✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

54 | BASOREXIA

BASOREXIA
(n.) the overwhelming desire to kiss

TESSA SILENTLY FOLLOWED PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL TO DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE. She said nothing as she walked with Harry and Ron down the corridors and up the stairs until they finally reached the headmaster.

     "Oh, it's you, Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said by way of greeting once they entered the office, "and . . . ah." He was sitting in a chair behind his desk, a collection of papers swamped out before him.

     "Professor Dumbledore, Harry Potter has had a . . . well, a nightmare," McGonagall started. "He says — "

     "It wasn't a nightmare," Harry said quickly.

     McGonagall frowned slightly but nodded at him. "Very well, then, Potter, you tell the headmaster about it."

     "I . . . well, I was asleep . . . But it wasn't an ordinary dream . . . it was real. I saw it happen. Ron's dad — Mr. Weasley — has been attacked by a giant snake."

     Dumbledore said nothing and simply stared at his interlocked fingers on his desk, his light blue eyes peering over his spectacles.

     "It's true, sir," Tessa piped up quietly. "I sort of had a terrible nightmare that felt something like it." Her face burned when she realized how silly she sounded.

     "How did you see this?" Dumbledore asked quietly, still not looking at either of them.

     "Well . . . I don't know," Harry sassed angrily. "Inside my head, I suppose —"

     "You misunderstand me. I mean . . . can you remember — er — where you were positioned as you watched this attack happen? Were you perhaps standing beside the victim, or else looking down on the scene from above?"

     "I was the snake," Harry said. "I saw it all from the snake's point of view . . ."

     Dumbledore finally looked up to assess Ron's pale face and said, "Is Arthur seriously injured?"

     "Yes," Harry said at once.

     Before anyone could do anything, he jumped out of his seat so swiftly and turned to one of the old portraits hanging near the ceiling. "Everard?" he said sharply. "And you too, Dilys!"

     A sallow-faced wizard with short, black bangs and an elderly witch with long silver ringlets opened their eyes immediately.

     "You were listening?"

     The wizard nodded, the witch said, "Naturally."

     "The man has red hair and glasses," Dumbledore explained. "Everard, you will need to raise the alarm, make sure he is found by the right people —"

      Both nodded and left the portraits at once to Merlin knows where.

     "Everard and Dilys were two of Hogwarts's most celebrated Heads," Dumbledore said, now approaching Fawkes who was sleeping by the door. "Their renown is such that both have portraits hanging in other important Wizarding institutions. As they are free to move between their own portraits they can tell us what may be happening elsewhere . . ."

     "But Mr. Weasley could be anywhere!" Harry cried out.

     "Please sit down, all four of you," Dumbledore said without regarding Harry. "Everard and Dilys may not be back for several minutes . . . Professor McGonagall, if you could draw up extra chairs . . ."

      McGonagall waved her wand and conjured four more chairs for them, and Tessa sank down in her seat as she watched Dumbledore's next move.

     Fawkes awoke immediately when Dumbledore ran a finger along its feathers. "We will need," Dumbledore spoke very quietly to the bird, "a warning." With a flash of fire, the Phoenix disappeared as well. Dumbledore went to approach silver instruments on his desk, tinkering on them for a moment.