062.asc

// 10736
//== The Stanford Prison Experiment, Final

// 10737
//Minerva gazed up at the clock, the golden hands and silver numerals, the
//jerking motion. Muggles had invented that, and until they had, wizards had not
//bothered keeping time. Bells, timed by a sanded hourglass, had served Hogwarts
//for its classes when it was built. It was one of the things that blood purists
//wished not to be true, and therefore Minerva knew it.

// 10738
//She had received an Outstanding on her Muggle Studies N.E.W.T., which now
//seemed to her a mark of shame, considering how little she knew. Her younger
//self had realized, even then, that the class was a sham, taught by a pureblood,
//supposedly because Muggleborns could not appreciate what wizardborns needed to
//be told, and actually because the Board of Governors did not approve of Muggles
//at all. But when she was seventeen the Outstanding grade had been the main
//thing that mattered to her, she was saddened to remember…

// 10739
//__If Harry Potter and Voldemort fight their war with Muggle weapons there
//will be nothing left of the world but fire!__

// 10740
//She couldn’t imagine it, and the reason she couldn’t imagine it was that she
//couldn’t imagine Harry fighting You-Know-Who.

// 10741
//She had encountered the Dark Lord four times and survived each one, three times
//with Albus to shield her and once with Moody at her side. She remembered the
//damaged, snakelike face, the faint green scales scattered over the skin, the
//glowing red eyes, the voice that laughed in a high-pitched hiss and promised
//nothing but cruelty and torment: the monster pure and complete.

// 10742
//And Harry Potter was easy to picture in her mind, the bright expression on the
//face of a young boy who wavered between taking the ludicrous seriously and
//taking the serious ludicrously.

// 10743
//And to think of the two of them facing off at wandpoint was too painful to be
//imagined.

// 10744
//They had no right, no right at all to set this on an eleven-year-old boy. She
//knew what the Headmaster had decided for him this day, for she had been told to
//make the arrangements; and if it had been her at the same age she would have
//raged and screamed and cried and been inconsolable for weeks, and…

// 10745
//__He is no ordinary first-year,__ Albus had said. __He is marked as
//the Dark Lord’s equal, and he has power the Dark Lord knows not.__

// 10746
//The terrible hollow voice booming from Sybill Trelawney’s throat, the true and
//original prophecy, echoed once more through her mind. She had a feeling it
//didn’t mean what the Headmaster thought it did, but there was no way to put the
//difference into words.

// 10747
//And even so it still seemed true, that if there were any eleven-year-old within
//the Earth entire who could bear this burden, that boy approached her office
//now. And if she said anything at all like ‘poor Harry’ to his face… well, he
//wouldn’t like it.

// 10748
//__So now I’ve got to find some way to kill an immortal Dark Wizard,__
//Harry had said on the day he had first learned.__ I really wish you had
//told me that before I started shopping…__

// 10749
//She’d been Head of House Gryffindor for long enough, she’d watched enough
//friends die, to know that there were some people you couldn’t save from
//becoming heroes.

// 10750
//There came a knock at the door, and Professor McGonagall said, “Enter.”

// 10751
//When Harry entered, his face had the same cold, alert look she’d seen in Mary’s
//Place; and she wondered for an instant if he’d been wearing that same mask,
//that same self, this whole day.

// 10752
//The young boy seated himself on the chair before her desk, and said, “So is it
//time for me to be told what’s going on?” Neutral the words, not the sharpness
//that should have gone with the expression.

// 10753
//Professor McGonagall’s eyes rose in surprise before she could stop them, and
//she said, “The Headmaster told you nothing, Mr. Potter?”

// 10754
//The boy shook his head. “Only that he’d received a warning that I might be in
//danger, but I was safe now.”

// 10755
//Minerva was having trouble meeting his gaze. How could they __do__ this to
//him, how could they lay this upon an eleven-year-old boy, this war, this
//destiny, this prophecy… and they didn’t even __trust__ him…

// 10756
//She forced herself to look at Harry directly, and saw that his green eyes were
//calm as they rested on her.

// 10757
//“Professor McGonagall?” the boy said quietly.

// 10758
//“Mr. Potter,” said Professor McGonagall, “I’m afraid it is not my place to
//explain, but if after this the Headmaster __still__ does not tell you
//anything, you may come back to me and I will go yell at him for you.”

// 10759
//The boy’s eyes widened, something of the real Harry showing through the crack
//before the cool mask was set back in place.

// 10760
//“In any case,” Professor McGonagall said briskly. “I’m sorry for the
//inconvenience, Mr. Potter, but I need to ask you to use your Time-Turner to go
//back six hours to three o’clock, and give the following message to Professor
//Flitwick: Silver on the tree. Ask the Professor to note down the time at which
//you gave him that message. Afterward the Headmaster wishes to meet with you at
//your convenience.”

// 10761
//There was a pause.

// 10762
//Then the boy said, “I am suspected of misusing my Time-Turner, then?”

// 10763
//“Not by __me!__” Professor McGonagall said hastily. “I __am__ sorry
//for the inconvenience, Mr. Potter.”

// 10764
//There was another pause, and then the young boy shrugged. “It’ll play hob with
//my sleep schedule but I suppose it can’t be helped. Please let the house elves
//know that if I ask for an early breakfast at, say, three A.M. tomorrow morning,
//I’m to receive it.”

// 10765
//“Of course, Mr. Potter,” she said. “Thank you for understanding.”

// 10766
//The boy rose up from his chair and gave her a formal nod, then slipped out the
//door with his hand already going under his shirt to where his Time-Turner
//waited; and she almost called out __Harry!__ only she wouldn’t have known
//what to say after.

// 10767
//Instead she waited, her eyes on the clock.

// 10768
//How long did she need to wait for Harry Potter to go back in time?

// 10769
//She didn’t need to wait at all, actually; if he had done it, then it had
//already happened…

// 10770
//Minerva knew, then, that she was delaying because she was nervous, and the
//realization saddened her. Mischief, yes, unspeakable unthinkable mischief with
//all the prudence and foresight of a falling rock - she didn’t know how the boy
//had tricked the Hat into not Sorting him to Gryffindor where he obviously
//belonged - but nothing dark or harmful, not ever. Beneath that mischief his
//goodness ran as deep and as true as the Weasley twins’, though not even the
//Cruciatus Curse could have gotten her to say that out loud.

// 10771
//“__Expecto Patronum__,” she said, and then, “Go to Professor Flitwick, and
//bear back his reply after you ask him this: ‘Did Mr. Potter give you a message
//from me, what was that message, and when did you receive it?’”

// 10772
//One hour earlier, having used the last remaining spin of his Time-Turner after
//putting on the Cloak of Invisibility, Harry tucked the hourglass back into his
//shirt.

// 10773
//And he set out toward the Slytherin dungeons, striding as quickly as his
//invisible legs could manage, though not running. Thankfully the Deputy
//Headmistress’s office was already on a lower floor of Hogwarts…

// 10774
//A few staircases later, taken two steps but not three steps at once, Harry
//stopped at a corridor around whose final bend lay the entrance to the Slytherin
//dorms.

// 10775
//Harry took a piece of parchment (not paper) out of his parch, took a Quotes
//Quill (not pen) out of his pouch, and told the quill, “Write these letters
//exactly as I say them: Z-P-G-B-S-Y, space, F-V-Y-I-R-E-B-A-G-U-R-G-E-R-R.”

// 10776
//There were two kinds of codes in cryptography, codes that stopped your little
//brother from reading your message and codes that stopped major governments from
//reading your message, and this was the first kind of code, but it was better
//than nothing. In theory, no one should read it anyway; but even if they did,
//they wouldn’t remember anything interesting unless they did cryptography first.

// 10777
//Harry then put that parchment in a parchment envelope, and with his wand melted
//a little green wax to seal it.

// 10778
//In principle, of course, Harry could’ve done all that hours earlier, but
//somehow waiting until __after__ he heard the message from Professor
//McGonagall’s own lips seemed less like Messing With Time.

// 10779
//Harry then put that envelope inside another envelope, which already contained
//another sheet of paper with other instructions, and five silver Sickles.

// 10780
//He closed that envelope (which already had a name written on the outside),
//sealed it with more green wax, and pressed a final Sickle into that seal.

// 10781
//Then Harry put __that__ envelope into the very last envelope on which was
//written in large letters the name “Merry Tavington”.

// 10782
//And Harry peeked around the bend to where the scowling portrait that served as
//the door to the Slytherin dorms waited; and as he did not wish the portrait to
//recall not-seeing anyone invisible, Harry used the Hover Charm to float the
//envelope to the scowling man, and tap it against him.

// 10783
//The scowling man looked down at the envelope, peering at it through a monocle,
//and sighed, and turned around to face toward the inside of the Slytherin dorms,
//and called, “Message for Merry Tavington!”

// 10784
//The envelope was then allowed to fall to the floor.

// 10785
//A few moments later the portrait door opened, and Merry snatched up the
//envelope from the floor.

// 10786
//She would open it up and find a Sickle and an envelope addressed to a
//fourth-year student named Margaret Bulstrode.

// 10787
//(Slytherins did this sort of thing all the time, and a Sickle definitely
//constituted a rush order.)

// 10788
//Margaret would open __her__ envelope, and find five Sickles along with an
//envelope to be dropped off in an unused classroom…

// 10789
//…__after__ she used her Time-Turner to go back five hours…

// 10790
//…whereupon she would find another five Sickles waiting for her, if she got
//there quickly.

// 10791
//And an invisible Harry Potter would be waiting in that classroom from three PM
//to three-thirty, just in case someone tried the obvious test.

// 10792
//Well, it had been obvious to Professor Quirrell, anyway.

// 10793
//It had also been obvious to Professor Quirrell that (a) Margaret Bulstrode had
//a Time-Turner and (b) she wasn’t very strict about how she used it, e.g.
//telling her younger sister really good pieces of gossip “before” anyone else
//had heard.

// 10794
//Some of the tension leaked off Harry as he strode away from the portrait door,
//still invisible. Somehow his mind had still managed to worry about the plan,
//even__ knowing__ that it had already succeeded. Now there remained only
//the confrontation with Dumbledore, and then he was done for the day… he’d go to
//the Headmaster’s gargoyles at 9PM, since doing it at 8PM would seem more
//suspicious. This way he could claim that he’d just misunderstood what Professor
//McGonagall had meant by “afterward”…

// 10795
//The obscure pain clutched at Harry’s heart again as he thought of Professor
//McGonagall.

// 10796
//So Harry retreated a little further into his dark side, which had worn the calm
//expression and kept the fatigue off his face, and kept walking.

// 10797
//There would come a reckoning, but sometimes you had to borrow everything you
//could today, and let the payments come due tomorrow.

// 10798
//Even Harry’s dark side was feeling the exhaustion by the time the spiraling
//staircase had delivered him to the great oaken door that was the final gate to
//Dumbledore’s office; but since Harry was now __legally __four hours past
//his natural bedtime, it was safe to let some of the fatigue show, the physical
//if not the emotional.

// 10799
//The oaken door swung open -

// 10800
//Harry’s eyes had already been focused in the direction of the great desk, the
//throne behind it; so it took a moment to register that the throne was empty,
//the desk barren but for a single leatherbound volume; and then Harry shifted
//his gaze to see the wizard standing among his fiddly things, the mysterious
//unknown devices in their scores. Fawkes and the Sorting Hat occupied their
//respective perches, a bright cheerful blaze crackled in a nook that Harry had
//not before realized was a fireplace, and there were the two umbrellas and three
//red slippers for left feet. All things in their place and in their customary
//appearance except the old wizard himself, standing tall and dressed in robes of
//the most formal black. It came as a shock to the eyes, those robes on that
//person, it was as if Harry had seen his father wearing a business suit.

// 10801
//Very ancient was the appearance of Albus Dumbledore, and sorrowful.

// 10802
//“Hello, Harry,” said the old wizard.

// 10803
//From within an alternate self maintained like an Occlumency construct, an
//innocent-Harry who had absolutely no idea what was happening inclined his head
//coldly, and said, “Headmaster. I expect you’ve heard back from Deputy
//Headmistress McGonagall by now, so if it’s fine by you, I would __really__
//like to know what is going on.”

// 10804
//“Yes,” said the old wizard, “it is time, Harry Potter.” The back straightened,
//only slightly for the wizard had already been standing straight; but somehow
//even that small change made the wizard seem a foot taller, and stronger if not
//younger, formidable though not dangerous, his potency gathered about him like a
//cowl. In a clear voice, then, he spoke: “This day your war against Voldemort
//has begun.”

// 10805
//“What?” said the outer Harry who knew nothing, while something watching from
//inside thought much the same only with a lot more profanity attached.

// 10806
//“Bellatrix Black has been taken from Azkaban, she has escaped from a prison
//inescapable,” the old wizard said. “It is a feat that bears Voldemort’s
//signature if ever I have seen it; and she, his most faithful servant, is one of
//three requisites he must obtain to rise again in a new body. After ten years
//the enemy you once defeated has returned, as was foretold.”

// 10807
//Neither part of Harry could think of anything to say to that, at least not for
//the few seconds before the old wizard continued.

// 10808
//“It need change little for you, for now,” said the old wizard. “I have begun
//reconstituting the Order of the Phoenix that will serve you, I have alerted the
//few souls who can and should understand: Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody, Bartemius
//Crouch, certain others. Of the prophecy - yes, there is a prophecy - I have not
//told them, but they know that Voldemort is returned, and they know that you are
//to play some vital role. They and I shall fight your war in its lesser
//beginnings, while you grow stronger, and perhaps wiser, here at Hogwarts.” The
//old wizard’s hand came up, as though beseeching. “So to you, for now, there is
//but one change, and I implore you to understand its necessity. Do you recognize
//the book on my desk, Harry?”

// 10809
//The inner part of Harry was screaming and banging its head against imaginary
//walls, while the outer Harry turned and stared at what proved to be -

// 10810
//There was a rather long pause.

// 10811
//Then Harry said, “It is a copy of __The Lord of the Rings__ by J. R. R.
//Tolkien.”

// 10812
//“You recognized a quote from that book,” said Dumbledore, an intent look in his
//eyes, “so I assume you remember it well. If I am mistaken, let me be
//corrected.”

// 10813
//Harry just stared at him.

// 10814
//“It is important to understand,” said Dumbledore, “that this book is not a
//realistic depiction of a wizarding war. John Tolkien never fought Voldemort.
//Your war will not be like the books you have read. Real life is not like
//stories. Do you understand, Harry?”

// 10815
//Harry, rather slowly, nodded yes; and then shook his head no.

// 10816
//“In particular,” said Dumbledore, “there is a certain very foolish thing that
//Gandalf does in the first book. He makes many mistakes, does Tolkien’s wizard;
//but this one error is the most unforgivable. That mistake is this: When Gandalf
//first suspected, even for a moment, that Frodo held the One Ring, he should
//have moved Frodo to Rivendell __at once.__ He might have been embarrassed,
//that old wizard, if his suspicions had proven false. He might have found it
//awkward to so command Frodo, and Frodo would have been greatly inconvenienced,
//needing to set aside many other plans and pastimes. But a little embarrassment,
//and awkwardness, and inconvenience, is as nothing compared to the loss of your
//whole war, when the nine Nazgul swoop down on the Shire while you are reading
//old scrolls in Minas Tirith, and take the Ring at once. And it is not Frodo
//alone who would have been hurt; all Middle-Earth would have fallen into
//slavery. If it had __not__ been only a story, Harry, they would have lost
//their war. Do you understand what I am saying?”

// 10817
//“Er…” said Harry, “not exactly…” There was something about Dumbledore when he
//was like this, which made it hard to stay properly cold; his dark side had
//trouble with weird.

// 10818
//“Then I will spell it out,” said the old wizard. His voice was stern, his eyes
//were sad. “Frodo should have been moved to Rivendell at once by Gandalf himself
//- and Frodo should never have left Rivendell without guard. There should have
//been no night of terror in Bree, no Barrow-downs, no Weathertop where Frodo was
//wounded, they could have lost their entire war any of those times, for
//Gandalf’s folly! Do you understand now what I am saying to you, son of Michael
//and Petunia?”

// 10819
//And the Harry who knew nothing did understand.

// 10820
//And the Harry who knew nothing saw that it was the smart, the wise, the
//intelligent and sane, the __right__ thing to do.

// 10821
//And the Harry who knew nothing said just what an innocent Harry __would__
//have said, while the silent watcher screamed in confusion and agony.

// 10822
//“You’re saying,” Harry said, his voice shaking as the emotions inside burned
//through the outer calm, “that I’m not going home to my parents for Easter.”

// 10823
//“You __will__ see them again,” the old wizard said swiftly. “I will beg
//them to come here to be with you, I will extend them every courtesy during
//their visits. But you are not going home for Easter, Harry. You are not going
//home for the summer. You are no longer taking lunches in Diagon Alley, even
//with Professor Quirrell to watch you. Your blood is the second requisite
//Voldemort needs to rise as strong as before. So you are never again leaving the
//bounds of Hogwarts’s wards without a vital reason, and a guard strong enough to
//fend off any attack for long enough to get you to safety. ”

// 10824
//Water was beginning at the corners of Harry’s eyes. “Is that a request?” said
//his quavering voice. “Or an order?”

// 10825
//“I’m sorry, Harry,” the old wizard said softly. “Your parents will see the
//necessity, I hope; but if not… I am afraid they have no recourse; the law,
//however wrongly, does not recognize them as your guardians. I am sorry, Harry,
//and I will understand if you despise me for it, but it must be done.”

// 10826
//Harry whirled, looked at the door, he couldn’t look at Dumbledore any more,
//couldn’t trust his own face.

// 10827
//__This is the cost to yourself,__ said Hufflepuff within his mind,
//__even as you imposed costs on others. Will that change your whole view
//of the matter, the way Professor Quirrell thinks it will?__

// 10828
//Automatically, the mask of the innocent Harry said exactly what it would have
//said: “Are my parents in danger? Do __they__ need to be moved here?”

// 10829
//“No,” said the old wizard’s voice. “I do not think so. The Death Eaters
//learned, toward the end of the war, not to attack the Order’s families. And if
//Voldemort is now acting without his former companions, he still knows that it
//is I who make the decisions for now, and he knows that I would give him nothing
//for any threat to your family. I have taught him that I do not give in to
//blackmail, and so he will not try.”

// 10830
//Harry turned back then, and saw a coldness on the old wizard’s face to match
//the shift in his voice, Dumbledore’s blue eyes grown hard as steel behind the
//glasses, it didn’t match the person but it matched the formal black robes.

// 10831
//“Is that everything, then?” said Harry’s trembling voice. Later he would think
//about this, later he would think of some cunning countermeasure, later he would
//ask Professor Quirrell if there was any way to convince the Headmaster he was
//mistaken. Right now, maintaining the mask was taking all of Harry’s attention.

// 10832
//“Voldemort used a Muggle artifact to escape Azkaban,” the old wizard said. “He
//is watching you and learning from you, Harry Potter. Soon a man named Arthur
//Weasley at the Ministry will issue an edict that all use of Muggle artifacts
//must cease in the Defense Professor’s battles. In the future, when you have a
//good idea, keep it closer about yourself.”

// 10833
//It didn’t seem important by comparison. Harry just nodded, and said again, “Is
//that everything?”

// 10834
//There was a pause.

// 10835
//“Please,” said the old wizard in a whisper. “I have no right to ask your
//forgiveness, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, but please, at least say that you
//understand why.” There was water in the old wizard’s eyes.

// 10836
//“I understand,” said the voice of the outer Harry who did understand, “I mean…
//I was sort of thinking about it anyway… wondering whether I could get you and
//my parents to let me stay over at Hogwarts during the summer like the orphans,
//so I could read the library here, it’s just more interesting at Hogwarts
//anyway…”

// 10837
//A choking sound came from Albus Dumbledore’s throat.

// 10838
//Harry turned again toward the door. It wasn’t escape unscathed, but it was
//escape.

// 10839
//He took a step forward.

// 10840
//His hand reached to the door-handle.

// 10841
//A piercing cry split the air -

// 10842
//As though in slow motion, as Harry spun, he saw the phoenix already launched
//through the air and winging toward him.

// 10843
//From the true Harry, the one who knew his own guilt, came a flash of panic, he
//hadn’t thought of that, hadn’t anticipated it, he’d prepared to face Dumbledore
//but he’d forgotten about __Fawkes -__

// 10844
//Flap, flap, and flap, three times the phoenix’s wings flapped like the flaring
//up and dying down of a fire, duration seemed to pass too slowly as Fawkes
//soared over the mysterious devices toward where Harry stood.

// 10845
//And the red-golden bird was hovering in front of him with gentle wing-sweeps,
//bobbing in the air like a candle-flame.

// 10846
//“What is it, Fawkes?” said the false Harry in puzzlement, looking the phoenix
//in the eyes, as he would if he were innocent. The real Harry, feeling the same
//awful sickness inside as when Professor McGonagall had expressed her trust in
//him, thought, __Did I turn evil today, Fawkes? I didn’t think I was evil…
//Do you hate me now? If I’ve become something a phoenix hates, maybe I should
//just give it up now, give up everything now and confess -__

// 10847
//Fawkes screamed, the most terrible cry Harry had ever heard, a scream that set
//all the devices vibrating and made all the sleeping figures start within their
//portraits.

// 10848
//It pierced through all of Harry’s defenses like a white-hot sword through
//butter, collapsed all his layers like a punctured balloon popping, reshuffled
//his priorities in an instant as he remembered the one most important thing; the
//tears began pouring freely from Harry’s eyes, down his cheeks, his voice choked
//as the words came out of his throat like coughing up lava -

// 10849
//“Fawkes says,” Harry’s voice said, “he wants me, to do, something, about, the
//prisoners, in Azkaban -”

// 10850
//“Fawkes, __no!__” said the old wizard. Dumbledore strode forward, reaching
//out to the phoenix with a pleading hand. The old wizard’s voice was almost as
//desperate as the phoenix’s scream had been. “You cannot ask that of him,
//Fawkes, he’s only a boy still!”

// 10851
//“You went to Azkaban,” Harry whispered, “you took Fawkes with you, he saw -
//__you__ saw - you were __there__, you saw - __WHY DIDN’T YOU DO
//ANYTHING? WHY DIDN’T YOU LET THEM OUT?__”

// 10852
//When the instruments stopped vibrating, Harry realized that Fawkes had screamed
//at the same time as his own scream, that the phoenix was now flying next to
//Harry and facing Dumbledore at his side, the red-golden head level with his
//own.

// 10853
//“Can you,” whispered the old wizard, “can you truly hear the voice of the
//phoenix so clearly?”

// 10854
//Harry was sobbing almost too hard to speak, for all the metal doors he’d
//passed, the voices he’d heard, the worst memories, the desperate begging as he
//walked away, all of it had burst into his mind like fire at the phoenix’s
//scream, all the inner bulwarks smashed. Harry didn’t know whether he could
//truly hear the voice of the phoenix so clearly, whether he would have
//understood Fawkes without already knowing. All Harry knew was that he had a
//plausible excuse to say the things Professor Quirrell had told him he must
//__never__ raise in conversation from this day forth; because this was just
//what an innocent Harry would have said, would have done, if he __had__
//heard so clearly. “They’re hurting - we have to help them -”

// 10855
//“I __can’t!__” cried Albus Dumbledore. “Harry, Fawkes, I __can’t__,
//there’s nothing I can do!”

// 10856
//Another piercing scream.

// 10857
//“__WHY NOT? JUST GO IN AND TAKE THEM OUT!”__

// 10858
//The old wizard wrenched his gaze from the phoenix, his eyes meeting Harry’s
//instead. “Harry, tell Fawkes for me! Tell him it’s not that simple! Phoenixes
//aren’t mere animals but they __are__ animals, Harry, they can’t understand
//-”

// 10859
//“I don’t understand either,” Harry said, his voice trembling. “I don’t
//understand why you’re __feeding people to Dementors! Azkaban isn’t a
//prison, it’s a torture chamber and you’re torturing those people to DEATH!__”

// 10860
//“Percival,” said the old wizard hoarsely, “Percival Dumbledore, my own father,
//Harry, my own father died in Azkaban! I know, I know it is a horror!
//__But what would you have of me?__ To break Azkaban by force? Would you
//have me declare open rebellion against the Ministry?”

// 10861
//CAW!

// 10862
//There was a pause, and Harry’s trembling voice said, “Fawkes doesn’t know
//anything about governments, he just wants you - to take the prisoners out - of
//their cells - and he’ll help you fight, if anyone stands in your way - and -
//and so will I, Headmaster! I’ll go with you and destroy any Dementor that comes
//near! We’ll worry about the political fallout afterward, I bet that you and I
//together could get away with it -”

// 10863
//“Harry,” whispered the old wizard, “phoenixes do not understand how winning a
//battle can lose a war.” Tears were streaming down the old wizard’s cheeks,
//dripping into his silver beard. “The battle is all they know. They are good,
//but not wise. That is why they choose wizards to be their masters.”

// 10864
//“Can you bring out the Dementors to where I can get at them?” Harry’s voice was
//begging, now. “Bring them out in groups of fifteen - I think I could destroy
//that many at a time without hurting myself -”

// 10865
//The old wizard shook his head. “It was hard enough to pass off the loss of one
//- they might give me one more, but never two - they are considered national
//possessions, Harry, weapons in case of war -”

// 10866
//Fury blazed in Harry then, blazed up like fire, it might have come from where a
//phoenix now rested on his own shoulder, and it might have come from his own
//dark side, and the two angers mixed within him, the cold and the hot, and it
//was a strange voice that said from his throat, “Tell me something. What does a
//government have to do, what do the voters have to do with their democracy, what
//do the __people__ of a __country__ have to do, before I ought to
//decide that I’m not on their side any more?”

// 10867
//The old wizard’s eyes widened where he stared at the boy with a phoenix upon
//his shoulder. “Harry… are those your words, or the Defense Professor’s -”

// 10868
//“Because there has to be __some__ point, doesn’t there? And if it’s not
//Azkaban, where is it, then?”

// 10869
//“Harry, listen, please, hear me! Wizards could not live together if they each
//declared rebellion against the whole, every time they differed! Always there
//will be __something __-”

// 10870
//“__Azkaban is not just something! It’s evil!__”

// 10871
//“Yes, even evil! Even some evils, Harry, for wizards are not perfectly good!
//And yet it is better that we live in peace, than in chaos; and for you and I to
//break Azkaban by force would be the beginning of __chaos__, can you not
//see it?” The old wizard’s voice was pleading. “And it is possible to oppose the
//will of your fellows openly or in secret, without __hating__ them, without
//declaring them evil and enemy! I do not think the people of this country
//deserve that of you, Harry! And even if some of them did - what of the
//children, what of the students in Hogwarts, what of the many good people mixed
//in with the bad?”

// 10872
//Harry looked on his shoulder at where Fawkes had perched, saw the phoenix’s
//eyes gazing back at him, they did not glow and yet they blazed, red flames in a
//sea of golden fire.

// 10873
//__What do you think, Fawkes?__

// 10874
//“Caw?” said the phoenix.

// 10875
//Fawkes didn’t understand the conversation.

// 10876
//The young boy looked at the old wizard, and said in a thick voice, “Or maybe
//the phoenixes are wiser than us, smarter than us, maybe they follow us around
//hoping that someday we’ll __listen__ to them, someday we’ll __get__
//it, someday we’ll just __take__, the prisoners, __out,__ of their
//__cells -__”

// 10877
//Harry spun and pulled open the oaken door and stepped onto the staircase and
//slammed the door behind him.

// 10878
//The stairwell began rotating, Harry began descending, and he put his face in
//his hands, and began to weep.

// 10879
//It wasn’t until he was halfway to the bottom that he noticed the difference,
//noticed the warmth still spreading through him, and realized that -

// 10880
//“Fawkes?” Harry whispered.

// 10881
//- the phoenix was still on his shoulder, perched there as he had seen him a few
  //times upon Dumbledore’s.

// 10882
//Harry looked again into the eyes, red flames in golden fire.

// 10883
//“You’re not my phoenix now… are you?”

// 10884
//Caw!

// 10885
//“Oh,” Harry said, his voice trembling a little, “I’m glad to hear that, Fawkes,
//because I don’t think - the Headmaster - I don’t think he deserves -”

// 10886
//Harry stopped, took a breath.

// 10887
//“I don’t think he deserves that, Fawkes, he was trying to do the right thing…”

// 10888
//Caw!

// 10889
//“But you’re angry at him and trying to make a point. I understand.”

// 10890
//The phoenix nestled his head against Harry’s shoulder, and the stone gargoyle
//walked smoothly aside to let Harry pass back into the corridors of Hogwarts.