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The first half of the page is still a split frame.

On the left side:

Draco and Luna have left the dungeon room; Draco closes the door behind zemself, but the flames are already intruding around the edge of the door.

LUNA: The door won't stop it for long!

DRACO: Sonorus! { The incantation for a spell that makes the caster's voice very loud. }

Draco shouts into the air: DRACO: Everybody wake up! There's Fiendfyre in the dungeons! Get moving if you want to live!

DRACO: Quietus. { The counterspell to Sonorus. }

Draco and Luna start running. DRACO: That'll wake Snape. He'll know what to do. Now let's get Harry and go!

On the right side of the page:

Harry drags the unconscious or barely-conscious Dumbledore out of the burning office, and shuts the door behind zem. Dumbledore lies on the ground; zir right hand is burnt and the sleeve is still on fire.

PRESENT HARRY: For all the people I'd killed... I couldn't bring myself to kill the one who had hurt me the most.

The two side of the page join again with Luna's zigzag transportation spell. Luna grabs Harry and they land ignominiously back at the tent. Luna and Harry have fallen over and Draco is on zir knees. The moon still shines brightly above.

LUNA: Oof! Sorry about the landing!

Draco looks at zir own hands.

(hide transcript)

In the books, the Headmaster's office can seal itself so securely that even powerful wizards can't get in. It would be strange if ordinary fire could get through the door.

I think the door in the dungeons is an ordinary door made of stone. If the Fiendfyre can burn through the door, does that mean it also burns all the walls? That could cause major structual damage to the castle! I can see a few different ways it could work:

  • It's like gas pressure and looks for the easiest way to expand. It will only burn rock until it breaks through into another open space.
  • It can't burn the door, but it can push through the cracks around the door. Eventually, there will be enough fire on the other side for it to start spreading there as well.
  • It can't burn very much rock, but it's intelligent or semi-intelligent. It likes killing people and/or destroying valuable objects, so it attacks the door on purpose in order to get to them.

Also, what can actually stop Fiendfyre from expanding? In the books, they escape by leaving a magical room that's different every time you enter it. But what if you cast Fiendfyre outdoors? Here are a few of the many possibilities:

  • It would actually burn the whole world, but only a few people have the skill and interest to learn to cast it, and none of those people have ever been stupid/omnicidal enough to try it.
  • It would burn the whole world, except that a lot of people know how to put it out by magic, even if it starts expanding out of control.
  • It doesn't actually gain power from expanding or burning things, and only expands until it runs out of the energy given to it by the person who cast it.

I think my favorite interpretation is that it's intelligent and can only expand by consuming magic, which it can get by burning magical objects or killing magical people. On the other hand, it can keep burning for a long time by just sitting in the same place, so if you seal it in, it's only safe until the seal is broken again.

In this particular situation, it's not very important to know how they dealt with it, so I haven't actually explained it in the comic itself. I'll explain it here, though. Snape knows about Fiendfyre because ze's studied the “Dark Arts” extensively. Snape doesn't try to go and extinguish it zemself, but blocks it, evacuates the students, and alerts the Ministry. At that point, Granger arrives. All Aurors know how to extinguish Fiendfyre, so ze quickly deals with it, with some help from Snape and the other professors. Normally, Dumbledore would be able to do that, but Dumbledore isn't in good shape right now.

Also, I decided that there's an old wizarding law that says, if you cast Fiendfyre and let it run wild, you must pay a penalty of fifty Galleons to the person who extinguishes it. In the present, Granger now knows that Zabini's family owes zem fifty Galleons. Ze hardly plans to collect.

Approximate readability: 8.01 (2265 characters, 522 words, 29 sentences, 4.34 characters per word, 18.00 words per sentence)