Chapter 15: More Questions Than Answers

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter and am in no way associated with J K Rowling or Warner Brothers.

A/N: Thanks to alix33 for his note on a correction which has now been corrected.

As they were nearing the headmasters office the sound of tortured screaming reached their ears again. However, this time it was a higher pitch than before. This did not go unnoticed by the dragons. As they neared the entrance Erfolg used his draconic muscles to force the door to open while Amber kept a silencing charm around the door to keep it silent. As they stealthily moved into the room, followed by the other dragons and aurors, they found Dumbledore standing over a small child with blonde hair as she writhed against her bindings on the ground as he continued to torture the poor child as a man with short brown hair and a woman with long blonde hair watched helplessly from their bindings on the roof alongside an elderly goblin who looked like he was going to be sick. All four had a mass of cuts all over them and their clothes were almost shredded to pieces. None of the room's occupants had noticed the group enter and take up positions along the walls crouched down behind the raised floor that gave them some cover. Neither had they heard Tracey or Daphne gasp softly in recognition of three of the hostages.

"Care to tell me where your resistance is?" Dumbledore shouted up at the prone figures on the ceiling, "Or do you want your daughter to suffer more?"

As he started pacing ,his gaze never leaving the three prone figures, the dragons and aurors knew this was their chance and acted swiftly. Amelia, Sirius, and the aurors sent banishing curses at Dumbledore which connected sending him flying headlong into a wall momentarily stunning him while the aurors, Amelia, and Sirius focused on getting the hostages down to where Tracey and Daphne were. As Amber and Erfolg cast fire into a wall to keep him contained Tracey was untying the ropes that bound the girl to the floor while Daphne covered the six of them in a fiery domed shield in case of a counter attack.

That attack came a moment Dumbledore leapt through the wall and attempted to attack Amber with bright green flames rippling to life from his hands, only to be met by the cold fury that was now Erfolg. His own orange flames burst from his hands forming a shield to cover her from the blasts unleashed by Dumbledore. Not stopping he then jumped on Dumbledore, his hands transforming into claws and ripped his head off. However no one was prepared for what happened next as his skin turned a sickly green and his dead eyes changing from blue to yellow. his pupils becoming slits like a predator. Erfolg dropped the head in shock.

"So, Dumbledore was a demon?" Amelia asked in a quiet voice as the head rolled to a stop.

"I would guess so." Erfolg replied shakily.

"Help!" Daphne cried out as the shield fell and the hostages started losing consciousness from the blood loss.

Amber immediately put them into stasis to slow the loss of blood. Looking at Minerva she asked "Does this school have any medical supplies?"

"They'll be in the hospital wing with Healer Pomphrey." Minerva replied, seeing the worried looks on their faces at mentioning the healer, she quickly pressed on saying "I know what you are thinking but there are powerful intent based wards in there that would throw back anyone that was intending to cause harm to anyone inside dating back to the founding of the school."

This seemed to calm everyone down a fair amount as Erfolg and Amber apparated everyone to the hospital wing and quickly put the patients on beds while the healer rushed out demanding to know what was going on but seeing the critical patients stopped talking and immediately started to get to work. Amber went over to offer assistance by means of keeping them stable enough for the healer to work on each one individually before moving onto the next while Erfolg told Amelia and the two aurors to look through the remains of Dumbledore's office for any clues as to the demons' next move, before motioning a crying Daphne and Tracey over to a corner to talk with them. He had noticed the gasp of recognition and seen it in their eyes as well back in the office.

Putting up a silencing shield around them he motioned for them to sit on the chairs around them. He could sense the tension in them and knew that they were both worried about something.

"Daphne, Tracey, do you know who any of those people are?" Erfolg asked gently.

Together they nodded but it was left to Tracey to speak as Daphne was too hoarse from crying. "The three humans are Daphne's sister, mother, and father." Tracey said softly. "The four of them took me in after my parents and brother were murdered by the death eaters for aiding the those fighting against them, despite the risks involved to their family."

Erfolg laid an arm around both of them as he gently said "We will do all we can for them, you have my word. If you need anything just call us."

As he got up to go Daphne spoke up, though her voice was very quiet, "Could you stay with us Erfolg and keep us company?"

Erfolg nodded, transformed a chair into a sofa with three spaces and sat down as the two female dragons tentatively got up and cuddled into Erfolg taking comfort in the fact that he had never broken his word to them before.

As the hours passed as the healer and Amber worked tirelessly on the four hostages. Finally with a sigh of relief Amber left the hostages and told Erfolg that the two Greengrass parents wanted to speak with Daphne and Tracey. Tracey and Daphne practically leapt out of their chairs heading for Daphne's parents, while dragging Erfolg behind them, only for the healer to stop them in their tracks. Gently saying "They are very weak so do not say anything to stressful to them at this moment in time. They should all recover fully in a few hours thanks to Amber's help. If it wasn't for her aid all four would have died shortly after you brought them here Erfolg." With that the healer went back into her office to have a rest.

"Daphne? Tracey?" The woman asked, while the man was eying up Erfolg, before beckoning him and Amber over.

"Yes Mom, it's us." Daphne cried hugging her mother tightly, quickly joined by Tracey.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"My name is Erfolg and this is my mate Amber." Erfolg said.

"Who are you?" Amber asked.

"My name is Adrian Greengrass, Daphne's father and Tracey's adopted father." Adrian said, "Thank you for what you did back there, and for the protection that you have offered my family."

"You are most welcome Mister Greengrass." Amber started.

"Adrian, please." Adrian said.

Amber smiled and told him to go back to sleep for a few hours.

The peace was shattered when Kingsley ran in looking extremely out of breath.

"We…just found…something that you…need to see…first hand." Kingsley said completely out of breath.

"What?" Erfolg asked.

"Dumbledore...alive." Kingsley said before collapsing in a chair.

"Daphne, Tracey, we could use your help with this, if Dumbledore is still alive we may need help bringing him down." Erfolg called over.

"Sirius watch over them until we get back. If someone appears who shouldn't be in the school, stun first, ask questions later." Amber said in a tone that brooked no argument from anyone.

Sirius nodded as the four dragons apparated back to Dumbledore's office to be met with an astounding sight. There laying on the ground was a barely breathing Dumbledore while next to him lay the beheaded body of Dumbledore.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the couple of twists in the plot. I also thank you for your patience in waiting for the chapter to be finished while I worked on my university work.

Thanks again,

Jonathan Palmer