Chapter 35: Undercover Secrets

Emily's eyes shot open. She heard a distinct noise coming from the door. "Emily" came a familiar soothing voice. Emily got up from her cot, a little too quickly as her head spun. She was forced back down.

"Emily? Can you hear me?" The voice spoke again.

"Ye—Yes." Emily muttered as she carefully tried to stand once more.

"Ah, good. I thought I might have had the wrong corridor."

"Pro…Professor Dumbledore?" She mumbled as she slowly made her way over to the door of her holding cell. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I might speak to you for a moment."

"If anyone where to see you here, you could get into trouble. Please Professor, for your sake…"

"My dear I have been getting into trouble for nearly seventy years." Emily laughed, the first time in what seemed like weeks.

"What do you need to talk to me…" just then Emily heard something. Someone else was coming down the corridor. Although the darkness cloaked them, she took a deep breath allowing her sudden emotions to settle, for she knew whom it was. She could sense him.

"Harry?" She called into the darkness.

"Harry, what may I ask are you doing underneath your father's cloak?" Dumbledore chided.

"I…I followed you Professor."

"I see that. And what may I ask was your purpose?"

"I wanted to…I wanted to make sure that…" He rambled trying to explain his eyes transfixed on the metal bars of Emily's cell.

"Ah, I see." Dumbledore smiled down at him before following his gaze into the dark cell.

"Harry…you shouldn't be here. If anyone where to see you…" Emily began.

"Technically, if anyone comes they won't see me."

"Harry, it's too dangerous, besides…"

"Both Harry and I are perfectly safe from harm, I can assure you. Now, if I might ask you a simple question. And this time—I would rather like it if you were honest my dear."

"Okay." She wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to know. Yet, she knew it had to be something he deemed to be detrimental.

"You do know why the spell didn't kill you, don't you?" Dumbledore spoke softly. Harry moved closer to the door so that he could hear her response more clearly. Emily stood there motionless.

"Yes… but Professor—it's just a theory. I mean," she stopped unsure of what to say.

"Tell me, my dear. I only ask because I believe that the truth might be used to help...the situation." Dumbledore voice soothed as he ran his finger against the grimy stoned walls.

"Do you remember that afternoon Professor, when I told you about my curse?"

"Yes, I recall."

"The curse he gave me as a child was meant to bind me to him. It was meant to keep me in his possession until he deemed whether or not I would be an asset to him. Yet, he didn't fully understand the ancient magic behind such curses. Through the…umm-restricted section in the library I was able to find out that my curse is a kind of magical binding agreement until I turn of age at seventeen. Which means that since he gave me the curse thus in a way binding me to him, he cannot himself kill me until the curse is broken. Which I believe is why when he used the killing curse on me it had no effect, in terms of actually killing me."

"But why would he want to kill you? Why train you?" Harry questioned.

"I think he finally realized what I was trying to do. He caught onto my scheme and realized that I was a greater threat to him alive than I was in aiding him in his plans."

"I believe, he saw too much of your true nature. He knew, as we do Emily, that darkness does not consume you, even though it has surrounded you."

"Thank you Professor."

"If you will excuse me, I must be off. I have a few things I need to take care of before noon tomorrow." Dumbledore's eye twinkled even in the darkness as he stepped slowly back from the door. "Do not loose hope my child. Soon you shall be out of this darkness." Emily smiled at this. Hope, she wished she could feel it. "Harry, I expect you to be off soon as well. I believe the guards will awaken in a few minutes."

"Yes, Professor. I will. I just…" Harry stalled.

"I know." With that Dumbledore turned and vanished up the corridor. A silence fell as both Emily and Harry stood inches away from each other.

"I…I wanted…" Harry began unsure of himself. He took of the cloak so she could see him. "How are you?" The simple question sounded ridiculous giving what she had been through these last few weeks.

"Other than the fact that the whole world now knows that I am Lord Voldemort's kin, I'm doing swell." She placed her hands on the bars and took a deep breath. "Sorry, that was…you didn't deserve that. I'll be all right, Harry. You'll see. I'm pretty good about getting out of sticky situations." Emily tried to laugh it off, but she was scared.

"Em…how could you…how could you kill—" Harry's face was blank.

"I…I didn't want to. I was trying to save her. He tricked…Harry you must believe me."

"Where there others? Did you simply do his bidding then?" His tone un-nerved her, she had known it would be hard for him to understand but this was too much for her to bear. Emily didn't reply. She didn't know what to say or how to explain. "There were weren't there." Harry looked sick to his stomach. "How many?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Harry's eyes blazed.

"Harry I was young. I don't remember…"

"You don't remember killing people!"

"I didn't kill them. They did!"

"Who?"

"Who do you think Harry? Voldemort, his servants, his followers! Yet, I guess I did as well. I simply watched. I did nothing to save them." Her eyes stung with tears as their faces floated into her mind, their screams for mercy ringing in her ears. "I know what I did. I tried every day to forget their faces, their screams. I spent months trying to produce a spell to save them. I looked through countless books to find some sort of miracle. I'm not saying what I did was right! I know what I did Harry! You don't have to remind me." She looked into his face. He looked stunned as if he had been slapped. "I have to live with it every day. I'm not asking you to forgive me; I don't expect you to. But—Harry, I'm not like him. I never wanted to do what I did. If I could…oh if I could…I would change it all! You must believe that! You know who I am."

"Do I? Because believe me what I saw today told me something completely different!"

"Harry…I never pretended to be something else. I never gave you a reason to believe…I told you who I was. You knew I grew up in his control."

"Sure, I knew you were captured. You made me believe that you were a prisoner not a member of his circle!" Harry had lost his control. He had gotten angry when he had wanted to let it go.

"I was! I was kidnapped as a baby, Harry. I grew up in under his darkness and you want me to say it was my fault? I won't believe that. I…I can't."

"Em, I know what he did to you, I saw it! I know he took away everything that could have been. I understand that; trust me. He did the same with me. I just…it's just…"

"It's just what Harry? Too much for you?" Emily chided.

"No…it's just a lot to take in." Love her. He simply loved her. Harry glanced up at her. He could only make out the outline of her face. But as the light flickered he could see tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Harry, I should have told you about everything. I should have told you about my mother, and how…I should have made you understand just how my past was. But—I was…I was just so happy, for the first time in my life and I just wanted it to last."

"Me too." Harry let out a deep sigh as he ran his hand through his untidy hair.

He didn't know what else to say or do. He wanted to run away and simply leave it all behind him. How could he ever forgive or let go all the things that happened in her past. Yet, as he stood there he knew that his heart yearned to simply let everything slip away. He needed her, and he knew that she needed him now more than ever.

"There's one thing I still don't understand."

"What?"

"Doesn't the prophecy state that he will kill you? How can the prophecy and the curse both be truth when they conflict with one another" Harry spoke through the darkness.

"The prophecy tells that I will die at the hands of Voldemort. It says how it will happen. But—it doesn't say when."

"I don't get it?"

"I was told that my curse would become a killing curse upon my seventeenth birthday. I think it's meant to be used against me, to kill me."

"I don't understand."

"When I turn seventeen the magical binding agreement is broken, then I will finally be susceptible to Voldemort. Thus, the prophecy can be fulfilled. I will be able to save the man whom I love, and he…he will be able to destroy the dark lord."

"I won't let you die, Em. I…I can't…" Harry spoke with such intensity that it made her heart falter.

"Harry. You must. It's what has to be." Emily reached her hand through the bars without thinking. Surprisingly nothing happened, it went freely. Harry immediately took it in his. Warmth radiated through her. He placed her hand on his cheek, leaving it there for a moment. "I'm so sorry, Harry. You must believe me…I need you."

"Shh." Harry's soothing voice brought a swift comfort to her. He kissed the palm of her hand and Emily felt as if her whole body was on fire. "It's ok, Em. Everything will be alright."

"Tomorrow, if they…"

"No, they won't. Unless your grandfather shows up, they can't. The prophecy must come true, right?"

"Right."

"Em, have you ever thought about why we are so connected to one another?" Harry asked.

"A little. I mean I am stronger when I am with you. Why?"

"Hermione believes that when Voldemort tried to kill you he marked you like he marked me." As Harry said this he placed his fingers against his lighting shaped scar. "In some way we are connected because of it. Allowing us to hear, sense, feel one another and somehow making our powers greater when we are together. These past few weeks I have felt weak, tired, and out of control. I thought it was just my emotions, but today when you asked me to help you with the spell, I knew that it was no coincidence."

"He created love."

"Exactly. He created what he hates."

"That's why he tried to destroy me, he knew that if the prophecy came true that together we would be greater than him. He tried to stop it, but he only made it worse." A smile spread across her lips.

"Did he mark you like he marked me?" Harry asked nervously. Emily looked at the ground for at least a minute before she allowed herself to look at him. It was only then that her pale cheeks flushed a bright red.

"What is it?" Harry spoke softly his eyes searching hers for an answer.

"It never dawned on me." Emily spoke, as if more to herself than Harry, her eyes steadfastly glued onto the stone floor again. "I should have known." She glanced up at him, her eyes focused onto his forehead, to the place where his scar was etched into his skin. "The first time I saw you I should have realized—"

"So he did mark you?"

"Yes, he did. It appeared after he tried to kill me. The skin above my heart burned for weeks."

Emily rubbed the skin above her heart as if suddenly feeling the same pain again. Through her tattered clothes she could even feel the outline of the scar. Emily caught Harry's eyes. They were fixed on her hand, on where her scar was etched into her skin. She suddenly felt brave. She carefully pulled down the left shoulder of her tattered, filthy garment revealing her scar.

Unlike Harry's defined lighting bolt, a simple jagged shaped scar embedded in her skin just below her collar bone shinned in the moonlight. Harry's breath caught in his throat when he saw it. Without a second thought, he reached out slowly, tracing the rough lines of her scar with his fingers.

Emily's skin was cold, but she felt fire run through her veins at his touch. He looked into her eyes. Emily's breath was heavy as she took in this moment. All the world was perfect and still. No thought of the war or Voldemort, not the trial tomorrow nor the time they had been apart was in their thoughts. They simply revealed in the brief reunion of being together again.

Both, however, were snapped back to reality with the sound of approaching footsteps

"Harry! You must go! The guards have woken up." Harry retracted his hand from her and cell and Emily pulled her garment above her shoulder once more. He threw the cloak back over his body.

"I love you, Em. Now and always." He looked back at her once more before he continued his way up the corridor and out of sight.

I love you too Harry. Emily muttered underneath her breath as she watched him leave, the pain in her heart hadn't dissipated it only seemed to ache even more at his sudden absence.