I don't own any of the characters apart from Melanie Malfoy. All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
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I couldn't quite believe what I'd seen. The greatest wizard to have ever existed had just fallen, so easily and weakly off the top of the Astronomy Tower.
"Out of here, quickly," Snape said, already walking out of the door. He'd grabbed hold of Draco by the scruff of his neck and pushed him out of the door before the rest of our little gang. Nobody bothered with me, instead leaving me to stand and hold back the tears that were threatening to fall down my cheeks.
As the last of the crew filtered out of the door, I remembered I wasn't alone. I probably wouldn't have remembered either, the state of shock my mind was in right now, I'm surprised I could even remember my own name. No, the thing that alerted my mind was the fact a slippery substance had just covered over me as a voice sounded out.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
I ripped the cover off my body and sprinted out the door. It wasn't safe for me anymore. The place that now felt like home, even after less than a year, was being taken away from me as quickly as it had been given to me.
As I ran, I thought of the reasons I had been sent here. If the Dark Lord hadn't ordered the death of Dumbledore, then I would never have been asked to come here in the first place. It had never felt that way though...
My head was screaming at me to turn around and go and find Dumbledore. Part of me believed that it had never happened and that my mind had just played one massive trick on me. My legs wouldn't let me though. It was as if they knew it wasn't a trick and I needed to get out of here.
As that thought registered in my mind, the tears started to fall down my face. Nothing was going to be the same in the wizarding world anymore. The greatest wizard to have ever existed had been taken away in the blink of an eye and the Dark Lord knew it would happen like that. He had a bigger plan than any of us knew and no one realised it.
I was quickly brought out of my thoughts when I crashed into something hard that was in front of me. The tears hadn't slowed, so whatever - or whoever - it was, was completely blurry in my vision. This made me panic more, what if I'd ran into one of Dumbledore's guards and they knew what I'd been a part of. This could be-
"Mel! What's wrong?" Draco was shouting at me, but I could barely hear his voice. He was shaking me and shouting more words at me, but I was still in too shock to register anything after the Astronomy Tower.
"It's over, time to go!" Snape shouted, grabbing hold of the sleeve of my robe and dragging me away from all the fighting that was going on around us. I could feel Draco by my side, clutching onto my side as if he was going to lose me at any minute.
Our 'back-up' was no where to be seen and I could hear the shouts of spells (and insults in some cases) coming from behind us. I had no idea where we were running to. Our original plan had been to get everyone back through the cabinet and into Knockturn Alley. Apparently, Snape didn't know or care about that and was dragging us back towards the front entrance.
My feet suddenly, came to a stop when I registered the sound of footsteps coming up behind us. It had to be Potter, maybe he could help us in some way. When the other two realised I had stopped, Draco ran back in a panic.
"What are you doing? We need to get out of here! Or do you want to get yourself killed?" he shouted, shaking me once again. I think he was trying to shake some sense into me. "You promised me you wouldn't get killed," he whispered the last bit softly.
The last of my little resolve slipped away at his words and it was my turn to take the lead. I grabbed hold of Draco's hand and weaved through the corridors hoping to lose our peruser. I think it worked for a bit, so I started to take the others back to the entrance hall.
I pushed Draco out of the door and only paused for a second to see if anyone was coming up behind Snape. When the only other people I could see were our 'fellow' Death Eaters, I breathed a small sigh of relief before pushing Draco out into the grounds. I knew now, we couldn't afford to keep stopping.
The Death Eaters who were currently running alongside us didn't seem to agree with my last thought though. As we approached Hagrid's cabin, one of our group split off and ran towards it.
"Bella! What are you doi-" Snape shouted, not getting to finish his sentence as a burst of flame shot out of her wand and hit the cabin with a bang. The whole place went up in flames as my Aunt laughed, watching on without a care in the world.
"Are you stupid?" I yelled at her, not really thinking about what I was saying or who I was saying it to. Before she had the chance to reply, I cut over her, "What's he gonna think when some of his own Death Eaters get put into Azkaban for something like this?"
She looked stunned, but we didn't have long to dwell on it before we heard another voice. The jet of red light flew over Snape's shoulder and inches past Draco's head. I turned in a panic, thinking one of the other teachers had realised what we'd done. I even let out a sigh of relief when I realised it was only Potter.
"Run Draco! Keep each other safe!" Snape shouted, before turning back and walking towards Potter. I didn't get chance to see what was going to happen between the two, but Draco pulled me away so fast that I didn't even have chance to blink.
"We need to help him!" I told Draco, putting all my weight in my heels to try and stop our mad rampage towards the school gates. Draco carried on dragging me though, making the heels of my shoes drag the dirt along the ground with me. "Drake!"
"Mel, we can't! What if we get caught with the others? We'll just get into more trouble. If we just get home, we can avoid the confrontation with our teachers," he said. He sounded out of breath and on the brink of tears, so I didn't want to push him too much, but I also knew I couldn't just leave Snape, especially after how much he'd helped us.
Before I could protest further, I felt a shiver go through my body. Now, I didn't know if to be freaked out by this or not because after what I'd just witnessed I actually could have a ghost on my trail. Not being insensitive, just telling the truth, you know what it's like around Hogwarts.
I turned my head to see that the gates to Hogwarts had been opened without me realising. The aver down my spine I had just felt, came because we had just walked through the protective enchantments. How? I have no idea, but I'm guessing Snape had something to do with it. I had no chance to process this thought further before feeling a tight squeezing around my lungs and was surrounded by blackness.
**
It had been four days since the terrible day in the Astronomy Tower. In those four days, my world had been flipped on its head in a matter of seconds. I'm not even over exaggerating, believe me. I wish it could be like normal, but just as I had predicted, nothing was going to be the same.
"When do you think he's finally going to talk to everyone?" Draco asked me. He was laid at the end of my bed, throwing a small ball up into the air and catching it again when it came down. I looked up from the book I held in my hand to meet his grey eyes.
"I don't know, hopefully soon. I don't think I can take anymore 'congratulations' from anyone. If he says something, it'll likely overshadow our 'triumph'," I told him, air quoting some of my words. It had been horrible. Every time one of us left our room, we would constantly be patted on the bag or have our hands shaken because of our 'amazing' mission completion.
"Mel, you're not thinking straight. His meeting will be on our 'triumph'. I just don't think he'll share everyone else's view. I mean, we didn't do it, so we could still get hurt. Just watch your mouth when we do end up going down, okay?" he sat up to look up at me properly.
I nodded, realising he was right. Everyone knew it had been Snape that had finally defeated Dumbledore, but because they also knew about the work we'd done, the thought it was us that had done the best bit of the mission. Trust me, Death Eater minds work in the weirdest ways...
"So you just expect me to be silent at these meetings? If he's threatening my family, I'm not just going to stay quiet Drake! I don't even thi-" I was cut off by the door to my room being slammed open and coming off its hinges (not joking, I thought the door was going to fly straight at my head).
"The meeting is about to start Malfoy. Better get your pretty little heads down there before he cuts them off. Even if you have just completed the biggest mission..." Yaxley finished, jealousy and loathing evident in his tone. He'd been like this since we got back. I think he thought he'd get some recognition because he was there, but the rest of the Death Eaters just ignored our 'back-up' and their presence.
I stood up slowly, taking care in putting my book down and making sure no one could see which page I'd been reading. I could be in enough trouble as it is, I couldn't go and make this worse for Draco. I couldn't care less about myself at this point...
The dining room in our house was full. Ever since the Dark Lord had started using our house as his hideout, there had never been a full table. Apparently, that had changed. Every single one of the chairs was filled. So, he'd managed to get the rest of his followers back out of Azkaban without anyone realising. Am I really surprised?
I did, however, notice that two seats had been left towards the head of the table. Draco had cautiously started making his way over to the seats. I closely followed behind him, hoping no eyes would be on me. It wasn't until I got to my seat that I realised every single move I had made was closely followed by every set of eyes.
"Settle down now."
The single voice that sent shivers down my spine every time I heard it. I think it's because I know about all the things he's done in the past, but I still can't get used to hearing it stand behind me at meetings. Just like he was now.
"As you know, Dumbledore is dead!" he shouted, raising his arms to the side in a celebratory style stance. I jumped when he shouted the word 'dead', my mind instantly replaying the scene from the Astronomy Tower that I constantly tried to escape.
The meeting went on from there in the normal fashion. He told everyone of his recent conquests and how it would help them to take over the wizarding world. He also took to retelling the story from that night. It was all I could do not to just walk out of the hall at that moment in time.
Finally, it was all over. After sitting here for over an hour and a half, we could finally go to freedom. I've never felt so relieved. I've been holding my tongue for ages, trying to say how it had all been different to how they'd told it, but to be honest, the story he told was exactly correct. Dumbledore didn't put up a fight.
"Draco and Melanie Malfoy, will you stay behind for a minute please?" the Dark Lord asked. I felt my heart go into overdrive as the many scenarios that could happen raced through my head. The Dark Lord already hated me before I left for Hogwarts, never mind after I had nearly failed in a mission he had set us especially.
"Severus has told me what happened in the Astronomy Tower," the Dark Lord asked when everyone left the room. "He said that you managed to corner Dumbledore before everyone else arrived, am I correct?"
"Yes, my Lord," we uttered in unison, not raising our gazes from the wood on the table.
"Then, I'm going to have to let you off with a warning," he said, anger lacing his words. I raised my head out of pure shock, "If you had indeed not completed the mission, we could be having a different discussion. Never test my resolve that much again. Understand?"
We both nodded before quickly hurrying out of the hall. I let out a large breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding in. Draco was stood by my side, shaking, as he took in what had just happened. We couldn't take this for granted. It wasn't often the Dark Lord let someone of with a warning.
**
It had been a few days since the meeting with the Dark Lord and we had been allowed to start leaving the house again, which I was very grateful for. Being cooped in my room all day was starting to get to my head.
With my cloak wrapped tightly around me and my book tucked under my arm, I started to make my way across the huge front garden at the manor. When I reached the end, I focused my mind on the red colour that had become so familiar to me from my angry moments and pulled my hood up.
I stepped outside the gates and focused my mind on the castle that I had grown to love over the past year, the place that had become my home. When I opened my eyes, the gates I had ran through, no longer than a week ago, were greeting me.
Swarms of people surrounded me as I followed them in, carefully watching my steps so I didn't draw any attention to myself.
See, there was a reason I had returned to Hogwarts today. The Dark Lord hadn't sent me on a mission and no one knew of my whereabouts because this would be forbidden, and Draco would deem this too risky. But I couldn't afford to miss this. I felt like I owed something.
That is how I came face to face with the table standing at the front of many rows of seats. I needed to say my last goodbyes to the man that had offered to save my life on his deathbed. I owed my respects to the late Albus Dumbledore.
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It's here, the second to last chapter. I have been working for hours on this instead of my Spanish homework (at A-Level...) but it was, hopefully, worth it for you guys:)
I'm not so happy with the end bit, but I felt like I needed to give a bit of insight for the next (and last) chapter. So as you can see, Mel is at Dumbledore's funeral, sob :'(
I hope you like it, and remember to vote and comment, only one week left until the book is finished now.
Until next time,
C x