Chapter 165 - 164 — Headmaster, Your Bird Is Dead

Chapter 165: Chapter 164 — Headmaster, Your Bird Is Dead

# Chapter 164 — Headmaster, Your Bird Is Dead

Harry screamed in horror, desperately trying to wake the people in the portraits so they could testify that he hadn’t done anything.

But it was no use.

It was already too late.

In the blink of an eye, the bird turned into a pile of ashes, with a few feathers that hadn’t been completely burned scattered among them.

Just then, the office door opened.

Harry spun around.

His worst fear had come true.

Dumbledore walked in.

Harry looked at the ashes, then at Dumbledore. His mouth fell open as he blurted out, "Headmaster, your bird is dead! It wasn’t me!"

He had no idea whether Dumbledore would believe him.

He could only hope that he would.

To Harry’s surprise, Dumbledore actually laughed.

"Ah, it’s time. Fawkes has been looking rather unwell for a while now. I’ve been urging him to hurry up and get it over with..."

Noticing the horror on Harry’s face, Dumbledore smiled and pointed at the ashes.

"Harry, Fawkes is a phoenix. When a phoenix reaches the end of its life, it bursts into flames and is reborn from its ashes."

Harry followed Dumbledore’s gaze.

A tiny, scruffy chick was struggling to stand up amid the ashes. It looked almost as ugly as the old bird had.

"It’s a pity you have to see him at this stage," Dumbledore continued. "He’s usually a very beautiful bird, with golden and red feathers. You can even carry him around..."

Dumbledore went on explaining the wonders of phoenixes, and Harry almost forgot what had happened earlier.

Almost.

The moment Dumbledore finished introducing the phoenix and sat down behind his desk, fixing Harry with those blue eyes, Harry remembered everything.

"Harry..."

Dumbledore had barely begun when the office door was suddenly pushed open.

It was Hagrid.

He came in waving the dead chicken in his hand and shouting, "Vesey told me Harry’s been taken into custody! Dumbledore, I can vouch for the boy! I was talking to him just a few minutes before he witnessed the incident. How could he possibly have had time to do it?"

Dumbledore opened his mouth helplessly, trying to explain something, but Hagrid carried on regardless.

"Vesey’s been worried sick! You should’ve seen how pitiful that child looked. I can’t let Harry be wrongly accused. Vesey will definitely cry if that happens, even though she’s tougher than most men when she gets angry!"

"Hagrid..."

Dumbledore tried to speak again.

But Hagrid interrupted him once more.

"Dumbledore, I swear on the Ministry of Magic, if you don’t believe—"

Dumbledore let out a deep sigh.

Then he raised his voice and shouted, "Hagrid, I don’t believe Harry is guilty!"

Hagrid froze, suddenly looking a little embarrassed.

He scratched his hair and gave an awkward smile.

"Oh! Well, in that case, I’ll go outside and wait for further instructions!"

He waved the dead chicken as he left, scattering several feathers across the office floor.

"You don’t think I did it?"

Harry looked at Dumbledore expectantly.

Dumbledore nodded.

How could he not know who was responsible?

That person had killed a girl during his own school days. This time, the method was exactly the same. It was another attempted murder, though a series of unexpected circumstances had prevented the victim from dying.

Dumbledore simply wanted to know how the culprit had managed to do it.

Of course, another reason he had summoned Harry was to find out what had been happening to him lately.

Whenever something happened around Harry, Dumbledore couldn’t help suspecting that someone was manipulating events behind the scenes.

Naturally, he wasn’t going to tell Harry that.

Instead, he looked into the boy’s eyes and asked, "Harry, is there anything you’d like to tell me?"

Harry thought of Malfoy shouting at Hermione, *You’re next, Mudblood!*

He thought of the Polyjuice Potion that was nearly ready, and of Moaning Myrtle...

He remembered the strange voice he’d heard. Ron had told him that hearing a voice nobody else could hear was an ominous sign.

He remembered what Vesey had once said: if she were in his position, she might not dare approach Dumbledore either, for fear of being called a liar.

He also thought of all the things people had been saying behind his back, and of Vesey furiously throwing Ernie out into the rain.

Lately, he’d become increasingly worried that he really might have some connection to Salazar Slytherin.

And then there was...

"No, sir. There’s nothing!"

Dumbledore watched him silently for a moment before chuckling.

"All right. But Harry, I think you could use a good night’s sleep. Perhaps you should ask Madam Pomfrey for a sleeping potion. After all, you already know how effective it is from Vesey’s experience."

Harry shook his head.

"No, sir. I’m fine!"

Thinking about how soon the Polyjuice Potion would be ready and how they would finally be able to get the truth out of Malfoy, Harry felt tears of joy welling up in his eyes.

Dumbledore watched him leave, his expression complicated. At last, he let out a quiet sigh.

The simultaneous attacks on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick threw Hogwarts into even greater panic.

Students were practically scrambling to book train tickets home for Christmas. Even those who had originally planned to remain at school were rushing to retrieve their applications to stay.

Nobody wanted to spend Christmas at Hogwarts only to end up as another terrifying statue.

"In that case, there won’t be many people left at school. What an interesting situation!"

Ron laughed as he tried to comfort Harry.

In truth, there was nothing interesting about it at all. For Harry, however, it simply meant that things would be much quieter.

Lately, Harry’s diary entries hadn’t been going particularly well. Although Vesey’s words had stopped many people from openly accusing him, whenever Harry and his friends passed by, conversations would abruptly fall silent, and the people involved would hurry away.

It was genuinely frustrating.

By comparison, Harry preferred Fred and George, who had no qualms about shouting right in front of him.

"The Heir is here!"

"Quick, get out of the way! Harry’s about to petrify you!"

Of course, Fred and George’s antics always annoyed Percy and Ginny.

Percy considered their jokes an insult to Harry.

Whenever Ginny witnessed one of these scenes, she would shriek and throw herself into Vesey’s arms.

For some reason, though, Harry noticed that whenever Ginny hugged Vesey, Hermione seemed a little unhappy. She would slam her book down with a loud bang.

Harry assumed Hermione disliked Vesey being friends with Ginny.

He really couldn’t understand girls’ friendships. They were far too complicated.

Malfoy was just as unhappy as Hermione.

To be precise, Malfoy wasn’t upset about whom Vesey was hugging. He was angry because Fred and George kept calling Harry the Heir of Slytherin.

"He wants everyone to believe he did all these things himself. Just think about it! How impressive would it be to have the title of Heir of Slytherin?"

Ron whispered to Harry when Malfoy wasn’t around.

Harry thought Ron had a point.

And so, they eagerly awaited Christmas.

They couldn’t wait to ask Malfoy whether he was responsible for the attacks. Then, when he inevitably started acting smug, they would expose him and scare him half to death.

At the very least, they wanted to catch him red-handed!