"And right before your eyes
I'm aching
Run fast, nowhere to hide
Just you and me"
-CHAPTER ONE-
Narrated by an old friend
May 2, 1998
So here they are.
Arabella Goldstein and her friends were currently stuck in a little predicament.
Actually, the predicament is a bit of an understatement.
They are in a whole lot of shit.
Arabella was currently running for her life because some dumbass, that dumbass being Goyle, decided it would be a good idea to light the Room of Requirement on fire. Fiendfyre.
Harry, Arabella, Hermione, and Ron were all in the Room of requirement looking for the diadem of Ravenclaw; when they finally located the damned tiara, Draco Malfoy and his cronies decided to pay them a visit.
They couldn't have come at a worse time.
"Accio broomsticks" yelled Harry.
He has his moments of genius, and this is one of them.
"Bella, get on. COME ON STOP STARING AT THE FIRE!" shouted Hermione.
Hermione snapped in her face to get Arabella out of her little trance that honestly wasn't helping anyone at the moment.
"Right coming," Bella told her as she was getting on the back of the broomstick.
Arabella decided to close her eyes and pray to whoever was listening to get them out of there alive.
Harry and Ron put their Gryffindor bravery to the test by helping Draco and Crabbe get the hell out of the Room. Goyle didn't make it by the looks of it. Bella didn't feel bad because two minutes before he set the place on fire, he threw the killing curse at her. So let's just say the asshole deserved it.
Hermione was in charge of carrying the diadem, and just at the last minute of reaching the doors, she drops the tiara into the fire so it could be destroyed for good.
Despite being in a life-or-death situation, Arabella lets out a happy cheer for Hermione.
"Hell yeah 'Mione! Woohoo," Hermione giggled at her excitement.
Instead of landing on the floor gently, they crash. Arabella is sure she broke every single bone, but she does not have time to worry about her broken bones.
She had a war to win.
As soon as they recover from their fall, Ron, Arabella, and Hermione notice that Harry is on the floor panting, and pain ached all over his face.
"We have to get down to the docs. He's there. Voldemort is there." Harry said quickly.
"Right, lets go then. What are we waiting for." Said Arabella with an encouraging smile on her face. In reality, she wanted to cry because she was so scared, but she knew she couldn't do that, not yet at least.
----
The group all started running, dodging spells left and right. Arabella was one of the best duelists in Hogwarts. She was born with the natural ability to do wandless and nonverbal magic. She kept it a secret because her parents told her that people could take advantage of her power.
The castle was in ruins.
Hogwarts was once their beloved home now, it was left crumbling with rubble, ashes, and death was everywhere you looked.
Arabella and Harry were leading the pack with Hermione and Ron hot on their heels.
Once they got to the doc, Arabella heard a voice that sent shivers down her spine.
The dark lord, Voldemort, was there, but he wasn't alone.
Severus Snape.
The man that betrayed Dumbledore was there too.
They were talking about the elder wand and how the wand did not truly belong to Voldemort.
The elder wand is the most powerful wand in the world—the first deathly hallow given to the eldest Peverell brother.
Snape was reassuring Voldemort that the wand did answer him.
Snape sounded utterly out of character because, in his voice, Arabella could detect something.
Fear.
"Surely you must know Severus that the wand does not answer to me." Said Voldemort in an eerily calm voice.
"The elder wand," he continued, "belongs to the witch or wizard that killed its last owner. I don't recall killing Dumbledore. If my memory serves me correctly, that was you, Severus."
"My lord-"Severus started, but they never heard what he was going to say because Voldemort sent a curse his way and let Nagini finish him off.
Arabella looked away instead of looking through the window. She couldn't bring herself to look at her ex-professor.
Memories of seeing her parents came into her vision, for snape looked the same way her parents did. It must have been the same curse.
Harry ran inside and knelt in front of snape. They all knew he was dying, and there was nothing they could do, so they stayed with him until he took his last breath, but not before he asked them to take his tears.
His memories.
Before they left the docs, they heard a voice hiss,
"You have fought valiantly but in vain. I do not wish this. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste. I, therefore, command my forces to retreat. In their absence, dispose of you dead with dignity. Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you. On this night, You have allowed your friends to die for you, rather than face me yourself. There is no greater dishonor. Join me in the Forbidden Forest and confront your fate. If you do not do this, I shall kill every last man, woman, and child who tries to conceal you from me."
Arabella did not have words to describe what she was feeling at that moment. Voldemort lied. Harry did not allow them; they wanted to fight for him and for the magical world's safety. He did this on purpose, knowing that someone like Harry, a boy who wears his heart on his sleeve, will go to the forest instead of endangering any more lives.
----
They walked back to the castle in silence. No one dared to break the severe tension between the friends.
Once they arrived at the great hall, they were greeted with death. The whole hall was filled with Hogwarts students and teachers. Family and friends. All were saying goodbye to their loved ones.
Arabella was standing with harry little ways away from everyone. She took his hand and held on tight as if it was her only source of life.
She looked to her left, and her breath caught in her throat.
There laid Dora and Remus.
She couldn't believe they were gone. Remus was like a father to her. When her parents died, he was there for her so was Dora, doing everything in her power to Arabella smile. Arabella didn't think that she could handle any more heartbreak.
And there in the far left of the hall were a group of redheads crying together. Arabella blinked in confusion before her eyes fell on the person they were crying for.
She counted all of them.
Molly
Arthur
Ron
Ginny
Charlie
Bill
George.
Tears started falling down her face because she knew that Fred was gone. Her best friend was killed, and he wasn't coming back.
With that, she turned around and left the great hall with Harry following closely behind her. She felt like she couldn't breathe.
She had lost another person in her life, and she wasn't sure if she could handle this. But she did. Arabella sucked in a breath and made herself calm down because she knew that it wasn't the time. There were more important things to deal with, and her grief was not one of them.
----
Slowly they walked through the halls of Hogwarts.
Harry took her to the large gargoyle statue placed in front of the headmaster's office.
Dumbledore's office.
As they made their way up the stairs, Arabella realized why harry had taken her there. They were going to see Snape's memories.
Wordlessly, Harry summoned the Pensieve and poured the contains of the small vial in the bowl.
He looked at Arabella and said, "ready?"
Arabella nods her head, not trusting her voice, instead takes Harry's hand and lowers her face into the Pensieve, and everything swirled around them.
The memories show Snape during his time in Hogwarts.
How he and Lily were always together until they weren't.
How James Potter and his friends bullied Snape and how Lily would wholeheartedly defend Snape until she didn't.
The memories also showed the night of October 31, 1981, and how he held Lily close to him one last time.
The memories faded into later years when Snape first saw Harry. And how he told Dumbledore that he looked just like his father with emerald green eyes.
Lily's eyes.
One memory stuck out the most for Arabella above all the ones he showed us.
Snape and Dumbledore were in his office, and they were talking about Harry and the prophecy and how on the night of the death of Lily and James Potter that Voldemort's killing curse ricocheted off lily and hit Voldemort instead. The last piece of Voldemort's soul had latched onto the only other living thing in the Room.
Thus creating his seventh and final Horcrux.
Harry Potter.
Harry and Arabella were immediately sucked out of the Pensieve and back to real life. They stood there, not uttering a word, still processing what they had just seen.
It was Arabella that broke the silence.
"That bastard." She muttered
"harry do you know what this means? It means that Dumbledore knew this whole time and didn't tell you. He raised you like a pig for slaughter! He raised you so you would be killed at the right time!"
Harry didn't say anything because he knew she was right.
And at that moment, Harry knew what he had to do.
"Bella, I know, but I know what I have to do now. I need to go to the forest." He whispered.
"no, Harry, you can't go alone. I won't let you. Please. I can't lose you too." Arabella begged Harry, but she knew deep down in her heart that she had to let him go.
Harry shook his head and pulled her into the tightest hug imaginable.
"Bella, I love you, don't forget that. Thank you for being there for me when I thought I was drowning."
"Bella, please go down to the great hall with the others. Be with your family. I have to go. I have to end this." He said while he wiped away Arabella's tears.
"I love you, harry. I'll be with you. Always." Arabella said. With that, Harry left her there, in Dumbledores office with an aching heart and a tear-stained face.
----
Arabella stood alone in the office for ten minutes, still staring at the spot where Harry left her.
She slowly looked around the room, taking it all in. She had only been in there a few times in the past, so everything looked fairly new to her.
Arabella sat down on the headmaster's chair when something shiny caught her eye.
She took the object off the desk and stared at it. It looked like a time-turner, but she couldn't be sure. It didn't exactly look like the one Hermione had back in her third year. It had bigger with dials on it, sort of like a clock, but she couldn't understand the words written on it.
Arabella put it around her neck and looked at it, trying to figure out what it was.
That's when she heard someone enter the room.
Arabella couldn't make out who it was. She'd never seen that person in her life. She knew one thing for sure, though.
This person was not on her side.
He was a death eater.
She quickly got up from the chair. Without thinking about it, she turned the dial on the time turner.
She saw the world around her spin but not before she was struck with an unknown curse from the wand of the mystery man.
The pain was so severe that Arabella didn't realize she started falling.
Before she could register what happened to her, Arabella landed on the cold flagstone. She looked up and saw someone she never expected to see.
"Professor Dumbledore?"
She said as her vision went black.
A/N- hello cuties! the lines that are italicized when voldy is speaking are not mine! they belong to the author! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!
vote and comment:)
till next time,
mira
the last time by Taylor swift