Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Eighty-Six

Dumbledore stood up. He stared down at Barty Crouch for a moment with disgust on his face. Then he raised his wand once more and ropes flew out of it, ropes that twisted themselves around Barty Crouch, binding him tightly. He turned to Professor McGonagall.

"Minerva, could I ask you to stand guard here while I take Harry upstairs?"

"Of course," said Professor McGonagall. She looked slightly nauseous, as though she had just watched someone being sick. However, when she drew out her wand and pointed it at Barty Crouch, her hand was quite steady.

"Severus" — Dumbledore turned to Snape — "please tell Madame Pomfrey to come down here; we need to get Alastor Moody into the hospital wing. Then go down into the grounds, find Cornelius Fudge, and bring him up to this office. He will undoubtedly want to question Crouch himself. Tell him I will be in the hospital wing in half an hour's time if he needs me."

Snape nodded silently and swept out of the room.

"Harry?" Dumbledore said gently.

Harry got up and swayed again; I gripped his arm, and, allowing him to wrap it around my shoulders, helped him remain steady.

"I want you to come up to my office first. Harry," Dumbledore said quietly as we headed towards the door. "Sirius is waiting for us there."

Harry nodded, and we left Moody's office, where we found Luke, Brion, and Sofia waiting for us.

"So," Luke said sheepishly as I raised an eyebrow at him. "We may have overreacted and followed. Also, Sofia said we should probably have our weapons out —"

"No, I didn't!" Sofia exclaimed indignantly.

"No, she didn't," Brion agreed calmly.

"Luke was the one who wanted weapons out. But then Ms. McGonagall and Mr. Snape started leaving —"

"Professors McGonagall and Snape," Dumbledore corrected calmly.

"Do they have doctorates from respectable colleges?" Sofia asked.

"I suppose not, Miss Altamirano."

"Then I'll just refer to them as Ms. and Mr." Sofia told him. "Anyway, we put our weapons away when they came out because we figured you'd already dealt with it."

"And then Luke wanted to stay here for moral support," Brion added.

"We're all good, you guys," I said, shaking my head. "We're just going to go up to Dumbledore's office to talk to Sirius, and then we'll be down in the hospital wing."

"I knew they'd go there eventually," Sofia muttered. "Nobody listens to me..."

The three of them trooped off towards the hospital wing, and Dumbledore, Harry and I continued to Dumbledore's office.

"Professor," Harry mumbled, "where are Mr. and Mrs. Diggory?"

"They are with Professor Sprout," said Dumbledore. His voice, which had been so calm throughout the interrogation of Barty Crouch, shook very slightly for the first time. "She was Head of Cedric's house, and knew him best."

They had reached the stone gargoyle. Dumbledore gave the password, it sprang aside, and we went up the moving spiral staircase to the oak door. Dumbledore pushed it open. Sirius was standing there. His face was white and gaunt as it had been when he had escaped Azkaban. In one swift moment, he had crossed the room.

"Harry — Ash — are you all right? I knew it — I knew something like this — what happened?" His hands shook as we helped Harry into a chair in front of the desk.