Obliviate my Destiny {Book 5}

37. Lay me down

There would still be the snake left, but somebody could take care of that. Ron, Hermione, Cole or Gennie.... We were told to confide in them, so our word would live on, pass through the ages in our friends.

The two of us slowly walked out of the office together, feeling like we were walking on top of a glass tightrope. If we moved from our path, for even a second, the plan would shatter. If we said goodbye, we couldn't accept it—our friends wouldn't accept it, and resistance would crumble.

The castle was empty as we walked through together, we were two silent ghosts flitting through a place that wouldn't remember us soon enough. We were wandering in an empty body, any sustaining life being in the Great Hall, the heart of Hogwarts itself.

Harry pulled the cloak over us as we descended the stairs, and I felt even more connected to my brother. Wearing our father's cloak, we would all be together in the end....

Harry and I had been reunited for a reason, I could see that now. We were put together to find the horcruxes, find our loyalties before we died together. But I didn't regret meeting my brother, not one bit.

But then as we exited passed the entrance hall, we caught sight of Neville helping others carry bodies into the castle, to be reunited with their family for the last time. With a lump in my throat, I looked into the crowded Great Hall.

People were constantly on the move, hugging the dead and loved ones, offering first aid and comfort. I couldn't see anybody I loved—Draco, Lacey, Gennie, Cole, Ron, Hermione—and I felt another stab at not seeing them one last time.

But I suppose it was easier this way.

Squeezing Harry's hand, we headed into the darkness that would soon be all we would see. It was almost four in the morning, and I rubbed a finger over Jenna's watch. I had twigged from Mark's memories that it was not the Parkinson's who gave her a coming of age watch—it was Mark himself who'd given up everything to be with the squib girl.

"He can kill the snake," Harry whispered to me, nodding at Neville who was bending over a namelss body. "C'mon."

"Neville," Harry said softly as he pulled off the cloak, and Neville clutched at his chest.

"Blimey, Harry, Rory you both nearly gave me heart failure!" he frowned, looking at our serious expressions, linked hands. "Where are you two off, alone?"

"Part of the plan," I said, which wasn't a lie. "We have to do something, urgently. Neville, listen to us—"

"Rory...." Neville looked suddenly scared. "Aurora, you're not thinking of handing yourself over?"

"No," Harry lied easily, "'Course not . . . this is something else. But I might be out of sight for a while. You know Voldemort's snake. Neville? He's got a huge snake . . ."

"I've heard, yeah . . . What about it?"

"It's got to be killed. Ron, Cole, Gennie and Hermione know that, but just in case they ---" My voice choked off at the end of the sentence.

I felt like Lacey was shoving a pillow over my face again when I was six years old, suffocating wanting to let everything out but trapped. The thought of not knowing what would happen to my friends—would they die, or would they live?—made me want to keep fighting, but I had to be like Sam, cool in the face of death.

We would die, but others would know about Nagini and horcruxes, they could carry on the holy grail that could end this.

"But—just, kill the snake." I finished, trying to calm my voice.

"Kill the snake?"

"Kill the snake," Harry repeated.

"Are you two okay?" Neville frowned.