Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry learns of Albus Dumbledore's death, but where is the horcrux?

Chapter 29: The Phoenix' Lament

Eventually the students became aware of another melody sounding somewhere outside, a strange and terribly sad song. Some children went back up to their dorms to have a look out the windows and soon word drifted back into the common room that a strange burning bird was flying around the grounds singing while silver drops fell from his burning body.

There was some argument over whether it was a firebird or a phoenix, but Harry had little trouble identifying him.

"That's Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore's phoenix," he informed his dorm-mates "I wonder whom he's trying to heal, though."

"Maybe the burnt hut," Seamus suggested.

"The burnt plants?" Neville offered. "That might work if they are still alive."

"You don't think there were any injured animals in there when it caught fire, do you?" Dean asked.

"If so they're already dead," Harry said. "Even phoenixes can't heal the dead."

"He's just a bird," Ron pointed out. "He probably doesn't know."

Fawkes was still singing when the long expected house elf finally appeared and told them to come down into the Great Hall.

It was a bit early for dinner and indeed there was no food on the tables when they arrived, but almost the entire staff was assembled along with a number of strangers, some of whom wore Aurors' robes.

Harry chose a seat at the far end of the Gryffindor table when he recognised Auror Potter among them. He did not want anything to do with the man. Most likely, he thought, it had been he who had let the Death Eaters into the institute and now he was playing the good Auror who had helped to defend it.

When all the students had arrived Professor McGonagall stood up to speak to them. Only then did Harry notice that Professor Dumbledore was not there. But of course he had left to get that horcrux! Harry hoped that he wouldn't feel too bad when he returned and learned what had happened.

"Last night," Professor McGonagall announced. "Professor Dumbledore left the institute on some important business. During his absence a group of Death Eaters attacked and destroyed Honeydukes in Hogsmeade. Somehow they managed to get into Hogwarts from there. How they could have achieved that when every entrance to the castle was strongly warded against them and Professor Dumbledore had reinforced those wards right before his departure is still under investigation."

There was some hissing among the adults behind her, but Harry was much too far away to understand anything except for Professor McGonagall's exasperated: "Severus! James! Please!"

"The Death Eaters cast the Dark Mark over the institute which alerted Professor Dumbledore and the Aurors as well as our dear friends of the Order of the Phoenix. In the ensuing battle Professor Dumbledore was killed and several others were injured. I am happy to be able to inform you that they will all survive and that two Death Eaters have been captured. In the aftermath of the battle there is a lot of cleaning up to be done, however, so classes are cancelled until further notice. For the moment I will be acting headmistress and Head of Gryffindor house, but I expect that we will have a new headmaster before the start of the next school year."

"If they don't close the institute entirely," Professor Flittwick interjected.

"Indeed that is a possibility, but in that case they will have to provide an alternative place of education for magical children," Professor McGonagall confirmed. "I do not think that that will be possible on such short notice. Now I suggest that those of you who are in contact with your families go and write owls to reassure them and any of you that know or suspect they know or have overheard something that could shed some light on how the Death Eaters got into the institute or what the important business Professor Dumbledore left the institute on might have been, please come to see me in the headmaster's office."

Harry obediently went to the headmaster's office straight after the announcement, but found that quite a crowd had already gathered there.

Professor Sprout took everybody's names and told most of them that they should return after dinner as the headmistress didn't have time to speak with all of them before then.

So Harry went to the common room and wrote a letter to his mother as Professor McGonagall had suggested. Auror Potter could rot as far as he was concerned. Besides he had been here the whole time anyway. He knew what was going on.

It was actually almost curfew by the time Harry finally got to see Professor McGonagall. At least by then he had also figured out exactly what he was going to tell her.

"I have information on both questions," he stated right away so she wouldn't dismiss him after his first explanation. "I think the Death Eaters got in through a secret tunnel that used to lead from the statue of the one-eyed witch into the basement of Honeydukes. That must be why they attacked the shop. And I think they found out from Auror Potter. I know of the tunnel from a map he drew."

"That doesn't mean that he must have told the Death Eaters as well," Professor McGonagall said. "In fact, if he found that tunnel as a boy, Peter Pettigrew probably knows of it too. They were close friends back then. Why didn't you report this sooner when you knew it posed a danger to the institute?"

"I ... I thought the headmaster already knew, Professor. He ... ought to have the map anyway ... have had the map, I mean. I lent it to the false Professor Moody and you and Professor Dumbledore searched his things after he got arrested and I never got it back."

Then he explained that Professor Dumbledore had told him that he was going to retrieve another of You-Know-Who's horcruxes and had promised to let him watch when he and Professor Snape destroyed it.

"I will inform Professor Snape of this," the headmistress promised. "If Professor Dumbledore did bring back a horcrux he is the best qualified person we have to even touch it. Do you know where the horcrux was supposed to be hidden in case Professor Dumbledore aborted his mission early because of the Death Eater attack?"

Harry told her all he knew about the cave which was pathetically little, but if Professor Dumbledore had been able to locate it hopefully so would she.