I came to as I was being carried up to Dumbledore's office, swaying in somebody's arms. My shoulder was throbbing in a kind of dull ache now, and my head was pounding. I blinked away the blurriness in my vision to see that it was Fred that was carrying me, white-faced, George and Terry beside him. Harry and Cedric were talking urgently to Dumbledore. Snape was dragging Floppy along by his arm, as he was loudly protesting. McGonagall was following behind. 

"You can't prove I did this!" Floppy screeched. "It was a Portkey! I just happened to touch it at the same time those dweebs did -" 

"Did you fuck." Fred snarled, but McGonagall shot him a look. 

Dumbledore halted inside McGonagall's office and everyone else did the same. He stared down at Floppy for a moment with disgust in his face. Then he raised his wand and ropes flew out of it, ropes which twisted themselves around Floppy, binding him tightly as the prat protested. 

Dumbledore turned to Professor McGonagall. "Minerva, could I ask you to stand guard here while I take Daisy upstairs?" 

"Of course." McGonagall said. She looked slightly nauseous, as though she had just watched someone being sick. However, when she drew out her wand and pointed it at Floppy, her hand was quite steady. 

"Severus, could you take the rest of the students to their families?" 

Snape nodded silently. 

"Daisy?" Dumbledore said gently. 

I blinked up at him from Fred's arms. Dumbledore gripped my arm, helping me out of Fred's hold, and took me out into the dark corridor again. 

"I want you to come up to my office first." He said quietly as we headed up the passageway. "Sirius is waiting for you there, Daisy. Your classmates' families are waiting for them elsewhere. They were contacted immediately once we found out that you were taken." 

I nodded. A kind of numbness and a sense of complete unreality were upon me, but I didn't care; I was even glad of it. I didn't want to have to think about anything that had happened since I had first touched Amy's eagle only a few hours ago. I didn't want to have to examine the memories, fresh and sharp as photographs, which kept flashing across my mind. Floppy, with his evil little smirk. Riddle, twirling his wand in his fingers before he uttered the Cruciatus Curse. Amy... dead... Amy, asking to be returned to her parents... 

"Professor," I mumbled, "where are Mr and Mrs Rolfing?" 

"They are with Professor Flitwick." Dumbledore said. His voice, which had been so calm throughout, shook very slightly for the first time. "He was Head of Amy's house, and knew her best." 

We had reached the stone gargoyle. Dumbledore gave the password, it sprang aside, and we went up the moving spiral staircase to the oak door. Dumbledore pushed it open. 

Sirius was standing there. His face was white and gaunt as it had been when he had escaped Azkaban. In one swift movement, he had crossed the room. "Daisy, are you all right? I knew it - I knew something like this - what happened?" 

His hands shook as he helped me into a chair in front of the desk. 

"What happened?" He asked, more urgently. 

Dumbledore began to tell Sirius about Floppy, but I was only half listening. I was so tired. Every bone in my body was aching, I wanted nothing more than to sit here, undisturbed, for hours and hours, until I fell asleep, and I didn't have to think or feel anymore. 

There was a soft rush of wings. Fawkes the phoenix had left his perch, flown across the office, and landed on my knee. 

"'Lo, Fawkes." I said quietly. I stroked the phoenix's beautiful scarlet and gold plumage. Fawkes blinked peacefully up at me. There was something comforting about his warm weight. 

Dumbledore had stopped talking. He sat down opposite me, behind his desk. He was looking at me, and I avoided his eyes. He was going to question me. He was going to make me relive everything. 

"I need to know what happened after you touched the Portkey beside the lake, Daisy." Dumbledore said. 

"We can leave that 'til morning, can't we, Dumbledore?" Sirius said harshly. He had put a hand on my shoulder. "Let her have a sleep. Let her rest." 

I felt a rush of gratitude towards Sirius, but Dumbledore took no notice of Sirius' words. He leant forward towards me. Very unwillingly, I raised my head, and looked into those blue eyes. 

"If I thought I could help you," Dumbledore said gently, "by putting you into an enchanted sleep, and allowing you to postpone the moment when you would have to think about what has happened tonight, I would do it. But I know better. Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you. I ask you to demonstrate your courage one more time. I ask you to tell us what happened." 

Fawkes let out one soft, quavering note. It shivered in the air, and I felt as though a drop of hot liquid had slipped down my throat into my stomach, warming me, and strengthening me. 

I took a deep breath, and began to tell them. As I spoke, visions of everything that had happened that night seemed to rise before my eyes; I saw the Death Eaters jeering as I was tortured; I saw Riddle's gleaming red eyes; I saw Amy's body, lying on the ground beside her eagle. 

I subconsciously reached into my robe pocket. The eagle was still there. I turned it over and over in my fingers as I talked. 

Once or twice, Sirius made a noise as though about to say something, his hand still tight on my shoulder, but Dumbledore raised his hand to stop him, and I was glad of this, because it was easier to keep going now I had started. 

"He was taunting me as he tortured me." I said, thinking back to when Riddle was crouched beside me, twirling his wand in his fingers as I shook from the after-shocks of the Cruciatus Curse. "He said something about when he made Wormtail cut my arm with a dagger - said he could do it again if he wanted, cut me more -" 

Sirius let out a vehement exclamation; and Dumbledore stood up so quickly that I started. He walked around the desk and told me to stretch out my arm. I showed them both the place where my slowly fading scar from nearly a year ago was. 

"He had said my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's." I remembered. "He said the protection my - my mother left in me - he'd have it, too. And he was right - he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face." 

For a fleeting instant, I thought I saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes. But next second, I was sure I had imagined it, for when Dumbledore had returned to his seat behind the desk, he looked as old and weary as I had ever seen him. 

I went on, describing our escape from the manor, and mine and Riddle's battle in the golden dome. Dumbledore guessed that the ghosts of Riddle's victims came from his wand. 

"She spoke to me." I said. I was suddenly shaking again. "The... the ghost Amy, or whatever she was, spoke." 

"An echo," said Dumbledore, "which retained Amy's appearance and character. I am guessing other such forms appeared... less recent victims of Voldemort's wand..." 

"An old man." I said, my throat constricted. "And..." 

"Your parents?" Dumbledore said quietly. 

"Yeah." I said. 

Sirius' grip on my shoulder was now so tight it was painful. 

"The last murders the wand performed." Dumbledore said, nodding. "In reverse order. More would have appeared, of course, had you maintained the connection. Very well, Daisy, these echoes, these shadows... what did they do?" 

I described how the figures had prowled the edges of the golden web, how Riddle had seemed to fear them, how the shadow of my father had told me what to do, how Amy's had made its final request. 

At this point, I found I could not continue. I looked around at Sirius, and saw that he had his face in his hands. 

"I will say it again." Dumbledore said. "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Daisy. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a grown witch's burden and found yourself equal to it - and you have now given us all that we have a right to expect. You will come with me to the hospital wing. I do not want you returning to the dormitory tonight. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace... Sirius, would you like to stay with her?" 

Sirius nodded, and stood up. He transformed back into the great black dog, and walked with me and Dumbledore out of the office, accompanying us down a flight of stairs to the hospital wing. 

When Dumbledore pushed open the door, I saw Mrs Weasley, Bill, Fred and George, Ron, Harry, Terry, Draco, Hermione, Cedric, and Dudley grouped around a harassed-looking Madam Pomfrey. Everyone who hadn't been with me appeared to be demanding to know where I was and what had happened to me, while the ones who had been with me were trying to explain over the noise. 

All of them whipped around as Dumbledore, the black dog, and I entered, and Mrs Weasley let out a kind of muffled scream. "Daisy! Oh, Daisy!" 

She started to hurry towards me, but Dumbledore moved between us. 

"Molly." He said, holding up a hand. "Please listen to me for a moment. Daisy has been through a terrible ordeal tonight. She has just had to relive it for me. What she needs now is sleep, and peace, and quiet. If she would like you all to stay with her," he added, looking around at the rest of the group, too, "you may do so. But I do not want you questioning her until she is ready to answer, and certainly not this evening." 

Mrs Weasley nodded. She was very white. She rounded on the rest of the group as though they were being noisy, and hissed, "Did you hear? She needs quiet!" 

"Headmaster," said Madam Pomfrey, staring at the great black dog that was Sirius, "may I ask what -?"

"This dog will be remaining with Daisy for a while." Dumbledore said simply. "I assure you, he is extremely well-trained." 

I felt an inexpressible sense of gratitude to Dumbledore for asking the others not to question me. 

"I will be back to see you as soon as I have met with Fudge, Daisy." Dumbledore said. "I would like you to remain here tomorrow, until I have spoken to the school." He left. 

As Madam Pomfrey led me to a nearby bed, I caught sight of the real Mad-Eye Moody lying motionless in a bed at the far end of the room. His wooden leg and magical eye were lying on the bedside table. 

"Is he okay?" I asked, feigning innocence. "What happened to him?" 

"He'll be fine." Madam Pomfrey said, giving me some pyjamas and pulling screens around me. I took off my robes, pulled on the pyjamas, and got into bed. Harry, Terry, Fred, George, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Cedric, Dudley, Bill, Mrs Weasley, and the black dog came around the screen and settled themselves in chairs on either side of me. My friends were looking at me almost cautiously, as though scared of me. 

"I'm all right." I told them. "Just tired." 

Mrs Weasley's eyes filled with tears as she smoothed my bed-covers unnecessarily. 

Madam Pomfrey, who had bustled off to her office, returned holding a goblet and a small bottle of some purple potion. 

"You'll need to drink all of this, Daisy." She said. "It's a potion for dreamless sleep." 

I slumped back against my pillows, taking the potion in my hands. Harry and Fred were watching me intensely, identical levels of worry in their faces. No one spoke for a very long time. 

This was the first time I'd ever seen the Weasley twins and Terry this quiet. 

"You've got to take your potion, Daisy." Mrs Weasley said at last. "You have a good long sleep. Try and think about something else for a while... think about what you're going to buy with your winnings!" 

I had almost forgot. Harry and I had won so much gold between us that the Insurgents were making plans all last night. 

"I can't." I said in an expressionless voice. "I was talking to Amy about it just before Floppy antagonised us. She should still be here. She should still be attempting to persuade me to give her a share in the business..." 

The thing against which I had been fighting on and off ever since we had returned was threatening to overpower me. I could feel a burning, prickling feeling in the inner corners of my eyes. I blinked and stared up at the ceiling. 

"It wasn't your fault, Daisy." Mrs Weasley whispered. 

"Yeah, you tell her, Mum." Fred said in an attempt to be humorous, but his voice sounded choked. 

"I let Floppy steal her eagle." I said. "If I had just looked after it better..." 

Now the burning feeling was in my throat, too. I wished Draco would look away. 

Mrs Weasley took the potion, set it down on the bedside cabinet, bent down, and put her arms around me. I had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything I had seen and that happened that night seemed to fall in upon me as Mrs Weasley held me to her. My mother's face, my father's voice, the sight of Amy, dead on the ground, all started spinning in my head until I could hardly bear it, until I was screwing up my face against the howl of misery fighting to get out of me. 

"Your potion, Daisy." Mrs Weasley said quietly, breaking apart from me slowly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. 

I drank it in one. I felt myself becoming drowsy at once. Everything around me became hazy; the lamps around the hospital wing seemed to be winking at me in a friendly way through the screen around my bed; my body felt as though it was sinking deeper into the warmth of the feather mattress. Heavy, irresistible waves of dreamless sleep broke over me, I fell back onto my pillows, and thought no more.