Half-Blood Princess Book Seven

Chapter 28 - Death

Third-Person POV

The two sit silently next to one another on the stairs, contemplating what they just found out. Slowly the two make their way down the stairs, towards the front doors, ready to face what they have to. They see Hermione and Ron sitting hand in hand on the stairs before she turns around and asks the two.

"Where have you been?" Her voice told them she was worried.

"We thought you went to the forest," Ron says, calming down, seeing as they didn't.

"We're going there now," Harry mutters, not stopping walking, Tilly also not stopping.

"Are you mad? No!" Ron calls after the two, confused as to why they would choose to die. "You can't give yourselves up to him." Ron reasons with two of his best friends, causing them to stop walking and slightly turn around slowly.

"What is it?" Hermione asks. "What is it, you know?" Hermione may ask this question, but the three know she already knows what they will say.

"There's a reason we can hear them... the Horcruxes."

"I think we've known for a while," Tilly says. "And I think you have, too." Tilly smiles lightly at her best friend, who gasps, figuring out what they mean.

"I'll go with you." She says, crying.

"No, kill the snake. Kill the snake, and then it's just him." Hermione nods, wrapping her arms around the two, pulling them into the tightest hug ever. The two look at Ron, both were nodding at him as he understands what is going on.

"Hermione, tell my Dad and Draco that... that-"

"I know." She nods to her best friend giving her one last hug as tears slip from their eyes. Ron steps forward, wrapping his arms around Hermione as the two walk away, down the stairs and out the door.

The two walk hand in hand through the courtyard, down the castle grounds and weave through the forest. Harry stops feeling something pulling at his heart; he turns, trying to find the thing stopping him, but finds nothing. Tilly looks at her brother handing him the snitch they caught in their first game of Quidditch. Harry brings it to his lips, but before pressing it against them, he looks at Tilly, confirming the same thing they have been thinking.

"I'm ready to die." She nods her head agreeing, knowing all too well only one of them with die from this. Tilly has known much longer than Harry. They must be killed, but the sad thing about it for Tilly is that it isn't just a part of Voldemort living inside her; he is and has always been a part of her since the day Lily was pregnant with her and Harry. It wasn't his soul that made her able to speak with snakes, nor her power, or her strength with both dark and light magic. That was all her, meaning him killing her won't change anything. But Harry... that part of Voldemort inside Harry must be killed, as must Tilly's, but Tilly's is a part of her, meaning the death of one is the death of the other.

The snitch opens, revealing the resurrection stone, Harry grasps it in his hand, and as the two look up, they see the faces of all the people they had supposedly lost. Harry quickly makes his way closer to his mum before Tilly can warn him, causing him to reach out only for his hand to go through hers. His face falls as he looks back at Tilly, who has a sad smile gracing her lips.

"You've been so brave, sweetheart," Lily says to her son before looking behind him at her daughter and the man walking up behind her. He rests his hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn around, locking eyes with her Dad, almost breaking down, believing him to be dead.

"No, no, you were alive when we left. You can't be dead."

"Pumpkin, I not dead. Only a small part of me." Tilly frowns, not following. "How many people here have you saved?" She sees everyone she's saved apart from Lily and James.