A/N: Draco's POV starts from this chapter.
Draco didn't eat anything at all for a whole fortnight, safe for a glass of water everyday since the day his house elf informed him about his mother. The Dark Lord could command his giant snake pet to swallow his mother anytime he wished. Draco must fix the cabinet quick. He didn't want to make the dark wizard mad and take the rage to his mother.
On Friday afternoon, 20 June, Draco walked through the dungeon corridor unbalanced. His steps were swaying, vision unfocused, and he had constant headache. Symptoms of malnutrition. But Draco had no time nor appetite for sustenance his body critically needed. Just one more step, and the Vanishing Cabinet was ready. But that's not the only thing in his head that depressed him.
He was going to give access to Death Eaters inside Hogwarts castle. Where all students were still living their cheery days, waiting for the Hogwarts Express to transport them back to their hometowns. The dark wizards had no mercy on children. Draco's moral as a human being and as a son was battling inside his head. But Draco knew, in the end, he chose family over everything else.
He heard steps behind him. Draco stopped. He turned his head.
"Malfoy," Potter greeted.
Draco had no energy to deal with the idiot right now. He continued his steps toward the Slytherin dungeon, ignoring Potter.
Draco lay on his bed and sighed. With his shoes still on his feet, Draco draped his right forearm over his closed eyes. He wasn't ready to bring chaos into Hogwarts yet. He wanted to cry so bad.
~o~
Draco stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Apparently, he fell asleep for three hours. It was dinner time now and he was alone in his dorm. He stared at the ceiling. It lasted half hour and then he jerked when his foot touched something. Draco sat up and saw a box of sweets on his bed. It wasn't there when he lay on his bed this afternoon. And when he asked his roommates and Pansy, even asked Millicent who he shared his sweet tooth with, they all knew nothing about it.
He belatedly sensed a faint magic signature that belonged to Harry Potter.
~o~
On dinner time of 28 June, Icarus landed on Draco's right forearm. He was standing by the Astronomy Tower balcony. A small roll of parchment attached on his Eagle owl. Draco opened it.
The Dark Lord demanded immediate assassination of Dumbledore and the entry to Hogwarts. At the end of the message, a strand of silver hair glued. His mother's hair.
Draco's legs went limp. He sat on the cold balcony floor until the Big Dipper was almost in line with the North Star on its left side. His folded legs felt stiff. He was exhausted but he didn't feel asleep. Then, he heard rustling of fabric near him. He turned his head to the right side. He didn't see anyone. Maybe it was just Bloody Baron? But since when ghosts produced sounds for their clothes?
Draco pulled out the apatite dragon statuette from his pocket. He liked to hold and staring at it, and he made it to his habit whenever he was stressed or felt down; which was almost the whole time of the sixth year. He also got fatigued easily since he returned to Hogwarts from Christmas holiday. The gemstone calmed him, even if just a bit.
"You really are stubborn, aren't you?"
Draco snapped his head to his right side that it hurt his neck.
"Potter!" Draco stared at the Gryffindor with wide eyes. He didn't sense him. "I didn't sense you!"
"Of course you didn't. Whatever you are doing with yourself, it disturbs our connection. Means, it agitates me. That's annoying, you know," Potter remarked. He was sitting on the floor, too.
Draco clutched his dragon statuette and then stood up with visible sway. He felt dizzy when he did so.
"Why you starve yourself, Malfoy?" Potter asked. He was standing up, too.
"Mind your own business, Potter," Draco replied and walking toward the stairs, leaving the Astronomy Tower. He didn't hear Potter's voice, but he could sense the teen was watching him from behind.
~o~
The Vanishing Cabinet was ready.
On the afternoon of 30 June, where all the Hogwarts residents were having the Leaving Feast in the Great Hall, Draco saw Harry Potter and Dumbledore heading toward the Astronomy Tower. He didn't care what the two wizards were doing at the moment. Draco was very nervous. He was waiting until midnight, where everybody had retreated from the Great Hall and sleep safely in their respective dorms and chambers. He didn't want the Death Eater to stumble upon the students.
Exactly at midnight, Draco rose up from his bed and secretly went to the Room of Requirement. Holding his breath, Draco stood before the Vanishing Cabinet. He raised his wand and opened the connection between the cabinet in Hogwarts with the one in the Malfoy Manor. He stepped backward when he heard voices from inside the cabinet. Draco's heart was beating fast and hard when ten Death Eaters emerged from the cabinet. He held himself not to cry at the moment.
"Good boy, Draco. Well done," Bellatrix patted Draco's cheek and she laughed maniacally.
And there, between the dark wizards, Draco saw Greyback. Draco felt his body went cold; blood gone from his already pale face. He didn't know the werewolf was also coming! Greyback loved children so much. They were easy prey for him. Immersed in panic, unwilling to let the werewolf harm the young students, Draco concentrated hard on his bond with Potter.
Please, please, Merlin, hear me, Potter. Death Eaters are in Hogwarts. Potter, please, Death Eaters are inside Hogwarts!
Draco focused to transfer his panic and fear to the bond, hoping Potter would receive it through their connection.
"Well, Draco, lead us the way!" Bellatrix said.
Lead. Draco was responsible for this, then. He caught himself before tears formed in his eyes.
Hiding his fear and despair, Draco escorted them out of the Room. When he stepped by the door, Draco saw a group watching the corridor. The students! Potter's team. Did Potter get his message? But that fast? Afraid of the students' safety, Draco threw the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder he prepared in his pocket to make it impossible for the students to see him and the Death Eaters leave the room. He hoped the Death Eaters didn't see them in return so they wouldn't hurt the students.
Thinking fast, Draco directed the Death Eaters to the Astronomy Tower, far away from the students. He lied and told them that Dumbledore was there. Gibbon, one of the Death Eaters, placed the Death Mark above the tower. On their way, though, suddenly a team of adult wizards and some students from Dumbledore's Army attacked them. Potter did get his message.
While the Death Eaters were fighting with Potter's force, Draco hurried his steps toward the Astronomy Tower. When he arrived at the seventh floor of the tower, he saw Dumbledore was standing on the open balcony alone. Oh Merlin, Dumbledore was actually here! Draco panicked. Why he always had bad luck at times like these? Why Dumbledore was here?!
Draco sensed Potter, but he didn't see him anywhere in the Astronomy Tower. So, somehow Potter also knew Draco was coming to the Astronomy Tower, and maybe he was the one who told the headmaster Draco was heading to this tower?
"Draco," Dumbledore called calmly.
Draco put his attention fully to the headmaster. He steadied his hold on his wand and raised his wand to the old wizard.
"I was wondering how did you manage to bring the Death Eaters inside Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked with the same calm voice.
How did the headmaster know?
"I used the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. I was quite surprised myself. How could Death Eaters able to breach in this so called most secure place easily," Draco sneered. Apparently, Hogwarts wasn't as safe as the Wizarding World had bragged about. Please tell me that you've alerted the Aurors that the Death Eaters are here.
"Ah. Of course. But Draco my dear boy, please, put down your wand," Dumbledore told him.
"Don't call me that!" Draco jabbed his wand tip to Dumbledore's direction. Take my wand hurry! "I'm going to kill you, Dumbledore! Expelliarmus!"
Dumbledore's wand was thrown away from his master's hand. Dumbledore didn't look surprised and he kept his eyes on Draco's. The wand rolled on the wooden floor to a dark corner and soon forgotten.
"Draco, you have had several long minutes now. We are quite alone. And I am more defenseless than you can have dreamed of finding me now, and still you have not acted…"
Draco then realised that indeed he hadn't killed the headmaster yet. And apparently, Dumbledore saw the hesitance and fear in Draco's eyes. Please, please go away now!
"There is little time, one way or another. So, let us discuss your options, Draco," said Dumbledore
"My option! I haven't got any options! I've got to do this! I have to kill you or he's gonna kill me and my family!" Draco almost screamed. Please help me.
"Draco, no harm has been done. You have hurt nobody. I can help you, Draco."
"No, you can't," Draco said, his wand hand began to shake. "Nobody can! He told me to do it, or he'll kill Mother. I've got no choice!"
"Come to the light side, Draco. We can provide you safety and hide you more possibly than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send member of the Order to your mother tonight to save her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban. Come to the light side, Draco. You are not a killer…" Dumbledore reached out his right hand.
Draco saw that the offered skin was blackened and looked damaged severely. Dumbledore was leaning against the railing, looking weak. At that moment, they heard footsteps were thundering from below. And a moment later, four Death Eaters came into view.
"Dumbledore cornered!" Said Greyback. "Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone!"
"Well done, Draco! Now do it!" Said Amycus, another Death Eater.
"Draco, you don't have to do this," Dumbledore asked him again.
His aunt Bellatrix approached him and stood behind him.
"Kill him, Draco," she whispered in Draco's right ear.
Draco's hand was trembling even more. After a long moment pause, the other three Death Eaters started to shout at him to kill the headmaster right there and then. Overwhelmed from all the pressure, Draco was starting to lower his wand slowly when he saw Severus entered the room.
"We've got a problem, Snape," Amycus said. "The boy doesn't seem able to—"
"Severus…" a weak voice of Dumbledore called.
Severus said nothing and walked toward Draco and pushed him roughly out of his way. He held his gaze on the headmaster, and then averted his eyes toward Draco. Draco looked at him back with frightened eyes.
"Severus...Severus, please…" Dumbledore pleaded to Severus with a desperate voice.
Severus gazed at Dumbledore. Anguish and revulsion were shown on the line of Severus' face. The double agent raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A jet of green light shot from the end of Severus' wand and hit Dumbledore in the chest without hesitation, blasting him into the air. For a split second, Dumbledore fell slowly backward then fell over the tower and out of sight.