Chapter Twenty-One; The Funeral
Thanks guys! Here's the last chapter, and I'm sorry that it doesn't have a happy ending, but that's because the plot will continue in my Deathly Hallows twist! And as I said before, I don't plan to stop there because I will continue the series into Harry's adulthood and when he becomes a father himself!
"Harry wait, come back!" Hermione cried once everyone else had gone but it was already too late. Harry had already made it outside and was running straight down to Hagrid's hut where Bellatrix had set the place on fire. She started dancing and singing around it as the dark mark shot up into the sky. Harry furiously withdrew his wand. This time he was going to kill her and nobody was going to stop him until suddenly his father caught up to him and grabbed ahold of his arm.
"Wait Harry don't, you don't understand son." He told him.
"Get off me!" Harry spat as he pushed him away and sent him to the ground and then pointed his wand at him.
"Harry please, let me explain." Snape began while he looked up at his face and his lower lip started to tremble but that's when Harry couldn't take it any longer.
"How could you!?" he cried as tears started streaming down his cheeks. "HOW COULD YOU!? I TRUSTED YOU! DUMBLEDORE TRUSTED YOU!" he hollered on the top of his lungs as their life together started flashing in front of his eyes. He saw the first time he had met Snape as his mother had taken him off the bus to go to meet him in front of King's Cross station and that evil glare that he had had on his face the moment he first saw Harry. "Everyone always told me that I shouldn't have trusted you, but I told them could because I knew that you loved me." He told him shakily while continuing to blink away his tears.
His mind flashed back to the first time that Snape had told him that he had loved him after he had saved his life from Pettigrew the first time and how he wanted to make him his son. "Now I know that everything I thought to be true, ended up to be a lie." He told him.
"No Harry, it wasn't." Snape began as he slowly stood up. "Please just listen to me." He told him.
"No! Sectumsempra!" he cried but Snape quickly blocked him.
"You dare and try to use my own spell against me?" he questioned him when suddenly Harry realized the truth and widened his eyes with bewilderment and let his mouth fall wide open. "That's right, I am the Halfblood Prince." He told him.
"Get out." Harry said after he found his voice again. "Get out." He repeated. "You are no father of mine. And I never want to see you again." He told him.
"Very well. If you do not wish to listen to me then I'm afraid that there is nothing further for you that I can do." He said before he turned around and breathed a heavy sigh. He hung his head as a lone tear rolled down his cheek before he suddenly disappeared. As soon as he and Bellatrix were both gone Harry sunk to his knees and burst into tears. Ron and Hermione quickly rushed over to him and helped him to his feet before Hermione wrapped her arms around him and embraced him tightly as Hagrid's hut continued to burn.
…
Once Harry had calm down he followed Ron and Hermione back to the Gryffindor common room. They were dressed in black robes since Harry had talked it over with Professor McGonagall and had told her that he wanted to have a funeral for Dumbledore so that they could properly say goodbye to him. "I'll meet you guys down in the courtyard, right now there is something that I have to do." Harry told them not looking forward to what had to be done in the slightest bit.
Harry met Ginny down by the lake. "I heard about what happened. I can't believe that your father would do something like that." She said.
"Me neither." Harry told her while his heart still ached in agony at the mere thought of it. "Listen Ginny, before Dumbledore died he left us with a job to do. And it's a job that involves destroying Voldemort once and for all." He told her.
"Great, I can't wait to help!" she exclaimed with a grin before he took a deep breath and sighed heavily.
"I'm sorry Ginny but you can't come with me." He told her.
"What!? Why not!?" she exclaimed.
"Because we can't be together. It's too risky. Listen, this past year with you has been wonderful. It has been like something out of somebody else's life. But twice Voldemort has used you as bait, and I would never forgive myself if something ever happened to you." He told her as she just simply looked at him. She didn't cry, but she didn't speak either. "Here, I want you to take this." He told her as he removed the locket from his neck and placed it around hers.
"It's fake anyway. Somebody took the real horcrux and replaced it. Anyway, I want you to keep it as a reminder of my promise." He told her.
"What promise?" she asked him.
"That as soon as Ron and Hermione and I come back from searching for horcruxes, and as soon as they're all destroyed, I will come back for you." He told her. "Do you trust me?" he asked her as she nodded at him as he made a miserable gesture and slowly turned away from her while slipping something inside her pocket. Ginny waited until he had walked away before she dug deep inside of it and unraveled the crumbled up piece of paper inside her hands and glanced down at it to read it.
I Love You
This time she felt tears trickle down her cheeks before glancing back up in his direction and breathed a heavy sigh. "I love you too Harry." She whispered.
…..
Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down in the folded up chairs out on the lawn. Harry looked around, nearly everyone in the wizarding world seemed to be there and nearly everyone seemed to have tears running down their cheeks. The only ones who weren't there was Snape and Harry's brothers and sisters. Tears rolled down Hagrid's cheeks and into his beard while he carried the bright red cloth concealing Dumbledore's body a crossed the lawn.
Harry could hear the sound of Fawkes' sad song while he soared overhead while Amazing Grace played in the background due to Dumbledore's own request. As his body was laid inside the coffin that laid on top of the table, Harry really didn't see what was so amazing about it. Other than the fact that because Jesus came into the world and (in his opinion) died for everyone's sins, Dumbledore was now in Heaven. However it was really hard for him to be happy about that when he was still disgusted to call Snape his father.
To think that he had ever called him that in the first place, or that he even loved him or trusted him at all when he used to be a death eater and nearly turned him into Voldemort was beyond him. After the funeral was over and Dumbledore was buried, Harry set off with Ron and Hermione back towards the castle. "Do you think that Malfoy would have done it? I mean if it wasn't for Snape." Ron said.
"No." Harry began. "Malfoy was lowering his wand. He would have never done it. And now since I don't have a father anymore, I have to go finish what Dumbledore started. Even if that means that I have to do it all alone." He said but Hermione just simply smiled at him.
"Don't worry Harry, you'll always have us. And that's something that Voldemort or Snape won't be able to take away from you." Hermione told him although Harry wasn't so sure. However he still smiled for the first time that day feeling blessed that he had such great friends.