Title: Harry Potter and the Cup of Death
Synopsis: Post HBP Harry decides to forgo returning to Hogwarts to search for the remaining Horcruxes with Ron, Hermione and the only one who can complete the riddles Dumbledore has left Harry.
Disclaimer: I am in the sandpit- JK Rowling, Warner Brothers and Scholastic own all rights to everything you recognize.
Rating: Pg-13
A/N: Update as I promised! Please review!
Chapter Two: Last Request
Aislinn slowly walked up the wide staircase, she had never been to Hogwarts but she felt as though she knew it well as she followed Professor McGonagall along corridors past paintings that watched her with curiosity. They moved up another staircase and paused at the top, they turned down another corridor to two gargoyle's that guarded a doorway.
She shivered as McGonagall glanced back at her.
"Chocolate Frog." The new Headmistress announced in a clear but pained voice. The door slid aside to make way for a circular staircase that moved upwards in a spiral. Carefully they stepped onto the staircase and were carried up and around a gigantic carving. The stair stopped in front of a tall wooden door and Aislinn shivered. She had felt cold since she entered the castle but now that feeling was doubled as Professor McGonagall sent her a steadying look before gently opening the door.
"Most of his things have been packed up." Said the small Transfiguration teacher as she led the way into the office. Without needing to be told where to go Aislinn walked towards the Headmaster's desk, on it sat a round steel basin she knew well, Great Uncle's Pensieve was still brim full of swirling thoughts he had placed within, she shuddered at the idea of stepping inside those memories as she had once before. The memory of what she had seen in that memory still made her ill and she quickly turned her gaze away from the swirling thoughts within the basin and looked upwards. She winced as she looked at the painting.
Albus Dumbledore was sitting in a comfortable armchair, his head canted to one side as he slept on, blissfully unaware of her presence. Soft wheezes and snores could be heard but they were all coming from that painting the rest of the paintings were sitting their chairs with straight backs, eyes fastened on her. She glanced around at them and recognized many of their names and some of their faces. Just above her Great Uncle a cold faced wizard was staring at her with a strange mixture of haughty disdain and unbridled curiosity.
Slowly she walked around the desk to face the painting of her great uncle. She noticed as she did so that his snoring had faded and his head was now upright, instead his eyes were closed almost in resignation.
"Albus Dumbledore." The words that left her mouth were formal and her emotions controlled. She heard a sniffle over her shoulder and knew McGonagall was having difficulty restraining her emotions.
Finally the painting opened his eyes, their blue reflections of hers were not dancing merrily as they had when he told her stories as a child or watched her play, rather they were solemn and sad.
"Your letter told me that you would have a request to make of me." The painting of Dumbledore did not shift or blink but remained watching her through his half moon glasses, though the other paintings had all shifted slightly, a soft murmur going around the room. The request was odd, and dangerous. It implied there was something the living Dumbledore had felt unable to leave to her by means of a Last Will and Testament sworn over by the Ministry and kept in one of the special vaults that such documents were kept in at Gringotts, which in turn was dangerous to leave with a painting as paintings were easily destroyed.
Aislinn felt a sudden burning desire to turn away as the scrutiny of the other paintings intensified, she felt an unpleasant stinging in her already sore and swollen eyes and forced herself to square her shoulders. She had already resolved to do whatever it was her great uncle would ask, she knew that whatever it was it was what he had trained her for since her Grandpa had died eight years ago, whatever it was had been the cause of the sudden change in her schooling that year so the Defense Against the Dark Arts had become by far the most important subject being taught to her, in fact to the point that Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody had been dropping by up to three times a week to tutor her.
"Yes- I have things to share and a request to make." She nodded. "Understand, I do not ask this lightly, I know the things I am asking you to do will be hard and that you are too young by any measure to face these things. But understand as well that I would not ask if I did not have faith in you, the task I set you is dangerous, a road you will travel alone, because- and this is very important. No one outside this room must ever know what I am about to ask or the means by which I have acquired this knowledge and to that end, if I could ask you to leave us now, all of you - except you Phineas." He added to the wizard above him with the sneering face, Aislinn felt a moment of curiosity as she looked at one of the most hated and feared Hogwarts Headmaster's of all time. Nigellus was well known also for raising the importance of the Dark Arts to an almost unprecedented level at Hogwarts. He waited until the cacophony of Protests had died down.
"Please do this now, I have asked so much of some of you but I know ask more of the one most important to me and I wish it to be for her ears alone."
"Alright Albus." Said McGonagall, her voice trembling with tears. "Out, all of you." She added to the portraits, many of whom where shifting sideways with highly disgruntled faces.
"Thank you." He said softly as the last few disappeared. Finally the portraits were empty apart from the two directly in front of her.
"Phineas, I will ask you to be silent and patient, you are here to listen not to contribute. Phineas had lost his condescending look and now wore one of gravity, though he still seemed curious.
"As you wish Dumbledore." She winced at her own formalness but knew at the same time that without it she would be weeping.
"If you could cast a freezing charm on each photo and silence charm on the room we will begin." Aislinn nodded as she withdrew her wand from her pocket, almost thoughtlessly she cast each spell quickly and effortlessly, the slender Ivy wood wand swishing through the air in tightly controlled movements. The paintings waited as Aislinn settled her self against the edge of the desk, the wood beneath hands as she curled them around the edge of the desk seemed comfortingly solid.
"Listen carefully, this is a prophecy made hundreds of years ago by a great Seer who has had many gifted descendants including Cassandra Trelawney and the divination teacher who currently resides in this Castle, indeed she was the first of this line to attain great renown and this is the only one of her prophecies to have been unfulfilled…"
Minerva paced back and forth across the corridor, her steps jerky and her thoughts chasing around and around in a circle, a series of questions repeated over and over. What did Dumbledore have to say that none of the portraits or herself would be allowed to hear except Phineas Nigellus? She had a deep dislike of Nigellus, always had had, and not just because he was a Slytherin but also because his time as headmaster had been a time of darkness in the castle, when the Dark Arts and Pure-Blood status had been championed above all else.
She paced faster as she considered what dangerous thing Dumbledore could be asking her to do, something beyond anything he had ever asked before from his expression. Something dangerous and undoubtedly to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But more than anything she was now worried about the length of time Aislinn had spent in the office, nearly four hours had passed and the sunlight streaming in through the high arched windows was fading to a brilliant gold as the afternoon waned.
A grinding noise behind her made her turn. The door opened slowly as the winding staircase ground to a halt.
Aislinn emerged, her face was pale and tear stained but there was a strange cast to her expression and Minerva felt a chill run down her spine and settle in her stomach as the last trunks from Dumbledore's office came out into the corridor and hovered silently behind the pale witch.
Pale blue eyes stared into hers with an intensity that was startling, the child had always been intense but this was a different level, there was a maturity in those pale eyes that Minerva had never seen before and she grieved the passing of the little girl she'd known.
"I need to go home now Professor." The words were soft and halting, pleading that her mentor not ask any questions.
"I'll go make the arrangements." She replied, granting her student her trust and faith without any words. She turned away and hurried down the corridor, she felt Aislinn following her, she glanced back and looked away quickly, she felt cold at the expression of resolve on her old student's face, it was the image of Albus'.
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