Chapter Eleven: Revelations
Daphne shakily made her way back to the castle. She was shivering both from the cold and the after-effects of what she'd just seen and realized. Her stomach churned, and she wouldn't have been surprised if she had started throwing up, but she eventually made it back into the castle.
Before she could even walk over to the door to the dungeons, a voice said, "Daphne!"
She jumped back and raised her hands defensively. Her wand was still in her pocket.
Suddenly, Harry appeared out of thin air as he took off his Invisibility Cloak.
"It's me," he said.
Again overwhelmed by emotions, Daphne wrapped both her arms around him. Unlike last time, however, these times the emotions were anything but happy.
She let go of Harry, who threw the Cloak over both of them and gestured at the floor near one of the walls. "Let's sit over there for a bit and talk. What happened? I saw Malfoy sprinting through here like…well, not like he'd seen a ghost, I suppose, but he seemed terrified of something."
"You were waiting here the whole time?" Daphne asked.
She and Harry sat down and leaned against the wall. Both the floor and the wall were freezing cold, but after the forest, Daphne really didn't care.
"Ron and Hermione wanted to come too, but I told them it would be safer if I went alone. I saw Filch's lamp heading for Hagrid's place, so I figured that, if you were with him, you'd be okay. But then Malfoy came back looking scared out of his mind, and you didn't. It's my fault you were out here, so I at least wanted to know you were all right. So…what happened?" Harry asked.
"We went into the forest," Daphne said. An image of the unicorn and the hooded figure at its side flashed before her eyes. "I…I know who's after the Stone."
"Who?" Harry asked apprehensively.
Daphne had the feeling he might have an idea of what she was about to say.
"It's…it's Voldemort," she said, again feeling that sting of fear, once inexplicable but now very defined in her mind as a wraith dripping with unicorn blood.
Harry stiffened. "He's alive?" he whispered, and for the first time ever Daphne heard real fear in his voice.
"He's drinking unicorn blood," Daphne said. "Malfoy and I saw him. He was like…like a wraith. Malfoy ran away, and the wraith came towards me, but then a centaur called Firenze jumped in and chased him off. He told me that drinking unicorn blood keeps you alive even if you're nearly dead, at the price of living a half-life…but I think with the Elixir of Life…"
"He could come back," Harry whispered.
"Firenze told me to warn you," Daphne said. "He said that only one person in the castle could stand against him."
"What does he expect me to do?" Harry asked incredulously. "I have no idea how I beat him the first time."
He shuddered. "Did you tell Hagrid?" he asked.
Daphne nodded. "I did, but he didn't believe me. Firenze said he didn't want to believe me."
"I don't want to believe you either," Harry said glumly. "But Hagrid told me, when he first met me, that he didn't think Voldemort had enough human left in him to die, and that he was still out there."
He grimaced in a way that was probably meant to be a grin. "Guess he was right."
They sat in silence for a moment. Daphne felt a bit better now that she'd shared her story, but a lot worse because of what everything she'd just said meant. All her life, she'd heard the stories of 'the Dark Lord', 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named', 'You-Know-Who', and how terrible he had been.
Well, terrible to some. Many pureblood families had, according to her parents, supported him from the shadows, because the Dark Lord hated Muggles and Muggleborn witches and wizards, and they did as well.
Only once had her parents told her his actual name, with the express instruction that she should never use it, and until today, she'd kept that promise. But seeing that…thing in the forest made it clear to her that describing him in a roundabout way fell way short of the mark. Even now, she was filled with dread at the mere thought.
She looked at Harry from the corner of her eyes. How would he be feeling now? The entire legend of the Boy-Who-Lived was based on him vanquishing the evil Dark Lord…but he wasn't quite as vanquished as everyone had assumed.
And Firenze had said that Harry was the only one in the castle who could stand against him…but was he, really? There was someone else in the castle who could probably do it, wasn't there?
"Dumbledore," Daphne said, and Harry looked up. "We have to tell Dumbledore. My parents always said that…Voldemort…feared Dumbledore. Maybe that's what Firenze meant, and he wasn't talking about you at all," she said.
Harry hesitated. "That, I do want to believe…but do you really think it's true?" he asked.
Daphne shifted uneasily. "No," she admitted. "But I don't know why not. I mean, Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard in the world, isn't he? Surely it makes more sense for him to deal with that than you, right?"
Harry chuckled darkly. "There's quite a lot in this world that makes no sense at all," he said. "But we should warn him all the same, I think. It's just…do you know where his office is? Last time I spoke with him he sort of…appeared out of thin air."
"You mean like you did just now?" Daphne asked with a small smile.
Harry smiled back. "Yes, but with him it was more impressive."
He grew serious again. "We have to go to Dumbledore directly. You said Hagrid didn't want to believe you, and I don't think any of the other teachers would react differently."
"What if Dumbledore doesn't believe us?" Daphne asked.
Harry shook his head. "He will. Dumbledore…knows things. And according to Hagrid, he didn't think Voldemort was truly gone either. I just wish I knew how we could reach him without going through another teacher…"
Both fell silent for a moment as they tried to come up with a solution.
Then, Daphne said, "I know! Send him a letter. That's how you got in touch with me when we couldn't talk openly, didn't you? No reason it wouldn't work with Dumbledore too."
Harry thought about that for a moment, and then his face lit up. "You know, that might actually work. Let's head to the owlery immediately," he said.
"Do you have a quill and parchment?" Daphne asked.
Harry patted the pockets of his robes and pulled out a crumpled bit of parchment and a quill that had seen better days.
He grinned sheepishly at Daphne. "Hermione made me carry note-taking supplies everywhere. The quill's almost empty — or, well, the enchantment that refills the ink in it's nearly faded and I need to get Percy to reapply it — but it should still be enough to get a message to Dumbledore."
Daphne grinned back at him. "I've never been so glad that Hermione can be so pushy," she said.
Feeling just a bit better than she'd done when she returned to the castle, Daphne lay down on her bed. She and Harry had sent a note to Dumbledore. They'd debated for a while on what to put in it, but had eventually settled on just asking him to meet them and that it was very important, counting on Harry's name at the bottom to carry enough weight for Dumbledore to respond to the note at all.
Having done all they could, Harry dropped Daphne off in the entrance hall before going back to the Gryffindor common room to explain everything to Hermione and Ron. She had expected that everything she'd seen and learned that night would keep her awake, but the fatigue of the experience hit her all at once, and she quickly fell asleep.
The next morning during breakfast, Daphne kept shooting glances at the main table. When the morning owls arrived, she easily spotted Harry's owl, Hedwig, with their note to Dumbledore tied to her leg. She nudged Harry, who nodded quickly.
Hermione and Ron, who sat with their backs to the main table, tried to 'casually' turn around to look as well.
Dumbledore took the note and glanced at it once, then looked directly at where they were sitting. He looked at them for just a moment, and then said something to McGonagall and Snape, who also looked over at the Gryffindor table with odd expressions.
Then, breakfast continued as usual.
"Well, he got the note, at least," Daphne said with a shrug.
During her first class, which happened to be Herbology, Snape entered the greenhouse she was working in and asked her to come with him.
"Professor Dumbledore has asked to see you," he said as they strode through the halls of the castle.
He didn't elaborate further, nor did he ask any questions, making Daphne wonder if Dumbledore had told him not to, or if he already knew what it was about.
On the third floor, they met McGonagall, who had Harry, Hermione, and Ron with her.
Snape and McGonagall brought them to a stone gargoyle in one of the third floor corridors, and McGonagall said, "Chocolate Frog."
The gargoyle came to life and stepped aside, revealing a moving, circular staircase, which they followed up to a wooden door.
McGonagall knocked, and Dumbledore's voice came from within.
"Come in."
They entered the office, which was a beautiful circular room, walls lined with portraits, and filled with spindle-legged tables on which stood strange, silver instruments which whirred and emitted puffs of smoke.
Further back, there was a huge, claw-footed desk, behind which sat Albus Dumbledore. He smiled broadly when the group entered.
"Ah, good of you to come so quickly. Minerva, Severus, if you'd leave us for a moment, please," he said.
McGonagall and Snape didn't look happy to be dismissed, but they obeyed and left the room.
As soon as they had, Dumbledore let his eye fall on Daphne and the others. His blue eyes twinkled behind his half-moon spectacles.
Daphne glanced at the others to see how they reacted to meeting Dumbledore.
Harry, who'd met him before, seemed mostly worried about what he was going to say. Hermione seemed a bit starstruck to be in the same room as the most powerful wizard in the world, and Ron mostly looked uncomfortable.
As for herself, she felt equal parts relieved and apprehensive. Relieved because they were about to tell Dumbledore everything. Apprehensive, because if Dumbledore didn't believe them, they were out of options. But he'd at least given them the chance to speak to him, and that was a good sign, right?
"It's not often that first-year students ask to see the Headmaster," Dumbledore said.
He sounded amused and was still smiling, but he was looking at them intently.
"To what do I owe this pleasure, Harry?" he asked.
Daphne was intrigued that Dumbledore used Harry's first name. The other teachers were all much more formal.
Harry took a deep breath. "Voldemort is after the Philosopher's Stone," he said without preamble.
If this news was shocking to Dumbledore, he didn't show it in his expression. "I presume you have a reason to believe this is the case?" he asked.
Harry nodded, then explained everything that had happened over the year, with them coming across Fluffy, their search for Flamel and the realization what Fluffy was guarding, their suspicions of Snape as the culprit, and finally the adventure with Norbert that had led Daphne to go into the forest, from which point Daphne took over the story.
She told Dumbledore about the wraith and the unicorn, and her conclusions from that encounter as to the wraith's identity. She also included Firenze's cryptic warning.
When she'd finished her story, to her great amazement Dumbledore was still smiling. If anything, his smile had gotten even wider.
"First of all, I'm impressed with your perseverance in this matter," he said. "Piecing together so much of the truth with such limited resources is no small feat, especially for ones so young. I also find it commendable that you've chosen to take this matter straight to me. I quite agree you contacted me about this, at any rate."
He was silent for a moment and looked fondly at each of them. Despite his reassuring words, however, Daphne was beginning to feel less comfortable by the second.
"Furthermore, and this is something I believe speaks greatly to your characters, I admire how you kept an open mind about the culprit. I can tell you with utmost certainty that Professor Snape is, indeed, not to blame.
"Having said all these things, I feel it is only right to inform you that the Stone will not remain at Hogwarts for much longer. It will be removed quite soon, after which I believe the current threat of Lord Voldemort around the school's premises will be gone. He does not desire to be anywhere near me in his current state, and has neither the power nor the means to truly harm anyone — provided the rules we put in place are followed.
"Miss Greengrass, I am deeply sorry that you were put into a position where he might have hurt you and Mr. Malfoy. It was an oversight on my part, and something I should have anticipated. Alas, I had underestimated the irrational fear Lord Voldemort has of death, and thus neglected to consider the monstrous option he employs to keep himself alive."
Daphne nodded slowly, but there was still something she was missing in Dumbledore's list of praises and apparent openness.
"But sir, what of the time until the Stone is removed? What if he finds a way past its protections?" she asked.
Dumbledore smiled at her, and it was beginning to annoy her. Even though it probably wasn't meant that way, it felt incredibly condescending.
"I believe the protections we have placed on it will be more than adequate, Miss Greengrass. I do not believe he has the power to circumvent them. The teachers at this school are quite skilled, and I — forgive my immodesty — am also rather clever. He will not be able to get the Stone while it remains at Hogwarts, so long as you all follow the rules."
"What about Firenze's warning?" Harry asked. "Daphne said that he told her there was only one person in the castle who could stand against him. Did he mean you…or was he talking about me?"
For a split second, Dumbledore's smile seemed to falter a bit, but before Daphne was even sure she'd seen it right, his expression was already just as relaxed as before again.
"The centaurs in the Forbidden Forest possess great wisdom, only very little of it they share with us. In the long run, I believe you will understand what they meant. For the time being, the four of you have done all you can do. You each get fifteen points for the way you've acted in bringing this information to me. Now, I believe you have preparations to make for your exams. Work hard, and I'm sure you'll perform admirably when it's needed most."
It was a clear dismissal, and they were all well aware of it. They left Dumbledore's office and went back down the stone staircase.
"So…what now, then?" Ron asked once they were back in the hallway.
"You heard Dumbledore, we should get back to our studies. If he says the situation is under control, who are we to disagree?" Hermione said.
"I think you're still a bit too fond of the rules," Daphne said. "There's more to it than this."
Harry nodded. "I got that feeling as well. I mean, he said that we were right about Snape not being the culprit, but he never offered any explanation for his strange behavior or why he would need to get past Fluffy. If he really has that much faith in the protections, that wouldn't be necessary."
"Are you seriously doubting Dumbledore?" Hermione asked, aghast.
"Why shouldn't we?" Daphne asked. "A couple of things still don't add up. He was too calm when we told him everything; almost as if he already knew that Voldemort was hanging around the school–"
"Could you people please stop saying that name?" Ron asked.
Daphne shook her head. "No. I would, but…when I saw him, all that 'You-Know-Who' business just felt stupid. I don't say his name because I'm not afraid of him, but because I am, way more than I've ever been when I called him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It's just the only name that fits."
"Well, what do you propose we do, then?" Hermione asked irritably, as if she still couldn't believe that Daphne and Harry had the audacity to not take Dumbledore's explanation at face value.
"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I think the best thing we can do is occasionally check if Fluffy is still there. If not…we go to Dumbledore again. We'll badger him at the main table if we have to."
I based Dumbledore's reaction to the group's story on the way he dismisses Harry's concerns about Malfoy in Half-Blood Prince, despite being onto him, so I figured it would suit his character without denying the climax of the original book its existence. Stations of the Canon and all.