Chapter 148 : The Missing Portrait

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"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, as he made his way, bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password… excuse me, I'm Head Boy…" And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. If anyone thought of Dementors, they chose not to show it. Then, they heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

"Dumbledore?" Harry wondered out loud. What could be so important they needed Dumbledore? His mind inevitably travelled back to last year's attacks. But the basilisk was dead, he was sure of it. For better or for worse, anything he had ever set out to kill died. And not even the king of serpents could have survived the events of last June.

Dumbledore soon appeared and the Gryffindors parted so he could walk through. Harry was one of the few that followed him. From afar the portrait seemed to still be closed but the Fat Lady wouldn't abandon her post while there was a feast downstairs. It only took a quick look to understand why the portrait still seemed closed. The frame was still attached to the wall alright. It was the rest of the painting that was missing.

The canvas was torn badly, shreds of various sizes hanging from the mangled remains of what once was the portrait of the Fat Lady. The woman herself must have fled -and thankfully so- for Harry couldn't discern any trace of pink neither on what pieces of the painting were still hanging from the frame nor on the larger parts on the floor. Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see McGonagall, Remus, and Severus hurrying toward him.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady." Severus observed the painting with barely restrained fury; there was only one man that would have something to gain from such a desperate move. He had never expected Pettigrew to have anything even resembling a backbone but there was no other explanation that occurred to him at the moment. Maybe the rat's escape had been something more than it appeared to be…

"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice, interrupting his trail of thought. One look over his head easily betrayed the source of the sound to be Peeves. Not that he knew another being with such a gratingly mocking voice. And the poltergeist looked delighted about something; that was never a good sign.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, effectively wiping the smirk off the ghost's face; even Peeves with his obnoxious nature didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. I suppose he's good for something after all, Severus mused.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly, his smirk having returned tenfold. Severus had to hold back his own smirk; he had caught Harry rolling his eyes exasperatedly with the corner of his eye, a reaction that made him look so much like him it was more than amusing, despite the situation.

"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly. It was obvious to those who knew him that he was just waiting for a confirmation of his fears.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. Denying himself the pleasure of casting a Scurgify on the ghost, Severus waited for the rest of the explanation. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "For such a short man he's got a nasty temper, that Peter Pettigrew." One look between Severus and Harry was enough to get the message across. The message in question happened to be "bloody hell" as both had hoped for a calm Halloween this time.

The students were led to the Great Hall, as the professors were dispatched to search the whole castle. Dumbledore conjured sleeping bags for them all with a rather impressing transformation spell and then joined the search, leaving a rather pompous looking Percy Weasley in charge.

As Hermione berated their classmates over how it was impossible to enter the school magically, hinting on the wards and the Dementors, Harry just looked at the enchanted ceiling thoughtfully. Even if Hermione wasn't supposed to tell -and neither was Adrian, Ron or himself- the part of how Peter had entered the castle, considering he could turn into a mouse, was halfway explained.

That is if one excepted how it should have been impossible to enter the school as all passageways had been warded specifically to keep animagi out -the enchantment being lifted only when either Sirius or Professor McGonagall were passing through, a fact that had been troubling mostly for Severus; he had had to come up with excuses as to why he couldn't use the passageways, his way out of an inquiry being none other than Sirius who had apparently volunteered to patrol the secret entrances. Severus had easily refused to work so close to Sirius and the Headmaster, wanting to avoid a confrontation, had acquiesced. That of course didn't allow Harry to use the passageways out either, but that hadn't posed a problem so far.

Still a question remained to be answered; why in the world would Pettigrew try to sneak in the first night this term when nobody was inside the Common Room? If he wanted to attack Adrian, all he had to do was wait a little longer for the children to arrive. Then again, he would have to go through an entire Hogwarts House and he didn't have a wand. Any student above the fourth year -and then there was himself and of course Adrian- could have easily stopped him. If they were awake that is. But even if they weren't before, someone would have woken up and noticed a man carrying Adrian Potter away.

It just made no sense. The man was either desperate, Harry thought, or was following some sort of a plan. And considering that he wasn't the brightest man around from what he had heard so far, if he was following a plan he wasn't in this alone. And it seemed he wasn't the only one with such an opinion; Severus approached Dumbledore a few hours later, posing the exact same question. Why in the world would Pettigrew, a man that cared only ever for his own hide, behave so recklessly?.

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