Canon events up until Dumbledore's death in HBP.
Sequel to Career Minded.
Harry was sitting in the Hospital Wing, still shell shocked over the events of the last twelve hours. He and Dumbledore had gone to a cave by the sea in search of one of Voldemort's horcruxes. What they had found was less of a seaside cave and more of a chamber or horrors. It had the same oppressive feel of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, only much worse.
The whole debacle emphasized how mediocre Harry really was along with what little planning Dumbledore did for the mission. They should have had a pack filled with useful potions and tools they could use, but didn't. They ended up getting soaked by the waves caused by the high winds, Harry was just going to stand there shivering forgetting that he had a wand and could do a drying charm, or maybe he did not even know the drying charm. Either way the old saying of "Start how you want to finish" was now ringing in Harry's head, and he had no doubt what so ever that they had a poor start.
Having to open the cave by sacrificing half a pint of blood was bad, to make things worse, it could only come from a single source. Harry had volunteered to pay what Dumbledore had called the toll but Dumbledore claimed that Harry's blood was much more precious than his was. After paying the toll they were able to enter the cave.
Next there was an abnormally still lake in the separating the entrance from a tiny island with only a stone basin sitting on a pedestal in the middle of it. After casting a few, what Harry had decided must have been detection spells, Dumbledore found a chain, which pulled a boat from under the water. At this point Dumbledore told him whatever happened to not touch the water. The water was clear enough that they could both see the lifeless bodies at the bottom of the lake.
Once they were on the tiny island Dumbledore had started casting detection spells again, finding that their quarry was at the bottom of the basin, submerged in some sort of liquid. Dumbledore studied the basin and it's contents for some time, eventually coming to the conclusion that they were unable to reach through the liquid to grab what appeared to be a locket, the liquid could not be magically moved or vanished. After casting a few more spells he came up with the dumbest idea ever, that it was a potion and was meant to be drank.
Dumbledore conjured a goblet which he handed to Harry telling him that whatever happened that he must keep forcing him to drink the potion. Whether or not he knew what the potion was or had an idea about what it's effects would be will forever remain a mystery, unless one has the ability to speak with the dead. Harry force fed Dumbledore the potion until he was able to procure the locket from the bottom of the basin.
At this point Dumbledore had begun to start screaming about how thirsty he was and how he needed water. Harry had attempted to conjure water but was unable to, whether it was due to his mediocrity or wards placed against such action will never be known. This is the point where things went pear shaped, Harry defied orders and went to the edge of the tiny island and used the goblet to scoop up some water, doing so he triggered the ward which woke the dead bodies, essentially transforming them from the corpses of Voldemort's enemies, into full inferi.
Inferi, or animated dead bodies, are among the most feared things of the magical world. There are many ways of creating them, but the most effective way to do so is with a ward scheme, they are easier to control, easier to make, and some of the strongest guardians you can come across. These inferi were naked, hairless, and bone white. It also looked as if some modifications were done to them, because normal people, nor witches and wizards, had such sharp teeth nor did they have the claws that the inferi had. It was quite obvious to Harry, that if he got within their grasp, he'd be torn to ribbons in minutes, if not seconds, and that it'd be quite a painful way to go.
Inferi are mindless beasts, they aren't like their cousin the zombie where if you decapitate them that their body will fall over useless, no if you're going to face one directly you need to remove it's head and it's arms, only then is it truly defeated. Because they are controlled magically through wards they can keep going even without a brain. Though unlike their cousin the zombie, they are driven back by fire. Many of those who would use inferi as guardians would also make it to where fire couldn't be used, such as over saturating the levels of oxygen in the area, or causing methane deposits around the prime fighting areas, it's also been said that a South American wizard once came up with a way to make them unable to see fire, so they couldn't be driven back, but neither of those things mattered there.
Harry didn't know any of this, despite the fact that Defense Against The Dark Arts was his best class, they hadn't made it to the material on inferi yet, and Harry didn't feel the need to study ahead. So Harry attempted to fight them like he would any other opponent, he was doing decently banishing and blasting them, but they would get back up even after being thrown fifty feet, and Harry was tiring rapidly.
At this point another miracle in Harry's life happened, somehow Albus Dumbledore was able to compose himself and use a flame whip creating a circle of fire, destroying some of the inferi while pushing the others back into the lake. They were able to make a hasty exit after that, but the effort had taken what appeared to be the last of Dumbledore's reserves out of him.
After getting out of the cave, Harry was forced to apparate them both to Hogsmead, it was a miracle that neither had been splinched in the attempt, since this was Harry's first time taking a passenger with him while apparating, truth be told this was the first time he had intentionally apparated while not in class. Unfortunately this was not the end of a night from Hell.
The Dark Mark was flying above the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower, which meant that Draco Malfoy had been successful in his mission, whatever it was. The Dark Mark was only ever fired when someone had been killed by Death Eaters, a grisly calling card to proclaim their victory, it was safe to assume that someone had died already tonight.
After borrowing brooms from Madam Rosemerta at the Three Broomsticks, they used them to travel quickly to the castle and fly up to the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore had told Harry to put on his cloak when they heard footsteps running up the stairs of the tower, he then proceeded to put Harry in a full body bind so he couldn't move or speak.
Harry was forced to watch as Draco Malfoy stormed into the room while disarming the Headmaster. Other Death Eaters showed up after Malfoy was unable to complete his mission and kill Dumbledore. For a moment things looked up when Professor Snape made his way into the room, but that hope was quickly shattered when he sent the killing curse at the Headmaster, blasting him off of the edge of the tower. If the curse didn't kill him, then the fall surely would have.
The Death Eaters were making a retreat after that, with their mission a success. A few moments after they had left the tower, Harry found himself able to move again, making him realize that Dumbledore was truly dead. The body bind curse would not have lifted that fast had the Headmaster still been among the living.
Harry ran after the Death Eaters, attempting to catch up, firing curses at the insurgents in few isolated battles that he passed. He had managed to take down two of the Death Eaters that were present during Dumbledore's execution, hopefully they would stay down permanently. Unfortunately he was unable to catch up to Snape, Greyback, and Malfoy on their exit from the castle.
If that wasn't bad enough, he had to tell the others a watered down version of the nights events before his return to the castle. Then the icing of the shit storm that was the night was finding that the locket that had been such trouble in obtaining was a fake. It was all for naught, Dumbledore would have been strong enough to fight against the Death Eaters had it not been for their excursion to the seaside cave, he wouldn't be dead, they would still have a real chance.
His thoughts drifted to that evening in the common room back in March, he told Ron and Hermione that it was already over, that they had been losing by inches, tonight Voldemort's forces had taken out their best chance at survival. It was all over but the crying. Maybe he should have stuck with Divination, it seems his prediction of the future was taking hold.
There were talks of closing the school, only staying open for 5th and 7th year students so they could take their OWL and NEWT exams. It was decided that the school would remain open to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,and 6th year students until the following Saturday which was the day of Dumbledore's funeral.
AN: I recently reread my story career minded and it's reviews. It's about a five minute read give or take. One of the reviews wondered if I was going to continue it. So this is my attempt to start it. It will be a 7th year replacement because the entire camping trip from hell always seemed to me as the dumbest thing ever. Then throw in the inconsistencies like how in the hell are the Creevy brothers at Hogwarts? They're muggleborn, they'd be in the concentration camps.
I will also be editing/improving career minded because I have thought of a few areas where it could have been better.
Next I would also like to give credit to jbern because I totally stole how inferi worked from his story Bungle in the Jungle, if you haven't read it check it out.