Chapter 81 (Year 6)

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Theodora POV-

After dropping the darkness powder, and seeing Draco's confused face I ran, I could hear the others running out of the room of requirement, but I didn't care which way they went or what they were doing, I needed to complete my mission.

Once I got up to the tower, I saw the dark mark had been cast over the tower. All I had to do was wait. Finally, after a couple of minutes, I heard two people land on the tower. There was some whispering before someone else ran out of the room.

"Expelliarmus!" I yelled, and surprisingly his wand had flown out of his hand easily.

"Good evening, Theodora," Dumbledore said, as I stepped out of the darkness.

"Who else is here?" I demanded, pointing my wand directly at him.

"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, I've got back-up. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well. Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah. Right under your nose and you never realized!" I panted.

"Ingenious. Yet... forgive me... where are they now? You seem unsupported." Dumbledore said. I scowled at him.

"They met some of your guards. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long... I came on ahead. I - I've got a job to do."

"Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear," Dumbledore said, I could hear some fighting from downstairs, I had even stepped over a body when I came up here, but I tried not to think of that, as I glared at Dumbledore.

"Theodora, Theodora. You are not a killer," He said, shaking his head at me.

"How do you know?" I snapped, sounding childish.

"You don't know what I'm capable of. You don't know what I've done!" I yelled,

"Oh, yes, I do," said Dumbledore mildly.

"You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Theodora, but they have been feeble attempts... so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it..."

You understand nothing!

I thought angrily, gripping my wand.

"It has been in it! I've been working on it all year, and tonight—" I heard a scream from downstairs, and I gulped, trying to steady my breath to calm down, as I looked behind my shoulder.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight. But you were saying... yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school which, I admit, I thought impossible... how did you do it?" I didn't say anything just yet.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," suggested Dumbledore.

"What if your backup has been thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realized, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight, too. And after all, you don't really need help... I have no wand at the moment... I cannot defend myself." I signed, chewing on my bottom lip.

"I see. You are afraid to act until they join you." He said,

"I'm not afraid! It's you who should be scared!"

"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Theodora. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe... so tell me, while we wait for your friends... how did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it."

Just do it, Just do it.

I thought, but instead, I said.

"I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years. The one Montague got lost in last year."

"Aaaah. That was clever... there is a pair, I take it?" Dumbledore asked. I explained what I had done to mend the cabinet and how I knew how to use it.

"There is little time, one way or another. So let us discuss your options, Theodora." Dumbledore said.

"My options! I'm standing here with a wand — I'm about to kill you—" I laughed,

"My dear, let us have no more of that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first disarmed me. You would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means."

"I haven't got any options!" I yelled.

"I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill him-he'll hill Draco! I can't let him kill Draco. I love him. I couldn't let him die, I can't!" I cried.

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position. Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized that I suspected you." I winced at the name.

"I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you, But now, at last, we can speak plainly to each other... no harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived... I can help you, Theodora."

"No, you can't. Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice." My wand was shaking even more now.

"Come over to the right side, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban... when the time comes we can protect him too... come over to the right side... you are not a killer..."

"But I got this far, didn't I? They thought I'd die in the attempt, but I'm here... and you're in my power... I'm the one with the wand... you're at my mercy..."

"No, Theodora. It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now." I stared at him, my wand dropping slightly before I heard four people's footsteps running upstairs.

Amycus, Alecto, Greyback, and a man I didn't know very well came upstairs. They taunted Dumbeldore, and me, saying I couldn't do it. I tried to ignore them as I kept my wand pointed at Dumbeldore.

Soon we heard someone else running upstairs, and Snape walked in.

"We've got a problem, Snape," said Amycus, whose eyes, and the wand were fixed alike upon Dumbledore,

"the girl doesn't seem able —"

"Severus..." A soft voice whispered, it came from Dumbledore who had slid against the wall, even more. He stared at Snape, who seemed frozen to the spot.

"Severus... please..." He whispered again. Snape raised his wand and pointed at Dumbledore.

"Avada Kedavra!" He yelled, and a green light flew out of Snape's wand and hit Dumbeldore straight in the chest. It felt like I was watching it in slow motion, as Dumbeldore fell out of the tower.

"Out of here, quickly!" Snape said. Snape grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him.

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