A/N: Well, here it is- chapter 3. It took a little longer that I expected, but thanks for the reviews and I hope you like it. It's about 3x as long as the other 2 combined! Wow. Yeah, I know that's because most of it is right from the book, but it only seemed right to leave in almost the whole Draco/Dumbledore conversation. Though,I did tweak it a little, of course. I have plans for chapter 4 being the last chapter, andI believe it will contain more of my writing than this one.Enjoy!

Chapter 3- Conversation and Confrontation

Once again, Harry felt the sensation of being squeezed through an extremely narrow tube. He knew they were out before he opened his eyes: The smell of salt, the sea breeze had gone. He and Dumbledore were shivering in the middle of the dark High Street in Hogsmeade. For one horrible moment Harry's imagination showed him more Inferi creeping toward him around the sides of shops, but he blinked and saw that nothing was stirring; all was still, the darkness complete but for a few streetlamps and lit upper windows.

"We did it, Professor!" Harry whispered with difficulty; he suddenly realized that he had a searing stitch in his chest. "We did it! We got the Horcrux."

Dumbledore returned Harry's joy with a half-smile. He didn't look entirely like his normal self.

"Sir, are you alright?"

"I could be worse." Dumbledore replied. "Come to think of it, I could also be better. Either way, that potion... was no health drink. I am truly thankful of your determination to get me out of that cave with as little of it in me as possible."

Harry felt slightly better. "Are you sure you're ok, Professor? We could go see Madam Pomfrey, you know."

"Well, now that you mention it, I could do with a remedy; one can never be too careful.

However, it is Professor Snape, not Madam Pomfrey, whom I should see."

"Right. Let's head over to the castle so we can get you to the Hospital-"

"Severus," said Dumbledore clearly. "It will be quicker going to see Severus."

Harry caved, though unwillingly. He had been suspecting Snape to be working with Voldemort for quite some time now. "All, right then, Snape-"

"Professor, Harry, Professor Snape." Dumbledore corrected him, as he had done many times.

"Right, Professor Snape." Harry began. "We'd better start walking, then."

Before either of them could make a move, however, Harry heard running footsteps. Looking around he saw Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street toward them on high-heeled, fluffy slippers, wearing a silk dressing gown embroidered with dragons. She looked extremely worried.

"I saw you Apparate as I was pulling my bedroom curtains! Thank goodness, thank goodness, I couldn't think what to- but what's wrong with Albus?"

"He's alright. He just drank a potion that was, shall we say, no health drink. We're going up to the castle to see Madam- er, Professor Snape."

"Well, you can't just stroll right into the castle! Don't you realize- haven't you seen- ?"

"What has happened?" asked Dumbledore. "Rosmerta, what's wrong?"

"The- the Dark Mark, Albus." She sounded as if she was about to faint.

There it was, hanging in the sky above the school: the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue, the mark Death Eaters left behind whenever they had entered a building... wherever they had murdered...

"When did it appear?" asked Dumbledore, and for the first time all night, he sounded slightly worried.

"Must have been minutes ago, it wasn't there when I put the cat out, but when I got upstairs-"

"We need to return to the castle at once," said Dumbledore. "Rosmerta"- and he seemed wholly in command of the situation- "we need transport- brooms-"

"I've got a couple behind the bar," she said, looking very frightened. "Shall I run and fetch-?"

"No, Harry can do it."

Harry raised his wand at once.

"Accio Rosmerta's Brooms!"

A second later they heard a loud bang as the front door of the pub burst open; two brooms had shot out into the street and were racing each other to Harry's side, where they stopped dead, quivering slightly at waist height.

"Rosmerta, please send a message to the Ministry," said Dumbledore, as he mounted the broom nearest him. "It might be that nobody within Hogwarts has yet realized anything is wrong...Harry, put on your Invisibility Cloak."

Harry pulled his Cloak out of his pocket and threw it over himself before mounting his broom: Madam Rosmerta was already tottering back toward her pub as Harry and Dumbledore kicked off form the ground and rose up into the air. As they sped toward the castle, Harry glanced sideways at Dumbledore: he was bent low over his broom, his eyes fixed upon the Mark, his long silver hair and beard flying behind him on the night air. And Harry, too looked ahead at the skull, and fear swelled inside him like a venomous bubble, compressing his lungs, driving all other discomfort from his mind...

How long had they been away? Had Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's luck run out by now? Was it one of them who had caused the Mark to be set over the school, or was it Neville, or Luna, or some other member of the D.A.? And if it was... he was the one who had told them to patrol the corridors, he had asked them to leave the safety of their beds... Would he be responsible, again, for the death of a friend?

As they flew over the dark, twisting lane down which they had walked earlier, Harry heard, over the whistling of the night air in his ears, Dumbledore muttering in some strange language again. He thought he understood why as he felt his broom shudder when they flew over the boundary wall into the grounds: Dumbledore was undoing the enchantments he himself had set around the castle so they could enter at speed. The Dark Mark was glittering directly above the Astronomy Tower, the highest of the castle. Did that mean the death had occurred there?

Dumbledore had already crossed the crenellated ramparts and was dismounting; Harry landed next to him seconds later and looked around.

The ramparts were deserted. The door to the spiral staircase that led back into the castle was closed. There was no sign of a struggle, of a fight to the death, of a body.

"What does it mean?" Harry asked Dumbledore, looking up at the green skull with its serpent's tongue glinting evilly above them. "Is it the real Mark? Has someone definitely been-?"

"Yes, Harry, it is the real Mark. It appears someone has definitely been murdered. Let us go and wake Severus."

Harry hurried over to the door leading to the spiral staircase, but his hand had only just closed upon the iron ring of the door when he heard running footsteps on the other side. He looked around at Dumbledore, who gestured him to retreat. Harry backed away, drawing his wand as he did so.

The door burst open and somebody erupted through it and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Harry's body became instantly rigid and immobile, and he felt himself fall back against the tower wall propped like an unsteady statue, unable to move or speak. He could not understand how it had happened- Expelliarmus was not a Freezing Charm-

Then, by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore shift his gaze from Harry to a jet of red light flying toward Dumbledore. Dumbledore blocked the spell back in the opposite direction when it was mere inches from his wand, disarming it's caster. Harry now understood... Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilized Harry, and the second he had taken to perform the spell had nearly cost him the chance to defend himself. Dumbledore summoned his would-be disarmer's wand, looked across the room at him and said, "Good evening, Draco."

Malfoy made to run out the door, but Dumbledore silently closed and locked it; seeing as Malfoy had no wand, he turned around and walked toward his headmaster. His eyes fell upon the second broom.

"Who else is here?"

"A question I might ask you. Or were you working alone?"

While Draco wasn't looking, Harry saw Dumbledore point his wand at him, motion for him to stay still and quiet, and silently undo his Freezing Charm. Now able to move, Harry turned and saw Malfoy's pale eyes shift back to Dumbledore in the greenish glare of the Mark.

"No," he said. "I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight. They'll be here any minute; you won't be able to hold them off."

"Well, well," said Dumbledore with surprising indifference. Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

Draco merely nodded.

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

"They met some of your guards." said Draco, seeming to gather some courage. "They're having a fight down below. They won't be long... I came on ahead. I- I've got a job to do." He returned to his weaker voice at the last sentence.

"And I made it incredibly difficult by disarming you, didn't I?" replied Dumbledore, seeming to read Draco's mind.

"Draco, Draco," Dumbledore started, now twirling his wand with his fingers. "We both know you wouldn't have killed me had you been successful with your Disarming Charm."

"Oh, yeah?" said Draco at once.

He seemed to realize how childish the words had sounded; Harry saw him flush in the Mark's greenish light.

"You don't know what I'm capable of ," said Malfoy as if he was unaware that he, not Dumbledore, was disarmed. "You don't know what I've done!"

"Oh yes, I do," said Dumbledore, apparently shocked at Malfoy's tone of voice. "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 heart has really been in it."

Draco looked sheepishly down at the ground, neither confirming nor denying Dumbledore's statement. Somewhere in the depths of the castle below Harry heard a muffled yell. Malfoy stiffened and glanced over his shoulder.

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

But Malfoy said nothing: He was still listening to whatever was happening below and seemed almost as paralyzed as Harry had been minutes earlier.

A sharp "Well..." from Dumbledore brought him back to reality.

"How did I- I won't tell you! You'll have to kill me, he will if you don't!"

Dumbledore shook his head and said, "I do not wish to kill you, Draco, and, as for him killing you, I believe I can help. Just-"

"You can't help me!" Draco retorted, but fell silent at a look from Dumbledore, a look which Harry had seen many times.

"We will discuss that after you tell me how you smuggled Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Your friends seem to be taking longer than you expected- we have time. Telling me will make no difference now, it is already in effect."

Malfoy looked as though he was fighting down the urge to shout, or to vomit. He gulped and took several deep breaths, glaring at Dumbledore. Then, as though he could not help 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. The one in the Room of Requirement."

"Aaaah." Dumbledore's sigh was half a groan. He closed his eyes for a moment. "That was clever... There is a pair, I take it?"

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

"But there were times," Dumbledore went 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?" sneered Malfoy.

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

"Why didn't you stop me, then?" Malfoy demanded, his courage apparently rising once more.

"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, 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!" sneered Malfoy. "He's been offering me plenty of help- wanting all the glory for himself. Glory that should belong to me!"

"We all like appreciation for our own hard work, of course." said Dumbledore. "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 again and nodded, as though he was about to fall asleep. "... of course... Rosmerta. How long has she been under the Imperius Curse?"

Malfoy gave Dumbledore a feeble smirk, but said nothing. There was another yell from below, rather louder than the last. Malfoy looked nervously over his shoulder again, then back at Dumbledore, who went on: "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 in communication with Rosmerta? I thought we had all methods of communication in and out of the school monitored."

"Enchanted coins," said Malfoy, as though he was compelled to keep talking, though he was shaking badly. "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? Ms. Granger's idea, I believe?" asked Dumbledore.

Malfoy scowled at Hermione's name. He hated being reminded of how clever she was. He then said, "Yeah, I got the idea from them," said Malfoy, with a twisted smile. "I got the idea of poisoning the mead from the Mudblood 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," said Dumbledore.

Malfoy looked quite taken aback, but could not seem to be able to open his mouth.

"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," said Malfoy. "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," mumbled Dumbledore. "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," said Malfoy. "And it worked!"

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

"Someone's dead," said Malfoy, and his voice seemed to go up an octave as he said it. "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 Dumbledore, Malfoy, and Harry stood, and Harry's heart thundered unheard in his invisible chest... Someone was dead... Malfoy had stepped over the body... but who was it?

"Now, earlier you said that Lord Voldemort will kill you.-"

"It's true," said Draco, he had winced horribly at the name. "He will! He'll kill my whole family!"

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position," said Dumbledore. "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 that I suspected you." 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 has 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," said Malfoy, shaking very badly indeed. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. He'll kill me!"

"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. 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. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me- forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother- it is what they would do themselves, after all. 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... it is where you belong."

Malfoy stared at Dumbledore. He did not speak.

At that moment, Harry heard footsteps coming up the spiral staircase. He saw four Death Eaters running towards the room. Harry jumped out from where he was hiding- Dumbledore could probably defeat them, but Harry couldn't risk it.

When the Death Eaters entered the room, a resounding crash was heard outside the door, which made all four of them turn around and look. When they turned back around, Harry pointed his wand at the one furthest to his right and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" and Dumbledore silently immobilized the other three simultaneously, very much like he had done to Harry. When they were all lying motionless on the floor, Dumbledore muttered a few inaudible words, and emerald green ropes shot from the end of his wand and wrapped themselves around the four Death Eaters.

"I told you to stay under your cloak." said Dumbledore, once he had finishedtying up the Death Eaters.

"You were outnumbered." replied Harry, and Dumbledore smiled at him.

There were now renewed sounds of scuffling from below and a voice shouted, "They've blocked the stairs- Reducto! REDUCTO!"

Harry's heart leapt: So these four tied up, helpless Death Eaters had not eliminated all opposition, but merely broken through the fight to the top of the tower, and, by the sound of it, created a barrier behind them.

Dumbledore and Harry heard a single pair of footsteps coming up the stairs. Dumbledore whispered, "Under the cloak, Harry."

Harry obeyed and watched the door as a dark figure with long, greasy black hair burst through it. It was Snape.

"I see you have managed to fend off these four buffoons, Albus." Snape smirked.

"Severus, I was wondering if-"

But Dumbledore's sentence was cut off as Snape pulled out his wand and pointed it at his Headmaster. "Wand out and shut up, you old fool!" Snape spat. "Now... we duel."

"Severus, do not do this. Lord Voldemort is tempting you, don't give in."

"I said, shut up! Expelliarmus!"

Harry watched, his heart pounding uncontrollably, as Dumbledore deflected the Disarming Charm for the second time that night, but all it did was shatter a silver shield Snape had conjured in front of himself.

"Crucio!" Snape yelled. Dumbledore deflected the curse, which hit inches away from Harry's left ear. "Avada-"

"Stupefy!" Dumbledore said calmly, and his spell caught Snape off guard, hitting him squarely in the chest and knocking him on his back.

"That was brilliant, Professor!" Harry said, and Dumbledore turned to look at him. "That was really something."

"Thank you, Harry," replied Dumbledore "but now we must-"

"Rennervate!" The pair of them heard Draco's voice and turned around, but it was too late. Malfoy and Snape were scurrying down the stairs and out of sight. Harry made to run after them, but Dumbledore placed his hand on Harry's shoulder, holding him back.

"Let them go. They will do no further harm. Right now, you and I must talk."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it (especially the parts I wrote-hehe!) and please review- it makes me happy!