Riding a Nightmare

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Loretta shrugged, "We'll find out once I kidnap Dumbledore." She said casually, shocking everyone. "Tell me everything you know. I'll be the bait." She ordered as she flipped the hair tie's mirror over and once again looked like Issac ...

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Albus Dumbledore woke one morning feeling refreshed. The first night back home after a hard school year was always the best. It was just the beginning though.

Unfortunately, the headmaster didn't have only rest in mind. He kept mulling over what happened over the last three school years. Most importantly he was thinking over everything about Voldemort that has been learned thus far.

The old wizard shook his head, "I'll find Tom soon. With Peter Pettigrew being out it should go faster. I'll need to guide Harry so he's ready." He murmured as he got ready for the day.

To help his thoughts come together he decided to take a relaxing stroll through Hogsmeade. His sweet tooth led him straight to Honeydukes. With a bag of treats he left and just walked around.

At some point he went down a path that split off and went through the nearby woods. It was peaceful and quiet. Perfect for trying to arrange one's thoughts.

It's also not a bad trail to meet new people ...

Albus' blue eyes widened when he spotted a young dark haired boy with red eyes casually walking along the path towards him, "Hello, young man. Are you ok? I might be able to help." He asked, feeling a strong sense of familiarity for the sad looking boy, who actually stopped and looked a bit scared when he noticed the headmaster.

In a caring gesture he reached down to pat the boy's head. The second his hand touched the boy he knew an illusion was involved, but it was too late. In an instant the boy's hand grabbed his wrist with a vice-like grip and the boy looked a bit smug ...

"I'll take you up on that, Albus." The boy said with a smirk ...

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In the Malfoy manor there were dozens of Death Eaters standing around a pensieve that was filled with memories. Every single person there had just finished watching what Issac lived through. Now pieces started coming together.

Severus looked seriously at Loretta, who also watched the memories, "That was the line Issac said to you, wasn't it?"

Everyone now understood what Loretta was saying and why she wasn't convinced this was about Dumbledore. At least, not in the way they expected.

They all saw, through Issac's eyes, what happened in each school year. It was clear at least two people in Hogwarts were pretending to be one of the other teachers or are actually teachers, but perhaps temporarily taking the place of other teachers.

There was definitely something weird in the memory with Lucius. For one thing Lucius was using the wrong hand to cast magic so they knew the Lucius that tried to attack Issac right outside Dumbledore's office wasn't the real office. It helped that the Malfoy family never had a house elf named Dobby.

Dumbledore's complete indifference to an attempted attack right in front of his office. Even though the door was closed the headmaster should have noticed something and done anything. The conclusion was that the real Dumbledore left and a fake borrowed his office so that he and a fake Lucius could put on an act for Issac;

That was the case for everything during school. After all, if Tom was serious about hurting someone he wouldn't work around their school schedule. The timing did, however, make it easier to put on a show for Issac. Each act seemed to be trying to convince him that Tom was evil and had to be killed. There were even many tests and puzzles no headmaster should give to a student.