The Last Lieutenant

Astronomy Tower (Pt 1)

There's a few moments of tumbling through the darkness where she thinks that she might never find her way out, but just when the panic threatens to set in, one of her hands made contact with something solid and she was yanked out into the room of requirement, falling at Draco's feet.

"Merlin."  She accepted the hand up and let's herself be dragged to her feet, wrapping an arm around Draco's shoulder, because despite how horrible this whole thing was, Audra could not help but be proud of him.  "Place has changed a bit since we last saw it, huh?"

The last time Audra had been standing here, the room had been half a classroom and half an armory, filled with everything the DA needed to train themselves and fight back against Umbridge.  Now, though, it was just a heaping mass of clutter, filled with everything that you could think of, anything that someone might need to hide.  You could walk in here for days and never find your way back to the door if you weren't careful.

"Changes all the time.  Now tell me,"  His voice is just a low hiss and he is careful to keep his expression neutral.  It seems that Audra isn't the only one who has gotten used to hiding things.  "What happened to the plan?"

The plan was that no one was actually going to get hurt.  That it would be her and Draco and maybe someone else, and Snape would meet them on the inside, and they would find their way to Dumbledore's office and end it right there, with no one the wiser and only one old man getting hurt.  But plans change, sometimes, and that one turned to dust the moment Audra got herself thrown in the dungeons. 

"We've got a new plan, now."  Audra heads to the door because she does not want to look at these people that she is leading into Hogwarts.  "Just try not to get yourself killed."

It only takes half a second for them to realize that they knew something was going to happen.

They get ambushed right outside the door, and even though Draco buys them time with instant darkness powder, they cannot outrun them forever.  The order had trained for this and all they had done was run through the plan, never thinking to make a second option in case things go wrong.  So they just push through.

Emmeline breaks the line first, and Audra knows without being told that the plan has changed, because she was running in the opposite direction of Dumbledore's office.  She tries to follow her (someone has to be there to stop things when they go to far, wasn't that the point of all of this, to show her true colors when they finally cross the line?) but then she comes face to face with Ginny and running wasn't an option.

"Come on."  Ginny's just got her wand half raised, frozen in place, unsure whether or not Audra is on her side.  It's a second of hesitation that would only get them both killed, and Audra uses it to grab her by the hair.  She throws her into the wall and when Ginny crumples to the ground, Audra leans down to her and stuffs the wand back into her hand.  "Fight me, Ginny."  Ginny's a little dazed, blinking through the haze of smoke and dust that had surrounded them, and Audra is losing time before she has to leave her to the wolves.  "You've got to fight me."

She never does have to fight her, as it turns out, because Bill casts a shield charm between them so powerful that Audra is knocked off her feet and into the air.  It knocks the wind out of her, but she still manages to raise an arm and block the spells that Bill is sending her way.

It's more her speed, dueling with Bill.  The spells are flashing by faster than Audra can tell what they are, both from him and wayward misses from the other dueling pairs, and even though she can hear other people crying out in pain, she cannot risk turning away long enough to lose his attention.  

"Audra."  There is hand on her shoulder, and in that moment Bill gets a shot in.  It's not a nice spell, not one the other members of the Order would dream of using, and Audra could feel the skin on her shoulder open up, the blood soaking into her robes.  Emmeline stops shaking her and supports her weight instead.  "We've got to go."

"No,"  Audra says, because leaving now would mean not being able to protect any of them, and she cannot do that.  This moment must have been what Dumbledore had been waiting on all year.  "I'm not finished yet."

She turns back to Bill, but then a body flies by her -Fenrir- and knocks him off his feet.  Audra lets out half a scream as she watches.  Bill's wand is rolling away from his outstretched hand and lands at his sister's feet, who is also screaming, and the whole time that Audra is watching them (just as Fenrir begins to bite, to rip and tear and shred the skin like he's a wolf in human clothing), Bill is watching her, blank eyes staring in her direction.

Audra wants to help him.  But she has a job to do, and Dumbledore, no matter how much he preaches about saving the little guy, is more important than anything of them.  Out of everyone, he is the one who must walk away from this fight.

"Okay."  Audra stumbles a bit and has to grab onto Emmeline for support, but they are already running, reaching out and snagging Draco by the collar to pull him along.  "Let's get this over with."

Dumbledore is alone.

He looks sick.  Audra's eyes seek out his hand on instinct, but it does not look any worse than it had the last time she came to visit him, so it must be something different.  He's hurt, and about to face five death eaters out for his blood.

"Do it, Draco."  Bellatrix is jeering. Draco looks like he might be sick.  Audra is just creeping to the front of the group, silently, until she is standing side by side with Snape.  "Quickly!"

"I'll do it,"  Fenrir snarled, and Audra almost threw her cover to the wind right then and there, because that was explicitly what Dumbledore dreaded happening the most, but Dolohov beat her to it- one flash of light and Fenrir was sent stumbling back.  Audra keeps her wand half raised out in front of her, but with one almost imperceptible shake of the head from Dumbledore, she lowers it again.  

"Draco."  Audra fought her way to reach him until they are shoulder to shoulder, and she tries to tell him, without saying anything at all, to stand down.  "Draco, do it or stand aside so one of us,"

She does not get to finish her sentence.  The slam of the doors cut her off and Audra's knees almost buckle with relief, because there, standing in the doorway and scanning the scene in front of him was Snape, Snape who knew the plan and knew how best to get them all out of this with no one getting hurt.  Snape, who could be the one in control, the one to save Dumbledore, the one to take this weight of her shoulders once and for all just like he promised he would.

But Severus doesn't always intend to keep his promises.

"Severus,"  Dumbledore whispers, the word drawn out and pleading, like this was Dumbledore's last hope in the world and was watching it wither and die right in front of him.  The whole thing was wrong, it wasn't right, because it should not be happening like this, this was not the plan, and yet Audra still did not move, because didn't Snape know best?

She just watched.  Watched as Severus took those few steps forward to stand at the front of the group, pushing Malfoy out of the way.  Audra catches him and just stares, until the moment where she catches sight of Snape's face, at the disgust burned into every single line, and it's only then that she realizes that he is not the good guy he is pretending to be.

"Severus,"  Dumbledore said, and even though she had not yet accepted it, somewhere in Audra's mind she knows she is witnessing the last moments of the great Albus Dumbledore.  "Please."

Snape raises his wand, and Audra tries to move forward without even bothering to think of her wand, intending to knock Dumbledore to the ground or take the brunt of the spell herself, if she has to, but Emmeline and Draco grab her by the arm, forcing her to the ground, and the three of them watch in a shared silent sense of disbelief as Dumbledore is thrown over the bannister and falls, limp and unfeeling, down to ground, unable to save himself, or her, or anyone else ever again.

dialogue at the end taken directly from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

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