not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I

have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.

 

"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half

admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-

oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

 

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never

have."

 

"Only because you're too -- well -- noble to use them."

 

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she

liked my new earmuffs."

 

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are

nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's

saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

 

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious

to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day,

for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a

piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying,

she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true.

Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.