Dumbledore got up and put the Pensieve back in the cabinet. "Earlier, I heard Minerva and Filius say..."
"They successfully crossed the Animagus's 'Animal Instinct,' and used it to enhance the effects of certain magic."
"Yes!" Vizet nodded in confirmation. "Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall shared the practice method with me."
Dumbledore set the Pensieve straight. "From the sound of it, you should already have mastered that method. It seems we may have a chance to use..."
Before he could finish, Phoenix Fawkes had already flown over, hovering between him and Vizet, letting out a soft trill as if to say, "I'm ready."
Seeing Phoenix Fawkes like this, Vizet smiled and shook his head. "Headmaster Dumbledore, I actually haven't mastered that method yet."
"I guessed as much!" Dumbledore stroked his beard, then raised a hand to gently caress Phoenix Fawkes's long neck. "Fawkes, we'll have to trouble you to take us there this time."
"Little Hangleton... you should remember the place, yes? We went there once not long ago."
Phoenix Fawkes gave a long cry, nodded in an uncannily human way, and swayed his body lightly, flicking his tail feathers toward Vizet and Dumbledore before vanishing with them into the firelight.
Vizet and Dumbledore walked along a country lane. Perhaps because snow was falling here, the sky looked very dim, as if a huge pale-gray curtain had been hung up, blocking out the sunlight.
It was an extremely fierce storm of goose-feather snow. The strings of footprints Vizet and Dumbledore left behind were quickly buried beneath the falling snowflakes.
Dumbledore raised a hand and pointed into the distance. "The House of Gaunt used to live there."
Vizet turned his head slightly and looked in the direction of Dumbledore's finger, where he saw a house standing there.
Snow covered the