In a moment, life can change.
In the blink of any eye, empires can fall, and water can turn to ice, and light can turn dark. Cities can crumble in a moment; life can cease to exist in a moment.
For Diana, her life never really changed. It was always the same old story, the same old verse. Her life had always been the same sequence that always led to the same outcome: save the world, lose everything.
Now, though, as she turned her face to the sky, the green, swirling light like the Northern Lights illuminating her face, illuminating her anger, she could feel her life changing. The glow of the Dark Mark was the catalyst in the event that will change everything. She knew it, as did Dumbledore, as they stood on the crumbling street in the middle of Hogsmeade. Albus Dumbledore and Diana Riddle knew the moment they set their eyes on the mark of Voldemort in the black sky.
They knew this was the end for Dumbledore, and the start of something so much bigger than anything they could ever fathom.
Harry summoned Madam Rosemerta's brooms, and the three clambered onto them. When Dumbledore told Rosemerta to alert the Ministry, Diana did not listen. When Harry put his Invisibility cloak over himself, she did not watch. She could not feel the weight of her bag against her hip or the cold wind against their face as they flew to the castle.
Diana had never really known fear, but she thought she did now.
The Astronomy Tower loomed in sight, and they landed at the top. Diana did not hear Dumbledore tell Harry to fetch Severus. She did not hear the footsteps on the other side of the door.
But she heard the blast of the door as it exploded open, and she felt her body get flown the the wall, her body freezing, immobilized. She felt a trickle down her head to her fingers like water. She heard a body next to her hit the wall, but she could see nothing except Draco Malfoy stepping into the room, causing Dumbledore's wand to fly out of his slackening hand, his face ashen and his wand aloft. He peered around the room, and his eyes glazed right over Diana; he could not see her, nor could he see Harry next to her under his Invisibility cloak.
"Good evening, Draco," said Dumbledore.
Diana couldn't do so much as twitch her fingers. She watched with wide eyes, with horror, with pain, and she knew. She knew what would come tonight.
Draco's eyes fell onto the other two brooms. "Who else is here?"
"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"
"No," said Draco. He tried to be strong, but Diana could hear the shallow tremor in his voice, and she could see the unsteady shaking of his hand. "I've got back-up. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."
"Well, well," said Dumbledore, "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"
"Yeah," said Malfoy, a little too strongly. "Right under your nose and you never realized it!"
The Dark Mark shone behind Dumbledore, silhouetting him in eerie green, almost the color of the liquid he had been forced to drink earlier.
"Ingenious," Dumbledore replied. "Yet. . .forgive me. . .where are they now? You seem unsupported."
"They met some of your guard. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long. . .I came on ahead. I--I've got a job to do."
The Guard. Terror seized her, but she could not move, and she could not ease the hard pounding of her heart.
"We, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy," said Dumbledore softly.
Draco Malfoy, so pained, so conflicted, could not seem to do what he needed too. Diana ached for him, for Dumbledore, as she watched the inner struggle of the broken boy and the gritty determination and acceptance of the old man.
"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."
"How do you know?" said Malfoy at once. "You don't know what I'm capable of, you don't know what I've done."
No matter how much Draco tried to convince himself, Diana knew he was not, nor will he ever be, a killer. He was born into a life he had never asked for, just like herself, and just like Harry.
"Oh, yes, I do," said Dumbledore calmly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts. . .so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it. . ."
"It has been in it!" said Malfoy vehemently. "I've been working on it all night, and tonight--"
Below them, there was a muffled yell.
"Somebody is putting up a good fight," Dumbledore said conversationally. "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?"
Malfoy did not answer. He was frozen, listening to the sound of the fight below them, nearly as paralyzed as Diana was.
He was not a killer, nor was he evil. He was aching, and he had no choice. He was not a killer, and he seemed to be battling with that as he listened to the fighting.
"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."
Malfoy merely stared.
"I see," said Dumbledore kindly. "You are afraid to act until they join you."
"I'm not afraid!" he snarled at once. "It's you who should be scared!"
"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco. 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."
"I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years," he said after a moment.
"That was clever. . .there is a pair, I take it?"
"The other's in Borgin and Burkes," said Malfoy, "and they made a kind of passage between them. Montague told me that when he was stuck in the Hogwarts one, he was trapped in limbo but sometimes he could hear what was going on at school, and sometimes what was going on in the shop, as if the Cabinet was travelling between them, but he couldn't make anyone hear him. . .in the end he managed to Apparate out, even though he's never passed his test. He nearly died doing it. Everyone thought it was a really good story, but I was the only one who realized what it meant--even Borgin didn't know-- I was the one who realized there could be a way into Hogwarts through the Cabinets if I fixed the broken one."
"Very good," murmured Dumbledore. "So the Death Eaters were able to pass from Borgin and Burkes into the school to help you. . .a clever plan, a very clever plan. . .and, as you say, right under my nose . . ."
"Yeah, yeah it was!"
"But there were times," Dumbledore went on, and Diana tried to move again, "weren't there, when you were not sure you would succeed in mending the Cabinet? And you resorted to crude and badly judged measures such as sending me a cursed necklace that was bound to reach the wrong hands. . . poisoning mead there was only the slightest chance I might drink. . ."
"Yeah, well, you didn't realize who was behind that stuff did you?" Malfoy sneered.
"As a matter of fact, I did," said Dumbledore. "It was actually Diana who helped me figure it out, truth be told. We were both entirely sure it was you."
She could feel her pulse in her throat. She could all but hear Harry's mind racing next to her, and Malfoy faltered slightly.
"Why didn't either of you stop me, then?"
"I tried, Draco. Professor Snape has been keeping watch over you on my orders--"
"He hasn't been doing your orders, he promised my mother--"
"Of course that is what he would tell you, Draco, but--"
"He's a double-agent, you stupid old man, he isn't working for you, you just think he is!"
"We must agree to differ on that, Draco. It so happens that I trust Professor Snape--"
"Well you're just an old fool, then!" Draco yelled.
"Well you must have had an accomplice--"
Dumbledore's voice faltered, and he closed his eyes.
And then, Diana did, too. She understood. She had been so blind.
". . .of course," he muttered, ". . .Rosemerta. How long has she been under the Imperius Curse?"
It made sense now. All of it. How Katie got the necklace, poisoning the mead, all of it.
"Got there at last, haven't you?"
There was a loud yell below, accompanied by a rattling crashing sound.
Dumbledore continued. "So poor Rosemerta was forced to lurk in her own bathroom and pass that necklace to any Hogwarts student who entered the room unaccompanied? And the poisoned mead. . . well, naturally, Rosemerta was able to poison it for you before she sent the bottle to Slughorn, believing that it was to be my Christmas present. . .yes, very neat, very neat. . .poor Mr. Filch would not, of course, think to check a bottle of Rosemerta's. . .tell me, how have you been communicating with Rosemerta? I thought we had all methods of communication in and out of the school monitored."
"Enchanted coins," he replied. "I had one and she had the other and I could send her messages--"
"Isn't that the secret method of communication the group that called themselves Dumbledore's Army last year?"
"Yeah, I got the idea from them. I got the idea of poisoning the mead from Mudblood Granger, as well, I heard her talking in the library about Filch not recognizing potions. . ."
"Please do not use that offensive word in front of me," said Dumbledore.
Diana felt her index finger twitch.
"You care about me saying 'Mudblood' when I'm about to kill you?"
"Yes, I do," said Dumbledore. "But, as for being about to kill me, Draco, you have had several long minutes now. We are quite alone. I am more defenseless than you can have dreamed of finding me, and still you have not acted. . ."
Malfoy stayed silent, his hand trembling.
"Now, about tonight," Dumbledore went on, "I am a little puzzled about how it happened. . . you knew that I had left the school? But of course," he answered his own question, "Rosemerta saw me leaving, she tipped you off using your ingenious coins I'm sure. . ."
"That's right," said Malfoy, "But she said you and Diana were just going for a drink, you'd be back. . ."
"Well, I certainly did have a drink. . .and I came back, after a fashion," he mumbled. "But, as you can see, I am alone, and entirely Diana-less. So you decided to spring a trap for me?"
"Where is she?" Malfoy yelled, taking a shaky step forward, he arms stiffening in front of him.
More bangs and shouts from below, much louder this time.
"There is little time, one way or another," sad Dumbledore. "So let us discuss your options, Draco."
"My options!" he said loudly. "I'm standing here with my wand-I'm about to kill you--"
"My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about 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!" he yelled, as white as Dumbledore. He was breaking right in front of them. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"
"I appreciate the difficulty of your position," Dumbledore. "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."
"But Diana did," he said, "when I was in the hospital wing. Diana came to me."
Dumbledore inclined his head slightly. He did not glance at her invisible form against the wall. "Yes, well, Diana is quite ferociously curious, and possesses much less of a conscience than I. . . and I mean that with all due respect and kindness.
"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," continued Dumbledore. "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, Draco."
"No, you cant," he said feebly, his hand shaking badly. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."
"Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. How do you think Diana's identity has been kept secret for so long? 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, Draco. . . you are not a killer. . ."
Malfoy just stared.
"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, Draco," said Dumbledore quietly. Diana's toe twitched. "It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."
Maybe, in another life, Draco could've proved himself today to have been good. Maybe, in another life, the door would not have exploded open just as he dropped his wand an inch, allowing him to surrender fully. Maybe, in another life, this tower would not be stormed by Death Eaters, and this world would not be contaminated with the constant rise of darkness and evil.
Diana recognized all four Death Eaters that entered loudly, their faces plastered with maniacal grins and gleeful energy coursing through their body.
Amycus Carrow gave a wheezy giggle.
"Dumbledore cornered! Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone! Well done, Draco, well done!"
"Good evening, Amycus," said Dumbledore calmly. "And you've brought Alecto, too. . . charming. . ."
Alecto gave an angry titter.
"Think your little jokes'll help you on your death bed, then?" she jeered.
"Jokes? No, no, these are manners," he replied.
"Do it," growled the werewolf Fenrir Greyback.
"Is that you, Fenrir?" asked Dumbledore.
"That's right," he rasped. "Pleased to see me, Dumbledore?"
"No, I cannot say that I am. . ."
Fenrir grinned, displaying sharp teeth coated in thick blood.
"But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore."
"Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual . . . You have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?"
"That's right," said Greyback. "Shocks you, that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?"
"Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little," he replied. Diana's heart thumped like a drum, beating against her rips, echoing in her hears, throbbing in her skull. "And yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live. . ."
"I didn't," breathed Malfoy, and that humanity, that goodness, shone through his thick exterior. "I didn't know he was going to come--"
"I wouldn't want to miss a trip to Hogwarts, Dumbledore," Greyback sneered. "Not when there are throats to be ripped out. . ."
Scuffling outside of the door silenced them, and then the door of the tower burst open, and Snape stepped in, his eyes sweeping over the mess. Diana could have sworn his eyes lingered on where she was frozen against the wall.
"We've got a problem, Snape," said lumpy Amycus. "The boy doesn't seem able--"
"Severus. . ."
Dumbledore's voice was pleading and quiet, nothing Diana had ever heard before.
But this was the moment. She knew, this was the moment.
Snape and Dumbledore stared at each other. Diana could see them communicating: Dumbledore's begging, and Snape's reluctance.
"Severus. . .please. . ."
Severus raised his wand.
Life can change in the blink of an eye.
And here, watching the green light erupt from Severus's wand, the light hitting Dumbledore squarely in the chest, him staggering backward toward the ledge of the tower, Diana's life changed the moment Dumbledore's ended.
And Dumbledore fell.