The door of the Astronomy Tower burst open and Draco burst through, shouting "Expelliarmus!" By the light of the Dark Mark that hovered over the school, he watched Dumbledore's wand fly in an arc over the edge of the ramparts. Draco caught it, and stood still in the shadows.

Standing in the ramparts, very white in the face, Dumbledore showed no sign of panic or stress. He merely looked across at his disarmer and said "Good evening, Draco."

Draco stepped forward, glancing around quickly to check that he and Dumbledore were alone. His eyes fell upon the pair of brooms laying on the ramparts.

"Who else is here?"

"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"

"No," he said. "I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well," said Dumbledore, as if Draco was showing him an ambitious homework project. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah," said Draco, panting. "Right under your nose and you never realized!"

"Ingenious. Yet…forgive me…where are they now? You seem unsupported."

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

"Well then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy," said Dumbledore softly. Draco's mind was racing in panic. Could he really do this? More importantly, did Dumbledore know?

There was silence. All Draco could do was stare at Albus Dumbledore, who, incredibly, smiled.

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

"How do you know?" said Draco at once. He realized quickly how childish the words sounded and flushed. "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. 'Does this man know everything, Lord?' thought Draco. "You almost killed Katie Bell. 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."

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

"Yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school, which, I admit, I though impossible…How did you do it?"

Draco said nothing; he was listening to the fight below, which had grown increasingly discordant, a cacophony of screams and curses.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," suggest Dumbledore. "What if your backup has been 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 no wand at the moment…I cannot defend myself."

Draco merely stared at him.

"I see. You are afraid to act until they join you."

"I'm not afraid!" snarled Draco. "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 looked as if he was fighting back the urge to vomit. He gulped, taking several breaths at once, all the while glaring at Dumbledore. Draco's wand was pointed directly at Dumbledore's heart. 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."

"Aaaah. That was clever…There is a pair, I take it?"

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

"Yeah," said Draco, who thought bizarrely that Dumbledore's words were encouraging and comforting. "Yeah, it was!"

"But there were times, 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…"

"Yeah, well, you didn't realize it was me behind all that stuff, did you?"

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

"Why didn't you stop me, then?"

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

"He hasn't been doing it on 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! He's been offering me plenty of help – wanting all the glory for himself – wanting a bit of 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 anymore, he'll be nothing compared to me, nothing!"

"Very gratifying. We all like appreciation for our own hard work, of course."

"Yeah, and I'll finally get the appreciation I deserve. I've finally proved to my father that I'm smarter than some damned Mudblood!"

"Please do not use that offensive word in front of me."

"You care about me saying 'Mudblood' when I'm about to kill you?" said Draco with a harsh laugh.

"Yes, I do. But as for being about to kill 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's mouth contorted involuntarily, as though he had tasted something very bitter. "There is little time, one way or another, so let us discuss your options, Draco."

"My options? 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 a pleasant chat about ways and means."

"I haven't got any options!" said Draco, white as a sheet of paper. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position. 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."

Draco winced at the sound of the name.

"I can help you, Draco."

"No, you can't," said Draco, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice!" Tears had started to fill the rims of his eyes, and he blinked them back hard.

"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 mothers of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Come over to the right side, Draco…You are not a killer…"

"But I got this far, didn't I? 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. It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."

Draco stood there, shell-shocked, until the Death Eaters burst in across from where he had Dumbledore cornered.

"Dumbledore cornered! Dumbledore wandless and alone! Well done, Draco," shouted one of the Death Eaters.

"Do it," growled Fenrir Greyback, a powerful smell of blood crashing off of him in waves.

"I am a little shocked that Draco invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live…" Dumbledore wrinkled his nose politely.

"I didn't! I didn't know he was going to come –" Draco stood more irresolutely than ever. He looked terrified as he stared into Dumbledore's face. Amidst the shouts of "DO IT, DRACO!" and "QUICKLY NOW!", Snape appeared.

"We've got a problem, Snape. The boy doesn't seem able –"

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

"Severus…" Snape said nothing, but walked slowly forward, pushing Draco aside roughly. He gazed at Dumbledore for a few moments, 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 his wand and hit Dumbledore square in the chest. Dumbledore was blasted into the air, falling slowly backwards, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight.

Snape grabbed Draco by the scruff of the neck and hauled him off. They ran through the halls, chased by Potter himself. After much yelling and curse throwing, they were gone.

And that was that. Dumbledore was dead; Draco's deed was accomplished. What was left for them now but to hide and to run until the Dark Lord reigned forevermore?

And yet the sound of Dumbledore's weakened, pleading voice in his final moments haunted Draco like no other sound. It was worse than the nightmares of Voldemort, for those he had learned to block out. There was nothing that was worth hearing Dumbledore like that, nothing in this entire world.

Not even the approval of his father.

A/N: And that's it. I loved writing it, and I got an A on the assignment. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I also just realized that all of my chapter titles are songs from the CD that my starshine burnt me. ;