Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 50 ⚡️

"Your good health, Vega and Harry,"

And with that Dumbledore drained the goblet while both Vega and Harry watched, terrified, their hands gripping the rim of the basin so hard that their fingertips were numb. Vega stared at Dumbledore in silence, waiting for something to happen as he lowered the empty glass, and she finally asked the question, "Professor? How do you feel?"

Dumbledore shook his head, his eyes closed. Vega and Harry shared a look and wondered whether he was in pain. The Headmaster plunged the glass blindly back into the basin, refilled it, and drank once more. In silence, he drank three gobletful of the potion.

Then, halfway through the fourth goblet, he staggered and fell forward against the basin. His eyes were still closed, his breathing heavy. Vega and Harry hurriedly steadied him with the girl quick to kneel down next to him to see what was going on.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Vega whispered, concerned. "Can you hear me? Can you hear us?"

But Dumbledore did not answer. His face was twitching as though he was deeply asleep, but dreaming a horrible dream. His grip on the goblet was slackening; the potion was about to spill from it. Harry reached forward and grasped the crystal cup, holding it steady.

"Professor, can you hear us?" Harry repeated loudly, his voice echoing around the cavern.

However, it was silent except for Dumbledore's panting – until he spoke in a voice they did not recognise, for they had never heard him frightened like this.

"I don't want... don't make me..." Dumbledore moaned in pain, and Vega stared into the whitened face she knew so well, at the crooked nose and half-moon spectacles, and did not know what to do. "... don't like... want to stop..."

"But... you can't... you can't stop, Professor," Vega spoke up, her voice shaking with fear. "You've got to keep drinking, remember? But you told me that you had to keep drinking. Come on..."

Loathing what she was being given to do and repulsed by her acceptance of doing this, Vega took the goblet from Harry and forced it back towards Dumbledore's mouth, tipping it over so that he drank the remainder of the potion inside.

"No..." Dumbledore groaned, as Vega lowered the goblet back into the basin and refilled it for him. "I don't want to... I don't want to... let me go..."

"It's all right, Professor," Harry said, his hands shaking as he held Dumbledore upright while Vega worked to bring over the potion to him. "It's all right, we're here –"

"Make it stop, make it stop," moaned Dumbledore.

"Yes... I know, this'll make it stop," Vega said, trying to assure him even though it was a lie and she tipped the contents of the goblet into Dumbledore's open mouth.

And Vega jumped as Dumbledore screamed; the noise echoed all around the vast chamber, across the dead black water, "No, no, no, no, I can't, I can't, don't make me, I don't want to..." Vega turned to look at Harry in fear, her hands shaking.

"Just go on, Vega!" Harry urged her, still struggling to hold up Dumbledore. "It's all right, Professor, it's all alright! Nothing's happening to you, you're safe, it isn't real, I swear it isn't real – take this, now, take this..."

However, Vega's hands were shaking so badly that she could hardly scoop up the sixth gobletful of potion; the basin was now half empty. But obediently, Dumbledore drank, as though it was an antidote Vega offered him, but upon draining the goblet, he sank to his knees, shaking uncontrollably, Harry still holding onto him to stop him from going toppling into the water where only the worse awaited the three of them.