TBAY The Missing 24 hours, the untold story

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 43166

Captian Cindy was standing on the deck of her boat, felling very proud 
of herself about her recent pirating attack on the newcomer to the Bay, 
Meg, and her boat, THE FIRST MEMORY FRIEND. 

"That should teach her" she muttered. "No-one brings a new boat into 
this bay, or they shall face my Big Bang Canon (tm). Molly, indeed! 
ummmpf"

Behind her, a sudden flash or brilliance left on what just a few 
moments before was an empty deck a big, Grey Wolf. He didn't look 
particularly happy, but with wolves you can never know. This one was 
growling. A long, low growl. It was the audible equivalent of a 
shortening fuse.

Cindy looked curiosly at the wolf, and noticed that a note was resting 
at her feet. She made no move to pick it up.

"Really, Grey Wolf, that little notes were amusing at first, but if you 
want to tell me something, you'd better learn to speak," said Cindy, 
turning around without waiting for an answer.
 
The Grey Wolf looked around for a few seconds, and dashed behind a pile 
of sail cloth resting on the deck. A rip was clearly audible and what 
loked like a human came out from behind the pile. It was clearly, in 
general shape, male, although he was dressed in what appeared to be a 
toga made out of canvas. He was big, but not in the sense of being fat. 
He was just built to a scale slightly larger than normal. He was also 
suffering from a case of superfluous hair that not all the razors in 
the world could erase. Also, teeth and fingernails were being worn long 
this season. You'd expect the whole thing to growl, but it spoke in a 
clear, although definetily low, human voice.

"You know, Capt'n," he said in a chatting tone to an wide-eyed Cindy 
"that fashioning impromptu clothes out of anything to hand is a 
lesser-known werewolf skill?"

"What... where... " Cindy, for once, seemed to be at a loss for words 
"Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

"Surely, Capt'n, you recognize the old citizen of the cold North, Grey 
Wolf. Of course, I've got another name, for this shape, but I don't 
think you could really pronounce it, so I'm not going to tell you." 
Said the Grey Wolf, "And I'm here because I saw what you tried to do to 
my friend Meg"

The Grey Wolf got closer, and started to loom. Cindy found herself 
craning her head upwards to look at his face, and took a step back

"You really thought something could escape the watchfull eyes of the 
Safe House? Didn't your last visit to Pip's and mine humble house teach 
you nothing? Look: here I've got the tape of your conversation. 
Personal holografic technology, too"

A small, portable reproductor was in Grey Wolf's overgrown hand, and he 
carefully pressed the play button. Two small, translucents Cindy and 
Meg appeared. Cindy's voice came out of the machine.

> "It's just – well, you – you failed to perform a *Bang* assessment, 
> sailor!" the Captain chuckled, clapping Meg on the back.  "Don't 
> take it personally – it could happen to anyone.  But you can't just 
> trot out a new theory – no matter how good it is – without a proper 
> Bang assessment.  We have *standards* around here, you understand 
> that, don't you?"

"Standards?" said Grey Wolf "Coming from someone who terrorizes 
newcomers for sport? You're lucky that in this shape I don't eat human 
meat, Cindy, or I'd be tempted to nick you. Besides, isn't the fact 
that Ron and Harry connected so well from the begining Bangy enough? 
They almost seemed to be destined to like each other, and we now know 
why! They're what in my country we call 'milk brothers', and legend 
tells us that that always creates a big bond between two people"

The reproduction, momentarily stopped, was resumed
> "Here, let me help you sort out your Banging," the Captain said 
> easily.  "See, if Hagrid gave Harry to Mrs. Weasley, where's the 
> Bang there?  What?  She has Harry share a crib with Ron?  They fight 
> over Ron's hand-me-down teething toys?  She takes good care of Harry 
> and then –- what?  She doesn't do anything in 10 years to follow 
> up?  Wouldn't she want to see if the boy is OK, perhaps?  

"What you don't understand," explains Grey Wolf "is that Dumbledore, 
the great MAGIC DISHWASHER mastermind, arranges that quick visit to 
have someplace safe for Harry for one day, while he prepares an even 
safer place by using ancient magic: the Dursley's. Molly probably 
wanted to know how was Harry coming along, but Dumbledore kept the 
information secret for danger of a leak-out. Protecting Harry is 
difficult enough without having his situation becoime general 
knowledge, thankyouverymuch."

> "Not only that," the Captain went on, "but Mr. Weasley and Ron's 
> older brothers seem not to have any idea that Mrs. Weasley helped 
> save Harry's neck that fateful night.  If Mrs. Weasley had 
> possession of Harry for an entire 24-hour period, wouldn't Mr. 
> Weasley and maybe Bill and Charlie have some memory that a child 
> turned up on their doorstep for a single day and then vanished?  I 
> mean, what's the *point* of it all?  Where is this new theory 
> *going?*"

"Are you sure about that, Cindy? Wouldn't Mr. Weasley have an awful lot 
of work, the day after Voldemort takes a leave of absence? AND the day 
Sirius and Peter have the famous get-toghether? I'd say that all the 
MoM officials were up their ears in work during a whole week, trying to 
quiet down things. You should understand it better than anyone else, 
Cindy: Voldemort left with a Bang as big as you can get, and Peter 
followed suit," Gray Wolf patiently exposed "On the other hand, the 
children, I hear you say. Now, Capt'n, what do you think a twelve year 
old and someone who's at least 14 would be doing on the first of 
November? I'd say that they were sleeping late, after they went to bed 
very late after attending the Halloween party *at Hogwarts*, so they 
must have slept late *in Hogwarts*, don't you think?" Grey Wolf made a 
pause "Tsk, tsk, Cindy. I'm shocked at you. Shocked. A LOON shouldn't 
have forgotten that. And the theory does not need to go anyplace, 
except to explain why Harry dissapeared from the radar for a full day. 
It's the *first* mystery of the books, after all."

The Grey Wolf fast-forwarded the tape
> "That's right – the Longbottoms!  They're *perfect!*  Don't you 
> *see?*" the Captain cried.  "Frank Longbottom is this famous auror, 
> and his wife is – well, we don't know, really, other than we know 
> they have a son Harry's age.  Frank is in law enforcement and is 
> apparently pretty good at it, so Dumbledore would have every reason 
> to think Frank and his wife could keep Harry safe, especially with 
> Frank being authorized to use Unforgivable Curses.  So Dumbledore 
> asked them to care for Harry while more permanent arrangements were 
> being made that night.

"Every reason to trust them, Cindy? They weren't part of the old gang. 
And about the only Auror that Dumbledore trusts is Moody, who happens 
to *not* use the Unforgivables at every turn. I wouldn't leave a boy in 
charge of someone who might just start an AK duel while the boy's in 
the house." Exclaimed the Grey Wolf "And the best reason is exactly the 
reaon you've said: it could've leaked out, and put both the Longbottoms 
AND Harry in danger. Better give the boy to someone who's got the 
experience needed and is not as well known. The wife of a head of a 
minor MoM department would be great. Who happens to have a baby of the 
same age, and a new one, so she must have milk enough for all of them. 
And who has proven she can keep a secret, too. That paints a single 
person: Molly, one of the lesser known members of the old group.

The tape was fast-forwarded once again, until Cindy was heard saying
> "Oh, please.  I don't do acronyms, remember?"  The Captain glanced 
> side to side and leaned in closer to Meg.  "But I heard there is a 
> fabulous acronym generator that they used to use over at LOLLIPOPS, 
> just sitting there gathering dust.  If you polish it up a bit, it 
> ought to serve you very well indeed.  I don't think you were around 
> way back then, but the last owner got some *very* good results with 
> it, all things considered."

"You're going to get into big trouble if you even *hint* of 
re-stablishing MAGIC. The poor dear is turned off for a reason, you 
know." Grey Wolf added in a omnious voice" Besides, you wouldn't be 
able to find it. It has been... taken care of... let's say. Know that 
TAGWATCH, however, is a public service who welcomes every Acronym 
Petition."

Grey Wolf pocketed the holo-proyector, and looked hard at Cindy "I hope 
the air is clear know. I let you know that Meg's boat is under my 
protection, and I will fight with claws and fangs to defend her. Have a 
nice day"

Grey Wolf turned, as if to leave, but suddenly turned once more and 
said "Three more things, though, before I leave. One, Meg's eyes are 
not watery green, they are bright blue and she's damn proud of them. 
Two, there is no steering wheel on a Cal 20, it may be a racing boat 
but it's still run by a tiller. And three, watch out for the sharks"

With that, he threw her a cigarette end. Cindy caught it, out of a 
reflex, before suddely realizing she had already seen that particular 
cigarette "Oh, no, not again!" she exclaimed, but it was too late. She 
was already feeling as though a hook just behind her navel had been 
suddenly jerked irresistably forwards. The travel was short one, and a 
splash was heard besides the ship.

Grey Wolf absently grabbed a life-saver from the wall and walked to the 
railing. "There you go, Capt'n. After all, my motto is 'if you play 
with wolves, expect to be bitten'" Grey Wolf helpfully threw the 
life-saver near Cindy "Been a pleasure talking to you, Capt'n. See you 
around. Oh, and hope that helps," he sadi, pointing at the life-saver.

And with that, the Grey Wolf apparated away.

Grey Wolf, who has quoted Terry Pratchett for the descriptions of 
werewolves.

*************************
For an explanation of the acronyms and theories in this post, visit
Hypothetic Alley at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/Admin20Files/
hypotheticalley.htm 

and Inish Alley at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database?method=reportRows&
tbl=13