Once the excitement over the Duelin

Once the excitement over the Dueling sessions wore off, the children once more concentrated on their primary concerns – classes and quidditch. The first match, being the Ravenclaw – Hufflepuff one, had passed in October without incident and now the Slytherin – Gryffindor one was quickly approaching and Harry was forced to endure Wood's maniacal practices practically every other day. Their training sessions started as early as 6 o'clock and ended just in time for breakfast and then there were the evening ones, which Harry didn't really like, since they cut short both his study time and his friend time.

He complained to the twins practically every evening, since when the practice finally finished and Harry returned to the dorm, Neville would already be fast asleep. His other friends were not very understanding either. Draco had become the Slytherin new seeker and was enjoying himself quite a lot, while Pansy simply didn't care for the game at all. When one evening Harry tied complaining to the Slytherin girl, she just shrugged and said 'If you don't like it, then quit!' Thus Harry's only source of comfort were the twins, who understood him all too well, having to endure the same thing as well.

The quidditch match was the next day and so the practice ran very late into the night. Harry and the twins were heading back to the Gryffindor Tower, thankfully having excuse notes from their Head of House for being out after curfew, when Harry head the voice from Lockhart's classroom again. So much time went by without the voice reappearing that Harry had already convinced himself that it was simply his imagination, thus he started badly when he heard it again.

$Kill… food… fresh prey… HUNGRY! GET BACK HERE!$ - the voice was quite loud and was accompanied by a very faint slithering sound, which Harry didn't really care for because the blood-curdling scream that echoed through the sleeping castle a few minutes later was much more worrisome.

He glanced at George and Fred and asked:

"Should we go see what happened?" – his voice shook slightly – "I mean someone has to be hurt to scream that loud…"

George was quite pale, as was his twin, but he forced himself to push away his own fear and think rationally:

"I'm pretty sure it came from the direction of the staircase, so we'll see what happened one way or the other… though I'm not too sure if we'll want to."

Thus the two teens and their younger friend made their way to the Grand Staircase. Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout were already there along with Lockhart. They were gathered around what looked like a body lying on the ground. As the children approached, their head of house herded them around the body so they couldn't see who was hurt.


"Oh dear…" – muttered Minerva McGonagall as she watched the body of the Ravenclaw Prefect being carried on a stretcher to the Hospital Wing – "I suppose this will be the end of Dumbledore's carrier at Hogwarts…"

Her voice was a bit sad, but with all the mistakes he's made in the last two years, even Minerva doubted the man's sanity.

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure…" – drawled Snape as he grimaced – "After all the girl clearly fell down from the stairs, I doubt this can be pinned on Dumbledore's bad judgement."

"As a matter of fact, I've spent the last 15 years trying to make Dumbledore allow me to pick out a team and charm the stairs to prevent this very thing from happening." – said Filius sadly.

"Thank Merlin this time it was not a student that found the body at least." – remarked Pomona Sprout, as she dabbed a stray tear with the sleeve of her robes.

"Who's going to tell Dumbledore?" – asked the tiny Charms Professor morosely as they entered the Hospital Wing.

Minerva pursed her lips in distaste:

"I suppose I should, I am his deputy after all… however, Filius, I hope you can contact the girl's parents, she was in your House after all…"

"Yes, yes, I can do that…" – responded Flitwick, as he and Snape lowered the body onto the bed.

Meanwhile Pomona went to the office and soon returned with a sleepy but rather frantic Poppy Pomfrey.

The Matron saw the girl on the bed and gasped:

"Oh Merlin! Isn't this Miss Clearwater?"

A grim nod from Severus was her answer.

"But how did something like this happen?" – she couldn't believe that this was already second death at Hogwarts in the span of one year.

"We don't rightfully know," – said Severus, his voice composed and grim – "We know she fell down from the moving stairs, but we don't know how it happened."

"Well did you send someone to question the portraits? Maybe some of them saw at least something…" – enquired the Matron and both Severus and Pomona flushed slightly, since that did not occur to them. Both Minerva and Filius have already gone to inform Dumbledore and the Clearwater family, so the task of questioning the numerous portraits that hang around the staircase fell to the Slytherin and Hufflepuff heads.


Albus Dumbledore was having a very nice dream for once. It involved himself and Gellert, his onetime lover and the previous Dark Lord. Since it was just a dream, Dumbledore allowed himself to enjoy it.

"Oh, Albus," – sighed the dark haired wizard as he stared at Dumbledore with a very pensive expression on his handsome face – "What have you become?"

"What do you mean, my love?" – he blurted out not understanding.

"Come on, you can't be that dim!" – snapped Grindewald – "I fought for the best of the Wizarding World, yet you didn't like it. You thought muggles deserved better and so you betrayed me. Why didn't you just kill me?"

"I… I… couldn't…" – muttered Dumbledore, eyeing the ground – "I love you still, no matter how wrong it is!"

"Wrong? Wrong how?" – asked Gellert, clearly amused by Dumbledore's blubbering.

"You killed Ariana and I couldn't even make myself kill you!" – yelled Albus.

"Killed Ariana?" – repeated the Dark Lord – "Oh did I really? And here I thought that had you net interfered with me trying to kill the scum that tried to rape her she wouldn't have died…"

At that moment Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore froze. His brain tried to assimilate the new knowledge, but his stubbornness just wouldn't accept that it was his fault all along and that he not only indirectly killed his own sister, but betrayed his lover as well.

"You're just a dream! It's not what happened!" – he spat at the form of his old lover.

Whatever the Dark Lord wanted to say would remain a mystery, however, since Albus Dumbledore was woken up at that moment. He glared at his deputy who stood near his bed:

"Minerva, what is the meaning of this?" – he demanded.

"Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw Prefect and pureblood, was found dead. I thought you should know."

Of all the things he thought McGonagall would say, this was certainly not what he expected to hear.

He cursed under his breath and rushed to the hospital wing, still clad in his pajamas with stars and unicorns on them. When he arrived there with Minerva hot on his heels, Pomfrey and an unknown woman were already doing the diagnostics.

"Well?" – he demanded, slightly out of breath.

"Well nothing," – bit out his deputy, glaring at him – "The girl apparently fell from one of the moving staircases."

"Well that is indeed tragic…" – he said, calming slightly – "however this thankfully has nothing with the Chamber of Secrets…"

Minerva gave the old codger her best glare:

"I'm sure that's really a reason to be happy, however we can't say that for sure until Severus, Pomona and Aurora Swiftwind, the auror assigned for the case, complete the interview with the portraits."

"Interview of the portraits?" – parroted Albus incredulously – "Whatever for?"

"Well," – said the woman they never saw before – "most likely to see if the inhabitants of the portraits know anything about the reason this girl fell from the stairs. As the scans suggest, she did die from the fall. However, the adrenaline amount is very high. She was either very nervous or very frightened. Whichever the case, something scared her enough to run away not looking where she was going, thus falling down... or that's the most likely scenario right now."

Minerva blinked at the woman:

"And you are?"

The witch blushed slightly:

"Right, sorry. I'm Auror healer Aurelia Swiftwind. My twin is helping your colleagues with the paintings. The two of us were ordered to monitor and help with the case."

"Is this truly necessary?" – asked Albus in his grandfatherly tone, his eyes twinkling.

"I'm afraid so. This is already the second death at Hogwarts, so the DMLE really can't ignore it. You know what they say, 'better safe than sorry'."

Finally Severus Snape and Pomona Sprout returned to the Hospital Wing. It was already close to sunrise and both were very tired. They were accompanied by a witch in her early thirties with brown eyes and short purple hair. This was Aurora Swiftwind, twin sister of Aurelia Swiftwind. The two women were sent by Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE, to find out just what was going on at Hogwarts. So far it was only obvious that Dumbledore forgot to install safety wards on the staircases, but since no one ever fell down in the 1000 years that the school existed, it was understandable. There was however one peculiar detail that worried Aurora – the petrified portrait.

"Well?" – asked Minerva McGonagall impatiently – "What did you find?"

Severus shrugged:

"Nothing much unfortunately. The portrait of Jesabel Leroux on the fifth floor says Ms. Clearwater came running down the hallway, constantly glancing back and since her head was turned, she didn't see that the staircase had moved and fell down."

"So we went to question the portraits on the fifth floor. Most of them were asleep, so didn't see anything." – continued Pomona, while Severus drank some water – "We did however find a petrified portrait."

"Petrified portrait?" – repeated Minerva & Poppy incredulously.

Albus sighed.

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Một khi sự phấn khích trong các phiên họp Dueling mặc, các trẻ em một lần nữa tập trung vào mối quan tâm chính của họ-các lớp học và quidditch. Trận đấu đầu tiên, là Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff một, đã thông qua trong ngày mà không có sự cố và bây giờ Slytherin-Gryffindor một nhanh chóng tiếp cận và Harry bị buộc phải chịu đựng của gỗ maniacal thực hành thực tế mỗi ngày khác. Các buổi tập huấn bắt đầu càng sớm như 6 giờ và kết thúc chỉ trong thời gian cho bữa ăn sáng và sau đó đã có buổi tối những người, Harry đã không thực sự như, kể từ khi họ cắt ngắn thời gian nghiên cứu của mình và thời gian bạn bè của mình.Ông phàn nàn với các em sinh đôi thực tế mỗi tối, kể từ khi các thực hành cuối cùng đã hoàn thành và Harry quay trở lại ký túc xá, Neville nào đã ngủ. Bạn bè khác của mình không rất hiểu biết một trong hai. Draco đã trở thành tầm thủ mới Slytherin và đã thưởng thức mình khá nhiều, trong khi Pansy chỉ đơn giản là không quan tâm cho các trò chơi ở tất cả. Khi một buổi tối các Harry gắn khiếu nại đến các cô gái Slytherin, cô chỉ shrugged và nói 'Nếu bạn không thích nó, sau đó bỏ thuốc lá!' Vì thế nguồn duy nhất của Harry thoải mái là các em sinh đôi, những người hiểu anh ta tất cả quá tốt, phải chịu đựng những điều tương tự cũng.Trận đấu quidditch là ngày hôm sau và vì vậy việc chạy rất muộn vào ban đêm. Harry và các em sinh đôi đã nhóm quay trở lại Gryffindor Tower, rất may có lý do gì ghi chú từ nhà của họ một đầu là ra sau khi lệnh giới nghiêm, khi Harry đi tiếng nói từ Lockhart của lớp học một lần nữa. Rất nhiều thời gian trôi qua mà không có tiếng nói reappearing rằng Harry đã đã thuyết phục mình rằng nó đã là chỉ đơn giản là tưởng tượng của mình, do đó ông bắt đầu nghiêm trọng khi ông nghe nó một lần nữa.$Kill... thực phẩm... con mồi tươi... ĐÓI! Nhận được trở lại đây! $ - tiếng nói là khá lớn và được đi kèm với một âm thanh rất mờ sự trơn, Harry không thực sự quan tâm nhất vì sự đông lại máu scream lặp lại qua các lâu đài ngủ một vài phút sau đó là nhiều hơn nữa đáng lo ngại.Ông glanced tại George và Fred và hỏi:"Nên chúng tôi đi xem những gì đã xảy ra?"-tiếng nói của ông bắt hơi-"Tôi có nghĩa là ai đó đã bị ảnh hưởng hét lên thành tiếng đó..."George thì lại khá nhạt, như là sinh đôi của ông, nhưng ông buộc mình phải đẩy đi nỗi sợ hãi của mình và suy nghĩ hợp lý:"Tôi khá chắc chắn nó đến từ sự chỉ đạo của các cầu thang, vì vậy chúng tôi sẽ xem những gì đã xảy ra một trong những cách này hay cách khác... mặc dù tôi không quá chắc chắn nếu chúng tôi sẽ muốn."Do đó hai thiếu niên và người bạn trẻ của họ làm cho đường đến cầu thang lớn. Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick và giá sống đã có cùng với Lockhart. Họ đã được tập hợp xung quanh những gì trông giống như một cơ thể nằm trên mặt đất. Như trẻ em tiếp cận, đầu của họ của nhà herded chúng quanh cơ thể do đó họ không thể nhìn thấy những người bị thương."Oh dear…" – muttered Minerva McGonagall as she watched the body of the Ravenclaw Prefect being carried on a stretcher to the Hospital Wing – "I suppose this will be the end of Dumbledore's carrier at Hogwarts…"Her voice was a bit sad, but with all the mistakes he's made in the last two years, even Minerva doubted the man's sanity."Oh I wouldn't be too sure…" – drawled Snape as he grimaced – "After all the girl clearly fell down from the stairs, I doubt this can be pinned on Dumbledore's bad judgement.""As a matter of fact, I've spent the last 15 years trying to make Dumbledore allow me to pick out a team and charm the stairs to prevent this very thing from happening." – said Filius sadly."Thank Merlin this time it was not a student that found the body at least." – remarked Pomona Sprout, as she dabbed a stray tear with the sleeve of her robes."Who's going to tell Dumbledore?" – asked the tiny Charms Professor morosely as they entered the Hospital Wing.Minerva pursed her lips in distaste:"I suppose I should, I am his deputy after all… however, Filius, I hope you can contact the girl's parents, she was in your House after all…""Yes, yes, I can do that…" – responded Flitwick, as he and Snape lowered the body onto the bed.Meanwhile Pomona went to the office and soon returned with a sleepy but rather frantic Poppy Pomfrey.The Matron saw the girl on the bed and gasped:"Oh Merlin! Isn't this Miss Clearwater?"A grim nod from Severus was her answer."But how did something like this happen?" – she couldn't believe that this was already second death at Hogwarts in the span of one year."We don't rightfully know," – said Severus, his voice composed and grim – "We know she fell down from the moving stairs, but we don't know how it happened.""Well did you send someone to question the portraits? Maybe some of them saw at least something…" – enquired the Matron and both Severus and Pomona flushed slightly, since that did not occur to them. Both Minerva and Filius have already gone to inform Dumbledore and the Clearwater family, so the task of questioning the numerous portraits that hang around the staircase fell to the Slytherin and Hufflepuff heads.Albus Dumbledore was having a very nice dream for once. It involved himself and Gellert, his onetime lover and the previous Dark Lord. Since it was just a dream, Dumbledore allowed himself to enjoy it."Oh, Albus," – sighed the dark haired wizard as he stared at Dumbledore with a very pensive expression on his handsome face – "What have you become?""What do you mean, my love?" – he blurted out not understanding."Come on, you can't be that dim!" – snapped Grindewald – "I fought for the best of the Wizarding World, yet you didn't like it. You thought muggles deserved better and so you betrayed me. Why didn't you just kill me?"
"I… I… couldn't…" – muttered Dumbledore, eyeing the ground – "I love you still, no matter how wrong it is!"

"Wrong? Wrong how?" – asked Gellert, clearly amused by Dumbledore's blubbering.

"You killed Ariana and I couldn't even make myself kill you!" – yelled Albus.

"Killed Ariana?" – repeated the Dark Lord – "Oh did I really? And here I thought that had you net interfered with me trying to kill the scum that tried to rape her she wouldn't have died…"

At that moment Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore froze. His brain tried to assimilate the new knowledge, but his stubbornness just wouldn't accept that it was his fault all along and that he not only indirectly killed his own sister, but betrayed his lover as well.

"You're just a dream! It's not what happened!" – he spat at the form of his old lover.

Whatever the Dark Lord wanted to say would remain a mystery, however, since Albus Dumbledore was woken up at that moment. He glared at his deputy who stood near his bed:

"Minerva, what is the meaning of this?" – he demanded.

"Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw Prefect and pureblood, was found dead. I thought you should know."

Of all the things he thought McGonagall would say, this was certainly not what he expected to hear.

He cursed under his breath and rushed to the hospital wing, still clad in his pajamas with stars and unicorns on them. When he arrived there with Minerva hot on his heels, Pomfrey and an unknown woman were already doing the diagnostics.

"Well?" – he demanded, slightly out of breath.

"Well nothing," – bit out his deputy, glaring at him – "The girl apparently fell from one of the moving staircases."

"Well that is indeed tragic…" – he said, calming slightly – "however this thankfully has nothing with the Chamber of Secrets…"

Minerva gave the old codger her best glare:

"I'm sure that's really a reason to be happy, however we can't say that for sure until Severus, Pomona and Aurora Swiftwind, the auror assigned for the case, complete the interview with the portraits."

"Interview of the portraits?" – parroted Albus incredulously – "Whatever for?"

"Well," – said the woman they never saw before – "most likely to see if the inhabitants of the portraits know anything about the reason this girl fell from the stairs. As the scans suggest, she did die from the fall. However, the adrenaline amount is very high. She was either very nervous or very frightened. Whichever the case, something scared her enough to run away not looking where she was going, thus falling down... or that's the most likely scenario right now."

Minerva blinked at the woman:

"And you are?"

The witch blushed slightly:

"Right, sorry. I'm Auror healer Aurelia Swiftwind. My twin is helping your colleagues with the paintings. The two of us were ordered to monitor and help with the case."

"Is this truly necessary?" – asked Albus in his grandfatherly tone, his eyes twinkling.

"I'm afraid so. This is already the second death at Hogwarts, so the DMLE really can't ignore it. You know what they say, 'better safe than sorry'."

Finally Severus Snape and Pomona Sprout returned to the Hospital Wing. It was already close to sunrise and both were very tired. They were accompanied by a witch in her early thirties with brown eyes and short purple hair. This was Aurora Swiftwind, twin sister of Aurelia Swiftwind. The two women were sent by Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE, to find out just what was going on at Hogwarts. So far it was only obvious that Dumbledore forgot to install safety wards on the staircases, but since no one ever fell down in the 1000 years that the school existed, it was understandable. There was however one peculiar detail that worried Aurora – the petrified portrait.

"Well?" – asked Minerva McGonagall impatiently – "What did you find?"

Severus shrugged:

"Nothing much unfortunately. The portrait of Jesabel Leroux on the fifth floor says Ms. Clearwater came running down the hallway, constantly glancing back and since her head was turned, she didn't see that the staircase had moved and fell down."

"So we went to question the portraits on the fifth floor. Most of them were asleep, so didn't see anything." – continued Pomona, while Severus drank some water – "We did however find a petrified portrait."

"Petrified portrait?" – repeated Minerva & Poppy incredulously.

Albus sighed.