Episode Fifty Six
Part One
There was to be a hearing on Gwen's behavior. While it was not unbecoming for a fully licensed adult wizard to put his or her life on the line to defend a school from death eaters it was hardly responsible behavior for a student to do so.
Consequence she found, was something she didn't understand. She knew her "rush-forward and damn the consequences" attitude often got her in trouble. She had inherited that from her mother. Mix that with someone who has bravery coming out of their ears and a savior-complex and you've got a problem.
She didn't speak to her fellow students for days, which didn't matter much. None of them were really prepared to talk to her either. They hadn't seen the event as it occurred, but they had heard all too well that she had subdued thirteen death eaters single-handedly. They were amazed that there was someone with that kind of power in their school. They were even more terrified because she might very well subdue them if they angered her too much.
Dumbledore was confident that whatever Gwen had done she would not do it again, but some of the other teachers kept an especially keen eye on her. She was allowed to continue classes, but she could not participate in any extra-curricular activities until her name was cleared. Dumbledore had canceled most of them anyway. Hogwarts had come very close to being openly attacked.
Graves was in the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey had never seen anything like it. It wasn't a coma, he was still breathing on his own. It wasn't like the living death. No, he was merely unconscious, but he would not respond to anything.
Trying to help, Gwen explained the curse the death eater had performed. "I've never heard it before, he said: Carcer Tristitia."
Dumbledore and Pomfrey looked at her curiously; neither of them had heard it before either.
"My, I believe this is a newly discovered curse." Said Dumbledore fascination and terror residing tandem in his voice.
Part Two
Harry was trying to placate Gwen at lunch that afternoon.
"I just want to run away." She said, the tears threatening to enter her voice. Her mouth was set in a hard line. She pounded her fist on the table. She wanted to rip out her hair. She wanted to scream. She wanted to be free.
Harry gave her his pluckiest smile and said, "It'll be ok."
She shook her head. "No it won't. There were a thousand other things I could have done than run down there to tackle them myself. The least I could do was wake a teacher. I didn't think Harry, I just did. And I need to stop that."
"What's the worst that can happen?"
"I can be expelled."
"They wouldn't."
"They might. I endangered another wizard's life."
"He," Harry said emphatically "endangered himself."
"The hearing council might not see it that way. If they don't expel me, they might just suspend me which will delay my license for a year. They may even put me on a kind of probation, bar me from practicing some kinds of magic. I doubt I'll be able to teach now."
"Dumbledore will not let something like this prevent your appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. You're the first viable candidate since Snape and he really doesn't want Snape in there."
Gwen leaned over, bumping her head on the table top. The others jumped back slightly as she began to repeatedly bang it onto the hard surface. Harry was reminded suddenly of Dobby the house elf. He pulled her up by her shoulders into a sitting position again.
She looked at him surprised. "Harry, why do you do this to yourself?"
"Do what?"
"Put up with me. Take care of me. I've never known anyone with as much patience as you have."
"I told you I was patient." He smiled wryly.
Part Three
Dumbledore sat in his office, gazing at a giant volume of magic spells. No where in his studies did he remember hearing "Carcer Tristitia." But that didn't mean he hadn't learned it and simply forgotten. He searched text after text hoping to find something that might ring a bell, but nothing.
The young man lying in the hospital wing, unresponsive to every treatment was depending on him to get his life back. If Dumbledore failed, then surely no one would be able to help him.
The age was showing again, Dumbledore noticed as he gazed at himself in his mirror. The tiredness dimmed his usually shining blue eyes. The wrinkles were sagging lower than usual. And there was now a weight on his back that he could not displace. Not only was Graves lying injured in the hospital, but there were thirteen death eaters on their way to Azkaban for attempting to attack the school.
Hogwarts was not as safe as everyone had until now suspected.
