Albus Dumbledore and the Everlasting Flame

Disclaimer: this is a work of fan fiction based on the worlds created by JK Rowling

Author's Note: Dear readers and fans alike, I am so sorry that it has taken me more than a month to update. I know that many of you would like to see more frequent updates and I feel like I have let you all down. I guess I just needed a break from all forms of writing. I write short stories and have been trying to write a novel for the last three years, not to mention my fan fictions. I guess I just got sick of it all and needed a break. Now, I hope to update for you at least once a week. I will do my best to be consistent from now on. Thanks to ant87 for telling me to get going again!

"There is a time to take risks, and a time to show caution. Know the difference"

Chapter 5 – Crossing the Line

The Pirates spent every spare moment the rest of the day planning their prank on Professor Rolleston. Once the five girls were included, the scope of the plan broadened so as to cover more than just Albus' desire to make a point to Professor Rolleston. As Victoria pointed out, 'This will be our first prank back at Hogwarts so we have to make an entrance.'

And so the prank became known as "The-Pirates'-Welcome-Back-to-Hogwarts and Get-Hog-washed-Professor-Rolleston Prank", as William coined it. The Gryffindor second years gathered around in their favourite corner of the common room after dinner; lying on their stomachs in a wide circle. Albus held a quill over a scroll, upon which he was scribbling down ideas as they were brought up.

'So read out what we have got down so far,' Emily asked.

'Alright,' Albus said, his eyes squinting, the better to read his scroll. 'William wants us to use his invisibility cloak to get around Hogwarts tonight to set up the prank. Victoria learned some voodoo magic in Kenya that we can perform on the door to the Charms classroom so that anybody who enters the class temporarily forgets everything they know when they go in. I can use a spell from the book Aberforth gave me, A Guide to Magical Secret Keeping, to hide the key that we lock Professor Rolleston's office door with, so he won't be able to open it and he will never be able to find the key. We will hide the key in the portraits, using the spell from my book. And last but not least, I will instruct Peeves to blow raspberries behind Professor Rolleston's head all day tomorrow without end.'

The girls had to contain their fits of giggles so as not to attract the attention of everyone else in the Gryffindor common room. William was grinning from ear to boyish ear, whilst Mars, Alabastor and Edward wore moon-sized eyes.

'Is there anything else we can do?' Albus asked, more to himself than to the others. As if on cue, Fawkes alighted on his shoulder. The majestic phoenix was crooning softly, but it was not his usual melodic tune. It seemed to grate on Albus' ears, like the high-pitched voice of Professor Cassandra Trelawney, or the sound of chalk on blackboard. Albus turned his head as far as his neck would allow, his eyes coming to a stop right in front of Fawkes' beak. He said, 'is something wrong?'

Fawkes stared into Albus' blue eyes with his own. Albus was mesmerized by them. They seemed to change from green to orange to grey; from purple to red to black, without order or seeming purpose. But the changing colours seemed to strike deep into Albus' eyes, conveying the message that the phoenix wanted him to hear.

When at last Fawkes vanished in a wisp of smoke, Albus was left staring into nothingness. His heart seemed to have stopped beating, and his breath was stalled in his throat. After a few curious moments, William above all the others could take it no longer.

'For Merlin's sake, Albus Wulfric Brian Percival Dumbledore, tell us what Fawkes had to say!' said William. His curiosity seemed ready to burst out of the seams of his evening robes, the soft crimson ones every Gryffindor wore whilst studying in the common room.

'It's Albus Percival Wulfric Brian,' Albus said, still staring dispassionately at the wall.

'I think he's gone corkers,' Alabastor said after another moment's silence. 'We might just have to do these pranks by ourselves. Someone take the scroll out of the mental one's hands and we shall get on with it alone.'

'No,' Albus said. He turned his blue eyes on his friends. Victoria thought he had aged a hundred years in a moment. His eyes seemed tired, lined with worry and the regrets of an old man.

'What is it, Albus?' Victoria asked. 'You look as though … as though Fawkes just told you that someone died.'

'In a sense, he did,' Albus said. 'He told me that Professor Trelawney has just had a very real premonition that someone significant will die this year.' He regretted exhaling the words the moment he did, because all nine the other Pirates jumped in the seats of their pants. They exchanged frantic looks and within moments were speculating vocally amongst one another.

'I knew it from the moment I saw him,' William was expounding to anyone who would listen to his loud voice, 'that Professor Rolleston is a murderer. He has designs on the Headmastership, and I wouldn't be surprised if Professor Prewett is his target.'

'Will you please be quiet?' Albus suddenly thundered. It was as though a lantern in his head had suddenly flickered on and clarity was restored to his thought. 'Keep your voices down, for the love of galleons! We do not want the rest of Gryffindor knowing what Fawkes tells me! Part of the privilege of owning a phoenix is; knowing to keep a lid on the secrets it gives us access to. Besides, the Tri-Wizard Tournament is on this year so someone probably will die. What is more important is what else Fawkes had to say to me.'

This was followed by cries of 'what?' and 'tell us, Albus!'

'Fawkes said two more things to me,' Albus said. 'He told me that there is more to Professor Rolleston than meets the eye…'

'I knew it!' William said, slamming a fist into the palm of his other hand. He was silenced by the icy look Annabel gave him.

'… and he also said that we should not …' Albus' voice trailed away. He could not bring himself to say the words, even though the eyes of his audience were imploring him to do so. What Fawkes had told Albus was this: do not go forth with your acts of piracy this evening; for great is the power of your opponents and greater their wrath when you are exposed. Lest you forget, Archaeon beseeched you to keep your head down this year.

Albus knew that Fawkes was right. He knew that he was risking everything by leading the Pirates in this bold series of pranks. He also could hear Archaeon's booming voice telling him to look after himself this year. But sounding equally loudly in Albus' young ears was his pride, telling him that Professor Rolleston had crossed the line by humiliating him in the classroom that day. Albus also felt a duty to his friends. He was their natural leader, and in a sense, their hero. To back out of a plan as audacious as the "The-Pirates'-Welcome-Back-to-Hogwarts and Get-Hog-washed-Professor-Rolleston Prank" would hurt all nine of their feelings, and leave them peeved with Albus for some time.

The decision Albus made was a simple one, yet tore a very large hole inside his chest. He conjured a lie to tell his friends.

'… ah, Fawkes said we should not … we should not forget to … to … swap the inside of Professor Rolleston's office with the inside of Greenhouse One.'

William burst out clapping and the girls were all giggles once more. It was indeed a brilliant idea, one that any Pirate in the history of piracy would be immensely proud of. Albus could hardly believe that he had come up with such an insanely wicked idea at the drop of a witch's hat, but he had just deferred all credit to his phoenix. So he had to listen guiltily as William and Alabastor loudly sang Fawkes' praises.

Only Victoria seemed unsettled by this latest addition to their list of pranks for the evening.

'Just how, Albus, do you expect us to do that?' she asked.

'Easy, of course,' William interrupted loudly. 'We get Fawkes to help us; you know that he apparates from one place to another with a human attached to its tail! All we need is for that human to be holding on to Professor Rolleston's desk.'

'No, Fawkes won't help us,' Albus said glumly. William looked put out. Albus continued, 'we will just have to levitate Professor Rolleston's desk and hope that we don't come across the new caretaker, what is his name, Odrick Olsen, while we are doing it.'

The ten Pirates sat in a wary circle, thinking about the implications of being caught trying to enact their very first prank of the new year at Hogwarts. Finally it was Emily Marchbanks who called order.

'I don't know about the rest of you,' Emily said, 'but I have homework to do. How about we meet in the common room at midnight, once everyone else has gone to bed, and we can get started on the pranks then.'

'Good idea,' Albus said softly. He was regretting this whole business with every second that passed. 'You chaps do homework. I'm … I'm a little tired. I think I will get some early sleep in so that I am sharp and alert when we do it.'

Albus left the other nine in their corner of the common room and went up to the dormitory. He had no intention of going to sleep. He was going to sit on the windowsill behind his bed, fingering the Eye of Horus and the sapphire ankh whilst looking out across the still, moonlit Hogwarts landscape. Albus was scared, and spent the furtive hours of waiting for midnight hoping; desperately hoping that some trace of luck stored inside the Eye or the ankh would seep into his veins and spare him from the misfortune that surely awaited him.

And all the while Albus panicked over a single thought: if listening to Fawkes has never brought me harm, then what is going to happen to me when I don't listen to him?

Shortly before midnight the other second year boys crept up to the windowsill to tap a dozing Albus on the shoulder. They explained that the hour was up, and the common room was empty. The girls were waiting for them downstairs.

Albus's limbs creaked like an old man as he clambered down from his perch. He picked up the copy of A Guide to Magical Secret Keeping that Aberforth had given him. William was clutching the flowing silvery velvet invisibility cloak. All five boys were holding on to their wands as a religious muggle might clutch on to his or her crucifix. It was, after all, the witching hour, and even in the confines of Hogwarts it was easy to sense the chill that passed through the stony walls of the castle.

The nervous faces of the girls greeted them in the common room. They climbed through the portrait hole without saying a word to one another. When William tried to cast his invisibility cloak over their collective heads it became immediately apparent that ten kids would not fit underneath it. Audible panic arose from their lips.

'Hush,' Albus said. 'I have an idea. We will use the invisibility cloak to get from place to place in small groups. It will be William's job to take us around. He can take five of us to the Charms classroom, leave us there and come back for the other four. That way, nobody has to walk around the corridors uncovered.'

'Genius,' Mars whispered the thought that was on everyone's mind at that moment. 'That is pure genius, Albus.'

Albus allowed himself the slightest grin before grabbing William by the arm.

'Right, take me, Victoria, Alabastor, Mars and Emily to Charms,' Albus said. 'The rest of you wait in the shadows. William will come back for you in ten minutes.'

The envoy of six had to cluster very close to ensure that everyone was covered by the cloak. It was fortunate that none of the Gryffindor second years was particularly tall. Albus and Victoria were very close together for the duration of the five minutes it took to traverse a few tricky staircases and get to the Charms classroom, but it felt like five hours. Not only because Albus was nervous, but because he had never been confined in such a small space with Victoria for any length of time. It made him slightly dizzy, for some reason which he could not quite place.

When they arrived, William hurried off with the invisibility cloak and the five were left in full view of anyone who might choose to walk along the corridor at such an hour.

'What do we do?' Emily asked, turning straight to Albus for an answer.

'The cupboard,' Albus said, his eyes lighting on a broom cupboard a few dozen strides along from the Charms classroom door. 'We will hide in there until the others come.'

And hide they did. Once again the kids were crowded together, but this time Albus was squeezed between Alabastor's bony elbow and Mars' shoulder. This was not quite as pleasant as having Victoria's elbow in his side.

The slight shuffle of feet announced the arrival of William with the other four. Albus burst out of the cupboard, relieved to be getting some fresh air in his lungs.

'There you are,' William said, breathing audibly. 'We wondered where you had vanished to.'

'Alright, gather around everyone,' Albus said, pulling the Pirates into a circle. 'Here is my plan. William, Alabastor, Edward, Annabel and Emily are to take the invisibility cloak and start levitating some of Professor Rolleston's possessions downstairs and into Greenhouse One. You will have to be very cautious, because we do not know what Odrick Olsen's night habits are. If you see or hear someone coming, do not panic and drop everything, because then we will be in for it. Instead, put the things down gently and come quietly back up here to fetch us. We will all sneak back to Gryffindor and nobody will be the wiser. Have you five got that?'

'Yes,' they concurred, albeit with pale and harrowed faces.

'And by the way, William,' Albus continued, 'if you see Peeves, instruct him that Headmaster Dumbledore needs to see him urgently with the minimum of noise, before he goes berserk and screams the whole castle down.'

'Absolutely right,' William said, shuddering at the thought of Peeves turning their own worst enemy.

'In the meantime, Elizabeth and Maggie are going to be our lookouts,' Albus said. 'I need one of you to each end of this corridor. If you hear anyone coming, get back fast and let us know so that we can hide in the broom cupboard. We do not have an invisibility cloak, so we risk being seen by anybody. As for you, Victoria, you get to work your voodoo on the Charms classroom door while Mars and I figure out how to hide a key in one of the portraits. Once William and company have swapped Professor Rolleston's desk for a few of Professor Longbottom's mandrakes; we can lock his door, hide the key and return to Gryffindor.'

The same plan that had sounded so appetizingly good in the Gryffindor common room just hours earlier now sounded harder than the three tasks of the Tri-wizard Tournament put together. The ten Gryffindor Pirates exchanged silent looks of grim agreement that this was their fate and there was no way out of it, and then they parted ways.

William, Alabastor, Emily, Edward and Annabel made for the door to Professor Rolleston's office. A carefully cast Alohamora from Emily allowed them entry. A few moments inside followed, before they emerged with Professor Rolleston's crowded desk floating in mid-air in front of them. All five had their wands out, determined looks on their faces as they endeavoured to keep it stable. William pulled the invisibility cloak over their heads and they were gone. It made a strange sight; a desk floating in mid-air along the corridor.

In the meantime Victoria had set herself up in front of the Charms classroom door. Albus spent a few minutes watching her with interest. She enchanted a small fire on the floor in front of her, and was consulting chicken bones and rat intestines. She had used ochre paint to adorn the Charms door, and was murmuring oaths under her breath. Elizabeth and Maggie were standing at either end of the corridor, keeping an eye out.

'Albus,' Mars said, tugging on his sleeve. 'We do not have much time. Open up your book and let's work out how to hide this key.'

'Oh, of course, the key,' Albus said. He tore his eyes away from Victoria's voodoo and produced both the textbook and an old key. 'I stole this from the Caretaker's office last year, when old Umbridge was torturing me. It looked like a generic key so I thought it might be useful. Let's see if it fits Professor Rolleston's office door.'

When the key magically turned in the lock, Mars was ecstatic.

'Why didn't you tell us about this key last year?' Mars said. 'Just think of the places we could have gone with it!'

'We did not have an invisibility cloak, remember,' Albus cautioned. 'Besides, I did not even think of it. I have a collection of about fifty different things hidden behind that rusty old portrait frame behind my bed. Most of those things I will never use, but I collect them in case they come in handy.'

'You never cease to amaze;' Mars said, slack-jawed.

Albus flipped open A Guide to Magical Secret Keeping and searched for the chapter on hiding things inside portraits. He had not gotten further than the first line; 'The art of hiding items within the frames of portraits is one very few magicians use for the guardianship of their secrets, but it happens to be one of the moste effective'; when an almighty crash sounded from somewhere a few floors below them.

'Oh no,' Albus mouthed. The sound of pottles of ink and heavy volumes of leather-bound books clattering down a marble staircase told him everything he dreaded to know.

'Quick! Quick!' hissed Maggie, charging down the corridor like a red-maned lion on attack. 'Someone's coming!'

At the same time Elizabeth was hastening down the corridor from the other way, panic in her eyes.

Victoria extinguished her magical fire but barely had time to pick up her chicken bones, and Albus barely had time to slam shut his book and shove the key in his pocket, when three towering figures bore down upon them from different directions.

It was Professors Prewett, Bones and Rolleston.

Professor Prewett's voice was icy cold, like the look of frozen contempt etched on her aged face.

'Get to my office,' she said, 'now.'

Ten very pale, very frightened Gryffindor second years crowded into the Headmistress's office a few minutes later. Odrick Olsen had located the other five after the table had gone smashing down a flight of stairs, and brought them to the office at once. Professors Bones and Rolleston each took a seat on either side of the group of kids, whilst Professor Prewett adopted a position of terrifying authority behind her desk. Her bad eye was glaring through the lens of her monocle; anger radiating from her pupil with the force of a Cruciatus curse. Albus felt like he was undergoing the effects of the curse at that very moment.

'Will someone please explain to me,' Professor Prewett began in a dangerously low tone, 'what ten Gryffindors are doing raiding a teacher's office, skulking around under invisibility cloaks, performing illegal voodoo magic on a classroom door and trying to perform mischievous magic on a key with the intent of presumably locking a door and hiding the key?'

Nobody had the nerve or the willpower to answer her, so Professor Prewett snorted and went on.

'As a matter of fact, I do not need an explanation,' she said. 'This is yet another attempt by the organization known as the Pirates to undermine the authority of Hogwarts. Need I remind you what I said only one night ago? We are playing host to an international tournament this year, and after the death of our Deputy Headmaster and strange retirement of our Headmaster, all eyes will be on us to restore our school's dignity! Did I not make it forbiddingly clear that I expected behaviour to be of the highest standard? I have a right mind to expel the lot of you immediately.'

On hearing this Albus could stand it no longer. This was his fault, and he knew that he had to take the fall for it.

'Please, Professor,' Albus croaked, stepping forward and incurring a venomous look from the Headmistress for daring to interrupt her, 'this is my fault, not theirs. It was my idea, it always is.'

Professor Prewett's gaze had hardened, and he sensed that he had not yet convinced her. He could feel the sympathetic gaze of his nine friends on his back, all grateful that he was trying to take the blame that each knew rested on their shoulders too. But none were bold enough to risk expulsion by stepping forward to join Albus. Where he had an uncanny knack for avoiding expulsion, none of the other nine felt as confident.

Albus gulped. He knew that the truth was the only thing that could save them all. His eyes burned, and he desperately avoided Professor Rolleston's gaze as he unleashed the truth.

'Professor, it was my idea because Professor Rolleston embarrassed me in class today,' Albus said. There was a trace of bitterness in his voice. 'He said I am not good enough to work from Grade Four of The Standard Book of Spells and need to go back to Grade Two like everyone else. He made me feel stupid … so I wanted to get revenge. I … I pulled the others into it.'

There was a moment of startling silence while Professor Prewett brewed on Albus' words.

'That is quite the most pathetic thing I have heard from a Hogwarts student in all my forty years in this place,' Professor Prewett snapped. 'You should be ashamed of yourself, Dumbledore. As for the rest of you, you are not going to get away with this. Four hundred points will be removed from Gryffindor. As of now, Gryffindor's points tally stands at negative three hundred and eighty. Your House will have to work all year to erase the results of your foolish behavior. Get out of my office, the lot of you.'

Albus made a move for the door after his colleagues, but a sharp bark from Professor Prewett stopped him in his tracks.

'I am not finished with you,' Professor Prewett said. 'You have disgusted me. For someone as talented and intelligent as you, recently the hero of the school for exposing a criminal and saving the magical world from a dark sorcerer, how could you possibly think of doing such a stupid thing?'

Albus was unable to answer. Tears were brimming underneath his eyelids and his body felt like caving in. He had never felt worse.

Professor Prewett clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth when he did not answer.

'I will be writing to your father about this,' she said. 'You are on your last warning for expulsion. One step out of line for the rest of the year and you will be out, I kid you not. And Ryan, what say you? Do you think he deserves a semester of nightly detentions with you in your office?'

'I think he does,' Professor Rolleston said, eyes hardening on Albus.

'Accompany him to Gryffindor Tower,' Professor Prewett snapped. 'I do not trust him to walk the corridors alone.'

Albus left Professors Prewett and Bones to simmer in the office, followed by Professor Rolleston. He walked the corridors with barely a flicker of hope in his soul. His legs dragged along the stony floors like lead anchors. He kept his head down and had to work hard to stifle the sobs that wanted to break out of him.

When they arrived at the portrait hole, Professor Rolleston crouched down in front of Albus and took hold of his shoulder. Albus could not bring himself to look up at the man who surely hated him now that the truth had been revealed.

'Albus; look at me,' Professor Rolleston said. Albus let his eyes drift slowly up to meet Rolleston's. They were dark, and stared at Albus over his half-moon spectacles. He said, 'While I cannot condone what you did, the loss of four hundred points from Gryffindor is going to be punishment enough for you. The rest of the House will make you and your second year friends suffer for the rest of the year because of it. So your detentions with me will be nothing more than homework sessions. But do not take Professor Prewett's warning lightly. One more misdemeanor and she will expel you.'

Albus gulped but there was nothing to swallow.

'And Albus,' Professor Rolleston said, kindness radiating from his eyes now, 'I never meant to embarrass you. I realized at once that you are a remarkable student, and I only wanted to cultivate that talent, not stifle it. I never once thought you would be angry with me for doing so.'

That was the worst thing; as Albus slunk past his room-mates without answering their questions, climbed into bed, and pulled his curtains closed behind him; that it had all been for Albus' own foolish pride, and misguided pride at that. Albus had acted like a clown fool because he'd thought that Professor Rolleston had it in for him.

Albus cried himself to sleep. Not because he had incurred the loss of four hundred points for Gryffindor and a term of homework sessions with Professor Rolleston. Not because he had been threatened with expulsion if he set one foot wrong again. But because Albus had just learned the hardest and best lesson of his young life:

Never react without knowing the facts. And boy did Albus wish he could wind back the hands of time and correct the previous twelve hours.

Author's Note: Hope you all liked that; and as I said before, I will do my best to update with greater regularity. Thank you to the kind reviewer who reminded me that you are all waiting for updates from my true fan-fictions. Without you I would not have written this chapter. Everyone needs a kick in the backside from time to time, just like Albus, and not least of all me. Until next time!