"Professor, I wasn't going to the Forbidden Forest. I was going to find Hagrid. I—I was half-asleep and forgot that Hagrid wasn't there anymore."
His voice squeezed out of his throat, hoarse and carrying the panicked air of I know this excuse is stupid, but it's true. His fingers clenched around the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white. "I saw him at the Ministry of Magic. He'd gotten thinner, older, and his eyes were bloodshot. They locked him in a basement without even a window, bound him in chains, and he couldn't even stand up."
McGonagall's finger tapped lightly against the desk. The sound was soft, but it was like a needle piercing Harry's increasingly rapid stream of words. "Hagrid is not your concern." Her voice was flat, as still as a windless lake, but something churned beneath its surface, leaking through her faintly trembling eyelashes and tightly pressed lips. "The Board of Governors will handle it. The Ministry of Magic will handle it. You are a student. Your task is to study, take your exams, and earn your O.W.L.s."
"But Dumbledore—" Harry's voice rose.
"Dumbledore is gone." McGonagall cut him off. Her voice was not loud, but the exhaustion and anger forced through her clenched teeth, suppressed for far too long, rose like a wall from the ground and abruptly blocked Harry's words. She removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose hard. The gesture was brief, as brief as an unnatural blink, but when she lowered her hand, the shadows beneath her eyes were darker than before. "Mr. Potter, as a second-year Gryffindor, your first priority is learning how to protect yourself. With you currently under suspicion of being the 'Heir,' stop causing trouble everywhere. Do you know what I thought when Filch put