Chapter 67:
Alicia managed to keep her feet as they landed while Harry's knees buckled and the wizard head fell with a resounding clunk to the floor. Looking around the two noticed they were in Dumbledore's office.
The room was not as they had left it; broken, dusty, the silver ornaments in pieces, everything had repaired itself. Alicia wondered if Dumbledore had been here in his office all along, seeing as it had barricaded everyone else out.
The portraits were all snoozing, for real this time as their heads lolled back in armchairs or against the edge of their pictures. Through the window there was a cool line of pale green along the horizon. Dawn was approaching.
Alicia couldn't help it, her legs gave way and she crumbled to the floor. She grabbed the clothes at her chest in fistfuls and her eyes welled up with tears as she began to cry. Her sobs were the only thing to break the silence amongst the stillness besides the odd grunt or snuffle of a sleeping portrait.
Harry did nothing to comfort his sister and she was glad. She had been right, she had known from the very beginning it was a trap. She'd known not to trust Kreacher or to touch the Prophecy Sphere. She had known better than to leave Hogwarts and walk willingly into Voldemort's trap but Harry hadn't listened to her! This was all his fault, if he had stopped to think and listen to her for a change instead of running headlong into danger…!
Blaming Harry did not make Alicia feel any better. The pain in her chest, where a hole had been punched was screaming from inside her. It was worse than her scar searing when Harry was possessed, or when the Cruciatus Curse was placed upon her. It was dark, it was empty, it was scary and lonely. Alicia wanted nothing more than for it to leave, for it to be non-existent. She'd have given anything to be anywhere, anyone else right now. Because even if she wanted to blame Harry, she hadn't tried hard enough! She hadn't tried to stop him enough, as she hadn't tried to convince him enough to stay, to check Grimmauld place now that Umbridge's office had been empty, or talk to Snape to find out what was happening.
But then no one had talked to her or told her anything anyway. She told them again and again they needed to know. She told them over and over that the silence was not best and it'd lead to worse.
And it had now gotten as worse as it could. Sirius… he was now… he'd never again. Alicia could still remember the last laugh and how happy he had been at Christmas, singing and so cheerful it infected everyone. She's never see that again! She'd never hear his voice, or have his comfort, she'd never see him smile or celebrate a birthday, Christmas, exam results, nothing with him ever again. He was never to talk to her again, to tell her about her parents or praise them for mischief making.
He was gone. And he was gone forever.
Alicia's sobs had stopped but her tears did not as she was still on the floor in the middle of the office.
And then the silence was broken again, this time by a voice.
"Ah… Harry Potter… And of cause his sister, Alicia…"
Phineas Nigellus gave a long yawn, stretching his arms as he watched Harry with shrewd, narrow eyes.
"And what brings you here in the early hours of the morning?" said Phineas. "This office is supposed to be barred to all but the rightful headmaster. Or has Dumbledore sent you here? Oh, don't tell me…" He gave another shuddering yawn. "Another message for my worthless great-great-grandson?"
Alicia sobbed and shook her head, covering her ears, she didn't want anyone to talk about him. She couldn't bear the darkness that seemed to enflame as she heard his name. It was like it threatened to engulf her entire being. What she'd give at that moment to not be herself. What she'd give to be a lonely orphan back in Surrey, on her way to a normal school and not trapped within this constant pain. People continued to die around her; her mother, father, Cedric, Sirius…
Why did this have to happen to her? Could she not be anyone else's sister!
A few more of the portraits had stirred now. Harry's footsteps sounded as he moved across the room but the door knob he reached for would not turn. The twins were shut in the office.
"Is she alright?" another portrait asked.
"Alright?" Alicia asked with an empty laugh. She looked up angrily. "Do I look alright!?" she shouted at the witch in the portrait who'd spoken. She'd drawn herself to her feet and with a wave of her wand one of Dumbledore's instruments smashed. Harry even jumped at the sudden sound.
"I hope this means," said the corpulent, red-nosed wizard who hung on the wall behind Dumbledore's desk, glancing at Alicia slightly. "that Dumbledore will soon be back with us?"
Harry must have nodded.
"Oh good," said the wizard. "It has been very dull without him, very dull indeed." Alicia wished he'd stop talking. Continuing on as if nothing was wrong, regardless of his cluelessness.
"Dumbledore thinks very highly of you, as I am sure you know," he said comfortably. "Oh yes. Holds you in great esteem. Both of you actually."
"Really? Is that why he feels that distance serves a better purpose?! And ignorance saves a person?" Alicia demanded, tears stills tripping down her face. "This is all his fault! He isolated us from him! None of this would have happened if he wasn't so self-absorbed! He wasn't thinking what was best for us, he was thinking what was best in the long run. He was thinking of protecting himself!"
The portraits looked confused as Alicia flung her wand again and this time the desk went flying into the chair behind it and into the wall, it's contents spilling and smashing.
Alicia sunk herself down in font of it and buried her face in her arms and knees again. The fact that everything could be repaired didn't bring her any satisfaction in breaking things.
Harry said nothing, instead he stayed by the door motionless.
The empty fireplace burst into emerald-green flame, making Harry leap away from the door, staring at the man spinning inside the grate. As Dumbledore's tall form unfolded itself from the fire, the wizards and witches on the surrounding walls jerked awake. Many of them gave cries of welcome.
"Thank you," said Dumbledore softly.
He looked fleetingly around the room, noticing the mess, and his eyes noticed Alicia's wand still in her hand. He turned from her, not saying a word of her destruction of his office, nor did he look at Harry immediately, but walked over to the perch beside the door and withdrew, from an inside pocket of his robes, the tiny, ugly, featherless Fawkes, whom he placed gently on the tray of soft ashes beneath the golden post where the full-grown Fawkes usually stood.
"Well, Harry, Alicia," said Dumbledore, finally turning away from the baby bird, "you will be pleased to hear that none of your fellow students are going to suffer lasting damage from the night's events."
Alicia wanted that to make her feel better as she had her eyes screwed shut. But even if there was some relief, she had too much going on, so much anger, guilt, and pain. So much pain. She didn't even know what to do with herself, it felt like she was drowning within herself. She didn't know what to do. Where did she go from here? Was there even anything worth doing? All she'd do would be getting someone else killed again. And all just because of a stupid glass sphere, that was so fragile it seemed stupid.
"Madam Pomfrey is patching everybody up now," said Dumbledore. "Nymphadora Tonks may need to spend a little time in St. Mungo's, but it seems that she will make a full recovery."
There was still nothing. Neither twin spoke, Alicia didn't want to hear Dumbledore's voice, whether it was bringing good news or not. There was nothing he could say.
It seemed he was willing to try.
"I know how you are feeling, Harry," said Dumbledore very quietly. "Alicia,"
Alicia almost felt like she was going to explode as she rose her head and glared at the man who looked between them.
"No, you don't," said Harry, and his voice was suddenly loud and strong. White-hot anger leapt inside him.
"Don't you dare." Alicia said loudly "Don't you even think about trying to comfort us. This is all your fault!" she accused, leaning forwards and loosing the fragile posture.
"You see, Dumbledore?" said Phineas Nigellus slyly. "Never try to understand the students. They hate it. They would much rather be tragically misunderstood, wallow in self-pity, stew in their own —"
"That's enough, Phineas," said Dumbledore.
"You have no right to comment on what you have yet to understand! You don't even know what's happened!" Alicia snapped at him and the portrait eyed her. She turned back to Dumbledore who was watching her. Harry had turned his back on the man.
"You're right Alicia." Dumbledore said
"I told you! I told you right at the beginning!" Alicia said as she cried and her voice broke again. "But you refused to listen! You believed you knew what was best, you didn't even try to—" she broke off as she cried again and her fists balled up, not knowing what else to do.
Dumbledore watched her before he turned to Harry as the girl was silent and walked to move to the overturned desk and recompose herself. But she felt like there was nothing to recompose. Everything inside of her was all the same, it was all directed towards her sadness, pain and anger. The fact that she, a fifteen year old, had proven to be right over the great Dumbledore, who'd refused to even consider… and after two years ago he'd taken their word over everyone else, at the age of thirteen, and yet this time refused to even acknowledge what she'd said!
"There is no shame in what you are feeling, Harry," said Dumbledore's voice. "On the contrary… the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength."
"My greatest strength, is it?" said Harry, his voice shaking as he stared out at the Quidditch stadium, no longer seeing it. "You haven't got a clue… You don't know…"
"What don't I know?" asked Dumbledore calmly.
It was too much. Harry turned around, shaking with rage.
"I don't want to talk about how I feel, all right?"
"Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human —"
Alicia felt anger at the old man's words. He was so bright and so brilliant and tried to be so caring and these were the words of comfort he offered? Clearly he knew nothing of sympathising. Don't tell them it was natural how on earth did that help?! She flung her wand again and another instrument went flying to smash into the wall.
"THEN — I — DON'T — WANT — TO — BE — HUMAN!" Harry roared, and he seized one of the delicate silver instruments from the spindle-legged table beside him and flung it across the room, manually unlike his sister who'd used magic. It shattered into a hundred tiny pieces against the wall. Several of the pictures let out yells of anger and fright, and the portrait of Armando Dippet said, "Really!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE —"
He seized the table on which the silver instrument had stood and threw that too. It broke apart on the floor and the legs rolled in different directions.
"You do care," said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His expression was calm, almost detached. "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."
And that was the problem, Alicia knew. They cared so much that this pain was so unbearable. They cared so much that someone they loved, they could never see again, never hear from. And she couldn't help as she cried some more and Harry continued to scream.
"I — DON'T!" Harry screamed, so loudly that he felt his throat might tear.
"Oh yes, you do," said Dumbledore, still more calmly. "You have now lost your mother, your father, and the closest thing to a parent you have ever known. Of course you care."
"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL!" Harry roared. "YOU — STANDING THERE — YOU —"
Harry made a run of the door, seizing the doorknob again, and wrenching at it.
But the door would not open.
Harry turned back to Dumbledore.
"Let me out," he said. He was shaking from head to foot.
"No," said Dumbledore simply.
For a few seconds they stared at each other.
"Let me out," Harry said again.
"No," Dumbledore repeated.
"If you don't — if you keep me in here — if you don't let me —"
"By all means continue destroying my possessions," said Dumbledore serenely. "I daresay I have too many."
Alicia spun and Dumbledore actually ducked as she sent one of his possessions flying at the man. Many of the portraits shouted at her outraged. Harry had naturally ducked as well.
"Seeing as you know how much we've lost, you know how much we needed what we had to cherish, you knew… you, of all people knew better, and yet you isolated us! You caused all of this. So many times in the year I wanted to come to you! To talk to you, I needed your help and you didn't even present to me that you were available! You were too busy PROTECTING YOURSELF!" Alicia shouted as another instrument flew at the man. "AND YET YOU DARE TO STAND THERE AND GIVE US TAUNTING WORDS THAT DOESN'T EVEN HELP THE GRIEF! YOU LOCK US IN HERE, AND MAKE US LOOK AT YOU OF ALL PEOPLE!" she shrieked "HOW DARE YOU, THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS MESS, HAVE THE GAUL TO TRY AND COMFORT ME! YOU KILLED SIRIUS!"
Harry stared at his sister as Dumbledore waved his wand to send another of the instruments Alicia flung away from him and to the floor where it smashed.
"Why would we want to stay here with you! After all you've done!" Alicia demanded, angry and upset.
"I will not let you leave Alicia, Not until I have had my say," said Dumbledore.
"Do you — do you think I want to — do you think I give a — I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY!" Harry roared. "I don't want to hear anything you've got to say!"
"You will," said Dumbledore sadly. "Because you are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, like Alicia as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it."
"What are you talking — ?"
"Alicia is right. It is my fault that Sirius died," said Dumbledore clearly.
Alicia didn't feel any better at all that he admitted it and she wanted to throw something else, but this time she sent it flying at the window, which broke and the glass shattered outside, falling to the ground below. Dumbledore watched her and when the noise settled, he continued.
"Or I should say almost entirely my fault — I will not be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for the whole. Sirius was a brave, clever, and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger. Nevertheless, you should never have believed for an instant that there was any necessity for you to go to the Department of Mysteries tonight. If I had been open with you both, just as Alicia told me back in the summer, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try and lure you to the Department of Mysteries, and you would never have been tricked into going there tonight. And Sirius would not have had to come after you. That blame lies with me, and with me alone."
Dumbledore turned and with a wave of his wand the desk Alicia had tipped over was back on it's feet, along with it's contents and the chairs on either side of it. The professor moved to sit behind his desk as Alicia leaned on the broken window, the cool breeze blowing through her hair.
"Please sit down," said Dumbledore. It was not an order, it was a request.
Harry hesitated, then walked slowly across the room now littered with silver cogs and fragments of wood and took the seat facing Dumbledore's desk.
Alicia didn't move, and Dumbledore didn't ask her to.
"Am I to understand," said Phineas Nigellus slowly from Harry's left, "that my great-great-grandson — the last of the Blacks — is dead?"
"Yes, Phineas," said Dumbledore.
"I don't believe it," said Phineas brusquely.
Phineas marched out of his portrait and both twins knew that he had gone to visit his other painting in Grimmauld Place. He would walk, perhaps, from portrait to portrait, calling for Sirius through the house…
"Harry, I owe you an explanation," said Dumbledore. "You and Alicia, though she may have worked most of it out on her own. An explanation of an old man's mistakes. For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young… and I seem to have forgotten lately…"
Alicia could feel the rays of the sun as it was rising properly now, she rose her eyes to it, squinting as she had been in the dark for so long. She just closed her eyes as she felt it and didn't look at what was far beyond.
"I guessed, fifteen years ago," said Dumbledore, "when I saw the scar upon your forehead, and on Alicia's neck, what it might mean. I guessed that it might be the sign of a connection forged between you and Voldemort. As it turns out Alicia has a connection with you, instead of with Voldemort."
"You've told me this before, Professor," said Harry bluntly.
"Yes," said Dumbledore apologetically. "Yes, but you see — it is necessary to start with your scar. For it became apparent, shortly after you rejoined the magical world, that I was correct, and that your scar was giving you warnings when Voldemort was close to you, or else feeling powerful emotion, and Alicia felt this through you."
"I know," said Harry wearily. Alicia said nothing but just listened.
"And this ability of yours — to detect Voldemort's presence, even when he is disguised, and to know what he is feeling when his emotions are roused — has become more and more pronounced since Voldemort returned to his own body and his full powers. This is the same as Alicia, being able to deeper the connection between you and her. I am very aware of her being able to read your thoughts, and communicate with you through your link. And it seemed to be becoming apparent that you showed a little ability of being able to do this to Alicia in return, though you did not seem to know it.
"More recently," said Dumbledore, "I became concerned that Voldemort might realise that this connection between you exists. Sure enough, there came a time when you entered so far into his mind and thoughts that he sensed your presence. I am speaking, of course, of the night when you witnessed the attack on Mr. Weasley."
"Yeah, Snape told me," Harry muttered.
"Professor Snape, Harry," Dumbledore corrected him quietly. "But did you not wonder why it was not I who explained this to you? Why I did not teach you Occlumency? Why I had not so much as looked at you for months?"
"Yeah," Harry mumbled. "Yeah, I wondered."
"You believed Voldemort would look through Harry and spy on you, Sirius, the students and the Order." Alicia spoke up, anger still in her face despite her turned towards the window. "You thought it was best for Harry because if you weren't near him, what could Voldemort use him for? You cut him off from everything so Harry wouldn't provide any information." Alicia straightened up and turned to Dumbledore angrily. "Sounds more like you were protecting your own secrets and plans and yourself, more than caring about Harry, because how can the great Albus Dumbledore being away from anyone ever be the answer!" her voice was raising as they both looked at her.
"An old man's mistake…" Dumbledore nodded "I was not eager to give him more incentives to do so. I was sure that if he realised that our relationship was — or had ever been — closer than that of headmaster and pupil, he would seize his chance to use you as a means to spy on me. I feared the uses to which he would put you, the possibility that he might try and possess you. Harry, I believe I was right to think that Voldemort would have made use of you in such a way. On those rare occasions when we had close contact, I thought I saw a shadow of him stir behind your eyes… I was trying, in distancing myself from you, to protect you. An old man's mistake…" he repeated
"Voldemort's aim in possessing you, as he demonstrated tonight, would not have been my destruction. It would have been yours. He hoped, when he possessed you briefly a short while ago, that I would sacrifice you in the hope of killing him."
He sighed deeply.
Alicia ground her teeth. She turned away from him again.
"Sirius told me that you felt Voldemort awake inside you the very night that you had the vision of Arthur Weasley's attack. I knew at once that my worst fears were correct: Voldemort from that point had realised he could use you. He also told me Alicia's view on talking to me. But again, I stuck to my decision. In an attempt to arm you against Voldemort's assaults on your mind, however, I arranged Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape."
"Yeah a skill that requires no emotion, let's put him with the person who he hates the most." Alicia hissed, sarcastically.
"Professor Snape discovered," Dumbledore resumed, "that you both had been dreaming about the door to the Department of Mysteries for months. Voldemort, of course, had been obsessed with the possibility of hearing the prophecy ever since he regained his body, and as he dwelled on the door, so did you, though you, Harry, did not know what it meant. Alicia on the other hand, quickly understood the meaning behind the door, and why Voldemort was so keen to enter the Department of Mysteries.
"And then you saw Rookwood, who worked in the Department of Mysteries before his arrest, telling Voldemort what we had known all along — that the prophecies held in the Ministry of Magic are heavily protected. Only the people to whom they refer can lift them from the shelves without suffering madness. In this case, either Voldemort himself would have to enter the Ministry of Magic and risk revealing himself at last — or else you would have to take it for him. It became a matter of even greater urgency that you should master Occlumency."
"But I didn't," muttered Harry. He said it aloud to try and ease the dead weight of guilt inside him; a confession must surely relieve some of the terrible pressure squeezing his heart. "I didn't practice, I didn't bother, I could've stopped myself having those dreams, Hermione kept telling me to do it, if I had he'd never have been able to show me where to go, and — Sirius wouldn't — Sirius wouldn't —" he paused "And even Alicia told me that when we reached the Department of Mysteries, when we found the prophecy, not to touch it, not to do what he wanted. But I didn't listen. I tried to check he'd really taken Sirius, I went to Umbridge's office, I spoke to Kreacher in the fire, and he said Sirius wasn't there, he said he'd gone!"
"Kreacher lied," said Dumbledore calmly. "You are not his master, he could lie to you without even needing to punish himself. Kreacher intended you to go to the Ministry of Magic."
"He — he sent me on purpose?"
"Oh yes. Kreacher, I am afraid, has been serving more than one master for months."
"How?" said Harry blankly. "He hasn't been out of Grimmauld Place for years."
"He left when we were there for Christmas. He was listening to Narcissa Malfoy, who is part of the Black family. And when Bellatrix escaped Azhaban, well she's a Black too." Alicia sneered
"I'm surprised by you Alicia," she scoffed
"Doesn't take a genius. Kreacher was so much happier when he came back. And I stopped trusting him, and when we couldn't find him, I did remember how Narcissa was a Black, I even told Sirius about it, that he wasn't the only Black left. He dismissed the idea. And of course there was no proof." Alicia admitted.
"You are, of course, correct." Dumbledore nodded "Kreacher seized his opportunity shortly before Christmas," said Dumbledore, "when Sirius, apparently, shouted at him to 'get out.' He took Sirius at his word and interpreted this as an order to leave the house. He went to the only Black family member for whom he had any respect left… Black's cousin Narcissa, sister of Bellatrix and wife of Lucius Malfoy."
"How do you know all this?" Harry said.
"Kreacher told me last night," said Dumbledore. "You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realised that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge's office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place.
"When, however, you did not return from your trip into the forest with Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort's. He alerted certain Order members at once."
"Alicia told me we should go an talk to him…" Harry mumbled glancing at her sister who balled her fist angrily.
Dumbledore heaved a great sigh and then said, "Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Remus Lupin were at headquarters when he made contact. All agreed to go to your aid at once. Professor Snape requested that Sirius remain behind, as he needed somebody to remain at headquarters to tell me what had happened, for I was due there at any moment. In the meantime he, Professor Snape, intended to search the forest for you.
"But Sirius did not wish to remain behind while the others went to search for you. He delegated to Kreacher the task of telling me what had happened. And so it was that when I arrived in Grimmauld Place shortly after they had all left for the Ministry, it was the elf who told me — laughing fit to burst — where Sirius had gone."
"He was laughing?" said Harry in a hollow voice.
"Oh yes," said Dumbledore. "You see, Kreacher was not able to betray us totally. He is not Secret-Keeper for the Order, he could not give the Malfoys our whereabouts or tell them any of the Order's confidential plans that he had been forbidden to reveal. He was bound by the enchantments of his kind, which is to say that he could not disobey a direct order from his master, Sirius. But he gave Narcissa information of the sort that is very valuable to Voldemort, yet must have seemed much too trivial for Sirius to think of banning him from repeating it."
"Like what?" said Harry.
"Like the fact that the person Sirius cared most about in the world was you two," said Dumbledore quietly. "Like the fact that you both were coming to regard Sirius as a mixture of father and brother. Voldemort knew already, of course, that Sirius was in the Order, that you knew where he was — but Kreacher's information made him realise that the one person whom you would go to any lengths to rescue, besides Alicia, was Sirius Black."
"So… when I asked Kreacher if Sirius was there last night…"
"The Malfoys — undoubtedly on Voldemort's instructions — had told him he must find a way of keeping Sirius out of the way once you had seen the vision of Sirius being tortured. Then, if you decided to check whether Sirius was at home or not, Kreacher would be able to pretend he was not. Kreacher injured Buckbeak the hippogriff yesterday, and at the moment when you made your appearance in the fire, Sirius was upstairs trying to tend to him."
Alicia couldn't help it, she smashed something else and huffed before she paced, standing still was not helping.
"And Kreacher told you all this… and laughed?" he croaked.
"He did not wish to tell me," said Dumbledore. "But I am a sufficiently accomplished Legilimens myself to know when I am being lied to and I — persuaded him — to tell me the full story, before I left for the Department of Mysteries."
"And," whispered Harry, his hands curled in cold fists on his knees, "and Hermione kept telling us to be nice to him —"
"She was quite right, Harry," said Dumbledore. "I warned Sirius when we adopted twelve Grimmauld Place as our headquarters that Kreacher must be treated with kindness and respect. I also told him that Kreacher could be dangerous to us. I do not think that Sirius took me very seriously, or that he ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a humans —"
"Don't you blame — don't you — talk — about Sirius like —" Harry's breath was constricted, he could not get the words out properly. But the rage that had subsided so briefly had flared in him again; he would not let Dumbledore criticise Sirius. "Kreacher's a lying — foul — he deserved —"
"Kreacher is what he has been made by wizards, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Yes, he is to be pitied. His existence has been as miserable as your friend Dobby's. He was forced to do Sirius's bidding, because Sirius was the last of the family to which he was enslaved, but he felt no true loyalty to him. And whatever Kreacher's faults, it must be admitted that Sirius did nothing to make Kreacher's lot easier —"
"DON'T TALK ABOUT SIRIUS LIKE THAT!" Harry yelled.
Alicia ignored her brother, unlike Harry, Dumbledore's words and criticism of Sirius didn't anger her, she had already known this, they all did. It was merely a fact. But at the same time, Sirius could not be blamed, he hated the house just as much as Kreacher hated him. Dumbledore locked him up the place he hated the most.
And once again that was on Dumbledore.
"What about Snape?" Harry spat. "You're not talking about him, are you? When I told him Voldemort had Sirius he just sneered at me as usual —"
"Harry, you know that Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge," said Dumbledore steadily. Harry glanced at Alicia and she was glaring at him. She'd told him that too, but had he listened?
Harry dropped his gaze from her as he felt and heard her. Dumbledore glanced at them both.
He continued regardless. "but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the forest. It was he too who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell of Sirius's whereabouts…"
"Shouldn't have bothered, we didn't even drink a drop. Glad he has so little faith in us." Alicia scoffed
"Snape — Snape g-goaded Sirius about staying in the house — he made out Sirius was a coward —"
"Sirius was much too old and clever to have allowed such feeble taunts to hurt him," said Dumbledore.
Alicia scoffed. "Maybe he knew better to act on them but I doubt that very much."
"Snape stopped giving me Occlumency lessons!" Harry snarled. "He threw me out of his office!"
"You invaded his privacy!" Alicia shouted back at him and Harry looked at her angrily this time.
"I am aware of it," said Dumbledore heavily. "I have already said that it was a mistake for me not to teach you myself, though I was sure, at the time, that nothing could have been more dangerous than to open your mind even further to Voldemort while in my presence —"
"Snape made it worse, my scar always hurt worse after lessons with him —" Harry remembered Ron's thoughts on the subject and plunged on. "How do you know he wasn't trying to soften me up for Voldemort, make it easier for him to get inside my —"
"I trust Severus Snape," said Dumbledore simply. "But I forgot — another old man's mistake — that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father — I was wrong."
"Anyone could have told you that." Alicia snapped
"But that's okay, is it?" yelled Harry, ignoring the scandalised faces and disapproving mutterings of the portraits covering the walls. "It's okay for Snape to hate my dad, but it's not okay for Sirius to hate Kreacher?"
"Sirius did not hate Kreacher," said Dumbledore. "He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike… The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie. We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward."
"SO SIRIUS DESERVED WHAT HE GOT, DID HE?" Harry yelled.
Alicia slapped him.