It was settled. The Weasley’s were remaining at Grimmauld Place with their children while Albus, Severus, Remus and Poppy immediately moved Harry to Hogwarts.

The rushed trip seemed to take its toll on everybody. The only one who was oblivious to all the hustle and bustle was Harry. He was still unconscious from the earlier blow to the head. They soon found out that no spell sent at the boy had an effect on him. Albus had forbidden then to wake him up, and while it had only been a few minutes, Poppy was not thrilled.

“It’s impractical to treat him like this, Albus. I cannot assess him with a spell and you won’t allow me to wake him. He could be brain damaged!”

Remus’ head shot up, eyes full of worry. “He was hit that hard?”

“Severus wacked him over the head with a frying pan! It was metal!”

Albus interrupted Poppy’s rant. “Regardless, I would prefer that Harry remain asleep a little while longer.”

“Unconscious.” Poppy muttered under her breath. She pouted and continued to bustle around the bed, doing what she could and shooing Remus from one side to the other until he opted to sit on an adjacent bed so he was out of the way.

Remus scooted over as the headmaster came to sit next to him on the bed. Silence reigned between them for a few minutes before Remus spoke up.

“I’m assuming you’ve called for someone to help with this?”

“I have.”

“And…” Remus pushed him to continue.

“Her name is Lailie Dalton.”

“Is she going to be able to help?”

Albus sighed gravely. “I hope so.” He offered nothing else.

A quarter of an hour passed before Poppy stopped fussing around Harry. A look of uselessness remained etched onto her face as she plopped down onto the opposite bed. She crossed her arms and then quickly uncrossed them as she stood up.

The pacing she then began didn’t help Remus’ nerves.

He turned to Albus. “How much longer?”

Albus sighed and stood up from the bed. “She said she’d be here within the hour.”

Poppy was about to say something when the door to the ward creaked open. Albus and Remus promptly stood up, and sat back down when he realized it was just the Potions Master. Albus walked towards him.

“Do you have it?”

“Yes.” Severus held out the small bottle he held. The potion inside seemed to glow an eerie shade of green, reminiscent of the killing curse. Albus took it and shoved it deep into a pocket in his robes. Remus looked at him questioningly.

“Why are you hiding it?”

Albus pointed to the bed. “If he wakes up and sees it, he will fight. I’d rather it not be in sight until the opportune moment.”

“Shouldn’t we give it to him while he’s still unconscious?”

“I want to put him through as little pain as possible.”

Remus looked at Albus questioningly. Severus answered him. “A person’s power is connected to their life force. Binding someone’s powers is like taking a knife and cutting them apart. The feeling is not pleasant when administered willingly, all the more so when given against a person’s will.”

Albus nodded his head in agreement. “Therefore if we can do this with a willing participant, it’ll be better for all of us.”

Remus looked between both of them, confused. “But you just said he would fight…How are you planning on getting him to take it willingly?”

“We will appeal to Harry, not Tom Riddle.”

Remus became more puzzled, Albus was making no sense. “What do you mean?”

“He means that we’ll try and separate the two of them.”

They turned to look at the woman who had just walked through the open doors. Periwinkle blue robes covered a tall, lean body and shimmered faintly as she moved towards them. Auburn hair fanned out behind her and light brown eyes shone brightly.

Albus held out his hand in greeting as she approached. “Healer Dalton.”

“Professor Dumbledore.” The young woman grasped his hand in hers. “Please, call me Lailie.” A smile graced her features. Albus sent one of his own her way. He allowed Lailie to pass in front of him, following her over to the small group around the only occupied bed.

“This is Healer Lailie Dalton. She’s what you might call a mind-guru.” She reached out and shook their hands as Albus introduced her to each of them.

“I would say ‘it’s a pleasure’ but circumstances indicate otherwise.” Lailie stated. “Albus explained the situation to me a while back, and we’ve been discussing our options over the last few weeks.”

“Weeks?” Remus asked, utterly shocked. Poppy looked as surprised as he felt.

Lailie looked a little taken aback. “Why is that bad?”

Remus ignored her in favor of standing up, placing his hands on his hips and tapping his foot in frustration.

Severus glanced sharply at the headmaster. “I did not know you took my concerns so seriously. You seemed rather against them.”

“I was not against them. I didn’t want to take unwarranted measures.”

“What was unwarranted about them?”

Albus sighed. “I don’t mean your concerns were unwarranted, but Lailie and I have discussed the situation, and we decided that taking immediate action was not in Harry’s best interest.”

“Not in his best interest?!” Remus burst out incredulously. “How is helping Harry not in his best interest?”

“If we had tried to thwart this, we would have alerted the Dark Lord, and he would only have latched on harder. We don’t know what his plan is, but we didn’t want to provoke him into a full possession.”

“But that didn’t do any good! You just saw Voldemort possess him!”

“That was not a full possession, Remus.”

“Wha—“Remus stood there flabbergasted. Albus had been in the kitchen with them, seen the same thing. If that wasn’t a full possession, he didn’t want to know what was. He shook his head in disbelief and turned back around, facing the bed.

Harry lay there, pale as a ghost with the now familiar bags under his eyes. His lips were pulled taut and his jaw was clenched tight.

“Remus, we—“

“Don’t.” Remus held up a hand, stopping Albus from continuing. He didn’t want to hear it. He sat down on the edge of the bed instead. Ignoring the voice telling him not to, Remus reached a hand out to place it on top of Harry’s. The boy’s skin was as cold as ice.

Poppy came over next to him and gave his back a tender pat. “Try not to worry so much Remus. Albus is taking care of it.”

He wanted to scoff at her. Albus had known all along that something was going on and he had done nothing. As if reading his thoughts, Lailie spoke up.

“We weren’t ignoring the problem, Mr. Lupin. In fact, we’ve spent the time frantically researching the problem, figuring out the best way to deal with this. It just wasn’t possible to do anything right away.”

“Why not? Shouldn’t preventive measures have been taken?” Seeing that Remus was no longer interested, Severus took over the conversation. Lailie turned to face him, her robes swishing on the stone.

“There are no preventive measures. Matters were already under way before Harry ever was returned to you.”

“Surely something could have been done before now.”

“There were a few options we discussed, but none seemed optimal.”

“Why not?” Remus spoke up again. “Anything would have been better than this! I don’t understand!” He gestured wildly with his hands, and Severus thought he looked close to a breakdown. Albus reached out to calm him, and Remus knocked his hand away.

“The connection between Harry and the Dark Lord is very complex. What do you know of Horcruxes?”