"You'd better come too." Ginny had said when she passed her, leading Harry through the crowd and away from the broken body of their Headmaster.
So Remington had followed the two up to the hospital wing, where it seemed everyone who'd fought the Death Eaters had gathered around one of the beds. She assumed that was where Bill was lying, whom Ginny had said on their way to the ward had been attacked by Greyback, the werewolf that had almost gotten her, as well.
Being that Remington did not know him, she hung back, sitting in a chair behind the cluster of people surrounding the bed. She listened to Harry confirm her fears twice that it had been Snape who killed Dumbledore, once for those in the room, and once when McGonagall came through the door.
There was the relief that Draco did not, in the end, have to kill anyone, though it also sparked the fear that he hadn't really gone through with the mission he was handed. Could that be the Dark Lord's excuse for killing him? Could Draco still be in danger? Or could he, possibly, already be done in? She couldn't bring herself to consider it. Snape was with him. Surely, he knew by now what Draco meant to her. Surely, he would argue in Draco's favor.
But then, Snape had killed Dumbledore. It was a give and take situation. Now Snape would be generally a hated, condemned man by anyone not under the Dark Lord's reign. He wasn't in danger of being killed, though. Not unless Harry caught him unawares sometime, which she had doubts as to how probable that was.
She felt distinctly isolated from the people she was in the room with. Many of them, she didn't know. Others, she knew, were angry with her. And their heartache was very separate from her own.
"This is all my fault," Professor McGonagall said suddenly. She looked disoriented, twisting her wet handkerchief in her hands. "My fault. I sent Filius to fetch Snape tonight, I actually sent for him to come and help us! If I hadn't alerted Snape to what was going on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don't think he knew they were coming."
Lupin began to try to console her, saying it wasn't her fault, but Remington spoke up. "He didn't know they were coming." She said, "Not until I told him. Professor Flitwick showed up a few minutes after me."
"We heard you arguing with him. Snape." Hermione commented.
"You made him promise something." Luna added.
Remington was aware of most of the eyes in the room resting on her, though her own gaze was lowered to the floor. "Draco... To keep Draco alive." She said after a short pause.
For once, she didn't hear anyone say something against her for trying to protect Draco. She looked up to find Ron casting her a furtive look, and Harry giving her a more dubious one. Nobody could really argue, though. Despite how much they may not have liked Draco, they still didn't want to see a teenager dead.
"You knew Snape was on their side?" Harry asked. The revulsion and hatred for Snape obvious in his voice.
"I knew he was on both sides." She disagreed. "I didn't know which one he was truly on." She was convinced he was on the Order's side. It was hard for her to believe she might have been wrong. She knew, though, that his concern for her safety had been genuine. Though... he'd fooled many greater witches and wizards than her, so who was to say she was wrong about that, also? No; he was family. He couldn't possibly...
Harry shook his head, looking back at McGonagall, "So when Snape arrived at the fight, he joined the Death Eaters' side?"
"I don't know how exactly it happened," Professor McGonagall said, explaining that patrols had been set up; Order members were stationed in the school. She hadn't any idea how the Death Eaters could have breached their security.
Harry interrupted to tell about the twin Vanishing Cabinets. At the mention, Remington felt a weak stab of guilt, but knew that if she hadn't helped Draco, and he'd failed, she would have felt far worse. She didn't regret helping him, she realized, no matter what the outcome was.
Ron proceeded to relay his part of the story, how he, Neville, and Ginny kept watch outside the Room of Requirement, but were thwarted because Draco had apparently been expecting someone to be waiting in the corridor, and used Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder to render the three rather helpless as the Death Eaters escaped. However, they hadn't been expecting to encounter the Order of the Phoenix, and that's when the fight broke out.
"So if Ron was watching the Room of Requirement with Neville and Ginny," Harry began, looking to Hermione, "Then you were-"
"Outside Snape's office, yes." Hermione said, her eyes looking a bit moist. "With Luna. When we got there, we could hear voices inside- we didn't know who else was in the room. Then Flitwick came sprinting into the dungeons. He was shouting about Death Eaters in the castle, I don't think he really registered that Luna and I were there at all, he just burst his way into Snape's office and we heard him saying that Snape had to go back with him and help and then we heard a loud thump and-"
"He Stupefied Flitwick." Remington commented. "At that point I probably should have known, but I- I couldn't doubt him. I thought he knew what he was doing-" Rem looked up at the people looking at her, her brow slightly creased with remorse. Remorse for the pain they were feeling. Remorse to convince them she wished things had ended differently.
After a short moment, Hermione continued, "He said Professor Flitwick had collapsed and that we should go and take care of him while he- while he went to help fight the Death Eaters-" She looked more ashamed than ever. "We didn't even realize, we just let Snape go!"
"It's not your fault," Lupin said firmly, "Hermione, had you not obeyed Snape and got out of the way, he probably would have killed you and Luna."
"No he wouldn't've." Rem interjected darkly, "Perhaps he's a murderer, but wouldn't kill children."
"You don't know that, Remington." Lupin told her.
"I do. He's been trying to keep me from getting myself killed all year." She said, then added, "He hasn't killed Harry, and he's had every opportunity, even earlier tonight-"
"He Stunned you, too!" Harry objected.
"For my own good, and Draco's." She argued, "If Draco hadn't stopped me, I probably would've tried to go after you. If Snape hadn't Stunned me, then Draco wouldn't've been able to get away. And I'm fine now, aren't I?" She knew she sounded like the enemy, but she didn't have the patience to think up anything less incriminating.
"Why would you attack me?" Harry demanded.
"Because you were trying to curse Snape! He's been the closest thing I've had to a father figure for the past two years! And you'd've been happy to kill him." She snapped.
"I'd still be happy to kill him! He's a traitor; he killed Dumbledore!" Harry protested.
"I didn't know that at the time." She shot at him, scowling.
Harry's glare turned annoyed and he looked back at the Order members, "So after Flitwick went to warn him, he came up the stairs and found the place where you were all fighting... ?"
"We were in trouble, we were losing," Tonks said in a low voice. "Gibbon was down, but the rest of the Death Eaters seemed ready to fight to the death. Neville had been hurt, Bill had been savaged by Greyback... It was all dark... Curses flying everywhere... The Malfoy boy had vanished, he must have slipped past, up the stairs... Then more of them ran after him, but one of them blocked the stair behind them with some kind of curse... Neville ran at it and got thrown up into the air-"
"I tried it too." Rem mumbled.
"None of us could break through," Ron said, pausing. The rest of the story she already knew.
When everyone had dispersed and she walked to the tower, most of Gryffindor was in the common room, dressed for bed. For the first time, she was made aware of the fact she looked slightly ragged. She'd ripped one of the knees on her jeans, and had a few grass stains. The white soles and sidewalls of her maroon sneakers were streaked with blood. She still had her wand in her hand, not yet feeling entirely safe yet.
She'd blended in when she'd been in the hospital wing, everyone else having been just as bedraggled. They'd had ripped robes, bloodstains, and grazes on their arms and faces from hexes that only barely missed them. But the students in Gryffindor Tower were completely unscathed, not having been in the fray.
Most of the eyes in the room turned on her when she walked in, and Fay launched herself out of a chair when she caught sight of Rem, "It's true, then?" She said quietly, "Dumbledore-" But she didn't finish, because Remington was nodding. "Who-" Fay began to ask.
"I don't want to talk about it, Fay." She said, heading towards the girls' dormitories. Fay made no move to follow her, staring after her in mild surprise and offence.
When Remington got to her own bed, she pulled a sheet of parchment out of her Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook that had been the start of an essay Snape had assigned, due the next day. She ripped a piece from it that hadn't been written on and found a quill and ink.
Send something back so I know you're alive.
Rem
I want to thank everybody who's made it this far. I hope it's been worthwhile to this point! Remember to let me know how I'm doing, and check out Remington and Draco's tumblr page, the link to which is in my profile. Also, don't forget the third and final installment of this story! Swan Song will be posted soon, the final chapters of which are still in progress. I also have to go back through all of I Don't Lie and the majority of Burning Bridges since I only just realized that FanFiction doesn't like the breaks I put in my chapters, and so I need to go through and put new ones in. Bleh.
Thank you guys so much; there would be no story without you!
