Woah, Chapter 15 is here and I'm freaking out. Haha. For numerous reasons, last chapter I got about 20 reviews...that's way more than I have ever gotten for ANY story I've written. It's mind blowing. And second, my second semester of college is almost over! Which means more writing time...I hope. Haha.

Thanks to; MissLaceyMalfoy, L.A.H.H, vampire-angel1996, LuvTaylor01, Amehhh, carpe-diem-1299, Seriously addicted to DM, MissLorraineScarlet, sharleneyago, Kimboolinaa,TemaxShika forever, hardestofhearts, Lonely-soul101, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, InkPhantom, alliwant, FleurSuoh, and "your favorite anon " for reviewing means a bunch!

Quick note to "your favorite anon": I wish I could have PMed you! But thank you! And I hope you got some sleep! 4:34am!

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Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the wonderful HP series. Anything you recognize belongs to that lovely lady.

Draco didn't know it was possible for ones heart to beat as fast as his was as he ran through the fighting that had ensued the moment he had let the Death Eaters into the school. Dumbledore's bloody Order of the Phoenix had some how known that something was going to happen. Draco toyed with the idea that Dumbledore himself knew what he was up to all along, but it did nothing to ease is nerves, if anything that thought made them worse.

He jumped over a body of a person he was sure to be dead. How could they not? There was so much blood and so many spells flying all over the place it would be a miracle if they were dead.

Running up the stairs to the top of the Astronomy Tower he had a whiff of nostalgia as he remembered not only two nights ago had Angeline pulled him up those very stairs. Laughing as she told him how she loved being high in the air, how it felt liberating in someway. But he couldn't think of how her laughter rang in the night air, he had a mission to fulfill and he was going to get it done. Not that he had a choice of the matter. The beginning of the rest of his life was just through the door at the top of the stairs.

Bursting through the door at the top, Draco's eyes locked onto Dumbledore immediately and he pointed his wand and shouted: "Expelliarmus!"

By the light of the Mark hanging over the tower Draco watched with very little satisfaction as Dumbledore's wand flew in an arc over the edge of the ramparts. He'd really done it. He'd managed to disarm Dumbledore. This would be quick and easy. Almost too easy...

Stepping forwards, Draco glanced around quickly to make sure he and Dumbledore were alone. Dumbledore seemed alone, but his eyes fell upon a second broom.

"Who else is here?" He questioned.

"A question I might ask you. Are you acting alone?" Dumbledore didn't answer the question. But Draco didn't have the patience to worry about that. He didn't see anyone, it was fine.

"No," Draco answered. "I've got back-up. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well," said Dumbledore. Draco noted that he said it as though he was showing him a very interesting project. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah," Draco said, he was panting slightly from running up the stairs. "Right under your nose and you never realized!"

"Ingenious," said Dumbledore. "Yet...forgive me...where are they now? You seem unsupported."

"They met some of your guard. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long...I came on ahead. I-I've got a job to do."

Saying it out loud in front of his job made Draco slightly nauseous. Well, more nauseous than he had been.

"Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy," Dumbledore said softly.

There was silence. Draco was shaking ever so slightly. All he could do was stare at Albus Dumbledore, unable to utter the simple curse that would end it all. Avada Kedavra that's all he had to say. It would be over. This man should cower in fear at his life ending in the hands of a seventeen year old. But Albus Dumbledore merely smiled at him.

"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."

"How do you know?" he said at once.

Draco realized how childish the words sounded and he felt his checks warm ever so slightly.

"You don't know what I'm capable of," he said more forcefully, "You don't know what I've done!"

"Oh, yes, I do," said Dumbledore mildly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts...so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your hearts has been really in it..."

It hasn't...

"It has been in it!" Draco said vehemently. "I've been working on it all year, and tonight-"

Somewhere in the depths of the castle below Draco heard a muffled yell. Draco stiffened and glanced over his shoulder.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight," said Dumbledore conversationally. "But you were saying...yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school which, I admit, I thought impossible...how did you do it?"

Draco didn't say anything he was too busy listening to what was happening below. His heart was pounding and for the life of him, he hoped Angeline had listened to him for once in her life.

Angeline sat in the center of her bed with the curtains drawn around her. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there, but she figured it had to have been quite awhile considering she was still in her school uniform. Time seemed irrelevant.

"Stay in bed," Draco had told her only a few hours ago. Angeline growled at the memory. "At most stay in the common room."

Why would he tell her that?

Why did he say he was sorry?

That's why she was still awake. Because her thoughts were running and she couldn't get them to stop. And the longer she sat there, the angrier she was becoming. And the more her anger flowed, the more she felt as though there was something wrong.

Pulling back the curtains she climbed out bed and glanced around the room. Pansy's curtain was slightly open but Angeline knew she was asleep. On the other side of Pansy was Millicent snoring softly behind her own curtains. Next to Angeline, Daphne laid quietly her curtains were never drawn and Angeline found she was asleep as well.

Quietly walking to the end of her bed she lifted her trunk and pulled out her trainers.

Pulling them on her feet and lacing them up, she grabbed her wand from with under her pillow and quietly left the room like she had done plenty of nights before. As she slowly made her way down the corridor she the worry was beginning to overcome the anger.

Her intentions when leaving her bed had been to go to Common Room, so when she found herself standing outside the door of the sixth year boys she shook her head of it's confusion. If Draco thought that something bad was going to happen then surely he too would be in bed.

Checking wouldn't hurt.

Slowly she turned the knob and pushed the door open. Stepping into the dark room, she headed into the general direction of where Draco's bed was. Stopping in between two beds, one Blaise's the other Draco's she looked at the one that belonged to the boy she was seeking. Only she didn't even have to approach the bed, the curtains were drawn and the bed laid unoccupied.

What had she been expecting when she came in here? Draco was never in bed according to Blaise. She was foolish to think he would be in bed. But his words from earlier floated into her mind. "Did you ever feel like something bad was going to happen? ...I'm sorry..." He had only questioned her about it, but the more she replayed it in her head the more it became to clear to her that he knew something was going to happen. Or worse was already happening.

"Blaise," she said forgetting all pretenses of whispering and manners as she pulled the boys' curtain back. "Bloody hell, wake up," she said shaking him. Blaise batted her hand away and sat up slowly.

"Jensen?" he asked in sleepy confusion. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked.

"Something's wrong," she said.

"Then go to the Hospital Wing," Blaise responded as he attempted to close his curtains. "I, unlike you, like to sleep." Angeline grabbed the curtains and pulled them back open.

"Would you listen?" she growled, she didn't care if her voice woke someone else up. "When was the last time you saw, Draco?" she asked. Blaise sighed and ran a hand down his face.

"Dinner," he said. "Why? Is he late for your midnight shag?"

"Zabini, I'm being serious!" she nearly yelled as she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "Something isn't right!"

"And what the hell do you want me to do about it?" Blaise snapped. Angeline knew he was right. What could he do about it?

Get out of bed and come with me.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she released him. "I'll go to bed now. I think the lack of sleep is making me go mental."

"You think?" Blaise remarked quietly as he tugged his shirt straight. "Good night, Jensen," he said. "I'll see you in a few hours." With that said Blaise pulled the curtains shut. Angeline ran a hand through her hair. Why was she shaking?

She left the boys dormitory with no intention of going to bed herself and not once did she stop in the Common Room to debate whether or not she should stay there and stare at the fire or go find Draco.

She knew what he told her, but it hadn't been like she had promised him to do as he said.

"Did you ever feel like something bad was going to happen?"

Angeline gulped as she exited the Common Room. She had a very strong feeling that something bad was already happening.

Keeping her wand out and ready, her feet took her out of the dungeons and on the main floor where she could distinctly hear the sounds of things exploding and the sound of screams. Angeline stared up at the staircase she had gone up plenty of times before at this hour of the night. But never had she looked at them and felt fear strike her heart. Despite all this she allowed her feet to continue up those very stairs that suddenly brought her terror. These stairs that brought her closer and closer to crashes and screams.

Floor by floor she went, the explosions getting louder. The tighter her wand was held. She was on the floor heading to the Astronomy Tower when she knew she had reached her destination but she didn't want to know what waited for her around that last corner. The sounds were enough.

Despite her own screams to turn around and go back to the Common Room she continued. Stopping at the corner she took deep breaths. She could turn back now and pretend she was never there. She could wake up in the morning and hear the news of fighting in the castle. But the sounds of people screaming. She wouldn't be able to pretend that didn't happen.

Slowly, Angeline turned the corner only to duck and crawl back around the corner narrowly missing a stray spell. She had walked right into the middle of what was nothing short of a battle. If her heart was racing fast before it had picked up it's speed.

There are Death Eaters in the school...

And without a doubt she just knew who had let them in...but she didn't want to believe it.

Not after all the defending she had did. Not after everything they both put themselves through.

No, Draco didn't do this. Draco couldn't. What about Snape? He did it. Everyone knows his past!

But the thoughts brought her no comfort.

Pressing her back hard against the wall she wished she could just phase through it and just disappear from it all. Perhaps it was all just a horrible nightmare. But she knew that it wasn't. And the biggest question of all was, what was she going to do?

Taking a deep breath and resting her head against the wall, it didn't take her long to think of her options. There were three things she could do, run away, get help, or go into the fight and possibly get herself killed.

The last one wasn't her favorite.

There was a scream causing her to jump. Her knuckles were turning white at how hard she was clutching her wand. She could go get help, but what good would that do? She could possibly run around the entire castle trying to find a professor. She had no idea where to start.

Cursing as she heard another scream this one louder, she knew she couldn't just sit there. She had to help.

What would a Slytherin typically do?

Run the other way...

Her first option. The one option common sense would have chosen.

She was always saying how she wanted to prove something, prove that not all Slytherin's were the Devil's Spawn, that they weren't all going to grow up to be Death Eaters or Dark Wizards and Witches. That maybe being a Slytherin wasn't as bad as everyone thought. What better way of doing that, than running into battle like some bleeding heart Gryffindor?

Fight or flight? Rules and tradition. Save your own skin or...

"Never really cared much for rules or tradition." she mumbled to herself as she stood up, her decision made. "Besides, ambition isn't necessarily a bad thing." she said as she turned the corner and shot off the first spell she thought of at the back of a dark robed figure.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," Dumbledore suggested. "What if your back-up is thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realized, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight, too. And after all, you don't really need help...I have have no wand at the moment...I cannot defend myself."

Draco merely stared at him. He couldn't do anything.

"I see," said Dumbledore kindly, when Draco neither moved nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until they join you."

"I'm not afraid!" Draco snarled.

Damn it, I sound like Angeline...

"It's you who should be scared!"

"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe...so tell me, while we wait for your friends...how did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it."

Draco didn't know if he was fighting the urge to shout or to vomit.

Both.

Draco gulped and took several deep breaths and glared at Dumbledore, keeping his wand pointed directly at his heart. Then, as though he could no longer contain himself, he said, "I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years. The one Montague got lost in last year."

"Aaaah."

Draco frowned for a moment, why did the old man sound as though he was in pain.

"That was clever...there is a pair, I take it?"

"The other's in Borgin and Burkes," Draco said, "and they make a kind of passage between them. Montague told me that when he was stuck in the Hogwarts one, he was trapped in limbo but sometimes he could hear what was going on at school, and sometimes what was going on in the shop, as if the Cabinet was traveling between them, but he couldn't make anyone hear him...in the end he managed to Apparate out, even though he'd never passed his test. He nearly died doing it. Everyone thought it was a really good story, but I was the only one who realized what it meant—even Borgin didn't know—I was the one who realized there could be a way into Hogwarts through the Cabinets if I fixed the broken one."

"Very good," Dumbledore murmured. "So the Death Eaters were able to pass from Borgin and Burkes into the school to help you...a clever plain, a very clever plan...and, as you say, right under my nose..."

"Yeah," Draco said feeling some sort of courage. "Yeah, it was!"

"But there were times," Dumbledore when on, "Weren't there, when you were not sure you would succeed in mending the Cabinet? And you resorted to crude and badly judged measures such as sending me a cursed necklace that was bound to reach the wrong hands...poisoning mead there was only the slightest chance I might drink..."

"Yeah, well, you still didn't realize who was behind that stuff, did you?" Draco sneered.

"As a matter of fact, I did," said Dumbledore. "I was sure it was you."

"Why didn't you stop me then?" Draco demanded. He sort of wished the old man had stopped him.

"I tried, Draco. Professor Snape has been keeping watch over you on my orders—"

"He hasn't been doing your orders, he promised my mother—"

"Of course that is what he would tell you, Draco, but—"

"He's a double-agent, you stupid old man, he isn't working for you, you just think he is!"

"We must agree to differ on that, Draco. It so happens that I trust Professor Snape—"

"Well, you're losing your grip, then!" Draco sneered. "He's been offering me plenty of help—wanting a bit of the action— 'What are you doing? Did you do the necklace, that was stupid, it could have blown everything'—But I haven't told him what I've been doing in the Room of Requirement, he's going to wake up tomorrow and it'll all be over and he won't be the Dark Lord's favorite any more, he'll be nothing compared to me, nothing!"

So I hope.

"Very gratifying," said Dumbledore mildly. "We all like appreciation for our own hard work, of course...but you must have had an accomplice, all the same...someone in Hogsmeade, someone who was able to slip Katie the- the- aaaah."

Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded, as though he was about to fall asleep.

"...of course...Rosmerta. How long has she been under the Imperius Curse?"

"Got there at last have you?" Draco taunted.

There was another yell from below, louder than the last. Draco looked nervously over his shoulder again.

Angeline barely got out of the way of the killing curse that had been sent in her direction. She vaguely wondered whether her identity of being the only daughter of Demetrius and Celeste Jensen would save her now.

Obviously not.

She thought as her stunning spell missed and hit the wall instead. Hiding behind another corner she listened as someone yelled far up ahead. She was sure she'd seen Neville Longbottom at one point while she fired stunning spell after stunning spell. She hoped she hadn't hit him or anyone on the side she most definitely wanted to win. It wasn't like she was aiming to kill though, so that somewhat eased her mind. As eased as it would be at a time like this.

Angeline prepared herself to turn the corner again to set off a barrage of spells, but she was whisked from behind and her body was slammed into the opposite wall. She tasted the blood that filled her mouth as her face hit the wall hard. Before she could completely get her wand pointed at her attacker she was thrown to the ground with whatever spell the person had been using, her wand scattering to the ground and out of her reach.

"Always knew you were a blood traitor," Nathaniel Blishwick stood above her with his wand pointed directly over her heart. Angeline stared up at him, not wanting a wand to be the last thing she saw before her end.

"Really?" she asked blowing her fallen hair out her face. "And what makes you think I'm not fighting on your side? Our side?" she questioned.

"You think I'm some kind of twit don't you, Jensen?" Nathaniel asked her. "I'm not a fool, little girl."

"Let's agree to disagree then," Angeline said as she slowly crept backwards, she had seen her wand roll in that direction during her fall. "But if you're not a fool then, what are you doing? You ought to kill me."

"Oh I'm not going to kill you...yet." Nathaniel said moving closer to her. Angeline felt fear course through her as she watched him, but she quickly pushed it aside for the fact that he gave her a reason to move back faster. Still it didn't ease her mind to know that he was the type to play with his food before he ate it. "I was thinking we'd have a little fun first." He said as he grabbed her by the hair. Angeline screamed as she was yanked up off the floor. "Aren't you a bit curious in how I got into your wonderful school tonight?"

"No," Angeline said through clenched teeth. "Not really." She had been so close to her wand, her fingertips had just brushed it.

"I'll tell you anyway," Nathaniel said. "Think of it as a birthday gift from me to you." Angeline was tempted to spit in his face. "I'm here, because of one Draco Malfoy." Angeline cringed and not because of the grip that Nathaniel had on her hair. "He mended a broken Cabinet that allowed us in. Breaks your little heart doesn't it?" Nathaniel asked tugging at her hair painfully. "You know why he let us in? Well, it's because he's going to kill the old man. Hogwarts Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Brilliant isn't it. More of like a suicide mission if you ask me, but looks like the little Malfoy managed to pull it off, well the first half anyway. He should be dealing with the old man as we speak, that is if the greatest wizard of all time hasn't already killed Malfoy."

Angeline wondered if one could die of a heart-attack at the age of seventeen. She sure felt like it with the way her heart was pounding. Though she figured that Draco was the reason Death Eaters were in the school, hearing it out loud from the boy she despised the most only made it hurt a little more. And to know that Draco was going to kill Professor Dumbledore...

Blishwick could be lying...

But she knew he wasn't.

Yet, there was the small sliver of hope. Small and fading fast.

"You trusted, Malfoy didn't you. He fed you lies, but it's not hard to fool you." he said. "You're so bloody naïve, it's amazing you're even alive."

Angeline felt plenty of emotions, but the most prominent was her fury. She had never felt that furious before in her life, and she wasn't sure what her anger was directed at.

Herself? Draco? Blishwick? Everything.

But it was best to start small, start with what she could deal with now.

Because if she didn't, she would surely die. It was all up to her how she would survive, the people running past them weren't stopping to help, they too were trying to survive.

It was now or never and she had to think quick.

Her eyes shifted to the wand held in his right hand...Looking into Nathaniel's smug eyes, Angeline smirked, "You say you're no fool, but you're about to you realize what a little girl can do. Naïve sure. Smarter than you, always."

Nathaniel laughed, "You sure about that, Jensen. You're mental and you're sprouting nonsense, I could end your life any moment I felt like it." Angeline's smirk transformed into a grin.

"Try to kill me with out this," she said as she grabbed the top half of Nathaniel's wand and pulled down hard...

The sound of wood snapping in-half filled her ears.

Draco looked back at Dumbledore, who went one, "So poor Rosmerta was forced to lurk in her own bathroom and pass that necklace to any Hogwarts student who entered the room unaccompanied? And the poisoned mead...well, naturally, Rosmerta was able to poison it for you before she sent the bottle to Slughorn, believing that it was to be my Christmas present...yes, very neat...very neat...poor Mr. Filch would not, of course, think to check a bottle of Rosmerta's...tell me, how have you been communicating with Rosmerta? I thought we had all methods of communication in and out of the school monitored."

"Enchanted coins," Draco said, he felt as though he was compelled to keep talking, mainly because he knew was wasting plenty of time. Plus for the most part it kept his mind of just how badly his wand hand was shaking. "I had one and she had the other and I could send her messages—"

"Isn't that the secret method of communication the group that called themselves Dumbledore's Army used last year?" Dumbledore asked. His voice was light and conversational, which only angered Draco.

"Yeah, I got the idea from them," Draco said, he felt his face twist. "I got the idea from poisoning the mead from the Mudblood Granger, as well, I heard her talking in the library about Filch not recognizing potions..."

"Please do not use that offensive word in front of me," Dumbledore said. Draco gave a harsh laugh.

"You care about me saying 'Mudblood' when I'm about to kill you?"

"Yes, I do," said Dumbledore. "I'm sure one Angeline Jensen has once told you not to use it as well. She's a rather unusual, Slytherin isn't she? Though she does have a certain disregard of the rules. She has the tendency to do the opposite of what she's told. I'm sure she's about the castle as we speak."

"Don't talk about her," Draco snapped before he could stop himself. Merlin, he hoped she wasn't walking about the castle.

"I apologize, Draco," Dumbledore said. "Now about you killing me, Draco. You have had several long minutes now. We are quite alone. I am more defenseless than you can have dreamed of finding me, and still you have not acted..."

Draco felt his face contort as though he had tasted something bitter.

"Now, about tonight," Dumbledore went on, "I am a little puzzled about how it happened...you knew that I had left the school? But of course," he answered his own question, "Rosmerta saw me leaving, she tipped you off using your ingenious coins, I'm sure..."

"That's right," Draco said. "But she said you were just going for a drink, you'd be back..."

"Well, I certainly did have a drink...and I came back...after a fashion," Dumbledore mumbled. "So you decided to spring a trap for me?"

"We decided to put the Dark Mark over the Tower and get you to hurry up here, to see who'd been killed," Draco said. "And it worked!"

"Well...yes and no..." said Dumbledore. "But am I to take it, then, that nobody has been murdered?"

"Someone's dead," Draco said, he heard his voice go up slightly. "One of your people...I don't know who, it was dark...I stepped over the body...I was supposed to be waiting up here when you got back, only your Phoenix lot got in the way..."

"Yes, they do that," said Dumbledore.

There was a bang and shouts from below, louder than ever it sounded as though people were fighting on the actual spiral staircase that led to where they stood.

"There is little time, one way or another," Dumbledore said. "So let us discus your options, Draco."

"Do you believe in choices?" Her voice rang through his head.

"You bitch!" Nathaniel screamed as he threw her to the ground. Angeline anticipated the throw as she quickly crawled in the direction of her wand. For the second time, her finger tips only brushed the cool wood as he leg was grabbed and she was yanked back.

"Get off me!" she yelled as she kicked at him, but Nathaniel had straddled her waist and was holding her down. "Get off! You prick!" Nathaniel slapped her hard across the face. Angeline felt the blood flow from her lip, but it was the least of her worries.

"How dare you!" he yelled back. "You broke my wand, you're playing dirty."

"What a surprise," she growled. "Not so big now without your wand are you?" she asked as she tried to struggle her way out from under him. He was heavy and she needed to get to her wand. She could see it all she needed was to get one of her hands free. "Pathetic aren't you, Blishwick. So much for killing me right?" she taunted.

Come on. She thought.

"You think I still can't kill you?" he questioned. "You think I won't get my hand a little dirty? Your parents will love me for disposing of you! Even if I do have to do it the muggle way."

"You wouldn't," she continued to push. "You've got more pride than the entire Slytherin house. You're nothing but a pawn! You'll never actually live up to anything. You'll always be talk when really you're just a scared little boy, Blishwick!" Nathaniel's face twisted and two things happened to Angeline, one her arms were free and the other was Nathaniel's own hands were wrapped around her throat.

With her right hand, Angeline grabbed at Nathaniel's hands trying to pry them off, trying to give herself some breathing room. With her left hand, she stretched trying to get a grip of her wand. The tips of her fingers hit the wood, but she couldn't grip it. Her vision was beginning to swim and her attempts of keeping Nathaniel's hands from squeezing around her throat was starting to become limp.

No! She screamed in her head as she gave up trying to pry Nathaniel's hands off and focused all her energy on getting wand. I'm not going to die! Not like this. Not by strangulation. Not before she saw Draco...

Fingers and palms met the wood of her wand, the familiar sensation of being united shot through her arm just as she pointed her wand at the boy on top of her.

Stupefy! She thought in panic.

Red light shot out from her wand and Nathaniel's body was thrown off her own. Angeline's lungs filled with much needed air and she coughed on it. Rolling onto her side she coughed some more and rubbed at her sore neck. Slowly rising to her feet she turned to face Nathaniel. Breathing hard and keeping her wand pointed forward she move closer to the boy. Staying a few steps away from him she glanced down at him, his body limp, but he was breathing, just unconscious.

"Petrificus totalus ," she said though it hurt her voice to do so. Sighing out of relief, Angeline rubbed at her neck absently, feeling the chain that still hung around it. Remembering that it wasn't over yet.

"My options!" Draco said loudly. "I'm standing here with a wand-I'm about to kill you— "

"My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first Disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means."

"I haven't got any options!" Draco said. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position," Dumbledore said. "Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized I suspected you."

Draco winced at the sound of the Dark Lord's name.

"I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you," continued Dumbledore. "But now at last we can speak plainly to each other...no harm been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived...I can help you, Draco."

"No, you can't" Draco said, his wand hand was shaking extremely bad now. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."

"Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...when the time comes we can protect him too...come over to the right side Draco...you are not a killer..."

Draco stared at Dumbledore for the longest time. There were so many things running through his mind. He could just...disappear. But...

"But I got this far, didn't I?" he said slowly. "They thought I'd die in the attempt, but I'm here...and you're in my power...I'm the one with the wand...you're at my mercy..."

"No, Draco," said Dumbledore quietly. "It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."

Draco did not speak. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling. Draco felt that same hand begin to lower. He couldn't do it...he wouldn't...

But suddenly footsteps were thundering up the stairs and a second later Draco was buffeted out of the way as four people in black robes burst through the door on to the ram parts.

A lumpy-looking man with an odd lopsided leer gave a wheezy giggle.

"Dumbledore cornered!" he said, and he turned to a stocky little woman who looked as though she could be his sister and who was grinning eagerly. "Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone! Well done, Draco, well done!"

"Good evening, Amycus," said Dumbledore calmly, as though welcoming the man to a tea party. "And you've brought Alecto too...charming..."

The woman gave an angry little titter.

"Think your little jokes'll help you on your death bed, then?" she jeered.

"Jokes? No, no, these are manners," replied Dumbledore.

"Do it," said the man in the corner.

Draco felt his stomach drop some.

"Is that you, Fenrir?" asked Dumbledore.

"That's right," rasped the other. "Pleased to see me, Dumbledore?"

"No, I cannot say that I am ..."

Fenrir Greyback grinned, showing pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely.

"But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore."

"Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual ... you have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?"

"That's right," said Greyback. "Shocks you, that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?"

"Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little," said Dumbledore. "And, yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live..."

"I didn't," Draco breathed. He was not looking at Greyback; he did not want to look at him in the slightest. "I didn't know he was going to come— "

"I wouldn't want to miss a trip to Hogwarts, Dumbledore," rasped Greyback. "Not when there are throats to be ripped out ... delicious, delicious ..." And he raised a yellow fingernail and picked at his front teeth, leering at Dumbledore.

Draco had to fight the urge to vomit once again.

"I could do you for afters, Dumbledore ..." Greyback said.

"No," said the fourth Death Eater sharply. He had a heavy, brutal-looking face. "We've got orders. Draco's got to do it. Now, Draco, and quickly."

Draco didn't want to do it. He felt terrified as he stared into Dumbledore's face, which was even paler, and rather lower than it had been, as he had slid so far down the rampart wall.

This...this isn't right...

"He's not long for this world anyway, if you ask me!" said the lopsided man, to the accompaniment of his sister's wheezing giggles. "Look at him - what's happened to you, then, Dumby?"

"Oh, weaker resistance, slower reflexes, Amycus," said Dumbledore. "Old age, in short ... one day, perhaps, it will happen to you ... if you are lucky ..."

"What's that mean, then, what's that mean?" yelled the Death Eater, suddenly violent. "Always the same, weren't yeh, Dumby, talking and doing nothing, nothing, I don't even know why the Dark Lord's bothering to kill yeh! Come on, Draco, do it!"

But at that moment, there were renewed sounds of scuffling from below and a voice shouted, 'They've blocked the stairs - Reducto! REDUCTO!'

"Now, Draco, quickly!" said the brutal-faced man angrily.

But Draco's hand was shaking so badly that he could barely aim.

"I'll do it," snarled Greyback, moving towards Dumbledore with his hands outstretched, his teeth bared.

"I said no!" shouted the brutal-faced man; there was a flash of light and the werewolf was blasted out of the way; he hit the ramparts and staggered, looking furious.

"Draco, do it, or stand aside so one of us -" screeched Alecto, but at that precise moment the door to the ramparts burst open once more and there stood Snape, his wand clutched in his hand as his black eyes swept the scene, from Dumbledore slumped against the wall, to the four Death Eaters, including the enraged werewolf, and Draco himself.

"We've got a problem, Snape," said the lumpy Amycus, whose eyes and wand were fixed alike upon Dumbledore, "the boy doesn't seem able— "

But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly.

"Severus ..."

The sound frightened and angered Draco beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading.

Snape said nothing, but walked forwards and pushed Draco roughly out of the way. The three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed. Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.

"Severus ... please ..."

Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Draco's scream of horror never left him, he'd never seen someone die; silent he stood unmoving as he forced himself to watch as Dumbledore was blasted into the air: for a split second he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly backwards, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight.

Do you hate me or what?

Haha

I'm writing a oneshot fic featuring moments from Draco & Angeline's childhood together. It will probably be uploaded in between the ending of this story and before the upload of the sequel. So my question this chapter is;

Are there in specific things you would like to see in Angeline and Draco's past together?

You've come this far, do you mind leaving me a review? :)

Until next chapter,
TR

PS. Two more chapters! *cue freak out*