with large multi-storey houses, most of which had exquisitely designed and maintained gardens. Harry must be doing well for himself, he thought. He wondered what Harry had been up to all these years.
He could only hope and pray that the boy had not given up on his magic. He would need it now more than ever. He had to defeat Voldemort after all. He was the only one who could do it.
Even if he hadn't given up his magic and perhaps enrolled in another school, there really was no substitute for a Hogwarts education. He would have to train the boy extensively before the boy would be ready to face Voldemort. Dumbledore sighed heavily; he certainly had his work cut out for him.
He stopped in front of a particularly nice house, well he thought it was nice but for some reason his eyes kept sliding right off it and he found himself having to concentrate particularly hard to keep himself from walking right past it . Luckily, the tracker was pointing straight at it so this had to be Harry's house. He might have walked right past it if the tracker had not been pointing to it. There was probably some sort of notice-me-not ward around the property. No muggle-repellant ward which was strange for a wizard's house but aah, there was the expected wizard-repelling ward. Unless you were keyed into one of those, you could not enter. Well, Fawkes could certainly be able to flame him right through that but that would not be very discrete, now would it. On a street like this...tossing up a notice-me-not spell of his own would probably work but was not an absolute guarantee. Not in broad daylight, no.
No, he would just have to discretely break through that ward himself. He took out his wand and set to work.
...
Harry's mouth was wide open as he gaped dumbly at the sight of Albus Dumbledore standing outside his front gates. For some strange reason he had never expected to see the Headmaster of his former school. There was something terribly incongruous and strange about seeing Albus Dumbledore outside of Hogwarts.
He had been prepared to see Voldemort backed up by hordes of Death Eaters. He would not have been surprised to see a flock of Dementors or even a pack of werewolves but for some reason the sight of Albus Dumbledore had reduced his brain to a stuttering gibbering wreck.
"What the hell is he doing here?" he sputtered.
"Hmm," Luna mused. "Well, considering you are the only one to have ever defeated Voldemort before and Dumbledore has been opposing him, if rather ineffectually, I would say that he probably believes that he needs you to defeat Voldemort."
"What?" exclaimed Harry. "Just because of...b-but...b-but...that doesn't make any sense."
"Doesn't have to make sense for it to be true, Harry," said Luna. "Dumbledore has always been rather famous for his eccentricities. There's no telling what he believes."
Harry gaped at Luna. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was absolutely right. She did make it a habit of being right more often than not.
"In any case, he's here now. What are we going to do about it?" she asked.
Harry shook his head. Damn it, he needed a plan. What was he going to do about the fact that a man, his former Headmaster, who was dressed in luridly coloured robes which were the very antithesis of sartorial splendour, was standing in front of his house.
"Absolutely nothing," he announced to Luna's surprise.
"Nothing..." she echoed.
"Nope, we're just going to ignore him and just go ahead and perform the Fidelius. The wards will keep him out until we're done. Hell, it should take him weeks to break through my wards and it shouldn't take us more than an hour or so to prepare. With a bit of luck he'll forget all about why he's come here as soon as we cast the Fidelius."
"Are you sure the wards are strong enough to keep him out?" Luna asked in a worried tone. This was Albus Dumbledore they were talking about after all. Who knew exactly what the old man was capable of doing?
"Absolutely," said Harry as he whirled around to the mirror on which he saw that Dumbledore had taken out his wand and was already attempting to break through his wards.
...
....
Join my P*atreon for 100 premium chapters ahead of the public release.
Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)
Free members also get 2 advanced chapters for free.