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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 47: An Unexpected Visit
After Snape left his office, Dumbledore went to a different drawer, taking out a notebook where he had been writing all his theories and ideas.
"Harry…" He went over every note he had taken since the end of the tournament.
There were a few things that he could not make sense of, and after hearing what Snape had to say tonight, he had even more questions.
"Saved by dementors?... wait… that same night. Yes, it was the same night when the dementors disappeared from Azkaban and Miss Tonks's partner was murdered at the prison." He had also written everything about that.
The details were on the pages in front of him. There was mention of the dementors behaving in a strange manner before their disappearance.
Then Tonks and her companion were sent to investigate. This is where a mysterious intruder somehow entered Azkaban and attacked them.
"Imperio and obliviation…" Tonks had been placed under the Imperius Curse and led to the basement of the fortress, where the intruder had presumably taken something, although the investigators never found out what it was. Later on, Tonks was obliviated and left at the entrance of the prison, where one of the guards found her.
"It's the same…" Dumbledore found it curious how similar the pattern was compared to what occurred to Cho Chang.
"Could this intruder be the Hogwarts murderer?... that would mean that…"
His eyes moved to the pages of the notebook. "Saved by dementors… Harry Potter…"
He shook his head as if trying to push the mere idea away. "No. He is the boy of the prophecy. Murders, Unforgivable Curses, dark rituals… Harry would never be able to do that. Or even gain the knowledge to perform such magic." Not only was Harry very young, but he also grew up in the Muggle world.
The only magical knowledge he had came from this very school.
"There is no way that…" Dumbledore froze.
A terrible thought came to his mind. When the Killing Curse hit Harry, it destroyed a soul.
His theory was that Harry survived because only the fragment of Voldemort's soul was destroyed by the curse, but what if it was the other way around?
"What if the boy's soul was the one lost?" That would be an absolute disaster.
They would basically have two Dark Lords to deal with and no savior to stop them.
Dumbledore refused to contemplate this idea any further, but he still wrote it down in his notebook before closing it up and resting his quill.
Leaning back in his chair, Dumbledore closed his eyes and tried to calm his nerves.
Fawkes let out a cry from his perch.
Dumbledore glanced at the phoenix, who was now staring at him with what could only be interpreted as concern.
This brought a smile to his face. "I am fine, Fawkes. I just… don't know how to solve this yet. But I will figure it out, as I always do."
Just then, he heard a noise coming from downstairs.
"Who could that be at this hour?" Dumbledore turned his attention to a mirror-like device he always had in the other corner of his desk.
He lifted it up, and it showed him what the gargoyle at the entrance was seeing.
"Harry Potter…"
The boy was standing at the entrance, knocking on the statue while looking around.
The Headmaster then activated the statue, opening the entrance and allowing Harry to come up.
He watched with curiosity as the boy ventured inside his office.
Dumbledore noted that Harry looked… scared and confused but made no mention of it.
"Mister Potter, I'm sure you are aware that no student is allowed to wander the halls after classes are over. And we are way past that time now."
"Professor, I'm sorry. Just…" Harry approached the desk with hesitation. "You told me to come to you if I remembered something about that night."
"Oh? In that case, I suppose I can make an exception." He pointed at the chair in front of him. "Take a seat."
Harry did as he was told and sat down, looking timid and avoiding the Headmaster's inquisitive eyes.
Dumbledore waited patiently for Harry to start speaking.
"Professor, it was awful… that night… I remember being taken to some kind of cemetery. Peter Pettigrew was there. He was the one who killed Diggory. Then, he captured me and tied me down to some statue. I remember him making a cut on my arm. He then used my blood for some kind of ritual. And then…"
Dumbledore listened attentively to Harry's tale and found some inconsistencies in the details compared to what he already knew of that night's events.
Unbeknownst to the Headmaster, this was because Harry didn't really remember anything that had occurred after Wormtail stunned him and was just making educated guesses to fill the gaps.
Harry was getting to the part where Voldemort came back to life and tried to kill him when he stopped all of a sudden.
"Something wrong?" Dumbledore asked.
"Sorry, it's just… my throat feels a bit dry. Could I have something to drink? Perhaps some tea."
"Of course. How inconsiderate of me not to offer." Dumbledore snapped his fingers and a tea set appeared on the table.
A kettle came flying from one of the shelves, then began to prepare itself.
"How handy," Harry commented.
"Household magic can be very convenient." Dumbledore smiled. "Perhaps we should teach some of this at school."
Harry moved one of his hands under the table, pulling a tiny glass vial containing a thick black liquid from inside.
In a couple of minutes, two cups of hot tea were prepared and placed in front of them.
Harry moved his eyes past the Headmaster to something behind him.
"Did something happen to Fawkes? He looks smaller," he pointed out.
Dumbledore only took his eyes off Harry for a second to glance at his phoenix. "You have noticed that? Yes, he has gone through another rebirth cycle very recently."
Harry did not waste the opportunity and used a wandless banishing charm to sneak a single drop of poison inside his tea. The liquid inside the cup got slightly darker, but it wasn't too noticeable.
"Now, we should get back to the matter in question," Dumbledore said before picking up the teacup.
"Of course, Professor." Harry responded with a tone devoid of emotion as he saw the old wizard bring the cup closer to his lips.
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