“Not
many can survive a killing curse,” Dumbledore congratulated Mark when he woke
up. Mark found he was in the hospital wing.
“What…happened?” he asked, a headache
keeping him from piecing together the last events of his memory.
“Someone tried to kill you,”
Dumbledore replied. “Like I said, with a killing curse. Remarkable, really,
that you were so resilient against it.”
“A killing curse?”
“Yes,” Dumbledore said. He smiled at
Mark. “You would make a great Ravenclaw. Why did the Sorting Hat choose
Hufflepuff for you?”
“I think…” Mark thought hard, and it
was difficult to recall the event. He’d have believed he had been hit by an
Amnesia Curse before he thought of Avada
Kedavra. “I think because I didn’t want to be a part of them. I think the
Sorting Hat was trying to teach me something.”
Dumbledore nodded knowingly. “We don’t
all get what we wish, do we? But likewise, it can be for much better purposes
than we anticipated. You wish to know why you survived the killing curse, don’t
you?”
“Yes, sir, if you know the answer,”
Mark nodded enthusiastically. His was much faster than Dumbledore’s had been.
“I don’t know,” Dumbledore said, his
strange smile returning. “Hailey can’t remember last night, but he says she
remembers a bright beam of light. She believes you cast a Patronus right before
the curse struck you.”
“What do you believe, though?” Mark asked. Dumbledore only looked down. “I
know you have an idea of what happened. Please, tell me. I could have died. I should have died. Why am I alive?”
“At present, it is not for me to say,”
Dumbledore told Mark. “I do believe Kiera and Sofi have both been waiting for
you. It seems you’re popular with the girls?”
“It helps that boys aren’t nearly as
outgoing,” Mark shrugged.
Dumbledore stood up. “Well, Mark, I’ll
let to catch up with your peers. I do believe you have missed out on a few
classes. A couple months of classes, actually.”
“A couple months?!” Mark exclaimed,
and suddenly, if any thought of sleep remained, it vanished. “What’s happened
since that night?!”
“So much,” Dumbledore told Mark. “And
a lot of that isn’t good.” He lifted his arms up in an exhausted gesture.
“Stress doesn’t look too great on me, does it?” Mark could tell that Dumbledore
looked a little heavier, probably from stress eating, and he suspected it had a
lot to do with candy. Dumbledore gave Mark a final smile, a little nod, and
left.
“That was cryptic,” Mark noted. But
Dumbledore had said something useful: Kiera and Sofi wanted to see him. Kiera
would probably want to punch him to check if he was really dead or not, but
Sofi would be open to updating him, wouldn’t she?
“I
have no real clue,” Sofi shrugged, wincing as she saw his downcast face. “Mark,
there’s some sort of Amnesia curse, and you’re asking me to remember. It’s too much effort for me to
remember to take liquid luck before Snape begins teaching, let alone remember
specific events.”
Mark sagged against the couch in the
Hufflepuff common room. “Why is everything so complicated?”
“Because this is real-world stuff that
is being pressed upon children,” Sofi told him, her voice somewhat harsh. “You
can’t be expected to solve this, and yet you are.”
Mark and Sofi sat in silence. Finally,
Mark broke the silence. “I tried to train, and I just got more behind. I might
have mastered a Patronus, sure, but I forgot all about it, so I can’t be
certain how I succeeded, if I did.”
“You can do it,” Sofi told him. “I
know you can. Well, not the Amnesia Curse thing. I have no clue about that. But
I know you can summon a Patronus. You’re more talented than me, and I’ve
mastered mine, so you can do yours.”
“You mastered Expecto Patronum?” Mark asked her, half expecting it to be a joke.
“Yeah,” She blushed slightly. “Mine
turns out to be a badger, which is cool, given how it’s on our house crest.
Professor Flitwick told me I must be a remarkable Hufflepuff.”
Mark frowned and shook his head sadly.
Everyone else is way ahead of me, now.
What am I going to do?
Nice chapter!
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