57. Rise like a Phoenix
The months passed and the only horror they brought with them was Lockhart's attempt to cheer everyone up on Valentine's Day. At the end of that day Minerva felt anything but cheerful. Not only had her classes been constantly interrupted by those ridiculous-looking dwarves, she had also been forced to pick heart-shaped confetti out of her hair and had spent five minutes arguing with a very rude dwarf who had insisted on delivering a Valentine to her that she had refused to accept on principle. He had thrown the card at her head before Minerva had kicked him out of her office. Albus had vehemently proclaimed his innocence and the whole thing had eventually turned out to have been Pomona's idea of a joke.
She and Poppy were both in high spirits because the Mandrakes were developing extremely well. Once Easter had come and gone, it looked as though they would soon be able to revive the petrified students as well as Sir Nicholas and Mrs Norris. Minerva shared their relief. In the past several weeks she had slowly begun to hope that the worst was over.
Naturally, that's when it all came crashing down.
"Is this it, Albus?" In cold fury and bitter anguish Minerva stared at the two newly filled beds in the hospital wing. Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger had been found together. After all this time not just another attack but a double attack. "Are we letting our love for Hogwarts blind us? Is it time to close the school?"
They had four petrified students now. Two of them from Gryffindor. Not that it really mattered, but finding Miss Granger had been especially painful.
Albus thought about her question for a moment that stretched on forever. "No," he said eventually. "They can be revived, just like the others. To give up now would be more of a disservice to them than anything else. But we have to be more careful. Students will have to be accompanied by teachers without exception. Outside of mealtimes they'll either have to be in class or in their common rooms. No extracurricular activities, no hanging out in the corridors, not even unaccompanied bathroom breaks. Teachers and prefects will have to patrol the castle after hours to enforce these new rules. No one goes anywhere on their own after dark."
Minerva felt a mounting dismay, but she nodded in agreement.
"I know that sounds neither practical nor enjoyable for anyone, but our priority right now must be to close out the school year," Albus said, reading the expression on her face with practised ease. "And to prevent any further attacks until the previous victims can be woken up and tell us what they know. It is for them that we must endure, even now."
He was right. Of course he was right. But Minerva hated that she had to go down to the Quidditch pitch and cancel the game. Taking Potter and Weasley to see Miss Granger was even worse. Witnessing the shock and the sadness on their faces should have been the low point of her day. Any day really.
Sadly, it wasn't.
In the early evening Minerva had just started patrolling the corridors, paired up with Filius, when Albus walked past them. Apparently, he didn't think it necessary to pair up with anyone. Minerva was not about to point that out, though, because she could tell that Albus had something a lot more important on his mind.
"What's going on?" she asked, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.
"Cornelius is on his way here."
A visit from the Minister for Magic wasn't exactly cause for celebration under the best of circumstances, but Albus had never looked less pleased about it. "What does he want?"
"To do something that will accomplish absolutely nothing other than making him look good in his opinion," Albus replied, his eyes blazing and his voice deadly quiet, before he strode off towards the front doors without another word.
Minerva exchanged a worried look with Filius and continued patrolling. Mere minutes later they ran into Severus.
"Why are you on your own? And why are you down here? You're supposed to patrol the upper floors!" Minerva reminded him irritably.
"I'm quite clear on the headmaster's instructions. But I received an urgent owl and I can't let a visitor onto the grounds from up there," Severus told her.
"There's no need. Albus has already gone down to Hagrid's to meet with Fudge."
"I'm not talking about him."
Minerva's brow furrowed. "We certainly won't let anyone else into the castle right now."
"Not even a school governor?" Severus smirked when she was too surprised to say anything. "I thought so. Now, if you'll excuse me, Minerva."
They watched him leave. "Did he say which governor it was?" Filius asked.
"No, he didn't." But Minerva had a bad feeling about this.
Barely half an hour passed until Albus returned. He was alone, but something wasn't right. There was a fire dancing in his eyes so wild and fierce it almost made Minerva hesitate when Albus beckoned her to follow him to his office. Not because she would ever be afraid of him, but because she was afraid for him – and for anyone who had made him this angry. She glanced at Filius, who nodded that he would be okay on his own, and then ran after Albus, who hadn't bothered to slow down.
When Minerva caught up with him and the door to the headmaster's office clicked shut behind her, the sound reverberated in her heart with a sudden pang. "Are they taking Hagrid?" she asked. It was the only explanation for Albus' silent fury and Minerva was right there with him. The thought of such a kind-hearted man like Hagrid sitting in Azkaban made her sick to her stomach.
"Yes, and I must leave as well. The governors have seen fit to suspend me. Lucius was just gracious enough to allow me to gather a couple of my things," Albus informed her while he started to do just that.
"What?" If she hadn't been upset before, she could definitely feel the rage build up inside of her now, hot and fast. "They can't possibly be that stupid! Malfoy must have bribed them, threatened them, fed them lies..." she ranted.
"Be that as it may, it is done," Albus cut her off. "I must step aside. You'll be in charge while I'm gone."
In the blink of an eye Minerva's outrage morphed into the most gut-wrenching, heart-clenching, paralysing fear. "No! You can't go, Albus! What if as soon as you're out of the castle the next attack ends with a student dead? I wouldn't be able to live with myself. How am I supposed to...? I can't protect them all... I don't know how..."
She couldn't find the words to express the feeling of utter helplessness that washed over her. She could barely even stay on her feet at the prospect of Albus leaving. Hogwarts had never existed without him. Not for her. It was incomprehensible.
Suddenly he was right there, right in front of her, his hands cupping her cheeks, his blue eyes boring into her green ones, holding her gaze with his own. "Breathe, Minerva," he said and she did. "Remember: nothing generates more fear than uncertainty. All you need to do is keep the school running as normally as possible under the circumstances. Allow the students to find their way back to a routine, even if it's different from the one they're used to. You know how to do that. In fact, no one can do it better than you. We both know you walked through those double doors at age eleven, ready to one day lead this school."
"This is not how I imagined it," Minerva muttered, resting her forehead against his.
"Yes, life rarely works out that way, does it?" Albus mused darkly and she knew it was tearing him apart to be forced to leave Hogwarts at a time like this. Still he let go and continued to pack, mostly grabbing the research he had been doing.
"Is that all you're taking with you?" she asked flatly.
"There's not much to take when everything that is of real importance to me is staying here." He paused to give her a sad smile. "Everything else is at your disposal."
Minerva stepped up towards his desk. "I don't want your things, Albus. I want you to remind the governors, the minister and everyone else that you are Albus Dumbledore and that Hogwarts is yours. And then I want you to come back."
"Nothing here is truly mine and mine alone other than my shortcomings," he told her and then added wryly, "But I do have every intention of taking those back. In the meantime, perhaps you'll come to enjoy being rid of an old fool like me for a while."
"What I will enjoy is you not saying silly things like that," Minerva replied, not in the mood for jokes.
Albus inclined his head in a mute apology. "Time to go then."
He headed for the door, but then swiftly turned around and came back to reach out and kiss her urgently. After she had just managed to get her breathing back under control, he took it all away again.
"Be safe," he implored her, his voice cracking just a little bit.
With the huge lump in her throat Minerva could only muster a weak nod.
On his way out Albus stopped one more time next to Fawkes, who had once again grown into a magnificent creature. Caressing him gently, Albus said, "You know what to do."
Then he was gone.
The headmaster's office felt a lot colder all of a sudden. Minerva wrapped her arms around herself and eyed the phoenix, wondering what Fawkes supposedly knew that she didn't.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" she asked warily.
The phoenix cocked his head and remained as mysterious and quiet as ever.
All of Hogwarts castle seemed to live in an atmosphere of sheer terror. The news of the headmaster's removal had made matters even worse. Try as she might, Minerva could not inspire confidence the way Albus used to. Not even in herself. She was just going through the motions.
She taught her classes. She did a roll call of Gryffindor house at least three times a day. She patrolled the corridors at night. She barely slept. She just lay awake and wished for Albus to come back with every fibre of her being.
Minerva had always known what it meant to be deputy headmistress. What it could mean. She had always been willing and ready to do whatever Albus needed her to do. But not like this. Not because Lucius bloody Malfoy had used the governors' fear to get Albus unjustly suspended. It wasn't right. It made Minerva feel like an impostor. Nevertheless, the staff supported her to the best of their abilities and she was beyond grateful for it. To most of them anyway. She hadn't talked to Severus since the night of Albus' suspension.
To her surprise he stopped her in the corridor one day when she had been about to walk past him. "You do realise that I wasn't the one who suspended Dumbledore?" he snarled.
Reluctantly, Minerva paused. "No, you just let your good mate Lucius Malfoy into the school so he could do it."
"He's a school governor. What was I supposed to do? Slam the door in his face?" Severus scoffed.
"That would have been a start," Minerva replied grimly.
Severus shook his head. "It really was a good thing then that I let him in because it sounds as though you would have found a way to get yourself suspended as well."
"That is called loyalty, Severus," Minerva told him with an icy glare. "Something you apparently wouldn't understand."
The Potions master was neither impressed nor intimidated. "No, I wouldn't, because from where I'm standing that looks a lot more like stupidity. Who would have been left to take care of the school if you'd got yourself kicked out, too?"
That was actually a fair question, which caught her off guard for a moment. But she recovered quickly. "Well, I hear Lucius' son is campaigning for you to become the next headmaster since you'd be sure to have his father's vote. Should I be watching my back, Severus?"
"We should all be watching our backs right now – isn't that the whole point of this?" He nodded towards the group of students he would be shepherding to their next class in a minute. "But generally speaking, if you still have time to ask that question, the answer is probably no. Also, anyone who'd willingly switch places with you right now would either have to be a complete fool or currently teach Defence Against the Dark Arts at this school."
Minerva laughed against her will. Severus smirked. And they both moved on.
Despite her misgivings and that constant feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop, Minerva soldiered on and heeded Albus' advice. She adamantly refused to loosen the new security measures, even when, miraculously, there were no more attacks over the next couple of weeks. She was convinced that it was only because of those measures that there had been no more incidents. They actually stood a chance now of closing out the school year, which meant that it was time for exams. Her announcement that they would take place in early June as usual was met with widespread disbelief among students and staff alike.
But Minerva didn't care. Albus had told her to stick to a routine and that's what she was doing. They were so close now – to the end of the school year and more importantly to reviving the petrified students in the hospital wing. Minerva couldn't quite believe it when Poppy and Pomona told her the Mandrakes would be ready as early as tomorrow.
She was going back and forth between hope and disbelief that day. It made her terribly emotional. So much so that she nearly started to cry when she ran into Potter and Weasley and they told her how much they missed Miss Granger. Minerva sympathised and she let them go to the hospital wing to visit her, mostly so they wouldn't witness how she was fighting back tears. It was utterly ridiculous. But being without Albus was slowly chipping away at her soul.
Minerva had just pulled herself together again when she arrived at Gryffindor Tower to fetch the Gryffindor first-years for their Transfiguration lesson. Normally, Pomona would have walked them to her classroom from the greenhouses. But she was too busy with the Mandrakes and Herbology classes had been cancelled once again. The students had been told to spend the free period in their common room.
Even though Minerva knew all of her students, she did a roll call to avoid any mistakes. She wasn't at the top of her game right now. Better to stick to a list. Lists couldn't lie or forget and so Minerva froze when she read out the last name and there was no answer.
"Where is Miss Weasley?" she demanded.
Nobody said anything at first until one of the other girls from her dormitory confessed that she might have seen her sneak out earlier. She wasn't sure, though, and she hadn't known how to tell anyone without also leaving the common room unaccompanied.
Minerva wasn't usually one to panic. Or she hadn't been before all this Chamber of Secrets business had started. Now she could feel every last bit of colour drain from her face. She barked at the other first-years to stay put or else and then climbed back out of the portrait hole to ask the Fat Lady if she could confirm Miss Weasley's absence.
"A little redheaded girl?" the Fat Lady asked.
"A Weasley, yes," Minerva said impatiently.
"Right, one of those. She made a run for it when I called after her."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because students have rudely ignored me for as long as I can remember. It really gets tiresome after a couple hundred years. Perhaps if..."
Minerva didn't hear the rest because she had turned on her heels and was now running down the corridor. It was almost impossible to find one little girl in a castle this big, but she asked every portrait and every ghost she met to try anyway. They were honour bound to serve Hogwarts and its headmaster or headmistress and not one of them questioned her authority to give them orders. Except for Peeves, of course.
"Why should I help you look for one ickle little firstie?" he asked, grinning lazily.
"Because if this girl isn't found, the school will be closed and there'll be no one left for you to pester," Minerva informed him coolly.
Peeves did a surprised somersault. "Close the school because of one ickle little firstie? Hogwash and poppycock! Peeves won't let that happen. No, he won't. He'll find her for you, Your Headship. Yes, he will."
He zoomed off. Filch's eyes bulged as he watched the poltergeist try to be helpful for once.
"Don't just stand there!" Minerva snapped at him. "Go tell the other teachers to check if any of their students are missing, too!"
The caretaker set off in one direction and Minerva in the other. Ginny Weasley was not a troublemaker. There was no reason for her to break the rules, which was why Minerva decided to check the girls' bathrooms first. There was a perfectly good bathroom in Gryffindor Tower, but perhaps she had wanted to be alone. Young girls were silly like that sometimes. What Minerva wouldn't give to find her crying in a bathroom stall right about now.
But she found something else.
She walked through the very corridor where the first attack on Mrs Norris had taken place. The scene of the original crime. With the writing on the wall.
Minerva froze.
There was a second brand-new message.
Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber for ever.
Minerva's scream of horror never left her. She just fell to her knees right there in the mercifully empty corridor and began to shake all over. She buried her face in her hands. A part of her wanted to close her eyes and just... stop.
But she couldn't. She had to protect the students she could still save. She had to send them home immediately. She needed to let Albus know that she had failed him, that a girl had died, that Hogwarts had to be closed. And then she must tell Molly and Arthur... She must tell them the impossible.
She had never thought it would all end this way.
She couldn't move.
"Get up!" she hissed at herself through gritted teeth. "Get off the bloody floor, Minerva!"
This time she did.
After magically magnifying her voice she ordered all students to return to their dormitories. Then she informed the other teachers what had happened. She was too numb inside to feel any kind of satisfaction when they all got rid of Gilderoy together. Severus was leading the charge this time. Minerva wouldn't have been strong enough. She arranged for the Hogwarts Express to come first thing tomorrow morning, warned the kitchens that the students would be eating in their dormitories tonight and tried to talk to the four Weasley brothers, who were all in a state of shock.
She let them be and headed to the hospital wing to make sure that everything was still going ahead as planned with the Mandrakes. The prospect of reviving everyone who had been attacked didn't feel as good as it had this morning. Not now that the Heir of Slytherin had claimed a final victim they wouldn't be able to save. Nevertheless, she thanked Poppy and Pomona for their tireless efforts. Finally, Minerva wrote the letters she had dreaded sending out. Her hand was shaking so much that she had to start over a couple of times.
When all of that was done, Minerva sat in her office and waited. After some time she walked over to the window to watch the sun set and then stare off into the darkness, wondering if after tomorrow she would ever get to stand here again.
The door to her office was flung open, banging against the wall and making Minerva jump. She had only just turned around when Molly Weasley threw herself at her and seized two fistfuls of her robes. "TELL ME IT ISN'T TRUE!" she yelled, shaking Minerva. "TELL ME MY LITTLE GIRL ISN'T DEAD! TELL. ME. IT'S. NOT. TRUE!"
Everything inside of Minerva turned to ice as she looked upon the smaller woman's tear-streaked face. "I wish I could, Molly. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she said, holding her arms stiffly at her sides, curling her hands into fists and digging her nails into her palms until it hurt.
"NO!" Molly wailed while she clung to the front of Minerva's robes, nearly choking her.
Arthur Weasley stepped forward and awkwardly tried to detach his wife from her. "Where is Dumbledore?" he croaked in a broken, devastated voice.
Molly suddenly let go of Minerva and straightened up as much as she could. Minerva stumbled backwards and held on to the mantelpiece for support.
"Yes, where is he? He can save Ginny! He has to! I already lost two brothers to his cause. He can't have my Ginny, too. Not my daughter, my only daughter…"
Minerva opened her mouth to say something, anything, but didn't. She had never in her entire life felt so useless.
Then the door that Arthur must have closed opened again and Albus swept into the room. He stopped right next to Minerva, not touching but standing close enough that she could feel the familiar heat of his body. "I'm here."
"Dumbledore! You must know where the chamber is! You must be able to go there and get Ginny out!"
"I cannot," he said gravely. "I'm sorry."
Molly looked back and forth between them and shook her head. "This can't be happening! You can't just stand there and tell us you're bloody sorry! Sorry doesn't get us our daughter back!"
"Molly," Arthur murmured tiredly, "it's not their fault."
"Then whose fault is it?"
When no one answered right away, the strength and anger slowly left Molly and she slumped into a chair by the fire, crying inconsolably.
"Molly," Albus said sombrely, "you have every right to say to me whatever you wish to say. But before you do, I don't think all hope is lost yet."
Arthur, who had rested his hands on his wife's shoulders, quickly looked up. "What makes you say that?" he asked, willing to cling to anything, no matter how small.
"If I'm not mistaken, somebody else has worked out the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets," Albus told them.
"What? Who? How do you know?"
"Because Fawkes isn't here, even though I am."
That didn't seem to reassure Arthur the same way it clearly did Albus. "He found the Chamber?"
"No, but he's gone to help the extraordinarily brave someone who did," Albus explained.
Molly stifled her sobs long enough to ask, "But how can a bird help us?"
"Fawkes is not a bird." He didn't say it unkindly but forcefully. "Fawkes is a phoenix and the kind of loyal companion who doesn't hesitate to do what one cannot. He has acted as my proxy on more than one occasion, saving lives that were very dear to me."
Minerva felt the memory in the air between her and Albus and shivered, not sure if she could really dare to hope.
Molly seemed to wonder the same thing. "Then why isn't he bringing us to wherever our little girl is?"
"Because I think he's bringing her to you."
There was a knock on the door. It was pushed open and suddenly Minerva was very glad that Albus stood so close. She could lean against him without anyone noticing. It was the only thing that kept her on her feet.
Right there in the doorway stood Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, both dirty and bloodied, and also Gilderoy Lockhart, of all people, with an even more vacant expression on his face than usual. Fawkes whooshed past them to settle on Albus' shoulder – the two of them the only ones in the room who appeared to be perfectly at ease. Because there was one more person who stood on the threshold.
"Ginny!"
The Weasleys broke into tears of relief and Minerva thought she might never breathe normally ever again.
After a lot of hugging and crying and screaming they all listened to Potter's astonishing explanations about basilisks, spiders, bathrooms, swords and diaries. Minerva hadn't even begun to wrap her head around all of it when Albus first told Molly and Arthur to take Ginny up to the hospital wing and then also kicked her out of her own office by asking her to prepare a late-night feast. A part of her was grateful for the simple task and she didn't argue.
As she crossed the Entrance Hall, rubies began to fall into the Gryffindor hour-glass, hundreds and hundreds of them, until it was so full that it was close to bursting, rather unprepared for such a sudden onslaught and quick turnaround.
Minerva felt exactly the same way.
There were a lot of things Albus had missed while he had been away. The Hogwarts feasts hadn't been at the very top of that list, but he might have to rectify that. This one was certainly one to remember. Most of the students and even some members of staff were in their most colourful pyjamas and everyone had found something to celebrate. There was a variety of reasons to choose from after all.
All petrified students, Sir Nicholas and Mrs Norris had been successfully revived. Ginny Weasley had been given a clean bill of health. Hagrid had been released from Azkaban and had returned to the school. Gryffindor had won the House Cup. The end-of-term exams had been cancelled. And Gilderoy Lockhart had been given the sack because he no longer knew who Gilderoy Lockhart was, which meant that he had absolutely nothing left to teach anyone.
And then there was the fact that a Horcrux had been destroyed today or, more accurately and even better, that Harry had destroyed a Horcrux today. Of course, that one was known only to Albus, but it happened to be the most important one of them all. Not just for obvious reasons. It was also a considerable relief to him that he finally had the answer he had been searching for since Halloween. Actually, the very proof he had sought for years and years now. More questions (and most likely and most unfortunately more Horcruxes) remained. But Albus thought one should definitely be allowed to take a break after one had destroyed a piece of Voldemort's soul.
It was a better way to end the school year than he or anyone could have possibly imagined. And so he let the celebrations continue.
At some point Minerva muttered something about going to the bathroom and left the Great Hall. Albus waited for a minute or two before he got up to follow her. The feast had long since turned into an all-nighter and nobody paid attention to the comings and goings of others. Some students were roaming the castle simply because they were finally allowed to do so again. Perhaps that was why Minerva had chosen to step outside.
She hadn't gone far, just a couple of steps in the direction of the lake, which glittered in the dark of this calm summer night. Despite the balmy temperature Minerva had her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Albus knew it had nothing to do with being cold. Up until a few hours ago she had been under so much pressure, it wasn't hard to guess why she couldn't let go of it as though nothing had happened.
What broke Albus' heart was that she thought she needed to suffer alone in the dark. And that his absence had done that to her.
He walked towards her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder to let her know that he was there. She drew in a sharp breath and stiffened. "It's me, Minerva," he said quietly. "You don't have to pretend with me. Or hide out here."
"I'm fine," she replied, dropping her hands from her sides and straightening up.
"No, you're not." He grabbed her by the arms and turned her around to face him. "And that is perfectly understandable. I know I asked you to be strong for me this year and to shoulder more than anyone should have to carry on their own. But that doesn't mean that you can't be upset and terrified and sad. I am all of those things, too."
There was doubt written all over her face before she finally admitted, "I feel so silly. Everybody's celebrating now, and they should. But we got so close, Albus. So close. For a moment there it was all gone. The poor girl, the school, you, everything we ever worked and fought for."
"I know," Albus said, running his hands slowly up and down her arms.
"Somehow – and I think I will never fully understand how – we were saved by a second-year student, three second-year students, who found and slew a creature so dangerous it could have killed everyone in the castle. Probably would have killed someone if there hadn't been so much happy coincidence involved."
"Coincidence or perhaps you could call it fate. Hogwarts is a pretty special place after all. And these are very special students, one of them in particular."
Minerva shook her head, but not in disagreement. "I'm beginning to see why you said that Potter and You-Know-Who – oh, don't start with me now, Albus – that they are connected somehow. It's almost as though they're drawn to one another."
"It appears that way," he said succinctly. Sometimes the urge to tell her everything he knew was so overwhelming, Albus needed a moment to collect himself. And more importantly, to stop himself.
It wasn't his truth to tell.
And it would have been an entirely selfish thing to do. While he was sure to benefit from it – from her formidable intellect and her unwavering support or her equally powerful objection – she was sure to hate everything he would have to tell her. It would be impossible for her to live with it. And that's why he couldn't do it. Not now, not ever.
He was well aware of the irony. He had just told her that she didn't need to put on a brave face for him. And here he was, doing the same thing. Minerva would have been the first to point out how that wasn't fair to either of them.
It had never been fair.
But it was the only way he knew how to love her. He had always figured that to make up for all his faults, he would have to love her twice as much as any normal man ever could. He wondered if one day she would tell him if he had been successful.
For now Minerva asked, "Is this how it's going to be from now on?" Her voice was a strained whisper, which only strengthened his resolve further. "Will You-Know-Who keep coming at us, at Harry, every year?"
"He won't ever stop trying, I'm afraid. Giving up is not in his nature." He gazed at her. He could see the reflection of the pale moonlight in the green of her eyes. "But it isn't in ours either. And even while I wasn't here, I had complete confidence in you and in Harry and everyone in this school." He paused. "Well, almost everyone. But even Gilderoy surpassed my expectations when he used his own trickeries on himself."
"That's why you really hired him. You wanted to expose him as a fraud and impostor."
"I never thought he would hurt himself like this, but yes. I figured if we couldn't find a good teacher, we might as well put a stop to what he was doing," Albus confirmed.
Now it was Minerva's turn to fix her eyes on him and regard him intently. "You planned all of that – and not for the first time. Isn't it exhausting? I tried to do a fraction of what you're doing for a short period of time and it felt nearly impossible."
Albus didn't know if she was impressed with him or disappointed with herself. It didn't really matter. Neither one nor the other was appropriate. "Ah, but there's a difference. You had to do it alone. I – for reasons beyond my comprehension but to my eternal amazement – have always had you."
She gave a little self-deprecating snort. "Like that has helped."
He made sure she was looking at him when he said, "It has helped me every minute of every day. To say, suggest or even think that you ever failed me or this school in any way is entirely unacceptable. And so I must insist that you stop beating yourself up about this. There is a marvellous feast going on and I'd like to see you smile again. I thought giving 400 points to Gryffindor might do the trick. But you're a tough nut to crack sometimes." Albus watched her struggle, but then her lips curled up at the corners. He flashed her a grin of his own. "I know that's not the best you can do, but I'll take it."
At first it looked as though Minerva wanted to admonish him for being childish, but in the end she visibly softened instead. "Thank Merlin you're back. You're not allowed to leave like that again, you hear me, Albus? Hogwarts needs you too much."
"I hear you, and it's very kind of Hogwarts to say so. I rather missed it, too," he replied with a smile that turned from sweet to sincere. "Though the point I was trying to make earlier still stands. I was never really gone as long as all of you kept the faith in me, whether deserved or not."
"Then you better be prepared to be here for a long time," Minerva said, deadpan, but also actually serious.
Albus laughed softly. "We'll see. But let's start with the rest of tonight."
Together they headed back up to the castle, the warm light and happy babble of voices from the Great Hall beckoning them home.
A/N: End of book two! I know I didn't really answer certain questions like 'Did Dumbledore know it was a Basilisk?' or 'Shouldn't he have heard the Basilisk in the walls or was Harry really the only one always in the right place at the right time?' and so on. But I hope you enjoyed the chapters anyway. I'll be on holiday next week. Hopefully I'll have time to start reading book three and have a chapter ready the week after. Book three is one of my favourites by the way, so looking forward to that. Until then, thanks to all of you for reading!