Chapter Seven
It was Dumbledore's portrait, directly behind the desk. He looked wide-awake and alert, his blue eyes gazing directly at the Slytherin headmaster. "Do not leave the room."
"Well!" Phineas smirked, "I might remind you, Dumbledore, that you are no longer the current Headmaster, and I am at liberty to do whatever I please without reference to you. So, if you'll excuse me," he turned once again to exit the room.
"I suggest we give these students a chance to explain themselves before we do anything rash. If you alerted the Headmaster now, I'm afraid you might damage the reputation of your own house beyond repair."
"What do you mean?" Phineas asked, his eyes narrowed. Slytherin house and everything pertaining to it was his passion.
"If my memory serves me correctly, Mr. Crabbe, Miss Parkinson, and Miss Greengrass are all in Slytherin. Slytherin house, at this time, is the most favored in the school. How would it look if the three students from that house were caught in the Headmaster's office without permission?"
"Well..." Phineas hesitated, clearly torn between his tattling instincts and his house's reputation. "I suppose..." He looked sharply at Neville, Ginny, and Luna. "The three of you are in my house?"
Luna nodded before either of the others could reply. "Oh yes. It's quite the best house. You must remember when the three of us got all "Outstandings" on our O.W.L.'s two years ago? I was quite sure I saw you in one of the portraits during the celebration in the common room."
Neville looked at Luna, quite impressed with her wild inventing. Although he doubted that the three students whose names they were using would have received anything past "Acceptable" in any of their exams, Phineas would be quite willing to remember something that showed Slytherin students in so favorable a light.
'Oh . . . yes. Yes, I do remember that well!" Said Phineas, brightening up. "Quite the party!"
"Oh, yes." Said Ginny complacently. "Professor Snape in particular was very pleased."
"I would think so!" Said Phineas with dignity. "I daresay he wouldn't mind that you've run up to his office. Carry on with whatever it was you were going to do. I'll just . . ." he mumbled something incoherent and hurried past the sleeping witch and out of the room, looking rather embarrassed.
"Has he gone to tell Snape after all?" Neville asked warily.
"I would wager against it, Mr. Longbottom," said Dumbledore quietly. "But you were very foolish to come up here. You too, Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood."
Ginny looked abashed, but spoke firmly. "There's something we've got to do up here, Professor. Surely you wouldn't tell Snape! He was the one who . . . who killed you! He's working for You-Know-Who! You wouldn't tell him, would you? You must know what the Carrows are like, they'd kill us if they learned we were in this room."
"I certainly would not turn any student over to the mercy of the Carrows," said Dumbledore, fixing her with his sharp blue eyes, "but I must insist on knowing what you hope to accomplish here."
'It's. . . It's to help Harry." Said Neville. "He's out there on his own, he needs all the help we can give him! Please, Professor, just let us do what we came to do!"
"Admirable as your aims to aid Harry are, Mr. Longbottom, I must ask once again what, precisely, it is that you came here to do?"
"I -" Neville stammered "well, we-"
"We've come to take the sword. Gryffindor's sword." Ginny spoke bluntly.
Dumbledore did not look angry, or even surprised.
"Ah." he said. That was all.
Ginny's voice became passionate. "You left it to Harry, Professor! And the Ministry refused to let him have it! You can't be happy to see it up here! He's out there alone, we have to do all we can for him!"
Dumbledore spoke gently. "I understand your concern for Harry, Miss Weasley. Please believe that mine is just as great. But take it from me that you cannot aid him in this way. You will do him no good by attempting to remove the sword, and are putting yourselves in a very dangerous position."
"I'm sorry, Professor. I know you're trying to help," said Ginny "But we've been planning this for weeks. We've already been up here for too long. We're not giving up now," she finished stubbornly. Neville and Luna nodded in the background.
Dumbledore looked at them with an odd expression; it might gave been sadness; but then, it might have been pride. For a long moment no one spoke. Then Luna piped up:
"I understand if you don't want to help us, Professor," she said "but it would be quite nice if you could let us know if there are any enchantments guarding the sword? Because if there are, we'll have to figure out how to get past them."
