Chapter 21
Rebecca jumped so fiercely she nearly made it out of her skin as a roar echoed through the cavern. A hand grabbed at Harry's wrist, but he freed himself and scrambled up the rocks towards her. "Lumos maxima!" Rebecca sent a light of her own out to brighten their surroundings.
What had been eerily still water was now churning with the movement of hundreds of body clambering towards them.
The first to lay a hand on the island itself did so tentatively. Its body was something that once might have been a man, but long ago. All of the bodies nearing them had whatever they had been wearing from the day they had died; their faces were slack-jawed and grey-eyed, but clearly once human.
"Inferi, Rebecca!" Harry gasped, casting a hex at one that climbed towards Dumbledore.
"Harry!" Rebecca shouted, pointing at one of the bodies moving closer. "That's him!" Harry couldn't look at first, not with a group of inferi in front of him. As soon as he got rid of one, another popped up in its place. Rebecca focused and sent a line of them away with a jinx that left her winded. "That's Regulus!"
Harry turned at that. His heart dropped when he found who Rebecca had seen. He was a miniature version of what Harry had imagined Sirius as when he was younger: starkly defined cheekbones, sharp nose, hair as dark as the blackness in the edges of the cave. It was Regulus Black and he had died in the very cavern they were in now--this was where Wilhomena had failed to save him. "Focus, Rebecca!"
The inferi were farther up the island now, only a few few feet from Harry and Rebecca. Rebecca stopped attacking with her wand and threw an elbow into the woman's body that had grabbed her arm. As soon as she was freed enough, Rebecca punched at the man in front of her.
Harry was grabbed by the inferi before Rebecca and yanked closer to the water's edge, but she too was overwhelmed moments later. Harry realised with a sickening sense of already-lived horror that they were going to be dragged to the bottom of the water and that his sister--his sister who had already drowned once in their lives--was going to do so again. Just like before, Harry couldn't do anything to stop it.
The water was cold as ice around Rebecca's legs and it fueled her fight a little longer. In the end, the inferi tightened their hold and forced her into the depths. Bruises left behind on a body that no one would ever see, Rebecca thought as he head was pulled under for the last time.
No matter how she clawed at those dragging her deeper, no matter how she fought for leverage against her attackers, Rebecca soon had to stop. The little air that she had had in her lungs was running out and, upon looking around, she found that the water was much deeper than it had appeared.
Rebecca's vision began to get narrower as her oxygen ran out and a strange sense of warmth seemed to spark inside of her. "If this is dying," She thought. "It's not that bad."
"You are not dying today, child." Wilhomena's voice pulled Rebecca out of the haze it was sinking in to. "I lost one of you to the evil of this pit already, I will not lose another."
On the other side of the island, in the depths, Harry's fading attention turned up to the bright light that broke out above the water.
Rebecca, now freed from the inferis' grasps, struggled in the water.
"I have surpassed my limit." Wilhomena's voice was fading steadily. "You were right, I will not fail you. I do not think I will be able to return. You will not need me, you have the power to do all that is ahead of you on your own."
Rebecca's hands began to burn with the same heat that marked the power she felt when she and Hermione had been in the Forbidden Forest and, further, when she was reaching into the beyond to bring someone back.
"I wish you the luck of all the forest." Wilhomena's voice was farther now. Then, it was gone.
Rebecca was shot up out of the water; she landed in a crumpled, dripping wet pile on the island. Harry did not know why, but with the appearance of the light above the inferi released him and sank back to the bottom of wherever they dwelt. He kicked and swam up frantically, knowing he needed to find Rebecca before it was too late to replicate Fleur's technique.
As he surfaced, Harry was struck by the realisation that Rebecca would not need his saving. She stood on the highest point of the island, her back to the basin. Her hands glowed like they had when she brought the unicorn back, when she brought Cedric back. The light Harry had seen from under the water was fire and it spread out through the air and swirled about in a circle as Rebecca moved a single hand above her head.
Harry dragged himself out of the water and rushed to Dumbledore's side. The headmaster, while unconscious, was breathing. Harry pulled Dumbledore's arm over his shoulder and began to get him towards the boat. "WE HAVE TO GO!" Harry shouted over the crackling din of the flames and the screaming of burning inferi. "REBECCA!"
She stopped spinning her hand above her head and the lines of fire stilled. She held her hands out in front of her towards the path they needed to take to exit and separated them. The fire split into two, leaving enough room between for the boat to pass through unbothered.
Harry settled Dumbledore in before climbing back onto the island where Rebecca had bent to one knee with her hands on either side of her head. When he reached for her, she scrambled backwards out of his reach.
"Can't! Have to calm down, have to slow down. Put the dam back up. Back in the box. Can't fit in the box. Won't-"
"I don't understand." Harry laid his hands over Rebecca's and found that her panic was lessened to a quieter chanting of the repetition. His hands hurt at the heat emanating off Rebecca, but he was more concerned by the wild look in her eyes and the panting of her breath. "We have to go!"
Rebecca closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.
Harry looked around nervously as the intensity of the flames had lessened. He held his breath and hoped this would work. If it didn't, he was screwed.
Harry let a single hand leave Rebecca's face and he felt around the ground by his feet, not letting his eyes leave hers. Before she could see what he had grabbed, Harry brought the rock down on her head.
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Evening had long begun its slow descent over the castle. With the imminent storm approaching, Professor McGonagall walked the halls to hurry any wayward student back to their dormitories. "To your houses! No dawdling!"
Unbeknownst to her, one student was not on his way to his house nor his bed. No, Draco Malfoy was climbing the stairs to the Room of Requirement.
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Harry had dragged Rebecca to the boat and tossed her in unceremoniously. There would be time for gentleness when they got out of the seventh hell they had found themselves in.
Dumbledore had woken and had grown more and more alert as the boat bobbed back to the mass of land they had entered from. Before the boat grounded itself, Dumbledore reached out and grabbed one of Rebecca's wrists.
"I didn't kill her!" Harry nearly shouted.
"I know, Harry." Dumbledore was calm and relieved to find no more than body heat underneath his hold. "She is cool enough to wake." He tapped his wand to her forehead and her eyes opened.
"You dirty bastard." Rebecca hissed as she brought her hand up to the lump Harry had left. "I love you." She sat up further and shook her head. "Thank you, sir."
Dumbledore slumped back into his seat. Whatever the potion had done to him, it was still ravaging his magical stores.
"What the hell was that?" Harry demanded. "With the fire and the hands and the heat!"
"THis isn't the time or place." Rebecca reached for her wand. "And, also, I can't explain what I don't understand myself."
"Power." Dumbledore spoke softly before raising his voice loud enough so that they could both hear him. "Power is rarely bestowed upon those who wish for it but, instead, those who can do the most with it."
Harry stared at him. "So this is all fine? Oh yeah, I'll just carry around a nice rock. How about a hammer? Would that be-"
"Stop, Harry." Rebecca eyed the water carefully as the boat neared their origin. "Take a breath and calm down." She felt muted, grey. Like she did after the Forest as if she had just played a particularly good quidditch match that had exercised her body and her brain.
Harry did as she said and stepped out first. Once Dumbledore was on land and the boat was empty, it sank back into the darkness. Harry grabbed Rebecca tightly and pulled her into a hug that hurt, though she wouldn't have said anything.
Dumbledore took a place between them once they had parted, his weight supported by both Harry and Rebecca as they stumbled their way back to where Dumbledore had cut his hand to give them all entrance. The headmaster's head jerked upright. "I can apparate here now, brace yourselves."
The Astronomy Tower was in front of them again, luckily. Rebecca was worried about how Dumbledore struggled. "We need to get you to the Hospital Wing." She took a step in the right direction, bringing Dumbledore further onto her shoulder. "Let's go, sir."
Dumbledore followed along until they were on the level below the Astronomy Tower's entrance, the sound of a door echoing at the bottom of the tower stopping him. "One day you will both understand. Until then, forgive me." Dumbledore paralysed them and conjured the Invisibility Cloak from the hiding spot he had given them. He draped it over Harry and Rebecca tenderly before making his way back to the floor above, the observational floor.
Harry's hand was permanently frozen around Rebecca's.
Rebecca's view was hindered by the planks of the observation deck, as well as the shadows cast from the dim lights, but she could see that someone was entering. Footsteps creaked directly above them and, could they have seen, they would have known that Dumbledore stared at the intruder with no indication of fear at the outstretched wand. "Good evening, Draco. What brings you here on this fine, spring evening?"
Rebecca remembered the last words Wilhomena had spoke to her when she and Hermione had visited the Woman-in-the-Wood, "beware the fall." Rebecca was filled with fear, though for whom she did not know.
"Who else was up here?" Draco asked and began to circle the tower, Dumbledore followed his example and went the opposite way. "I heard you talking."
"I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful. Have you been whispering to yourself, Draco?" Draco stopped his circling. "Draco, you are no assassin."
"How do you know what I am? I've done things that would shock you."
"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she would bear a cursed necklace to me? LIke replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison? Forgive me Draco, but these are not the actions that fully encompass you."
Draco laughed cruelly. "Then what does?"
Dumbledore studied the boy in front of him. "Donating the needed root for the continued making of the pain-soothing salve under a reign of torture."
"The Sefrender root!" Rebecca couldn't believe that it had been Draco all this time. "It appeared outside the portrait hole and saved so many of us...Draco had."
Dumbledore continued. "Or letting a young Hufflepuff go in the face of words that you cannot deny resonated within you-"
"That's enough!" Draco shouted. "Those were signs of weakness!"
Dumbledore shook his head. "Those were signs of strength."
"He trusts me!" Draco's voice cracked. "I was chosen!" He lifted his sleeve up and revealed the Dark Mark. Tears flowed freely down Rebecca's face at the sight she couldn't even look away from. Harry felt no pleasure in being right, only heartache as the pain came off of Rebecca in waves.
"Then I shall make it easy for you." Dumbledore raised his hands as Draco cast away the headmaster's wand. "Very good!" The door below clanked again and horror filled Harry and Rebecca as footsteps began to sound their way up to the top of the tower. "You're not alone. There are others. How?"
Draco raised his wand higher. "The vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement. I've been mending it. I had to."
"Let me guess," Dumbledore said. "It has a sister. A twin."
"In Borgin and Burkes. They form a passage."
"Ingenious!" Dumbledore lowered his voice and began to speak quickly. "Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. "Please, let me help you."
Draco was crying now. Rebecca could hear it in his voice and just barely see them fall down his face from where she and Harry watched motionless. "I don't want your help! Don't you understand? I have to do this. I don't have a choice." Draco sobbed, his wand still in front of him. "I have to kill you or he's going to kill me."
Dumbledore turned his head to the people entering. Harry took a sharp breath, his mind screaming in rage at the sight of Bellatrix. "Well, look what we have here." Bellatrix teased. "Well done, Draco." She leaned over and laid a kiss on Draco's cheek.
Rebecca looked over those behind her and caught sight of the wolfish man with scars across his face, the monster who attacked children, who attacked Remus. Fenrir Greyback was so close to her and she couldn't do anything.
Dumbledore didn't react to the new arrivals. "Good evening, Bellatrix. I think introductions are in order, don't you?"
"Love to, Albus." Bellatrix spoke cavalierly, yet theatrically. "But I'm afraid we're all on a bit of a tight schedule." She turned to Draco and spoke without any of the care she had had minutes earlier. "Do it!" Bellatrix hissed.
A moment passed and Draco didn't make a move.
"He doesn't have to stomach, just like his father." Greyback's voice was so low it couldn't be classified as anything but a growl. The werewolf seemed more animal than man. "Let me finish him in my own way." Rebecca didn't know if Greyback meant Draco or Dumbledore.
"No! The Dark Lord was clear, the boy is to do it!" Bellatrix shouted. There was movement to the right of the invisible Harry and Rebecca, Snape creeping up the stairs. Rebecca and Harry both felt a flush of relief at the thought of someone intervening.
"Go on, Draco! Now!" Bellatrix shouted again.
Snape's voice rang out for all to hear, even the two he was unaware of. "No." All motion at the top of the Astronomy Tower froze. Bellatrix stared at Snape curiously, debating if disobeying Voldemort's order was worth the snake proving his allegiance. Greyback glared at the interruption while Draco's eyes widened in relief. Draco lowered his wand.
Dumbledore glanced down to where Harry and Rebecca were, his eyes revealing nothing. "Severus." He looked to the ex-Potions professor. "Please."
Snape waved his wand without another moment's thought. "Avada kedavra." A flash of green light later and Dumbledore was dead. The spell sent him stepping backwards, his lifeless body tipping over the rail of the tower and soaring through the air like the phoenixes Dumbledore identified so deely with. Though this time, he did not fly. Dumbledore fell.
Rebecca's breath caught in her throat as the two of them were released from the spell Dumbledore had cast on them. They stood moments longer where they had been, frozen in terror instead of magic.
Bellatrix let out a terrible scream and cast a spell up into the sky before hurrying down the stairs with the rest of the Death Eaters that had followed Snape leading Draco.
Harry and Rebecca had yet to move other than to grab onto the other tightly. Being so close to the killing curse had brought the flashes of their parents' murder to the front of their minds, their final screams to their ears.
When the door at the bottom of the tower clanked shut once more, they were freed from their fear induced trance. Rebecca grabbed her wand in one hand and Harry's hand in the other. Then, she was running. Running after the murderers that had infiltrated their school.
Draco's sobs had quieted to soft weeping, but Bellatrix could still hear him and that was too much. She climbed up onto the tables of the Great Hall and kicked glasses off one by one. Snape's procession through the castle brought the Death Eaters to the other side of the hall's doorway and directly into the path of the three aurors on patrol. They were no match for Alecto Carrow, his twin, and Fenrir Greyback. The aurors were sent flying and then Snape went to lead them on.
Draco stopped and looked behind him when Bellatrix screamed back into the empty, partially destroyed Great Hall with its tables set for breakfast of the next day. She held her hands out at the silence inside and a wind pushed Draco's hair away from his face as the utter destruction began at the far end and made its way to him. Glass shattered, windows were entirely wiped out, tables were tipped over.
Bellatrix left as the last floating candle was extinguished and she urged Draco away from where he had frozen in place.
The glass on the ground crunched underneath Rebecca and Harry's shoes, but they didn't stop to survey what had once been the Great Hall. With the evidence of the Death Eater's march out of the castle making its way down the path to Hagrid's hut, they both realised who could very well be under attack next.
"Hagrid!" Bellatrix sang loudly. "Hello?"
Harry, the first over the hill, screamed to gather their attention. "Snape!" He couldn't let them hurt the groundskeeper who had grown more important to Harry than he had ever thought possible. "He trusted you!"
Rebecca had no tears, none left, at least. Her overwhelming sense of loss was being replaced with inequivocabile rage. Like Harry, she tightened her hold on her wand.
Bellatrix raised her hand above her head and cheered as she ignited Hagrid's home into a blaze that devoured the thatch roof in seconds. Snape shoved Draco towards her and shouted for them both to, "Go on!"
Rebecca continued ahead of Harry and raised her wand at Snape as he turned back towards them. "Incarcerous!" Snape blocked it lazily and made no indication that he was going to attack back. "Fight back, you coward!"
Bellatrix had yet to follow Snape's directions and sent Rebecca flying backwards towards Harry's feet. Harry bent to one knee beside her and raised his wand at both Snape and Bellatrix.
The wind was knocked out of Rebecca's lungs entirely and she rolled onto her side to try and catch it. She was only able to scramble to her knees once she had done so.
"No!" Snape shouted as Bellatrix moved closer to the Potter twins. "They are for the Dark Lord!" Bellatrix stared at Snape before dancing off closer to the flames that had enveloped Hagrid's hut.
Rebecca took Harry's outstretched hand and climbed to her feet. Harry held onto her and prepared himself to avenge their fallen headmaster. "Sectumsempra!"
Snape blocked the attack and retaliated with a spell that sent them both flying this time. A crunch sounded out from Rebecca's side as she hit the ground again.
Snape stalked towards them, his wand ahead and his robes flowing behind him. Harry had curled into a ball to try and fight away some of the pain that rolled through him. Rebecca was trying to breathe as little as possible to lessen the burning that spread out from her rib when she did.
"You dare use my own spells against me, Potter?" Snape glanced at Rebecca before turning his attention back to Harry. "Yes. I'm the Half-Blood Prince."
Rebecca spat a wad of blood out of her mouth, not entirely sure where it had come from. Her mind felt foggy, heavy. "Think you're royalty?" Rebecca coughed and winced as the force sent whatever inside broke inside of her further out of place. "Noth-nothing but a greasy-"
"That will do." Snape kicked Rebecca's wand out of her hand, Harry's was already out of his reach. Snape waved his wand over her middle and she straightened in agony as her broken rib righted itself along with the tear in her lung. The pain increased to a blinding extent before fading to a dull throb. Snape left them without another word, leaving Harry and Rebecca to writhe in their hurt as the Dark Mark swam in the dark clouds above the castle.
Rebecca was the first to get her feet under her, muttering that there still might be time. Harry followed her to the base of the Astronomy Tower where the students of Hogwarts were gathered throughout the courtyard therein.
Dumbledore lie peacefully on the ground. Rebecca pushed through the crowd and dropped to her knees roughly, holding her hand to his forehead and bowing her head.
She reached out with her mind. Faintly, vaguely she could recognise the consciousnesses of those behind her and of Harry who crouched next to her, but she turnt her focus onto the body in front of her and the wisp that remained. She grabbed onto it tightly. "Professor! You have to focus! I can-"
"No, my dear. I cannot." Rebecca couldn't see it exactly, but she could hear the smile in his last words. "My life has been lived and you are both equipped for the destiny I have laid out for you." Dumbledore's voice faded out before returning weakly. "Do not forget what I said about power, Rebecca. It is given to those who will do the most with it--good or evil is up to each of us."
Rebecca cried out as Dumbledore left, as he was truly gone to where ever the souls continued out of her reach. Harry pulled her into his arms and her hand left Dumbledore's forehead. Though most of the students didn't understand why or how, they knew now that Dumbledore was dead and they began to weep.
Hermione and Ron stepped out of the crowd and took Harry's place holding Rebecca; Harry buried his face into Ginny's neck.
Behind them, Hogwarts experienced its first, true loss at the hands of Voldemort.
McGonagall raised her wand with misty eyes at the loss of her oldest friend. A bead of light appeared on the face of the Dark Mark. Madam Pomfrey followed suit, another light joining McGonagall's in the sky. Students of every year, of every house, of every age raised their wands. No one knew what spell they were casting, just that they were channeling their grief through their wands.
Hermione pulled Ron and Rebecca to their feet and was the first of their group to join her wand to the others. Ron took a shuddering breath and joined her, Ginny just after him. Rebecca caught Harry's eyes and raised hers without breaking their gaze. Harry hoped that she could see her anger and pain reflected in him as the students and professors pushed the Dark Mark out of the sky. The only cloud left hanging over the castle was one of grief.
Rebecca felt the necklace in her pocket as she looked up to the now-cleared sky. It was the only thing that could have brought her attention away from what was in front of them. She pulled it out and felt something sharp on the back.
R.A.B.
Rebecca knew the initials well enough, she had seen them in Regulus' journal often enough. But, it occurred to her that if he had managed to mark this necklace...Rebecca found that her tears took on a fresh meaning. Regulus' diary entries had cut off so abruptly not because he died retrieving the horcrux, but replacing the one he had stolen with his copy.
Screams sounded out from outside the castle's gate and the Order was behind them as they were opened. They hadn't arrived in time to save Dumbledore, but they had fought with the Death Eaters through the Forbidden Forest.
Remus had a limp, red-haired body in his arms and Rebecca lifted the hair off the Weasley face as she fell into step beside him.
"Bill?" Rebecca asked softly, hoping he would answer, show some sign of life.
Remus shook his head. "It was Greyback, he jumped between us." Remus held Bill closer to his chest, beginning to run with him. "Stupid boy! You are a stupid, stupid boy!"
"That's enough, Remus." Madam Pomfrey cleared a path through the crowd in the courtyard and then through the corridors as the Order trailed behind the healer. As soon as Bill was in a bed, Remus wandered a few paces away, repeating himself quietly to whomever would listen. Bill's wounds might have been deep, but he hadn't been attacked on the night of the full moon--Bill would only scar.
Molly and Arthur weren't there, though Tonks was. "They've been ordered to stay back." Tonks whispered to Rebecca and Harry before moving onto Hermione and Ron so that Sirius could embrace his godchildren.
Sirius stopped in his tracks and held them both tightly, all three of them falling apart for a few moments. "He's here, too. Fred." Sirius kept Harry in his arms but gave Rebecca the option to step away if she wanted to. "Just outside in case you need-"
Rebecca had already taken a step back and looked to the door.
"It's alright, go on." Sirius used his free arm to bring Harry all the much closer.
The door was thrown open before Rebecca got there by Fleur tearing into the Hospital Wing shouting for Bill, but in the corridor, the madness was less.
"I-We-" Fred stopped whatever he was going to say and brought her into his chest. "I thought you would need...space."
Rebecca shook her head felt another degree of tightness loosen inside of her when George wrapped his arms around both of them. "I just need you."
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The castle, upon announcing to the parents the death of Dumbledore, ended the year early. The students would remain at Hogwarts for two days more for the funeral and then return arrangements.
Arthur and Molly, upon hearing that Bill had been injured in the very fighting they had been directed to not be part of, made it clear that they would be with their injured son orders-be-damned. Molly and Fleur had been encased in tension for hours, but before the students were to return to their dormitories, it boiled over.
"You're not going to marry him now!" Molly shouted. "Just say so and leave already!"
Fleur stood up and considered her words carefully, having to translate her anger to English adding a step. "Why would I not marry him now? You think I am to shallow to love someone with scars?"
"That's exactly what I think!" Molly returned.
Bill's eyes fluttered open at the raised voices at his bedside.
"I AM PRETTY ENOUGH FOR US BOTH, NO?" Fleur gestured to Bill's now-awake face. "This? This does not change the man I love!"
Molly sank into her chair and wept. The anger flowed out of both women instantly and Fleur walked around the bed to hold Molly.
Bill tried to smile and winced as the movement stretched the cuts Madam Pomfrey had healed as much as possible. "So..." Fleur and Molly turned to him as he spoke. "All I had to do was be attacked for you two to like each other?"
Sirius and Remus were a few beds down from Bill, their backs to the exchange as a hushed conversation took place between them. "I don't give a damn what you think, Remus!" Sirius hissed.
"You're not thinking-" Remus shook his head.
"I don't have to think!" Sirius grabbed Remus' chin and pulled him into a fierce kiss. "I love you. And I will not let you run away from me because you think you're dangerous." Remus closed his eyes, hearing the words. "I love you, Remus. I love all of you."
Remus nodded once and buried his head into Sirius' shoulder. "I love you."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were quickly joined on the bed they sat on even farther down the room by Rebecca, who insisted that Fred and George greet Bill without her. "Tell him whatever brothers are supposed to tell him." Rebecca had instructed. She had already done her part by telling Bill that he didn't have to go out and get a scar bigger than hers. Bill had laughed at that, so greatly that Rebecca flashed with pride at having been able to get it out of him.
Ron put his arm around Rebecca's neck and brought her closer. "You two were alright, weren't you? Getting the horcrux?"
"It was fake." Rebecca had already told Harry, but now the others knew as well.
Harry scowled. "We still need five more and..." He avoided meeting any of their eyes. He didn't want to see that they were already on the same page as him. More than anything, Harry wanted them all to stay behind and stay safe. "And we need to go find them."
"Yes, we do." Rebecca emphasized the 'we.'
"After the summer then, we'll need time to prepare." Hermione's addition had Rebecca confused now.
"We?" Rebecca had only meant she and Harry. She hadn't even considered that Hermione and Ron would go with them, let alone that they would want to.
Ron grabbed Harry's arm and held Rebecca even tighter. "We."
And so it was decided right there in the Hospital Wing. The four of them were going to spend as long as they could get away with researching, preparing, gathering supplies, and making arrangements before they were going to start a hunt for the final bits of Voldemort's soul.
"Do you understand?" Rebecca asked in bed late that night, her bed. Fred had snuck up with her, Ginny, and Hermione in the evening rush of students and the tone of the castle was still so grey and muted, Fred didn't think anyone would have cared anyway. "Do you see why I have to go?"
Fred closed his eyes to try and trap the tears that threatened to spill over and held Rebecca closer against his chest. "Of course I do. You're a hero, you're going to go off and risk yourself for the world--it's what you do."
Rebecca pulled her head back and looked up at him. Fred's eyes may have been teary, but they were lit with a fire behind them that told her just how serious he was as he continued.
"But if that's what makes you a hero, then I am a villain. Rebecca, I will risk the world for you. Do you understand that?"
Rebecca kissed him gently. "What did I do to deserve you?"
Fred pulled the blanket higher over them, both of them needing the comfort as they wept in each other's arms. "Must have been something really bloody good."
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Sneaking away from the madness that became the castle the morning of the funeral was easier than Rebecca had expected. Harry had withdrawn into himself to the point that Hermione and Ron were afraid to leave his side and Fred and George had to go with the rest of the non-students before the other attendees of Dumbledore's service were allowed in.
After how many times she and Harry had to walk to Dumbledore's office that year, doing it one more time was even easier than finding a moment to herself. She entered warily, fully expecting Dumbledore to pop out from behind a corner and announce that he was back. Rebecca wandered across the room without a purpose, her eyes tracing over the details of the headmaster's space with a sense of finality that was new to her.
"If Dumbledore can die," One thought that kept coming to her haunted her the most. "Dumbledore of all people...then so can I. So can anyone. No one is spared or safe."
Rebecca stopped behind what had once been Dumbledore's desk and found her voice for the first time since she had entered; a half-laugh, half-choked sob escaped her at the sight of the bowl of sweets that still sat where he had put it after their last memory meeting.
"Rebecca," McGonagall spoke from the entrance, startling Rebecca into reaching for her wand before realising who it was. McGonagall noticed the reflex. "In light of what has happened, if you should have the need to talk to someone..."
Rebecca shook her head and walked away from Dumbledore's desk. She didn't walk to talk about this, she wasn't able to talk about this.
Walking past her head of house, McGonagall spoke again. "You should know, Professor Dumbledore--you meant a great deal to him. Harry, too. But you..." McGonagall cleared her throat of the tears that dared form. "You were his greatest loss. You disappearing from the rubble that night. He searched high and low. Had he found you-"
"What?" Rebecca asked. "What would he have done?"
"He would have taken you away from that-"
"From the man that beat me and starved me an-and-" Rebecca's voice lost some of its edge. "And where would he have put me? Here? So he could tell us as little as he wanted and we could not know what we were supposed to do and-"
For a moment, McGonagall saw Rebecca for the girl she really was and not the adult she was required to be. Minerva silenced Rebecca's growing pain with a maternal embrace. Rebecca didn't have to say anymore right that second--McGonagall was making it clear that she would listen when Rebecca was ready.
Rebecca, listening to her feet and finding that she wasn't ready to return to her dorm yet, ended up back in the Astronomy Tower. Harry and Hermione had had the same idea and Ron would have been beside them if he weren't with Bill in the Hospital Wing.
Hermione had just clarified a question to Harry when Rebecca joined them. "Draco?"
"What would?"
Hermione was shocked to see her. With the look that had been on Rebecca's face that morning, the darkness that had been behind her eyes, Hermione had expected that Rebecca would have gone to the Hospital Wing whenever she was done with what she had set out to do--whether for treatment or company, Hermione hadn't decided. "Do you think he would have done it?"
Harry answered, as the question had been for him originally. "No I don't think he would have. He was lowering his wand. It was Snape, in the end. It was always Snape." Rebecca took the necklace that Harry held out to her. "And now we have a fake necklace."
Hermione reached for it and held it to the light before pressing the small button on its side that neither Potter had noticed. The necklace swung open and a small folded paper was inside. Rebecca studied Hermione for any sign as to what it said as she unfolded it, but Hermione's face gave nothing away. She asked for permission to read it aloud and Harry nodded quickly so that she would begin.
"To the Dark Lord," Hermione began. "I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match..."
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"...you will be mortal once more." Sirius read from the note Rebecca and Harry gave him in the hour before the funeral was set to begin that afternoon. "R.A.B." Sirius choked back a sob and grabbed onto Remus' arm to steady himself. "My baby brother fought against Voldemort."
Rebecca felt a hand grab her shoulder, a hand whose fingers snaked across her collarbone gently.
"It's time, I'm sorry." Fred apologised, not certain what he was interrupting but sure that it had been dark in topic as Sirius' tears made their way down his cheeks.
"That's not all." Rebecca pulled out the collection of leather bound books she had gathered from her desk. "These are his journals, Regulus'. I've learned everything I can from them, they're yours now. As they always should have been."
Sirius held them like he was holding something that would break if he brushed it the wrong way. Remus nodded to Harry and Rebecca, thanking them both, as his partner was unable to at the moment.
Fred and Rebecca made their way to their seats and gazed up at the levitated body as the first of many speakers began to share what made Dumbledore so special, such an intricate part of their school.
Nigel climbed the steps to the podium in one of the last pauses before the funeral would come to an end. His hands trembled as he held the paper with what he wanted to say as he looked out at the large collection of mourners. "I know that this is unusual." Nigel's nerves could be heard and he couldn't seem to look away from the eyes on him. He caught Rebecca's and she nodded him along.
Rebecca gave him all the comfort he needed to begin again.
"I know that this is unusual, but Professor Dumbledore loved a good mickey." Sparse laughter echoed through the crowd and Nigel only grew more comfortable as he spoke on. "Really, I'm serious. He would ask me to bring him some of my Skiving Snackboxes sometimes."
Fred and George ignored the gazes that turned to them.
Nigel took a shuddery breath and the laughter was gone as soon as it cropped up. "And that's why I've brought one more for him." Nigel took out the green and purple treat, the Puking Pastille. "One last Puking Pastille," Nigel turned and straightened his shoulders before tucking it under the edge of Dumbledore's beard. "One more for a man that will live on forever."
McGonagall put her arm around Nigel and stood with her back to the crowd a moment before he made his way back to his seat. McGonagall walked to the head of Dumbledore's body and brought her wand out over his head. Stone collected and closed the tobe she built around him. It was slate grey and ornately carved along the rim like the wrists of Dumbledore's favourite robes always were.
"Albus would be proud to know that his loss is felt so celebratorily." McGonagall addressed those in attendance in the final remarks. "Do not mourn, but remember the good."
Those still sitting stood and those standing began to file out of their rows.
George turned to Cedric and spoke quietly while Fred tilted Rebecca's chin up so towards him. He used his thumb to wipe away the tears that had left wet tracks down her cheek sand shook his head. "Remember the good, you heard her."
Rebecca sniffed and nodded. "You're right."
Fred kissed her forehead and hugged her into his chest. "I know."
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Author's Note:
And that's the Half-Blood Prince! Next work'll be up on my profile shortly, tentative title: Running.
<3