Location: Hogwarts Headmaster’s Office, late night. Present: R. Hagrid, A. Dumbledore.
HAGRID: We – we found another un.
DUMBLEDORE: [Without looking up from his papers] Ah. Did we?
HAGRID: Er – yeah. We did.
DUMBLEDORE: I see. [He looks up briefly, then returns to his papers.]
HAGRID: Well – er – do you want ter hear about it?
DUMBLEDORE: I am rather busy, Rubeus. Will you please –
HAGRID: Get on with it. Er, yeah. Yeah. Well. We found another un.
DUMBLEDORE: [Sighs, puts down his pen] Well. Do you know what to do?
HAGRID: Well, the thing is, Professor – Lil Harry saw it too.
DUMBLEDORE: Ah.
HAGRID: Lil Harry – and the Malfoy boy, Lucius’s brat –
DUMBLEDORE: Please, Rubeus, do not speak of our students in this manner.
HAGRID: Well, I’m just sayin’ – well, both of yer, er, young scholars, saw it.
DUMBLEDORE: The unicorn?
HAGRID: More’n that. They say – Harry at least – they say they saw – summat.
DUMBLEDORE: God help me, will no one give me a direct line of dialogue in this castle? What in heaven’s name did they see?
HAGRID: Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. Potter says he saw – well, I don’ like what he says he saw. Them centaurs put notions in his lil head. But – er – a person, he says. He says he saw a person.
DUMBLEDORE: Well, did we not know already that it was a person who was doing the deed?
HAGRID: A person – drinkin’ the blood, ‘Fessor.
DUMBLEDORE: Ah.
HAGRID: Why’re yeh lookin’ at me like that, sir?
DUMBLEDORE: You brought the boy into the Forest, by night, left him alone in the dark amidst acromantulas and bugbears with a school-yard rival and a mutt, all for the purpose of seeking out a noted atrocity deemed nigh unspeakable by wizarding society. If you wish to be appointed to professor, Rubeus, you ought to learn what to do with the fanciful tales of 11-year-old boys.
HAGRID: Yes, sir.
DUMBLEDORE: Have you dealt with the corpse?
HAGRID: I’m on it, sir.
DUMBLEDORE: Good. Good night.
[Dumbledore turns back to his papers. Hagrid pauses, then exits, closing the door behind him.]
DUMBLEDORE: [Turning his head briefly toward the fire] Did you hear that?
[B. Bode’s head appears in the fire.]
BODE: I did.
DUMBLEDORE: Fascinating.
BODE: What do you make of –
DUMBLEDORE: An oaf’s and a child’s testimony. If Quirinus has descended to drinking the, er –
BODE: Non-tradeables.
DUMBLEDORE: Yes, the non-tradeables – well, if that’s the case, then perhaps we truly have gone too far.
BODE: Nevertheless. If the boy believes it.
DUMBLEDORE: If the boy believes it – then we’ve done our part well. The imagination, Broderick – the child’s imagination – a far greater asset than we ever could have expected.
BODE: Certainly saves some work on our end.
DUMBLEDORE: Indeed. Let us hope that their elders are even half as amenable.
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THE PENSIEVE PAPERS 