"Huff-hah-"
Harry's head jerked out of the Pensieve. He gasped for breath, his chest heaving.
Ron hurried over, his face full of concern. "What did you see?"
Harry swallowed. Instead of answering, he hastily shut the cupboard and pulled Ron toward the door. "Let's get out of here first!"
"Damn it! I'll make sure Dumbledore expels you!"
As Harry and Ron hurried down the spiral staircase, Phineas's roar followed them. "You'll never set foot in Hogwarts again!"
They paid no attention to the old man's fury. Passing through the Gargoyle's doorway, they put the Invisibility Cloak back on and quickly left the Seventh Floor.
Back in the Headmaster's Office, the previously furious Phineas stopped shouting. A smile suddenly appeared on his face, and he positively glowed.
"Wonderful! What a flawless performance!" Thoroughly pleased, Phineas praised his own acting.
He also thought those two boys were hopelessly stupid. They hadn't noticed anything amiss at all.
For instance-why had every other portrait fallen asleep, while he alone remained wide awake? Or why had the cupboard holding the Pensieve been left slightly ajar?
And then there was-
How could Dumbledore possibly use his own name as the password?
What Phineas didn't know was that Harry and Ron hadn't figured out the password at all. They had only managed to enter the Headmaster's Office because they happened to mention Dumbledore during their conversation.
Had he known that Harry thought the password was Rock Cakes, he would have been even more convinced of the Chosen One's stupidity.
Everything that had happened in this office tonight had been a trap laid by Vaughn and Dumbledore, specifically for Harry.
That trap had been set in motion the moment Sirius escaped from prison.
In fact, Vaughn was the one directing it all. Dumbledore hadn't been deeply involved. After