amaranthine * hp

[00]

It was a dark and quiet night in Privet Drive, when Albus Dumbledore suddenly appeared in the far corner. Just looking at him you could tell he was the strangest thing. He was tall, thin, and very old judging by his silver hair and beard that went all the way down to his knees. Albus probably never realized that himself and everything he was wearing were very unwelcome in privet drive.

Albus stopped what he doing and looked around when he felt like he was being watched. His bright, blue eyes landed on a stern looking cat that sat on a wall. The sight of this cat seemed to amuse him, for he chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

Albus reached down into his pocket and brought out what seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up into the air, and clicked it. All of a sudden every street light faded into darkness. The only lights were the two beady eyes of the cat. Dumbledore put the put-outer back into his pocket, and walked to number four and sat onto the wall next to the cat.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." Albus spoke to the cat.

He turned to smile at the cat, but I was gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather stern-looking woman who was wearing an emerald green cloak and square glasses with her hair pulled up into a tight bun. She looked very ruffled. But anyone would with sitting on a wall all day.

"Albus," she nodded.

"My dear Professor, why do you sit so stiffly as a cat? You should be out celebrating."

"How would you feel if you sat on a brick wall all day? and celebrate what? The dark lord might be gone but we lost two close friends. There is absolutely nothing to celebrate," said Professor McGonagall, sniffing angrily.

Albus gave McGonagall a sad smile, knowing how he felt. James and lily were their closest friends and losing was like losing a child. But their children, Harry and Astella gave them a new hope and freedom, and that was definitely something to celebrate.

"I don't see why no one will call him by his name: Voldemort." McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore didn't seem to notice. "It all gets so confusing with this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense, there is nothing to be afraid of, tis only a name."

"That's easy for you to say, everyone knows you're the only one he is afraid of."

"You flatter me," Dumbledore said calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're to noble to use them."

"It seems you have made me blush."

McGonagall lets out a shaky breath, now was the time she definitely had to discuss the topic that made her most anxious. "Are the rumors true, Albus? About how he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

McGonagall didn't want to believe the rumors that flew around, she only trusted Albus to tell her the truth.

"I-I know that James and Lily are gone. But the Rumors are that-that he went to kill the children and something happened to young Astella, something no one's ever heard of."

Dumbledore gave a solemn nod and Professor McGonagall gasped.

"Poor Astella... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."

Dumbledore put a hand on McGonagall's shoulder and rubbed it. "I know...Tis such a crime that young Astella must bear this curse. But I believe Harry will help her through it."

McGonagall's voice trembled as she voiced on. "It's just, I can't believe Voldemort couldn't kill them, two infants at that! They say Astella --bless her heart--somehow broke his power and that's why he's gone. How can a mere infant be that powerful?"