Chapter 13
"I saw Rowena Ravenclaw." Rebecca interrupted the quiet that formed as they prepared to leave the island. "The last horcrux, it's somewhere in the castle."
"Is that who that was?" Harry asked.
"Yes." Rebecca glanced at Hermione. "Hogwarts: A History was open a lot in our room."
"We can't just go to Hogwarts. Especially not after considering the protections on the castle. We've got to plan, we have to figure it out and-"
"Hermione, when have any of our plans actually worked?" Harry snapped. Lightening his tone, knowing that none of them had done anything to deserve it, he continued. "We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose. We just need to go."
"Snape's headmaster now." Ron said. "We can't just walk through the front door."
"We don't have to." Rebecca went to one knee and tied her shoes, looking up at the group over the rim of her glasses. "There are tunnels all throughout Hogsmeade, one right under Honeyduke's. And that's just the one that Harry's used before--there are plenty more hidden ways."
Harry agreed while scratching at his head. It wasn't itchy, his brain prickled as Rebecca's did. "There's something wrong with him. In the past..." He let his hand fall to his side. "in the past, we've always been able to follow his thoughts. Things are changing."
"Disconnecting." Rebecca said, tucking her locket back into her shirt as she stood. The metal was cool on her skin, but it reminded her of the finality of what they were moving towards. The end was coming, whether it be theirs of Voldemort's...that was still to be decided.
"Maybe it's the horcruxes." Ron offered assuringly, frightened by the despair on both Harry and Rebecca's faces. "Maybe he's dying."
"I think he's wounded." Harry said after a long pause. "He's-It feels like he's more dangerous, if anything."
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The floor of Gringotts, the very floor that had been lit by the light shining through the crystal chandeliers forged and pieced together by goblins of eons past, lay sodden with blood. Goblins and security guards littered the puddles around Voldemort's bare feet as he walked, Nagini at his side. Her tongue darted out of her mouth, tasting the metallic scents in the air.
"They discovered our secret, Nagini."
Lucius and Narcissa stood at the front of the room, grateful to have been spared from the massacre and lost as to what the Dark Lord was saying.
"It makes us vulnerable. You, my friend, must stay close."
Griphook lay at the front of the room, the closest to the exit. He had his hand on the door when Voldemort sent the first blast. The sword in his hand--the sword he had betrayed for--disappeared from his grip. It shone in the shadows of death before returning to its waiting place.
Voldemort turned and faced his troops, deciding. The time had come.
They were going to squash the last vestiges of resistance against them.
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Hogsmeade was as silent as a crypt, and just as lively. Snow piled around its cobblestone walkways and walls from Christmas weeks earlier. Minimal lights shone throughout the village.
Between Death Eaters patrolling and Snatchers snatching, the Magic village could have been mistaken for a Muggle village with how little magic permeated its streets.
Undesirable posters were pasted on every street corner, on every street lamp. Harry and Rebecca's faces pasted on every single one of them.
The street's movements--the only movement--was the group of four apparating into the town that held their school outings. Memories that existed only in previous life-times, it seemed.
Alarms sounded out their arrival, and a light shone down the pavement ahead of them. "They're here!" Overlapping voices called out. "Spread out! Search everywhere!"
Rebecca ran forward, hoping her idea would pan out. She lead them down alleyways and around buildings without any hesitation. The times that Fred insisted they explore every nook and cranny of the village may be all that saves their lives. She was able to direct them away from the main streets without getting lost.
Turning the last corner in one of the oldest alleys of Hogsmeade, Rebecca's plan faltered. A new gate had been installed and it was locked with chains and charms.
"Is it the same as the other one? In the cellar?" Ron whispered. The alarm was still blaring and the shouts of the searchers were growing louder and louder. "Can you get through?"
Rebecca was already moving to try. She got her arm through as far as she could reach and when her shoulder slid through, the bar dug into her skin and her breath caught in her lungs. She couldn't give up, wouldn't give up. Not when getting through and getting Aberforth's attention could save them. She braced herself for the blinding agony that would come from shoving her wound through and before she could damage herself further, a door to their left appeared
"In here, quick!"
Rebecca pulled herself out of the bars and breathed a thank you to the universe.
"Go down!" The same voice hissed at them.
"Do you know how happy I am to see you?" Rebecca asked.
"Not as happy as I'm goin' to be when I see your arse doing as you're told!" Aberforth shooed her down the stairs and replaced the wards over his door to the alley. Ron and Hermione followed her down without delay, but Harry hesitated before deciding that Rebecca's trust for the man is all he needed.
"Did you see him?" Ron asked them at the bottom of the stairs before Aberforth joined them. "For a second, I thought it was-"
"Dumbledore, I did too." Hermione finished.
Rebecca looked up. The lantern that Aberforth had lit at the sound of scrambling at his door above cast shadows up Rebecca's face. "I never noticed, I guess." She shrugged at Harry's look of disbelief.
Aberforth clambered down the stairs, shaking his head at them. "Bloody fools, the whole lot of you." He jerked his thumb towards Rebecca. "Her? Her I expect this from. But all four o' you?" Aberforth sighed. "You've been doing some influencin', I reckon."
"You two know each other?" Harry asked, looking around the room. There was a portrait of a girl. She seemed to look through Harry's soul.
"Aberforth was a big supporter for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." Rebecca explained while she put an arm around the man who seemed to barely tolerate the affection. "Got our signatures framed on a napkin upstairs and everything."
"Could you not go 'round making me look soft?" Aberforth asked, crossing the room and putting the kettle on. "But speaking of those boys of yours...they're not still open, are they?"
"They're safe. We haven't been open in months. I'll-" Rebecca shook her head, putting the thought out of her head. She wouldn't be telling them anything, not if they didn't get a shift on. "How are you?"
"Never mind me. How's Dobby? He made it alright, I presume?"
"You're the one who sent Dobby?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, and I'd like to know where you left him. He hasn'a been back in far too long."
"He's safe, too." Harry answered. "He saved us all. We wouldn't be here without him."
"I don't doubt it. I like that elf." Aberforth set the tray he had filled down and watched as they set to it quickly. Cups of tea held in cold hands and pastries shoved into hungry mouths. "And Sirius and Remus? Last word was that-"
"What have you heard from the Order, Aberforth? Anything?" Rebecca interrupted. The hot drink warmed her senses and only heightened their sense of urgency.
Aberforth turned his gaze down to his mug. "The Order's finished. You-Know-Who's won."
They all stared at him, their mouths full and their bodies frozen. Ron was the first to jolt back. "What do you mean, 'the Order's finished?' What happened?"
"You-Know-Who's won." Aberforth repeated. "Their mission is done, the Order. They've lost. You say different...you're only fooling yourself."
Rebecca set her empty cup down. "I help run a prank shop, it's my job to fool people. The fight is over when every person who still believes in good has died fighting."
Ron nodded his agreement. Hermione noted how the single act of strength from him pushed him out of the annoying little boy she had still seen him as.
"We need to get into Hogwarts. Tonight."
"Right now, actually." Harry amended. "Dumbledore gave us a job to do."
"Did he now?" Aberforth asked with a cruel twist of his lips. "Nice job it must be, easy too, I bet. You all look like shite."
Rebecca looked over her friends. They were dirty, muddy, cold, thinner than they had set off, but shite? No. They all looked as determined, as strong, as when they set off. More so, actually.
Harry was doing a similar tally through their group as Rebecca was. They all looked older, physically and internally. The scar around Rebecca's eye gave her a grim I-will-not-be-defeated look that Harry couldn't help but draw strength from. Her eyes burnt with passion and though he could see traces of pain when she moved her arm the wrong way, he had not doubt that Rebecca was going to bring everything she had to their final mission.
"We've been hunting horcruxes." Harry snapped, checking the time. "And we think the last one is inside the castle."
Ron stood and walked to the other side of the room. He was listening for any sounds of the searchers outside, in case Aberforth proved unhelpful and they had to make their way to the castle on foot. "Either help us get in or let us out, we're getting there no matter what." He said.
Aberforth ignored them and went to Rebecca. "This isn't a job my brother's given you. This is a suicide mission. Listen to sense, girl!" Aberforth shook his head angrily. "Don't do this! Go home! Live longer, live and-"
"And what?" Rebecca asked. "And pretend that thousands of Muggles and half-bloods, that my friends and so many others aren't being murdered? That my family is being hunted? That they will do anything, anything, to find me? You want me to play house and not do something?"
"I want you to live a life. A full life." Aberforth's emotion welled up inside of him. "You're all just children!"
Rebecca shook her head. "Dumbledore being trusted or not, Dumbledore's mission or not, we've started this and we're going to finish it. We have to see this to the end and we have to win so that there is still a world for us to live in. Children?" She gestured to the four of them. "We aren't children, not any more. There are no children in war."
Aberforth stared at her before turning back to the others, looking for a weakness in their resolve. "What makes you think you can trust my brother? What makes you think you can believe anything he told you?" Aberforth pointed at Harry, "In all the time you knew him, did he ever mention my name? What makes you think you knew him at all?"
"It doesn't matter." Harry surprised them all, even himself. "Dumbledore was just a man. He was a man with faults, but strengths too. Fine--he didn't give us all the information for this mission. Fine--we didn't really know him at all. But that doesn't matter! We've taken this on and we're not stopping until it's over."
"That is a boy's answer!" Aberforth spat, marching towards Harry and looking down at him. If he couldn't convince Rebecca to give in, he'd do his best to convince her twin. "You don't believe that, you're lying to yourself! Why do this to yourselves?"
"I-" Harry stumbled and caught Rebecca's eye. She had a hold of Hermione's wrist and Ron was behind her, they were ready to go topside and fight their way out at his signal. Harry knew in an instant why he was doing this, why he was doing all of this. "Because I lived eleven years without a family. Eleven years without knowing what it was like to love someone just because they are tied to you. Eleven years thinking I had nothing to live for."
Ron tightened his grip on his own wand as Harry did Draco's.
"I have a family to fight for now and I have seen proof that evil is not permanent. Life is choice." Harry nodded to Rebecca, echoing what she believed more than anything else. "Life is choice and we've made ours."
Rebecca went to Harry's side, her hand brushing against his. "Now, we need to get into the castle. Can you help us?"
Aberforth turned to the girl in the portrait and lowered his head, feeling as if he was failing but also resigning himself to fighting alongside them. "You know what to do." The girl turned and walked into the distance.
"Where have you sent her?" Rebecca asked.
"You'll see soon enough." Aberforth crossed the kitchen and took out more food. "Eat, you'll need your strength. And I want to see whatever has you wincing." Rebecca looked over her shoulder, thinking he was talking to someone else. "Yes, you." Aberforth grumbled.
Rebecca shook her head. "Cursed blade. It can't be healed."
"Let me see it." Aberforth repeated, taking his wand out. Rebecca pulled her jumper and shirt up at the back, collecting the bundle at the back of her neck. Her back was littered with the fading bruises of the torture she endured under Voldemort's orders. The bandage over the knife wound was dark again, darker than before. Aberforth took it off gently and found the gaping wound underneath raw and bleeding. "Quite a tale, I'm sure."
Rebecca stared ahead, enjoying the cool air of the basement taking an edge off the pain. "Not really. The blade was going for Dobby as he saved the others." Rebecca flinched as Aberforth laid a hand on her back below the injury, using the bandage to catch the blood that streamed down. "Dobby would have taken it for us."
Harry paused his eating and watched as Aberforth raised his wand and cast a nonverbal spell. They were correct, injuries caused by dark magic could not be reversed, hence the reason that George's ear couldn't be fixed. But the wounds can be reinforced. "Should hol' up a bit better now." Aberforth took another bandage from the drawer next to him, fastening it where the old one had been. "If you insis' on being so-"
"We insist." Rebecca glimpsed movement from the girl's portrait. "Aberforth, I-"
"I don't do goodbyes, girl. Not now, not ever." Aberforth pulled the back of her shirt down again, deeply affected by the evidence of trauma on her.
"Me either."
"Is that someone with her?" Ron asked, standing with Hermione and Harry in front of the portrait. The portrait swung open slowly, a figure making its way out of the shadows within.
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"It will be time soon." Fred repeated himself, the third time he had done so in as many minutes.
"We know." George answered, standing in front of his twin and grabbing him tightly. "And you need to focus. You're worrying and not paying attention; if you're not wholly in the moment, you-"
"I understand." Fred pulled George into a hug and put his head against his brother's neck. "They're fine." Fred whispered. "Tell me she's fine."
George grabbed the back of Fred's head. "C'mon now, it's RJ we're talking about. They flew out on a bloody dragon. They're perfectly fine."
They separated and joined the mass of Order members in the room. The Order had been summoned, each and every working member was to meet at the Tonks' childhood home. They were meeting before the end.
The end of the war.
Voldemort had been reported to be moving and gathering his forces in the largest numbers so far, waves and counts never before seen, all converging on Hogwarts.
There were two snaps of apparation arrivals and three more bodies appeared in the hallway outside of the main room. Bill entered first with Fleur behind him, Draco behind them both. He lingered near the door, more eyes than not looked at him accusatorily. Fred moved off the wall where he was and walked to Draco, clasping his hand tightly in his before bringing him back to where Cedric and George were still.
The room's talking started up again after a moment, the hushed conversations of anxiety and fear.
Tonks was the only Order member to leave their previous group and approach the new entrants. She nodded slowly, "I remember you now. I couldn't at first without the hair helmet, but I recognise you."
"I'm sorry." Draco stared at the woman in front of him, not sure where they had met. "I don't remember you." Tonks turned her hair from its dark shade to her favourite bubble-gum pink. "Ah, I'm sorry. Yes, the watcher of the Hospital Wing."
"And you," Tonks smiled, "The ailing." She turned and explained to the very confused trio. "He visited Katie every hour she was with Madam Pomfrey with a new malady, all that should be familiar. Boils, fevers, nose bleeds, and vomiting."
Draco reddened as she told them that he had purchased a Skiving Snackbox.
Cedric shook his head and grabbed George's hand. "You are an enigma, Draco." They all laughed quietly.
Remus watched from across the room, Sirius at his side. Sirius sensed a shift inside of his husband and looked towards him. "Moony?"
"I'm fine, Pads. Just..."
"I know." Sirius too felt the memories of the last war they had lived through threaten to take over. "But it's not going to be like last time. We have each other."
"And two wicked godchildren." Remus kissed the side of Sirius' head.
"And them too." Sirius sniffed. "It's time to say something, something only you could come up with."
Remus nodded and made his way through the groups to the front of the room, looking around and greeting the people he had been working with.
"Friends," He began, looking around the room. "You-Know-Who marches on Hogwarts as we speak." There was a long pause, the weight of Remus' words sinking in. "He has gathered his army. He is making his attack." The room was still. "When it is time, we will apparate into the Forbidden Forest as close to the grounds as we can. We must be inside the boundaries before they are raised."
Across the room, couples made their way closer to their partners as the finality of Remus' words washed over them. No matter what happened, no matter how well they fought, some of them would not live beyond tonight.
"We fight for yesterday." Remus' voice was thick with emotion as he let his grief fill him. Grief for the friends he had lost, the life he had been unable to live with them and Sirius gone. "But we fight for tomorrow, too. We fight for our friends of the past, we fight for our family of the present, and we fight so that our children never need to again. We fight so that good can prevail."
Remus stepped down and the room stayed silent, everyone mourning what they had lost and what they had to lose.
Fred took the ring off his finger and read the words Rebecca had put inside. "All's well." He took the chain he had been carrying around in his pocket and knew it was time. He slipped the ring through the opened clasp before bringing the ends behind his neck and locking them together. His ring rested against his heart and reminded him the he needed to believe that all would be well in the end.
After all, that was what he was fighting for.
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Rebecca threw her arms around the shadow that had accompanied the girl in the portrait before holding him at arm's length and studying his appearance. "Neville! You look-"
"Like hell, I reckon." Neville finished for her with a grin and moved onto Harry, hugging down the line. "This is nothing, Seamus is worse."
Neville and Aberforth exchanged a few sentences, Neville having more students ready to be smuggled out of Hogwarts and into the Order's hands.
"Aberforth-" Rebecca began, wanting him to fight with them.
"I'll be there." He grumbled. "Got to collect a few things, but I'll be there."
Rebecca nodded and knew that they had one more person on their side. She hoped it would be enough.
Harry was the first to speak in their procession behind Neville in the dark. "How long's this passage been here?"
"Not long." Neville answered, continuing ahead. "All the old secret ways were blocked off at the beginning of the year, this is our only way in and out now. The grounds-" He looked back over his shoulder. "The grounds are crawling with dementors and Death Eaters."
"How bad is it with Snape as headmaster?" Hermione asked.
Neville considered his words carefully. "No one's seen him much. The Carrows...they're who you have to watch out for. They've made Umbridge look like afternoon tea. They--brother and sister, mind you--have a favouring for punishment." He gestured to his face, "If you couldn't tell."
"What is that from?" Ron looked Neville over slowly. He had a slit in his eyebrow that had scabbed over, blackened eyes, a split lip. He looked like he had been in a brawl.
"Dark Arts exercise. Today was practising the Cruciatus curse. On first years." Neville glowered. "I, and a few others, refused."
Rebecca stayed silent. She had too clear a mental image of the first years cowering.
"Hogwarts has changed." Neville looked at the end of the hallway they approached and gave them all a smile. "And it will return to how it was. Now, let's have a bit of fun. Nothing like a laugh brightens everything."
The four travellers paused at Neville's motioning to and found that the sliver of the room they could see was unlike any they had seen in the castle before.
"Listen up, you lot!" Neville called to them all. "Brought you a surprise!"
Seamus' voice rose up through the clamour. "Not more of Aberforth's cooking, I hope! Be a surprise if we can digest it!"
Neville stepped aside and opened the door entirely. Every student around the Room of Requirement, inside of the hiding place they had made, stood and made their way to the newcomers. Hugs were exchanged, whispers of thanks for arriving, and in the middle of the throng, a red haired boy waited his turn.
Rebecca broke away from Seamus and wrapped her arms around Nigel tightly. "You've been busy, haven't you?"
Nigel stared at her. He was bruised, she was past that. "I've been busy? You look like a bloody trainwreck."
Rebecca grinned and held him a little tighter. "You know me, never a dull moment. And you don't look much better." His eyes were heavily bagged and his lip was split ferociously.
Nigel held her at arm's length and grew serious. He had been in contact with the Order as often as he could manage, making sure they knew the number of students left in the castle and how many they had smuggled out to Aberforth to be sent to safe houses around the country. "What's the signal? Sirius said the four of you would send word when you arrived, how will you tell them?"
Rebecca turned back to Harry to ask and found him surrounded by classmates, listening to their stories patiently. "I'll get them word. Can you find me Louis, is he's in here?"
Nigel stepped away, "I'll get him."
Rebecca took a slow breath and raised her wand. "Expecto patronum." She said softly, smiling at her cardinal as it left the end of her wand. "The four of us are in the castle. It's time." She kept her voice careful and level, wanting to found sure of herself for when the message repeated. "Be careful, all of you." Her patronus solidified into a ball of light before soaring through the ceiling and out of the castle.
Nigel reappeared with Louis at his side. His face and arms were visible with bruises, more certain to be under his robes. Louis hugged Rebecca as tightly as Nigel had, relief coursing through him. "It's a good thing you're here, we-"
"Lou, what did you say to Draco Malfoy?"
"What?"
"A couple years ago, when Umbridge was here. You said something, shouted it at him I think. What was it?"
Louis thought a moment, the memory coming back to him. "I-I told him that by doing what Umbridge said, by following her decrees and enforcing them, he was choosing her side. He was choosing to hurt us. He was choosing to not be good."
Rebecca kissed his cheek and ran a hand across his cheek gently. "You are an angel, Louis."
"I mean, I knew that." Louis shook his head. "What's that got anything to do with anything?"
"Rebecca?" Hermione called from the gathering of students behind them.
"When everything is over--when things are calm again--I'll tell you, okay?" Rebecca squeezed both boys tightly. "Find Yara too, we'll need her."
"What's the plan?" Neville asked again when Rebecca was beside Harry. Every student in the room had gathered around him and looked up expectantly.
Harry blanked, looking to Rebecca and Hermione, even at Ron, for an answer to their question.
"There's something we need to find." Rebecca began. "It's hidden here in the castle. It will help us defeat You-Know-Who."
They nodded, waiting for a description of what it was. No details came. Neville nodded his head and spoke again. "What is it?"
"We don't know." Harry found his voice.
"Well...where is it?" Neville continued.
"We don't know that either." Harry ran his hand through his hair. "I realise it's not much to go on-"
"That's nothing to go on." Seamus sighed.
"Ravenclaw!" Hermione spoke. "You said you saw Ravenclaw's banner."
Yara looked up quickly. "Rowena Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem." She looked around. "Quite famous."
Cho sighed. "Lost being the keyword. There isn't a person alive who's seen it. It's been missing for centuries."
"Maybe someone could tell me what a bloody diadem is?" Ron asked.
"It's like a crown, or a tiara-"
The door to the Room of Requirement opened and footsteps pounded in. Three bodies ran in, Luna, Dean, and Ginny. Seamus and Dean wrapped their arms around each other and stood, slowly turning with the force of how much they had missed each other, with how much they had worried for the other. Luna was greeted into the throng of students with the enthusiasm the four earlier had been.
Ginny stood a few feet away, staring at Harry in disbelief. "Snape knows." She stayed her distance, speaking plainly. "Snape knows they were in Hogsmeade, he's gathering the school now."
Her eyes had yet to leave Harry's face. She hadn't known for sure if she would ever see him alive again.
"She hasn't even looked at me!" Ron whispered. "Been gone six months too and now I'm Frankie First Year. I'm her brother!"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "She's got brothers, Ron."
"What the hell does that-Oh."
Rebecca laughed, despite the darkness creeping into the room and settling over them. "Let's go then! We've been summoned!"
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The Carrows were quickly identified by Harry and Rebecca. They both had matching scowls at the front of the Great Hall, one on either side of Snape, their hatred of the students washing off of them in waves.
"Many of you are surely wondering why I have summoned you at this hour." Snape surveyed the Great Hall over his nose, no emotion in his voice. "It has come to my attention that, earlier this evening, Harry and Rebecca Potter were sighted in Hogsmeade."
The students turned and whispered to each other for the few seconds they dared.
Harry grabbed Rebecca's wrist tightly beside her and whispered so softly, she could barely hear him. "Potter-Weasley. He must not have gotten the memo."
"Guess not." She squeezed his hand back.
"Should anyone..." The Great Hall fell silent as Snape began again. "Student or staff, attempt to aid them, will be punished in a manner consistent with the severity of their transgression."
McGonagall's contempt was clear on her face.
Snape left the platform and slowly made his way down the aisle between the students. "Furthermore, any person found to have knowledge of these events who fails to come forward..."
The first and second years trembled where they stood. Older students linked their hands with the younger, trying to share their strength.
"Will be treated as equally guilty. Now then, if anyone here has knowledge of Mr and Miss Potter's whereabouts this evening...I invite them to step forward." Snape stood at the back of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw quarters of the room. "Now."
Rebecca's legs tightened with anticipation, waiting as Snape's gaze snuck over the Slytherin quarter before reaching Gryffindor. Harry broke rank and marched out to the aisle, Rebecca right behind him. The Great Hall broke into whispers and gasps, their arrival a surprise to all but the few students who had been in the Room of Requirement.
"I know something about their whereabouts." Rebecca answered coyly, the Gryffindor robe over her jeans and t-shirt too long and shrugged off. "Just a bit though."
Harry cocked his head at the headmaster, goading him in his own way. "Despite your exhaustive defensive strategies, you still have a security problem, professor."
The doors to the Great Hall boomed as they were opened and the Order in all its glory thundered in. Snape continued to stare at the Potter twins.
Rebecca didn't turn around, returning Snape's stare. If she had looked, she would have seen Kingsley leading the charge with Remus and Sirius at his shoulders. Bill and Fleur were side by side to their left, Draco behind them. On either side of Draco were Fred and George, Cedric past George. Molly and Arthur were closer to the back, Ron and Hermione in front of them. Tonks and Neville were the last in. Neville knew that a Longbottom needed to be represented in the new Order's first act.
"How dare you stand where he stood?" Harry demanded. It was time the students of Hogwarts knew what truly happened to Albus Dumbledore. "Tell them how it happened that night!" Harry shouted now. "Tell them how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and you killed him!"
"And who's to say?" Snape asked, sneaking his hand to his wand in his robes. "You and your shadow?"
Rebecca froze her jest as a voice called out over the hall, a voice she didn't expect to hear.
"I say!" Draco shouted. The Order split in two, creating a path for him to step forward. "I say...because I was there!" Slytherin house watched in abject horror as Draco held his arm out, showing his mark. "It was my job and I couldn't do it! I wouldn't do it!"
Snape glowered and raised his wand between Harry and Rebecca, pointing it at Draco. McGonagall launched forward and waved her robes out to push Harry and Rebecca back, stepping between Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy.
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