Chapter 162 - Search for Professor Adric (1/2)

Near dawn at a corridor with an ugly gargoyle stands a witch with dark hair and sharp eyes with the beginnings of crows' feet. Her normally sleek hair is loose around her shoulders, but her square glasses neatly sit on the bridge of her nose. Shivering Deputy Professor McGonagall tightens her fluffy red bed robe around herself.

”Fizzing Wizzbee's,” Professor McGonagall said before heading up the spiraling staircase. The staircase swiftly rose higher and higher to stop before a gleaming oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin.

Professor McGonagall politely knocked but did not wait even for a response as she opened the door to find a rather sleepy-looking Dumbledore seated at his desk in a fluffy blue robe with matching pajamas and nightcap. ”Oh, this is quite early Minerva,” Dumbledore said as he gently took a sip of his earl gray tea.

”I know it's barely the crack of dawn, Professor Dumbledore,” McGonagall apologized. ”But I fear that we have an unprecedented problem.”

”Oh, has one of the children run off into the forbidden forest again?” Dumbledore said with a bit of a twinkle in his baby-blue eyes.

”No, Professor,” McGonagall sniffed. ”Rather one of our professors is missing.”

”Oh, dear, that is worrisome,” Dumbledore said as he gently tugged on his long beard.

From his perch, Fawkes lets out a loud cry as Dumbledore says, ”Yes, you're right, Fawkes, something must be done.”

Glancing up at the standing figure of McGonagall, Dumbledore says, ”And I don't wish to guess, but is it Professor Adric?”

”Why, yes, Professor,” Professor McGonagall said with some evident surprise on her face. ”How did you?”

”It could only be our new professor that would warrant such a reaction from you, Minerva,” Dumbledore said as he rose to his feet to reveal fluffy blue bed slippers with striped socks.

”Yes, well,” McGonagall stammered. ”I was merely concerned; he was not seen by Filch nor was he seen leaving the ground for Hogsmeade or into the forbidden forest. And I did stop by his classroom and chambers, but they are both empty. Nothing has been disturbed from the looks of it nor was his bed slept in.”

”Well, if you would be so kind as to rouse the rest of the house heads, Minerva,” Professor Dumbledore said as he grabbed a pinch of floo powder. ”I shall see you all downstairs in Professor Adric's office.”

”Of course, Albus,” McGonagall said as Dumbledore disappeared into the green flames.

Glancing about, Dumbledore emerged from the fireplaced peered through his half-moon spectacles as he tucked his morning robes closed. There was not much to look at as Professor's Adric's office was largely bare and stark. Beyond a bookshelf full of books, everything else was quite neat and organized. With this year's essays and practical exams all perfectly graded for each student. They were all neatly organized according to year and class in a neat pile on his desk.

Dumbledore nodded in appreciation as he mutters, ”It would be such a loss to lose such an organized young man.”

”What is this all about, Dumbledore?” Said, Professor Slughorn as he burst in tweed colored bed robes. His thick warm nightshirt could be seen barely reaching the tips of hairy shins. While his fat, swollen feet were stuffed into warm looking emerald slippers. ”It's the crack of dawn!”

”I know, Horace,” Dumbledore gently appeased him. ”But Professor Adric seems to have gone missing. He was not seen leaving the castle nor does his bed appear to have been slept in.”

”What?” Slughorn said with shock causing his beady eyes to widen. ”You surely don't suspect that one of us did it, now do you, Albus?!”

”No, Horace, I certainly do not believe that is the said,” Dumbledore said with a chuckle. ”But I do believe that more heads are better than one.”