Disclaimer: ::yawns::
Author's Note: I didn't mean to take this long. But I have suffered an evil case of writer's block, plus I've been out of town for a couple of days and without my computer. However, now I'm back, you didn't think getting rid of me was that easy, did you? No, I'm back to getting on your nerves with another chapter, which may not be that brilliant, or at least I found it extremely hard to write it.
Review-thank yous:
Lily and James Potter – 300?! Holy cow. However, loads of people have commented on the Harry/Tamara-thing (and no one appears to be very happy) but I mean I haven't set them up yet, have I? That's just what Ginny wants (or says). But maybe I should set them up just to annoy all you guys. Muahaha, yes, I'm really mean. It feels great having this power.
toriisen – Ah ha! That is very possible indeed. I'll really try to finish it this time, although there's a long way to go.
Akira Bane – My lips are sealed, you'll have to wait and see just like everyone else... (once again, I love power!)
jamie – As much as I really appreciate reviews and comments and I loved your review(s), I do not appreciate getting fifteen reviews that are exactly the same. Perhaps (well, hopefully) it was a mistake, but I just thought I'd make you aware of that, lol... Keep reviewing, though, and thanks for the kind words.
ViviBlack – Thank you for the thank you for the thank you. Okay, I give up and drop that.
Thanks also to Light Lady of Blood, steamrolledboy¸ hg freak and Pussin Boots.
Chapter 18 – Detention... or What?
Exactly at six o'clock, I was standing outside Frederic Dumbledore's office, which was suited on the second floor. I lifted my hand slowly, dreading the upcoming, and knocked lightly on the door.
No response.
I knocked again, harder this time. Still no response, so I tried to just open the door, but it was locked. I was debating with myself whether or not to use the spell Alohomora to get inside, and finally I decided to do so. I was just curious, I guess. However, I pointed out my wand, but before saying the spell, I knocked one last time.
Still no response.
"Alohomora!" I shouted, after which the door easily could be opened.
At first, I just stuck my head in. The room bathed in darkness, and I couldn't see a single thing.
"Lumos!" I said, and a small light appeared on the edge of my wand.
I inspected curiously the room in the small light from my wand. It was clearly not like I had expected it to be. You see, there were no things. No stuff. Sure there was furniture, a dark desk, the same colour as the floor, and the walls were covered by bookshelves, coloured to match the desk and the floor. But there were no papers, no personal belongings... the desk was entirely empty.
There was a fireplace in the opposite end of the room, in which there had been a fire recently, but it had just burned down. I walked closer. It looked like there was rests of something; papers maybe, stuff, I don't really know because it was all half-burned. But somehow it looked like he had simply burned all of his belongings. While standing there, watching the rests of the fire and debating on what to do, I got this strange and uncomfortable feeling. It felt like I wasn't alone, that there was someone else there – or something else...
I pointed my wand to light up one of the dark corners next to the fireplace, and the sight would have made me scream, if only I hadn't lost my voice.
The eyes on the body hanging from the ceiling looked like they were on their way to fall out of their places, they were round and stared at me like no one had ever stared at me before. The face was all white, and just seeing the rope around his neck almost made me stop breathing as well.
I panicked and turned around, stumbled through the room towards the exit, tripped and fell over but quickly got onto my feet again. I closed the door with a bang behind me, and literally sprinted down the corridor, just to get out of there.
"Good evening, Miss Malfoy, done with your detention already?"
McGonagall. I hadn't even heard her coming!
"Professor McGonagall", I mumbled. "Er..."
"Well?" McGonagall demanded.
"You'd better see for yourself", I stammered.
"See what?"
"I-In there", I said with a nod towards the door.
She gazed questioningly at me for a while before trying the door, which was, as you all should know by now, locked. She knocked a couple of times, but nothing happened, as expected.
"There's no one here", she stated. "Why couldn't you tell me that from the beginning."
"Go inside", I said in such a low voice that it barely could be heard.
"I really don't think that would be appropriate, Miss Malfoy", she said coolly.
So I pulled out my own wand to unlock the door, and opened.
"In the corner next to the fireplace on your right", I said quickly.
She pulled out her wand as well, letting it light up the room, and walked slowly to the right. I closed my eyes just before the light reached the body, but could hear her pull after her breath and step backwards.
"You will return to your common room", she said. "I will alert the rest of the staff."
I simply nodded and left, going back to the common room. Thoughts and questions swirled around in my head, and when the shock began to vanish, there was one question that was somehow stronger than the others.
Why?
I thought back on what Hagrid had said when I met him yesterday. Oh god. Frederic Dumbledore had had problems, and been overall unhappy for some reason, and that was why he was even more angry and bitter than Snape. Then I said those things, and then it all passed the line... or something.
"Back from detention early", Hermione said when I passed her, Ginny, Harry and Ron in the common room.
"Yes", I said, passed them and walked up to my dormitory.
I couldn't really talk to anyone right now. I simply laid myself on my bed, burying my face in my pillow. The very uncomfortable feeling I had been having in my stomach grew stronger as I laid there, realizing that I might be somehow responsible for his death.
"Tamara?"
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.
"Yes, Ginny?"
"McGonagall is here. What has happened?"
I sat up with a sigh.
"Is it something with-"
"It's nothing!" I snapped, sounding more heated that I meant to.
Ginny left without a word, making me feel even worse than before, and then I rose from the bed and went back into the common room. McGonagall was waiting for me downstairs, and signed for me to follow her.
Without a word I followed her out through the portrait hole and down the corridors. She was keeping her walking speed up, almost forcing me to jog to keep up with her. However, I followed behind her through corridors and stairs, until we stopped outside the gargoyle outside Dumbledore's office. McGonagall muttered the password, making the gargoyle swing aside, and turned around, leaving me to enter on my own.
I stepped up onto the moving staircase, and a couple of seconds later I stepped into Dumbledore's office.
"Welcome Miss Malfoy, sit down", Dumbledore said.
He was already sitting in his chair behind the desk, and another chair had already been conjured up for me on the opposite side. I sat nervously down on the very edge, now knowing what to expect.
"I believe you have some idea of why you are here?" he said.
"I could guess", I said quietly.
"What you saw earlier today was... not what you think you saw."
"Um... I don't think I really understand...?"
He sighed and watched me closely through those half-moon glasses of his.
"We can say like this; it was not... what you think you saw. Or maybe... who."
I stared at him. Had he gone nuts or what?
"And please notice that this information is highly confidential, but I think you need to know since you... saw."
"Certainly", I said simply.
"In simple words, we can say that it was a... well, a fake."
I raised my eyebrows, questioning. "Wha-I mean I beg your pardon?"
He sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"He faked his own death?" I said.
"Correct."
"But why!?"
"We cannot really understand what's going on inside his head... he has some tough years behi-"
He was interrupted by a hard knock on the door. And the visitor did not wait for an answer, but simply entered. It was Snape, and he looked like a catastrophe. His face was all pale and he was puffing heavily, like if he had been running all the way there.
"Professor, unfortunately we're busy", Dumbledore said.
"Sorry to interrupt, Professor Dumbledore, but – in the Great Hall – the... the –"he threw a somewhat hesitating glance at me but obviously decided to continue"– missing Professor. He is... erm... wild crazy."
I can honestly say I had no clue what on earth was going on. I looked at Dumbledore, who had become just as pale as Snape. I just sat there, not having a clue what was going on, when I noticed a noise growing stronger. It appeared to come from the Great Hall, and there were screams and thuds and God knows what. However it gave me a very strong feeling that something wasn't right.
And when Dumbledore began to speak, he spoke with a voice that I had never heard him use before.
"Alert the Order", he instructed Snape.
Author's Note: Somehow this didn't turn out as I had expected. I can reveal that I had other plans, but somehow this seemed more fitting, when I thought about is.
I can't believe this is the eighteenth chapter. I can't believe I wrote so many of them! And I can't believe that there's still such a long way to go. All I know is that if (or hopefully when) I finish this story, I'm going to be damn proud.
Well, now I'm going on holiday for two weeks, and I have to admit that I haven't even started the next chapter, so it may take a while... and then there's only two weeks left before my school starts again... help, where did those ten weeks go?!
Tip of the Day: There's a song that makes you really happy; 'What a feeling' by Flashdance.
Have a nice day,
Christina a.k.a. Megafreak
