A/N: You all are great reviewers! Thank you to the people who read that poem, which totally awesome of you. The answers are as follows: James, both, Harry, Harry, both. And now to apologize for the "cliffhanger". I don't think that it was that bad, but SEEKER_2000 called it a 'sick joke' so I may be mistaken…I hope you enjoy this chapter.



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Minerva McGonagall straitened her hat. She was waiting for the boom on the doors in front of her to signal that the 1st years had arrived safely. They were already 10 minutes late. She wasn't all too worried or anything, for they were always a little dilatory.

BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM!

She smiled and messed with her hat one more time before grabbing the metal handles of the double doors and tugging them gracefully open.
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Hagrid was standing there, a shocked look on his face. There were no children behind him, but panicked yells were coming from the bottom of the long stairwell.

"Hagrid, what's going on?" She said sternly. "What have you put the children up too this time?"

Hagrid said nothing, he didn't even blink.

"Now-" Minerva said; a little terrible flutter in her heart "Now this isn't funny Rubeus!"

Still nothing escaped his lips.

"Hagrid?" She nearly shouted. "Hagrid!"

And then he began to sway in the most mechanic and unnatural way. Minerva took a few paces back. It was a good thing too, because the moment she had he fell strait to the floor, dead as a doornail.

Minerva's hand flew to her mouth. She swallowed hard and looked at Hagrid, and then, remembering the children, flew down stairs.

And that was the beginning of the war.
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A lot had happened in the year that passed. Voldemort had freed all of the Azkaban consorts and the Dementors were roaming the country as they pleased.

Harry was living well, too. (As well one could live in the custody in Voldemort) At the moment he was talking to Voldemort. Harry was at one end of a long table and Voldemort was at the opposite.

"Hogwarts will soon be overthrown." Voldemort said.

"It will?" Harry said. "How can you be so sure?"

"Well, thanks to you and Avery, that great oaf, Hagrid is dead. Our next victim should be Dumbledore- or possibly McGonagall. And we already got rid of Severus. You remember him, don't you Harry?"

Of course Harry remembered. He remembered Snape being brought into a room and tied up, spread eagle on a wall. 'Kill him, Harry.' Voldemort said. He was, of course testing him, for it had been nary 5 five minutes since Harry had been- modified.

But Harry's old state of mind was long gone. He began to jeer at his former teacher. 'Potter, what's wrong with you?' Snape had asked frantically. Harry laughed wryly.

'Nothing.' Harry had said. 'I'm just finally paying you back.' And he shot the curse at him. Voldemort began to laugh and Harry had joined him.




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Hermione and Ron were walking down the hallway, arm in arm. Security Trolls were at the beginning, middle and end of every corridor. It was quite a change but ever since Hagrid's death, everything had been very tight around the school.

And matters didn't get any better when Severus Snape's body was found half eaten by wolves in the forest. (A/N: please forgive me for that sentence. Imagination has run away with me) Sirius had found him one night a few weeks ago while on a restless search for Hagrid's successor.

Hermione shuddered just thinking about it and moved closer to Ron. Dumbledore was walking towards them from the opposite side of the hall.

"Good afternoon, Sir." Hermione said.

Dumbledore nodded and smiled in their direction and kept walking. Something was wrong with his eyes. They had gone very hard recently.

"I wish I knew what was going on around here sometimes!" Ron had said earlier that week. Everybody had noticed the obvious, physical changes in the school, but few had noticed the changes in Dumbledore. He never smiled anymore and his witty comments were few and far between.

Hermione was not happy to admit school had really lost its edge now. She didn't feel safe anymore and neither did her teachers. Hogsmeade trips had been abolished and nobody was allowed out of the common rooms after dark and everybody had to be in bed by 9:30. Hogwarts was taking precautions, sure, but not enough of them to make much of a difference. Many parents had withdrawn their children from the school and the students remaining were looked after like priceless diamonds.

Hermione swallowed and tried to think of something happier than this sad reality.

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Dumbledore wandered the halls, trying to avoid what he knew was bound to happen. He passed Weasley and Granger, hoping his face didn't reveal his feelings about life right now.

But he wasn't afraid about what was going to happen. He had lived his life and he had known for some time that this was how he was going to leave this world. 'Why fight fate?' He thought as he gave the password to the Gargoyle.

He was not surprised to see a Death Eater in his office, but his heart gave a little flutter anyways. This Death Eater held himself differently.

"What are you waiting for?" Dumbledore said quietly. "I know you are here to kill me, and I will not fight you."

The masked Death Eater rose his wand. Dumbledore closed his eyes, ready for the blast. But it didn't come.

He looked up at the Death Eater in the eyes. The death eater looked away.

"Do I know you." Dumbledore said.

"No." Came the gruff reply.

"You have no relation to me whatsoever?"

"No."

"Then why do you hesitate?"

The Death Eater swallowed so hard that Dumbledore could hear it.

"Something is telling me not too." The gruff voice suddenly broke, like a 15-year-old boy's does.

Dumbledore let out a breath. So he wasn't to die like this after all? He barely dared to think it.

"Damn these masks!" The Death Eater said suddenly and sneezed. He removed his hood and then took off a mask.

Dumbledore choked. "H-Harry!"

Harry Potter looked at the wrinkled old man with fright. "No! No, no, no! You can't recognize me! Oh, he'll be mad." He pointed his wand at Dumbledore and shouted the memory charm and disappeared under an invisibility cloak.

But it was Dumbledore's good luck that the boy had terrible aim under pressure. The curse had not hit him, he was alive and he remembered it all.

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Dumbledore had put the memory into his pensive as soon as he was able to collect his thoughts again. And then, he kneeled by the pensive to re-live the moment again and again.

Harry had said, "He'll be mad." Dumbledore guessed this 'he' was Voldemort. If only he could be sure! He sat down heavily in his chair and rested his tired head in his hands.

Looking down on the desk, he noticed something. Something black was sliding off the edge of the desk. Dumbledore shot out a bony arm and grabbed it. It was fabric of some kind. It was extremely soft to the touch, but seemed to weigh more than he had expected.

He turned it around in his hand to find it was not just a piece of cloth- it was a mask. Harry had left his mask behind.

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A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter! Please review!

P. S. The end of Spiral is drawing near. There will be no sequel. Buwahahahaha!