Dumbledore stood outside the house, his wand pointed straight ahead. Soon, he would be through the wards. He gritted his teeth in effort. Strange, the ward was a lot stronger than he expected and he kept having the urgent desire and need to go back to Hogwarts to check on it. That must be the effect of another ward. A strong one too. Harry had to be complimented on how well he had protected his house. He wondered who exactly had done the warding. Probably the goblins, he thought. No matter, he was close to breaking through. He could feel it. Any moment now, the ward would pop like a balloon and he would be able to enter. Any moment now...
Suddenly a voice broke the silence as a young man exited the house - "You know, I'm sure there are better ways to commit suicide. Care to tell me why you decided to kill yourself in front of my house?"
Dumbledore, nearly dropped his wand in surprise. He felt a bit embarrassed at being caught in the act of breaking in but ruthlessly crushed those emotions as he brought forth his usual public persona.
"Aah Harry, my dear dear boy. You have no idea how good it is to see you after so many many years," said Dumbledore as he beamed at the dark haired young man. Harry was looking well, he decided. No longer a scrawny teen, he had filled out very well and looked extremely health and muscular.
"Can it, Dumbledore. I really don't appreciate it when people try to break into my house. So why don't you just bugger off back to wherever you came from," snapped Harry.
Dumbledore was quite taken aback at the hostility that Harry was displaying. Yes, perhaps it had been a bit presumptuous of him to have tried to break through the wards but he had seen no other way to contact the house. What had he been supposed to do? Stand outside the front gates and yell? Make an utter spectacle of himself as he attempted to garner Harry's attention? Still, he would soldier on. He would just have to ignore Harry's utterly appalling rudeness.
"My dear boy, I do apologise. At my advanced age, I sometimes forget the proprieties. I do hope you can forgive me." There, that should be enough to placate the boy and it seemed to have worked. The boy's expression had softened a bit. Good, that was good.
"Well, I guess there's no harm done after all," said Harry. "Unfortunately Professor, you've caught me at a rather bad time. Perhaps you could come back some other day." Harry didn't really expect Dumbledore to just go away, but there was no harm in trying.
"Harry, I have come a very long way to see you, my boy. Surely, you can't me to turn me away? Not after I've been searching for you for so many years."
"I have a lot to do today Professor, especially since you seem to have found me so easily. Voldemort could turn up at any moment. I have to...I have to...I need to make sure I am protected for when that happens and I really don't have any time to stand around debating things with you," stated Harry.
Dumbledore's face turned pale for the briefest of moments before he schooled his expression back into geniality. "My dear Harry," he said. "I assure you, Voldemort will not be able to find you so easily. I'm sure it will take him weeks or maybe months before he gets the slightest idea where you are."
"What makes you so certain of that fact, Professor?" asked Harry. Damn it, he needed to get rid of the bugger and get started on his Fidelius. Bloody hell, why couldn't the old man just go?
"You know what?" snapped Harry before Dumbledore had even opened his mouth to start formulating a response. "I really don't have time to sit around here arguing with you, you can stand around here all day for all I care." With that, Harry turned around and strode back towards his house. He hadn't even reached the front door however when he felt his wards being attacked again.
"God damn it," he screamed before running back to his front gates and grabbing a surprised Dumbledore. He took a hold of the man's robes, pressed what could have been a pocket watch or a brooch of some sort against his forehead and then dragged him towards the house.
"Bugger it," he cried. "I really don't want to have your death on my conscience so...damn...frak it...I'm giving you guest access. As long as you don't do any active magic you can come into the house." He hustled Dumbledore inside the house and forced him into a chair in his living room.
"Sit there, and don't bloody move," he shouted. "I've set the wards so that you can't leave this room. Whatever you do don't do any magic. None, whatsoever. Even a Lumos charm will see you physically ejected outside the house by the wards and let me tell you that is really not a comfortable experience. At your age, you'll be lucky if it doesn't kill you. At the bare minimum you'll break your bloody hips."
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