|
"It
wasn't Harry, Professor Dumbledore!"
Hagrid continued
urgently, "I was talkin' ter him seconds before that kid was
found, he never had time, sir--"
Dumbledore tried to say
something, but Hagrid went ranting on, waving the rooster around in his agitation,
sending feathers everywhere.
"-- it can't've bin
him, I'll swear it in front o' the Ministry of Magic if I have to
--"
"Hagrid, I --"
"-- yeh've got the
wrong boy, sir, I know Harry never --"
"Hagrid!"
said Dumbledore loudly. "I do not think that Harry attacked
those people."
"Oh," said
Hagrid, the rooster falling limply at his side. "Right. I'll wait
outside then, Headmaster."
And he stomped out
looking embarrassed.
"You don't think it
was me, Professor?" Harry repeated hopefully as Dumbledore brushed
rooster feathers off his desk.
"No, Harry, I
don't," said Dumbledore, though his face was somber again.
"But I still want to talk to you."
Harry waited nervously
while Dumbledore considered him, the tip of his long fingers together.
"I must ask you,
Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said
gently. "Anything at all."
Harry didn't know what to
say. He thought of Malfoy shouting, "You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
and of the Polyjuice Potion simmering away in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
Then he thought of the disembodied voice he had heard twice and
remembered what Ron had said: "Hearing voices no one else can
hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." He
thought, too, about what everyone was saying about him, and his growing
dread that he was somehow connected with Salazar Slytherin....
"No," said Harry.
"There isn't anything, Professor...."
|
