After determining his pet was fine, he decided it needed a name. He couldn't just keep referring to it as the Harry-suit in his head. It was living and breathing, if soulless, and deserved a name. He quickly discounted Har as it sounded too much like 'hair.' Ry just didn't seem like him. James was his father's name. Jamie…that would work. Jamie, he whispered to himself in his mind. Yes, that's what he would call his former body.
The Order was still meeting downstairs, so Harry glided through the closed window, something he was happy to learn was possible since he hadn't tried it before and flew off into the night, looking for Hedwig. After finding his owl and flying together for a bit, Harry tried to figure out how to disappear into shadows like the dementor in Surrey had done when he was leaving after having destroyed Harry's life. He didn't know if it was a type of transport or invisibility though.
Four hours later and Hedwig was still hooting good-humoredly at him as he ran into walls trying to transport himself somewhere. "Stop laughing at me," he pouted at his owl. "I learned to fly my first try. How long did it take you?"
Hedwig just continued to hoot in a way that closely resembled chuckles while Harry pulled a tube of lip balm from his tattered robes and applied it to his chapped lips with a pale, skeletal hand. As much as he used it, it never seemed to help very much. "Maybe it's just invisibility and not travel," he finally admitted. He had been hoping for a better form of travel than what he'd experienced in the wizarding world.
Another two hours, and Harry had finally figured out how to turn himself invisible and disappear into any shadow around himself. Hedwig almost fell off her branch the first time he was successful wondering where her dementor had gone to. "Yes!" Harry laughed, which sounded more like the gasps of a dying man, but Hedwig knew what they were, and that's all that mattered.
Dawn was approaching as Harry made his way back to Grimmauld Place. It seemed that the dementor sense of direction was impeccable. He figured that would definitely be useful one day. After a quick check that Ron was still asleep, Harry glided back into their room and made his way over to Jaime.
A loud squeak sounded from the corner of the room and Harry whirled around. The stern-looking man rushed out of his portrait in fear. Harry stared at it for a second more before shrugging. He quickly merged back with his body and pretended to be asleep. That lasted for three seconds before the high-pitched wail of an alarm sounded throughout the house.
Ron and Harry both shot up in their beds. Footsteps pounded down the hallway and their door was thrown open by a scared werewolf wearing slippers and a blue housecoat. "That's the emergency alarm!" Remus called out with his wand drawn. "Everyone is to meet down in the kitchen! Hurry, stick with me!"
Throwing back their covers, Ron and Harry rushed out of the room and into the stream of people rushing down to the kitchen. Harry's mind was reeling, whatever was going on had to have something to do with the portrait seeing him, but how could a portrait have set off some sort of emergency alarm? He needed an excuse and fast…
Everyone in various stages of undress were sleepily crammed into the kitchen at Grimmauld Place. Sirius looked like he probably didn't sleep in anything since he was only wearing his jeans from the day before that weren't zipped up. Harry saw Mr. Weasley whisper to his godfather who quickly zipped and buttoned the trousers with a roll of his eyes instead of any embarrassment. Ginny and Hermione were both leaning against each other looking like they could fall asleep at any point in time, and the Weasley twins were already asleep once more, propped up in the corner. The only people who looked on the alert and ready for danger were Remus and Snape. Harry was very confused about why the potion master must be staying at the house. He was wearing his normal black robes and seemed way too awake to have been woken up by the alarm. Both Snape and Remus had their wands out and stood in front of the others while obviously waiting on the arrival of someone.
The kitchen door opened, and the two alert men visibly let out a sigh of relief when Albus Dumbledore, wearing a pink and green dressing gown, entered through it. "This had better not be another of your drills," Snape sneered menacingly at his employer.
"Unfortunately, it isn't," Dumbledore looked around the room and seemed to be counting up the residents anxiously. His gaze lingered for a second on Harry and the old man's face softened in relief and care. "Phineas woke me up screaming that a monster was in the boys' room not five minutes ago. I checked the house, and I can't find anything out of the ordinary now though."
"Really?" Snape narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Harry, not even looking over to where Ron was sneaking a biscuit out of the tin on the counter. "What sort of monster did the former headmaster think he saw?"
Dumbledore waved his wand and tea started making itself on the stove and the tin of biscuits flew out of Ron's hand and onto the table. "He wasn't sure, only that it was tall, cloaked, and hooded."
"Erm, Headmaster…I think he may have just seen me," Harry added tentatively. He'd worked out a quick excuse and the description the portrait had given (thank Merlin!) fit within his hastily constructed excuse quite well.
"Oh really, my boy," Dumbledore turned twinkling eyes to his favorite student. "Were you tall, cloaked, and hooded in your room?"
The dementor-in-hiding chuckled to dismiss the concern. "I don't think anyone has ever called me tall, sir. However, I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to go through my trunk and pull out some damaged school robes. I was trying them on to see if they could be repaired or if I'd need to replace them before school starts back. I guess if you saw someone in a cloak in the dark that you believed to be asleep, it would be a bit concerning. I didn't know the portrait in our room was connected to you, sir. I thought he was just a normal house portrait."
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