Harry-Dementor

2- My Precious

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."

"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 see?"

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 portrait."

Harry was more than a little upset that he'd been put in a room with a portrait directly connected to the headmaster's office. It seemed like a huge breech of privacy in his mind. He really, really didn't want to make a big deal out of it though as he didn't want any more attention on him or the fact that he was only borrowing the body he was currently in. He prayed that it'd all pass over and the headmaster would buy his excuse.