Author Notes – Here ends the second part of the story, and I hope you've enjoyed it all so far. In terms of word count, we're almost half way through now I reckon (page count is about 200), so still plenty more to come. Please read and, as always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Rating – PG

Note – I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, that privilege belongs to JK Rowling.

CHAPTER TWELVE

A Fallen Rook

Harry and Cedric paused briefly after they bolted through the door of the Three Broomsticks to see which way the stranger had gone. 'There!' Harry said loudly, pointing right. Cedric looked and saw him, striding purposefully towards the main village square, where most of the shops were located. They pursued him once more, determined to discover what exactly he was doing in Hogsmeade that weekend.

They received some strange looks as they ran, but Cedric's mind was working too fast on other things for him to care. The revelation that the man he had followed only a few weeks ago had been making repeat appearances made it clear that he was involved in something going on at Hogwarts, and the fact that it had been him and Harry who, as far as he knew, were the only two people in the school to have witnessed him, seemed like a very implausible coincidence. Cedric knew only too well that Harry was constantly surrounded by danger and mystery, and this time, Cedric was determined to be there when they got to the bottom of it. He cared too much about Harry to let him face yet another threat all on his own.

They were gaining on the stranger quickly, and so decided to hang back a little to avoid him noticing them, and to watch which way he went. The man in white paused, looking around, as though examining each of the shop names, before proceeding again, turning a corner into another street, and disappearing from sight. Harry and Cedric crept forward quietly, and Cedric poked his head round the corner. He could see that the man had paused outside a large shop that, as far as Cedric could tell, sold all sorts of bric-a-brac. From where he was, he could make out sets of Gobstones and other games in the shop window, as well as a large collection of robes and other clothes. The stranger seemed to be examining the items in the window closely, so Cedric reached into his robes and pulled out his glasses, in order to see the man's expression more clearly. Just as he put them on, the man seemed to make his decision, and strode into the shop.

'What do we do?' Cedric whispered, as Harry poked his head round the corner as well. The street they were watching now seemed to be deserted.

'We need to know what he's up to,' replied Harry. 'You'd better go into the shop.' Cedric raised his eyebrows at Harry. 'It's got to be you,' Harry continued quickly. 'There's always a chance he might recognise me if I do it.'

'I get it,' Cedric said, nodding. He wasn't relishing the prospect of a possible confrontation with the stranger, but he could see the logic of Harry's argument. 'Wait for me?'

'Of course I will, just be careful,' said Harry. Cedric gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and then walked forward, heading for the shop that the stranger had entered. He paused on the threshold, looked back at Harry's head still poking round the corner from the other street, and gave him an encouraging smile, before opening the door and stepping inside.

The inside of the shop looked very much like Cedric had expected. A wide range of items were arranged on the shelves, and from the look of it, a great deal of it was second hand. Cedric quickly spotted the stranger they had followed examining a set of games in the corner, and pretended, for the second time that day, to be interested in something that he had absolutely no interest in whatsoever, this time it was a very warn and battered Sneakoscope. He was concerned to see that it was spinning extremely quickly, and noted that it was just him and the man in the white in the shop at that moment.

The stranger passed by him, and for a moment they made eye contact. Cedric's natural reaction was to smile, so he did, and the stranger returned the gesture briefly, before moving away once more. Cedric watched him as he made his way to the counter, and waited. A moment later, a middle-aged women, who must have been the shopkeeper, appeared from the room behind the counter, and surveyed the man with an expression that Cedric couldn't interpret at all.

'Oh, it's you again,' she said, trying and failing to sound polite. 'What can I do for you this time?' Clearly this was not the first time the stranger had been in this shop, and from the sound of it, his last visit had been quite recently.

'I need a chess board,' the stranger said simply. There was a moment's pause before the woman shrugged and made her way back to the room behind the counter. Cedric could hear the sound of her moving things around. The man looked over at him, and Cedric once again pretended to be examining an item on the shelf.

The woman returned a second later, holding a large wooden box that obviously contained the chess set. 'That's the third one you've bought in a matter of weeks,' she said gruffly, and the stranger smiled mysteriously. 'What are you doing with them all?'

'I like to think several moves ahead,' he said cryptically, but did not elaborate any further. 'And while I'm here, do you have any Tarot cards?'

The woman raised her eyebrows at him, but didn't comment further, before reaching up to one of the shelves on the wall behind the counter, and reached down a pack of cards. She handed them to the stranger and said, 'That'll be twelve sickles in all then.'

'Dear me,' said the stranger, as he rummaged around in his trouser pockets, and extracted a large handful of coins. 'I can never get the hang of this currency.' He counted out twelve silver coins, and handed them to the woman, who placed them in the till. 'Thank you very much,' the man said with another smile, and turned to leave the shop. He paused as he reached the door, and looked back over at Cedric, but didn't say anything, and a moment later, he had gone back outside.

'Can I help you?' the woman said sternly, and Cedric realised that she was looking at him, she must have finally realised that he was there.

'Er, no,' said Cedric quickly, and started walking towards the door. 'I'm afraid you don't have the thing I'm looking for.' With that, he left the shop. Once outside, he looked round but there was no sign of the man in white, but he could see that Harry was still peering around the corner, a look of relief passed across his face when he spotted Cedric looking at him.

Cedric started to walk back towards him when he noticed something on the ground that hadn't been there when he had entered the shop. It must have dropped by that man, he thought, as he bent down to pick it up. It was a chess piece, one of the black rooks in fact. Cedric examined it closely, it looked perfectly ordinary to him, before pocketing it, and walking over to where Harry was waiting for him.

'There you are,' said Harry, breathing a sigh of relief. 'He just disappeared,' he continued, answering Cedric's forthcoming question. 'When he left the shop, he took a few steps down the street and then he must have apparated. When you didn't come out for a moment there, I was worried.' They kissed, and Cedric could feel Harry's sense of relief radiating off him. 'What happened in there?' asked Harry when they broke apart.

Before Cedric could answer, there was a shout and they both looked around to see Ron and Hermione hurrying towards them, looking concerned. 'There you two are,' said Hermione, breathing heavily. They had clearly been running for some time. 'We've been looking everywhere for you.'

'It's all right,' said Harry quickly. 'We're both fine. Sorry about running off like that, but we didn't have any time to lose.'

'Yeah well, almost as soon as you left, we decided to go after you,' Ron explained. 'But we didn't know which way you'd gone, we've been rushing round Hogsmeade for ages trying to find you. What happened? Did you find out where he was going in the end?'

They were both looking at Harry and Cedric expectantly. 'Well,' Harry said. 'We followed him here and saw him go into that shop over there.' He pointed to the second-hand shop. 'So, Cedric followed him inside and I watched from here.' He looked at Cedric. 'But he hasn't had a chance to tell me what happened when he went inside.'

All three of them were now looking at him, and Cedric felt a little uncomfortable. He glanced around nervously, and could see a pair of witches making their way down the street towards them. 'Not here,' he said in the end. 'We might be overheard. Come on, let's get back to the castle, I'll tell you on the way.'

As they made their way along the long, winding road that led from the village to the castle, Cedric told them what had happened in the shop, what the stranger had bought and the chess piece that he had found on the ground on his way out. 'Can I see it?' Hermione asked, and so Cedric produced the black castle and handed it to her. She examined it closely and tapped it with her wand. 'No,' she continued, handing it back again. 'It doesn't seem to have any spells attached to it, it's just an ordinary chess piece.'

'It's weird though isn't it?' said Harry. 'To buy a new chess set and then just carelessly drop one of the pieces in the street.'

'I don't think it was careless,' Cedric said. 'I think he left it there deliberately for me to find. Listen, when we made eye contact in the shop, for a moment it felt as though he recognised me. So perhaps he left it on purpose, as a clue maybe.'

'Some clue,' said Ron sarcastically. 'But how did he know who you were, and why would he want to leave you a clue of all people?'

'I don't know,' replied Cedric. 'None of this makes any sense. We still don't know who this guy is. We're no closer to any answers that we were earlier.' He paused, thinking about everything that had happened. 'I just can't help feeling we're being manipulated somehow.'

'Welcome to my world,' said Harry in a dark tone. 'What did you say was the other thing that he bought again?'

'A set of Tarot cards,' Cedric replied, and he noticed a thoughtful expression appear on Hermione's face as he answered. 'What are you thinking Hermione?'

'It's just that when Harry followed this man at the weekend, he said that he went to Professor Trelawney's classroom, and there are sets of Tarot cards in there as well.' Cedric thought this over, surely he could have just used one of those packs then. 'I don't understand the significance of Tarot cards though,' Hermione continued. 'In the Muggle world, they're something of a joke. And if it's a branch of Divination, I'm obviously cynical about it.'

They had reached the Entrance Hall. It was deserted, as most of the students wouldn't be returning from Hogsmeade for another hour or so. Harry turned to face the other three and said, 'What do you think we should do from here?'

Cedric knew at once what he wanted to do. He should have done it ages ago, and now was well past time. 'We need to talk to Dumbledore,' he said firmly. 'We should have done it as soon as this whole thing started. He's the only one who knows everything that goes on around here.'

'Would he tell us though?' asked Ron. 'You know what he's like, it's not inconceivable that he might try and hide something from us.'

'That's a risk we'll have to take,' replied Cedric. 'Come on.'

They started to walk towards the Grand Staircase when Harry suddenly stopped. The others did so as well and looked at him. 'I've just had a thought,' said Harry. 'How do we know whether Dumbledore's even here? He hasn't been for the last few days...'

'Oh look,' said Hermione, pointing to the Grand Staircase, where someone was walking down it, clearly heading for the Ground Floor. 'Here comes Professor Snape.' Cedric could see the Potions Master more clearly now, he was dressed in navy blue robes now, and still had that fixed smile on his face that he had been wearing for the past week.

'Do we have to?' Ron groaned. 'Nice Snape is almost as unbearable as the nasty version.'

'Oh, it's worth a try,' said Cedric, and he strode forward to meet Snape, who paused and looked at him, still with the same smile on his face. 'Professor, I'm sorry to bother you...'

'Not at all young Diggory,' Snape interrupted with a careless wave of his hand. 'I've always got time for excellent students such as yourself.'

'Erm, thank you sir,' replied Cedric, shooting Ron a warning look who was standing there looking as though he might be sick at any moment. 'I was wondering sir, if you might be able to tell us whether Professor Dumbledore is available this evening.'

'I can indeed,' Snape said. 'He returned from his travels only this afternoon. He is naturally tired from his journey but I'm sure he'd be happy to spare you a moment of his time. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to his office.'

Cedric nodded at the other three, and they followed Snape up the staircase towards the Second Floor. Cedric couldn't help noticing that Snape was whistling softly to himself as they walked. His bizarre change of personality had shown no sign of abating over the last few days. He was, if anything, in an even better mood than he had been at the start of the week. As they walked along the Second Floor Corridor, Snape looked at Harry and said, 'I've been marking your homework this afternoon Potter, another excellent piece of work. Take a well deserved five points for Gryffindor.'

They reached the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. Snape coughed in an embarrassed manner before saying clearly, 'Cockroach Cluster.' The gargoyle leapt aside, and Snape gestured for the four of them to start climbing the steps that led to the Headmaster's office. 'I'll be off now,' Snape said as they started to climb. 'See you all later.' And with that, he strode away, still whistling merrily to himself.

'He needs to be stopped,' said Ron as they climbed the staircase. After that, they were silent until they reached the large wooden door to Dumbledore's office. Harry knocked using the brass knocker and waited. A moment later, the door swung open and the four of them stepped inside, to find Dumbledore sitting at his desk, observing them closely through his spectacles. The office looked very much like Harry remembered, the whirring and spinning instruments were still in their place, and Fawkes was sitting on his perch, looking down at them.

'Good evening,' said Dumbledore warmly, with a smile. 'How nice of you to drop in. And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?'

They all looked at each nervously until Cedric decided to take the lead. 'We need to talk to you about something sir,' he said.

'Well, why don't you sit down?' replied Dumbledore, and conjured four chairs from thin air with a wave of his wand, which revolved gently before settling themselves down on the other side of his desk. They all sat down. 'Please, continue.'

Harry and Cedric looked at each other. 'You do it,' said Cedric, feeling that Dumbledore would be more willing to believe the story if Harry told it. He noticed that the Headmaster was watching them curiously, but he didn't say anything.

Harry began to tell Dumbledore everything that had happened in the last few weeks, leaving out of course the part about his relationship with Cedric. The others chipped in occasionally to offer more details, or to correct something he had got wrong. 'And so,' said Harry, when they had finally finished relaying everything about their trip to Hogsmeade. 'We thought we'd come and see you sir, and ask you if you knew anything.'

The Headmaster stood up and began to pace his office. 'Describe this man to me again.'

'Well,' said Cedric, having been the one to have seen him up close. 'He looked about forty or so, he had shortish brown hair and blue-green eyes.' He paused for a moment. 'Or were they grey? Anyway, he was wearing a white linen suit and had a white hat on. But the first time I saw him, his clothes were slightly different. Plaid trousers, a brown jumper and jacket.'

'I see,' replied Dumbledore. 'Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I shall endeavour to look into it.'

Was this it, Cedric thought. After all that, Dumbledore had no answers, just to tell them that he would look into it. 'But sir, if this man's doing something in Hogwarts, shouldn't we...?'

'Your concern has been noted Cedric,' said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling a little. 'But let me be very clear, it is not possible that the castle would allow just anyone inside unless it had a very good reason. As for this particular stranger, I regret that I am unaware of him, but as I said, I shall look into it, and keep you informed of anything I may discover.'

It was clear that the conversation was over. Cedric sighed heavily as they all got to their feet. Dumbledore smiled at them. 'I suggest you all concentrate on other things for a while. No doubt you all have a lot of work to be doing, and it will soon be Christmas. Think about that for the moment and I will deal will everything else.' They all nodded, thanked Dumbledore, and started to make their way towards the door.

'Oh, one more thing,' said Dumbledore. 'That chess piece you found on the ground Cedric, may I keep it.' Cedric felt reluctant to hand it over, but he could hardly say no. He reached into his robes, produced it and handed it to Dumbledore, who took it with a smile. 'Thank you, you can go now.' They all left the office, Cedric feeling both disappointed in the lack of answers but also relieved that at least Dumbledore would now be looking into it. Perhaps he was right, he thought, perhaps they should be worrying about other things.

After the door had closed and Dumbledore was alone once more, he stood silently for a moment, watching one of the spinning objects. After a few seconds, he walked quietly over to Fawkes' perch and whispered something to the phoenix in a language that was most definitely not English. He stepped back again, and Fawkes disappeared in a burst of flame. Dumbledore smiled lightly to himself before returning to sit at his desk once more.

Ten minutes or so passed, and Dumbledore amused himself by unsticking and eating a few sherbet lemons, while reading some of the correspondence on his desk. Eventually, he pulled out his golden pocket watch and examined it closely. 'Just about now,' he muttered, and put it back into his robes. The fire in the corner of the room suddenly roared into life with emerald flames shooting forward accompanied by a large amount of smoke. A man appeared, revolving into view in the fireplace. He coughed and spluttered as he clambered out of the grate, wiping soot from his white linen suit, and looking disgruntled.

'Disgraceful way to travel,' he muttered, removing his hat and beating it ferociously in an attempt to remove some of the ash. 'Can't you think of a more pleasant method?' He moved forward and clapped Dumbledore on the shoulder, who smiled widely.

'I would say welcome back,' said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling once more. 'But it seems that you've been making use of the castle in my absence. It clearly likes you, to let you in without my permission.'

'I have a way with buildings,' the man replied, putting his hat back on his head. He started to pace the room, examining the objects. 'You've redecorated recently,' he said. 'I don't like it.'

'Thank you,' said Dumbledore. 'I always try and base my decor on what you won't like –

'Don't use my name,' said the stranger quickly, looking around the room sharply. 'It's not the time yet. Believe me, Smith will do just fine.'

'Well "Smith",' replied Dumbledore in an exaggerated fashion. 'You need to be more careful, I've just had the four of them up here telling me they've been following you.'

'I know,' said Smith, grinning widely. 'It's just a bit fun Albus honestly.' He sat down in the chair opposite Dumbledore's. 'There was never any serious danger they might find out what's actually going on.'

'Even so, I would prefer it if you kept your manipulation of my students to the minimum level possible. As a result, I think it would be best if you didn't come back here for a while, at least until suspicions are allayed. We can remain in contact about strategy, of course, but I'm afraid I must request that you do not visit the castle again until after Christmas.'

Smith looked annoyed, and for a moment, as though he might respond angrily, but in the end, he merely nodded and said, 'Your wish is my command Albus. I have other things to be concentrating on for a while anyway. There's a lull in the game.'

'Excellent,' replied Dumbledore. 'I don't want Harry and the others to suffer unnecessary stress until it's absolutely unavoidable.' Smith nodded once more, and Dumbledore seemed to be satisfied. 'Now then,' he continued, a smile returning to his face. 'Shall we discuss strategy once more?' He stood up, and moved over to a small table in one corner of the room, which was out of sight from the door to his office. 'You have the chess board?'

'Naturally,' Smith said, and from thin air, he produced the wooden box that he had purchased in Hogsmeade earlier that day. 'I've fixed it so that when I move a piece on my one, it will also move on this one, and vice versa.' He put the set down on the table, and opened the box. 'That way, we will be able to communicate strategy easily.'

'Ingenious,' said Dumbledore, looking closely at the chess pieces. 'Salazar Slytherin would have been proud,' Smith grimaced, and Dumbledore smiled once more. 'Sorry, I forgot you don't like to be reminded of your old House.'

'You know perfectly well that I'm only an honorary member,' snapped Smith, looking disgruntled once more. 'Salazar made me one after the last time we dealt with this whole sorry business, and that was before he went crazy.'

'My mistake,' said Dumbledore, clearly amused at how annoyed his visitor was. 'Now then, shall we get on?' He gestured at the board, and Smith began to move the pieces into place.

'It's his move next,' said Smith absent-mindedly as he placed all the white pieces in their correct locations. 'I think,' he added, looking at their formation, 'he's going to try an attack with his queen and a bishop.' He moved on to moving all the black pieces into place. 'But he's going to struggle to get through my Hadrian's Wall, even without one of the pawns.'

'All very cleverly thought out,' mused Dumbledore, watching Smith closely, as he moved the remaining pieces into their correct places. 'Although you'll find there's a piece missing.'

Smith looked over at him. 'Oh, they told you about that as well then.' Dumbledore nodded. 'Well, I assume you've got it then?'

'Naturally,' said Dumbledore, and he reached inside his robes and retrieved the black rook that he had taken from Cedric. 'Here you are.' He handed it to Smith, who took it with a look of relief. 'Put Cedric back in his place.' Smith put the rook on the board.