𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 | 𝐟. 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

{ 75 }

"My wand's feather came from Fawkes?" Harry said, amazed. "Yes," said Dumbledore. "Mr. Ollivander wrote to tell me you had bought the second wand, the moment you left his shop four years ago."

"So what happens when a wand meets its brother?" Y/n asked, looking at the two adults.

"They will not work properly against each other," said Dumbledore. "If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do battle...a very rare effect will take place. One of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed - in reverse. The most recent first...and then those which preceded it...."

He looked interrogatively at Harry, and Harry nodded. "Which means," said Dumbledore slowly, his eyes upon Harry's face, "that some form of Cedric must have reappeared." Harry nodded again.

"Diggory came back to life?" said Sirius sharply. "No spell can reawaken the dead," said Dumbledore heavily. "All that would have happened is a kind of reverse echo. A shadow of the living Cedric would have emerged from the wand...am I correct, Harry?"

"He spoke to me," Harry said. He was suddenly shaking again. "The...the ghost Cedric, or whatever he was, spoke."

"An echo," said Dumbledore, "which retained Cedric's appearance and character. I am guessing other such forms appeared...less recent victims of Voldemort's wand...."

"An old man," Harry said, his throat still constricted. "Bertha Jorkins. And..."

"Your parents?" said Dumbledore quietly.
"Yes," said Harry.
Sirius's grip on Harry's shoulder was now so tight it was painful. He gripped Y/n's hand tighter.

"The last murders the wand performed," said Dumbledore, nodding. "In reverse order. More would have appeared, of course, had you maintained the connection. Very well, Harry, these echoes, these shadows...what did they do?"

Harry described how the figures that had emerged from the wand had prowled the edges of the golden web, how Voldemort had seemed to fear them, how the shadow of Harry's mother had told him what to do, how Cedric's had made its final request.

At this point. Harry found he could not continue. He looked around at Sirius and saw that he had his face in his hands.

"I will say it again," said Dumbledore as the phoenix rose into the air and resettled itself upon the perch beside the door. "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight. Harry. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown wizard's burden and found yourself equal to it - and you have now given us all we have a right to expect. You will come with me to the hospital wing. I do not want you returning to the dormitory tonight. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace...Sirius, Y/n, would you like to stay with him?"

The two nodded and Sirius turned into his black dog form as Y/n stood up, helping Harry out of the chair. The four made their way down the stairs of Dumbledore's office.

Y/n and Harry walked behind Dumbledore and the dog. "You are the bravest and strongest person I know..." she whispered to Harry, holding him closely with an arm around his shoulder. He glanced at her, not speaking. "I'm here for you." She told him, brushing bits of his hair away.

The four walked into the hospital wing, being met with the faces of Molly Weasley, Bill Weasley, Ron and Hermione. "Harry! Oh, Harry!" Molly shouted when she spotted him.

"Molly," he said, holding up a hand, "please listen to me for a moment. Harry has been through a terrible ordeal tonight. He has just had to relive it for me. What he needs now is sleep, and peace, and quiet. If he would like you all to stay with him," he added, looking around at Ron, Hermione, and Bill too, "you may do so. But I do not want you questioning him until he is ready to answer, and certainly not this evening."