CHAPTER 1 – The Wrong Choice

This is it. This is the moment I will be remembered for.

Draco had thought of this moment for almost a year. He had hoped that he wouldn't actually have to look Dumbledore in the eyes when it happened but now he was out of options. That Katie Bell was daft enough to touch the necklace and Slughorn was so stupid to share the mead with Potter and Weasley.

How he became of Head of Slytherin I'll never know.

Draco quickly made his way up the Astronomy Tower. He knew those he let into the school through the cabinet were not far behind. Aunt Bellatrix was leading the group which consisted of the Carrows, Rowle and Yaxley. They even brought that filthy werewolf Greyback. That creature scared me.

He paused. Dumbledore was talking.

"Trust me. Trust me".

Someone was with him. Draco raised his wand and stepped into view.

There was no one else with Dumbledore. The room was empty save for the headmaster. This wasn't right. Dumbledore looked worse for wear, as if he had just had a very bad day.

Dumbledore barely appeared to be fazed by Draco's intrusion. "Good Evening Draco" he calmly spoke as he began to move right. Draco stepped left in order to keep Dumbledore in his sight. "What brings you here. On this fine spring evening?" he asked. Is he playing dumb with me? He's trying to intimidate me.

"Who else is here? I heard you talking" Draco fired back at the headmaster. Someone had to be here or Dumbledore wouldn't be so calm. He will not put me in one of his little traps.

Dumbledore responded calmly with "Oh, I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful". He's really lost it. "Have you been whispering to yourself, Draco?"

He knows. How could he know? Draco had told nobody at Hogwarts about the task that the Dark Lord had given him. Not Crabbe and Goyle, not Blaise, not even Pansy. He knew they would all be supportive of his task and encourage him to kill Dumbledore in person. Draco didn't want their words as they would not be useful at all.

Dumbledore continued to move and Draco kept him in his sight. The headmaster might have been an old fool but he was still dangerous if his duel with the Dark Lord was anything to go by. Draco knew he had no chance against someone like Dumbledore. "Draco. You are no assassin" Dumbledore spoke assuredly. He's trying to rope me in like he does with Potter. Draco won't let that happen. "How do you know what I am?" Draco let out defiantly. Dumbledore didn't know Draco, they barely interacted, father always said Dumbledore was the worst headmaster in Hogwarts' history and Potter was clearly his favourite. "I've done things that would shock you" Draco continued but before he could explain, Dumbledore did that for him "Oh like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she'd bare a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison?"

He knew. All this time he must have. And he didn't have me arrested. Why? "Forgive me Draco, but I can't help feeling that these actions are so weak that your heart can't have really been in them" the old headmaster continued. He is not scared or angry, he seems to care. Draco couldn't fall for it, if he did…

Draco couldn't think of it.

He won't let Dumbledore twist his mind "He trusts me. I was chosen" Draco fired back as he pulled up his sleeve to show Dumbledore that his attempt to talk Draco out of his path was too late. The Dark Mark was clear to see. The only other under age wizard the Dark Lord had branded with the mark was Regulus Black, a distant cousin.

"I shall make it easy for you" Dumbledore drew his wand.

"Expelliarmus" The wand flew out of Dumbledore's rotten hand. He's getting slow. If the old headmaster was afraid he never showed it. Instead he complimented Draco "Very good, Very good". Draco knew Dumbledore was playing games with him. He was trying to get in his head and make him turn.

The sound of a door opening was heard. Dumbledore was still not afraid of what was happening. He was merely curious "You're not alone? There are others" Dumbledore looked to Draco. He wanted to know how Draco achieved this without alerting the aurors. He stepped forward "How?"

There was not harm in answering the question, he wouldn't live much longer. "The vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement. I've been mending it" Draco declared with a false sense of pride. Dumbledore still was not afraid, he just inquired "Let me guess, it has a sister? A twin?" He was right. Draco had examined the sister at Borgin and Burkes and spent many months trying to repair that wreck of a cabinet into something of actual use. "At Borgin and Burkes. They form a passage" Draco answered with that same pride in his voice.

Even still, Dumbledore was not afraid. Draco could not understand. How can he be so calm? He will die tonight and he is not scared.

"Ingenius" Dumbledore complimented. Draco knew the man was still trying to rope him in. Even after everything he had done. Why? Dumbledore took another step forward and with no trace of malice or ill will in his voice "Draco, years ago I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices" He's trying to save me. Draco didn't understand why this man would ever want to such thing. "Please let me help you" he continued. No! Draco could not let this man get to him. "I don't want your help" Draco retorted with all the false pride gone and with tears building in his eyes. He didn't care what Dumbledore had to say. He had to complete the task. "Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you. Or he's going to kill me" His voice broke. Draco knew the price of failure and the fear of death was all it took for him to agree to the Dark Lord's wishes.

The footsteps grew closer. Dumbledore no longer looked to Draco instead to those who had just entered the room. Draco recomposed his face. He would not appear weak in front of his peers or his aunt.

Bellatrix was delighted. "Well, what have we here?" she said as the Carrows, Rowle and Yaxley engulfed the room. Greyback walked up beside Draco. He didn't look impressed at all. Bellatrix was directly behind Draco and with softness in her voice she uttered "Well done, Draco" This was all Draco needed now. His aunt watching. Now he truly had no choice.

Bellatrix stepped out in front of Draco. Even in a room with those that would happily kill him for the Dark Lord's favour, Dumbledore still showed no fear as he stepped back towards the balcony. "Good evening Bellatrix. I think introductions are in order, don't you?" Dumbledore asked with trace of fear in his voice. He spoke like he was greeting an old friend. Bellatrix, for her part, played along with his friendly manner "Love to Albus. But I'm afraid we're on a bit of a tight schedule". She looked to Draco and said the words "Do it".

She was serious, she wanted Draco to complete his task. She might have lost all sense of reality in Azkaban but she did still care for her family. "He doesn't have the stomach, just like his father" Greyback spoke out with clear disdain. Draco wouldn't let that kind of insult pass. The old Draco wouldn't anyway. "Let me finish him in my own way" he continued "NO!" Bellatrix quickly fired back. "The Dark Lord has clear orders for the boy to do it."

Draco had to do it. They were watching and if he failed not even his aunt would stop the Dark Lord from enforcing his punishment. Bellatrix continued to push Draco "This is your moment. Do it" Draco still remained still with his wand pointed directly at Dumbledore. "Go on Draco, NOW!" she screamed with desperation in her voice. Even still Draco couldn't say the words.

"No"

Draco lowered his wand and looked behind him to see Professor Snape walking into the room. He'll do it. He'll make the hard choice. And I will be a failure.

"Severus" Dumbledore calmly spoke out. He is not afraid. "Please"

"Avada Kedavra"

A flash green fired from Draco's wand, striking the old headmaster and throwing from the balcony to a long fall to the ground.

A tear left Draco's eye. He did it. And he felt… horrible.

Something was wrong. He felt wrong, like something was broken. He couldn't explain but he knew that no one else in the room would have felt this way. They were killers. And I am one of them.