The receptionist on the desk at St Mungo's was well aware she shouldn't let these twelve people into ward 49 but who could say no to Harry Potter? She certainly couldn't and had no intention of replying in the negative to ANYTHING he asked of her, the witches hand trembled as she personally pinned his visitors badge to his robes, taking as long as she dared and as many liberties as she thought she could get away with.
Joan was just itching to let this woman feel her right shoe impacting with her bony ankle but had been warned by her mother they needed to get into this room so dad would be laying on the charm a bit thick. When her dad took the jezebel's hand off his chest and kissed the back of it Joan had to be physically restrained by her granddad from attacking the harlot.
The receptionist didn't even notice the glares coming from the little girl as the entire party filed past her, she was in a fantasy world that had those lips kissing her body in ever decreasing circles as they made their way slowly to their intended target. The corridor had been empty for over ten minutes and she was still standing there with shudders running through her body.
Neville took his mother by the hand and led her back to bed, Augusta had finally got her brain cells communicating with each other, "Lord Potter are they in any danger from this?"
"This procedure won't cause them any harm at all."
Poppy's sigh alerted everyone that they weren't being told the full truth, "What Harry is going to attempt is to enter their minds and try to locate their consciousness, this procedure has never harmed a patient but quite a few healers who have attempted it have lost themselves and been unable to return. The procedure was discontinued as the risks were judged to far outweigh any gains."
"Harry, I appreciate the offer but I can't let you take that risk," said a shocked Neville.
Harry tried to reassure everyone, "you all saw the evidence today that Hermione and I are soul bound, she will be my anchor, my beacon to lead me home. All research shows that making contact is only half the battle as I have to convince them to leave their sanctuary and the longer it's been since the trauma the harder it will be."
Hermione showed her husband had her full backing by explaining the rest of the plan, "When Harry has made contact we have to use our patronus to generate an atmosphere of safety and love to encourage their return. Hopefully we will still be able to communicate and get our timing right."
Luna drew her wand and kissed Neville before practicing her patronus, an Old English sheepdog padded around the room. Hermione couldn't help but think how apt that was, an intelligent lively animal who was extremely loyal and protected her herd.
Neville's was a bear and Ginny kissed Harry on the cheek before a sword-wielding knight astride a white charger galloped around the room for a few seconds, not one person there was surprised that the knight bore a remarkable likeness to Harry. Joan now understood about the patronus charm and couldn't help but think hers would be along the lines of her aunt Ginny's, her dad on a horse was a powerful image but she didn't understand the sword.
Harry was sitting beside the bed with his eyes closed, concentrating on what he had to do when a familiar weight settle in his lap and a small pair of arms encircled his chest. A whispered "come back to us dad" was followed by a kiss on the cheek as he silently said the incantation.
Harry was in a very strange environment, he found himself completely surrounded by white bed sheets that were about eight feet tall. He imagined this would be the result of some advertising executive that had been given Persil detergent to try, and instead of putting it in the washing machine had spent all night snorting the white powder. To make matters worse the sheets were blowing in a wind that constantly changed direction. His sense of disorientation was causing him to start panicking until he felt the calming presence of his wife.
It was similar to talking with Amelia on the mobile from Italy, there seemed to be a slight delay, which felt really weird, as Hermione and he had got so used to flashing memories, messages and ideas to one another instantaneously now that they did it all the time without even noticing. He recognised this as some type of maze and Hermione asked if he had his wand there with him, guessing where she was going with this he drew it and placed it flat on his hand.
"Point me Alice Longbottom."
His wand span around in circles for a minute or so before settling down and giving a positive indication to the right of where he was standing, having no better clue he followed the direction his wand was pointing.
After edging his way through the maze and repeated castings of the 'point me' spell Harry was beginning to contemplate cutting curses followed by reparo charms to make his way through the sheets, Hermione's loud 'NO!' startled him so much he nearly dropped his wand.
"Harry we have no idea what damage using a cutting curse would do, you're in someone's mind."
Harry soldiered on trying to solve the craziest maze ever invented using the spell his wife discovered for the tri-wiz maze, he was starting to worry as all sense of time had long gone. The only indication that he was venturing deeper into the maze was the increased delay in contact with Hermione.
Harry moved a sheet and came upon a young round-faced woman who was sitting at her dressing table, running a brush through her luscious brown hair in front of a vanity mirror. This image appeared about fifty years younger than the Alice Longbottom he'd seen Neville leading by the arm, the sparse grey hair and clapped in cheeks had prematurely aged the poor witch who'd yet to reach her fortieth birthday.