Among the strange-shaped shadows, a human figure moved, and Rowena strained to get her eyes to follow it. Professor Finney surfaced, hidden from Morgana in the dense trees, but his eyes focused on Rowena and he smiled, bringing one finger to his lips to keep her silent, seeming to forget she couldn't move. He non-verbally cast the spell to unbind her, and Rowena sat up, taking in the Forest scene. Rhys and Genevieve still lay unconscious on either side of her; further away, Morgana's guard was down, seemingly satisfied in their incapacitation.

When Professor Finney moved to a better position to revive the others, Morgana turned at the noise and found his shadow. Even in the dim lighting of pre-dawn, Rowena could sense the coldness in her mother's eyes. Rowena tried to warn him, but before she could finish screaming "Professor!", Morgana's wand was raised and the incantation out of her mouth. "Avada Kedavra."

His body grew stiff and fell backwards, away from Rhys's body, which still lay unmoving beside Rowena. "No," Rowena whispered, the facts of the moment still sorting themselves out inside of her. It couldn't be; he couldn't be gone. She wanted to give up, then, turn herself in; they shouldn't have called for his help. He had only just believed that what they were facing was real. How come, in the moment he finally accepted the truth, the truth killed him? Rowena had heard somewhere that truth was supposed to set people free.

Without him unbinding her, of course, she likely would have been dead before the red dawn could completely take over the sky. But better her than him; she was still hunted - he was only collateral damage. When the thoughts had gathered inside her head, she stood up, wand at the ready to revive her friends.

"Don't bother, or they will go the way of that stranger," Morgana warned.

"That stranger was the best Professor I ever had. He shouldn't have had to die."

"He shouldn't have been in the way."

"That's no reason to kill someone," Rowena said, standing up the rest of the way, keeping her wand pointed steadily at Morgana. She hardly dared to blink, worried about what her mother might do next.

"That's the only reason to kill someone, really. You have much to learn."

"I have no intention of learning it!"

"That's a shame, Rowena. If you don't choose to join me, I think I shall find you thoroughly in my way."

Rowena dared to take two steps closer, her eyes never leaving Morgana's. "And you will leave my friends alone and take me, and only me?"

"As long as they stay out of the way. And as they are unconscious, that seems likely."

"Good. But you had better be telling the truth."

The way her voice switched so automatically between the coldness of icicles and the sweetness of golden syrup was almost more off-putting than the words she spoke. "Rowie, darling! Why wouldn't I be telling the truth?"

"There's about a million reasons I can think of that you wouldn't be telling me the truth. You and Papa lied to me for nearly 17 years! You lied to me, and lied again; then, on the rare chance that you told the truth, you erased it from my memory and hid my past in a cabinet in your bedroom."

Morgana looked at her daughter, her wand going slack in her hand. "You found out about that?"

"I have. I've been inside your mind, and Papa's, and my own. I know what you did to me, mother. I don't know very much else, but I know that my childhood is full of secrets kept in flasks. I want the truth. And when I'm done with you," she said, refraining from contemplating whether she would still be alive when it was over, "When I am done, I will go and get my memories back."

"I don't recommend that, Rowie. When I met you a few short weeks ago, you seemed so well-adjusted. In fact, maybe you'd be better off with another memory charm now. Oblivi-"

Rowena was prepared for this and shouted "Protego!" before Morgana could complete the spell and a shield went up around her. She didn't let it drop, but shouted through it. "You can't take my memories from me anymore! I'm of age and I want to own my past the way I own my present. I've lost any respect I had for you. You never treated me like a daughter; instead, I was someone to toy with, an inconvenience in your plans for immortality. How you could ever think I would join you is beyond me."

She refused to drop her wand, keeping it constantly pointed at her mother's chest, though she couldn't bring herself to do more than protect herself. Morgana, too, was relentless. Although she kept her wand raised, her weapons, for the moment, remained verbal. "You're unhappy with your incomplete memory, then Rowie? Do you wish to know everything? Wishing to know everything is the ultimate act of arrogance. You aren't worthy of knowing everything.

"Perhaps, then, if you cannot content yourself with an incomplete memory, you'd rather it vanished altogether? I can arrange that, you know. The dead have no memories to recall, and soon your entire existence will be forgotten. You aren't worthy of bearing Harry Potter's name."

Morgana pulled her wand back just the tiniest fraction, and every ounce of hatred that had been welling up inside Rowena over the past month fueled her. She shook off her logic, her need to think everything through, and her wand was the faster of the two. Unforgivable words were out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying.

When the soul piece that lived on in the book died, it screamed. It cried out from its grave and kept trying to live. But the mutilated body Morgana lived in fell backward without a word, eyes still open as she hit the Forest floor. Everything around Rowena was silent and in slow motion, like the thud of her mother's body hitting the ground never happened. She barely registered it as she fell to her knees, the Elder Wand knocked loose from her hand.

Though she knew she could still move, she felt paralyzed, alienated from her own body like her motions weren't her own. It seemed impossible to wrap her mind around what just happened and she kept repeating it inside her head as she knelt, staring at the bare feet of Morgana. They probably grew colder every second as the life finished leaving them. I killed my mother. I killed my own mother.

The tears she wanted to cry wouldn't come, and though a million excuses and justifications sprung to her mind about why she had done it, none of them took hold of her and she stayed on the ground, almost as if she was waiting for her mother to move.

Morgana's body began to glow red with the coming of dawn and finally Rowena knew she needed to get up. Her mother was going nowhere, and neither was Professor Finney. Her friends still lay unconscious behind her. The only person left to act was herself, and the rising sun reminded her that was time.

She got to her knees, feeling sick to her stomach and weak. It was not easy to become a murderer, even a justified one, and she found herself immediately fighting the temptation to lie down and go to sleep. The danger was gone; all was not well, but there was nothing left to do about it. Rowena knew she didn't have the strength to levitate her friends back to the castle, but she couldn't leave them there, either. Before she had risen to her feet, she gave up and lay down again, wanting to bury herself like the Horcrux was buried.

But a shadow again crossed over her face, nearly silent behind her, and a muzzle nudged her shoulder. Thestrals. Still she could see them, and they seemed drawn to her. She couldn't bring back her friends alone, but if she had the Thestrals to help... they gave her the courage she needed to go on.

At a glance, the three bodies that lay behind her looked as though they could be sleeping, but Professor Finney's eyes lay perpetually open, unblinking. She went to his body first and closed his eyelids, trying to persuade her own not to leak. It wasn't working. She picked up the Elder Wand again and pointed it at Rhys. "Rennervate," she muttered, and watched him blink heavily and yawn.

"Rowena? Is everything okay?"

"No, it isn't."

He stood up, wobbly on his feet, and made his way to her. Pulling her close, he kissed her cheek and stroked her hair. "Is Morgana-" The question went cold on his lips.

"She's dead."

"That's... that's good, isn't it? I mean, she was trying to kill us."

Rowena swallowed, not sure she could manage to tell Rhys what she needed to say. "Finney," she finally whispered. "She killed Finney before I could- I tried everything I-"

He simply stared at her, speechless. It seemed like he was doing everything in his power to avoid looking behind them, where Finney's body lay, but it was nearly morning. They needed to get back to the castle.

"Thestrals are here," Rowena said. "Two of them. I think we should use them to get out of here. I will ride with Genevieve, if you don't mind taking..." She gestured behind him.

"Could you? At least you can see them. I don't think I could watch his body in front of me just... floating. We can wake Genevieve up."

"Okay. Rennervate," she said again, and Genevieve woke up. In as many words as she could muster, Rowena explained to her what had happened and told her the plan. Genevieve nodded solemnly and Rowena helped the pair onto the waiting Thestral. She climbed onto her own Thestral and levitated the body next to her, but to see him hovering there, lifeless, was unnerving. She moved him to the body of the Thestral and lay him down in front of her.

The animals seemed to know when they were ready to go and set off, their pace slow, like a funeral march. The sun was rising quickly now, golden in the distance as they left the cover of the trees and began to make their way through the grounds.

The doors to the Entrance Hall opened and closed on the horizon and a figure approached. Rowena was too tired to care who it was, but as they neared she saw the graying hair of their Headmaster. With every step, more of his face was illuminated by the sunrise and came into focus: his fast pace; the concern pressing the wrinkles around his eyes together. The Thestrals slowed instinctively, then stopped about fifteen feet from Headmaster Malfoy.

One by one, they dismounted the animals, Rowena again taking care to levitate the body on its way down, setting it gently on the ground, then turning away the moment her magic was no longer needed. She looked at her Headmaster, but felt the numbness of her expression. Was there any depth to her eyes anymore? She didn't know what to say; it seemed Rhys and Genevieve didn't either.

It was a long, uncomfortable silence before Malfoy said, "Finney sent a Patronus to me. He said you three were in trouble. I came as soon as I could." The tone of apology was unmistakable behind his words.

"I don't think there's anything you could have done," Rowena finally managed to say.

"What happened?"

Rowena swallowed. "He... got in the way."

"Of what? Rowena, what happened? Who attacked you?"

"My mother."

"But I thought-"

"I thought so, too, until recently. But I don't want to talk about it yet. I promise to tell you everything you need to know, but not right now."

"I understand, Ms. Potter, of course. We should get you to the hospital wing. All of you."

The Thestrals disappeared behind her into the Forest, and their retreat reminded her that Morgana's dead body still lay there. She knew the Thestrals' diet. Did Morgana deserve it? Probably. But she loved her papa, and he would probably want to give her mother a proper burial. "Headmaster? Before we leave... my mother's body is in the Forest still. Maybe we should get her before-" She looked over her shoulder to the Thestrals who were trotting back to the Forest.

"Let me get the three of you to the hospital wing first, and take care of-" He swallowed abruptly. "Professor Finney. Then I will see what I can do."

"Thank you."

They began to move as a group, but Rhys stopped and looked back; they had left Professor Finney's body behind. "Can we say goodbye, please? I know it doesn't mean much, now, but Genevieve and I didn't even see him go. I didn't expect- when I went to get him, I never would have thought-"

The Headmaster's interruption came as a relief. "You may go."

The three walked back to the body. Rowena wanted to be sick, seeing his lifeless form so close to the garden he used for teaching. It felt so wrong. She stood between her friends, holding each of their hands, and they knelt down together. There wasn't much to say, really. Not beyond, "Sorry," and "Thank you," and "You'll never know how much you did for us." But they all seemed to need a feeling of closure. Even with it, the overwhelming sense of guilt wouldn't leave Rowena alone.

Although they walked in silence, seeming to find their way to the hospital wing on muscle memory alone, Rowena didn't feel the disapproval that hung in the air of some adult silences. If there was an aura to the heaviness that pressed on them, it was guilt. Rowena guessed they all felt it, to some extent or another. They had all, in their own minds at least, contributed to his death. Each could think of something they could have done to prevent it, and, as far as the air surrounding them could have her guess, none of them thought to blame anyone else.

Genevieve, Rhys, and Rowena waited outside the door of the wing momentarily, while the Headmaster went in alone. He appeared a few minutes later and beckoned them inside. "I've instructed her not to ask any questions. She has a dreamless sleeping draught prepared for all three of you. I imagine it's been awhile since you slept?"

Genevieve nodded and they made their way toward the matron. "You three do look down," she said. "I have just the thing."

One at a time, they took a long drink of the potion; even its taste as it slid down her throat was soothing, like homemade soup or a favorite pie. Though Rowena had wished for pyjamas a moment before, it no longer seemed necessary. The warm covers would do as long as her eyelids would soon be shut. She was asleep within minutes and didn't notice the Headmaster leave the room again, one stray tear wiped from his eye with the back of his hand.

When she woke up again, it was nearly sunset. Genevieve and Rhys appeared to sleep soundly still, and Rowena had no interest in waking them up. She had put them through so much. Even just to get to this point, where they lay beside her in hospital beds, was too much for her to ask. And it wasn't even Rhys's first time here because of her.

For the first time in weeks, she actually wanted to forget everything. It wasn't such a bad idea, perhaps, that her parents took away all the bad things and put them literally out of her mind. She spent a peaceful ten years without them, and wouldn't mind returning. If only she could reach her wand... a simple Obliviate would do it, and she could return to the bliss of her old ignorance.

No. As the sleep left her eyes and her brain cleared, she realized exactly what it was she had been thinking. Forgetting it all wouldn't change anything. Her mother would still be dead, which was good; but Finney would still be dead, too, and that was all her fault. They dragged him into it when he tried to warn them it was dangerous. And yet they escaped unscathed and he... he didn't. Not at all.

She would take it all back if she could, go back to the very beginning four weeks ago and just not pursue the subject, but it was too late for that now. As Rhys and Genevieve woke up as well, she refused to look at them, staring instead at the stark white bedside table.

"Rowena, you need to talk to us," Rhys says finally. "You can't stay locked up inside your head forever. You'll go mad."

"Maybe I want to go mad. Maybe I already am mad. Look what I put you through! In hospital again because of me."

"I'm fine, though, Rowena. We were only here to be sure."

"Not last time. Last time they weren't sure either of us would make it. And that was my fault as well."

"You can't keep blaming yourself," Genevieve said. "You had no choice."

Rowena turned around, propping herself up on one elbow and facing her friend. "No, you're right. I didn't have a choice. But Rhys did, and you did, and especially Professor Finney. I could have kept you out of it. I could have kept a secret. Secret keeping seems to run in my blood, after all."

"Rowena Potter, look at me," Rhys scolded. "Look at me right now."

"What?"

"You can't be thinking like this. If you try and go through and find all the causes and effects to see who really started it all, it wasn't you. It was Morgana, and she dragged you into this. You couldn't have stayed away from it all because she wouldn't let you. And I was stuck being involved, too. It was my wand you were searching for, Rowena. And before you were searching for my wand, we were searching for this," he said, pulling the ankh out from beneath his shirt. "If I hadn't lost it, we wouldn't be here. And if I hadn't gotten detention, we wouldn't be here. Do you see what I mean?

"This is no one's fault more than anyone else's. If there's anything to forgive, I forgive you for it. But you have to forgive yourself, too."

"Finney's dead," she said, and it was the first time she acknowledged it aloud. She was surprised at how easy it was to say, as if they were just ordinary words.

Rhys looked like he was about to cry at the blunt way the sentence left her, but he continued. "I know. And there's nothing we can do about it now. Morgana is gone for good. She won't attack you again. Will you please rejoice in that?"

Rowena wished it were that simple.