Case of the Cintimani Stone: A Hammer Mystery

Chapter 13

 The headmaster's office was in its own tower, up through a secret entrance behind a gargoyle whose current password was 'Lemon Drops'. Harry didn't walk a single step to get there. When Madam Hooch and Professor McGonagall came running out to the field and found him petrified with Malfoy yelling absurd accusations, the Deputy Headmistress redoubled Hermione's spell before lifting him from the ground with her wand and levitating him into the castle while Madam Hooch took control of her class again.

He was floated the entire way into the office like a maximum security prisoner before being set down into the chair in front of the headmaster's desk. Aside from Professor McGonagall, the office was empty. She ended the incantation on him and his hand immediately let go of the roll of bloodied bronze coins, their weight hitting the stone floor with a muted thud. The pain that replaced the one from gripping it shot up like a railroad spike into his forearm. She picked up the coins and looked at him sternly, "You will wait here until the headmaster arrives. Do not leave this chair." A few of the portraits of old headmasters surrounding them jeered at Harry, calling out his insolence. The Hammer was quick to notice that the trim on the peanut gallery frames was predominantly green.

Behind him, the sound of stone grinding upon stone came to him, a sign that the statue had wound back into place, sealing him in the room. Dumbledore's decorations played along with the idea that he was either an eccentric old coot or touched in the head. The large, circular room was filled with all kinds of gidgets and gadgets, both sensical and nonsensical, all of them emitting some kind of low volume noise at intervals that remained just as much a mystery as their uses. Behind the enormous claw-footed desk that the Hammer was facing, he saw the Sorting Hat sitting on a bookshelf.

"That didn't take long at all." The Hat piped up when Harry finally noticed it on its shelf.

"You should see the other guy."

"Hrm. Hrm. Normally a Gryffindor would be the type to encourage or be encouraged into physical violence."

"Are you saying you made a mistake?" Harry asked, climbing up onto his knees on the chair to spin around and get a good look at the rear of the room. Technically he never left his seat.

"Never! You are brash and brave, to be sure, but your loyalty to anyone else but your own cause immediately disqualifies you from their ranks."

"You make me sound like a snake in the grass."

"And yet you don't fit so cleanly into Slytherin. Your desire to solve these mysteries isn't for you. What you do, you do not for power. I have not made a mistake."

The Hammer sat back down in the chair, looking back at the hat. It had nothing more to say, leaving Harry to think about what had been said. It turned out there was plenty of time to think - no one showed up for quite some time. He had broken a boy's face in two places, which was something of more consequence than the schoolyard fight that had been the reason he was taken out of school previously. The look on Hermione and Neville's faces stuck with him along with that icy feeling. The Hammer looked down at the knuckles on his right hand, the ruddy brown of dried blood caked on them.

Some time later, the sound of the gargoyle statue grinding away to reveal the staircase brought trouble and the law with it. Harry stood and cornered around his chair to see who it was only to feel a force turn him back around and seat him in the chair,

"Sit. Back. Down." Professor Snape's voice was as cold and demeaning as ever.

"Now now, Severus. We're here to discuss Mr. Potter's behaviour, not escort him to Azkaban." The Headmaster's voice followed as he came around and sat down in his chair on the other side of the desk. Aside from Snape, Harry saw McGonagall and Flitwick come into the room, taking their places on the other side of the desk to Dumbledore's side. Flitwick had to drag a chair in and stand atop it to be seen.