The [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Portkey|Portkey]] delivers [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Harry Potter|Harry]] to [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Albus Dumbledore|Dumbledore]]'s office, which has been repaired after [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Order of the Phoenix/Chapter 27|Dumbledore's spectacular escape]]. Harry is deeply stunned and angry over [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Sirius Black|Sirius]]' death and blames himself for falling for [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Lord Voldemort|Voldemort]]'s deception. Dumbledore soon arrives, to cheersthe from thecheering portraits in his office, and places [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Fawkes|Fawkes]] tenderly on the ashes under his perch. He tells Harry the other students are being tended to by [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Poppy Pomfrey|Madam Pomfrey]]. [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Nymphadora Tonks|Tonks]] was also injured, but she has been taken to [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries|St. Mungo's hospital]] and will recover.
Harry rages at Dumbledore, but when Dumbledore claims responsibility for Sirius' death, Harry is subdued. Dumbledore admits that if he had been more open, Harry would have realized that Voldemort was luring Harry into a trap at the Department of Mysteries. Dumbledore explains to a still seething Harry that thewhen events thatVoldemort gave him his scar, it also left a mental connection between Harryhim and VoldemortHarry. Voldemort discovered this gateway after [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Arthur Weasley|ArthurMr. Weasley]] was attacked, and he then startedbegan intruding into Harry's thoughts. Dumbledore says that is why he had insisted Harry study [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Occlumency|Occlumency]] and why he remained aloof from Harry all year, fearing that Voldemort would try harder to break into Harry's mind if he suspected there was more than a teacher-to-student relationship between them, or that Voldemort would gain valuable information through him. Harry tells him that he tried to contact Sirius to see if he was safe;
Dumbledore says [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Kreacher|Kreacher]] lied,thatto Harry when he tried to contact Sirius, who was actually withtending to [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Buckbeak|Buckbeak]], tending an injury inflicted by Kreacher. After Harry,inwarned [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/DoloresSeverus UmbridgeSnape|UmbridgeProfessor Snape]]'soffice, had spoken toin [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/SeverusDolores SnapeUmbridge|Professor SnapeUmbridge]]'s office, Snape had checked to see that Sirius was safe;. butBut when Harry didfailed notto return from the [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Forbidden Forest|Forbidden Forest]], he alerted the [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Major Events/Order of the Phoenix|Order]], who then went to the [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Ministry of Magic|Ministry]]. Snape wanted Sirius to remain at [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Grimmauld Place|Headquarters]], but Sirius ordered Kreacher to tell Dumbledore what had happened, and then left for the Ministry for the others. And Dumbledore learned from Kreacher about the lie that had been told to Harry, and that Kreacher's instructions had originated with the last member of the Black family that Kreacher respected: [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Narcissa Malfoy|Narcissa Malfoy]]. Kreacher could not betray the Order totally, but he could reveal to Narcissa that the one thing that would always bring Harry was a threat to Sirius Black.
Harry is angry that Snape disbelieved him when he told Snape what was happening; Dumbledore says that Snape had to behave that way in Umbridge's presence. Harry argues that Snape had been using Occlumency to soften him up for Voldemort, saying his scar always hurt worse after a lesson. Dumbledore reiterates his complete faith in Snape's loyalty. He regrets not teaching Harry himself, but he feared it could give Voldemort access to his own thoughts. Sadly, he underestimated Snape's deep, lingering resentments towards [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/James Potter|Harry's father]].
