Chapter 10

Clues

"What do you mean Dumbledore is not dead?" Harry asked Jenna hardly believing what she had just said.

"At first I was fooled too, but I found many clue that he did not die, or at least that Snape was not a bad person, which one is true I am not sure, that is why I wanted to ask you about your memories of everything that happened during your time here at Hogwarts."

"Well what were the clues?" Harry asked her wondering if Jenna was just messing with him.

"I'll tell you the one's I found throughout your memories. Okay, the first clue was from when Dumbledore was begging Snape not to kill him."

Harry remembered, that memory would haunt him forever. His strong, brave, headmaster reduced to begging for a man that he had trusted not to kill him.

"Remember Harry, what Dumbledore said your first year here when you were talking about the sorcerer's stone, 'To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure,' now does that sound like the kind of man who would beg to save his own life even in the most desperate situations?"

Harry shook his head at her question, surprised at how well Jenna paid attention to everything he had said.

"So I worked on a theory, maybe it was just an act, and then I had another theory, maybe Dumbledore was not begging Snape not to kill him, but begging him to kill him."

"Jenna, first of all, why would Dumbledore beg Snape to kill him? And second I remember the look of hatred on Snape's face right before he did it."

"Right he felt hatred at that moment, like the hatred you felt when you were forcing Dumbledore to drink that awful liquid."

"What?" Harry asked, "I only made Dumbledore drink the liquid because he told me to and I didn't feel hatred towards Dumbledore, I felt hatred towards my-" Harry stopped suddenly realizing what Jenna meant, "myself" he finished.

"Exactly, you hated yourself, so maybe the hatred you saw on Snape's face wasn't for Dumbledore, but for himself; unless the whole thing was an act. Of course remember what Hagrid overheard of Snape and Dumbledore's conversation. He said that Snape had told Dumbledore that what he had agreed to do, he didn't want to do, but Dumbledore said he had to do it" Jenna said. "Obviously Snape was following orders from Dumbledore, and whatever he had to do was difficult or unpleasant. That could have meant that he had to kill Dumbledore, or maybe it meant that it would have to look like hekilled Dumbledoreand then would have to go into hiding."

"But that doesn't necessarily mean anything" Harry said unwilling to let go of his hatred for Snape.

"I know that Harry, I told you I don't know any of this for sure but there is another clue that Snape was on Dumbledore's side; when you and Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts and you went to the door, and Draco came through it, he yelled 'Expelliarmus' but you found yourself frozen and realized that it must have been Dumbledore who had frozen you because 'Expelliarmus' was not a freezing charm. Why do you think he froze you when you were already invisible to Draco? The only explanation I can think of is that he didn't want you to interfere with his plan, and he may have promised Snape that he would make sure you didn't interfere, knowing how you felt about Snape. I also found something else that was interesting; you saw Dumbledore trying to talk Draco out of killing him. At first I thought that maybe Dumbledore was trying to put on a show for you, or maybe he was trying to give you a hint when he told Draco that he would help hide him. I though that he might be giving you a hint that he wasn't going to die when he told Draco that Voldemort couldn't kill him if he was already dead. I thought that Dumbledore may have been planning that same thing for himself and he was trying to tell you that but using Draco in his act. But then I realized that Draco had not taken Dumbledore up on his offer and had every intention of killing him, no matter how much he didn't want to. Knowing this Dumbledore must have been stalling for time, waiting for Snape to show up. He knew that once he got there, Snape would go with the plan that Draco obviously didn't know about, which would show that Snape was with Dumbledore all along" Jenna said.

While listening it felt weird to Harry hearing Malfoy being called by his first name since he and all of his friends called him by his last name.

"Also remember when you cursed Draco Malfoy with 'Sectumsempra' and Snape came into the bathroom after being alerted by Moaning Myrtle, he knew instantly that the 'Sectumsempra' curse was used to injure Draco, because he went right to work on him using the proper countercurse to reverse the damage. He then took Draco to the hospital wing, ordering you to wait for him there, why you didn't just leave I will neverknow.When Snape returned, he asked you where you learned that curse, and you said you saw it in a book in the library. Snape put his Legilimency to work again, he called you a liar and read what was in your mind. He then demanded that you bring him all of your books, of course you made a detour and hid your potions book in the room of requirement, bringing Snape Ron's copy of the book instead. Snape must have known you were trying to pull a fast one on him, he knew you had the Half-Blood Prince's book, he saw it in your mind. But instead of pressing the point as a follower of the dark lord probably would have done, Snape just gave you a dozen detentions."

"Yeah and made me miss the final Quidditch game" Harry muttered.

"That is beside the point," Jenna said rolling her eyes, "Why would Snape drop the subject so quickly if he wasn't still working for Dumbledore? He lost his temper with you when he demanded you bring him the book, but even then though you lied to him about it, Snape remembered who's side he was on, and backed off."

"Jenna, maybe Snape didn't know I was faking it" Harry said but he knew that wasn't true.

"Anyway, let's not get into that now" Jenna said, "I also had another theory that is almost impossible to prove but I will say it anyway. Every time that the pensieve was used, the person with the memory always just pulled it out of their head, but Dumbledore took his memories out of bottles just like the other memories. Could that be because he wasn't the real Dumbledore? Could it have been someone else using polyjuice potion? But of course there is no way to prove that; Dumbledore could have just kept his memories in bottles along with the others for safe-keeping. More importantly there is the matter of Dumbledore giving Snape the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher job. He gave you important insight about the job situation when you talked to him about Tom Riddle wanting the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. You asked him if Voldemort was after the job, and Dumbledore toldyou that he was. He also told you that ever since he turned Voldemort down, he hasn't been able to keep a Defense Against the Dark Artsteacher for more than a year.So Dumbledore himself admitted that he knew that Voldemort cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. This means that he knew about the curse when he assigned Snape to the job that year. He probably never intended Snape to be in the job for longer than a year to begin with because he would have already had his entire plan ready. He already knew that he would have Snape kill him, or at least pretend to kill him, so Snape would flee the palace."

Harry listened to this and came up with another question, "But how could Snape pretend to kill Dumbledore, he used the Avada Kedavra."

Of course Jenna had the answer, "Harry all of the times the Avada Kedavra was used the victim immediately fell to the ground dead, just like with Cedric in the tri-wizard tournament remember? But in Dumbledore case he was blasted into the air where for a split second, he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull of the Dark Mark, and then he slowly fell backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of your sight. I asked myself, Why was this time so different? Well maybe Snape used a different curse, a non-verbal curse that made Dumbledore appear to die. Is it possible that the spell was not Avada Kedavra, just some green lightning sparks for show?"

"Good point" Harry said wondering if Jenna was right, but again he found something wrong with what she was saying, "However, Snape did say Avada Kedavra so even if he did have a non-verbal spell the curse would hit Dumbledore anyway."

"You think of everything don't you?" Jenna asked smiling, "Of course I do to, in your fourth year, the fake Mad Eye Moodytold your Defense Against the Dark Arts class thatyour entire class could try it out, but he probably wouldn't get more than a nosebleed. That obviously means the curse cannot be used lightly. And also when you tried to curse Bellatrix in your fifth year with the Unforgivable Curse, you only knocked her off her feet. Then she told you that the only way to make an unforgivable curse was to really mean it, to really want to causethe person pain, to enjoy it. If Snape was really working on Dumbledore's orders to make it look to the world as if he had killed Dumbledore, even if he had used the real Avada Kedavra, if he had not really meant it, if he really didn't want to kill Dumbledore, then isn't possible that the curse didn't kill Dumbledore, but only injured him badly?"

"Dumbledore was already weak so if he was injured badly he would have been killed" Harry said.

"That is where Fawkes comes in" Jenna said.

"Fawkes?" Harry asked, "What does he have to do with this?"

"After Dumbledore was 'murdered' you went to the hospital wing and told everyone that Snape killed Dumbledore right?"

"Right" Harry said.

"Why was it that of all of the people in the room, Madame Pomfrey was the one who burst into tears?"

"Uh, because she was sad?" Harry said and then shook his headrealizing how stupid he sounded.

Jenna rolled her eyes, "No Harry, not because she wassad,it was because she heard Fawkes' call and being thehealer she knew of the healing powers of Phoenix tears."

"Phoenix tears can't bring people back from the dead" Harry pointed out.

"Well Harry if Dumbledore wasn't dead, just hurt, or maybe even on the verge of dying, and it is possible that Phoenix tears can heal that. But another thing about Fawkes that surprised me was that Fawkes didn't try to save Dumbledore."

"Save Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"We know Fawkes was nearby right? And remember all of those times that Fawkes has saved people from dying in the nick of time? Like when he distracted the basilisk for you in the Chamber of Secrets, or in your fifth year when Voldemort shot that curse at Dumbledore and Fawkes flew in front of him, swallowing the jet of green light whole. Then Fawkes burst into flames, and was reborn. Each of these times Fawkes was able to save the people and still live himself. So why didn't he save Dumbledore this time? Was it because Dumbledore was planning to die anyway and didn't want his life to be saved? Or was it because Dumbledore was going to live anyway?"

"If Dumbledore was alive why did I see him being carried to his tomb?" Harry shuddered at the memory of seeing Hagrid carrying Dumbledore's body at his funeral.

"Well then apparently Dumbledore is flammable" Jenna said with a smile, "Harry you didn't even see Dumbledore's body that day, it, or whatever Hagrid was carrying was covered." This was true, Harry hadn't really seen if it was or wasn't Dumbledore's body, he had just assumed it was.

Jenna continued, "Remember how you thought you saw a phoenix flying over head after the tomb burst into flames?" Harry nodded so Jenna kept going, "You know what happens when a Phoenix gets old right?"

"They burst into flames" Harry said.

"Right and then they are reborn out of the ashes. Of course Fawkes might not have been there at all, you and I both know that a body bursting into flames means nothing to a wizard. Muggles were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Dumbledore could have created a fire and then frozen it while still in the tomb so he could confuse people. In the memory where he met Voldemort, to show he was a wizard, Dumbledore set the wardrobe on fire and then stopped the fire leaving the wardrobe completely unharmed, so why couldn't he just do the same at his funeral?" Jenna said.

Harry was beginning to understand what Jenna was talking about. He wondered how she was able to put together all of this information.

"And also to be able to burst into flames Dumbledore would need his wand right?" Jenna continued, "But what happened to his wand? The last time it was seen was when Malfoy knocked it from Dumbledore's hands with 'Expelliarmus,' and then the wand was never seen again. We know that a wizard's wand is very important to him, and a wand that belonged to a wizard as powerful as Dumbledore would be a very important item that you would want to know the whereabouts of, so you could prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. The customs of wizards in these occasions are to snap the wand in two and bury it with the wizard. But they didn't snap Dumbledore's wand in two because it was never found. I was puzzled by this until I realized that maybe the reason the wand was missing was because Dumbledore still has his wand, he still needs it, because he is not dead."

Harry couldn't believe it, "But he seemed so-, I saw him, he-" Harry didn't know what to say. He had knelt right beside Dumbledore's dead body, so why were there so many clues that he was alive? Finally he said, "I saw him, he was dead."

"Ever hear of the Draught of Living Death?" Jenna asked, "Is it possible that Dumbledore only appeared dead?"

Harry had heard of that; in his first year Snape had told him about it. It was a sleeping potion made from asphodel and wormwood, and the potion was so powerful, it would make a person appear dead.

"Although this may not have been used to make Dumbledore seem dead, and as I said before he may have just been injured badly by Snape, if Dumbledore did use this potion it would work perfectly and it would explain everything."

"Jenna if all of this is true, then where is Dumbledore now?"

"I don't know Harry" Jenna said, "I don't know."

They sat in silence for a few minutes thinking. Was there any clue that Dumbledore may have left behind to tell them if he was alive, and where he was?

Then Harry thought of something else; what clues had Jenna found before to lead her to believe that Dumbledore wasn't killed by Snape, or that Snape was loyal to Dumbledore?

"What was your first clue?" He asked.

"My first clue to what?"

"That Dumbledore was alive or Snape was 'good'." Harry said.

"Oh, well I found out about a meeting that Snape had with Bellatrix Lastrange and Narcissa Malfoy. The meeting was about some task that was given to Malfoy by Voldemort that Narcissa wanted to talk to Snape about. During this meeting Snape made an unbreakable vow to Narcissa that he would watch over Draco and step in when necessary which he did when he got Draco out of the castle after Dumbledore was 'murdered'."

Harry listened wondering how Jenna could have found out about a meeting like this.

"I thought that Snape making this kind of vow was suspicious, but what I found even more suspicious was that Snape lied to Bellatrix and Narcissa twice. During the meeting Snape tried to explain to Narcissa and Bellatrix why he never tried to kill you after all of the years of having you right at Hogwarts, and having ample opportunity to do so."

"Why he never killed me? As if he could" Harry said.

Jenna ignored him, "In their conversation he said, 'Of course, it became apparent to me very quickly that he had no extraordinary talent at all. He has fought his way out of tight corners by a simple combination of sheer luck and more talented friend. He is mediocre to the last degree…' when Snape talked about 'he,' he was referring to you of course, and obviously what he said was a lie. He knows that you are a powerful wizard, he knows that you are a parselmouth. He knows you could conjure a corporeal patronus when you were just thirteen years old. He knows that you have stood up against and prevailed Voldemort five times!"

"I know he knows that" Harry said, "But how do you know that?"

Again Jenna ignored him and kept going, "Later on in the meeting Narcissa is crying to Snape that she has something she wants to say, but can't because Voldemort has forbidden her to talk about it. Snape and Bellatrix both tell her that she should follow the dark lord's orders. But Snape still appears troubled by the conversation. He got to his feet and strode over to a small window in the room. He peered through the curtains, and then closed them again with a jerk. He turned around to face Narcissa, frowning. Why did he close the curtains all of a sudden and turn to the women frowning? Did he have a revelation? Then he told the women that he already knew the plan, that Voldemort had already told him. Of course he lied again. If he already knew the plan, why would he have told her to follow Voldemort's law and not speak of it just one moment earlier? Both times he lied he was trying to gain the women's trust, but if he is lying both times, he must not be as loyal to Voldemort as he would like everyone to believe."

"Jenna that is a good point, but how do you know all of this, and why are you telling me?" Harry asked.

"That's a good question" said a voice from across the room. Harry looked up and couldn't believe who he saw.