Saturday, April 11
"I'll get my bag!" Susan jumped to her feet, knocking Harry off her lap. She began digging around in Harry's trunk before pulling out a plain black shoulder bag. "Let's gooooo!"
"Get dressed," Harry snapped at her.
He wasn't killing Albus fucking Dumbledore in his pajamas.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked them quickly as Harry peeled his sleep clothes off and hopped around as he tried to put on his trousers.
"It's a secret," Harry told her. "We'll talk about it this summer, yeah?"
"Drop it, babe," Theo murmured to Hermione. He threw open his own wardrobe and tossed Harry a thick black jumper from it. "Weapons?"
"In the bag!" Susan said, shamelessly undressing in front of everyone as Harry was.
He'd take his friends seeing him in his pants over losing their chance to finally take down Dumbledore any day.
"Did you pack guns or knives?" Harry asked as he pulled on some socks.
"Both."
"You guys stole Slughorn's Felix Felicis?" Ron asked.
"Yup." Susan grinned at Harry about their recent acquisition. It had been easy. Harry distracted Slughorn with some basic conversation and light flattery while Susan used Harry's cloak to break in to his private stores. "We've got six vials."
"Take one each," Draco said, unsure what was going on besides something obviously dangerous.
"I've got three in the bag," Susan assured him.
"Broom?" Harry asked her.
"Check!"
Harry laced his boots up tightly before grabbing his invisibility cloak and stuffing it in the pocket of Theo's jumper. "Ready?"
Susan pulled on Harry's leather jacket then slung her bag over her shoulder. "Ready," she said.
Harry wasn't sure if it was fear or excitement that had his blood pumping so furiously. He looked over his mostly bewildered friends and gave them a tight smile.
"Wish us luck," he said.
Luna jumped to her feet and wrapped Harry and Susan both in a single hug. "Luck," she whispered. "Be safe, come back quick."
"We're always safe," Susan laughed before kissing the top of Luna's blonde hair. "Go have fun in Hogsmeade, we'll see you guys later."
***
Snape looked them both over quickly and nodded once when they met at the Hogwart's gates.
"Beneath the cloak," he told them. "Bones, hold Harry's hand tightly and I will side-along you both."
"Won't he see you?" Harry asked Snape even as he tossed the cloak over himself and Susan.
"He is inside the cave at present and we will be apparating a safe distance away," Snape said. He waited until Harry and Susan were fully covered before grabbing Susan's shoulder over the top of the cloak. "When we arrive, you will both do precisely as I say, no matter what the directive is. Is that perfectly understood, Potter?"
Harry scoffed quietly, as if Susan wasn't much more likely to go off the walls today than he was.
"Understood," Harry sneered. "Damn."
Snape knelt down and gave them both a severe look. "It will be absolute luck if we manage this. There is no room for mistakes. No room for hesitations. If I say flee, you will flee. If I say run, you will run. If I say leave me behind, you will do so. And Bones, you will absolutely not disarm or kill Albus, is that clear?"
"Crystal," Susan said politely as Harry puzzled over Snape's absurd orders.
There was no scenario possible that Harry imagined leaving Snape behind while he fled to his own safety. But, he agreed anyway, just to appease him.
He also crossed his fingers though.
"Ready when you are, sir," Susan said. She gripped Harry's arm in hers almost too tightly as Snape straightened himself back up.
"Absolute silence upon our arrival," Snape reiterated.
Then he spun them away from Hogwarts and onwards to kill the headmaster.
Wild.
***
When they landed, the wind alone nearly knocked Harry over. He looked around the seaside cliff they stood on in wonder—
He clenched his hand tightly, digging his nails in to the soft part of his palm.
Not dreaming.
—as he took in the sight.
Harry nearly opened his mouth to ask Snape if Timmy had really been brought to such a windy, cold, bleak, location as a child before he remembered Snape's order to remain silent.
Snape silently set off towards a cave Harry could see in the distance while Harry and Susan followed behind him.
Susan's grip on Harry's hand tightened when they approached the mouth of the cave and Snape slowed to a stop. Harry's blood was pumping so loudly in his ears that it took him a moment to shake his head and realize Snape was miming something silently to them.
"Broom," Susan breathed in Harry's ear. Susan shifted around, pulling two brooms from her bag while Snape kept them out of the direct line of sight of the inside of the cave. Harry was too busy looking around curiously to pay much attention to Susan until he felt her tuck something in his waistband.
Harry very carefully did not react to the cold metal gun now tucked between his trousers and his back.
He did swear, silently to himself, that he would kill Dumbledore with magic though.
Susan poked the end of a broomstick out from beneath the cloak, offering it to Snape. She also poked out a bottle of golden Felix Felicis that Snape shook his head at.
Harry could feel Susan shrug and take a mouthful of it before offering it to Harry.
Harry wasn't sure why Snape turned it down since he was the one who said they would need luck, but he did remember to only drink a little. He'd rather not have any sudden urge to tell Dumbledore that he loved him.
Harry downed a mouthful of the potion and mounted his broom.
"C'mon," he told Susan. "Climb on."
Susan climbed on behind Harry after getting her wand out and repacking the potion. Harry kicked off of the ground and made his way quickly and carefully towards the cave entrance. It was tricky, flying on a broom with Susan while hidden beneath the cloak, but the wild wind quit blowing at them the moment the floated inside the cave.
As soon as Snape entered the cave behind them, Harry leaned forward toward the island in the center of the lake. Dumbledore couldn't leave, exactly, as he was apparently using a boat instead of a broomstick (like a moron), but Harry would rather not duel him above a lake full of inferi and dead bodies.
Even Felix Felicis probably wouldn't keep Harry or Susan from falling off the broom and landing in the water. It did erase the last of Harry's worries though as the cheerful feeling bubbly magic worked its way through him; Harry felt lighter now, more certain of his course and less anxious about it all ending horribly wrong.
As they neared the island, and Harry could see Dumbledore now, Harry tried to peer down in the water, to see the inferi, but the water seemed to be endlessly black.
"Spooky," Susan giggled quietly in Harry's ear. Harry nodded in agreement before carefully landing on the island and immediately having Dumbledore's eyes on where he stood.
Snape landed as well and Dumbledore didn't look surprised at all to see him. Snape hadn't said whether Harry should stay hidden or not, but Harry felt like Dumbledore already knew he was there and knew what he was there for, so he whipped the cloak off a bit dramatically.
Still, Dumbledore didn't look surprised at all. He did look like hell though. His eyes were mildly frantic, and he looked decades older than he ever had before. Dumbledore dropped a small silver cup he'd been holding in to the bowl that stood on top of the dais that Dumbledore had been leaning against.
"Severus, Harry, and Susan," Dumbledore gave them all a hint of a smile despite his grey face and trembling hands. Harry watched as the twitching wand gave away the shake in Dumbledore's fingers as he spoke. "I wondered if I would see you here tonight."
"Did you?" Susan hummed. She stepped off the broom that Harry dropped and casually moved to Harry's right, sending Harry to the left as they pinned Dumbledore between them.
"I did," Dumbledore said calmly. His eyes skipped over Susan and Snape before landing on Harry and locking on him. "Did you come here to kill me, Harry?"
Harry smiled a little, just a curl of his lips on one side. "I told you I would," he said evenly as he raised his hand and wiggled his fingers at him. "I'm not a liar."
"I suppose you're not," Dumbledore agreed. Harry saw him sag against the gold dais. "I believe we are working towards a similar goal, Harry."
"Are we?" Harry asked curiously. "Would that be the goal that had you trying to kill me at that battle?"
Dumbledore inclined his head, seemingly conceding the point to Harry. He sagged another inch though, and Harry wondered what was in that stone basin that had him looking so...
Vulnerable.
"I never meant to be the villain in your story," Dumbledore said softly. "It pains me to know that I have made so many mistakes when it comes to your life, Harry."
Harry scoffed and drew up some of his ever-present anger. "Mistake when you left me at the Dursley's and never bothered to check on me, was it?"
"Yes," Dumbledore said simply. "An egregious mistake done with best intentions."
"Was it a mistake when you expelled him with no fucking evidence?" Susan demanded with her wand pointed at Dumbledore's head.
"It was," Dumbledore said, evenly keeping his eyes on Harry's. "An old man's impulsive mistake."
"Mistake when you tried to kill me?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore's face crumpled a little more and he sagged a little further. He was barely holding himself upright at this point.
"No," Dumbledore said, his voice still so perfectly pleasant that Harry had an irrational desire to hear him break. "I believe you know why you must face your own death, Harry."
"He does not," Snape said coolly, stepping up behind Harry. "You refused to seek out alternative ways for him to live."
"Alternative ways for him to live?" Dumbledore looked curiously at Snape over Harry's shoulder for a long time. "What way do you believe you have found, Severus?"
"The same way you found, all those years ago," Snape said. He must have looked towards Dumbledore's wand, because Dumbledore suddenly looked down to the shaking wand he held tightly.
"The Hallows," Dumbledore breathed. He looked sharply up at Harry now. "You have the stone?"
"Might," Harry shrugged casually. "Might not, not really your business, is it?"
Dumbledore let out a soft laugh, sounding mildly hysterical in Harry's opinion. "Master of Death, Harry Potter," he said. "That's quite a terrifyingly intriguing scenario, my boy."
"I'm not your boy," Harry snarled. "I'm not your fuckin anything."
Dumbledore now seemed to be appraising Harry in a new light. Harry glared hatefully at him while Dumbledore looked contemplatively in to Harry's eyes.
Suddenly, Dumbledore sank the rest of the way to the ground with his legs curled beneath him and his torso leaning on the dais. He held his wand out, causing Snape and Susan to both raise theirs, then...
Then he dropped it.
"I believe you plan to be my executioner," Dumbledore said. "Perhaps you should get along with it. If you hurry, you may make it back to the castle in time for dinner."
"Is that a joke?" Susan asked, stepping up closer behind Dumbledore.
"A joke?" Dumbledore looked over his shoulder at Susan. "Not at all, dear girl. Simple facts."
Harry grimaced as Timmy, again, found the worst possible time to try and bother him. It was only a gentle pressure, a slight tapping on their mental link. Harry could have ignored it, but he didn't, it was too much of a good opportunity to irritate Timmy as well.
Do you go out of your way to find the most irritating times to bother me?
Oh? Is there something of incredible importance you are dealing with, Little Horcrux?
Harry let the image of Dumbledore on the ground, wandless and defenseless, leak through their mental link.
Afraid I'm killing Dumbledore right now, don't worry, you're next.
Harry then closed the link firmly on Timmy's shock and amusement flowing through him, focusing on one enemy at a time.
"Do it," Susan told Harry, her eyes trained sharply on Dumbledore.
Harry twitched a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Snape stepped forward and his eyes glittered with curiosity as he stare at Dumbledore.
"You would let him kill you?" Snape asked him softly. "So he can live?"
Dumbledore's face looked ancient in that moment; heavily lined, tinted with grey, and exhausted.
"It is you who will have to live with the repercussions of this decision, Severus," Dumbledore said quietly. "I believe you may have forgotten that it is no light weight on a soul to take a life."
Harry kicked a rock by his foot while the silence seemed to become thick with tension between Snape and Dumbledore.
"You don't care about his soul," Snape suddenly said as his fingers flexed tightly on Harry's shoulder for a moment. "Do you?"
Dumbledore glanced at Harry, dismissively it felt like, before he gained a small twinkle in his eyes as he looked back up at Snape.
"Are we going to carry on the charade that I will be the first life Harry has taken?" Dumbledore asked Snape. "I was under the impression that I am but one of the many."
"You are," Harry cut in, sick of being ignored. "You're not special; not in life, not in death." Harry's lips twisted in to a cruel smile with a sudden desire to torment Dumbledore just a bit. "People won't even know you're gone, will they? They'll think you ran away, too ashamed of your past."
Dumbledore's eyes closed and he let out a soft sound as if he were in pain.
"Clever," he murmured. "I presume Severus came up with that?"
... was he really going to insult Harry while he was at his mercy?
"I did, actually," Susan said haughtily from behind Dumbledore. "You wanted to be a hero, and instead everyone's going to think you're a coward."
Dumbledore smiled softly and shook his head, the motion causing a fresh wave of grey to tint his cheeks. "Never a hero," he said. "I wanted to help others, save lives, that's all."
"You will," Snape said, suddenly sounding gentle instead of angry. "Your death will save Harry's life."
Dumbledore smiled wryly up at Snape. "Then it is a peaceful death I am facing, isn't it?"
Harry studied Dumbledore with a curious and artful tip of his head as his eyes turned back to him.
"Will you be killing Tom next?" Dumbledore asked Harry.
Dumbledore already dropped his wand. Harry could say no and let him die in agony thinking Timmy would live forever; but he didn't. Harry nodded shortly.
Snape and Susan, in the background, almost didn't matter. It felt as if Harry and Dumbledore had always known that it would come to this.
Did Dumbledore know the night he left an infant on a front step that he had taken the first step to creating the monster that would one day end his life?
"Kill me then," Dumbledore whispered up to Harry. It was as if he were following Harry's thoughts. "Kill me, Harry."
At Dumbledore's absolute surrender, and as Snape's hand tightened in Harry's shoulder once more, Harry did.
He held his shaking hand out in front of him and reminded himself of all the decisions Dumbledore made-
Putting him with the Dursley's and away from Sirius.
Watching him cry in front of the fucking mirror.
Setting him up to face Quirrell and treating Harry like some hero afterwards.
Expelling him with only circumstantial evidence that Harry petrified the other students.
Letting Luna sit in the bottom of a lake for a game.
Making him prefect only to throw it in his face later.
Asking Trent and Neville to spy on Harry, and using Daphne to get information on him.
Harry mostly thought of how, since he moment he stepped foot in Hogwarts, Dumbledore never seemed to like him. He never trusted him. His fuckin eyes never sparkled in Harry's presence.
If Harry was a monster, then he was the monster Dumbledore pushed him to become.
Harry drew up his magic and looked straight in Dumbledore's dull blue eyes now.
It was so simple, it was practically anticlimactic.
"Avada Kedavra."
Harry watched the green light flow from his fingers to strike Dumbledore's chest. Dumbledore closed his eyes and seemed to embrace the bolt of light, the rush of death, right there on the dirty floor of the cave.
Harry watched silently as Dumbledore slumped to the side, the life gone from his body.
Abracadabra.
He's dead.
There was no relief, no victorious glee.
Harry felt as empty as Dumbledore's shell now was.
"Take his wand," Susan whispered, her voice tight with shock and...
And Harry glanced over at her and saw her eyes shining with all the triumph that Harry was lacking.
Susan kept her wand trained on Dumbledore's obviously dead body as Snape dropped his hand and Harry inched over to grab the wand.
"Do we- do we leave him here?" Harry asked of no one in particular.
Susan scoffed and swished her wand at the side, levitating Dumbledore's corpse in the air like a puppet with only a string attached to its chest. She waved her wand towards the lake and allowed Dumbledore's body to hover for a moment.
"Goodbye, you rat bastard," she quipped before dropping him in the water.
The three of them watched as Dumbledore's body no more than broke the top of the water before dozens of scabby green hands grabbed it and drug it in to the depths.
When Harry had a tornado of inferi, he'd be sure to tell Timmy how much more impressive it was than a fuckin lake of them.
"Let's go," Snape said tonelessly after Dumbledore's body was entirely sunken beneath the water. "It's done."
It was done.
Harry's fifteen year vendetta against Albus Dumbledore had finished with Harry emerging alive and Dumbledore dead.
But only Harry knew that something went horribly wrong, because when Harry grabbed the wand off the floor, he expected a warm thrill through his fingers like he had experienced when he bought his holly wand.
This wand, the famous wand, the one Snape thought was fashioned by Death himself, just felt cold in his hands.
Dumbledore had fucked Harry over again, somehow.
***
Snape looked pale, like... really pale when they apparated back to Hogsmeade. He didn't say anything as they walked up to the castle. He opened his mouth a few times as he looked down at Harry, but then shook his head and changed his mind apparently.
"Go replace Nymphadora," Snape said softly when they reached the gate. "Kindly inform her that I am feeling unwell and will speak with her tomorrow."
Harry bit his lip and nodded, on edge with Snape's obvious discomfort.
It had been Snape's fucking idea, why did he look so upset now?
Harry and Susan took off towards the castle, back beneath Harry's cloak so nobody noticed two Harry Potter's on the grounds.
"We're absolutely telling Tonks that Snape needs her," Susan whispered after they were a distance ahead from Snape.
"He said he'll talk to her tomorrow," Harry hissed back.
He couldn't see it, but he still sensed Susan's eye roll when she responded.
"Which was a lie, obviously," she drawled quietly. "He's upset and she can comfort him."
Harry shrugged. "Whatever."
If Snape wanted comforting, Harry thought he might just say so. Harry would never admit to something like that, but Snape might have.
Harry kept the cloak on while Susan slipped out from beneath it once they were inside the castle. She checked the time and then jerked her head towards the Great Hall.
"Dinner," she whispered softly beside where Harry was. "I'll tell her to come out then you slip back inside, alright?"
Harry nodded before remembering that Susan couldn't see him. "'Kay."
Susan held the doors to the Great Hall open, allowing the buzz of students' chatter to reach Harry's ears, before she abruptly backed right back out of the hall and shook her head.
"They aren't there," she said as an explanation for her hasty departure. "Must be eating in the dorms, c'mon."
But they weren't.
Harry and Susan looked in the Slytherin rooms, the library, and the Hospital Wing before slipping in to an empty classroom and summoning Harry's map to check it.
"They're..." Susan scrunched her nose up in confusion at the lack of their friends' dots. "You don't think they're still in Hogsmeade, do you?"
"No." Harry shook his head as he felt a bit of dread settle in the pit of his stomach. "Snape told Tonks to go to dinner, he was specific."
"Let's go check the Room of Secrets then," Susan murmured. "It doesn't show up on the map."
Harry and Susan were halfway to the seventh floor when Harry felt a light pressure almost knocking on his barriers. It was this change in attempted entry to his mind, practically polite considering Timmy usually just barged in, that piqued Harry's curiosity as he followed Susan up the stairs.
Knock, knock, Little Horcrux.
You've got the worst fucking timing, as always, Noseless.
Have you finished killing Albus for us?
Harry sighed and rolled his eyes at Susan. "Timmy thinks today was for him," he snorted quietly.
"That's because Timmy is a megalomaniac and a narcissist," Susan said primly.
Harry had no idea what that meant, but he relayed the message anyway.
You're a megalomaniac and a narcissist.
Did Timmy just laugh in his mind?
Ugh.
Disturbing.
As true as that may be, I am a megalomaniac and a narcissist with some friends of yours.
Harry's feet froze on the staircase. He grabbed Susan's wrist and yanked her to a sudden stop as well.
I will fucking kill you.
Macnair Manor. Don't dally, darling, I'll get bored and begin killing your friends. Perhaps I'll start with the little mudblood, PJ? Or the brunette mudblood, Hermione? I'll see you in an hour. Let's leave Severus and Sirius at home, hmm?
Fuck.
That wasn't very lucky at all.