ered mind no matter how subtle he was and partly because he could recall Severus' rather unwise attempts and had no desire to be on the receiving end of a fallen angel's fury.
Then, before his eyes, Amanda slowly clenched her fists and moved. The knights by his side shifted but he remained still, schooling his face into a deliberately polite if not indifferent expression and waiting calmly. Amanda seemed to be having trouble moving as a hand shot out, clutching at the kitchen counter. The teenage girl who was still clad in her Hogwarts robes, pulled herself up but kept her head ducked, her blonde hair obscuring her face.
"Ms Carpenter?" Albus asked quietly.
There was no response. The girl merely stood there, swaying on her feet as her fingers flexed back and forth.
"Amanda?" Michael asked from Albus' side. The Headmaster could hear the hopeful tone in his voice marred with the dread and what his daughter had just done, of what she could have just become. "Amanda, honey? Can you hear me?"
"Yes..."
Her reply was more like an exhale of breath but there was nothing in the tone of her voice that Dumbledore recognised from the upbeat sixteen-year-old. Apparently, Michael had come to the same conclusion because he closed his eyes and muttered something quietly in Latin. His friend gently pulled him back, an action that Dumbledore whole-heartedly approved of. No father should have to put a blade to his own child.
"Albus."
Dumbledore eyed the girl carefully and inclined his head politely, his face revealing nothing of the turbulent emotions boiling beneath the surface of his skin. The next few minutes, he decided, would be critical for Amanda- and Harry's- fate.
"Good afternoon, Meciel," Dumbledore greeted calmly. He peered at the girl over his half-moon glasses, studying her carefully, looking for any sign of a Meciel's presence on her body. Already, he could see many of the bruises and cuts that adorned the body fading away.
Amanda slowly lifted her head and Dumbledore's couldn't help but grimace at the sight. Amanda's eyes were wreathed with pure fire and radiated a hatred and fury so strong that it made him uncomfortable. During his studies, he had come across hypotheses that suggested that other beings, while feeling many of the same emotions as humans, felt them so much more strongly that they became unrecognisable and incomprehensible to anybody who was not insane. Staring into Meciel's fury, he quietly confirmed the validity of those theories.
There was nothing human in there, not anymore.
"I shall be blunt, Meciel," Dumbledore said quietly, and he couldn't help himself as a dangerous tone entered his voice. Many things hinged on her answer and he wasn't quite sure what he would do if he received the wrong one. "Amanda Carpenter. Does she still exist?"
"Your concern is noted, boy," Amanda- no, Meciel- replied frostily. Her lips quirked into an expression Albus had hoped never to see on a child's face. "I shall also be blunt. Yes, she does."
Albus heard rather than saw the exhaling sigh of relief behind him and felt a large piece of the burden leave his shoulders. He straightened, unable to keep the relieved twinkle from his eyes. He was grateful when the Knights remained silent and allowed him to continue.
"I am relieved to hear that," Albus admitted quietly.
He was. While he understood Amanda's decision to pick up the coin and even approved of it in some way, he did not have to like it. If he was given the choice to choose between Amanda Carpenters life and Harry Potter's life while keeping in mind the context of Lord Voldemort's Second Uprising, then, in the end, he would have to choose Harry Potter- if only for the thousands of other Amanda Carpenters in the world. However, the choice would haunt him for the rest of his life and Albus was sure that he would never forgive himself. It was something he had to remind himself of right now in his approach towards Meciel.
