บท 223: Stay Back.
Their way back to the castle was eventless, Harry and Sirius spoke to each other about their plans for the summer while Loki ruminated on their words in the background.
'How am I going to explain Sirius that I live in the Black Manor?'
'How am I going to make Kreacher shut up about me in the first place?'
'And Walburga, what about her? Do I tell Sirius that she's sleeping and needs to be rescued? Does he even know the prophecy that Grandma was talking about?'
'Do I get a new home?'
'....*sigh* why is it so hard to hide my identity? While people kept misunderstanding Klein's identity all the time!? Is this the power of plot armour?'
Walking into the Gryffindor Tower to enter the castle, everyone walked past a certain broom closet when all of a sudden *SSCCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHH*
Everyone ducked and covered their ears, even Loki.
But what no one saw was how an illusion took Hermione's place while she was dragged away into the broom closet.
Snape waved his wand in anger and silenced the sound temporarily by placing a sound barrier around them.
"What was that?" Ron asked, shaking his finger inside his ear to prevent the ringing pain raging in it from getting any worse.
"You sure it was not your brothers Weasley?" Snape commented but his eyes remained on Peter Pettigrew, checking if he was the reason for the sound and wanted to escape.
Loki stepped out of the silencing spell's range, not before shouting, "I'll check it out. Must be another one of Zonko's pranks."
And Hermione quickly followed behind him saying, "I'll follow him just in case something might happen."
The rest remained inside the group, watching Peter Pettigrew.
Moments later, Loki came back out of the corridor, Hermione walking back with him, and showed everyone a plate that had runes engraved onto it.
"Some prank item the twins were testing probably?" Loki said as he stepped inside the silencing spell barrier again. "I stopped it by scratching out a small piece of the circuits, maybe you can inspect it?"
Lupin peered over the plate and looked at it along with Snape but seeing there was nothing too important about it and that Peter Pettigrew hadn't even attempted to escape they stepped back thinking that it was probably something unrelated.
"Let's take Peter to Headmaster Dumbledore first.", Lupin said and everyone agreed, walking slowly toward the Headmaster's office, this time more prepared for any sudden assault.
Once at the Gryffin Stairwell Gargoyle, everyone stopped.
"Cockroach Clusters.", Snape spoke, causing the Gargoyle to spring into life as it acknowledged their presence and spun around, revealing a spiralling staircase on which everyone stood.
Arriving at the door on the top, Sirius was about to knock, when an aged voice spoke from inside.
"You may come in."
Loki *gulped* as he thought, 'First time meeting 'Him' let's see how this goes.'
Stepping into the large office one by one, everyone gathered in front of the semi-circular table that was placed beneath a staircase that took one behind a large wall at the end of the room.
The entire circular office was filled with a variety of magical trinkets and knick-knacks that interested Loki greatly, but currently, all his attention was on the white-bearded man who sat on his long, royal, comfortable-looking chair.
His entire attention was on Albus Dumbledore.
"Is there a reason I shouldn't be surprised seeing one of the most wanted criminals inside my office?" Dumbledore asked. "Could I offer you some lemon drops?" He said picking up a bowl of pale hard candy.
"No~ have had too many of those in the last year.", Sirius said, casually shaking his head.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and looked at the figure that had been revealed behind everyone, Peter Pettigrew.
Everyone remained silent as Dumbledore examined Peter Pettigrew from his seat. But he slowly stood up and moved closer, making his way through the large group that had invaded his office as he bent low to look at the unconscious-bound man.
Everyone waited with bated breaths.
Dumbledore slowly stood up.
"Hmm…he's alive."
Everyone felt the footing under their legs slip for a second after hearing Dumbledore's comment, but they still didn't say anything.
Except Loki. Loki was admiring Dumbledore's acting skills. He was shocked by how well 'He' acted 'His' confusion even though he knew that 'He' knew everything there was to know about the situation.
Dumbledore's eyes rested on Snape as if expecting something from him, but Harry interrupted.
"Headmaster! It wasn't Sirius! He didn't reveal the location of my parents!! It was Peter Pettigrew that did it!!"
Dumbledore looked at Harry and then back at the bald man who was unconscious.
"I see."
And then Hermione spoke, trying to bring more clarity to the situation, "Harry had been missing for some time after he left the Great Hall, with no one seeing where he went, and so I got worried. I went to Loki to see if he could divine Harry's location and then we learnt that he was going to the Shrieking Shack! So I went there along with Ron and Professor Lupin!"
"Hmm.." Dumbledore nodded.
"When Hermione rushed out of the room, I got a little worried if she was going to be alright, so I asked Professor Snape for help and went to the Shrieking Shack with him.", Loki explained.
Finally, Dummbledore's gaze rested on Snape once again.
"We verified the claims Black made and decided it was best to bring that matter to you."
"I see…*sigh* I remember giving Peter's mother the news about a decade ago. Brokenhearted she was. She sobbed quite a bit that year if I remember right. At least she's gone thinking her son was a hero."
There was a soft silence to Dumbledore's words that made them carry some weight and reality to it all.
"We shall discuss further about this matter later, Harry, if you would go to Madam Pomfrey, I'm sure she would like to see if you are well. Your friends may escort you there." Dumbledore said with a soft smile, nodding his head at Hermione and Ron.
"Sirius, Snape and Lupin please stay here."
Seeing Dumbledore had not stopped him, Loki breathed a mental *sigh* of relief and started walking back.
"Ah! You too Mr. Loki. I would need you for a second."
'Shit. I spoke too soon.'
Hermione gave Loki one last glance and walked back with Ron and Harry.
'At least, he doesn't know about me using the Ti- No! I won't jinx it this time.'
Turning around Loki looked at Dumbledore with a smile, "Yes Headmaster? What do you need from me?"
"Nothing you wouldn't be able to provide. I have a pensive in the office that we could use to scrutinize memories." Dumbledore said with a smile as he waved his wand and caused a section of the wall to flip on itself.
It revealed a thin bowl with a shimmering milky white liquid as plain as a mirror inside it and Loki's blood froze.
"My memory?" Loki asked, doing his very best not to show anything wrong with him.
He used every last bit Walburga had taught him about manners, his confidence in his abilities and his understanding as a swindler to manipulate his pitch and tone while he spoke, maintaining his body relaxed and inviting.
"Yes, we would've liked to be able to analyse the memory of your divination.", Dumbledore said with a smile while the gears in Loki's head spun like a pinwheel in the wind.
"-but unfortunately you are not skilled enough to be able to separate your memories, and it would be impossible for us to do it for you." Dumbledore continued causing Loki to relax a little.
"So I would have to ask you to remember everything about the divination that you can remember, every small detail, everything possible. Could you tell me about the vision you had? It will help us immensely. Especially if there were any visits from the Hidden Sage…"
Loki *sighed* mentally and a smile sprouted on his face.
"Of course."
'Time to swindle 'Adam' once again.'
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