Harry waved his hand at the intruding phoenix and threw the strongest silent stunning charm at him that he could manage. In the next instant, he shouted for his parents before he collapsed on the bed.

“Harry! What’s wrong?” Severus asked concerned.

“Daddy, the phoenix on the floor, that’s Dumbledore. I stunned him,” Harry mumbled lazily.

“Are you sure that it’s Dumbledore?” Severus asked, throwing a glance at Fawkes, who nodded his head.

With a flick of his hand, Severus held his mobile phone in his hand, pushing a button. “Minerva, Dumbledore is in Harry’s room, stunned, in his phoenix form. Call the Ministry immediately please.”

He left the room, pointing his wand at the fireplace in order to open the Floo for a short while, and waved Lily over, quickly filling her in on what had happened. Then he returned to Harry’s side, training his wand on the phoenix on the floor, who had fortunately remained stunned thus far. Lily sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed, pulling her son close.

Ten minutes later, Minerva entered Harry’s room, followed by the Aurors Tonks and Shacklebolt. Severus explained that the stunned phoenix was Albus Dumbledore, who had flashed into the room a few minutes ago.

“Are you sure that it is Dumbledore? He is supposed to be in a safely warded part of St. Mungo’s,” Shacklebolt said sternly.

Harry sat up excitedly and jumped into the conversation. “As a phoenix he can just flash away. But my phoenix, Fawkes, knows him even in his phoenix form and told me immediately that it was Dumbledore. That’s why I stunned him before he could do anything to me.”

“You stunned him? Wow, that’s very good work indeed, quite a powerful stunning spell,” Tonks commended the boy, who felt his face getting red with embarrassment.

Shacklebolt waved his wand at the stunned phoenix, forcing him back into his human form, and placed an Anti-Animagus-Charm on the man. “Good evening, Albus. We didn’t really expect you here.”

“Ah, but I wanted to say ‘hello’ to my friend Fawkes and my former student Harry. Moreover, I didn’t have a chance to welcome Lily back. I’m going to return to St. Mungos immediately,” Albus answered in his nice grandfather voice he had always used with Harry when he was at Hogwarts the first time.

“I’m sorry, old man, but you’re having a one-way-ticket to Azkaban and I don’t think you’ll be returning to St. Mungo’s. You will accompany us to a Ministry holding cell until the Minister clears you for your journey to Azkaban. As to your motives concerning young Harry here, we might question you under Veritaserum once more in case the Minister deems it necessary.”

Shacklebolt excused himself and activated a Portkey that took him and Dumbledore away. Tonks once more commended Harry for his fast action before she returned to the Ministry through the Floo.

“I wonder if this was the last time Albus will show up,” Severus said, shaking his head. “Thank you Fawkes for alerting us to the problem so quickly!”

Fawkes trilled a happy response and inclined his head, a gesture Severus knew well from his son, who always did that when he wanted him to stroke his head feathers. Severus held out his arm for the phoenix to step on and proceeded to caress his son’s familiar. Harry, who was lying in his bed with his head on his mother’s lap, smiled at the scene before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

-----

When Harry’s mind slowly turned back to consciousness, his mother was sitting next to him, carefully shaking his shoulder. “Harry you have to get up; you’re having visitors.”

“Hmm?” Harry mumbled tiredly.

“Here, Harry, quickly get up and wash your face and get dressed. You have to Floo to Granny’s office; Minister Scrimgeour is waiting for you.”

With that, Harry quickly crawled out of his bed and ran into the bathroom, emerging only two minutes later. “You dress me, Mummy, ‘m too tired,” he begged, yawning.

Lily sighed and helped her son get dressed. “Now, do you want to eat a quick breakfast or do you think you’ll be able to wait half an hour until lunchtime?”

“I’ll wait. Will we eat in the Great Hall?”

“Yes, Harry. Either come back here early enough or go to the Great Hall with Granny. I’ll drag Daddy along and we’ll meet there. Now, take the Floo to Granny’s office then, please.”

When Harry stumbled out of the fireplace in Minerva’s office, he saw that the Minister wasn’t the Headmistress’ only guest. There was an unknown man as well, who somehow looked official. Harry dragged himself into a standing position and said politely, “Good morning.”

“Good morning, Harry,” Minerva answered immediately. “Harry, please take a seat.” When Harry complied and sat down comfortably, she continued, “The Minister of Magic and the Head Healer of St. Mungo’s, Healer O’Brien, have come to see you.”

Harry threw an unsure glance at the two men. “Hello Minister, I’m sorry that we still don’t have the complete cure for the werewolves,” he blurted out.

Scrimgeour laughed. “Oh, Harry, I know that you and your father are trying hard, and I know that there’s no guarantee that there will be a complete cure. However, I know if anyone was to find a cure, then it would be you and your father. You’re doing a great job.”

Harry blushed terribly. “No, Minister. I’m only helping my father research and prepare the ingredients as well as brewing the potions. He is the one who is doing most of the job.”

“No, Harry; you’re doing a very good job, too. Your father keeps telling us how valuable your help is,” Minerva interrupted the boy firmly.

“I am sure,” the Minister acknowledged. “However, this is not why we came here today. In fact, I came to tell you that Dumbledore is now in the wizarding prison Azkaban. He won’t have another trial as he already had a trial two years ago and was already sentenced to a life-long stay in Azkaban.” The Minister gave the Healer sitting next to him a short nod.

“Hello, Mr. Snape. I’m glad to meet you as I’ve already heard so much about you in connection with the wolves cure. However, I came here today to give you my sincere apologies for not keeping Dumbledore safe in our warded part. We didn’t know that he was a phoenix Animagus and as such could just flash away. I’m sorry, Mr. Snape.”

“Oh, just call me Harry, please, sir. And it’s all right; I mean, fortunately my phoenix was there and recognized Dumbledore immediately, so it was no problem as I could stun him before he was even able to transform back.” ‘Very nice that they came, but was that important enough to drag me off my bed? I’m still so tired,’ Harry thought, glad to see that the two men excused themselves and stepped into the fireplace.

When Minerva turned back to Harry after showing the two visitors off, she couldn’t help smiling, seeing that Harry had curled up on his seat and was fast asleep.

-----

Apart from researching the wolves cure together with his father and researching Charms to make his notebook work with his mother, Harry spent most of the summer holidays reading books. Fortunately, Luna had renewed his membership card for the Muggle library for another year, and Luna, Hermione, or Lily took him to the library whenever he wanted to go. Even Severus had accompanied Harry a few times. After dinner, everyone who had remained in the castle over the summer, used to go out and play Quidditch together. When Severus and Lily suggested to their colleagues to leave the castle for two weeks for a beach holiday like the year before, everyone agreed happily except for Professors Flitwick and Sprout who promised to look after the castle during the Headmistress’ absence. This time, they decided to leave the castle during the last two weeks of August as they had to consider the dates of the full moon for their planning.

---

Two days after Dumbledore’s sudden appearance in Harry’s room, Dobby suddenly popped up in front of Severus, very agitated. “Professor Snape, sir, we is having a big problem, sir.”

Severus laid the test papers he was just grading aside and asked, “What is it, Dobby?”

“Professor Dumbledore, sir, he flashed into the kitchen a few days ago, sir. And only now Dobby is hearing that the professor is been asking a house elf to put a very bad thing in Master Harry’s and Professor Evans-Snape’s drinks and house elf Tipsy is doing that this morning.” Dobby ended up crying.

“Now, keep calm, Dobby,” Severus said, trying not to panic. “Now, what is it that Tipsy put into my son’s and my wife’s drinks?”

“Dobby is not knowing, sir. Something he is bringing from St. Mungo’s I hears.”

“Bring this house elf to me immediately,” Severus ordered and hurried to the fireplace, calling Minerva to his office too.

A minute later, Minerva, Dobby, and Tipsy had arrived and Tipsy confirmed that Dobby had told the truth.

“How can you do something like that?” Minerva asked, glaring daggers at the house elf. “You are a Hogwarts elf, aren’t you?”

“The problem, Professor Headmistress, is that the house elves is sworn to Professor Dumbledore, sir, and not to Hogwarts or Professor McGonagall, Headmistress. So they is to do what Professor Dumbledore is telling them,” Dobby explained.

“All right, thank you, Dobby,” Minerva said thoughtfully. “I shall deal with this later. However, we need to know what has been put into Harry’s and Lily’s drinks.”

Tipsy shook her head. “I is sorry, Madam, but Tipsy is not knowing that.”

“Do you still have the phial where the potion was delivered in, provided it was a potion?” Severus asked impatiently.

Tipsy nodded eagerly. “Yes, Professor Snape, sir. Professor Dumbledore is telling me to use half of it today and half tomorrow, so I is still having half of the potion in the phial.”

“Bring it to me immediately,” Severus ordered the house elf, who popped away and was back in his office a minute later.

Severus carefully sniffed at the potion, which had a strange, green colour, but couldn’t tell what it was. “I’ll be in my lab for a while examining the potion. I suppose it will take one or two hours, maybe more. In the meantime, someone should ask St. Mungo’s if they’re missing a potions phial.”

“I’m going to ask Poppy to do that, while I’ll deal with the house elves in order to bond them to the castle,” Minerva said firmly. “Where are Lily and Harry, by the way?”

“They are in the library together,” Severus replied flatly before he rushed off towards his private lab.

-----

In the meantime, oblivious to the discussions in Severus’ office, Harry and Lily were doing research in the library, inventing Spells and immediately trying them on the notebook. As nobody was in the library during the holidays, Harry had decided to take his notebook with him so that they could try their new Spells and Charms immediately. Harry had just invented a new Spell and he pointed his wand at the notebook, silently incanting the Spell.

Suddenly, “Wow, Mummy, it’s starting,” Harry shouted excitedly.

The notebook was in fact starting up and shortly, the Windows surface appeared. Harry gave his mother a happy glance and explained to Lily how the computer worked and what he could do with the computer. They didn’t have an Internet connection, but Harry and Lily were sure that they’d be able to work something out. Unfortunately, after twenty minutes the screen turned black and the notebook shut off.

“Oh,” Harry could only say, disappointed.

“Hmm. Maybe it only lasts for a while depending on the magic involved when you incant the Spell,” Lily mused.

“Oh, yeah, that could be,” Harry said thoughtfully. “But then I think quite an amount of magic will be needed in order to have it work longer, because I was so excited that I’ve probably sent a lot of magic with the Spell.”

“Very likely so, but at least it works; now we can still try to improve the Spell,” Lily replied calmingly and gave her son an encouraging nod. “Maybe you should add something like ‘Infinitas Tenere’?”

“Oh, yes, let’s try that out. Do I add it at the end of the Spell or where?”

“Yes, as the Spell itself already worked and you only need it to maintain the Spell, it has to come after the rest of the Spell,” Lily confirmed.

Harry tried the longer Spell out but to no effect. “Now it doesn’t work anymore. Why is it so complicated?” Harry exclaimed, very annoyed.

“If Charms and Spells were easy, anyone could do them. If you really want to research it you have to be patient,” Lily admonished her son softly. “Do you know, Harry…” She smiled, looking straight into his green eyes, “I’m very proud of you, my son and I enjoy being able to do research with you very much.”

Harry put an arm around his mother, pulling her close. “And I’m glad to have you back, Mummy.” He enjoyed doing research together with his parents too. But the research with his notebook, which he started more than a year ago, was slowly getting frustrating.

-----

In the meantime, Minerva had talked to Poppy, who Floo-ed over to St. Mungo’s immediately. Fortunately, she knew the hospital very well and everyone knew who she was, so that it only took ten minutes until she could enter Healer O’Brien’s office.

“Healer Pomfrey,” the Head Healer greeted his colleague politely. “What can I do for you?”

Poppy sighed. “I hope you’ll be able to do something for us. A few days ago, Professor Dumbledore escaped from your warded section and flashed over to Hogwarts in order to harm young Harry. I’m sure you have heard about the incident.”

“Yes, I have,” the Healer confirmed.

“At that time, he brought a green potions phial with him and ordered a House elf to put half of it in Harry’s and his mother’s drinks today and the other half tomorrow. We only knew this after Harry and Lily already had drunken the first half of it. Therefore, we need to know what was in the phial. Professor Snape is currently examining the potion, but we thought it might be faster to know which potion you are missing.”

“Oh no!” the Healer exclaimed. “That’s horrible. Now, let’s head to the laboratories and enquire about it. They should know if something was missing.”

The two Healers quickly began their research, rushing all over the hospital, visiting every single laboratory and talking to the specialists. However, even after two hours they still hadn’t received the necessary information.

“There is only one more laboratory left,” Healer O’Brien told Poppy. “It’s at the far end of the building.”

“Let’s go,” Poppy replied worriedly.

When the two Healers arrived at the laboratory and questioned the two men working there, they were very astonished. “We thought that a phial was missing…”

“Then why didn’t you report this fact immediately?” O’Brien asked sternly.

“Because we weren’t sure and thought it was just our imagination that the phial had been there before, but now as you asked us it became clear that the phial was there and was stolen.”

“All right, now, what was in it?”

The two men’s faces darkened immediately. “The Anguigena Sugillationis virus.”

“Oh no!” Poppy blurt out horrified. ‘Of course, Dumbledore was able to flash anywhere in a blink in order to steal such a thing, even during the night, and he’s very clever. How could anyone believe that he was stupid?’ Poppy thought angrily.

“How high do you assess the possibility that Harry and Lily will get the disease?” Poppy asked the Head Healer when they were back to his office.

“Very high,” Healer O’Brien confirmed darkly. “If they have inhaled half a phial between them the chance that they will come down with it is about 90 percent. If they had taken the whole phial it would be 100 percent. However, the virus is one of the worst forms and is strong enough to infect the whole school.”

“How likely are their chances?”

“To survive you mean?”

Poppy nodded darkly.

“Frankly speaking I don’t know. However, we need everyone at Hogwarts to be vaccinated immediately. Oh, wait,” he suddenly remembered something. “When did they drink the content of the phial? If it was less than five hours ago, a simple counter potion containing a Bezoir would prevent them from getting sick.”

Poppy glanced at her watch. It was nearly five o’clock in the afternoon. If the House elves had mixed the phial’s content into Harry and Lily’s lunch, they had time enough. “I’m not sure if it was at breakfast or at lunch,” she said finally.

“All right. In that case you should head back immediately. How many people are in the castle at the moment?”

“About a dozen,” Poppy replied.

“All right. I will send someone over with the vaccine as soon as possible. In case they drank it less than five hours ago please contact me immediately.”

“Oh, wait a moment, I can phone them,” Poppy suddenly remembered. “Oh, no, maybe they still don’t know about it. Let me just phone Professor Snape and ask him.” She pulled her mobile phone out of her robe pocket and quickly talked to Severus. “No, unfortunately, the House elves said it was at breakfast,” Poppy told the astonished Healer after putting away her mobile phone.

O’Brien quickly made a fire call ordering the vaccine. “Healer Pomfrey, could you please explain why you can use a Muggle tephelone at St. Mungo’s?” he then asked curiously.

“Oh, that is Mr. Snape’s invention. With his mother’s help he invented a Charm to make mobile phones work in the wizarding world.”

Hearing this, the Healer became very excited. “Can you please ask Mr. Snape to provide twenty of these mobile phones for St. Mungo’s? He can give the invoice directly to me. Either that or he can patent the Charm if he hasn’t already and sell it to us.”

“I will speak with Mr. Snape today and ask him. I’m sure he will be pleased to help you,” Poppy promised.

“Thank you very much. However, if it involves a lot of magic to Charm the mobile phones he should let someone else do it. He and his mother better save their magic now. They’ll need a lot of it to survive the next weeks,” O’Brien added pensively.