The Cupboard Series 2: Hermione's Book Nook

Chapter 25

"ATTACK! ATTACK IN THE FIFTH FLOOR CORRIDOR!" Peeves bellowed.

Harry panicked, but before he could move, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, along with the Bloody Baron and Nearly Headless Nick appeared.

"What's happened?" Professor McGonagall blurted, her eyes constantly flicking between Harry and the three frozen figures.

"I don't know, Professor. I just found them like that," Harry replied quickly.

"They're petrified," Professor Flitwick announced from where he stood between the three waving his wand over each one. "Looks identical to what happened with Argus and Mrs Norris."

With a sigh and a wave of her wand, Professor McGonagall produced a brilliant silver cat that immediately raced off down the corridor.

"Poppy will be here momentarily," Professor McGonagall announced.

"It looks to me as though whatever it was that happened, it interrupted Mister Crabbe and Mister Goyle in the midst of some misdeed," Professor Flitwich commented.

"Filius if you could handle things here? Mister Potter, you'd better come with me," Professor McGonagall stated.

With a sigh, Harry trooped after his Head of House.

Professor McGonagall set a swift pace as he was led along corridors, down staircases and then along even more corridors. Finally, a pair of gargoyles came into sight and she finally slowed down.

"Lemon drops," Professor McGonagall said.

Instantly, the two gargoyles leapt to either side, allowing a hidden door in the wall to be revealed. This, too, opened by itself to reveal a set of circular stairs leading upwards. Following the professor, Harry stepped through the doors and prepared himself for another climb. However, the instant that his feet touched the stairs, he felt a jerk below him causing him to reach out to the hand rail to steady himself.

The two of them rode the circular stairs upwards in silence to a landing in front of another door, this one guarded by a huge stone griffin. His eyebrows rose as he noticed Professor McGonagall scowl at the griffin before raising her hand to knock on the door.

A call of, "come in, Minerva," met their ears a fraction of a second before the professor could knock and Harry heard a sigh of exasperation escape the witch in front of him.

The room that he found himself being led into was a huge office. There were bookshelves galore, shelves full of trinket of the most bizarre design simply begging to the examined, an owl perch and a large, rich, looking desk piled high with even more books and stacks of parchment.

The occupant seated behind the desk, though, caused Harry's face to darken and it was all he could do to suppress his sudden urge to growl. That or race forward and throttle the old man before him.

All term Harry had studiously avoided being anywhere near Dumbledore. It was because of him that he'd been placed with the Dursleys. He was the reason that he'd had to suffer ten years of beatings, ten years of hoping for the meanest table scraps, ten years of doing the never-ending cooking, cleaning, gardening and whatever it took to appease the Dursleys. And he was the one who failed in his promise to do something about it last summer.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, I'm afraid that there has been another attack," Professor McGonagall announced.

Dumbledore dropped the quill that he'd been using onto his desk as he half-rose in his chair before retaking his seat.

"The details, if you would, Minerva," Dumbledore asked.

"It seems that Mister Goyle, Mister Crabbe and Miss Moon have been petrified at the end of the fifth floor corridor, northern end. It appears that Mister Goyle and Mister Crabbe were in the midst of the act of bullying Miss Moon when the three were ... interrupted," Professor McGonagall stated concisely. "I was alerted to the situation by Peeves."