Back to the story…….
Harry ran down to the dungeons. The last person he wanted to tell was the only one he could.
Professor Snape paced the dungeon worriedly. He was concerned, why would Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, want to talk to him? He had always pushed the boy away, and always was horrible to him, why on earth would he want to talk to his least favourite professor, and would Snape want to talk to his least favourite pupil?
Harry paused outside the door. Would Snape believe him, would he listen, and why was he interested in what Harry had to say anyway?
He pushed the door open with great difficulty, as Snape was leaning against the other side.
"Sir?"
Snape quickly stood up properly, letting Harry in.
"What do you want Potter, I haven't got much time, I have a meeting with Professor Dumbledore soon."
"Sorry sir, but I needed to talk to you urgently."
"You said that in your letter Potter, what about?"
"Well, sir, it's about Piper……"
Snape listened intently to what Harry was saying, nodding every so often. It made sense what he guessed about Piper, after all Snape himself had seen the ceremony of her 'marking'.
"Potter, I think you'd better come with me."
Harry followed him to Dumbledore's office door. Snape paused for a while, looking at the gargoyle with interest. Finally:
"Gred and Forge's skiving snack boxes." came out of Snape's mouth, followed by a grimace.
No teacher apart from Flitwick had been very impressed with Fred and George's antics as of late.
The winding staircase appeared, and Snape strode up it. Harry followed behind him cautiously, not wanting to be seen with the potions master.
When he came inside, however, the office was empty apart from Snape who was pacing the room, almost anxiously. Harry glanced around the office; everything was the same as it had been the previous year, apart from a few more trinkets that had replaced the ones Harry had broken out of anger in his fifth year. Looking towards where Fawks, Dumbledore's Phoenix, usually stood, Harry was not surprised to see that a pile of ashes had gathered underneath the perch, and the bird was nowhere to be seen. He slowly made his way over, and was not startled when a small head poked up from out of the ashes and looked up at him. It must have been a burning day, thought Harry as he slowly stroked the small bird.
Harry felt a wind pick up, but, looking around, he saw that there was only one window in Dumbledore's office, and that was above the stairs. Harry, being downstairs, couldn't see a place where the wind could come from at all.
Frowning, he turned back to Fawks, who, now, was nowhere to be seen. He glanced around cautiously, something was wrong.
Looking back to where Snape was, he saw his least favourite professor had stopped pacing, and was now also looking around cautiously. They had both sensed something was up.
In front of him, Harry saw Snape hurriedly dive to the floor. He followed suit, then lay panting on the floor, waiting for the unexpected to happen.
CRASH!
Harry looked up in time to see a very dark figure come flying through the big window above the stairs, followed by a much more lighter figure who looked like he was walking on air.
The dark figure flew over Harry and Snape, landing (not very comfortably) on the floor. Harry scrambled away from the figure, as it tried to grab him. The lighter figure, who, as Harry had realized, was Dumbledore, stepped in front of Harry, pulled his wand out, then pointed it at the dark figure.
"Lucius, aren't you tired yet?" Dumbledore's voice was strong, and held no trace of fear or happiness. In fact, it held no trace of emotion at all.
Harry found himself walking away from the scene, past Snape and almost out of the door. Almost.
"Harry, is there anything you would like to talk about?"
Dumbledore wasn't giving up anytime soon.
Harry slowly turned around, and a new scene met his eyes. Both Snape and Lucius were clutching at their left forearms and wincing.
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Piper awoke to pain, excruciating pain. She squinted as there was no light anywhere. She was in a sort of hut. She grasped her right forearm as it stung, way too much for her liking. She glanced around once more, she needed a drink of water, now.
She stumbled to the door, then peered out. No one was in the hallway. She tiptoed to the kitchen door, and opened it.
"Wondered when you'd wake up." A gruff voice behind her said. She jumped, then tried to run to the front door. Huge arms stopped her, though, then she was pushed back, not roughly, but just enough so that she fell over.
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Ginny stared at Hermione, her mouth open in shock.
"WHAT?" she screamed.
Hermione, however, remained calm.
"I'm a bit-"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID!!" Ginny interrupted. "She's an -"
Hermione had stood up, and clamped a hand over Ginny's mouth.
"Don't say it." She hissed in Ginny's ear. "Do you want everyone to know?"
Drawing back, she saw the effect all this had taken on Ginny. She was no longer the carefree kid, who, like almost everyone else, had a crush on Harry Potter. Instead, she was a teenager who, like everyone, worried about her friend's safety.
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