Losing Faith

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"Tell me what you did. Tell me how you did it, and where she is now. Tell me, Anderson, now." Dumbledore didn't give the slightest chance for the silence to descend again, he still held his wand pointed at the professor, his voice was firm and resolute, although everything inside him was shaken by such a confession.

His heart ached from the truth, from the fact that the killer was someone he had personally hired as a teacher, from the fact that he had never notice what was hidden behind this person standing in front of him. It was hard for him to realize and accept that Faith had fallen into the cruel hands of Keegan Anderson, and Dumbledore, who was the headmaster, who was considered wise and powerful, could not prevent it in any way.

"I didn't want it, I swear it happened by accident." Professor pleaded, barely squeezing out the words. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"What the hell are you saying, huh? What do you mean you didn't want to? You killed her, you fucking bastard!" Draco exclaimed, clenching his fists and already taking decisive steps towards the professor, but Theodore's strong hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him from doing a thoughtless act.

"Wait, Malfoy, let him tell us everything."

"She was blackmailing me. Faith blackmailed me the day I told her all this, and she blackmailed me that night — the night of the party."

"So what? Is that why you killed her?" The headmaster asked, raising his thick grey eyebrows.

"No! No, I didn't want to kill her... I didn't even want anything to happen between us from the very beginning, but I just couldn't resist her, and I'm so sorry about it, I swear, I regret it more than anything in my life."

"How did this happen? What did she do that you couldn't resist her?"

"I don't know. I myself do not understand how this happened and how everything brought us—"

"How stupid you are. How could you do something like this, and even within the walls of the school?!" Dumbledore asked furiously, banging his wand on the table, making everyone flinch.

All these slurred words and weak attempts to justify himself sounded like babble, stupid and meaningless babble, from which the headmaster just wanted to close his ears.

"So you chose to succumb to your attraction to a young student, then threaten and insult her and then kill her, instead of pulling yourself together and behaving like a professional? Like an adult man who has a wife and a daughter? I don't understand, I don't understand anything."

"I regret it, I lost my head, and when she began to blackmail me, when she said that she would tell you, my wife... everyone about it, I realized that I had screwed up." Anderson's voice was quieter now, his face expressed nothing but guilt and remorse; he felt weak in his legs, and carefully lowered himself into a chair, immediately burying his hands in his hair.

The headmaster burned holes in him, feeling only disgust and contempt for him, anger and irritation at the sight of a drooping man sitting in front of him. He also felt powerless and useless, not deserving of the title of headmaster, one of the wisest and strongest wizards of the wizarding world, because he could not do what a bunch of the students did. He failed to find the trail of the missing girl while the young people led him straight to the killer — Albus Dumbledore felt almost insulted and humiliated.

Nervously running a wrinkled hand through his beard, he began to pace the classroom, struggling with heavy thoughts. He thought about the consequences, about the reputation of the school and himself after the announcement of this case, he thought about the girl's body and the reaction of her parents, he thought that he had let the children down, because Hogwarts was supposed to be considered a second home, a safe and reliable place where everyone should feel comfortable and happy — but the murder, he did not know where this scandal would lead him and the whole school.