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Chapter 31 - Chapter 31. Dumbledore, There’s Trouble Again!

Chapter 31. Dumbledore, There's Trouble Again!

"Professor Kettleburn, have you found anything?" asked Dumbledore.

Silvanus Kettleburn pointed at the face of a student lying on the floor.

"Dumbledore, look here."

Dumbledore bent down to examine, his brow furrowing.

"These appear to be claw marks from some kind of animal?"

"More precisely, the claw marks of an animal of the suborder Fissipedia," said Professor Kettleburn.

Professor McGonagall leaned in for a glance, then strode to another spot, bent to look, and said, "Look, there are some here as well."

Dumbledore said, "Professor Kettleburn, can you determine exactly which animal?"

"At first, I wasn't sure," said Professor Kettleburn.

"But based on what Snape said just now, I think I know which one.

The Mesmer Weasel—definitely that little fellow."

"I've heard that when a Mesmer Weasel senses danger, it sprays a poisonous mist.

That creature can render people unconscious, even cause memory loss."

"Are you certain?" Dumbledore said in a low voice, his bright eyes flashing with colour as though he were thinking of something.

After a moment's consideration, Professor Kettleburn said hesitantly, "It's only a hypothesis.

It's very difficult to judge from the shape of the wounds alone, and I've never actually seen that animal.

They're very mysterious."

"Professor Kettleburn, come and look at these hairs."

Professor Filius Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House, stood by the broken window and beckoned to the only magical-creatures expert present.

Professor Kettleburn walked over, slowly bent to pick them up, carefully examined their colour, felt their texture, and then held them to his nose for a deliberate sniff.

He said, "Now I'm eighty per cent certain.

The troublemaker in the carriage was a Mesmer Weasel.

I once saw one at the home of a friend of mine, Newt Scamander."

"So the culprit is identified?" said Professor McGonagall, her knitted brow not relaxing.

"But how did that magical creature called a Mesmer Weasel get into the carriage?

Is there a habitat for them nearby?"

Kettleburn tugged at his few remaining hairs, thought in distress for quite a while, and said, "I think so.

I recall a plain along the way where a group of Mesmer Weasels live."

"Did one blunder in when the train passed through there?" Professor McGonagall stared at the gaping hole in the window, her gaze suspicious.

"Have you finished your examination?" Madam Pomfrey's tone held a trace of anger.

She looked sorrowfully over the unconscious students on the floor.

If not for Dumbledore's request, she would already have taken them to the Hospital Wing.

"My apologies, Madam Pomfrey.

You can take them back now," Dumbledore said with an apologetic smile.

Madam Pomfrey nodded, hurriedly drew her wand and waved it.

One stretcher after another floated in from outside the carriage.

They settled to the floor; two sturdy straps wound round each student's body, hauled the student onto the stretcher, then rose again and glided back.

"Minerva, you go back first.

The students in the Great Hall still need you," Dumbledore instructed.

But his feet did not move.

He kept observing the surroundings, as if a doubt of his had yet to be resolved.

"What about you, Dumbledore?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"I'll stay here and help Madam Pomfrey," Dumbledore answered with a smile.

"Very well, we'll be off," said Professor McGonagall, and she left with the other professors.

Dumbledore's gaze passed through the carriage window and watched the professors' figures disappear.

He lowered his head and let his eyes sweep swiftly along the corridor.

"Found it..." Dumbledore murmured softly, a look in his eyes that said as much as "just as I thought."

He strode forward, tapped his wand lightly, and several students drifted up and flew towards the stretchers waiting in the doorway.

"Newt, you can't possibly have forgotten what I told you and made a similar case for your grandson—letting him bring it to school, have you?"

Dumbledore seemed to be talking to himself as he examined Duncan, who lay motionless on the floor.

After a moment, Dumbledore bent down and took from Duncan's hands the case he was clutching.

Narrowing his eyes in thought, he pinched the side button between two fingers and turned it slowly.

But when he opened it, inside were merely the most ordinary clothes, with two wrinkled socks on top.

"Not, then?" Dumbledore frowned slightly, a little puzzled, and turned the button again, but still nothing happened.

"What is it, Dumbledore?" Madam Pomfrey had finished with the students in the forward section.

Seeing Dumbledore standing stock-still with a case in his hands, she asked in confusion.

"Nothing," Dumbledore said with a smile and a shake of the head.

He set the case back beside Duncan and moved the students onto the stretchers with a flourish of his wand.

A few minutes later, the crowded carriage had become empty.

All the students had been transferred to the Hospital Wing.

"I'm going back, Dumbledore," Madam Pomfrey said at great speed, as if unwilling to waste even a second.

"I'll wake them as quickly as possible, and try to make sure they catch the Start-of-Term feast.

If they miss it, it'll be such a pity for those first-years..."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Much obliged.

Let's go together.

I ought to go to the Great Hall as well."

They stepped quickly off the train.

After they had gone only a short way and before they had even left the station, Professor McGonagall came hurrying towards them.

Under the dim light, her face looked dark as water.

Dumbledore began to ask, "Minerva, you—"

"There's trouble again, Dumbledore!" Professor McGonagall cut him off anxiously.

"Harry Potter is missing!

I've asked every first-year and they all say they haven't seen him.

Hagrid is over there crying in self-reproach—he says Harry must have fallen into the lake when they were in the boats."

"No.

Every boat protects the students it carries," said Dumbledore.

"I told him that, but Hagrid simply won't believe it," said McGonagall helplessly.

She glanced at the damaged carriage and could not help linking the two incidents.

She stepped closer to Dumbledore and said in a low voice, "Could it be those people?

They heard that Harry Potter was coming to Hogwarts, so..."

"I don't think they have the nerve for that at present," said Dumbledore, his tone certain.

"But..."

"Minerva, do me a favour.

Go to Vernon Dursley's at once and ask whether they have any word of Harry.

See whether they're blocking him again, keeping him from coming to school.

I'll preside over the Start-of-Term feast for the moment."

"I'm on my way," said Professor McGonagall, nodding briskly before turning on her heel and striding away.

Dumbledore walked in silence towards the lit castle, heavy with doubts.

This year's start at Hogwarts was unlike the others—rather too lively...

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