Suffocating In Darkness

Chapter 24

I could feel the Felix Felicis wearing off as we creeped back into the castle. The front door had remained unlocked for us, but on the third floor we met Peeves and only narrowly avoided detection by diving sideways through one of our shortcuts. By the time we got up to the portrait of the Fat Lady and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, I was not surprised to find her in a most unhelpful mood.

"What sort of time do you call this?"

"I'm really sorry - we had to go out for something important -"

"Well, the password changed at midnight, so you'll just have to sleep in the corridor, won't you?"

"You're joking!" said Oliver. "Why did it have to change at midnight?"

"That's the way it is," said the Fat Lady. "If you're angry, go and take it up with the headmaster, he's the one who's tightened security."

"Fantastic," I said bitterly, looking around at the hard floor. "Really brilliant. Yeah, I would go and take it up with Dumbledore if he was here, because he's the one who wanted me to -"

"He is here," said a voice behind us. "Professor Dumbledore returned to the school an hour ago."

Nearly Headless Nick was gliding towards us, his head wob-bling as usual upon his ruff.

"I had it from the Bloody Baron, who saw him arrive," said Nick. "He appeared, according to the Baron, to be in good spirits, though a little tired, of course."

"Where is he?" said Harry, his heart leaping,

"Oh, groaning and clanking up on the Astronomy Tower, it's a, favorite pastime of his -"

"Not the Bloody Baron - Dumbledore!"

"Oh - in his office," said Nick. "I believe, from what the Baron said, that he had business to attend to before turning in -"

"Yeah, he has," said Harry. He wheeled about and sprinted off again, dragging me along with him, ignoring the Fat Lady who was calling after him.

"Come back! All right, I lied! I was annoyed you woke me up! The password's still 'tapeworm'!"

But the three of us were already hurtling back along the corridor and within minutes, I was saying "toffee eclairs" to Dumbledore's gargoyle, which leapt aside, permitting us entrance onto the spiral staircase.

"Enter," said Dumbledore when Harry knocked. He sounded exhausted. Harry pushed open the door. There was Dumbledore's office, looking the same as ever, but with black, star-strewn skies beyond the windows. "Good gracious, Harry," said Dumbledore in surprise. "To what do I owe this very late pleasure?"

"Sir - I've got it. I've got the memory from Slughorn."

Harry pulled out the tiny glass bottle and showed it to Dumbledore. For a moment or two, the headmaster looked stunned. Then his face split in a wide smile.

"Harry, this is spectacular news! Very well done indeed! I knew you could do it!"

All thought of the lateness of the hour apparently forgotten, he hurried around his desk, took the bottle with Slughorn's memory in his uninjured hand, and strode over to the cabinet where he kepi the Pensieve.

"And now," said Dumbledore, placing the stone basin upon the desk and emptying the contents of the bottle into it. "Now, at last. we shall see. Harry, Melissa, Oliver quickly . . ."

Once again we fell through darkness and landed in Horace Slughorn's office many years before. There was the much younger Slughorn, with his thick, shiny, straw-colored hair and his gingery-blond mustache, sitting again in the comfortable winged armchair in his office, his feet resting upon a velvet pouffe, a small glass of wine in one hand, the other rummaging in a box of crystallized pineapple. And there were the half dozen teenage boys sitting around Slughorn with Tom Riddle in the midst of them, Marvolo's gold-and-black ring gleaming on his finger.