Harry was now alone. He had lost Sirius, Dumbledore, and now the one he loved...Ginny. He had to let her go though, or she would be in great danger if she were to stay with him. Harry knew of this and so he made the decision to break up with her. He knew what he had to do know, he knew he had to find the remainder of the horaxes, just like Dumbledore would've wanted. He was going to start off at Gothic Hollow to visit his parents graves. "Harry, we're going with you." said Ron as he told him of his plan. "But you cant, you need to continue your education here at Hogwarts, I mean Hermione, I know you've worked very hard for this- " "Harry you musn't worry about me..I can always come back and finish up, right now the most important thing to me is your safety, you were wrong when you said you had noone left to help you, noone to protect you, Harry, you have us." finished Hermione, hugging Harry at once. Harry was shocked to see that Hermione was really wanting to go and leave her most prized things here at Hogwarts. He turned to Ron who was looking at the ground at the time. "Yea mate you know we will always be here to help and protect you," he said looking up at him. Hermione had pulled away from Harry and gave a small sob. "Its going to be so difficult thought without the help of Professor Dumbledore, I mean we can't possibly do this...wait..wait...Harry!" "What! What is it Hermione?" asked Harry with fear in his eyes. "Dumbledore! We can still communicate with him!" Ron looked at her like she had gone mad. "How? Dumbledore surely wouldnt choose to become a ghost like Nearly Headless Nick." "No, but he would be placed in his room to be with all the other headmasters and headmistresses. He is there and we can go and ask for his help, come on lets go." Ron and Harry both looked at her like she was an angel from above, "Oh Hermione, you do know I love you right?" said Ron. Hermione blushed, "OH come on boys lets go and check if his portrait has been placed there." They all ran up to the floor in which had the office of who was once headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. "Acid Pops" said Harry, feeling even more depressed after remembering the past times he had come in here, where he and Dumbledore discussed many things about the dark lord. The gargoyle jumped to the side and they ran up the spiral staircase. Harry was about to knock, but remembered Dumbledore wasnt going to reply with and "Enter". So Harry just pushed open the door and looked around at the potraits. "There he is!" exclaimed Hermione. "Professor Dumbledore? Professor Dumbledore.." said Harry quietly noticing that he was deeply into sleep and so were the others, and since Harry was in no hurry to wake the others up he continued in a quiet voice, "Professor Dumbledore?" "Professor Dumbledore" said Ron quite louder than Harry. Dumbledore woke suddenly as the others merely stirred in their sleep. "Oh, hello Harry. Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley." "Professor, oh its so nice to hear you again, I had seriously thought that I would never be able to speak to you ever agan." cried Harry, tears filling up in his eyes. Hermione came behind him to pat him on the back. Ron looked up at Dumbledore with great pride, "Professor, we were discussing on how we should go on with the horaxes." "Ah, I had a feeling you would come to me with that exact topic, well Harry, I told you of the other horaxes, you must go and find them and destroy them."
Meanwhile at Snapes cabin .
"Now look here Snape, you disobeyed my order! You were not to have killed the old man, it was supposed to be young Malfoy here. You both will suffer the consequences, 'Crucio'!" yelled Voldemort. Snape doubled over in pain, as did Draco, who was standing next to Snape. When Voldemort lifted the curse both Snape and Draco tried to get up without showing the pain that still endured within them. "You both are dismissed, if you are wondering though, why I didnt just kill you, its because you have done a great deed, and that is killing of the old man"
Snape and Draco walked out of the room quietly. Once they were outside Draco turned to Snape, "I was going to kill him, I was, It was just...he was..trying to persuade me into...well persuade me into joining the light side..and please dont tell my father, but I was actually considering it." said Draco quickly and very quietly. "I know, that is why I killed him before he had a chance to trick me into not killing him. Now they all know of my betrayal to Dumbledore considering Potter was running after us right after I had finished Dumbledore off." "How did he find out? Surely he wasnt in the room, I didnt see him..wait, there was two broomsticks on the floor, one of them must have been Potters. I shouldve known, maybe we couldve petrified him and take him along with us to bring back to Dumbledore, the thing that is getting to me though is, why didnt he stop you from killing Dumbledore?" asked Draco looking up at Snape. "Dumbledore. He didnt want him to be seen so he must have hid him. We mustnt think of this right now though, come we must find a place to hide until the Dark Lord calls upon us." And with that Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape apparated to a distant land, far away from their previous destination.
