Chapter 27

Finally, the truth.

The truth and reality revealed.

Dumbledore had lied. He'd said that Nagini was the only Horcrux left.

The irony! The fact that we—the supposed 'Chosen Ones' were actually doomed to die at Voldemort' hands. The irony was almost painful. All these years, we'd been learning to live and survive, but now we had to end the war by laying down our lives.

Despite the betrayal I felt, no tears came to my eyes for once.

Finally, the rose colored glasses had been removed from my eyes, and I could see the truth now:

Voldemort had to kill Harry and me in order to be killed.

We were not the 'Chosen Ones' the prophecy made us out to be, but instead merely pawns in the game. To me, now, the ends could not justify the means, though I knew it was inevitable.

I sat up, looking around the office—the very room where I'd once thought we were learning the secrets to victory when in fact, they were the secrets to death.

I understood now that I wasn't to survive this war, this battle, this day. My—and Harry's—job was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, disposing of Voldemort's remaining links to life, so that when, at last, we flung ourselves across Voldemort's path, and did not raise wands to defend ourselves, the end would be clean, and the job that ought to have been done in Godric's Hollow would be finished:

Neither could live, neither could survive.

"Neither could live, neither could survive," I murmured. "The truth at last."

Harry nodded, a grim, betrayed, but resolute look upon his face. "Looks like Trelawney was wrong after all."

I chuckled humorlessly. "Isn't she always?" I paused, then added, "Except…do you remember our first Divination lesson? What was it she saw in our cups? A deadly enemy…that's Voldemort…"

"An attack…that's now." He added.

I nodded. "…Danger in our paths…that's our entire lives. And then…the Grim."

"Death." He said quietly.

"I guess she was right about the cup. It wasn't a 'happy cup'." I snorted humorlessly.

We fell silent for a moment.

Dumbledore's betrayal was almost nothing. Of course there was always a bigger plan. We'd just never seen it. We'd never questioned the assumption that Dumbledore wanted us alive. But our life spans were determined by how long it took us to destroy the Horcruxes. Dumbledore passed the task onto us.

How neat, how elegant, not to waste any more lives, but to give the dangerous task to the two who had already been marked for slaughter, whose deaths would not be a calamity, but instead another blow again Voldemort!

Dumbledore had known we would not duck out, but continue to do our task obediently and bravely, in the true Gryffindor fashion. The manipulation hurt me deeply.

The images of all the dead in the Great Hall flashed every time I blinked. I forced myself not to think about them. I'd be joining them soon, as well as Harry...

But Dumbledore had overestimated us. We hadn't killed the snake. A lone Horcrux tied Voldemort to life, even after we'd been killed. True, it would be an easier job for another, but we had still failed.

"At least the Cullens, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny know to kill Nagini." Harry said.

I nodded. "We—we need to get to the Forbidden Forest before the hour is up."

Harry nodded as he and I stood. "We can't say goodbye to them. They'll try to stop us." I said.

"You're right. No time for goodbyes or explanations." He said, glancing at his watch that he'd gotten for his seventeenth birthday from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "Half an hour was wasted. We need to hurry."

"Invisibility Cloak?" I asked him. He patted the front of his robes where it has hidden. "We'd better use Disillusionment Charms, though. Can't risk being seen."

I nodded and quickly cast them. We held hands so we wouldn't be separated.

The halls were empty. Not a person, portrait, or ghost was there. Only the dead not yet collected. With each dead face of ally, I silently prayed to whatever deity that they had not suffered.

As we rounded a corner, Rosalie nearly ran into me. I moved just in time. She walked on and crouched beside a body. As I thought of something, I pulled Harry over to a corner and whispered, "Wait a moment."

I undid the Disillusionment Charm and walked up to Rosalie.

"Hey Rose." I said.

She looked to me and said, "Oh, hey. I didn't notice you…Where are you going? You're not…."

For once, I lied smoothly. "Part of the plan. I gotta do something." Perhaps it was the inevitability of my fate, or the painful irony, or betrayal, or inescapability, or just the pain. What ever it was, it weighed my heart heavy but gave me capable lying skills.

"You're not…You're not thinking of sacrificing yourself, are you?" she asked, aghast.

"No, 'course not. Like I said, I gotta do something…although I might be out of sight for a while." It was so easy, I marveled, to lie as I prepared to deliver myself into Death's waiting arms. So easy… "You know Voldemort's snake, right? Calls it Nagini?"

She nodded. "I've heard of it. Why?"

"It's gotta be killed. The others know but if they're—if they're…" I couldn't bring myself to say it. "…busy…"

"Kill the snake?" she asked.

"Kill the snake." I repeated. "Please, Rose. Do it for me."

She nodded and said, "We're gonna keep fighting, Bella. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," I sighed. They were too stubborn for their own good. "Thank you. Tell the others I love them, okay? See you later." Please not, I mentally hoped.

She smiled and hugged me tightly but walked off, going to retrieve more bodies.

When she was gone, I cast the Disillusionment Charm and used a locating spell to find Harry. He had moved down the corridor a bit. I found him.

Surprisingly, he wasn't alone. He was watching Ginny comfort a small girl kindly.

I grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him forward. Although I couldn't see him, I knew him well enough to know he looked pained.

He and Ginny belonged together. If there was a way for Harry to survive, I know that they'd be married one day, just like Ron and Hermione. And Edward and I.

Edward. His name brought the feelings of pain, guilt, and sadness upfront.

We saw no one else in the castle.

When we finally were out of the castle, I could see the massive amount of activity in the Great Hall. Either someone was dying…or they'd discovered that we were gone.

"Hurry," I heard Harry whisper.

We ran into the Forbidden Forest. Hordes of Dementors were patrolling the edge of the trees, but I neither could feel the cold nor had the strength to produce my Patronus.

Before the view was swallowed by the trees, I caught one last glance of my home.

"All the people in there…" I said quietly, "they have years…so much time to waste. If only they knew how lucky they were…They have so much time, while we are here walking to our deaths, clinging to our last few minutes…Life isn't fair."

"No, it isn't. But by ending our lives, we will die ensuring that they can live their lives in a better world in which they can live happier, better lives." He said. Again, he was sounding like Dumbledore's mini-me.

"Yeah." I sighed. "I just hope they don't do anything stupid."

"They shouldn't."

"I hope…I'm glad that I don't have to do this alone," I admitted.

"Me too. I'm glad I'm with you, sis." He said, probably smiling.

"Same here, brother."

We walked in silence until something scuttled loudly by us. We froze. Two voices were speaking.

"Someone's here." A rough voice said. "He's got an Invisibility Cloak…and I've heard the girl can do Disillusionment Charms. Do you think it's them?"

Two wands erupted in light. Yaxley and Dolohov were two yards away, looking directly at us. I clutched Harry's hand, afraid.

Yaxley had spoken.

Dolohov scoffed. "You think a fifteen year old girl"—Eighteen, I thought irritably as I ground my teeth— "can do magic that none of us except the boss and the girl's parents? Ha. Right. They can't both fit under the Invisibility Cloak."

Yaxley checked his watch. "Time's nearly up. They've had their hour. They ain't coming."

"And he was sure he'd come! He won't be happy."

"Neither will Bellatrix." Yaxley muttered darkly. I rolled my eyes. Of course she would be delighted when I died.

"Better go back," Dolohov said. "Find out what the plan is now."

They turned and went deeper into the forest. We both followed silently. It only took a few minutes until we saw a light ahead, and the two Death Eaters entered a clearing that I recognized to be the former home of the Acromantula.

A fire burned in the middle, casting a flickering light on the silent, villainous people. Some wore masks and hoods, but most did not. They sat in a semicircle. Harry and I were in front of the open side.

Two giants were on the outskirts. Fenrir Greyback was rubbing a spot on his head—the spot he'd hit when Remus got him off me, I realized with a hint of satisfaction—while chewing his yellowed finger nails. Thorfinn Rowle was dabbing a bleeding lip. Lucius Malfoy looked defeated and terrified, hardly the same person as the man who'd attacked my friends and I in the Department of Mysteries years ago. His wife, Narcissa Malfoy, sat worriedly beside him, her eyes sunken and full of apprehension. I guessed she was concerned for Draco Malfoy, as he was not here.

My mother's face was still bloody and a bit bruised from our duel, but otherwise unharmed as she sat just to the right of Voldemort. She looked unhappy and restless—probably because I was there, in her eyes.

All eyes were on Voldemort, who stood with his head bowed, his hands folded upon his wand, which I knew contained a core of Fawkes's feather—and was a brother of my and Harry's wands—, in front of him. He might have been praying or counting silently in his mind. Behind him, Nagini floated mid-air in a protective magical cage.

Then I noticed the person on Voldemort's left. Severus Snape. I had no hate for him now, only a sense of gratitude and respect.

When Yaxley and Dolohov rejoined the semicircle, Voldemort looked up.

"No sign of them, my Lord." Dolohov reported quietly.

Voldemort's expression didn't change, but his eyes burned in the firelight.

"I thought they would come," he said. "I expected them to come."

No one spoke.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, slowly ticking away my remaining moments on this earth. I cherished every last beat.

"It seems I was mistaken," he said.

Harry squeezed my hand and I took it as a signal to drop the Disillusionment Charms. I complied and let his hand slip from mine and said as loud as I could, "You weren't."

Thankfully, my voice was loud and confident. No fear was there, only acceptance, because I knew what I had to do. I wasn't afraid to die. I was reluctant to, thinking of my friends and family and Edward. But I had accepted my fate. I had long ago. I knew what would happen now. My life had reached its final chapter. I was die beside my best friend--die as I had been fated to since he and I had been deemed the 'chosen ones'.

Internally, I snorted. We were not the heroes--the chosen ones--that everyone believed us to be. We were just pawns in the game...in the plan that Dumbledore, the chessmaster, had laid out--the plan I had been too thick to see or predict. Hell. I doubt even Alice saw this one coming. Trelawney may have...somehow, her predictions were eerily accurate sometimes. She had been predicting Harry's and my deaths for years now; and it was finally coming true...

The Death Eaters stood simultaneously. As they did there were many cries, gasps, and even mocking mother had leapt to her feet, grinning malevolently; her dark eyes on me, shining eagerly; her breast heaving.

Simultaneously, Harry and I stepped closer.

We had no regrets, save that we didn't kill Nagini and that we'd be causing pain to our friends and family…and that I regretted not being able to give my mother a taste of her own medicine...but surely, she would not evade justice for long.

"HARRY! BELLA! NO!" a voice bellowed. I looked and saw Hagrid tied up to a thick tree nearby. He struggled against the ropes, shaking the branches as he did. I felt a pang in my heart that one of Harry's and my friends had to witness our fateful deaths.

"WHAT'RE YEH—" he yelled.

"QUIET!" Rowle shouted, and silenced Hagrid with a flick of his wand.

The only things that moved were Nagini in her glittering cage and the fire.

I could feel my wand in my robes against my chest, but I did not attempt to draw it. Nor did Harry go for his.

Voldemort stared at Harry and me, his scarlet eyes flicking back and forth between us. He cocked his head staring at us, considering the two students before him; a mirthless, amused smirk curled his lipless mouth, as if amused by the ease to supposeably fool us. I scoffed in my mind, but remained woefully silent, internally thinking my goodbyes to everyone, even if they could not hear them.

"Harry Potter and Isabella Lestrange…" he hissed softly. "The Boy and Girl Who Lived…"

None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting—Everyone was waiting. Hagrid was still struggling against his binding uselessly. Bellatrix was staring at me, resentment and victory in her gaze. Severus Snape stared at us with an expression of shock, horror, and guilt, behind the others, so they did not see. He flinched upon meeting my steady gaze. I nodded minutely to him, trying to silently tell him: We know now. I forgive you. For once, I saw past his facade and saw the fear and horror on his face.

No one, save Harry and I, noticed, but I was trembling softly--not in fear, but in grief for the heavy losses sustained earlier. Knowing that, had Harry and I come earlier, they would be alive still. It was sadness for many things, many people. For the many in the Hall who had died for a useless cause. For their families and friends. For my friends and family--who would never know the truth. For the many victims of Voldemort who had died trying to protect Harry and I--they had died for nothing because now, we had to die.

Our--Harry's and my--fates were sealed.

Despite the terrorand grief, I thought of Edward. My Edward. Who looked past the plainness and 'fame' and saw me. Who thought I was extraordinary, when really, I was simply thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Of my time in Forks with the Cullens. Away from all of this. Facing James was nothing compared to this. I would face a hundred of them instead of this...this soulless monster--in the truest sense of the word. He was barely human. Forget that. He was far, far less than human.

I thought of our first kiss in our meadow. Of the soothing lullaby he'd written just for me. Of the Cullens, my family. Of Alice, my hyperactive sister. Of Jasper, my cool and collected brother. Of Emmett, my boisterous, protective, fun-loving brother. Of Rosalie, my calm, cautious, protective, loyal older sister. Of Carlisle, my compassionate, caring, forgiving father. Of Esme, my real, loving, kindhearted mother.

Of Edward. My perfect love.

I thought of the way his lips felt on mine—

Voldemort raised his wand. His head was still tilted to the side, like a curious child. I stared back to the soulless, cruel scarlet eyes.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, as I was forcing myself not to cry, mostly to my real family and friends who would never know the truth. "Goodbye." I whispered a bit louder, to Harry, my brother in all ways except blood.

He heard and whispered back, "Goodbye." It was so soft, it may have been the wind.

I thought back to the last time Edward had held me in his arms, kissing me lovingly—

I saw the mouth move slowly, savoring the moment. A flash of brilliant green light.

A bone-shattering force hit me in the chest, forcing the air from my lungs.

I felt my body fall to the ground in a crumpled heap on my back.

My last thought was of my Edward before the darkness engulfed me, sending me into darkness.

I knew no more...

A/N: It had to be done. There is another chapter. I wouldn't leave you hanging like this. There is more. There is an epilogue.

Poor Harry. Poor Bella. Poor everyone.

Review. For poor Harry's and Bella's sakes.