Et Tu Harry? Then Fall Dumbledore

In a darkened and deserted alleyway just behind the Hog's Head, there was a slight commotion as one of the pub's unsavoury patrons (well, more unsavoury than normal) was magically ejected from within rather forcefully by the barman and owner.

'And stay out!' said Aberforth Dumbledore as he flicked his wand one last time, sending another banishing charm that sent the intoxicated man hurtling another few feet. Sheathing his wand, Aberforth looked on dispassionately as the man slowly picked himself up and (muttering slurred imprecations that the barman could clearly hear) stumbled off into the night.

Turning around, the younger Dumbledore brother wearily went back into the inn. He had some cleaning up to do before he retired for the night. While it was relatively early as far as weekend nights were concerned, he really wanted to close shop. Thankfully, with the way things were, he did not have that many people to eject.

He really was getting too old for this.

A few minutes later, the bar was empty as the customers within had either left, gone up to their rooms, or had been thrown out. Tired, Aberforth was about to retire for the night, when he saw something outside the window that made him pause.

Out on the High Street, right in front of his inn were two figures. Thinking them to be people looking for a late night drink, Aberforth headed towards the door with the intention of telling them to find somewhere else to go. Rosmerta would be more than willing to accommodate them ... Unless she too had decided to close her bar for the night.

He stopped just inside the door when he recognised the familiar silver beard of his brother. Frowning, he waved his wand over his dirty enchanted glasses. As the glasses zoomed in on the two, he noticed that both individuals were drenched.

Aberforth snorted. 'Looks like Mr Brilliant here has had a bit of a fall in the drink,' he said to himself, using the name he used to refer to his brother. Looking at the other figure standing over his brother's fallen form, he recognised Harry Potter.

Clearly his brother had taken the boy out on some harebrained excursion. And things had gone direly. The fact that both the boy and his unconscious brother were dripping wet was enough of a clue to indicate that, forget the tension he could clearly see on the boy's shoulders as he bent over the old man. The boy was waving his wand, no doubt trying to diagnose the problem. Aberforth was willing to bet his month's income that his idiot brother had taught the boy the spell himself before going wherever it was he had gone tonight. For all his brains, Albus never did have much common sense.

'Bah,' Aberforth said to himself as he turned away from his observations and the grimy front window of the inn. He need not go outside to help the two. Mr Brilliant really didn't need much of his help. Not when he had his new toy standing over him. Aberforth could also see Rosmerta coming from her pub. Either way, his brother would be seen to.

Possibly the Potter kid would goof up in whatever spell he was casting over his brother. It would serve that self-righteous prick right if he ended up with a nice long stay in the hospital as the Healers worked to correct the mistake. Aberforth doubted it (he had heard enough about the boy's escapades to know that he was either very lucky or pretty capable) but he could always hope.

Harry registered the difference in the atmosphere before he even looked up. The smell of salt and the sea breeze had gone. He was shivering and dripping in the middle of the dark High Street in Hogsmeade as the drying and warming charms did their work. Looking round, he let go of the grip that he had on the headmaster, uncaring of the way Dumbledore's unconscious form slumped onto the ground. From the looks of things he had appeared in front of the Hog's Head inn.

Bending over the cataleptic form of the headmaster, he checked once more that the man was unconscious. Just to be sure, he sent a stunner. It was a testament to the amount of time he had spent training that only a ripple of air marked the passing of the spell.

He suddenly heard the sounds of someone approaching. Turning in that direction, he descried Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street toward them.

'I saw you Apparate as I was pulling my bedroom curtains! Thank goodness, thank goodness, I couldn't think what to — but what's wrong with Albus?'

She came to a halt, panting, and stared down, wide-eyed, at Dumbledore.

'He's hurt,' said Harry finally, tearing his eyes away from the high-heeled fluffy slippers, and silk dressing gown embroidered with dragons that covered the barwoman's figure (really, the things people wear). 'Madam Rosmerta, can he come into the Three Broomsticks while I go up to the school and get help for him?'

'You can't go up there alone! Don't you realize — haven't you seen —?'

'Seen what?' Harry said with a bit of asperity. His question was soon answered when he looked up to where she was pointing.

'The — the Dark Mark...' said Rosmerta.

Huh, thought Harry, standing up. Looks like Draco has started his little party. He checked his watch. The white hands that stood out starkly against the black face of the Omega Seamaster watch told him that around one and a half hours had passed from the time they had left for the cave.

Harry hoped that Draco did not have to wait too long. Otherwise he risked discovery.

'When did the mark appear?' he asked finally.

'Must have been minutes ago, it wasn't there when I put the cat out, but when I got upstairs —'

Harry considered the situation presented to him. While he knew that the woman was under Malfoy's thrall, he was reasonably certain that Rosmerta retained her mental faculties, and would remember Harry appearing with Dumbledore. From what he had read about the Imperius, the curse had to be weaved into the victim's subconscious to keep them under the curse for extended periods of time. They would not realise that they were under its effects and would carry out the caster's instructions without even knowing what they were doing until the curse was lifted. The disadvantage here was that once the curse was lifted, the victim still retained memories of what they had done while under the spell. So he could not act out of character, since Rosmerta had no idea about his involvement.

'Right, Madam Rosmerta, why don't you go back to the Three Broomsticks and send a message to the Ministry? Meanwhile, I will get Professor Dumbledore some medical attention.' Harry said authoritatively.

As Rosmerta tottered back to her pub, Harry had a random thought. He checked his watch once again. Frowning, he looked back at the retreating woman's dress. Wasn't it a bit early in the night to be closing?

Shaking his head, he concentrated on the present. He used Occlumency to ignore the feeling of anger and betrayal that threatened to break out at any moment and reduce him to a blubbering mess. There would be time for that later. Right now, he had a job to do.

Looking around once more to see that he was alone, he pointed his wand at the unconscious and Stupefied form of his professor and whispered, for the first time in his life, 'Imperio.'

Draco ducked as a jet of red light streaked past. As soon as Rosmerta had sent a message telling him that Dumbledore had left Hogwarts, he had messaged Borgin telling him to get a contingent of Death Eaters ready.

It had taken a full forty five minutes to ready a party of Death Eaters. It would have taken less time if it wasn't for his insane aunt wanting to come. Thankfully, his mother had managed to convince the loon to stay behind.

He shuddered at the thought of Bellatrix Lestrange coming to the school. Training under her was bad enough, accompanying her and performing his first kill in front of her would be unbearable.

Of course, there was the danger of her deciding that torturing innocent students might be a better idea than getting Dumbledore. Draco really had no idea what went on in the mad witch's head.

Soon enough, the team assembled at Borgin's place. From there, they stepped into the cabinet one by one, knocking to let Draco know to open the at the other end.

The first person out of the cabinet was the massive Thorfinn Rowle. After that came the Carrow siblings. They were followed by Yaxley and Gibbon.

But it was the last individual that had caused a shiver of fear to run down Draco's spine.

He was a big, rangy man with matted grey hair and whiskers. His black Death Eater's robes looked uncomfortably tight. Perhaps it was the rasping bark of a voice with which the man spoke, a voice that was more animalistic than human, or perhaps it was the smell; a powerful mixture of dirt, sweat, and, unmistakably, of stale blood coming from him, but the man radiated danger and an air of menace that the big and burly (and more importantly clean) Rowle could only hope to match.

'Fenrir Greyback?' Draco said unable to hide the fear from his voice. 'Wh-what are you doing here?'

The man grinned, showing pointed teeth. 'Bellatrix sent me in her place, since she could not come.' He flexed his large filthy hands. Draco could not help but notice the long yellow nails at the end of each of the phalanges.

'Well, let's get to it,' said Amycus Carrow, with an odd lopsided leer. 'We can sit for a chat later.'

Assuming that Dumbledore had gone out for a drink in Hogsmeade, Amycus, the group leader, then laid out his plan. They would set off the Dark Mark over the highest point of Hogwarts, the Astronomy Tower, compelling Dumbledore to hasten to the school. Meanwhile the strike team would then wait under disillusionment charms. As soon as the headmaster arrived, they would then engage the headmaster and any lackeys he brought with him in combat. Not that they expected there to be anybody else other than the headmaster. The fastest way to reach the tower from Hogsmeade would be to fly. And while there were enchantments against that, those enchantments were cast by Dumbledore himself.

So they fully expected Dumbledore to be the first to arrive at the tower. However, by himself, the headmaster was still capable of holding off all six of them. And that was where Draco came in. In the ensuing confusion, Draco would, under the Disillusionment Charm, kill the headmaster. Hopefully the mage would be too busy to notice the curse and the extra person until it was too late.

As soon as that happened, they would make their way out of the castle. Their planned path of egress would be back through the Vanishing Cabinets. From there they would Disapparate to Malfoy Manor, while Draco would go back to the Slytherin common room and go back to sleep. There were plans of having him as a spy, but that was neither here nor there.

It did not take long for their plan hit its first snag.

Borgin watched the last Death Eater vanish through the cabinet. Opening the door, he checked to make sure that nobody was there. Turning around, he cast a few revealing and detection charms over the shop. Satisfied that he was now alone, he turned to the cabinet and levitated it till it touched the ceiling. As soon as it reached its maximum height, he cancelled the spell. The cabinet came crashing down, splintering upon impact.

'Oh dear,' said Borgin with mock sympathy. 'Looks like the cabinet couldn't transport so many people in one go. I guess Malfoy wasn't so proficient. Either that or it was too old. Anyway, I better tell them about this.' Nonchalantly, he took his coin out. That should show the little bastard he thought savagely. Blackmail me, will he?

'Damn it,' said Draco as he studied the message on the coin.

'What is it?' growled Rowle.

'The cabinet at Borgin's end has fallen apart.' Draco replied. He cursed, he was sure that he had done the repairs correctly!

'Fuck!' said Alecto. She rounded on Draco. 'I thought you had done the repairs properly!' she accused.

'Enough!' said Yaxley. 'We all have managed to come through, so it cannot possibly be Draco's fault. For all we know, it could have been because the cabinet at Borgin's shop was too old. It hasn't been used for all this time, after all.'

'Well, there is nothing for it,' Rowle said with another growl. Draco reflected that growling was the only way the man said anything. 'We will have to force our way through the front gates.'

Having made their plans, the Death Eaters, with Rowle in the lead exited the Room of Requirement. They hoped that the late hour would ensure that nobody noticed their presence until it was too late.

And that was when they met their second problem.

As soon as they turned a corner, they practically ran headfirst into two men who were clearly patrolling the corridors. One of whom was wearing Auror robes.

The Death Eaters and the Order members stared at each other blankly for a moment, surprised by each other's presence.

The standoff was broken when the Auror and the red haired man (Draco assumed he was a Weasley) raised their wands, curses on their lips.

'Stupe –'

Draco acted at that moment. From the middle of the group and hidden by Rowle's and Greyback's large forms, he quickly flung the Darkness powder, bathing the corridor in instant obscurity.

'Ava – what happened?' Yaxley said in the sudden darkness.

'Instant Darkness Powder,' Draco said. 'Now they won't be able to see us. We can use this to get to the Tower.' He started digging in his pockets.

'Great work Draco!'Alecto's sneering voice could be heard to the left over frantic shouts of 'Lumos!' and other fire and lighting spells coming from both Death Eaters and their nemeses. 'Small problem, we can't see either!'

'I have it under control,' Draco took out his Hand of Glory and inserted a candle in the palm. The candle sunk into the Hand easily, immediately lighting and giving Draco a small pool of yellow light in the darkness. Spotting the complaining Carrow sister next to him, he grabbed her elbow.

'Who was – oh!' Alecto said in wonder as the pool of light extended to her. Understanding, she grabbed her brother's shoulder, who in turn grabbed another Death Eater's shoulder.

Touching each other, the Death Eaters quickly made it out of the corridor. While The Hand of Glory only gave light to its user (who bound it to himself using a series of charms) and anybody he willingly touched, either its range was rather limited or the powder was too powerful. Regardless, the Death Eaters could not see their opponents. Hearing them was also out of the question as the two Order members had gone silent by then, no doubt trying to locate the Death Eaters by sound. They had no choice but to quietly rush to the Astronomy Tower and hope that the enemy was not alerted till the Dark Mark was set off.

They reached the tower without any incident. At the entrance, Amycus sent a pain curse at Draco that could be considered mild for the simple and only reason that it wasn't the Cruciatus. 'Idiot boy! We would have been able to subdue them with ease. There were only two of them! Now they have the opportunity to alert their fellows.'

Draco only whimpered in reply. It felt like a fiery whip had hit him on his back.

Sneering at the boy's obvious show of weakness, Yaxley raised his wand to send off another pain curse similar to Amycus' to show his displeasure. Luckily for Draco, he was interrupted by rapid footsteps coming from the end of the unlit corridor.

The Death Eaters tensed. 'Gibbon, go up to the tower and set off the Dark Mark,' Amycus ordered quickly. 'Yaxley, you set up a ward on the entrance, you know the one we are talking about. Nobody with a Dark Mark should be able to get in. Alecto put the Disillusionment Charm on Draco. And you boy, stay out of the way and don't do anything stupid!'

After she hit Draco over the head with her wand with unnecessary force, Amycus, Rowle and Fenrir got into defensive positions. Not a moment later, they were engaged in a furious battle with the first two members of the Order and McGonagall. Due to the lateness of the hour, the torches in the corridor had been turned off. The darkness both hindered and helped the combatants as jets of light were emitted from both ends of the corridor. Neither the Order nor the Death Eaters had the advantage here.

In the middle of this kerfuffle, Draco stayed invisible and out of the way. Done with the barrier, Yaxley had joined them so they were now outnumbering the Order. However, that advantage was soon negated when Lupin came into the fray.

For a few moments both the Death Eaters and Order members were at either ends of the corridor, firing spells at each other. Soon enough that stalemate was broken when Weasley decided to venture forth. Thanks to his superior vision, Greyback was the first to spot him. Foregoing the use of his wand, the werewolf leaped off into the gloom. Soon enough, they heard screams.

As soon as Fenrir ran off, the Death Eaters surged forward, using the distraction the werewolf provided to gain some much needed ground and confront the Order, intensifying the battle.

Yaxley sent of a wide range of dark spells, engaging the man in the Auror robes and Lupin at the same time. The Carrow siblings had McGonagall who proved to be more than capable of holding both of them off as she furiously transfigured and conjured.

Rowle and Greyback were the only ones who had become frenzied. The former started throwing curses indiscriminately, uncaring of who he hit, as he mixed lethal spells with jinxes and hexes. Not that Draco really expected anything else. He had enough training sessions with the man to know his style.

Fenrir on the other hand, was concentrating on Weasley. He was busy mauling the ginger who was valiantly trying to get his wand to bear.

Unable to stomach the sight, Draco turned away. He noticed Gibbon clattering down the stairs. However, before the Death Eater could do anything, he was hit in the face by one of Rowle's stray Killing Curses.

Draco froze as he saw the man crumple into a lifeless heap. The sounds of battle seemed to fade away as he stared at Gibbon's lifeless form bouncing off the last few steps and coming to a rest at his feet. The blond froze. Unable to comprehend that he had just seen a man die.

The sudden vibration of the mirror of his breast pocket brought him out of his stupor.

'Yeah?' he said, holding the mirror with badly shaking hands.

'Get your carcass up to the Astronomy Tower!' Harry said tersely before cutting off the connexion.

Ducking under another of Rowle's stray curses, Draco sprinted for the entrance of the Astronomy tower. In the heat of the battle, the Disillusionment charm had worn off, making him fully visible to Harry when he burst out onto the deserted ramparts.

Draco looked around wildly before he heard a voice. 'You're alone, that's good.'

Harry's head appeared out of midair right in front of Draco.

'Where's Dumbledore?'

An unreadable look passed Harry's face at the question. Silently, he cancelled the Disillusionment charm, causing the headmaster to appear, leaning on the wall. There was a curious blank expression on the headmaster's face that took Draco a moment to recognise.

'You cast the Imperius on him? Successfully?' Draco said, clearly impressed.

'Yes.' Harry's disembodied head said with a rather self-satisfied look on his face.

As soon as he had first cast the curse, Harry could feel his magic move through his body into his wand and out into the curse. However, the headmaster's mental defences, while severely weakened were still strong enough to fend off the attack.

Growling, Harry glared at the old man. Suddenly he had an idea. He could repeat what he had done to a Muggle salesman months ago. Naturally it would be different. This wasn't some simple Muggle, but one of the most powerful wizards. Concentrating, he cast a Confundus Curse, overpowering the spell a bit. Then, with Dumbledore's mind distracted by the curse, Harry plunged mind-first into the ailing warlock's head. Boring a hole into the weakened shields was easy enough. Once he had reached the mind within, Harry withdrew, still keeping a tenuous connexion between him and the headmaster. Readying his wand, Harry cast another Imperius.

This method did the trick. Harry felt the connexion solidify and remain as he fully withdrew.

As soon as he revived him, Harry smirked when he saw the blank look on the headmaster's face. He could still feel the man fighting, however. But Harry held the cards for now.

From there it was a simple matter of flying to the castle, while levitating the headmaster along. Thanks to Slytherin's ring, Harry was able to pass through the enchantments placed around the castle that prevented an approach by flight. While those enchantments were put in by Dumbledore as his prerogative as headmaster, they were tied into Hogwarts' wards, which recognised Harry as the master.

'How did you get here?' Draco asked as he looked around the ramparts. 'I don't see any broom.'

'Who said I used a broom to fly here?' Harry asked challengingly.

They were interrupted by a low groan.

Harry's face whitened when he saw the headmaster coming round. He was sure that the Imperius would last a bit longer! It seemed that Dumbledore's subconscious or something had used Harry's distraction to throw off the curse.

'Good evening Draco,' Dumbledore finally said as he focussed on Draco's form, taking in the outstretched arm and the wand pointed at him with no apparent concern.

Harry sucked in a breath. It looked like the headmaster had not noticed his head hanging in midair! The Confundus Charm was evidently still working. He thought of drawing the cloak over his head, but reconsidered. It would not matter if Dumbledore saw him standing next to Draco Malfoy. Dead men tell no tales, after all.

Not wanting to watch Draco kill Dumbledore, Harry turned his head away, observing the Hogwarts grounds. It was a beautiful and peaceful night, if one ignored the shouting and sounds of fighting that were coming from below. He waited to hear those two words that would take him one step towards freedom. It was quite ironic that the same two words that put him under the old man's thumb would now free him.

But those two words never came.

Turning around Harry saw Draco frozen, staring at the headmaster who was calmly looking back at him.

'So what may I ask are you doing here all alone, Draco?' Dumbledore finally said conversationally.

Harry half expected Draco to kill the old man now. However, it was not to be. 'No,' Draco said. 'I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight.'

'Well, well,' said Dumbledore, as though Malfoy was showing him an ambitious homework project. 'Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?'

'Yeah,' Draco was now panting. 'Right under your nose and you never realized!'

'Ingenious,' said Dumbledore. 'Yet … forgive me … where are they now? You seem unsupported.'

'They met some of your guards. They're having a fight down be low. They won't be long. … I came on ahead. I — I've got a job to do.'

'Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy,' said Dumbledore softly.

Harry stood there with his mouth hanging open. Were these two seriously having this conversation? What was this, some bad Muggle movie?

Dumbledore, however, was not done. Despite the dire situation the old man found himself in, he actually smiled at Draco. Harry wondered if the Confundus Charm had completely addled the old man.

'Draco, Draco, you are not a killer.'

As Harry heard Draco's rather childish sounding answer, he understood what Dumbledore was trying to achieve. Despite being disarmed, poisoned, and disoriented, the headmaster still had an ace up his sleeve. And that was his ability to talk. Harry could only watch with a growing sense of disbelief as the headmaster skilfully got Draco to talk about the plans he had made over the year. What was even more disbelieving was how easy it was for the mage to distract Draco.

Harry could dimly see where this was going. Soon enough, Dumbledore would soon ask Draco to drop his wand and surrender, possibly promising some protection in return. And by the time Dumbledore was done, Draco would do it with a smile on his face. Harry could empathise. After all, Dumbledore had been working on him for years!

'There is little time, one way or another,' said Dumbledore. 'So let us discuss your options, Draco.'

'No!' Harry interrupted them, coming out of his stupor. He could see Dumbledore winding down. Getting ready for the kill. 'Don't listen to him Draco! He is just full of shit.'

'Harry?' Dumbledore said, confused as he noticed the other boy for the first time in several minutes. 'What – what are you doing here?'

Suddenly the veil of confusion seemed to lift from those blue eyes.

Aaaah …'Dumbledore closed his eyes again and nodded, as though he was about to fall asleep. "… Of course …' he looked back at the two boys standing side by side. 'How long have you been helping him, Harry?'

'Caught on, have you?' Harry said bitterly, angry at the betrayed expression he could see on Dumbledore's eyes. The man had no right! Especially after what he had done! 'It seems that this was something you never knew of all along.' He laughed darkly. 'Well, look at that! I managed to get one up on the great Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!' He swiped at his suddenly wet eyes.

'Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? Kill him!' he shouted, turning to Draco.

Draco looked at Harry, startled at the ferociousness in the younger boy's voice. Taking a steady breath, he looked back at the slumped form of the headmaster who was now all but sitting on the floor using the wall for his support.

Swallowing convulsively, he raised his badly shaking hand, pointing the tip of the wand directly at the wizard's face.

'Draco,' the headmaster said weakly. 'The death of Sally-Anne was a mistake, I know that. You have hurt nobody intentionally, though you are very lucky that two of your unintentional victims sur vived. … I can help you, Draco.'

'No, you can't,' said Draco, trying and failing to keep his voice level. '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. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her like wise. 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. …'

Harry watched Draco warily. The blond looked like he was deeply considering Dumbledore's words. He couldn't back out now! Not after everything Harry had learnt tonight! Furious, Harry flicked his invisible hand, readying his wand. If Draco Malfoy was too much of a coward to do what needed to be done, then he would do it himself. He needn't rely solely on the Avada Kedavra. Just a simple banishing charm and the deed would be done, should the Killing Curse fail. No wizard could survive such a fall, especially when he was so weakened. Harry planned on using Reducto anyway. So if the fall did not kill Dumbledore, the big hole in his chest would.

A Reducto did not have the same irony as the Avada Kedavra, but Harry was fine with it. They had wasted enough time. Harry raised his wand –

'No he is not.' Draco said unexpectedly.

'What?' Harry said. His hand, still invisible, was pointing at Dumbledore.

'Father is no longer in prison.' For the first time, Draco's voice was not quavering. 'He broke him out a long time back.' He looked at the headmaster. 'Or did you not know that?'

All it took was one glance at Dumbledore's surprised expression, and Draco had his answer. 'You really did not know that!' he started laughing slightly hysterically.

But before Draco could say anything more, footsteps could be heard thundering up the stairs.

Eyes widening, Harry covered his head with the cloak, moving away from Draco and activating his necklace for good measure. He was just in time. For barely a moment later, Draco was buffeted out of the way as four people in black robes burst through the door onto the ramparts.

A lumpy-looking man with an odd lopsided leer gave a wheezy giggle.

'Dumbledore cornered!' he said, and he turned to a stocky little woman who looked as though she could be his sister and who was grinning eagerly. 'Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone! Well done, Draco, well done!'

Harry rolled his eyes. All Draco had done was stand there like a gormless idiot and nearly be talked into fighting for Dumbledore. Who got the headmaster out of Hogwarts? He did. Who poisoned the headmaster? He did. Who disarmed Dumbledore and ensured he was wandless? Again, he did. And who gets the credit? The ponce.

'Good evening, Amycus,' said Dumbledore calmly, as though welcoming the man to a tea party. 'And you've brought Alecto too. … Charming …'

The woman gave an angry little titter. 'Think your little jokes'll help you on your deathbed then?' she jeered.

'Jokes? No, no, these are manners,' replied Dumbledore, somehow seeming patronising even though his tone was mild.

'Do it,' said the stranger standing nearest to Harry, a big, rangy feral looking man with ill fitting Death Eater robes.

'Is that you, Fenrir?' asked Dumbledore.

'That's right,' rasped the other. 'Pleased to see me, Dumbledore?'

'No, I cannot say that I am.'

Greyback grinned, showing pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely.

'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 Fenrir Greyback. 'Shocks you that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?'

'Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little,' said Dumbledore. 'And, yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here in vited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live. …'

'I didn't,' breathed Malfoy. He was not looking at Fenrir; he did not seem to want to even glance at him. 'I didn't know he was go ing to come —'

'I wouldn't want to miss a trip to Hogwarts, Dumbledore,' rasped Greyback. 'Not when there are throats to be ripped out… Delicious, delicious …'

And he raised a yellow fingernail and picked at his front teeth, leering at Dumbledore. 'I could do you for afters, Dumbledore.'

'No,' said the fourth Death Eater sharply. He had a heavy, bru tal-looking face. 'We've got orders. Draco's got to do it. Now, Draco, and quickly.'

But somewhere between the Death Eaters arriving and now, Draco seemed to have lost whatever confidence he had gained.

Fenrir snarled at the quivering hand of the sixteen year old. 'I'll do it,' he said impatiently, baring his teeth and going in for the kill.

'I said, no!' said the brutal faced Death Eater, throwing the werewolf off magically.

Fenrir snarled at the Death Eater but made no move to approach Dumbledore.

Harry shifted his feet as he watched the long drawn out tableau. He really hoped that they would kill Dumbledore already! Some bunch of free-thinking people these were if they were still hung up on following orders despite the fact that there were better chances of spotting a Crumple-Horned Snorkack than Draco Malfoy killing Albus Dumbledore. Whether it was his classmate's nature, or whether it was Dumbledore's doing, the fact remained that the young Death Eater was no killer. Harry could plainly see it. He hoped that Draco's "colleagues" didn't take too long in realising that fact. Otherwise, he might just break cover and kill Dumbledore himself.

Just then the door burst open and Snape strode through in all his dark and greasy glory, his black eyes sweeping the scene from Dumbledore slumped against the wall, to the four Death Eaters, including the enraged werewolf, and Draco.

At the very sight of the hook-nosed teacher, Harry felt a great rage build up within him. He almost whipped out his wand and shot a curse at him. However, he desisted. Now was not the time. Snape would get his soon.

'Severus ... please ...'

Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.

'Avada Kedavra!'

A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest, blasting him in the air. For a split second, he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly back ward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight.

Harry stood there, watching the spot where Dumbledore had disappeared, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. It looked like Dumbledore was mistaken about Snape. A small smile played across Harry's invisible lips.

Meanwhile Snape had grabbed Malfoy by the back of his collar and proceeded to drag the boy out. Greyback and the two ugly sibling Death Eaters followed, panting in excitement.

Watching the brutal-faced Death Eater leave the tower, Harry took off his invisibility cloak considered his options as he absently folded the cloak into his pocket. What should he do now? Naturally he could not stop Draco as Malfoy would be no use to him captured. Snape, regrettably, would also have to be allowed to escape, as he was quite close to Draco at the moment.

However, he could not just let the Order fight the Death Eaters without helping!

With that decision made, Harry sprinted down the darkened stairway. He caught up just in time with the brutal faced Death Eater whom he dispatched with a silent slicing hex.

The hex caught the Death Eater at the back of his neck. In a spray of blood, the Death Eater fell to the ground, his head nearly decapitated from the back.

Harry clambered over the body, paying no heed to the fact that he had just made his first kill. Jumping the last ten stairs, he landed with a crouch, his wand raised. Almost automatically, his right hand dug into his pockets and seized Dumbledore's wand, bringing that out to bear.

The dimly lit corridor was full of dust; half the ceiling seemed to have fallen in; and a battle was raging before him, but even as he attempted to make out who was fighting whom, he heard the hated voice shout, 'It's over, time to go!' and saw Snape disappearing around the corner at the far end of the corridor; he and Draco seemed to have forced their way through the fight unscathed.

Seeing the Death Eaters retreating, Harry stepped forward to help the Order. They were not doing so well in this fight. McGonagall particularly was looking rather beat up, her hair out of her tight bun as she fought the Death Eaters.

Harry could recognise Fleur by her brilliant yellow hair. The Gallic witch was engaged in a deadly dance with a massive blond Death Eater. Harry started towards her to lend his assistance when one of the combatants broke from the fray.

Without thinking about it, Harry slashed his left hand across the face of the advancing enemy. A tongue of flame erupted from his wand and lashed across Greyback's face, causing the werewolf to stumble back with an animalistic yelp, clutching his face.

The werewolf glared at Harry with malevolence, revealing a nasty but rapidly healing diagonal gash stretching from his right temple to the bottom of his jaw on the left. 'Let's see you do that again, little boy!' saying this, the werewolf lunged at Harry again, his face fully healed.

Bringing his right wand to bear, Harry levitated the werewolf. Not having used that hand to cast spells in a long time, the charm did not last long. However, it was enough to send the howling werewolf over his head making him crash into the wall behind.

Spinning around, Harry sent a flurry of silver darts at the werewolf, striking the downed man-beast in the back. The darts had not sunk in deep enough to kill the werewolf instantly, but they were enough to send the lycanthrope out of commission as he flailed about yowling in agony.

Just then pain erupted from Harry's right arm as a bone breaking curse grazed it, breaking his forearm, nearly causing him to drop the wand.

With a snarl, Harry turned around to see the lumpy woman, Alecto, leering at him, her wand raised.

'Oops, missed!' The woman said with a giggle. 'A pity, I was hoping to break that arm off entirely.'

Suddenly she let loose a flurry of hexes and curses. Unprepared, Harry narrowly dodged the first few hexes. He conjured his strongest shield against the next volley which barely held against the last spell which was a Cruciatus. Dispelling the shield, he dodged another Cruciatus and in the process, stepped into the path of a cutting curse that sliced his left outer thigh open.

Ignoring his wounds for now, Harry retaliated. With a wide sweep of his left hand, he banished the debris toward the woman, distracting her with small bits of stone. He then fired off two successive blasting hexes with a piercing hex thrown in the middle. Still not done, Harry slashed his wand again, shooting off a dark cutting curse he learnt from the notes the Half Blood Prince had made.

Alecto managed to dodge the first blasting charm which sailed by her and impacted the far wall. The next spell was blocked by her shield and she swung out of the third one's path. However, she managed to catch the cutting curse as it grazed her left arm, causing a spurt of blood to erupt from it.

Giving out a girlish squeal, she turned and scarpered, sending off a few random curses behind her as she retreated, joining her brother who had just been bested by McGonagall.

At the same time, Fleur managed to get the better of her adversary, who was causing most of the ruckus with his wild casting, by sending a fireball crashing into his face. Howling in agony, the Death Eater joined Alecto in her flight.

Removing Dumbledore's wand from his right hand and putting it in the expanded pocket of his cloak along with his folded Invisibility Cloak, Harry limped after her as fast as he could, ignoring the shouts behind him from the Order members and not noticing the gasps as they clapped eyes upon the macabre sight of his blood-drenched form. That bitch was so going to pay!

He skidded around the corner; his trainers were slick with blood. Breaking out into a limping run, he pondered where the Death Eaters could have gone. Was it possible that they had al ready entered the cabinet in the Room of Requirement, or had the Order made steps to secure it, to prevent the Death Eaters retreat ing that way? He could hear nothing but his own pounding feet, his own hammering heart as he sprinted along the next empty cor ridor, adrenalin allowing him to ignore the burning pain in his shin. Suddenly, he spotted a bloody footprint that showed at least one of the fleeing Death Eaters was heading toward the front doors — perhaps the Room of Requirement was indeed blocked —

Panting and cradling his broken right arm, Harry knew that there was no way he would be able to pursue the Death Eaters, not with the way his shin was throbbing. It would seem that he would have to let that woman go. But then he looked at the opposite side of the corridor and a savage smile played across his face.

Getting there as quickly as he could, his limp now more pronounced. Harry reached the gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office and residence. The gargoyle stepped aside as he approached. Climbing the moving steps as fast as he could, Harry opened the door, stepping into the round office.

The portraits of the previous headmasters and headmistresses gasped at the bloody form that entered the office. Ignoring them, Harry limped behind the desk and removing his cloak, sat at the headmaster's chair.

Placing his wand down on the table, he leaned back against the leather backrest and swivelled the chair around so that it was facing the wall behind.

Harry quickly ran the fingers of his left hand along the wall. From what he had read in Salazar's journals, the office of the headmaster's was another command centre from where the wards could be accessed.

Finally he found it. He pushed the knot in the stone, causing a small panel to slide away, revealing slab of stone that gleamed in the low candlelight. Harry placed the hand that wore the Slytherin ring on it.

He immediately slumped into his chair, his consciousness one with the castle as he took possession of the wards, the first descendant of Slytherin to do so.

Immediately the entire castle seemed to open up to him, giving him an awareness of what was happening.

In his mind's eye, he could see people from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor clustered in their common rooms, having been woken up by the noise, wondering what was going on and why they could not leave.

The Slytherins on the other hand, slept soundly. Their location was far from the noise created by the conflict.

Harry focussed on the Entrance Hall and, in particular, the warriors that Salazar had created long ago using the bodies and souls of the villagers he had killed in revenge.

Harry heard the different voices sound in his mind as he awakened two of them after a millennium of slumber.

Seadh?

Dé'n t-òrdugh?

At the Entrance Hall, unnoticed by the fleeing forms of Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, two stone statues suddenly glimmered, the yellow rock suddenly turning a gleaming metallic grey, their stone fingers flexing over their weapons as their heads swivelled ever so minutely.

Peering through the eyes of both the statues, Harry looked from above at the Entrance Hall. Soon enough, he could see Snape and Draco running down the steps. He waited a bit longer and saw the Carrow siblings followed by the massive Death Eater.

Kill them!

Ionnsaigh!

Do blàr!

Even though the statues responded in Gaelic, Harry was still able to discern that they had understood his commands spoken in modern English.

Alecto Carrow was in a dead sprint towards the doors leading outside Hogwarts Castle, her arm encased in a makeshift bandage. Suddenly, she heard her brother shout a warning. Seeing a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, she barely had a moment to process the huge blade coming towards her. Suddenly there was a burst of pain followed by the disorienting feeling of weightlessness as world spun crazily around. As she finally came to a rest, she found herself on her side on the floor, looking at a freshly decapitated body fall to its knees. As her world became dark, the last thought that passed through her mind was the realization that it was her body that she had seen fall.

Amycus was a few paces behind his sister when he saw something immense break away from the wall to his right, moving quickly along a path that intersected with his own; it was moving so fast Alecto was about to run into it, and Alecto, with her eyes on the front doors, had not seen it.

'Alecto, watch out!'

His sister, unfortunately, was running too fast. She only had a moment to look to her right when the large double headed battle axe chopped her head clean off. Amycus watched in horror as her body took a few running steps, not yet realising it was missing its head, before it collapsed with a wet thud, spraying blood all over the floor. Numbly he looked at his sister's head. There was shock written on her features as her eyes rolled up, the disbelief permanently etched on her face.

Amycus looked back at the figure that was responsible for killing his sister. It was one of those large statues he had seen throughout Hogwarts as a student. It seemed that one of them had come alive.

Snarling, he snapped his wand towards the automation, a blasting curse on his lips.

He never got to shoot that curse off. It was at that time he heard Rowle shouting his name. This was followed by a stabbing pain as something rammed through his chest and impaled him, lifting him off his feet.

Looking down, he saw the tip of a sword coming out of his chest. His last thought as he died was that not one, but two of those blasted things had come to life.

Rowle, like Amycus was horrified at the swift brutality that ended Alecto's life. Unlike Amycus, however, he kept his eyes on the large statue wielding the axe. From his vantage point on the bottom most stair, he managed to catch a glimpse of another statue behind Amycus as it swiftly moved towards his comrade.

He shouted a warning at his fellow Death Eater as he shot off a blasting curse at the moving figure of stone. His curse sailed over the statues head, as it skewered Amycus from the back with its claymore, lifting the short man off his feet.

Swiftly, the statue pulled the sword off the still alive Death Eater, stepping over the dying body and advancing towards Rowle, menacingly swinging its sword and sending droplets of blood and bits of gore flying as the other hefted its axe and drew its finger across its throat in a sinister way.

Rowle looked at the two golems advancing him. Backing up was not an option right now. If two of these had come alive, there was a good possibility that the countless numbers he had seen on his way here could also do the same. There was no way he could reach any of the common rooms to take a student hostage. On the other hand, the exit was very close by.

Taking a deep breath, Rowle unleashed a barrage of curses at the two golems as he ran around them.

His curses only bounced off the statues, impacting the walls of the Entrance Hall and causing chunks of rock to fall off. One of the spells, a Reductor Curse hit the giant hourglass recording Gryffindor's house points. Rubies spilt out onto the floor, their colour just as red as the blood from the corpses.

Rowle had made it to the front doors unscathed and had turned around to make a long desperate dash to the front gates when one of the enchanted figures lifted its weapon over its head with both hands and hurled it towards the fleeing Death Eater.

He had taken one step out of the doors when the axe took his left arm off at its shoulder. Staggering, the large Death Eater looked at the stump where his arm used to be. Looking behind him, he spied the two guardians moving towards him, swiftly gaining ground. Eyes widening, Rowle resumed his flight, scooping his arm up as he came upon the object.

It was adrenalin that powered Rowle's legs and kept him on his feet despite the unbalanced feeling coming from the loss of an arm. His ears did not pick up any sounds coming from behind. Perhaps the guardians had stopped their chase. Not that he was going to slow down to look behind.

He could see the gate right in front of him. Just a few paces more...

Almost in slow motion, a large figure stepped out of the hut. 'What're yeh –?'

Rowle did not bother to hear what the half-breed had to say. Pocketing his arm, he brought his wand to bear on the creature...

Stop

At Harry's command, the two statues ceased their pursuit, the axe wielding guardian walked forward to retrieve its axe. With a mental reply of Mi bhitheadh, they returned to their posts.

Coming out of his trance, Harry straightened in the chair with a gasp.

Swivelling the chair back to face the desk, he took a moment to compose himself. At the back of his mind, he could register two people leave the wards. He assumed those were Snape and Draco. The thing that worried him the most, however, was the seven dead bodies and two critically injured people. No longer directly connected to the wards, he could not tell who had died. The two siblings, the brutal-faced Death Eater and Dumbledore made up for four of the seven, with Greyback being the possible fifth, if he was not one of the critically injured people. That left two unknown dead. Three if he was being pessimistic. And considering the odds, he was sure that those would be losses on the Light's side. He desperately hoped that it wasn't anyone he knew.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it now. Not when he had other work to do.

The external threat was over, and the denizens within the castle were probably safe in their dormitories or ensconced within the hospital wing. That meant he was all alone in the headmaster's office, without anybody knowing about his whereabouts.

He had no idea what Dumbledore had bequeathed to whom in his will, and considering how much Harry trusted him right now, he knew he had to make his move now.

So, Harry rummaged around in the desk. He found the snitch in the top most left drawer. Dumbledore had placed the ring with the Peverell coat of arms in it. From the memories that Harry had seen, there was something really special about the ring. Putting it in his cloak pocket, he then got up from the chair and moved towards Dumbledore's portrait. Resisting the extremely violent urge to blow the portrait up, Harry instead pulled the side of the portrait, swinging it open. In a hidden cavity behind the painting, he saw the sword of Gryffindor.

'Mine,' he said possessively as he picked up the sword and placed it on the desk next to his wand. Picking up his wand, he turned around, facing the cabinet containing his Pensieve. With a wave of his wand, the doors opened revealing the Pensieve.

He smiled at the Pensieve that lay within. Another flourish of his wand had the device floating towards him. The stone surrounding the basin seemed to have a metallic sheen to it, just like the sheen seen on the golems once they were awakened. Harry frowned at the memories held within the Pensieve.

The memories were probably Dumbledore's. Dumbledore was dead. So Dumbledore had no need for them. The Pensieve, on the other hand, was Harry's. Thinking thus, Harry inverted the Pensieve with reckless abandon, unceremoniously dumping its contents onto the floor. Memories poured out like an ethereal waterfall, evaporating halfway through their journey to the floor.

Smiling once the Pensieve was empty, Harry called for Randolph.

'Take these two and place them on the desk in my study,' he told the elf as he floated the Pensieve to the desk. 'Sheathe the sword too. You know where the scabbard is.'

'At once, master.' Saying this, Randolph took the objects and vanished with them.

'What?' Harry demanded when he noticed the disapproving looks the other portraits were giving him. 'I am not stealing from Dumbledore if that is what you are thinking. No, the Pensieve and the sword belong to my family. He never did have the decency to return them or tell me that he had them. So I am taking them myself.' Switching to Parseltongue, he said. 'And you shall not repeat anything of what you have seen right now to anyone. That is an order.'

Harry picked up his cloak and draped it over his good arm. Noticing that Dumbledore had awakened and was about to say something, he continued, still in Parseltongue. 'And you shall not speak to anybody; living, dead, or painted. You will be asleep and always stay that way.'

And so, Harry left the office, never knowing that if he had actually seen the memories held within the Pensieve, he would not hate his two oldest friends so much.

As soon as he stepped past the Gargoyle, Harry's body decided to make the presence of its injuries known. Grimacing, Harry limped to the Hospital Wing. The mystery of the Ring, the Wand and the Cloak would be taken care of later.

Entering the Hospital Wing, he caught sight of McGonagall standing outside the door. She had a rather nasty set of scratches on her face and her hair was out of its severe bun.

'Potter?' she said warily.

Harry paused, just noticing the wand that was held in her twitching hand.

'It's really me, Professor,' he said in an equally guarded tone.

The old witch looked at him for a long moment. 'What did I tell you just before you left my office the day I made you Captain?'

'You threatened to turn me into a fluffy kitten.' Harry answered. 'What did you tell me after our first Divination class in my third year?'

McGonagall's lips twitched. 'That professor Trelawney's prediction of you dying wasn't going to stop me from assigning you homework, but if you were to die, you need not hand it in.'

The two relaxed fractionally. 'Now, what happened, Harry?'

'It's a long story,' Harry said. 'And I have no desire to repeat myself, so if you will, Professor, please come in.'

Opening the door to the Hospital Wing, he limped into the room just in time to hear Madame Pomfrey say, 'I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites.'

'Who was bitten?' Everybody turned around on suddenly hearing his voice.

Harry could see the Order members who had fought the Death Eaters turn around and glance at him. Many gasped again at the sight of the bloody teen.

'Harry? What – '

But Harry did not hear Lupin, so intent was his concentration on the unrecognizable face lying on the bed, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque. Madam Pomfrey was dabbing at his wounds with some harsh-smelling green ointment.

'What happened?'

'Fenrir attacked Bill.' Lupin finally said, seeing who Harry was looking at. 'He wasn't fully transformed, so Bill won't end up being a full werewolf, but there shall be some effects, I think. Some scarring ... and he will acquire a few wolfish characteristics.'

Harry did not know what to think about this. He had no idea if Bill was into Dumbledore's scheme as well. 'What happened?' Harry asked again as he sat down on a bed, putting his cloak on the bedside table. Madame Pomfrey, noticing his particularly bloody appearance, bustled over to him, leaving Fleur to tend to Bill.

'Oh dear,' she clucked, taking in his bloody appearance. She waved her wand. 'Broken arm ... a cut on the upper left thigh ... I take it the blood isn't yours, Mr Potter?' Not bothering to wait for an answer, she Vanished his shirt and cleaned the blood off his torso, muttering about how filthy he looked and how rank he smelt. Then she tapped her wand on his broken arm. Harry winced at the momentary pain caused by the bones resetting.

'Right, trousers off, I cannot access the wound on your leg properly.' The matron said as Harry flexed his now healed arm.

It was a mark of how tired Harry was that he did not even flush in embarrassment as he promptly lowered his trousers and lay back down in his pants, his jeans at his ankles.

'Er, how did you get so much blood on yourself, Harry?' Lupin asked hesitantly as Pomfrey muttered about the rather deep cut and start working slowly on it.

'It was from a Death Eater,' Harry replied tersely, wincing now and again as his flesh slowly started to knit together. 'But I first want to know how they came to the castle.'

'We have no idea,' Professor McGonagall said. 'But Bill and one of the Ministry Aurors were the first to run across the five Death Eaters on the seventh floor. According to the Auror, the Death Eaters used Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder to evade them.'

'The two of them finally found Filius and I. I told Filius to go warn Severus as the three of us went forward to confront the Death Eaters.'

Lupin continued from there. 'Filius had run past Fleur and I on his way to Severus' office. He told us that there were Death Eaters near the Astronomy Tower. The two of us immediately ran there. I outstripped Fleur by quite a margin. She joined us a bit later on in battle. During the fight, three Death Eaters and Fenrir went into the Tower. We tried to follow, but thanks to that brute of a Death Eater, Rowle, advancing was hard. To add to that, they had put up a barrier that made it impossible to pass through.' He cursed again. 'At least Rowle managed to take down one of his own comrades.'

Harry raised an eyebrow at this. So that was one dead person accounted for.

'Then Severus came in,' McGonagall said. 'He swept past all of us and just walked right through the barrier.' She paused for a moment. 'A few minutes later, we saw him dragging Draco Malfoy of all people along. I don't know how Mr Malfoy got there, or for that matter, how you ended up there.' She gave him a piercing look. 'How did you get covered in so much blood anyway?'

Harry looked at the lot of them. By the end of the tale, Fleur was looking up at Harry, still hauntingly beautiful despite the gash on her cheek and dust in her hair.

Harry took a deep breath, thinking up a story on the spot. 'Earlier, Dumbledore and I had gone out somewhere for the night on a mission. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and the headmaster got really hurt. I had to Apparate the both of us back. When we appeared at Hogsmeade, we saw the Dark Mark over the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore did not want to wait to be checked up on. He insisted that we get there first. He made me put my Invisibility Cloak on, and we flew to the Tower. But it was a trap ... Professor Dumbledore realised that it was a trap when we heard footsteps coming. The Death Eaters managed to disarm him just as he froze me with a spell. I was forced to watch, invisible as they all surrounded him ...' He took a deep breath, steeling himself. 'Dumbledore is dead.' His voice cracked as he spoke the headmaster's name, the feeling of betrayal welling up within him. Harry took a few deep breaths to calm down. Just hang on a little longer, Harry. He mentally told himself. You can have your break down later.

His audience was stunned. 'What?' Lupin gasped out. He looked at Harry as if he could not believe him. With an anguished moan he seemed to fold into himself as he covered his face in his hands. 'Who did it?' he asked.

There was a long silence.

'Snape,' Harry finally said, his voice trembling with anger at the hated man's name. 'Snape murdered Dumbledore. He used the Avada Kedavra.'

The room elapsed into shocked silence at this.

'Dumbledore can't be dead,' Professor McGonagall finally said. 'Otherwise, I would have felt the wards of the castle shift to me.' On hearing this, the others sat up, hope in their eyes.

'Actually, that would be because of me.' Harry replied. He held up his hand, showing off Slytherin's ring. 'This is the Slytherin ring. As his legitimate heir, the wards have fallen to me. Before we left, I locked every student in their dorms. I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. Dumbledore knew and agreed with me. He also gave me access to the wards so we could get to the tower quicker.'

He took in the shocked looks of the adults around him. 'I only found out this summer ... I hope you understand that we have to keep this knowledge under wraps for now. Voldemort won't like the fact that somebody else, and not him, is Slytherin's legitimate heir.'

'We understand,' McGonagall said. There was another pause. 'So he really is dead?'

At Harry's nod, Pomfrey burst into tears. She was soon interrupted by Fawkes' lament. The phoenix's song of grief seemed to resonate through everybody. Harry had tears in his eyes as he fought not to lose his composure completely.

'At least we got some of those bastards.' Harry finally said, breaking the spell of the song. 'I hit a Death Eater from behind with a cutting curse. At the last moment, he moved and caught the curse at his neck. It's his blood that is all over me.' He looked at his hands for a long moment.

'Ah, so that is what happened to Yaxley.' Professor McGonagall said. She shot Harry a compassionate look. 'Nobody blames you, Harry. You did the best you could.'

Still looking at his now trembling hands, Harry continued. 'But that wasn't all. I – I don't know what I did, or how it happened, but somehow I tapped into the wards. I alerted Hogwarts about enemies within the castle, and ... Hogwarts responded.'

'What happened?' Lupin asked.

'I was at the Entrance Hall a few paces away from the fleeing Death Eaters when suddenly two statues came to life ...' he took another deep breath, still looking down. 'The long and short of it is that two of the Death Eaters, I think they are Alecto and Amycus Carrow? Anyway, they are now dead.'

Lupin whistled at that as Professor McGonagall said. 'Impressive. I did not think that the castle had such formidable defences. Albus always said that Hogwarts held many secrets...'

'What about ze Garçon?' Fleur finally spoke up. 'I theenk 'is name was Malfoy...?'

'Oh,' Harry considered what to say. The Order clearly had not seen Malfoy, and Harry could use him in the future. Besides, if he did manage to get Voldemort, Malfoy would appreciate being seen as an innocent party.

'Well, when we landed on the tower, we saw him just lying there. At first we thought that it was their victim. Then we realised that Malfoy was alive, but under a body bind. That was when the Death Eaters rushed through.'

'Draco wasn't a willing participant throughout. I think the Death Eaters found him out of bounds and used him.'

'So Draco was kidnapped?' McGonagall said with a raised eyebrow.

'Dumbledore did mention to me that Voldemort was not happy with the Malfoy family...' Harry replied. 'I think he plans to use Draco to punish his father.'

The others grimaced at that.

'Snape,' McGonagall finally ejaculated faintly, falling into the chair. 'We all wondered … but he trusted … always … Snape … I can't believe it. …'

Harry watched as Lupin and McGonagall both took in the shocked news that the one person that Dumbledore trusted beyond all doubt was actually working for the other side.

'He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape,' Professor McGonagall said, dabbing at the cor ners of her leaking eyes with a tartan-edged handkerchief. 'I mean … with Snape's history … of course people were bound to won der … but Dumbledore told me explicitly that Snape's repentance was absolutely genuine. … Wouldn't hear a word against him!'

'I'd love to know what Snape told him to convince him,' said Pomfrey, jumping into the conversation once she was done with Harry's wound.

'I know,' said Harry, and they all turned to look at him. 'Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead.'

They all stared at him.

'And Dumbledore believed that?' said Lupin incredulously. 'Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James. …'

'And he didn't think my mother was worth a damn either,' said Harry, 'because she was Muggle-born. … "Mudblood," he called her. …'

Nobody asked how Harry knew this. All of them seemed to be lost in horrified shock, trying to digest the monstrous truth of what had happened.

'This is all my fault,' said Professor McGonagall suddenly. She looked disoriented, twisting her wet handkerchief in her hands. 'My fault. I sent Filius to fetch Snape tonight, I actually sent for him to come and help us! If I hadn't alerted Snape to what was go ing on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don't think he knew they were there before Filius told him, I don't think he knew they were coming.'

'It isn't your fault, Minerva,' said Lupin firmly. 'We all wanted more help, we were glad to think Snape was on his way. …'

'Is Professor Flitwick all right?' Harry asked anxiously. He remembered that there were still two unaccounted dead people within Hogwarts' wards.

'He was just knocked out.' Professor McGonagall said. 'He's actually gone to contact Molly, Arthur and Xenophilius.'

Harry wondered who Xenophilius was, but didn't bother asking.

'What happened to Fenrir?' he finally asked. He hoped that the werewolf was one of the unaccounted for dead people.

'He is still alive.' Pomfrey said. 'The Auror took him to the Ministry.'

'So that's Yaxley, that Death Eater you mentioned, and the Carrow siblings dead.' Harry muttered. 'That's four to one.'

Professor McGonagall exchanged a glance with Lupin over Harry's head at this. She was a bit taken aback by Potter's tone.

'Dumbledore isn't the only loss.' Professor McGonagall said finally. She concluded that it was shock that made Potter say that.

'What do you mean?' Harry looked at her warily, dreading the answer.

'We lost a student.' Lupin said gravely as he indicated a bed that Harry had not noticed. On it lay a body covered by a sheet.

The fact that he was wearing only boxers, socks and shoes did not register in his mind as he moved towards the still form in a trance.

Reaching the bed, he slowly removed the blanket and sucked in a deep breath.

'We think she was outside the dorms during the time of the lockdown.' To Harry, Remus' voice seemed to come from far away. 'We found her body just outside a classroom. I think the Death Eaters saw her on their way out and killed her.'

All Harry could do was nod as he numbly stared at the still form of Luna Lovegood.

But that wasn't the last of the bad news that the night held for Harry, as was evident when the doors of the hospital wing burst open and Filius Flitwick scurried inside.

'I was just on the grounds ...' the short man panted as he stopped. 'It's Hagrid ...'