Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 20: Enough Time To Change
A. N: - This is the last free access chapter. From next week on, the new chapters will be added to the 'Invincible Stag' level, that will the be renamed for this fic. As usual, you will still be able to read the entire fic in Scribble Hub and Webnovel, but it will be 20 chapters behind.
A new fic will also be added next week on Patreon, so stay tunned for that!. Thank you for your time and I hope you will stay with me on this new journey. -
It did not take long before Professor McGonagall rushed into the office. The woman was in full panic.
"Albus! What is going on… Merlin!" She saw all the destruction in the office.
The floor was cracked, the table had been shattered against the back wall, and most of the smaller objects that the Headmaster usually kept neatly on the shelves were now scattered all over the floor.
"What happened he—…" She gasped when she spotted the figure of Harry lying on the ground. "Is that Harry Potter?!"
"Ehm… yes. We had a bit of an issue, but I believe it has been resolved now." Dumbledore gave the hat a side glance.
"Solved? But… is he okay?" McGonagall kneeled next to Harry to make sure he was not hurt. "I can't see any injuries, but we still need to take him to Madam Pomfrey. Then perhaps you can explain to me what just happened."
"Is the rest of the school doing fine?" Dumbledore asked.
"Albus… the entire castle was shaking," she said with a tone of concern. "But at least none of the students seemed to have gotten hurt. I still sent the other professors to check everything."
Dumbledore nodded. "Glad to hear that no one was injured at least."
McGonagall was about to pick the unconscious boy up when the hat spoke again.
"He does not need a healer. Just place him on the couch over there."
McGonagall glared at the hat. This one was still being held by Dumbledore.
"You think I'm going to trust the words of a strange hat?" the professor responded. "Albus…"
Dumbledore looked down at the hat in his hands.
"Harry and I must remain in close proximity. Unless you want the same thing to happen again…" The hat let the threatening words hang.
McGonagall had no idea what happened in the Headmaster's office or how close they had been to suffering a deadly disaster.
But Dumbledore knew better.
He placed the hat on top of the only remaining chair and walked up to Harry. "Help me place him on the couch. He can rest there."
"But Albus… at the very least, Madam Pomfrey should take a look at him." She didn't observe any wounds on the boy, but ignoring the condition of an unconscious student was very reckless, even for Dumbledore. "What are you not telling me?"
"Not now, Minerva, please." Dumbledore's tone left no room for argument. "Go check on the rest of the students. I will take care of Harry, and I promise you that Madam Pomfrey will see him as soon as it's possible."
McGonagall didn't seem convinced by the dismissive attitude of the Headmaster, but she knew this was not the moment to argue. As the vice-headmistress, she still had much to do. "Very well… we can talk later."
That was a promise.
Once the professor was gone, Dumbledore walked back to the center of his office and waved his wand. "Reparo."
The cracks on the ground disappeared, the objects on the floor returned to their original spots, and even the shattered table went back to being in one piece.
Dumbledore looked around the room, appearing to be satisfied with the results. It was almost like nothing had happened.
"Okay now…" His eyes went to the hat. "I believe you were offering me an explanation."
"We could have saved up all of this if you had listened from the beginning," the hat snapped at him.
"You will have to forgive me, but once I realized what you are… or should I say 'who you are'… I could not help myself," Dumbledore said. "But I do wonder, why does it look like you actually care for what happens to Harry?"
"Because I do," the hat responded.
Dumbledore walked up to the hat and picked it up from the chair before placing it back down on the table.
Then, he went to rest in his chair.
His blue eyes had none of their usual warmth as he stared into the hat. "You are… Voldemort. Or at least a piece of that monster. The same one who killed that boy's parents and ruined his life."
It had not taken Dumbledore very long to put the pieces together. The disappearance of Harry's scar was followed by the sudden appearance of this strange talking hat, which seems to know too much about Harry and himself.
There were still many questions in his mind, and the Headmaster was aware that some pieces of the puzzle were missing.
Like the fact that Harry did not have the skills to create something like a living hat.
This was an artifact that could be compared to the one constructed by the Founders of Hogwarts. Not a piece of magic that a newbie wizard could casually put together.
The other big question would be: when did Harry have the time to make something like this?
Dumbledore was sure that Harry's scar was still there the last time he saw him.
The hat stood silent for a moment. "That… was a very long time ago."
"Fifteen years is a long time. But not long enough for someone like you to change," Dumbledore stated.
The hat let out a chuckle. "Fifteen years?… You have no idea. More like fifteen thousand."
Dumbledore looked confused for a moment after hearing the hat's words. "What are you saying?"
"Let me tell you a bit of what this boy went through. And perhaps then you will begin to understand the real situation in our hands."
The hat then began to explain Harry's story, since the day of the incident in the Department of Mysteries.
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