Harry had visited Dumbledore's office quite a few times that term. Though he could hardly claim to know his way around, it had certainly lost some of its mystery.
Hmm, Fawkes the phoenix by the door had grown even more beautiful. Harry looked at him with a little envy.
The phoenix paid no attention to Harry and Professor McGonagall as they entered, simply preening the beautiful feathers on his back with his golden beak.
It took Harry a great deal of effort to tear his eyes away from the phoenix and turn his attention to the room.
At a glance, Harry noticed something was not quite right. The room seemed considerably larger than he remembered. Well, that was hardly surprising. The professors often used expansion and extension magic to enlarge their classrooms during lessons.
Especially in Charms and Transfiguration, when they needed to do practical work. Practical work and theoretical study required entirely different spaces. They could hardly switch classrooms halfway through a lesson.
One corner of the room had been screened off with curtains.
Dumbledore sat by the window. Harry had never seen him look so grave, not even when Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey had been attacked.
Hagrid stood beside Dumbledore, looking somewhat ill at ease, nervous, and also frightened and dejected.
Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout sat on separate sofas, both wearing complex expressions. The main emotion seemed to be... sorrow?
Harry could sense emotions, and at that moment, sorrow hung heavily in the room.
Harry was a little surprised that these were the only people in the room. Snape was absent, as was Lockhart, who always liked to join in whenever something was happening.
"Everyone's here," Dumbledore said, straightening up when he saw Professor McGonagall bring Harry in. He pointed to the small table in front