Dumbledore's Secrets

Secret 9: Love sets into Motion

When last we left you, Dumbledore had asked the strangest question: Why doesn't the glue stick to the inside of the bottle? Read on to find out whether or not it's answered.

"Well Harry, can you answer it?" asked Dumbledore.

"Professor! Watch out! Hermione on the rampage!" Harry yelled in the only time he had. Indeed, Hermione was on a rampage, to answer the question, of course.

"I can tell you the answer profess-"

"Hermione, Hermione, Hermione, when will you learn to control your eagerness to learn? Tsk, tsk, you really shouldn't answer every question, you could trip on a rock." Said Dumbledore with his usual phrase mix up.

"Well annnnyway," started Hermione "as I was saying before, I can answer tha- Oh hi Ginny!" It was true, Ginny had just walked into the kitchen of the Burrow, and when he saw her, Harry felt a mighty beast rear up inside him; almost as if he had a crush on Ginny (after all these years of Ginny chasing Harry, they seem to have flip-flopped). He tried to identify the animal and he thought it was safe to assume that this animal was definitely……………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………a mouse.

After all their hellos were said, Hermione continued "Okay, well, the reason the glue doesn't stick to the inside of the bottle is because…" Hermione took a deep breath, almost as if she was going to talk very fast riiiiiiiight now-"the-lid-of-the-bottle-creates-a-seal-holding-the-liquid-glue-in-the-air-tight-container-therefore-keeping-the-glue-from-drying-out-and-sticking-to-the-inside-of-the-bottle. Whew!" Hermione was now breathing very deeply while everyone else in the room looked dumbstruck.

"Well I'll be darned, Harry Potter." Said someone who had just walked into the room, someone who was marrying Bill Weasley next summer (Okay, by now you should know that it's Fleur) I never thought I'd see you again." She finished.

"Well, uh, um, why, why, are you here?" asked Harry knowing the answer (or did he).

"Oh Harry, I'd tell you that, but well, your brain would, heh, explode." Fleur finished feverishly.

"Wait-What?" asked Harry incredulously. "I thought you were here to get ready for your wedding next summer."

"Oh, I am-though, I'm here for another reason, and if I told you, your brain would explode. Poor, poor Billy Rockstar, he never had a chance…" she went off into thought.

"Oh Fleur, don't scare him" started Mrs. Weasley "she's working for the Order, Harry- see, your brain didn't explode now did it?"

"No, my brain feels fine Mrs. Weasley." Said Harry. "Hmm..." said Harry to himself; for he had just noticed that Fleur had a Texan accent. How strange is that?

"Okay, I really must be going now." Said Dumbledore. As he was walking out the front door, he tripped over something. It looked like a line with ancient runes on it. "Now Molly, I really must ask you to watch where you put these lines down."

"But Albus, I didn't put any lines down." Said Molly.

"Oh, well, that's okay then."

Hermione sprang up and ran over to pick the line up, hastily trying to explain that when she was getting her Ancient Runes materials together, she must have dropped the line without noticing it. They were interrupted by 3 consecutive thumps on the widows that were coincidentally made by 3 owls flying into the windows. "Oh, it looks like our All Purpose Cleaner really does work." Said Mrs. Weasley. "Quick, get the mail while they're still confused, then we won't have to pay for it." They all ran out and took the three packages the owls were carrying and brought those inside, leaving the owls locked out of the house. When they got inside, they opened the three packages which happened to be their O.WL.s results.

When they had finished with their O.W.L. related talk, Dumbledore had finally figured out what the line with the ancient runes on it had reminded him of. "Oh my gosh," he started "I just realized that the line with the ancient runes on it reminded me of an age ring. You know, where if you're not the proper age and you walk through it, you get blown back and you grow a long beard…which you can't get rid of, I might add."

Hermione had made the connection that would reveal all. "So does that mean that you into an age ring and now you can't get rid of your beard?" She asked with a smug expression on her face.

"Of course not, Hermione." Said Dumbledore "It definitely wasn't an age ring (he put heavy emphasis on the word 'ring', you know, in case you hadn't noticed.)…………..it was an age line." He finished quickly and quietly.

"Ooo, how'd it happen?" asked Ron eagerly.

"Well, remember two years ago when Hogwarts held the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Yes." They all answered.

"Well remember how you had to be seventeen to compete?"

"Yes." They answered again.

"Remember when I put that age line around the Goblet of Fire?"

"Yes……."

"Well, that's………………………definitely not how I got my beard."

"What?" They all said (it's strange how many things they said in unison.)

"Yeah, this happened a long time ago, in ah, oh geez, when was it, oh, um, it had to be, no, it was, uh, um, oh yeah! Duh! It was in 1983. That's when I got my first apartment. When I first looked through it, I decided I would put a protective spell around it, you know, to keep it protected; that was the hip-and-happenin' thing to do back then. Well, I couldn't think of a spell, so I decided to use an age line. You know, age lines are very tricky little things. You have to have a lot of concentration, because you have to think of how old you want people to have to be to cross the line. Well, when I made it, I was going to put it at 499 so only I could get in, however, I was hungry and this muggle had just walked by with a tray of food, and well, my concentration wavered for an instant, just an instant, but the damage was done, I had set the age line to 500, not 499. Of course, I didn't know that I had done this, so I walked into my apartment and was blown out a second later with a giant beard growing on me. After many, many tries of shaving it, I figured out that you can't get rid of it, you just can't."

"Professor, you do know that Madame Pomfrey can get rid of that beard you know." Said Hermione.

"Oh, uh, I knew that." Dumbledore replied in an embarrassed tone. Now Dumbledore sat down in his squishy chair (which had been following him as he had walked around the room), of course Fleur had been sitting on it and couldn't get out of his way in time, it was too late, he had sat on her and she couldn't move.

That ended abruptly, but, this is our longest chapter so far, and my hand hurts. I want some ice.