Chapter 181

"No," the Professor replied, "I did not. After the first petrifaction, I alerted all the school ghosts to follow and keep an eye out for students that they find loitering around alone and send them back to their common rooms. Poor Friar must have found the two young gents in the middle of their activities. Not wanting to disturb them, he must have stood guard in front of the broom cupboard, and invariably saved the young lads' lives."

Dumbledore fell back into silence but Harry had another question, "Wait. If you have something like that Time Turner thing, then why don't you just use that to stay in school and protect everyone?"

"Alas Harry, I cannot, since the board has confiscated the Time Turner and returned it to the Department of Mysteries where it came from."

"And Hannah?" Harry asked, letting the last line of conversation drop, and asking about the most disturbing thing he had seen in that memory, "Did you see how she keeled over from nothing? All this time, everyone has been believing that it was some beast that has been petrifying people. But now…"

Oddly, Dumbledore's face spread into a victorious smile, "Now, I have a better idea than ever before about what the beast is."

"You do? How?"

Dumbledore leaned ahead with a conspiratory smile before explaining, "The day after Miss Abbott's petrifaction, I wrote to Nicholas, asking him if he and Perenelle knew of any creatures that caused death upon direct sight and petrifaction upon indirect. They wrote back, listing down all the twenty-five creatures they knew of that could do that. Imagine my surprise, when at the time of reading it, my eyes just slid right off of numbertwenty-twoo down to twenty-four. No matter how hard I tried, I could not, under any circumstances find number twenty three."

Harry frowned confusedly at the headmaster, "I…don't understand."

"You will soon Harry, bear with me for a moment," he said before continuing, "Upon realizing that, I checked the paper for charms and magic, and found nothing. And of course, if there wasn't anything wrong with the letter, there must be something wrong with the reader. The list almost definitely contained the true identity of the beast in number twenty three, but for some reason, I couldn't read it."

"So what does that mean?"

"That means, Harry, that there is a very specific spell at play here, one that fortunately, I am intimately familiar with. It is known as the Fidelius charm. It is an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find, unless, of course, the Secret Keeper chooses to divulge it."

Harry immediately made the connection, "And you think that someone put one of those on the identity of Slytherin's beast?"

"Indeed, and that conclusion led me to my next realization. The realization that Fidelius leaves holes in a person's memories and perception. You must see Harry, that to a well-organized mind such as mine, a hole is more than clue enough. All I had to do after that, was follow the holes in my memories and thoughts, seeing in which places and thoughts I had forgotten things, and I soon found our next clue about the beast."

"What's that?" Harry eagerly asked.

"It is serpentine. The Fidelius will not let my mind get any closer to the actual identity of the creature than that, but the knowledge that it is a serpentine creature that can kill people with a stare is still invaluable."

Harry nodded, although he couldn't really see how that knowledge brought anyone any closer to stopping the beast. Deciding that the workings of Dumbledore's mind wasn't something he had any interest in decoding, he curiously asked, "Do you still have the list sir?"

"Indeed I do Harry," Dumbledore replied. Dipping his hand into one of his many pockets, he pulled out a piece of paper, which he handed to Harry, who quickly read his way down the list to number 22.

22)Gorgons

23)%#*&^!%#*&^!

24)Harocatunas

"You were right sir," Harry said, trying and failing to read it in anyway at all, "It reads number twenty three, and then just a bunch of meaningless jargon."

Harry cast an Observe on it and glanced up for a second to check the observe results. It was just normal paper. For a split second, he thought he saw Dumbledore's eyes widen in shock, but when he looked back up the next instant, it was gone, so he just dismissed it as a figment of his imagination.

He handed the paper back to the Professor, before saying, "You said you would tell me why you called me here…"

"Ah yes!" the Professor said, "The reason why I called you here is to let you know the full extent of the threat that challenges the school, and to tell you that if even one more person gets petrified, the school will be closing down."

"And you want me to stop it from closing down?"

"Of course not Harry. The school will be closing down in a few months for investigation in any case. I want you to make sure that the heir doesn't go on a killing spree before the school closes down." Dumbledore said.

He took a sip of his tea before he continued, "The only reason for the heir to hold back after I will be gone will be Gilderoy Lockhart. His reputation of skill and power rivals my own, and as you know, that is the only reason I hired him as a teacher this year."

"I don't think I like where this is going" Harry muttered.

"I did not think you would," the headmaster sagely said, "However, it is extremely important that Gilderoy's public image remain as invincible looking as it is. Only three people in this school have mental shields powerful enough to come away unaffected if Gilderoy casts a memory charm at them. I will be gone, and Severus cannot follow him around without attracting needless attention. The only person left who would be fully safe around the man is you. I realize that I am asking too much of you Harry, but this might be the only thing that could discourage the heir from going on an out and about rampage. I need you and Miss Hedwig to keep him safe until the school closes down in February."

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