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A Winter's Reprieve	By : enchanted_nightingale Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 12790 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from them and I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Author:enchanted nightingale

BetaReader: pussycatadamah

Disclaimer: The characters from Harry Potter books do not belong to me. I merely use them in my plot for fun.

Chapter 9 - Pieces

Albus Dumbledore often suffered from insomnia. After all the years of responsibilities that gathered on his shoulders it resulted in a very busy mind. All the clutter in his office was nothing compared to the clutter in his brain. It was also one of the reasons he seemed so absentminded and flighty when the occasion did not call for the utmost seriousness. And the candy inspired passwords were one such example. Why invent elaborate phrases or use odd words? Even if he forgot his own password he could guess it easily enough as he used his top favourite sweet for the month, hard to forget that!

One night like this, while roaming the endless and often tricky halls of the castle, Albus heard a noise he was familiar with. A child crying. The Headmaster frowned. He hated when the children in his care, no matter who they were, suffered. Curious and alarmed he followed the sound of dying sobs till he reached the statue of the one eyed old crone (the guardian of a secret passage to Honeydukes). There was no one there, but as he moved his head his charmed glasses could just make out a silvery outline.

'An invisibility cloak,' he realized with alarm. And there was only one student who had an invisibility cloak that could partially obscure the figure even despite the charmed lenses.

Joints protested as Dumbledore knelt next to the huddled and invisible form.

"Harry?" the elderly wizard whispered softly. There were no portraits in this part but one could never be completely certain about their privacy.

There was a muffled hiccup and the water like fabric fell, revealing one very familiar messy mop of hair. Red rimmed eyes were staring into blue.

"S-sir?" Harry stuttered. His voice was completely broken.

Albus was alarmed. "What happened, my boy?" he asked.

That sent the teen into tears, not that they had previously stopped.

The Headmaster took the teen into his arms and rocked him gently like he had done years ago, when Lily had first introduced him to the boy. When the teen was finally composed enough to reply, Dumbledore spoke again.

"What happened to you my boy? Did anyone attack you?" he frantically asked.

There was a short silence from Harry's end, the teen had also been quite tense, until he let out the breath he had been holding and gave one short nod. He did not relax though.

Dumbledore was worried at this. He had to get to the bottom of this and his mind started going into dark paths as he slowly took in the half ruined shirt the green eyed wizard wore. If anyone had assaulted the boy there would be hell to pay.

"Come on lad, up you get," he softly spoke, using his surprisingly strong arms to lift the boy to his feet.

Harry complied, his body moving automatically. Albus then covered him again with the cloak as he started the walk towards his office. The last thing he needed was for any of the portraits to see Harry in the state he was. As Headmaster he could control the castle only so much. While the portraits respected and even liked him, they could get loose tongues, especially when they got drunk.

The walk to his office was one of the longest Dumbledore had to make. He hurriedly muttered the passwords and urged the boy to climb the staircase. Once inside the office he cast the spell to freeze the portraits of the previous headmistresses and headmasters of the institution for a bit of precious privacy, before pulling the invisibility cloak off Harry. In proper light the teen looked worse. There were bruises on his neck and wrists. The lips were swollen and the lower one sported what looked like a bite. The shirt Harry wore was missing buttons. The jeans were zipped but the button was undone. And those amazing and unique green eyes looked shattered.

"Harry, just sit here," Albus guided the boy to a chair after casting a charm to make it extra comfortable.

Meanwhile Fawkes was roused from his sleep and was now eyeing the two humans with what could be interpreted as concern.

"Harry, I need to ask you this, okay lad?" Albus used a very soft voice when he spoke to the teen. "Were you…" he swallowed hard. "Were you attacked?"

"No," the teen replied softly.

The blue eyed wizard swallowed, not daring to hope. Denial was not uncommon in such cases.

"A-are you certain? I need to know how to help you." And who to curse, Albus mentally thought. "Speak to me my boy. Please," the older wizard asked. He would be strong and not crack. The boy needed him.

Slowly, Harry raised his eyes and looked at Dumbledore. He opened his mouth and no sound came at first, before he blurted the one thing that confused the other wizard.

"Merlin, what have I done!"

"Harry?"

"I did not know. You have to believe me. At first I did not know."

Dumbledore was at a loss.

Fawkes let out a trill and flapped his wings, leaving his perch to land on Harry's knee. The boy looked startled at the phoenix and the immortal fire bird let out a few more trilling notes, soothing Harry's frazzled nerves and calming the Headmaster's own worry for a while. Fawkes' song died out and the Gryffindor took a deep breath.

"Sir?"

"Yes Harry?" Albus asked in an even voice.

"I-" the teen started but then he choked. His fingers flexed on his biceps and then he released them, letting his hands fall limply from his arms for the first time since Dumbledore had found him curled up next to that statue.

"Take your time," the older wizard told him in a soft voice. "I… Do you need a Calming Draught?"

Harry shook his head. "I… You know I met someone in France?"

"Yes, Harry."

"He is older than me."

"I know that too lad. Did he… hurt you?"

Harry choked and Dumbledore fought to keep his magic calm. If that guy had forced the teen into anything then he would track him down and show him just why he was able to defeat a Dark Lord like Grindelwald.

"He did not hurt me," the green eyed wizard finally admitted. "Physically that is."

Albus was able to relax somewhat. Harry had not been sexuality assaulted then. Now he could breathe. Now he could actually do something to help the teen.

"Talk to me my boy."

"You'll hate me," Harry said brokenly.

"Oh, child. Hate is a very strong word. I have only hated one person in my life and I can swear to you my boy this, I can never hate you. I swear this to you Harry."

And from that the teen gathered his courage and the story came spilling from his lips.

For once, the old and wise Headmaster of Hogwarts was left literally speechless. Only after that, when Harry had been tucked in one of the guest rooms (because Albus would not let the teen back in the dorms in the state he was) was Dumbledore even able to ponder over what he had heard.

Rabastan Lestrange and Harry Potter.

Harry Potter and Rabastan Lestrange.

It sounded wrong no matter how one heard it.

The beauty and the beast.

The innocent and the killer.

Such an unlikely pair brought together by fate and chance. Life was tragically comical in instances like this. Albus would know. It had happened to him. After all, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald could only be uttered as one way only nowadays, as mortal enemies, when years before they had been so much more. Dumbledore had not lied to Harry. He had hated only one person in his life, not Tom Riddle or Voldemort, the man that orphan had become. He had certainly never hated Gellert, not when their relationship ended with his sister's death and his brother renouncing him. Albus had only ever hated himself and what he had almost let himself become.

Fawkes let out a trill, startling Albus from his thoughts before they got any darker and even more depressive.

"I apologize my friend," the old wizard told the phoenix.

The fire bird clacked its beak. Dumbledore heard the reprimand for what it was.

"Dawn is only three hours away my friend but I will try to rest," Albus promised.

And he rose to do just that, even knowing that he would not be closing his eyes for the rest of the night.

The fireplace in No12 Grimmauld Place flared up that morning. Remus and Sirius looked up from their breakfast.

"What time is it?" Remus asked.

"Too early for social calls," the last male Black replied.

Sirius stood and walked to the fireplace where he crouched down. A bearded face appeared in the fire.

"Headmaster," the Azkaban escapee exclaimed.

"Good morning Sirius, my boy. Who else is in the kitchen with you?"

"Just Remus," Sirius replied. "It's only us in the house."

The werewolf joined his friend on his knees before the fire. "Good morning sir."

"Is something wrong?" Sirius asked. "Is it about Harry?"

"Sirius, don't be hasty."

"Remus," Dumbledore cut the scared man off. "I'm afraid Sirius is correct on this one. There is something up with Harry."

Immediately the two men grew alarmed.

"What is it?" Sirius demanded.

"Harry found out something last night and the boy was hurt, emotionally. He's a strong lad and I think he will recover," Dumbledore told them. "I wanted to tell you because he will be a bit down for a while and he might not want to talk about it. He's too embarrassed to mention it to you but I did not want any rumours reaching you and worrying you."

"My heart returned to its place," Sirius let out a breath.

"Thank you for telling us Sir," Remus told the older wizard.

"No trouble my boy. But I have to go now."

"Of course sir," the two Gryffindor's said together.

The headmaster's head disappeared from the fireplace and the fire died out.

"Did you believe him?" Remus asked.

"Hell no! Something serious is up but I do believe he did not lie about Harry not wanting to discuss it just yet." Sirius slowly stood, wincing as his joints cracked.

"We wait for Harry to come to us first?" the werewolf said then. He, too, rose on his feet with more ease than his childhood friend.

"Exactly."

Hogwarts

Neville was starting to get concerned.

Ever since the attack on Ottery St. Catchpole things had changed. They had managed to get out of the crossfire early and as per Harry's instructions they had gotten to safety. After that they had lost sight of the green eyed wizard for a while. Those hours were the most worrying part of Neville and Luna's day. The two friends had stayed with Xeno at the Lovegood's house and they had returned to the castle the following morning and only then and there they heard from McGonagall that Harry was fine. As they had arrived through Dumbledore's office, the Headmaster was also there and he had informed them that Harry had taken a part, however minor that was; in the fight and that he was expected to act a bit weird. Neville had taken the warning the two professors gave to heart and he and Luna had decided to be understanding and not crowd Harry; they knew how Harry hated feeling patronized or caged.

It was three days since the night.

Somehow the significance of that night being the first one Harry had been back to Hogwarts after the Dark Lord's attack on Hogsmeade was not lost on Neville, but the teen just could not connect all the clues just yet. And he could not ask Harry either as the green eyed wizard kept avoiding him. And he was doing it so masterfully that Neville almost wanted to congratulate him. He did not physically avoid Neville; he just would not meet his eyes. They still talked, did their homework together and had meals in the Great Hall but somehow a wall had formed between them and the teen had no idea what to do and how to approach Harry about this.

It was that very day that Luna came over to the Gryffindor table, where Neville sat alone as Harry had fled the room after eating like a bird. Luna grabbed one of Neville's hands and pulled.

"Luna?"

"We need to talk or the Wrackspurts will have their way with our favourite Nargle and that would be really bad."

Neville spluttered but allowed the Ravenclaw witch to lead him around. They did not go far, just far enough to reach the first empty classroom and for Luna to lock them in there. Neville was a bit winded and quite a bit alarmed at her behaviour. She acted odd, and for Luna that meant… Actually, Neville had still to figure what that meant.

"This has to stop. We need to make him stop," the blonde teen stated.

"I will go out on a limb here and say that you are talking about Harry," Neville told her.

"Of course I am talking about Harry," Luna replied. "Who else has that great number of Nargles?"

"Right," Neville nodded. "Okay, he's been avoiding me though. How can we talk if he won't look at me?"

"He's avoiding you too?"

"Why? You mean he's giving you the slip as well?"

Luna nodded.

"Just what's been going on?" Neville wondered.

The witch shrugged. "That's what we need to ask Harry."

"Luna, we are going in circles. How are we going to do that?"

"Ask him."

"You said that before but it still does not give me any ideas."

"Silly lion, you need a Ravenclaw to make your plans."

Neville studied her. "You actually enjoy being vague, don't you?"

Luna just gave him a serene smile.

End of chapter.
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A Winter's Reprieve