A/N: So here it is, the final chapter! I'm rather upset to have finished my first ever fanfiction and leave this story behind. (Although if I ever get the time or are requested a sequel there is tiny little chance it could happen). I can't believe this is this stories final Author's Note! Thank you so much to everyone who has read this fanfiction until the end, reviewed, favourited, and followed it. I love you all so much and I can't believe you continued reading through awful writing spots and a pretty rubbish plot! Anyway, you're brilliant and it's been my pleasure writing this fanfiction! THANK YOU 3 3
From, Misha x

Chapter 18

"Come on." Bellatrix whispered excitedly, as they crept along the corridors. The firelight danced on the walls and reached out to them as if begging them to stop their pernicious escapades. Their feet murmured against the stone floors and the stairs moved in their favour towards the Astronomy Tower.

Draco spotted a first year trotting nervously through the corridors and he almost froze in horror at the thought of what his Aunt would do to the tiny figure. He soundlessly stupefied the child into an empty classroom. They emitted a yelp of abhorrence but luckily the Death Eaters surrounding the area were too enraptured by the thought of the impending demise of Albus Dumbledore.

It was a terrifying thought that death could waltz within a flash of green light and perform its final adagio upon the recipient. Even muggles had their ways to end life in a second. In a gunshot or a slick movement of knife through skin, memories and emotions and thoughts could be discontinued into a lonely termination.

They reached the Astronomy Tower. The dark mark was tattooed on the grey skin of the caliginous sky. The stars shied away from the sinister green glow. The Death Eaters crept forward in the dim light and Draco felt his heart drop into the pits of his stomach, its explosive heartbeat having become too much for it to bear. Yet he continued treading forwards, one trembling foot in front of the other, his wand in a hand which was rippling with tremors. He felt a slender hand push into his back and propel him forwards towards a closed door. He knew he had to open it, to enter, to kill.

Draco burst through the door and immediately spotted Dumbledore, who for the first time in forever looked weak. He was stooped over and clutching his wand in a fragile, blackened hand. It was as if ink had poisoned his bloodstream and was running through his veins instead of oxygen. "Expelliarmus!" Draco shouted. The wand flew in an arc over the edge of the tower. Dumbledore stood up straight, and looked into Draco's eyes, showing no sign of pain nor panic nor distress. Draco knew what was coming, and he felt sick to his stomach, where his heart was recumbent and thirsting for escape, just as its owner was.

"Good evening, Draco." The older man said calmly.

Draco almost lost it at his calm demeanour, how could he ever be a match for Albus Dumbledore? No matter how many times he swore his loyalty to Voldemort, even the bloodthirsty serpentine figure who haunted his dreams was no match for his headmaster. Draco stepped forwards and noticed two brooms. "Who else is here?" He said shakily, the words breaking through his constricted throat.

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

"No. I've got back up. There are Death Eaters in your school tonight." Draco's fear shifted away a little. Although he had no desire to commit murder, at least he wouldn't be killed (by Dumbledore at least), it was Dumbledore against a skilled collaboration of Death Eaters. It wasn't one to one.

"Well, well. Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, them?" There was a patronising edge to the man's voice, making Draco feel like the weak child he was.

"Yes, right under your nose and you didn't realise." Draco said, attempting to make himself seem more powerful than he really was.

"Ingenious. Yet, where are they now? You seem unsupported."

"I…" Draco heard a crash downstairs and the sound of shouting. A duel, probably more than one, in fact. "They have met some opposition. But they will not face defeat and shall not be long. Enough with the talk, I have a job to do."

Draco stared at the placid expression of Dumbledore who, finally, smiled. Draco made a petrified noise in the back of his throat. It was too much. What had Dumbledore ever done wrong apart from support a couple of mudbloods?

Had Luna not done the same?

He forced her out of his mind. He couldn't think about her now.

"Draco, you are not a killer."

How did Dumbledore know everything? How did he dig straight into Draco's deepest thoughts and fears with a look?

"How do you know?" Draco flinched as he realised how childish the statement sounded. He was still a child. He shouldn't be doing this. His voice grew more forceful, almost rising to a shout. "You don't know what I'm capable of. You don't know what I've done!"

"Yes I do. You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley." Draco felt his chest constrict at Dumbledore's words. All he wanted was to leave. If it weren't for the threat of his family's murder he'd be jumping off the Astronomy tower. "You have been trying with increasing desperation to kill me all year. But, I must say, they are feeble attempts. So feeble I must wonder if your heart has really been in it."
Of course his heart hadn't been in it. He'd given it to crazy and beautiful girl called Luna Lovegood.

Shit.

Don't think about her.

"It has been!" Draco lied. "I've been working on it all year, and tonight my job will be complete."

Dumbledore stalled further. Asking more questions. Receiving and responding to Draco's answers.

Draco fought the urge to scream, or vomit. Bile rose in his throat. It was coming. He was going to have to murder the man in front of him soon. He had to murder the most powerful wizard in the world, who was also the person keeping most of the students of the school he was standing within safe.

He heard another shout and a bang from downstairs. It sounded like a young person's voice. Students were fighting. And Draco could bet Luna would be one of them. He could hear the thud of her fragile, still body onto the hard ground ringing in his ears.

No.

This is not about Luna.

This is about his family, his life, and the end of Dumbledore's.

"There is little time. So let us discuss your options, Draco."

Draco found himself brimming with anger and fear, mixed together as if his body and mind were a cauldron in one of those now trivial-seeming potions lessons.

"My options?! I haven't got any bloody options!" Draco was suddenly the white of a pristine newspaper, the fear inside him was the print on his face. "I've got to do this! If I don't, he'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

A sob escaped his quivering lips.

There was more talk of escape and changing sides. Useless. Nothing could help him now. But, it sounded so tempting. Dumbledore was of course the most powerful wizard in the world. Draco began to let go of his wand.

But at that moment footsteps thundered into the room and black-clad figures barrelled Draco out of the way. The Death Eaters began throwing insults at Dumbledore who artfully dodged them. Draco hardly noticed. He felt sick. He wanted to go down to the Slytherin Common Room and make stupid, immature jokes about Potter, Weasley and Granger. He wanted to sneak down to the kitchens with Luna and stuff their faces and kiss each other and hold each other and be together. He wanted to be the spoiled brat he had always been and get whatever he wanted. He wanted life to go back to how it was a year ago.

However, then he wouldn't have met Luna. She would have been just another crazy blood traitor in the masses of anonymous students. He would go around hating and insulting and cursing everyone who didn't keep hold of their blood status as if were their life. He would be cruel and sadistic and rude. Luna Lovegood had changed him.

Draco suddenly heard his name.

"I'm surprised Draco invited you into this school where all his friends reside." Dumbledore said to Fenrir Greyback. When did he get here?

The memory of a small body writhing on the ground as white hands clutch a butterbeer cork necklace, while Greyback laughs and snarls.

"I didn't. I didn't know he was going to come." Draco said, realising how ill he was feeling, missing whole passages of speech and conversation.

"I wouldn't miss a trip to Hogwarts. So many delicious throats of the innocent to be removed from fragile bodies. Wouldn't miss it for the world. You would do for starters, Albus." Fenrir leered, picking his teeth with a yellow fingernail.

Draco thought he would vomit right then.

"No. Draco's got to do it. Go on, Draco." A brutal looking Death Eater snarled.

Draco stayed still, unable to move, invisible nails holding him to the wooden floor.

There were sounds of footsteps on the stairs, member of the Order no doubt. Draco had hope, maybe he could make up an excuse about how he had been taken down by a force of ten…

"Draco, quickly!" The same Death Eater piped up.

But Draco's hand was shaking so badly he couldn't even aim.

"Draco, do it. Or stand aside so one of us…" Bellatrix screeched in his ear.

However, the quivering teenager never got the chance. A billowing black cloak swept into the scene and the dark eyes of Severus Snape took in the tablo.

"Severus…please…" Dumbledore pleaded. It was the most terrifying thing Draco had witnessed the entire evening. The most powerful wizard in the world was pleading with a lonely, erstwhile potions master.

Snape's face bathed in loathing as he pointed his wand at Dumbledore.

"Avada kedavra."

The green light hit Dumbledore straight in the chest. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Draco's legs collapsed beneath him. The body of the most powerful wizard in the world was limp as a child's doll as it fell towards the ground. The laughs and cheers of figures in black. The final fragment of a child's innocence fracturing as he stared at the dark mark on his arm in absolute revulsion.

The mark that Luna Lovegood had planted a kiss upon merely a few months ago and told him it didn't mean anything. She was wrong. It meant everything. It meant Dumbledore was dead and it meant no-one was safe. It meant he was evil. It meant the world was chaos. It meant the end was coming.

Bellatrix wouldn't stop laughing as they made their way down the twisting stairs and the harsh symphony wrung out Draco's twisting heart.

Then he saw her.

Luna Lovegood with a wand in hand and blood on her face and a determined look.

And she saw him.

Saw his pale face and longing and self-loathing and terror.

The Carrows pulled out their wands and aimed them at her, cruel smiles ghosting their lips. "No time. Run." Draco breathed.
By a stroke of luck they obeyed, obeyed the boy who couldn't kill the most powerful wizard in the world to save his family. Draco stayed behind and looked at her and remembered: a painfully honest declaration of love by a hospital bed. And he knew he felt the same.

"I love you Luna Lovegood. I love you so much and I want you to know how much impact you've had on my life." He knew it sounded completely cheesy and completely stupid but it was completely true and he completely loved her. He kissed her for a final time. Desperate and passionate and pulsing with his last goodbye.

"I will see you again, Draco." Luna said simply, it was a statement not a question.

Draco nodded but couldn't speak. Luna removed her butterbeer cork necklace and placed it around his neck. "I had better get that back. I'm trusting you to come back and return it." She said with a grin.
"What if the nargles steal it?"
"Death Eaters in Hogwarts and you're worrying about nargles? You are out of your mind, Draco Malfoy."