ALENA HAD NEVER SO URGENTLY WANTED TO GO TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE. Hermione helped her get to Dumbledore's office, no questions or comments were made and the walk was silent expect for Alena muttering the password.
The gargoyle sprang to life and leapt aside; the wall behind it split into two to reveal a stone staircase that was moving continuously upward like a spiral escalator. The two witches stepped onto the moving stairs; the wall closed behind them with a loud thud, and they were moving upward in tight circles until they reached the highly polished oak door with the brass knocker that was shaped like a griffin.
Though it was now well past midnight, there were voices coming from inside the room, a positive babble of them. It sounded as though dumbledore was entertaining at least a dozen people.
Alena didn't bother with the griffin-shaped knocker. She rapped her fist on the wooden door once and pushed the doors open.
The room was in half darkness; the strange silver instruments standing on tables were silent and still rather than whirring and emitting puffs of smoke as they usually did. The portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses covering the walls were all snoozing in their frames. Behind the door, a magnificent red-and-gold bird the size of a swan dozed on its perch with its head under its wing.
"Oh, hello, Alena... and Miss Granger—"
Dumbledore was sitting in a high-backed chair behind his desk; he leaned forward into the pool of candlelight illuminating the papers laid out before him. He was wearing a magnificently embroidered purple-and-gold dressing gown over a snowy-white nightshirt, but seemed wide awake, his penetrating light-blue eyes fixed intently upon elara.
"Headmaster," Alena started quickly, "I've had a vision, a dream—Arthur Weasley, he was being attacked—snake bites everywhere—he needs help, Professor—"
She stumbled over her own words so much that only bits were coherent.
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