Dumbledore was weak, Harry already knew that before they went into that crystal cave and got out one of seven Horcruxes. But he never knew how weak the great headmaster was until the moment they arrived back in the Astronomy tower barely standing upright, he struggled to keep Dumbledore standing having them sway all over the place until he could have him sit down. "We need to get you to the Hospital Wing, sir," Harry huffed as he tried to check if Dumbledore had gone any paler than the last time he checked. "Let's get you to Madam Pomfrey—"
"No," Dumbledore muttered, breathing heavily as if he had run for half his life, his voice raspy as if he had not drank any water in years. "Severus. Severus is the one I need," he tells Harry, causing the boy to grow confused yet he hadn't attempted to question him.
"Wake him. Tell him what happened," Dumbledore instructs Harry, patting the boy's shoulder. "Speak to no one else."
'Speak to no one,' Harry thought, his heart hammered against his chest, his shoulders feeling heavier knowing that this was one request that he shall never attempt to disobey.
"Severus, Harry," Dumbledore tells him again, snapping the boy from his momentary thoughts, having him focus on getting to the potions master and pausing. Footsteps. He hears footsteps.
He turns to Dumbledore who froze for a second before standing on his own, he could see the panic in the Headmaster's eyes before it was masked by something neutral and calm. He was hiding the fact that he was injured, that he was weak. "Hide yourself below, Harry," the headmaster orders him.
"Don't speak or be seen by anybody without my permission," the headmaster tells him, "whatever happens, you must stay below."
'Should I?' Harry thought. He was unsure if that was the right choice, even if Dumbledore was a powerful wizard, his state would hinder him from ever defending himself. "Harry, do as I say, trust me," Dumbledore orders him again.
This time, Harry reluctantly follows, scurrying down the steps and under the metal spiraling steps where he could still see a fraction of what was to come.
The footsteps kept on coming, as Harry's thoughts remained wild with the ideas of who it was going to be. Could it be Slughorn? Snape? Maybe McGonagall?
'Finley?' He thought to himself, the idea of his sister coming up to argue with the headmaster for whatever trivial reason. Though he knows that deep inside he knew that Finley would argue with anyone regardless of their authority.
"Good evening, Draco," Dumbledore's voice echoed in the tower, catching Harry's attention. Forced him to pay attention to the sight of black slacks and ragged breathing in the room. "What brings you here on this fine spring evening?"
"Who else is here?" Draco spat tensely, "I heard you talking."
"I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful," Dumbledore tried to jest and paused seeing how it only worsened the young blond's stature. "Have you been whispering to yourself, Draco?"
Draco looked at Dumbledore confused, his wand still pointed at the seemingly defenseless old man.
"Miss Potter also had the knack of talking to herself too you see."
"Keep her name of this," Draco snapped, glaring at the old man. "Whatever it was that you gave her in the tournament, she ended up dead."
"Draco," Dumbledore calmly calls him, "you are no assassin."
"How do you know what I am?" Draco snaps again, his hand weakening yet he kept a firm grip on his wand. "I've done things that would shock you."
"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she's bear a cursed necklace to me?" Dumbledore mentions, causing the blond boy to freeze up, and Harry swallows a lump in his throat.
'Is he going to confess?' Harry thought, still had not wrapped the idea of his sister talking to herself that he hadn't known, or whatever it was that Dumbledore gave his sister at the tournament. These were questions that he needed answers to, and yet he stayed under the floors watching.
"Replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison? Forgive me, Draco," Dumbledore points out, his tone turning into a mockery. "I cannot help feeling these actions are so weak, your heart can't have been in them."
"He trusts me," Draco grits, cocking his wand steady in the Headmaster's direction. "I was chosen," he says, slowly pulling down his wand and pulling up his sleeve. He winced when the fabric came in contact with his skin, revealing a dark mark, only this one was noticeably darker, more death-like against his pale skin.
"Then I shall make it easy for you," Dumbledore says, opening his arms wide open.
"Expelliarmus!" Draco quickly chanted at the sight of Dumbledore's wand, heaving deeply with his mind on edge.
"Very good," Dumbledore praised Draco, hearing a door unlock.
Harry braced himself for whoever was to enter next.
"You're not alone," Dumbledore pointed out, his tone confused for that brief second, astonished, to say the least. "There are others. How?"
"The vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement," Draco answered. "I've been mending it."
"Let me guess. It has a sister, a twin?"
"In Borgin and Burkes. They form a passage," Draco shakily says.
"Ingenious," Dumbledore praised again. "Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices," he tells him softly. "Please let me help you—"
"I don't want your help!"
"Not even Miss Potter's?"
"I said leave her out of this!" Draco yelled, his voice's vibrations shook the metal from where Harry stood. "Don't you understand? I have to do this. It has to be me," Draco's voice falters, he was choking. "I have to kill you, or he's going to kill me and everyone else."
More heavy footsteps followed. Harry had himself pressed against a pillar from under the metal stairs, though he wanted to learn more, he can't have his questions answered when they find him.
"Look at what we have here," Bellatrix's astonished voice spoke in a proud tone. "Well done, Draco."
"Good evening, Bellatrix," Dumbledore greeted. "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," Bellatrix answered smoothly without an ounce of empathy. "Do it," she orders her nephew with a pointed and crazed look.
"He doesn't have a stomach, just like his father," one of the death eaters scoffed. "Let me finish him in my way."
"No!" Bellatrix scolded, "the dark lord was clear, the boy has to do it," she glares at the death eaters before turning to Draco once more who looked more hesitant than she would've expected. "This is your moment. Do it."
'I don't want to.' Draco thought as he stared at the headmaster who gave him a pitied look.
"Go on, Draco. Now!" Bellatrix urges him further.
"No." Severus appeared, his demeanor neutral as he walked up the steps.
"Severus," Dumbledore called out. The death eaters fell silent as they watched the dark-cloaked man's every move, from the way he glanced at Dumbledore, to the hesitance on his face. "Please."
"Avada Kedavra!"
Harry felt emotions he had not felt before.
He was mourning.
He was angry.
He felt betrayed.
Hurrying his feet to follow Snape and the death eaters, the path was all too familiar to him but none of that mattered. He only wanted to do was go and kill Snape, kill Bellatrix, kill every death eater present, and to hell with the rest.
The only thing he has as a guide was Bellatrix's maniacal giggles, following them and hoping that it would lead them to where they were. He didn't have a plan, but he only needed anger, he only felt anger.
And he was right, the path was too familiar. Hagrid's hut stood on a hill, six dark clothes figures walked up to it.
"Snape!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, alerting the death eaters and Snape but not Bellatrix who was on a high. "He trusted you!" He yelled again. But the moment he did, Bellatrix had set Hagrid's hut into flames, only hearing Bellatrix's giggling cheers of joy.
"Incarcerous!" Harry struggled to say as his mind was filled with things he had seen. "Fight back! You coward, fight back!" He yelled. Feeling air being knocked out of his chest, he was flung back with such force that he stumbled on the cold grass.
"Harry!" A familiar voice screamed. It felt like a deja vu, being pinned down and soon that voice spoke up.
"No! He belongs to the dark lord," Snape scolded Bellatrix, only he too was flung back along with Bellatrix with a force he didn't detect. Finally gaining his balance once more he could see a familiar girl running towards Harry Potter.
"You!" Bellatrix fumed to see the face of the girl. "You were in the Department of Mysteries."
"Glad to know that you remember me," Finley sarcastically says, standing in front of Harry. Wand out and pointed at the deranged woman, "good to see that you're still a psychopath."
"What are you doing here, Potter?" Snape fumed, angry and worried, Finley couldn't tell us it was dark with the only light source being Hagrid's hut.
"I'm here to make sure you aren't leaving the grounds," she glares at them.
"How... disgustingly brave of you," Bellatrix scoffed, walking forward. "Let's see how brave you are."
Finley wordlessly swung, casting a spell. If she was any quick enough she could've hit Bellatrix but the deranged woman had caught on deflecting her spell. In the part where she kept on throwing spells until her arms hurt, the woman didn't look like she was getting tired any soon.
"Finley, stop!" Sebastian's scream emerged from the woods, momentarily distracting Bellatrix who snapped her gaze on the Thorns boy.
"Thorns," Bellatrix called forth, eyes narrowed at him skeptically as to why he was there. "Why are you here—"
"Bombarda!" Finley yelled, her wand pointed at Bellatrix, blasting the woman knocking her down on the wet grass.
Wand still raised as she neared Bellatrix's unconscious body, she glances at Sebastian who looked shocked at what she had just done.
"Finley!" A new familiar voice called out, causing her to look up to see Draco, pale and disheveled. He too looked like he was panting from all the running he had done, he looked at her and down to the ground to see his aunt unconscious on the ground. "What have you—" she cut him off.
"Is murdering a murderer punishable in Azkaban?" Finley panted before breaking into a grin. She couldn't believe that she killed someone, she never thought that she had what it took.
Attempting to walk forward, in her mind it was the right time to make a run for it and embrace Draco after so long. Maybe comfort him for how traumatic the evening has been for him even though she doesn't know much. But she stopped.
Sharp pain spiked through her upper back, not just that, it went in deeper piercing something deeper. She felt cold, colder than she had felt throughout the years, she felt her hands numb, and she lets go of her wand. She looked down at her chest, now feeling the warm wet sensation trickle down her shirt.
'What are the odds,' she thought, she glanced up to where Draco stood, his face shocked, he looked like he was screaming on the top of his head but her ears couldn't pick it up.
"You should've killed me instead," Bellatrix's voice whispered in her ear. The woman's breath fanned her ear with a nauseating smell, she kept her eyes firmly on Draco.
"I wouldn't want him to see me like this," she weakly says before the foreign object was pulled out from her back. She felt like she was falling forward, all her weight was pulling her to the ground.
"No!" Draco's voice echoed in Finley's fading mind, she watched Draco get dragged by his aunt into the forest with so much struggle. "Finley! No, please! Wake up!"
'But I feel so tired.'
"Wake up, Finley." A fading voice spoke, she felt her body being lifted slightly, she couldn't tell who this person was. "Finley, please. Stay awake, stay awake for me Finn."
"I'm so tired."
"No! You need to stay awake, please!" The person begged, she felt tears falling onto her face. Her cheek getting slightly slapped by the person who held her. Everything in her body started to ache, eyelids were starting to get heavy, her heart no longer beating.
"Take care of Harry for me," she tells the person, whoever they were. "And save him, save Draco for me... please."
"We can save him together, please stay awake!"
She couldn't reply. Her throat had dried up, she couldn't hold onto anything anymore. She fell into that dark void, alone.
Waking up with a feeling of immense sadness was something that only a few individuals had the misfortune to wake up to, where there was something in the back of their minds that could affect the rest of their day. Wake up to tears streaming down one's face while thinking of why this happens every time, and for Finley, she doesn't know.
She doesn't know why she was crying in the middle of the night, she doesn't know who the blond boy was and why screamed her name in horror before her vision in the dream blacked out. But she could feel what he felt, the amount of sorrow and love in him that stuck with her until she woke up. 'Who was he?'
"Sage?" A woman's soft voice emerged in the room, looking up to see a red-haired woman and a man wearing glasses. "We heard crying, are you alright love?"
"I don't know," she sniffed, doing her best to wipe away her tears but couldn't wipe away the sadness stuck in her chest. "I don't know what's wrong with me," she sobbed as she felt her mother's embrace, the motherly warmth that she felt like she was deprived of all her life.
"Mum, I don't know what's going on with me," she tells her mother.
"Nothing is wrong with you, Greenie," her father tried to assure her, kneeling beside her bed as he held onto her trembling hands. Trying his best to comfort her even without knowing what she was going through, if he could he would hunt down any bastard that dared hurt her. "You're our little girl, you're special, you always are."
"Tell us, what happened?"
To be Continued...