Despite the fact that he had spent every waking moment of the past few days hoping desperately that Dumbledore would indeed come to fetch him, Harry felt distinctly awkward as 11 u-y set off down Privet Drive together. He had never had a proper conversation with the headmaster outside of Hogwarts before; there was usually a desk between them. The memory of their last face-to-face encounter kept intruding too, and it rather heightened Harry's sense of embarrassment; he had shouted a lot on that occasion, not to mention done his best to smash several of Dumbledore's most prized possessions. Dumbledore, however, seemed completely relaxed. "Keep your wand at the ready, Harry," he said brightly. "But I thought I'm not allowed to use magic outside school, sir?" "If there is an attack," said Dumbledore, "I give you permission to use any counterjinx or curse that might occur to you. However, I do not think you need worry about being attacked tonight." "Why not, sir?" "You are with me," said Dumbledore simply. "This will do, Harry." "Harry?" "Er — where exactly are we?" "This, Harry, is the charming village of Budleigh Babberton." "And what are we doing here?" "Ah yes, of course, I haven't told you," said Dumbledore. "Well, I have lost count of the number of times I have said this in recent years, but we are, once again, one member of staff short. We are here to persuade an old colleague of mine to come out of retirement and return to Hogwarts." "How can I help with that, sir?" | "Oh, I think we'll find a use for you," said Dumbledore vaguely. "Left here, Harry." They proceeded up a steep, narrow street lined with houses. All the windows were dark. The odd chill that had lain over Privet Drive for two weeks persisted here too. Thinking of dementors, Harry cast a look over his shoulder and grasped his wand reassuringly in his pocket. "Professor, why couldn't we just Apparate directly into your old colleague's house?" "Because it would be quite as rude as kicking down the front door," said Dumbledore. "Courtesy dictates that we offer fellow wizards the opportunity of denying us entry. In any case, most Wizarding dwellings are magically protected from unwanted Apparators. At Hogwarts, for instance —" "— you can't Apparate anywhere inside the buildings or grounds," said Harry quickly. "Hermione Granger told me." "And she is quite right. We turn left again." The church clock chimed midnight behind them. Harry wondered why Dumbledore did not consider it rude to call on his old colleague so late, but now that conversation had been established, he had more pressing questions to ask. "Sir, I saw in the Daily Prophet that Fudge has been sacked. . . ." "Correct," said Dumbledore, now turning up a steep side street. "He has been replaced, as I am sure you also saw, by Rufus Scrimgeour, who used to be Head of the Auror office." "Is he ... Do you think he's good?" asked Harry. "An interesting question," said Dumbledore. "He is able, certainly. A more decisive and forceful personality than Cornelius." "Yes, but I meant —" "I know what you meant. Rufus is a man of action and, having fought Dark wizards for most of his working life, does not under-estimate Lord Voldemort." Harry waited, but Dumbledore did not say anything about the disagreement with Scrimgeour that the Daily Prophet had reported, and he did not have the nerve to pursue the subject, so he changed ii. "And ... sir ... I saw about Madam Bones." "Yes," said Dumbledore quietly. "A terrible loss. She was a great witch. Just up here, I think — ouch." He had pointed with his injured hand. "Professor, what happened to your — ?" "I have no time to explain now," said Dumbledore. "It is a thrilling tale, I wish to do it justice." He smiled at Harry, who understood that he was not being snubbed, and that he had permission to keep asking questions. "Sir — I got a Ministry of Magic leaflet by owl, about security measures we should all take against the Death Eaters. . . ." "Yes, I received one myself," said Dumbledore, still smiling. "Did you find it useful?" "Not really." "Why?"
"No, I thought not. You have not asked me, for instance, what is my favorite flavor of jam, to check that I am indeed Professor Dumbledore and not an impostor." "I didn't. . ." Harry began, not entirely sure whether he was being reprimanded or not. "For future reference, Harry, it is raspberry. . . although of course, if I were a Death Eater, I would have been sure to research my own jam preferences before impersonating myself." "Er. . . right," said Harry. "Well, on that leaflet, it said something about Inferi. What exactly are they? The leaflet wasn't very clear." "They are corpses," said Dumbledore calmly. "Dead bodies that have been bewitched to do a Dark wizard's bidding. Inferi have not been seen for a long time, however, not since Voldemort was last powerful. . . . He killed enough people to make an army of them, of course. This is the place, Harry, just here. . . ." They were nearing a small, neat stone house set in its own garden. Harry was too busy digesting the horrible idea of Inferi to have much attention left for anything else, but as they reached the front gate, Dumbledore stopped dead and Harry walked into him. "Oh dear. Oh dear, dear, dear." Harry followed his gaze up the carefully tended front path and felt his heart sink. The front door was hanging off its hinges. Dumbledore glanced up and down the street. It seemed quite deserted. "Wand out and follow me, Harry," he said quietly. He opened the gate and walked swiftly and silently up the garden path, Harry at his heels, then pushed the front door very slowly, his wand raised and at the ready. "Lumos." Dumbledore's wand tip ignited, casting its light up a narrow hallway. To the left, another door stood open. Holding his illuminated wand aloft, Dumbledore walked into the sitting room with Harry right behind him. A scene of total devastation met their eyes. A grandfather clock lay splintered at their feet, its face cracked, its pendulum lying a little farther away like a dropped sword. A piano was on its side, its keys strewn across the floor. The wreckage of a fallen chandelier flittered nearby. Cushions lay deflated, feathers oozing from slashes in their sides; fragments of glass and china lay like powder over everything. Dumbledore raised his wand even higher, so that its light was thrown upon the walls, where something darkly red and glutinous was spattered over the wallpaper. Harry's small intake of breath made Dumbledore look around. "Not pretty, is it?" he said heavily. "Yes, something horrible has happened here." Dumbledore moved carefully into the middle of the room, scrutinizing the wreckage at his feet. Harry followed, gazing around, half-scared of what he might see hidden behind the wreck of the piano or the overturned sofa, but there was no sign of a body. "Maybe there was a fight and — and they dragged him off, Professor?" Harry suggested, trying not to imagine how badly wounded a man would have to be to leave those stains spattered halfway up the walls. "I don't think so," said Dumbledore quietly, peering behind an overstuffed armchair lying on its side. "You mean he's — ?" "Still here somewhere? Yes." And without warning, Dumbledore swooped, plunging the tip of his wand into the seat of the overstuffed armchair, which yelled, "Ouch!" "Good evening, Horace," said Dumbledore, straightening up again. Harry’s jaw dropped. Where a split second before there had been an armchair, there now crouched an enormously fat, bald, old man who was massaging his lower belly and squinting up at Dumbledore with an aggrieved and watery eye. "There was no need to stick the wand in that hard," he said gruffly, clambering to his feet. "It hurt." The wandlight sparkled on his shiny pate, his prominent eyes, his enormous, silver, walruslike mustache, and the highly polished buttons on the maroon velvet jacket he was wearing over a pair of lilac silk pajamas. The top of his head barely reached Dumbledore's chin. "What gave it away?" he grunted as he staggered to his feet, still rubbing his lower belly. He seemed remarkably unabashed for a man who had just been discovered pretending to be an armchair. "My dear Horace," said Dumbledore, looking amused, "if the Death Eaters really had come to call, the Dark Mark would have been set over the house." The wizard clapped a pudgy hand to his vast forehead.
