Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling therefore none of this belongs to me. Emma and Pippin and other OC's are mine as are any plot twists.
Author's Notes/Summary: Year 7 with Emma, Harry, and everyone. THIS IS THE DEATHLY HALLOWS VERSION. Because I wrote year 6 before the book was released, i had to rewrite the ending of year 6 to make it compliant, so this year will start with the end of year 6 picking up at the final battle on the Astronomy Tower (so it is very similar to that chapter in year 6) and then jump right into the aftermath.
Chapter 1: Fateful Night
She watched, horrified, as Snape cast the spell, and Dumbledore, hit by the green light, fell over the tower. Her despair and anguish of watching it, the shock of the sense of betrayal, was shared only by Draco who was being dragged back down by Snape and the other death eaters.
She momentarily saw Harry fling the invisibility cloak off and run after them. She flung her cloak off and raced to the edge of the tower and looked down. Down, where her headmaster had fallen, where her boyfriend and bond-mate was currently being dragged by their former professor. Down, where the chaos reigned. She peered down at it all like some story book princess, separate from it all, a silent witness to its testimonial.
And she wept.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Harry was in the hospital wing with everyone else. He sat, numbly listening to everyone else's recounting of the night after he had told them how Dumbledore died.
"Wait," Lupin said quickly. "You said Emma was with you?"
"Yeah, she led us out when we couldn't see," Ron said.
"Where is Emma now?" Lupin said panicking.
Harry jumped to his feet. "I didn't see her come down the astronomy tower," Harry and Lupin ran to the tower.
They burst through the door and saw Emma leaning over the edge. Harry rushed forward and grabbed around her waist. Emma threw up on his shoes.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this!" she choked out as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "This wasn't supposed to be the plan! It should have been us," Emma sobbed. Harry's eyes teared up, and he started crying too.
Lupin pulled her into a tight embrace. "Emma, it's not your fault he's gone. It's Snape's," Lupin said.
"No!" Emma said pushing herself away. She shook her head trying to clear her head, her emotions. "You don't know. You don't understand. It was SUPPOSED to be us! I mean, we are nothing compared to Dumbledore!" Emma shouted. Lupin led the hysterical Emma down the stairs and to the hospital wing. Harry grabbed her hand.
"I don't understand how we could have been fooled by Snape," Emma heard Pomfrey say.
Fleur, who had been sponging Bill's face (after the bonding moment with Mrs. Weasley), saw how distraught Emma was and rushed to her. "Qu'est-ce que ce?" She said in rapid French, and started asking Emma if she was alright, what happened, what she could do to help . . .
"I don't understand why," McGonagall said. Everyone whispered their agreement. Emma watched all of them in their sorrow, and the first spark of understanding and anger began to flame within in but she suppressed it until she had time to think it over, away from others where they wouldn't have to bear the brunt of her emotions. "I think," she spoke up, hoping at least this part would ease part of their conscious's, "well, I think part of it was to save us," she said quietly from her seat. Everyone stared at her confused.
"What do you mean?" Lupin asked.
"Last year, the night we got back from school, Bellatrix stole Draco in the middle of the night and took him to Voldemort. He was forced to join. Voldemort gave him an impossible mission, a suicide mission, to punish the Malfoys for embarrassing him."
"What? How do you know this?" Lupin said. Everyone watched Emma in shock; not even Harry and the others knew this.
"Draco was supposed to kill Dumbledore. We tried to prolong it, but that only angered Voldemort, and Voldemort isn't . . .kind when he is angry." Emma added remembering Draco's 'punishment.' "Snape, who made the unbreakable vow with Narcissa, and was forced to watch over Draco. Dumbledore figured it out. He told us there was a plan! He made me promise not to pry and figure it out. I promised. I had no idea that this was the plan!" Emma choked. "It should have been us," she said softly. "I followed him up. I wanted to be there when it happened, rather than in another room. We are always separated when things happen to us; this time I wanted us to be together. I was there with you, Harry. He succeeded, but couldn't kill Dumbledore. We were okay with that," she shrugged, the void that was always part of her demeanor giving off an eerie vibe to everyone.
Harry stared at Emma. He saw the hurt and shock on her face, and hated Snape even more for causing so much pain. "Dumbledore didn't want the two of you to die," Harry spoke up. "He didn't want Draco to be a murderer, and he didn't want the two of you to die."
"So? It still would have been better if he was alive, and we weren't." Lupin pulled Emma into a hug.
"Dumbledore knew what he was doing, Emma. I don't even like the thought of losing you. You are going to be important in this war. You are important to all of us," Lupin said lovingly.
"And if Draco is important to you," Harry said, "Then, I guess I can learn to tolerate him."
Emma laughed tearily. Partly over Harry's attempt at being friends, and also over the shock of McGonagall and Lupin and Tonks when they heard that. "Ah, l'amour!" Fleur said excitedly. "This is the man I 'ave felt around you," she said happily.
Emma hugged Fleur. "Thank you," she said. Fleur was supporting her even if she didn't understand the situation.
Emma gave Lupin and Harry one last hug, and ran to the Room of Requirement. The swell of emotion over the news of Dumbledore's death was all-consuming, even more so than Cedric's death had been.
Lupin watched Emma leave. "What on earth is she talking about? What does Lucius's son have to do with this?"
Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. "Um, . . ."
"They dated for a short period. It was a huge scandal right after break," McGonagall explained.
"Actually, they are still dating," Harry said.
"What?" McGonagall and Lupin cried at the same time.
"Emma and a Malfoy? Oh, Riley is going to kill me. Then you, Harry, for knowing about this and not telling anyone, and then Lucius, for having a son like that, and then probably Draco before he grounds Emma for life," Lupin said.
"You might want to intervene before he kills Draco," Hermione said. "They are. . ."
"They have been dating since last year," Harry cut in.
Lupin sat down. "My cousin and Emma . . ." Tonks said.
"Don't mention you're related, or Riley will come after you too," Lupin muttered. "God, if Sirius wasn't dead, this would kill him."
Harry looked at the others. "Can you imagine what would happen if we said they were bonded," Harry whispered.
"They are still dating?" Lupin asked. Harry nodded. He sat down and Tonks squeezed his shoulder. McGonagall stood up.
"Harry, I would like to talk to you before the ministry gets here. Hagrid, would you and the head of Households to come to my office. Ask Slughorn to come as the Head of Slytherin please?" She asked. Hagrid nodded.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Later, a knock was heard on the door and she was slightly surprised. She wondered briefly who it could be and decided it was probably Hermione or Ginny—if they could tear themselves away from Harry and Ron. While she was the first people went to for comfort, she was generally one of the last people thought of as needing it.
She was surprised when she saw her Dad walk in. A seat appeared opposite her but he moved to sit on the sofa next to her. "I thought, when you weren't in your dorm, the worst of things," he confided as he hugged her closely. "Ginny told me you would probably be here."
She held on to him tightly. "It's not fair," she whispered.
"I know," he hushed as she held onto him like she did when she was a child. He stroked her hair with his strong, sure hands as she, for the first time since she was a child, cried in his arms. She desperately wanted to believe that everything would be alright now, that her dad would make everything right like he use to. "No one would have, or could have, expected this. Not even from Snape."
She wiped her nose with her handkerchief. "No, in a way, I am not so surprised. They were kindred spirits, he would have asked Snape to. That isn't what angers me," she fumed. She knew her dad was curious and she momentarily wondered how much to divulge. How much to finally tell her dad after all these years to explain and ask his advice on what was happening now.
Dumbledore had used her.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
So, the tone has been set! I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who read and reviewed my version of year 7, The End of it All. It is officially my most reviewed story with over 200 reviews! You guys rock!
The next update finishing the end of year 6 will be soon. I am writing year 7 now, so updates should hopefully begin in a week or so, and be continuous!