Lupin paced around Harry's small private room in St. Mungo's. After the attack a man in black had rescued him from the room he had been locked in, surrounded by silver. He had been careful to stay away from it, but there had been some close calls, and being in the proximity of so much silver had weakened him, though it was nothing a good dose of Pepper-Up Potion couldn't cure.

The strange man had provided him with a Portkey to St. Mungo's, and they had been there for three days, though Harry hadn't gotten much better. If anything, he seemed to be getting sicker. The Healer in charge of Harry said that Harry simply had the flu, but Harry hadn't responded to any of their treatment, and he was starting to become suspicious of the Healer.

He was beginning to think this was all tied in with Voldemort somehow. But why hadn't he just Apparated in while Lucius had Harry and killed him or had Malfoy do it for him? None of this made any sense.

~*~*~

Several days later, Harry had regained consciousness several times, but he had been disoriented and was still no better than when he'd been brought in.

As he watched Harry's still form, he heard tapping on the window and looked up to see an unfamiliar gray owl perched on the windowsill, waiting patiently to be let in. He stood up and opened the window to let the bird in. It flew over to Harry and dropped and envelope onto the bed, then flew away out the window.

Lupin picked up the envelope and saw Harry's name written on it, with no return address. Feeling extremely suspicious, he decided to take it to Minerva McGonagall. Taking one last glance at Harry, he Disapparated. He reappeared in the room where Order meetings now took place and found a meeting in progress.

“Sorry to interrupt, but this arrived for Harry at St. Mungo's. I thought it was rather suspicious, so I brought it here,” said Lupin, holding out the envelope.

Professor McGonagall stood up and took the envelope. She slit it open with her wand and tipped it over. A fine gray powder spilled out onto the table. McGonagall poked her wand at it, but nothing happened.

“Well, as I was saying, Mr. Potter received a necklace prior to leaving Privet Drive. I noticed that there was dust like this with it when I went to retrieve it,” said McGonagall, holding up a necklace with a dragon charm. “This leads me to believe that the necklace was only a distraction, and this dust is the reason he is sick. We will need to remove Mr. Potter from St. Mungo's immediately and isolate him so that he cannot get sicker.”

Immediately after she spoke, there was a loud pop, and within seconds, every person in the room had their wands pointed at a folded piece of parchment. McGonagall prodded at the parchment with her wand, softly uttering spells Several minutes later, she put her wand away and picked up the parchment. She opened it up and began to read.

"Dear Order members,

The illness that Potter is experiencing is due to a dehydrated potion that was created by a number of the Dark Lord's followers. It is designed to weaken him considerably, but continued exposure will sap him of his magical core, rendering him helpless as a Muggle. He will need to be taken to a safe place immediately, if he has any chance of recovering. I will collect the antidote and you will receive it shortly."

McGonagall stopped reading and frowned at the parchment. "There's no name," she said.

"Well, it could be the person that captured Lucius for us," suggested Remus.

"Perhaps," said McGonagall. "In any event, we need to remove Harry from St. Mungo's immediately. Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, and Alastor, I would like you to go fetch Harry. This will take you to Grimmauld Place, which has been rewarded with even more protections," said McGonagall, holding out the dragon necklace. Tonks took it and the group promptly Disapparated.

They reappeared in Harry's room. Harry looked worse than when he'd left; his face flushed and coated with a light coat of sweat. As the group drew nearer to him, Lupin could hear Harry's labored breathing and could see gray flecks in his hair and on the bed.

"We need to get him out of here now," said Tonks.

"I'll guard the door," said Moody.

Kingsley picked up Harry and Tonks held out the Portkey. They all touched it, then Tonks let the dragon touch Harry's arm. They reappeared in a small bedroom in Grimmauld Place and Kingsley gently placed Harry on the bed.

“We need to get the dust off of him,” said Tonks and pulled out her wand. “Scourgify.”

None of the dust vanished and Tonks swore. Kingsley waved his wand and Harry's pajamas were replaced with new one, and then they began the task of brushing the rest of the dust off of Harry's body.

Ten minutes later, they had gotten rid of all the dust that they could see, but Lupin worried whether it would be enough. He couldn't lose Harry, not so soon after losing Sirius and Dumbledore. He and Tonks settled in to wait for Harry to wake up and the others went ahead to report to the Order and collect the antidote.

~*~*~

Some time later, Moody appeared carrying a small wooden box.

“Here's the antidote. You're to give him one vial every six hours until the entire box is used up,” said Moody, handing the box to Lupin. “I need to return now, but someone should be by later to check up on you,” he added before Disapparating.

“We should wait to give him the first dose until he wakes up,” suggested Tonks.

“Yeah, that would probably be best,” agreed Lupin.

They had a long wait before Harry finally opened bloodshot, dazed eyes.

“Harry, we have the antidote for you,” said Lupin, holding up a vial of nearly black liquid so that Harry could see it. “We need you to drink all of this.”

“'kay,” Harry mumbled. Lupin held the vial to Harry's lips and the boy swallowed. Harry's eyes closed again as Lupin vanished the empty vial.

“Are you all right, Harry?” asked Lupin softly.

“M'fine,” said Harry without opening his eyes.

Tonks patted his shoulder gently. “You'll be better soon, I promise.”

~*~*~

Days went by, with Tonks and Lupin dutifully giving Harry the antidote, and he was slowly getting better. Professor McGonagall had finally decided to let Harry have come company while he recovered, and had provided Ron, Hermione, and Ginny with a Portkey to Grimmauld Place. They would be staying for a couple of weeks, then return to the Burrow. Harry would most likely be staying at Grimmauld Place, at least until he managed to convince McGonagall to let him go to work trying to defeat Voldemort.