A/N: Thanks to all those who have reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. I'm glad that people have been enjoying it. And a special thanks to Bonnie and Mainsail for beta reading this and thus improving on the original. If you have questions or concerns about what's going on, feel free to include them in a review or a PM — I'll try to answer.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.
Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "The Reclamation of Black Magic" by ShayaLonnie. Harry's grandmother, Dorea Potter, didn't die from dragon pox as everyone thought. Instead, she's been in an enforced magical coma while undergoing an experimental treatment in Australia. Once she awakens, she demands to know what's happened with the rest of her family, and when she learns what Albus Dumbledore has done with her grandson... heads will roll.
Final Countdown: 10...9!
Chapter 42 - Pyromania
Sunday, March 19, 1996. Evening.
"Are you ready for a bit of adventure, Miss Potter?" Dumbledore asked, and Jasmine gave him a nod — though not a happy or eager one, judging by the expression on her face. "I take it you're still upset that I've insisted on you accompanying me alone, forcing you to leave Miss Granger behind. Miss Delacour, too."
Dumbledore watched his student's face carefully and saw the expected look of surprise and slight bit of guilt. "I dare say I'm not the only one who's noticed how much the young Miss Delacour follows you around. Something to do with you rescuing her from the Black Lake, I expect?" She readily agreed with that explanation, and he felt that a number of theories were being confirmed.
"I truly regret separating you from your friends like this," Dumbledore continued, "but as I explained before, this could be dangerous, and I'm not sure that I'd be able to protect two or three of you if the need arose. I'm still not at my best, almost five months after my injury; but even if I were, circumstances might prevent me from ensuring the safety of more than one of you. And surely you wouldn't want me to be put in a position where I'd be forced to choose."
Jasmine's eyes went wide at that possibility, something she clearly hadn't considered before. "N-no, Professor!"
"And while we are on the subject," Dumbledore said, "I must insist on a promise from you before we leave: you must agree to follow my orders without question, even if I tell you to flee and leave me behind. Do you understand?"
Jasmine shock at the idea was plain, and Dumbledore was more than a little relieved. "But... but I couldn't!" she protested.
"You must," he retorted. "I will not compromise on your safety, even at the cost of my own."
Jasmine sagged a bit before saying, "Alright. I promise."
"Very well then, it's time we were off. We'll use the floo to get outside the castle's wards, then we'll apparate to a spot close to our destination. First stop: the Hog's Head Inn." Dumbledore announced the name of the inn in Hogsmeade and disappeared into the green flames of his fireplace, followed closely by Jasmine.
Once she had picked herself up off the dirty floor and brushed the soot from her robes, she looked around and saw the Headmaster standing nearby with a sad, pinched look on his face while an old man behind the bar scowled at him. After giving the bartender a nod, Dumbledore gestured to Jasmine to follow him out of the inn.
"He didn't seem to like you very much," she observed once they were outside.
"Indeed," Dumbledore responded. "As you yourself have unfortunately learned, family does not always get along like they should." She looked up at him in astonishment, but before she could say anything he went on, "Fortunately, he will not speak to anyone about our passing through tonight. Now, take my arm and hold on tight." She did as instructed and quickly felt herself being pulled through a straw as the Headmaster apparated them away.
When she tumbled to the ground, she felt grass beneath her hands and heard the crashing of nearby waves. Dumbledore stood patiently as she got to her feet, looking off into the distance as if working on some important riddle rather than waiting for her. Once she was standing again, she saw almost immediately that they were near the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.
"Where are we?" Jasmine asked.
"On the southern coast of England," Dumbledore answered. "The children of Wool's Orphanage were often brought here for an afternoon trip."
"So this was someplace Voldemort... er, Tom frequently came?
Dumbledore nodded. "I imagine that this was one of the first places he felt happy. Free. It became important to him, and after your comments about how he must have felt about Hogwarts, I decided that it would be a good idea to investigate places like this. I didn't venture far the last time I was here, but what I discovered was significant enough that it seemed worthwhile to return with you. We shouldn't tarry, though. I have no idea how long this will take, and it's already late." He started moving purposefully towards a steep path that had been all but invisible in the darkness, then proceeded down it as if he'd been walking along such treacherous ground all his life.
"Uh, Professor?" Jasmine asked from behind. "Have you heard from Remus? Do you know how he's doing?"
"I take it Sirius informed you of his mission, then?" Dumbledore asked with a sigh. "That is unfortunate, and I ask that you not allow it to spread around. His safety depends heavily on secrecy — if Voldemort even suspects that we've sent one of our number to the continent, he'd go to great lengths to capture him."
"Yes, sir, I won't tell anyone."
"I won't lie to you: it is a dangerous mission. It's an important one, however, and he volunteered for it."
"Well, it's not as if he had anything else to do, like a job," Jasmine said a little bitterly.
"That is true," Dumbledore replied, and there was sadness in his eyes. "The situation for werewolves in Britain has deteriorated recently."
"Thanks to Snape," Jasmine muttered.
"Professor Snape," Dumbledore said automatically, "and he's hardly in a position to—"
"Throw a tantrum over failing to murder my godfather — a tantrum which included ratting out Remus, making it possible for foul people like Umbridge to pass more oppressive laws? I think he was in exactly that position," Jasmine insisted.
Dumbledore paused and looked at her carefully for a long moment. "An interesting line of reasoning," he said finally. "Nevertheless, I have not ignored the importance of Remus' safety — nor of his importance to you. Before he left, I gifted him with a small gold pendant in the shape of a phoenix. I personally enchanted it to act as a portkey, one powerful enough to take him through most wards and back to the front gates of Hogwarts. I had to stay in bed for an entire weekend after I did it, but I wanted to ensure that he had the best protection I could give him."
"Thank you, Professor," Jasmine said in a small voice. "I... I appreciate that."
"Not at all, my dear — I was happy to do what I could."
The rest of the journey down the path was spent in silence, and soon they were standing in front of what appeared to be a shallow sea cave carved out of the rock by millennia of relentless waves. Once at the back of the cave, Dumbledore started casting detection spells at various spots along the wall. "Good, nothing has changed," he murmured before making a slash across his palm.
"Professor!" Jasmine cried.
"This entrance requires a blood sacrifice, I'm afraid."
"But... but I could have—"
"No, my dear, I must do it," Dumbledore insisted as he flung droplets of blood across the wall. "Your blood is much more valuable than mine. Too valuable to waste like this." Jasmine stared at him, dumbfounded, as he bound his injured hand and the back wall of the cave slid open to reveal a much, much larger inner cave.
Aside from its sheer size, an unnaturally still lake with an island at the center was the only noteworthy feature of this new cavern. "That small island is our destination, if I'm not mistaken," Dumbledore said.
"I wish I'd brought my broom," Jasmine lamented. "We could have flown."
Dumbledore shook his head. "I believe that the magic in this cave would prevent such an approach, just as it prevents all forms of magical travel in or out. It can't even be directly detected from the outside, it's so well shielded."
"I don't fancy having to swim across," she muttered, shivering as she eyed the eerie, unmoving water.
"No, neither do I," Dumbledore replied darkly as he examined a post that was sticking out of the ground near the edge of the lake. Reaching down, he grabbed hold of a chain leading away from the post and into the water. When he did so, the chain began rising and a small boat came up out of the water, moving towards them on the shore. "This looks like our ride," he said when it touched land. "Step in carefully, now, and whatever you do, don't touch the water."
"Why shouldn't I touch the water?" she asked once they were underway. She leaned a little over the side, then pulled back so suddenly that she caused the boat to rock. "What is that? Down in the water?"
"Inferi," Dumbledore answered. "Reanimated corpses. Hundreds and hundreds of them, I suspect. I always wondered what he did with so many of his victims. Now I think I could have done without that bit of knowledge."
"How could anyone do such a thing?" Jasmine asked in horror.
"By accident, originally," Dumbledore answered, watching his student carefully. At her blank look, he explained, "The first inferi were created entirely by accident in a magical ritual that went wrong." He noted with interest that her expression held more than a little guilt along with the expected distress. "Healers were trying to perform a healing ritual on some people who had been too badly injured for regular spells and potions to help. Such rituals were frowned upon even then, but the healers had foolishly convinced themselves that nothing else would work. No one is quite sure what went wrong, since the only survivor was quite insane by the time they were rescued, but it's thought that the patients were already dead when the ritual was complete." She now looked positively ill at the story, which was exactly what he was hoping for.
"Given how complex and sensitive rituals can be," he concluded, "they are even more susceptible to mistakes than simple wand movements and incantations, so who knows what those poor, misguided healers did. Eventually someone figured out how to do it deliberately. And now, thanks to a single botched ritual, dark wizards are able to create these monstrosities. Only fire or complete dismemberment can stop them." The girl's expression turned thoughtful then, which confused Dumbledore a little, but he couldn't pursue it any further because they had arrived at the small island.
At the center of the island was a basin filled with a greenish, glowing liquid, and at the bottom was what looked like a locket of some sort. Dumbledore tried several different spells to vanish or transfigure the liquid without success. He then attempted to reach in and grab the locket, also without success. "It seems," he said slowly as he lifted a crystal goblet that had been sitting on the side of the basin, "that someone must drink the potion before the locket can be removed. All of it."
She looked on, appalled, as he filled the cup. Before raising it to his lips, he gazed resolutely at her.
"Remember your promise, Miss Potter. Remember your promise."
Gabrielle paced back and forth in the Gryffindor common room, just as she had been doing for the past hour. Her anxiety and short temper had driven most of the rest of the students out, and except for Jasmine and Hermione's closest friends, those who remained stayed as far away as possible.
Hermione reached out and grabbed Gabrielle's hand, forcing her to stop and look at the brunette witch. Hermione hadn't been able to concentrate on her assignments ever since Jasmine had left, and Gabrielle's pacing had worn away what little patience she'd had left. "I know it's frustrating," she said, trying not to snap at the younger witch,"but pacing like this won't help either her or you."
"I don't know what else to do!" Gabrielle cried. "I should be with her. You should be with her. I don't trust zat old man with her alone!" She paused to take a deep breath. "I am sure it is worse for Fleur, since she doesn't even have you to help get through zis night. If it weren't already so late, I would try to spend time with her, but with Umbridge around we cannot take ze chance."
"Dumbledore isn't going to hurt Jasmine," Hermione said. "For all the things he's done, he's never deliberately tried to do her harm. He's more likely to go too far in protecting her. In any event, please try to find a more productive outlet for all this nervous energy."
"Like what?"
"How about creating a dummy and using it for target practice with that huge knife of yours," Ginny suggested. Hermione looked aghast, but Gabrielle smiled and immediately began transfiguring a cushion into a human-shaped target dummy.
"Why would you suggest such a thing?" Hermione hissed at Ginny.
"It is a short sword, by ze way," Gabrielle announced as she threw it and struck the dummy square in the head at a distance of seven meters.
"I'm curious about what it will take to get the rest of them to leave," Ginny said with a glint in her eye. Hermione looked around the mostly-empty common room and noticed that the remaining Gryffindors, all on the far side of the room, started squirming uncomfortably when Gabrielle chose to target the dummy's crotch rather than its head.
"No... please no..."
Jasmine regretted ever making that horrible promise as she refilled the cup from the basin.
"I don't want to. Please, no more..."
Jasmine wished that there were some other solution as she forced open an old man's mouth and poured the vile potion down his throat.
"Why? Oh, why?"
Jasmine hated herself as she longed for some means to block out the piteous cries of her headmaster — cries of terror, pain, and she knew not what else, except that she was causing it, and it was tearing her apart to have to do it.
"Please, stop. Please, just make it all stop!"
"Sure, Professor," she said shakily as she pushed another cup of potion at him. "This will make it all stop for you." She hated herself even more for lying like that as she watched him willingly gulp down the very substance that was torturing him.
Dumbledore abruptly screamed in terror almost as soon as he finished that cup, causing Jasmine to stumble back in surprise, but she quickly took the cup and filled it again.
"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry... I should have protected you..." he started whimpering as she forced more potion down his throat. She'd never seen the old man looking so frail, so vulnerable. She'd never even imagined that he could look like this, and she wondered if he was reliving his experiences from the war.
"It really is all my fault!" he cried. "I won't do it again — I promise I won't! Just... please, no more..."
"We're nearly there," she told him, desperate to get this over with. She'd distrusted him for what he'd done to her, then hated him for what he'd done to Hermione. Now, though...
"I don't want to, not again!" the Headmaster cried. "I'd rather die. Please, let me die!"
Removing the glowing green potion also removed the primary light she'd had to see by, so it was only the sound of the cup striking the bottom of the basin which told her how close they were to finishing.
"We're almost done, Professor," she said, trying to sound confident and reassuring as she tortured him some more. A year ago she had frequently thought about ways she might hurt him in order to pay him back for his many crimes. Now that she was doing it, though, all she wanted was to find a way to make him feel better again.
"No more, please," Dumbledore pleaded, either to her or to some demons that only he could see. "Kill me instead. Please, just kill me."
"Last one," Jasmine promised him. "Drink this and it will all be over." Holding his shaking hands in her own, she helped him drink the last cup of potion, then watched as he gasped and slumped over as if dead.
She leaned back, stunned, then quickly reached out and felt along his neck for a pulse. Sighing with relief when she found it, she knew she couldn't relax yet because it felt so weak. "Renervate!" she incanted, waking the old wizard, who looked around blearily as if he wasn't sure where he was.
"I..." he started, his eyes darting back and forth. "Thirsty," he croaked hoarsely.
"I'll get you some water!" she said, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fill the cup from her water spell. Because Dumbledore kept looking worse and worse the longer she delayed, she finally gave up and disobeyed one of his first instructions by running to the shore and filling the cup with water from the lake. So rushed was she to return to her professor with his needed drink that she never noticed how the surface of the lake started churning as boney, white hands appeared and began groping their way towards the shore.
"Drink this," she said as she helped him gulp down the water. Before she could assess his condition, she heard moaning and scraping behind her. Her wand shot back into her hand as she turned, and she gasped in horror when she saw the shuffling mass of dead bodies reaching for her as they exited the lake.
She'd barely registered the fact that the sounds of inferi were starting to come from all around her when she cast her first spell.
Gabrielle had just caught her short sword after summoning it back from the body of the dummy when she collapsed and gasped in pain, clutching at her chest in desperation.
"What is it?" Neville asked as he quickly knelt beside her. "Did you cut yourself or something?"
"No... Jasmine..." Gabrielle whispered, and Neville looked up at Hermione, who was more than a little pale.
"There's something wrong," Hermione said. "I don't know what it is, but... something's gone very, very wrong."
"Can you go to her?" Gabrielle asked, looking helplessly up at Hermione, who shook her head and looked just as helpless.
"I don't know where she is," Hermione said in a hollow voice. "There's no way for me to get to her." She slumped down on the floor and pulled Gabrielle into a tight embrace, happy now that Ginny's prank had chased everyone else out of the common room.
"Sphaera Ignea!"
Another half dozen inferi burst into flames from Jasmine's fireball, and they set several more alight as they staggered for the water. Inferi had little in the way of intelligence or self-preservation instincts, but they did know enough to try to escape fire, and Jasmine was making as much use of that as she could. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no end to the number of inferi crawling up out of the lake, and the fact that they were coming from all sides didn't help matters at all.
"Sphaera Ignea!"
Another group of inferi was set aflame and Jasmine collapsed to her knees, exhausted from the rigors of the last hour. She wracked her brain trying to think if there was anything else she could use when she suddenly felt an intense heat coming from all around her.
She looked up and saw that Dumbledore was on his feet, pale and sickly looking, moving his wand in large circles above his head. Angry red flames flowed from the tip of his wand, joining into a massive vortex of fire with them at the center of a safe area about five meters in diameter.
"That... is so cool," she whispered in awe, and she thought Dumbledore might have heard her when one corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Inferi caught in the firestorm beyond the five meter mark were being burned to ash, but those already inside the boundary were stumbling to get away — which meant that they were moving with even greater determination towards the two of them. Jasmine cast more fireballs that either destroyed them or pushed them into the surrounding wall of fire where they, too, turned to ash.
Dumbledore stepped over to the basin where he took the locket, then started moving slowly towards the boat, all the while feeding the firestorm around them as the center of the vortex moved with him. Jasmine kept to his side, using her hands to steady him whenever he stumbled on the loose, rocky ground. She could tell that it was taking all his concentration to keep the spell going, and given what had happened to him, she wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep it up.
The return trip on the boat seemed to take much longer than it had on the way to the island, but once they reached the far shore the surface of the lake had stilled again. Dumbledore cancelled his spell and sagged in his seat.
"I'm sorry," Jasmine said as she helped him out of the tiny boat. "When you said you were thirsty, you looked so awful. All I could think of was getting you something to drink, and none of my spells worked! I didn't even think about your order to not touch the lake."
"It's quite alright, my dear," he responded, his voice weak and faltering. "I suspect quite strongly that that was precisely the point of the trap: to compel a person to choose between dying without the water or taking it and being pulled under and drowned by the inferi. An incredibly cruel decision to force upon someone, and just the sort of thing I'd expect from Tom."
"That spell you used was absolutely brilliant, by the way," Jasmine said as they slowly walked to the cave's entrance with the old man leaning heavily on her. "What was it?"
"It was the Firestorm spell," Dumbledore answered in a hoarse whisper. "Developed around the same time as the Siege Engine spell you used to such great effect in the third task."
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to teach it to me?" she asked hopefully.
Despite how tired he was and how much distress he was obviously in, he still managed to chuckle at her request. "Perhaps," he said. "There are quite a few old and powerful spells that you should probably learn at some point, not all of which involve combat. You were quite right, you know, when you chastised me about not training you. That is something which I need to rectify."
"Thank you," she replied, wondering what Hermione might say about this.
She didn't take the time to consult him once they reached the passage they'd come through earlier; she simply cut her own hand on one of the sharp rocks and flung some of her blood against the wall. She noticed that he frowned slightly, but he didn't bother objecting.
Once they exited the outer cave and were standing under the stars again, she asked, "Do you suppose we can apparate from here? We can't walk up that narrow path side-by-side, and I'm not sure you'd be able to get up it even with my help."
Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Yes, we should be outside all the protective enchantments, but do you think you'll be able to take us both back to Hogsmeade? It must be around a thousand kilometers, and even I didn't find it easy to bring us both here."
Jasmine smiled reassuringly. "Of course I can. Hermione's there." Gripping him tightly, she focused first on Hermione, then on the street in front of the Hog's Head Inn. With a twist and a crack, they were gone.
Everyone could tell when Hermione and Gabrielle relaxed and started breathing more easily. "Has something changed?" Neville asked.
"She's out of danger," Gabrielle answered. "I'm not sure what ze danger was, but she's safe now."
"Or safer, at least. Safety is usually a relative thing with her," Hermione grumbled as she stood then helped Gabrielle to her feet. "Come on, let's go meet her."
"What about Fleur?" Gabrielle asked.
"Winky! Dobby!" Hermione called out.
Two pops announced their appearance in the common room. "Yes, Missy Hermy?"
"Something happened to Jasmine, but she's on her way back to the castle. Go tell Fleur, and have her meet us in the hospital wing."
"Can we's be doing anything else to help?" Winky asked, and Hermione could see how upset they were.
"I don't know, but if we need you, I promise we'll call," she replied. Both elves nodded before popping out.
"What about Umbridge?" Neville asked as the two witches made their way to the exit.
"I'm a prefect, escorting a sick student to the hospital wing," Hermione asserted, and Gabrielle immediately hunched over and moaned in pain. "We'll make it there."
Fortunately the Hog's Head was still open, so Jasmine could easily open the door despite also bearing much of Dumbledore's weight. The bartender scowled again as soon as he saw them, but his face quickly shifted to surprise when it became clear just how bad the Headmaster looked. "What happened?" he demanded as he came around the bar and approached them.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you," Jasmine said apologetically. She didn't know who the man was, but if she understood Dumbledore correctly, the two old wizards were related somehow. He probably deserved more of an answer than she was allowed to give. "But I need to get him to Hogwarts."
"To Poppy," the bartender said, walking over to the fireplace and tossing in some floo powder. "Hogwarts Hospital Wing," he called out, and the flames turned green.
"Go through with him," he instructed her. "The wards will let him through as the headmaster, and as long as you hold on tight, you should be able to get in as well. Good luck, lass."
She quickly pulled Dumbledore into the fireplace with her, and as she spun away through the floo, she thought she saw an expression of sadness on the other wizard's face.
There must have been an alert of some sort to warn Madam Pomfrey of an incoming floo connection because she was already waiting when Jasmine and the Headmaster stumbled out of the fireplace. She managed to catch hold of them before Jasmine caused them both to fall, then she promptly dragged them over to the nearest bed, where she helped Dumbledore lie down. He remained awake long enough to call for Fawkes and hand over the locket, then he seemed to collapse in on himself and lost consciousness.
"You take that bed over there, and I'll be with you as soon as I've taken care of the Headmaster," she ordered as Fawkes flamed out of the hospital wing.
"Oh, I'm fine," Jasmine protested. "He's the one—"
"No arguments!" she interrupted. "Bed! Now!"
Jasmine meekly backed away towards the bed which Madam Pomfrey had pointed to, and just as she started to sit down the doors to the hospital wing burst open, revealing Hermione, Gabrielle, and Fleur, all wearing expressions somewhere between worry and anger.
"What happened?" Fleur demanded.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked.
Jasmine raised both hands in a sign of surrender. "I'm alright. Nothing happened to me — it's the Headmaster who suffered. It didn't exactly go well, but we accomplished our goal." Hermione drew her into a tight hug and was joined immediately by Fleur and Gabrielle.
"How'd you know I'd be here, anyway?" Jasmine asked.
Hermione snorted in amusement. "Where else do you always end up?"
Monday, March 20, 1996, Early Morning.
When Minerva McGonagall entered the hospital wing to check on the Headmaster's condition, she was surprised to find Jasmine asleep in a chair next to his bed while Hermione and Gabrielle slept in beds on either side. In a bed across the aisle was another figure with long blonde hair, and she surmised that it must be Fleur. Trying to remain as quiet as possible, she knocked softly on Pomfrey's door before opening it. She didn't notice that Gabrielle had woken as soon as she entered the wing and that her eyes had tracked the older witch the entire time.
"Poppy?" McGonagall said as she entered the healer's office.
"Ah, Minerva — is anything wrong?" Pomfrey asked, looking up from some parchment work on her desk.
"Why are there three Gryffindor students here in your hospital wing?" she asked.
Pomfrey rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Miss Potter categorically refused to leave the Headmaster alone. Threatened to curse herself or break her arm in order to be admitted after I told her I'd physically remove her — and since she had her wand drawn at the time, I was inclined to believe her."
"She didn't!"
"And once it was clear that she was staying, Miss Granger and Miss Delacour refused to leave her here alone," Pomfrey continued. "I think that Miss Potter wanted to object, but managed to recognize just in time how hypocritical that would be, so she kept her mouth shut. I decided to cut my losses and let them stay before your entire house showed up here demanding beds."
"And Professor Delacour did nothing to stop them?"
Poppy shook her head. "The professor was as adamant as her younger sister about staying."
"I'll go have a talk with them right now!" McGonagall said. "They won't be doing this again, I assure you!"
"No, no, there's no need," Pomfrey said quickly. "To be quite honest, it was helpful to have the extra hands when I was first treating Albus. She has refused to say what exactly they were doing, but it's clear that it was both difficult and dangerous. It's no surprise that she wouldn't want to leave his side — I've seen similar behavior in aurors whose partners were injured on the job."
That calmed McGonagall a bit. "Well, I suppose you have a point there, but what's important is whether they bothered you or interfered with your work. I'm getting the impression that they didn't?"
"Not at all," Pomfrey assured her old friend, "but it is getting late, and they should probably be getting ready for classes."
"I'll go talk to them," McGonagall responded, "but first, how is Albus?"
"Not good and getting worse," Pomfrey admitted. "When he arrived, he was exhausted, dehydrated, and his system had been flooded with an unknown potion. Miss Potter confirmed that he had drunk a potion, but she didn't know what it was and so couldn't help me. Whatever it was, it hurt him badly and is still affecting him. Every time I take a reading, he's a little bit worse."
"What about specialists from St. Mungo's?" McGonagall suggested.
"I'd love to ask them, but I'm under orders not to," Pomfrey said tartly. "Albus anticipated something like this happening, it seems, and gave me instructions earlier this year to not call in anyone else in a situation like this."
Minerva shook her head in frustration. "I wish I could say that I was surprised, but..."
"Right now he's still sleeping because of the exhaustion, but I expect that he'll wake up at some point despite how bad his condition is," Pomfrey added. "If you want to wait around, you're welcome to do so."
"I wish I could; unfortunately, not only do I have morning classes to teach, but I'll also have to take over even more of the administration of the school now," McGonagall said as she stood up. "So I guess I'd better see to my girls out there."
When McGonagall exited the back office, the four witches were waiting for her, having been awoken by Gabrielle. The professor moved to the foot of Dumbledore's bed and gazed down at him for a long moment, then looked at each of her students in turn. "When I left here last night, I expected that the three of you would go to your dorms shortly thereafter. Did you forget? Surely you didn't lose your way."
"I'm sorry Professor McGonagall," Jasmine said softly, "but I... I couldn't leave him here alone."
"He wouldn't have been alone, Miss Potter," McGonagall said with some asperity. "Madam Pomfrey was here and would have attended to him should he have needed it."
"I know that," Jasmine replied. "But what if he woke up? Even for a couple of minutes? He needed someone here to tell him what had happened, or to pass along any messages he might have. It sucks waking up in a hospital bed in the middle of the night. It smells funny, you're disoriented... believe me, I know. He deserved to have someone here."
Hermione reached out and put a comforting hand on Jasmine's shoulder. McGonagall sighed deeply, wondering what had happened the previous night to change the girl's attitude towards her headmaster so completely. Her feelings towards him may have been softening, McGonagall thought, but a month or even a week ago, she never would have behaved like this.
"Be that as it may, the three of you can't remain here," McGonagall said flatly. "You all have classes today, and Dolores is already on the prowl. She somehow seemed to know that you were out of the castle last night, and it was all Filius and I could do to cover for you."
"How could she possibly have known?" Jasmine asked, and beside her Hermione frowned.
"I have no idea," McGonagall said with a shake of her head, "but right now we need to prevent this situation from getting any worse. As far as anyone is concerned, you were meeting with him late last night. He left orders that you two weren't to be disturbed while he gave you remedial lessons on... wizarding history and customs. It's something he should have been doing anyway. He had a relapse relating to the injuries he received last Halloween, and you accompanied him here. Got it?"
Jasmine agreed to the cover story, and soon all three Gryffindors were headed back to their dorm. Fleur agreed to escort them in case they encountered Umbridge along the way. McGonagall, though, stayed for a few more minutes and looked sadly at the frail old wizard lying in the bed before her.
"You old fool, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" she asked softly. "Whatever it is, you're lucky you had that young witch there to help you. Maybe you would have had her help long before if you'd treated her better. Now it may be too late."