Chapter Twenty; The Death of Dumbledore

Thanks guys! Sorry about this next chapter, I'm already crying, I've been crying about it since last night. MAJOR tissue box warning, because as sad as this already is, I think I've done the impossible by making it even a hundred times sadder! Although you can be the judge of it. By the way, the next chapter is the last one and the sadness continues.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and even Buddy watched as Dumbledore scooped up a bit of the potion and started to drink it. However nothing had prepared them for what had happened next. They watched as his body became rigid. Buddy started to bark as Dumbledore began to shake uncontrollably. "Professor are you alright?" Hermione questioned him but he remained silent while Buddy continued to bark. "Professor Dumbledore." She said again before watching him collapse onto the ground.

Hermione knelt down beside him as Ron stood there watching them helplessly and Buddy continued barking. Hermione quickly turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. "Buddy cut it out, bad boy!" she scolded waving her hand at him. He instantly stopped barking and started to whimper before sulking away. "Harry, go get him some more of that potion. He has to drink it remember?" she said as Harry silently nodded although he really didn't want to.

"That potion isn't going to kill him is it?" Ron inquired as Harry went to go fetch it.

"I'm not sure, he didn't say. I sure hope not though." She said as Harry fought to feed the rest of the potion to Dumbledore. After much reluctance he finally agreed and drank the potion right down to the last drop before he started asking for water. Meanwhile Buddy just stared at the edge of the shoreline into the water and started to growl. Harry hadn't noticed behavior until after he had gone back to give Dumbledore his drink of water that he had asked for.

"Buddy, what is it?" Hermione asked him anxiously turning her head and scrunching her face up with confusion while Harry removed the locket out of the basin and put it around his neck.

"Inferi." Dumbledore said now that he was able to talk again as animated corpses started crawling towards them. Buddy continued to snarl, bark, and snap at them. One of them lunged out their bony hand towards him and grabbed him.

"Buddy!" Hermione cried as she started to run towards him but Ron quickly grabbed ahold of her collar and pulled her back.

"Hermione don't!" he hollered when suddenly Dumbledore started waving his wand over his head and creating a jet of fire making the zombie looking creatures vanish back into the water. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurried over towards Dumbledore while Buddy broke free and managed to get to them in time before they had all disappeared. Then they reappeared on top of Gryffindor tower.

"Alright Professor, we need to get you to Madam Pomfrey." Harry told him.

"No Harry, I want you to get your father Severus." He replied.

"But Professor you need to go to the hospital wing." Harry argued but he continually shook his head.

"No Harry, you need to get your father. It is essential that I have to have him." He said when suddenly they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. "Get below! Quickly!" he snapped inside a whisper as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Buddy seeing as they had no choice in the matter quickly ran underneath the floor. They glanced up through the floorboards trying to quiet their breathing as Draco Malfoy appeared and Harry widened his eyes fighting off the urge to yell at him.

"Hullo Draco." Dumbledore began while Malfoy tried to steady his wand while he pointed it at him.

"Expelliarmus!" Malfoy exclaimed as Dumbledore's wand flew out of his hand while Hermione grew a horrified look on her face and turned over to look at Ron.

"He doesn't even look like he's trying to fight back!" she whispered feeling as if she was about to burst into tears before continuing watching with the rest of them.

"Listen Draco, years ago I knew a boy who made all of the wrong decisions one could possibly make. And I know you Draco, you're not a murder." Dumbledore reassured him softly and soothingly with a shake of his head when suddenly Malfoy rolled up his sleeve and revealed the serpent shaped mark on his arm.

"Don't give me that! I've been chosen!" he yelled while keeping his wand pointed at him with the other hand.

"Do you mean to say that you have every intention to kill me right now? Wasn't it you who cursed the necklace that Katie Bell was carrying in hope's that she would deliver it to me, and you who poisoned the mead in Slughorn's cabinet hoping that he would share it with me on his return to Hogwarts? Just out of sheer luck and chance?" Dumbledore questioned him as he started lowering his wand fighting off the urge to break into tears himself.

"Don't you get it!? I have to do this, I have to kill you. Otherwise he's going to kill me." He said when suddenly they turned their heads as they heard footsteps behind them.

"There are others?" Dumbledore asked him while they turned to look back at each other.

"The vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement, it has a twin in Borgin and Burkes. I've been using it as a secret passageway." He explained when suddenly Bellatrix Lestrange and a group of other death eaters appeared beside him as Snape appeared in front of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Hermione gasped but Snape quickly placed a finger to his lips while he withdrew his wand. Harry nodded knowing that his father was here to protect Dumbledore and that everything would be alright.

"Do it Draco,.." Bellatrix Lestrange hissed inside his ear. "You know you want to. Do it, now!" she hollered as Snape finally finished climbing the stairs and stood beside them.

"No." he simply said as Dumbledore looked at him.

"Severus,.. please." He pleaded as Snape pointed his wand at him.

"Avada Kedavra." He said shakily as Harry thought he felt his heart stop. His face grew pale and every hair on his neck stood up. He was so panic stricken that he thought he was going to die. This had to have been one of his nightmares. Voldemort must have gotten inside his mind again to make him think that his own father, the one he had loved more than anything or anyone (except for maybe his mother) else in his life had become a murder. It just wasn't possible.

Yet he, Ron, and Hermione saw the jet of green light hit Dumbledore square inside the chest and were now watching him falling through the air to his death. Harry's mind suddenly saw an image of Judas kissing Jesus on the cheek to betray Him. At least in that circumstance Jesus knew that it was going to happen, but nothing on earth could have ever prepared him for this. That's when he suddenly snapped out of his trance and started running away.