94 Diagon Alley

Okay, Draco. "

Malfoy took a few steps forward and looked around quickly to see if there was anyone other than him and Dumbledore. His eyes fell on the second broom.

"Who else is here?"

"I was about to ask you that. Are you alone?"

Under the green light of the Dark Mark, Harry saw Malfoy's pale eyes fixed on Dumbledore again.

"No," he said. "I have my back. The Death Eaters broke into the school tonight."

"Good, good," Dumbledore said, as if Malfoy had shown him an ambitious homework plan, "really good. You figured out how to put them in ,yes?"

"That's right," Malfoy said, breathing a little too quickly, "right under your nose and you never noticed!"

"How ingenious," Dumbledore, "but... take the liberty of asking... where are they now? You seem alone."

"They ran into a few of your guards and were fighting down there. It won't be too long...I'll come up myself first. I—I have a job to do."

"Okay, then do it, my dear boy," said Dumbledore gently.

Silence. Harry was imprisoned under his invisibility cloak, unable to move. He looked at the two people in front of him, his ears focused on the sound of the Death Eaters fighting in the distance. In front of him, Draco Malfoy just stared blankly at Albus Dumbledore, who laughed incredulously.

"Draco, you are not a murderer."

"How do you know?" Malfoy asked immediately.

He also seemed to realize how naive it sounded. Under the green light of the Dark Mark, Harry saw him blushing.

"You don't know what I'm capable of," Malfoy said, his tone turning fierce, "you don't know what I've done!"

"Oh, of course I know," said Dumbledore kindly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ron Weasley. You've been trying to figure it out all year. Kill me, and can't wait more and more. Forgive me for saying that, Draco, but you're doing it so lame... Honestly, it's lame, and I almost doubt you're doing it with any heart..."

"Of course I did!" Malfoy said excitedly, "I've been working on this all year, and tonight—"

Harry heard a dull cry from somewhere in the castle below. Malfoy froze, turning his head to look behind him.

"Someone's resisting." Dumbledore said casually, "You just said... yes, you said you finally managed to get the Death Eaters into my school, I admit it. , I thought it was impossible... how did you do it?"

But Malfoy didn't answer, he was still listening to the movement below, and he seemed to be as frozen as Harry, unable to move.

"Perhaps you should have done the work alone." Dumbledore advised him, "What if your backup was defeated by my guards? You may have found out, too. There are still members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight. You don't need help anyway...I don't have a wand at the moment...no way to protect myself."

Malfoy just stared at him.

"I see," Dumbledore said gently to Malfoy, seeing that he was neither moving nor speaking, "you're afraid, you won't dare to do anything until they come up."

"I'm not afraid!" Malfoy roared fiercely, but he still did not hurt Dumbledore. "It should be you who is afraid!"

"But why? I don't think you're going to kill me, Draco. Killing isn't as easy as most people think... well, while we wait for your friends. Come on, tell me... how did you sneak them in? It seems like it took you a long time to figure this out."

Malfoy seemed to be trying desperately not to scream or vomit. He swallowed and took a few deep breaths, staring hard at Dumbledore, his wand pointed at Dumbledore's chest. Then, he seemed to say involuntarily, "I had to fix that broken vanishing cabinet that hadn't been used for years. It's the one that Monta locked in and couldn't get out of last year."

"Ah-"

Dumbledore's sigh was like a moan/groan. He closed his eyes for a while.

"Smart idea...I remember there were two in the cabinet, didn't I?"

"The other is in the Borgin-Bock store," Malfoy said. "They made a passage between the two cabinets. Monty told me he was locked up at the Hogwarts one. When he was in the cabinet, he couldn't move his whole body, but sometimes he could hear the movement in the school, and sometimes he could hear what was happening in the store, as if the cabinet was running around in these two places, but no one could hear him. The voice... In the end, he managed to escape by Apparating, even though he failed his exam. His apparition nearly killed him. Everyone thought it was a funny story, only I realized what it meant - Not even Borgin - I'm the only one who realizes that if I fix that broken locker, I'll be able to enter Hogwarts through two vanishing lockers."

"Very good," murmured Dumbledore, "so that the Death Eaters can enter the school from the Borgin-Bock store to help you...a clever plan, a very clever plan ...and, as you said, right under my nose..."

"Yeah," said Malfoy, oddly seemingly taking courage and comfort from Dumbledore's praise, "yes, that's it!"

"But there are times," Dumbledore continued, "you can't be sure you'll be able to fix the cabinet, can you? That's when you take some clumsy, ill-conceived measures, like Give me a necklace that has been enchanted, in fact, it will definitely fall into someone else's hands... and poison mead, in fact, the possibility of me drinking that wine is very small..."

"Yeah, but you still don't know who planned these things, do you?" Apparently his legs were exhausted, and the speechless Harry struggled desperately to free himself from the spell that bound him, but to no avail.

"Actually I already knew that," said Dumbledore. "I believe you did it."

"Then why didn't you stop me?" Malfoy asked.

"I tried, Draco. Professor Snape has been watching you at my orders—"

"He didn't obey you, he promised my mother-"

"Of course he'll tell you that, Draco, but—"

"He's a double agent, you stupid old man, he didn't work for you at all, you're still in the dark!"

"Let's just disagree, Draco. I happen to trust Professor Snape—"

"Hmph, you're losing control of him!" Malfoy sneered, "He kept offering to help me—trying to take the credit—trying to do something—'You're in What? You made that necklace? It's stupid, it's going to reveal it—'but I didn't tell him what I was doing in the Room of Requirement, and by the time he wakes up tomorrow morning, it's all done, and he won't do it again. He won't be the Dark Lord's darling anymore, he's nothing compared to me, nothing!"

"How comforting." Dumbledore said softly, "It goes without saying that we all want to be appreciated for our hard work...but you must have an accomplice... There's someone in Germaud who can shove Katie that—that—ah…”

Dumbledore closed his eyes again and nodded slightly, as if he was about to fall asleep. "... Needless to say... it's Rosmerta. How long has she been under the Imperius?"

"You finally figure it out, don't you?" said Malfoy mockingly.

There was another shout from below, louder than the previous one. Malfoy turned his head uneasily again, then looked back at Dumbledore. Dumbledore continued: "Because, poor Rosemerta had to hide in her own toilet and shove that necklace to any Hogwarts student who went to the toilet alone? And the poisoned bottle. Mead... of course Rosmerta could poison that bottle for you and sell it to Slughorn, thinking it'd be a Christmas present for me... yeah, very ingenious... very ingenious ...poor Filch never thought to check Mrs. Rosmerta's wine... so tell me, how did you and Rosemerta get in touch? We strictly check all communications in and out of the school ah."

"Magic coin," said Malfoy, who seemed to have to keep going, his wand-holding hand shaking violently, "I have a coin and she has one, I can get her a message—"

"The secret contact method used by the group calling itself 'Dumbledore's Army' last year?" Dumbledore asked. His voice was easy and friendly, but Harry saw him slide another inch down the wall as he spoke.

"Yes, I learned from them." Malfoy said with a grin, "I heard the idea of ​​poisoning mead from Granger, I heard her in the library Said Filch couldn't recognize the potion..."

At this time, Harry saw Dumbledore's feet slipping on the ground, and he held himself up to prevent himself from collapsing, "As for you taking my life, Draco, it's over. It's been a few minutes. Week