Chapter 20
"Dumbledore wants to see us tonight." Rebecca told Harry as she slapped the letter on the table in front of him. "Expected, but now confirmed."
Harry nodded and took another bite of his sandwich. He was quieter than usual, but he seemed to be every time he was in a room where Ginny was as of late, especially when his attention was caught on her as entirely as it was right then.
"You could always talk to Ron about it." Rebecca offered quietly while Ron and Hermione were speaking amongst themselves in hushed tones about 'doing one's own homework.' "He can't really have an issue with it."
"It's Ron." Harry scoffed, looking down at his sandwich with a look he wished could have been angry but only surfaced as sad. "Of course he'll have an issue."
"Then you can tell him it's no different than Fred and I."
"What about Fred?" Ron's head shot up. "He and George apologise yet?"
Rebecca couldn't hide her grin entirely, a shadow of it crossed her face. "No, Ron, and they're not going to. You shouldn't have opened my letter!"
Fred and George had been experimenting with different mail-based pranks to get the Ministry workers that combed through the incoming student mail of Hogwarts and one managed to get through. One that, upon opening, turned the nose of the opener into a great toucan-like beak that couldn't be charmed away for an hour. It was Ron's nosiness that left him with features even Tonks would have had to try to imitate.
"I thought it was for me." Ron muttered, sticking to his story.
"I saw that Professor Slughorn said good morning today." Hermione remarked to change the subject before the same argument she had already heard too many times could be rehashed. "That's got to feel good, right?"
Rebecca shrugged, but they could all tell that it really did feel good to her. Harry was just grateful that someone else's feelings were now the discussion. Only Ron seemed oblivious to Harry's pining, but that was just fine with Harry.
"Really?" Harry nudged her. "You have to admit, I can have the good ideas once in a while."
"Don't make a habit of it." Rebecca reached for her teacup, sneaking a little smile for him. "That's my job."
Hermione looked at the two of them and let out a barrage of laughter so strong she had to cover her mouth and bend to try and regain her breath. It was as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world, ten times over. "Y-you two would be dead in a ditch without us! Good ideas?"
Ron had joined her laughter but did so in a renewed fashion at her explanation. "Dead in a ditch multiple times, at that!" Hermione laid her hand on Ron's shoulder to sit herself back up only for them both to end up back in pieces after looking at Harry and Rebecca again. Harry and Rebecca exchanged a glance at the contact between their friends, but joined their fun without a word on it.
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"Congratulations are in order." Dumbledore addressed Harry and Rebecca proudly. "I have coveted this memory for many years; I thank both of you for the roles you played in its securing." The headmaster walked to the pensieve with the vial in hand and a purpose in his step. "We'll not waste too much time with pleasantries tonight. The truth awaits."
Harry and Rebecca were in equal states of anticipation. The memory that they had spent the majority of the school year trying to get, was finally about to be experienced. Rebecca--just as happy as headmaster and twin alike at the success--was also flooded with underlying relief at Slughorn's return to the Potter twins. There were only a few months left of term and Rebecca didn't want anything to come between her and more skills she could bring to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes production lines.
"Let's see the truth." Rebecca said, laying her hand on the pensieve table beside Harry's. He smiled and slid his hand against hers as they plunged into the past.
Their surroundings took the shape of Slughorn's old office, exactly as the other memory had. But instead of the beginning of the supper party, Tom was all who remained behind young Horace.
"I was in the library the other night in the Restricted Section..." Tom tapped the hourglass to catch Slughorn's attention before walking towards the fireplace.
Rebecca followed Tom across the room, listening carefully for the point in which the true memory would divert itself from the false one they had already seen. She was disturbed by how menacing Tom's eyes were even in the accurate recollection.
"...and I read something rather odd about a bit of rare magic. It's called, as I understand it," The breaths of those watching the memory paused as the revelation came. "A horcrux."
The effect on young Professor Slughorn was instantaneous shock. "I beg your pardon?"
Tom repeated himself as if the professor had simply not heard him. "Horcrux. I came across the word while reading and I didn't fully understand it."
"I'm not sure what you were reading, Tom, but this is very dark stuff. Very dark, indeed."
Tom softened his expression, though the hard glint never left his eyes. "Which is why I came to you."
Professor Slughorn turned towards the fireplace and spoke softly after mustering his courage. "A horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed a part of their soul."
Tom stepped forward and Rebecca jerked backwards so the memory didn't pass through her. It didn't matter that this was decades before she and Harry were born, she didn't want to be in his path all the same. "But I don't understand how that works, sir."
"One splits one's soul and hides a part of it in an object. By doing so, you are protected should you be attacked and your body destroyed."
"Protected." Tom echoed.
"That part of your soul that is hidden lives on." Slughorn's face was coated in horror, though Tom didn't see it. His attention was off along with the possibility of immortality. "In other words, you cannot die."
Tom leaned against the mantle confidently. "And how does one split his soul, sir?"
"I think you know the answer to that, Tom."
Tom cocked his head to the side. "Murder."
"Yes." Slughorn stared at his student, realising that there wasn't the appropriate amount of afraid. "Killing rips the soul apart. It is a violation against nature."
Tom had turned his head so he was looking into the flames. His hand busied itself with spinning a dark ring on his finger. "Can you only split the soul once? For instance, isn't seven-"
"Seven?" Slughorn gasped. "Merlin's beard, Tom! Isn't it bad enough to consider killing one person? To rip the soul into seven pieces... This is all hypothetical isn't it, Tom? All academic?"
Tom smirked at Slughorn. "Of course, sir." He raised an eyebrow slightly. "It'll be our little secret."
That was how the memory ended: Tom's eyes boring into Slughorn's. Then, the surroundings of the room faded away until all that was left were the outlines of the two people.
Harry and Rebecca were once more in Dumbledore's office, standing and wiping their faces on their shirts. Rebecca had continued to keep her hair back as she had under the influence of the Felix Felicis, a newfound lack of insecurity at the scar wrapped around her eye. But there was still liquid beaded on her glasses and she couldn't be bothered with getting it all as her thoughts jumped faster than the Fire-Breathing Horned Toads from Magical Creatures weeks earlier.
"Sir-"
Dumbledore raised his hand and silenced her. He was still gathering his own thoughts as he walked to the stone stairs leading up to the rest of his office and lowered himself down onto them, his hands wringing. "This is beyond anything I could have imagined."
"You mean to say he succeeded sir, in making a horcrux?" Harry asked.
"He didn't just make one." Rebecca realised. "Did he?"
"He did succeed and not just one." Dumbledore thought of something and made it back to his feet, leaving Rebecca and Harry to trail along behind him.
"What are they exactly?" Harry hoped to prompt some type of explanation.
"They could be anything! Most commonplace of objects." Dumbledore stopped at his desk and slide something down the table to them. "A ring." Dumbledore turned over what he had had under the ring. "A book."
"Tom Riddle's diary." Rebecca breathed.
"Yes, a horcrux." Dumbledore looked at Harry. "Four years ago when you saved Ginny Weasley's life in the Chamber of Secrets, you brought me this." Rebecca looked at Harry too. She and Hermione had been given retellings of the events that had taken place while they were petrified, but it had never been worded so plainly by someone so powerful as Dumbledore was now. "I knew then this was a different kind of magic. Very dark, very powerful. Before tonight...I didn't know how powerful."
"And the ring?" Rebecca looked down at it curiously.
"Belong to Voldemort's mother. Difficult to find. Even more difficult to destroy." Dumbledore raised his withered, blackened fingers as proof.
"But if we found them all, if we destroyed each horcrux--" Rebecca spoke quickly.
"One could destroy Voldemort."
"But how would we find them?" Harry looked down at the book and the ring. "They could be hidden anywhere."
"True. But magic, especially dark magic--" As Rebecca picked up the ring, her and Harry's heads were filled with a terrible screaming, flashes of pained faces and memories from the orphanage, seven shells lined in a row, Voldemort's face. Both felt the tension grow in their necks, the pain as they brushed minds with evil. Dumbledore stared at them curiously as he finished what he had been saying. "Leave traces."
"That's where you've been going, isn't it?" Harry inquired.
"When you leave the school?" Rebecca added.
"Yes. And I think, perhaps, I may have found another. But this time, I cannot hope to destroy it alone." Dumbledore sighed. "Once again, I must ask too much of you both." Dumbledore outlined the plan. They would both meet him at the top of the Astronomy Tower in two days.
When Rebecca and Harry asked why they wouldn't leave right then, Dumbledore was adamant that the chance of raising suspicion if they were to miss the quidditch final and their apparation examination was too risky.
"We cannot arise suspicion. Voldemort has eyes everywhere."
Rebecca wasn't all that bothered. Whether they had gone that night, the next night, two nights from then, it didn't matter to her. They were going to destroy a horcrux either way.
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"You are insane!" Harry whispered as he wrapped his arms around Rebecca so he could hug her tightly. He didn't care that she was positively disgusting after such a well-played match. "You're mad! First the exam, now this?"
As Ginny scoured the sky for any sign of the snitch--taking Harry's spot as he was still being punished for the Draco incident--Rebecca and the two other chasers flew through the air like they had been born on brooms. They executed plays from the book McGonagall had used in her playing time, they plucked the quaffle directly out of Ravenclaw hands, they scored point after point after point. Ravenclaw dug their heels in the sand towards the end, never giving in or up, but it wasn't enough.
And as for the rest of Harry's awe, apparation exams had gone without error for Rebecca and Hermione. Harry and Ron, however, would need to return to Hogsmeade for the next issuance of examinations to try again.
"The winners!" Rebecca shouted so the common room could hear her, bringing about a fresh round of shouts and cheers. She hoisted the cup higher and shouted over them again. "THE CHAMPIONS!!!" The common room echoed her cries and broke out the supplies for a celebration worthy of such an occasion: drinks of adult enjoyment, banners, the records and record player.
Rebecca brought the quidditch cup to the shelf where it would sit another school year and grinned at the face joining her reflection in the gold. "I wish you could have played." She told Harry. "Missed a hell of a match."
"I was right there in the stands." Harry's attention wandered elsewhere as he turned his back to the cup to look out into the party. The players were all still in their kits and he was just noticing how the red and gold accented Ginny so well.
"It's a celebration, you should celebrate." Rebecca laughed, "You know I would be!" Harry made no move, though his smile turned slightly. "Harry, we talked about this. 'Big boy trousers?'"
Harry gave her a sad look, no humour or joke behind it. "And what if it ruins Ron and my friendship? Is it worth that? Is anything?" He nodded to push Rebecca towards an answer when she didn't give one.
"I can't tell you that." Harry scoffed. "I can'! No one can, it's a decision you have to make for yourself. But..." Rebecca sighed and leaned against the wall besides Harry, her head lined up with his shoulder. "I will tell you that I haven't regretted anything. Not when it comes to him."
"You regret other things?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yeah, things I can't do anything about, sure." Rebecca rolled his eyes at his demanding look. "If I could have kept us together, I would have. If I could have known about magic earlier, I would have. If I could have lived a different life before, I would have. If, if, if." Rebecca looked out into the crowd. "Regrets aren't missed opportunities, whoever said that was dumber than a troll. Regrets are simply the reasons we should enjoy what we have."
"If I had stayed with you forever, I might not have the same appreciation for you that I do. If I had known about magic earlier, I wouldn't find it so awe-inspiring. Truth is," Rebecca sighed. "If anything had changed about our lives, I might not have found you. I might not have found the Weasleys. I might not have found Fred."
"And?" Harry didn't see a point, though he appreciated her opening so much up to him.
"And I would hate to not have any of those things, you bastard!" Rebecca punched his shoulder and gave one last look at the quidditch cup. "Now pucker up, buttercup!"
Harry gave her a look and reached up to flatten the back of his hair as he made his way to Ginny.
Rebecca joined Hermione and Ron near the table of snacks, pausing at the couch nearest to the fire. She reached down into the cushions and pulled out a thick roll of parchment to watch the show.
Harry steeled himself and reached out for Ginny's shoulder, her attention turned entirely to him.
"Harry! I'm sorry you didn't play." Ginny looked over his face, finding it off. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Harry shook his head quickly. "No ghost. I just-I, erm...I wanted-I wasn't sure if...maybe-"
Ginny gave him a crooked smile, wondering how long he would have stumbled. "Eloquently put." Harry frowned, embarrassed and disappointed in himself. Ginny studied Harry a moment and decided to take a chance. "Maybe you should just show me."
Harry's eyes darted down to her lips before returning to hers. "Are you sure?"
"I don't know. What are you going to do?"
Harry leaned forward and kissed Ginny quickly, hoping that his track record of leaving a girl crying was only one girl long.
Hermione and Rebecca grinned to each other while Ron's jaw dropped and he stepped towards the kissing two, a scowl growing. "Ah, ah, ah." Rebecca held her hand in front of Ron's chest to stop him. "That's far enough."
"He's-He's-"
"Not doing anything Fred and I haven't. If I'm good enough for Fred, isn't Harry enough for GInny?" Ron stared at Rebecca and went to speak again, but she knew what he was going to say. "No, there isn't a difference, Ronald." Rebecca undid the wax seal of her scroll, which she then unrolled dramatically and kept the contents from Ron's sight. "Do you know what this is?"
"Of course I don't bloody know what it is!" Ron bellowed, catching the attention of those around them.
"This would be a list of your every infraction of every school rule this year." Rebecca answered calmly and without laughing at how Ron's eyes widened at the length of the list. "Would you like to read it over with-"
Ron snatched it out of her hands and read it in disbelief. "Put shoes on common room couch? That's not a rule!"
Hermione winced. "It is."
Ron moved onto the next one. "Misdirected a first year? I didn't do that!"
Emmet raised his hand from the nearby gathering of first years. "Yes, you did."
Ron bore his eyes into Rebecca's and clutched the roll tightly. "What does this have to do with Harry defiling-"
"Defiling?" Rebecca rolled her eyes. "You need another verb. Wooing? Yeah, wooing." She shook her head. "That's not important. That list, sweet, innocent Ron, has yet to be sent to mum. Unless, of course, you can find it in your heart to be rational. Then it'll never need to be read by another person. It's up to you, really." Rebecca picked at a loose hangnail while Ron thought it over.
Ginny watched the interaction carefully, as did the rest of the common room. An awkward silence halted the celebration for the familial argument. Ron took a long, eternity-lengthened pause before thrusting the list back to Rebecca.
"Hasrmeain doal."
"What was that?" Rebecca lowered her ear to Ron and gave Harry a wink. "I couldn't quite catch it."
"Harry will do."
Ginny and Harry both felt a weight lift off of them that they hadn't entirely been aware of--the weight of Ron's judgement.
"I'm glad you saw reason." Rebecca balled up the list and tossed it into the fire. "I'll leave you two," She spoke to Ron and Hermione. "Party to get back to and all."
Hermione and Ron looked at each other before looking away. They were clearly not ready to talk about anything other than Harry and Ginny a while longer.
"Not doing anything nefarious, are you?" Nigel spoke from behind Rebecca as she poured herself a drink.
"Nefarious?" Rebecca poured another and held one out to him. "Me?"
Nigel took a sip and grimaced at the spiked-taste before they both laughed. "Another season done. Year's almost through!" Nigel shook his head. "I can't believe it."
"Yeah? Wait until you're older to say that." Rebecca laid her hand on Nigel's shoulder, done teasing for the moment. "I've really appreciated you this year, Nige. From the Slug Club party to testing, you've been a great friend."
"That party was the highlight of my year!" Nigel chuckled. "Slughorn in evening wear trying to teach me how to dance 'as we did in the old days, my boy.'" His impression of Slughorn was spot on. "Don't thank someone for things that any friend would have done. It's a waste of time."
"A waste of time? What else do you have to do?" Rebecca was pulled forward in an instant, Nigel's hand tightly holding her wrist. "Oh no, Nigel!" She saw where he was leading her to.
"You have to! It's the same song as the party!" Nigel raised his arms up and jumped about, perfectly comfortable with being the first to dance if it meant that others would join the area in front of the record player. "I know you want to!"
Rebecca downed the last of her drink and joined him, dancing as happily as he was.
Ginny and Harry watched from the side, talking to each other quietly. "She's mental." Harry said over Ginny's shoulder as she poured their drinks. "Positively mental."
Ginny put his cup into his hand and nodded. "We should join them."
Harry winced. "Are you sure? You have seen me dance, right?"
Ginny nodded. "And I'm about to see it again."
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"I want you two to have this." Harry said two days later. Just as they had been before sending Rebecca off to Aragog's funeral, the group of four were gathered in Harry and Ron's dormitory with the vial of Felix Felicis between them.
"We can't-"
"You should take it!" Hermione and Ron argued.
"Who knows if-" Rebecca's voice cut off and she turned towards the window before finishing. It had been her idea originally to leave the liquid luck with those staying at the castle and Harry agreed vehemently when she had told him her reasoning. "What if Draco tries something?"
"We don't even know where we're going." Harry stepped in. "We need to know that you lot are safe."
Hermione took the vial slowly. She knew with both Harry and Rebecca on the same page that there was nothing in the world she could say to change their minds. "You've both got a jumper, don't you?"
Rebecca grabbed hers from where she had set it down and pulled it on with a soft thanks.
"And you've got your wands?" Ron asked.
Harry and Rebecca pulled theirs out and thanked Ron as well. Ginny stood up and hugged Rebecca first, leaving a kiss on her forehead before moving onto Harry. Hermione took Ginny's place in front of Rebecca until Ron replaced her too. Ron, unable to say anything, simply wrapped his arms around her and held her until Hermione returned and patted his back.
"You be careful." Ron found his voice and stopped Rebecca at the door. "I won't be the one to tell mum she lost one of us."
Rebecca held her hand to Ron's cheek and shook her head. "You won't." Leaving a peck on his cheek, Harry and Rebecca walked to the portrait hole with their friends right behind them.
"The cloak is up there already?" Ginny asked again.
"Put up earlier."
"Good luck." Hermione wished them as the Fat Lady swung open.
"Good luck where?" The painted lady asked nosily. "Not on our way to trouble, are we?"
Rebecca managed a cavalier tone that was entirely false, but not entirely unbelievable. "Us, ma'am?"
Harry pulled her on her way and they walked through the empty halls side by side, silently. Their friends had come with them as far as they could. The Astronomy Tower was open alongs its ends, always a breeze blowing through. When Harry and Rebecca reached the top of the last flight of stairs, Professor Snape's voice was carried by it.
"Have you ever considered that you ask too much, that you take too much for granted?" Rebecca pulled Harry this time, bringing his back against the wall next to her to listen to the conversation. "Has it ever crossed your brilliant mind that I don't want to do this anymore?" Snape's voice had the most emotion either Potter had ever heard in it.
Dumbledore's voice responded a moment after. "Whether it has or hasn't is irrelevant. I will not negotiate with you, Severus. You agreed. Nothing more to discuss."
Rebecca peered out around the corner to see if Snape had left the other way and jumped back as his robes flourished. He had turned towards their hiding spot to leave.
"You didn't think this through, did you?" Harry whispered.
"Shut up!" Rebecca whispered back, holding her head against the wall. Snape passed them and stopped in front of them. His eyes met Harry's before Rebecca's. In years to come, Rebecca would never fully be sure whether or not it was tears in the professor's eyes or a smudge on her glasses. Snape left without a word.
Harry and Rebecca stepped up the last few steps and emerged behind Dumbledore as he turned and waved them in. "Harry! You need a shave, my friend!" Rebecca glanced at the smattering of stubble on Harry's chin. Dumbledore turned to Rebecca and smiled sadly. "At times, I forget how much you've grown." Dumbledore returned his attention to the view off the tower. "I was there, you remember."
"You were 'there,' sir?" Harry asked.
"The first night at the Weasleys." Rebecca smiled sheepishly. "I vaguely remember asking if you were Molly's father."
Dumbledore chuckled. "That you did. I can still see the small child from the tree house, just as I can still see the small child from the cupboard." He shook his head. "Forgive my mawkishness, I'm an old man."
"Look the same to me, sir." Rebecca offered with a little shrug.
Harry nodded. "Your beard is only a little longer."
Dumbledore sniffed. "Just like your mother, your both unfailingly kind. But, with that said, you're just like your father."
"How?" Rebecca asked.
"Far too agreeable. Both traits people never fail to undervalue, I'm afraid." Dumbledore stepped out from between them and paced as he got to the business of their mission that evening. "The place to which we are about to journey tonight is extremely dangerous. I promised you could accompany me, and I stand by that promise."
"But?" Rebecca prompted, bringing a nod from Dumbledore.
"But there is one condition: you must obey every command I give you without question."
Harry's agreement came immediately. "Yes, sir."
Dumbledore looked at him a moment before focusing on Rebecca. "You understand what I'm asking you both? Should I tell you to hide, you hide. Should I tell you to run, you run. Should I tell you to abandon me and save yourselves, you must do so."
Rebecca nodded her head after considering the terms.
"I need your word, both of you."
"You have my word." Harry said.
Rebecca took one moment longer and met Dumbledore's eyes. "You have my word."
Dumbledore's face remained blank as he held out an arm to each of the Potter twins. "Take my arm."
"I thought you couldn't apparate within Hogwarts, outside of the lessons." Rebecca asked curiously.
The corner's of Dumbledore's mouth turned up in a slight grin. "Well, being me has its priveleges."
The feeling came as soon as Dumbledore had finished speaking, the sucking through a tube and popping sound that accompanied apparation-related travel. When their feet were on solid ground again, Rebecca found that their surroundings were not as solid as she would have hoped.
Dumbledore had taken them to a rock that jutted out of a pounding, churning, angry sea. Harry grabbed for Rebecca's arm and held her firmly against his side as he squinted out into the mist. A cliff was ahead of them, but there was nothing but the ocean at their backs.
"Grab onto my belt." Harry commanded. "Do not let go, understand?"
Rebecca could only jerk her head in a nod. Her throat was too far up her throat to answer any other way.
Dumbledore raised his arms and brought a walkway for them out of the depths. Harry studied the steps Dumbledore took more than he thought he would be able to; he was trying to keep images of the Triwizard tournament and the second task out of his head. Harry brought Rebecca along though, slowly and steadily crossing above the dark ocean to the entrance of the trench-like cave Dumbledore led them inside of.
It was dark inside the cave; only slivers of light shone through from unseen cracks above. Rebecca let go of Harry and had begun thanking him when Dumbledore spoke from ahead of them seemingly to no one in particular.
"This is the place, oh yes. This place has known magic."
Dumbledore pulled a short, deadly looking knife out of the folds of his robe and lifted his his hand up into the light.
"Professor!" Rebecca gasped. Dumbledore had dragged the blade across his palm.
"In order to gain passage, payment must be made. Payment intended to weaken any intruder." Dumbledore held his hand, now bleeding steadily, over the strongest pull of magic. Rocks began to crumble and fall away as a jagged tunnel appeared.
"You should have let one of us." Harry said.
"Oh no, your blood is much more precious than mine." Dumbledore illuminated the end of his wand and glanced back at them before stepping into the unknown. "Voldemort will not have made it easy to discover his hiding place. He will have put certain defenses in position."
They walked through the tunnel slowly, carefully treading over the oddly shaped rocks that paved the path. Minutes later, at the end, the tunnel opened up into a large, round cavern with a lake pooled into its bottom. Dumbledore flung his wand forward with a duplicated light that soared out over the water.
Rebecca watched as the light went on and on, the opening they found themselves in much larger than she had originally thought. Across the distance, a small island could be seen.
"There it is." Dumbledore stepped closer to the water. "The only question is how do we get there?" As he had before to raise the bridge they had taken, Dumbledore held his hand up over the water. It began to bubble and seconds later an iron chain shot out of the water. Dumbledore wavered where he stood, far more magic than he had anticipated used already in their quest. "If you would?"
Rebecca grabbed the end of the chain Dumbledore held out to her and Harry hopped into motion as well. At the end of the chain, a boat rose out of the depths. It had skulls adorning the bow and it came to a stop frighteningly close to the water's edge.
Dumbledore stepped in first and situated himself at the back before holding his hand out to aid whomever was next to step in. Harry moved forward where Rebecca froze; he put one leg into the boat and kept the other on the stony shore before motioning for Rebecca to go to him. "It'll be okay." He reassured.
Rebecca took his hand tightly and squeezed against him. She didn't know what to say. 'I'm sorry?' She did feel like this was a weakness the others didn't have. 'It's not my fault' maybe? In the end, Rebecca said nothing and hoped that Harry knew how she appreciated him. She assumed that he knew something along the lines of her thoughts as Harry kept his hand tightly around her and he didn't remark on her trembling.
Before the boat took off, Dumbledore increased the strength of his wand's light so that their immediate area was forced out of the shadows.
The shame at turning her head into Harry's chest, at hiding, in front of Dumbledore burned through Rebecca--her ears roared with cowardice. Neither man spoke on anything. In fact, none of them had spoke at all. The weight of the cavern's silence was too heavy to break for the time being.
When the boat reached the island a hellish ride later, Harry did the same as he had when they had entered so the the boat was as close to land as possible for Rebecca. When they were both on solid land again, Rebecca slipped her hand into his.
Dumbledore went to the podium-esque uprising in the middle of the small island and crouched over it, staring into its centre carefully.
"Do you think it's in there, sir?" Rebecca asked as she and Harry joined him at the basin that jutted out of the earth sharply. Harry kept his hand in hers and turned in a slow circle to take in what was around them.
"Yes, I do." Dumbledore waved a hand over the liquid in the middle and then looked at the bowl shaped shell balanced on the edge. "It has to be drunk. All of it, it has to be drunk." His tone made it seem as if this were just occuring to him. Dumbledore turned to Rebecca and Harry. "You remember the conditions on which I brought you with me? This potion might paralyze me. Might make me forget why I'm here. Might cause me so much pain I beg for relief. You are not to indulge these requests. It's your job to make sure I keep drinking this potion. Even if you have to force it down my throat. Understood?"
Rebecca looked over the edge at the large amount of liquid. "Why can't we drink it?"
"Because I am older, much cleverer, and much less valuable." Dumbledore picked up the shell bowl and raised it like a toast. "Your good health." He raised it to his lips and drank deeply.
Rebecca and Harry stared intently, though unnecessarily. The effects took hold in seconds. First his eyes darkened, then he began to shake. "Sir?" Rebecca shouted, reaching forward as Dumbledore fell to the ground. "Can you hear me?" Dumbledore reached out for the potion again with no indication that he heard her. "Harry, fill it up!"
Harry ferried the shell between the basin and where Dumbledore had fallen while Rebecca poured it into the headmaster's mouth despite his whimpering groans. "No, don't." Dumbledore whispered, laying his hand on her arm.
"You have to keep drinking it, like you said. Remember?" Rebecca kept her voice steady though she felt like she was killing him.
Harry continued to bring her shell after shell.
"Stop." Dumbledore whispered. "Make it stop."
"It will stop, you just have to keep drinking." Rebecca poured another shell's worth into his mouth.
Dumbledore threw his head up to the ceiling of the cave and screamed. "Kill me! Kill me!"
Harry took the now-emptied shell from Rebecca's shaking hands and went to fill it again. "I can finish it if you can't."
Rebecca shook her head. "I can do it." She brought the shell to Dumbledore's lips and tilted his head back.
Dumbledore was weeping openly now, the tears tracing down his wrinkles and stopping at the top of his beard where they escaped sight.
Harry filled it and handed it to Rebecca who faced Dumbledore's crying with a strength he knew he wouldn't have managed. "The last one."
"One more, sir." Rebecca pleaded. "One more and then it's done, I promise. We'll do whatever you say, just one more." Dumbledore's face seemed to lighten as the last of the potion entered his mouth. His eyes looked a little clearer, too.
"Water, Rebecca." Dumbledore smacked his lips before looking around, too weak to get any himself. "Water."
Rebecca smiled and wiped at her cheeks. "Water? I can get water." She hurried past where Harry now crouched beside Dumbledore and glanced at the basin. "You did it!" She glanced over her shoulder as Dumbledore's light went out and began to hurry. Rebecca took the necklace at the bottom and stuck it into her pocket before holding her wand up and trying to fill the bowl with water. "Aguamenti!" Though the basin itself filled, when Rebecca tried to pass the shell through, the shell didn't collect anything. "Harry?"
Dumbledore was rocking himself back and forth, muttering all the while. "Water...water...water..."
Harry took the shell from her hands and scrambled down the stones to the little island's edge. He had lit his wand too now that only Dumbledore's light floating over the water remained.
"Harry?" Rebecca warned, watching over his shoulder from beside Dumbledore. Something inside of her was wrong. This was wrong. "Be careful."
"Really? I thought I'd be stupid." Harry dipped the shell into the water as he chuckled at his retort. Dumbledore floating light dove into the water and plunged them all farther into the shadows that their wands could hardly stave away.
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Cliffhanger? Oops.
I love you though!
<3