Yo! Got cataract surgery for my right eye tomorrow afternoon, so taking healing and vision settling and getting glasses to see shit closer to me into account, I'm probably going to disappear again for a month at least, possibly longer depending on whether they shut down stuff considering the plague and how apparently we're in another lockdown, despite schools and malls still being open. But yeah, thank you to all readers so far!
It began with a letter.
Once more choosing to ignore all accusations against him, Dumbledore sat in his chair up at the Staff Table, his long beard tossed over his shoulder as he enjoyed his breakfast. All around the hall meanwhile, students exchanged many a confused glance when they noted Harry was doing much the same, all of his anger from the day before seemingly forgotten. Sirius was at the Staff Table as well, and so was Snape, and their newest professor too, and everyone seemed to be...alright. No one was hurt. No one was dead. No one was angry.
How weird.
While they hadn't really seen any of the professors' reactions, Harry at least had been beyond furious yesterday when he'd seen the article in the paper. And he'd had plenty of reason to be angry too, of course, since he'd learned Dumbledore had been trying to resurrect his parents-any sane person wouldn't be happy with that.
That was why it was so strange to see him having breakfast with his friends at Gryffindor Table, either ignoring or not minding Dumbledore's presence. Had he forgiven him or something? It didn't make any sense.
And then the owl flew in.
Most people recognized the bird immediately as Hedwig-Harry's beloved owl. Not many people paid her much attention, since it just seemed like Harry was getting a bit of post...
At least until the owl bypassed Gryffindor Table and headed straight for the Staff Table instead. That drew a few eyes, but most of them assumed Sirius was the one getting the post instead. Nothing strange about that, right?
And then Hedwig landed in front of Dumbledore.
That drew many more pairs of eyes. Why was Harry's bird delivering post to Dumbledore? Harry couldn't have been sending it to him, could he? Why bother with that when they were literally in the same room? It seemed like a bit of a waste. But if it wasn't Harry sending the post with his owl, then who was? And why were they using Harry's owl to send it anyway?
Dumbledore didn't seem particularly bothered or confused by any of it, and smiled, greeting Hedwig jovially as he took the note she seemed to have brought with her. Everyone except the two sitting on either side of the headmaster were too far away to see the note, and they all figured they weren't going to know what it said, considering that.
But this note seemed to be like another note Dumbledore had previously received during the year, because similar to a Howler, the note read itself out loud for the whole Hall to hear just seconds later.
'Dumbledore,
I have grown bored of our current circumstances. It is entirely your fault. Take responsibility for it and entertain me.
Voldemort'
Dumbledore stared at the letter. Everyone else did too. Harry just started to laugh, then sobered quickly when no one else laughed with him.
"Er, sorry, I thought it was funny." He cleared his throat awkwardly and returned to his breakfast. When he raised his goblet to his mouth, he made eye contact with Marvolo (who was still disguised of course) and raised a brow.
Marvolo simply shrugged and, hiding a grin, Harry sipped from his goblet. Sitting beside him, Hermione stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth, trying not to laugh. Across them however, Ron threw his fork down onto his still full plate (a real testament to how annoyed he was).
"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?"
Ron wasn't the only one in the Great Hall wondering that very same thing. Everyone looked very confused by the note, and even Dumbledore seemed to have lost his appetite, because he didn't touch his plate for so long that Hedwig eventually grew bored and stole the remaining sausage on it before flying away with an annoyed hoot at being forced to treat herself instead of being given a treat like she knew she deserved.
Once Hedwig was gone, Harry glanced up at the Staff Table again. Dumbledore still hadn't moved, and was staring at the note expressionlessly. Was he really not going to just...ask Marvolo about it directly? He knew their new professor was actually Voldemort in disguise, had even hired him despite knowing that. If this note was bugging him, why not just ask the one who'd sent it what was up? Or was he still going to continue ignoring the fact that Voldemort was actually in the castle?
So caught up in the strange contents of the note, no one really realized that Harry's owl had just delivered a note to Dumbledore written by Voldemort.
Finally, the long silence in the Great Hall was broken by one of the older Slytherin students. "If the Dark Lord reallt is bored...someone's about to get tortured."
He had no idea how right he was.
That's it for now. Again, due to getting my eye sliced open tomorrow, you probably won't see me anywhere, not just for this fic, for at least a month, but I'll be back as soon as possible-maybe not specifically for this fic, but just in general. Anyway, looking forward to reviews! Laterz!
