Forbidden Love ~ Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 30

"No." Dumbledore croaked, sitting on the staircase. "Severus. Severus is who I need. Wake him. Tell him what happened. Speak to no one else. Severus, Harry."

"I can go get him." I offered in a rush. I quickly ran to the staircase but stopped when I heard the door at the bottom open. 

"Sophia! Get back here. Hide yourselves below." Dumbledore ordered. "Don't speak or be seen by anybody without my permission. Whatever happens, it's imperative you two stay below."

"Come on, Harry." I urged. I pulled him down to the level underneath the highest floor and we looked through a hole in the ceiling to see what was going on. It was Draco. 

"Good evening, Draco. What brings you here on this fine spring evening?" Dumbledore asked innocently. 

"Who else is here? I heard you talking." Draco hissed, his wand pointed at Dumbledore. 

"I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful. Have you been whispering to yourself, Draco? Draco, you are no assassin." Dumbledore spoke quietly. 

"How do you know what I am? I've done things that would shock you." Draco replied. 

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she'd bear a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison? Forgive me, Draco. I cannot help feeling these actions are so weak, that your heart can't really have been in them." I watched as Dumbledore tried to calm Draco down. 

"He trusts me. I was chosen!" Draco pulled up his sleeve, revealing his Dark Mark. 

"Then I shall make it easy for you." Dumbledore pulled out his wand. 

"Expelliarmus!" Draco quickly disarmed the man in front of him. 

"Very good. Very good." I turned to the door when we heard it open again. "You're not alone. There are others. How?"

"The Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. I've been mending it." Draco answered as Harry backed up, his wand pointed at Draco. 

"Let me guess. It has a sister, a twin." Dumbledore said. 

"In Borgin and Burkes. They form a passage." Draco nodded. 

"Ingenius. Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. Please let me help you." Dumbledore pleaded. 

"I don't want your help! Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you. Or he's gonna kill me." Draco cried out, his hand shaking violently. I watched Draco begin to lower his wand but  Bellatrix came into view, making his wand point back up at Dumbledore again. 

"Well, look what we have here." Bellatrix smirked. 

"Good evening, Bellatrix." Dumbledore called. "I think introductions are in order, don't you?"

"Love to, Albus, but I'm afraid we're all on a bit of a tight schedule. Do it!" Bellatrix hissed at Draco. 

"He doesn't have the stomach. Just like his father." Someone scoffed. I turned around when I heard a creak and jumped when I saw Professor Snape. Harry noticed too and turned to him. Snape slowly put a finger over his lips, lowering his wand. 

"Do it, Draco! Now!" Bellatrix screamed. 

"No." Snape spoke after he ran up the steps. I watched Dumbledore look down at us. 

"Severus. Please." Dumbledore whispered. 

"Avada Kedavra." Snape shot the green spell right at Dumbledore and I covered the scream that tried to escape with my hand as he fell off the Astronomy Tower. 

"Harry!" I cried, trying to grab onto him as he ran after the Death Eaters, but he was too strong. 

I sat on the floor and cried at what I just witnessed for what felt like hours before getting up and running down to the courtyard. When I arrived, a few people were gathered around Dumbledore's body, crying. 

"Get away, now!" I ordered a group of young kids. "Come here." 

"Oh, Miss Greengrass." Professor McGonagall gasped as the kids ran into my arms, sobbing on my shirt. "What happened?"

"The Death Eaters, Professor. Snape killed Dumbledore." I shakily answered, hugging the kids tighter. "D-Did they see it?"

"I think so." She frowned. 

By the time the kids calmed down, everyone had come outside and formed a circle around Dumbledore's dead body. I heard Harry push through the crowd and watched as he fell onto his knees beside Dumbledore. Harry picked up the Horcrux and placed his hand on Dumbledore's chest, beginning to cry. I handed the kids over to Professor McGonagall and slowly knelt beside Harry, hugging him tightly as he cried. 

"Do you think he would've done it?" Hermione asked us as we leaned on the railing of the Astronomy Tower. "Draco?"

"No. No, he was lowering his wand. In the end, it was Snape." Harry answered.

"It was always Snape, wasn't it?" I rhetorically asked. 

"And I did nothing." Harry nodded. 

"Don't say that." I whispered. Harry handed me the Horcrux. 

"It's fake." Harry told us. "Open it." 

I opened the locket slowly, revealing a folded paper inside. I looked up at Hermione who pulled the small paper out and unfolded it. 

"To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B." Hermione read. 

"R.A.B." I repeated. "Sounds familiar, those initials."

"Don't know." Harry shrugged. "But whoever they are, they have the real Horcrux. Which means it was all a waste. All of it." 

"You didn't know, Harry. No one did, not even Dumbledore." I tried, placing my hand in his. 

"I've got to finish whatever Dumbledore started. And I don't know where that'll lead me, but I'll let you know where I am when I can." Harry promised. 

"I've always admired your courage, Harry." Hermione started. 

"I think he's an idiot, but that's just me." I shrugged. "Sometimes he can be really thick." 

"You don't really think you're going to be able to find all those Horcruxes by yourself, do you?" Hermione asked. 

"You need us, Harry." I continued.

"I never realized how peaceful this place was." Harry said after a few seconds of silence. 

We looked up and saw Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, flying around above us and letting out cries. The four of us walked to the other side of the Astronomy Tower while we watched Fawkes fly away into the sunset. 

"I love you. All of you." I told them.

"We love you too." 

~1633 Words~