A/N: Happy Easter everyone! I hope you'll enjoy the new chapter.:))
Chapter 132: Why?
After Madame Pomfrey checked the teachers for injuries, and realization finally sunk in, we opened the doors and ran outside to see it for ourselves. Indeed, as we approached the gate, we could see a long pale blue shape laying on the ground and when we reached the place, recognized professor Dumbledore. I was never very fond of the old man, with his cryptic talking and complicated, secretive plans, but he had taken me in after all, and, for the most part, let me make my own choices.
We all stood there, shocked, at the only man Voldemort ever feared laying dead on the hard, cold ground.
"Well, at least we know that he was already dying. And this death was probably merciful compared to the curse advancing through his veins."
"That is true, but now that he is dead, there is no one left for the Dark Lord to fear."
"You're right Malfoy." Harry still didn't want to call Draco by his first name. "But there's still a big question left. What did he want? Dumbledore was a big obstacle for him, yes, but he couldn't have come here just for that."
"There might be something, but it's a bit far fetched to even consid-" I swallowed my words as soon as I saw the Dark Mark floating over the castle. "That wasn't there before. Oh no...Let's go see what happened." As soon as we passed the entrance door and before any of them could even ask where I was going, I suddenly turned right and more or less flew over the flight of stairs leading to the dungeons. Severus was sitting in his chair behind his desk, blanched and staring across the room at the wall full of ingredients. He didn't even blink when we barged in.
"But if you're fine, that means he really-" I turned to run the other way, but a firm grip on my arm stopped me.
"No, you stop right now and tell us what you think happened. You can't keep running around the castle, leaving half sentences behind and us confused. We're a team, Sel and we have to be honest." I looked Ron in the eye, and realized that he was right. I didn't want to become Dumbledore 2.0. I mean, look where that got him.
"Alright. Slughorn was the one with proof that Tom intended to make Horcruxes. Sure, we got that memory, but he doesn't know that. I think he probably realized that we could find out about that and came here to...fix the problem. Now please let's go." they understood what I was saying (finally!) and our group dashed towards the DADA office (that currently belonged to Slughorn).
The door had been left wide open, as well as the window. There was nobody inside aside from the potion's teacher body laying on the black carpet, mouth gaping, as well as his eyes. He definitely didn't expect it to happen. I wished I hadn't been right in this case. But now at least we knew what Voldemort had wanted, why he had come to Hogwarts.
"Let's, let's just go. Now that Dumbledore's gone, Minnie is headmistress. She'll probably tell us what happens now. "
Just as promised, the whole school was gathered in the great hall, for the second time that night, and we approached the Transfiguration teacher at the head table. After she finished her conversation with professor Sprout, she turned to us.
"Yes, kids?"
"Professor, we have something important to tell you. We found out why Voldemort really came to Hogwarts."
"Besides killing the headmaster?"
"Yes. He wanted to kill professor Slughorn as well. And he did, then flew away, I'd say, based on the open window."
"Thank you for announcing me. This was a really terrible night, wasn't it?"
"Yes. We have to take him down Minnie."
"I know dear. And we will, but-"
"But we have to destroy the Horcruxes first. All of them. No matter what."
"No. We will find a way to safely do that. Everyone will come out of this alive. Now go, I still have to talk to a couple more teachers. And you should probably fill in your other DA members on tonight's events as well."
And we did exactly that. The other members had just gotten back with the younger students from the Room of Requirement, therefore they were all together so we didn't have to gather them. Needless to say, no one was happy with what we told them, but they couldn't do much about it. Now, more than ever, we had to start training again. It was almost certain that a war was upon us and it was essential for us to be ready when the time came, to take down the Death Eater army and stop Voldemort once and for all. Preferably, as Minnie had said, without dying. But for that, we had to find a way to destroy or at least extract the Horcruxes from inside me and Harry safely.
"Attention please!" Minnie had used a Sonorus charm to amplify her voice, although it wasn't really necessary; as soon as she had opened her mouth, deafening silence fell over the Great Hall and every pair of eyes was pointed at her.
"As you all know, the headmaster, as well as Professor Slughorn have both been killed in the past hour. The attackers were lord Voldemort and the well known dark wizard Grindelwald; the latter has been killed right away. The grounds have been searched thoroughly but there is no trace of either of them. We will reinforce the wards so that hopefully this will be a sole unfortunate event. I do hope that all of you are alright, but if there is a problem, do not hesitate to tell the closest teacher. That is all for tonight, and since I already see people falling asleep standing, I do suggest that you go back to your dorms. Good night!"
We were all indeed too exhausted, both physically and emotionally to contradict her, and so a few minutes later, after everyone managed to get out, the Great Hall was empty again, the majority of us tucked into our beds, more or less sleeping.