Chapter 227
Chapter 227
A sudden cold draught slipped into Suer’s sleeping bag and woke him. Still drowsy, he heard low voices and approaching footsteps. He carefully tilted his head and, from the corner of his eye, made out Dumbledore and Snape.
The two professors stood very near them — or rather, very near Harry.
Fragments of their conversation reached him. They had apparently searched the entire castle without finding any trace of Black.
Suer was facing Hermione and could not see Professor Snape’s expression, but the displeasure beneath Snape’s lowered voice was unmistakable.
“Black — without help from inside — entering the castle — impossible–”
“No one in this castle would have helped Black enter.” Dumbledore’s voice was perfectly calm.
Snape then quietly mentioned the Dementors outside the castle. It seemed they had returned as soon as the Hogsmeade weekend ended. Judging by the enchanted ceiling, layer upon layer of heavy cloud must already have gathered overhead. Tomorrow would bring yet more cold rain.
Percy’s voice intruded then. He made some ill-timed remark, and a rare edge of displeasure entered Dumbledore’s reply.
“As long as I remain Headmaster, not one Dementor will cross the threshold of this castle.”
The voices ceased after that, replaced by receding footsteps.
Only when Snape and Percy had gone did Suer turn over. Harry lay staring up at the ceiling, his wide eyes glinting in the faint light cast by the nearby ghosts.
He had plainly heard every word of Dumbledore and Snape’s brief conversation.
Had Dumbledore intended him to?
…
The following morning, the pupils were allowed to leave the Great Hall and return to their common rooms. Suer went straight to his dormitory to fetch something, then hurried onto the moving staircases with a slice of bread held between his teeth.
He meant to test a theory before the first lesson began.
Sure enough, Suer walked back and forth three times before the stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, but the door that should have appeared did not.
There was only one circumstance in which the Room of Requirement would not answer a wizard’s summons: someone was already using it for a purpose that excluded everyone else.
In other words, Sirius Black, the intruder in the castle, was hiding inside.
Yes, that explained the question that had bothered Suer when he had first encountered the story in books and films.
As master of the castle, Dumbledore effectively had eyes everywhere through the portraits hanging on its walls.
Sirius had entered Hogwarts, made his way all the way to Gryffindor Tower at the top of the castle, then escaped the ensuing search without a trace.
That simply did not make sense.
The castle was riddled with secret passages, so Black might conceivably have left through one of them. But his chances of doing so unnoticed would have been poor.
There were portraits in nearly every corridor. If Headmaster Dumbledore truly wished to search thoroughly, he would certainly have found some clue.
And an impossibly thin black dog would have stood out. Only Filch’s cat was that scrawny anywhere in Hogwarts. The house-elves were quite friendly towards the pupils’ pets too. More than once, Suer had seen cats in quiet corners enjoying treats the elves had prepared for them.
Crookshanks, for example, had put on several pounds since Hermione bought him from the pet shop.
Unless Dumbledore himself was the greatest inside accomplice of all…
Ah. Yes. If Dumbledore was the chief conspirator within the castle, then everything made perfect sense.
Dumbledore certainly knew of Black’s connection to Harry’s parents, though he might not know everything that had happened back then. A man of his intelligence could not possibly have felt no doubts about Voldemort so easily circumventing the Fidelius Charm and finding the Potter family.
In any case, Suer would verify one fact first, even though he was already almost certain.
“Let’s see whether you’re the one hiding in the Room of Requirement, Black,” Suer murmured.
He found an inconspicuous corner and set down a recording orb. After casting a concealment charm and feeding it enough magic to begin recording, he hurried away.
Throughout the day, everyone discussed the same question: how had Black entered the castle?
They seemed more interested in how he had slipped through Hogwarts’ formidable defences than in the danger he might pose.
That afternoon, another debate broke out in the library.
“Black transformed himself into a flowering shrub and crept inside,” Hannah proposed. “Think about it. Who would notice an ordinary clump of flowers by the roadside?”
From her confident tone, she appeared to regard the matter as settled.
Her loyal supporter, Neville Longbottom, nodded earnestly beside her, indicating that he found the explanation entirely convincing.
“Could he have Apparated?” Ron suggested. “My dad always uses that spell to get to the Ministry. Black must know how.”
“Impossible.” Hermione stopped writing and flatly rejected the idea. “The whole of Hogwarts is protected by the Anti-Apparition Charm. It’s mentioned in The Untold Story of Hogwarts–”
“Maybe he disguised himself as something no one would notice,” Ron said, immediately producing another theory and cutting off the rest of her explanation.
“Honestly, have you never read Hogwarts: A History, Ron? The castle is protected by all sorts of magic designed to keep intruders out. And I don’t believe any disguise could fool those Dementors. Don’t forget what Dumbledore told us at the start of term: Dementors can even see through an Invisibility Cloak!”
Ron looked annoyed by Hermione’s rebuke and fell into a sulky silence. Suer decided to intervene.
“In any case, we were lucky everyone was attending the feast in the Great Hall last night…”
Tap, tap.
Madam Pince struck a bookcase with her feather duster and glared at them.
Her hawk-like stare forced the entire group into silence. Those with books returned to reading, while those with essays returned to writing.
Harry, whose fate lay at the heart of the matter, merely stared at a sheet of parchment, lost in thought.