Blood Quill

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters used in this story, all recognizable names, locations, and characters are property of the wonderful JK Rowling, who was lovely enough to bless us with the Harry Potter books to become obsessed with as I have. (The italics at the beginning of the story are quoted from Order of the Phoenix. My story starts when the italics end, but they were necessary to set up the plotline.)

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Blood Quill

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Chapter 2

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Once Snape, Harry, and McGonagall left the office, Dumbledore left his desk and made his way over to his fireplace. He was seething, and extremely sad, but he had to let Sirius, Remus, Molly, and Arthur know what had been happening. While he felt extremely guilty for letting it happen, they had the right to know.

He sighed and grabbed a handful of floo powder, throwing it into the fire. It instantly turned green. Dumbledore got down on his hands and knees and stuck his face into the fire. "Number 12, Grimmauld Place!" His head whipped through fireplace after fireplace while his knees stayed firmly on the office floor. Finally, after about a minute and a half of whizzing past the fireplaces of many wizarding families, Dumbledore appeared in the fire of Grimmauld Place's basement kitchen.

"Sirius! Remus! Molly! Arthur!" he yelled into the building. He heard rushing footsteps as four people ran from wherever they were in the house to the kitchen. Luckily, today was Arthur's day off.

"What's happened, Professor?!" Remus asked worriedly.

"You don't have to be worried. Harry isn't in danger. Will you four come to my office in about twenty minutes? I have some...well...news to share with you, but I must talk to my Head of Houses first. It will only take about twenty minutes. Are you four up to that?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"If it concerns Harry, absolutely, we'll be there." Arthur answered.

"Thanks, Arthur. See you all in twenty minutes." With that Dumbledore pulled his head out of the fireplace and made his way back behind his desk, just as Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick made their way into the office.

"Please have a seat. Minerva and Harry will be joining us shortly." Dumbledore waved his wand and conjured two more chairs so there were five in front of his desk. The three professors took their seats, curiosity etched onto the faces of all but Snape's.

A few minutes later, McGonagall and Harry entered the office and took seats in the remaining two chairs.

"All right. Now that everyone is here..." Dumbledore started. "There's a...predicament. It seems Professor Umbridge has been using illegal artifacts during her detentions with students. She has been forcing students to write lines using a blood quill. Harry?" Dumbledore motioned toward Harry, who, with a deep sigh, lifted his hand and showed it to all the professors. He heard sharp intakes of breath from both Flitwick and Sprout. "Harry has said that he's heard of victims in all of the Houses except Slytherin. I would like all of you, including you, Severus, just in case, to go to your common rooms and find anyone who has had detentions with Dolores. Bring them to the hospital wing so Madam Pomfrey can tend to their hands, then bring me a list of all the students you find, along with what words are...carved...into their hands. I know this is distressing, but we must keep it as quiet as possible. We also must stay calm for the students. I will be handling things with the Ministry to get here removed from the school as soon as possible. That will be all, thank you. Harry, can you stay, please? I will alert Professor Binns of your excused absence, even though he probably didn't notice you were gone." Dumbledore gave a little wink as he said this, though it looked strained. Harry also noticed the customary twinkle in his eye was nonexistent, at the current moment.