Harriet Potter

Dumbledore stood there with his back against the fence, pale, but showing no sign of panic or concern, just looking at the man who had disarmed him.

"Good evening, Draco."

Malfoy pressed a few steps forward, looking around quickly to see if there was anyone else besides him and Dumbledore.His eyes fell on the second broom.

"Who else is here?"

"I was going to ask you that question. Are you acting alone?"

In the green light of the Dark Mark, I saw Malfoy's pale eyes fixed on Dumbledore again.

"No," he said, "I have my back. Death Eaters broke into your school tonight."

"Very well, very well," said Dumbledore, as if Malfoy had shown him an ambitious project plan, "not bad indeed. Under Severus' tight confinement, you still figured out a way to keep them come in, eh?"

Malfoy let out a sneer, "In fact, he helped me quite a bit."

"I assume you mean, Severus is one of yours?" Dumbledore said calmly.

"That's right," said Malfoy triumphantly, "your favorite spy was the Dark Lord's man from start to finish. He fixed that broken disappearing cabinet so that when the time comes he'll be able to let the outsiders in, Complete my mission. Fortunately, I escaped from the basement tonight and seized the opportunity-"

"Okay, then you do it, my dear boy." Dumbledore said gently.

silence.I was imprisoned under the invisibility cloak and couldn't move. I could only look at the two people in front of me, and listened intently to the sound of the Death Eaters fighting in the distance.In front of me, Draco Malfoy just stared blankly at Albus Dumbledore, who smiled.

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

"How do you know?" Malfoy asked immediately.

He also seemed to realize how naive that sounded, and under the green light I could see him blushing.

"You don't know what I'm capable of," said Malfoy, his tone turning fierce. "You don't know what I've done!"

"Oh, of course I do," said Dumbledore kindly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ron Weasley, and you attacked Harriet Potter. All year you've been trying to figure out how Kill me, and more and more impatiently. Forgive me for saying this, Draco, but what you're doing is so lame... Really, so lamely, I doubt you even put your heart into it..."

"Of course I did!" said Malfoy excitedly. "I've been working on this all year, and tonight—"

Hearing a muffled cry from somewhere in the castle below, Malfoy froze and looked behind him.

"Someone is fighting hard, maybe you should do the job by yourself." Dumbledore gave him advice in an easy-going manner, "What if your backup is defeated by my guards? I'm afraid you also found out , there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight. You don't need help anyway...I don't have a wand at the moment...no way to protect myself."

Malfoy stared at him blankly.

"I see," said Dumbledore, seeing that Malfoy was neither moving nor speaking, "you're too scared to do anything until they come up."

"I'm not afraid!" Malfoy roared, but he still didn't hurt Dumbledore. "It should be you who is afraid!"

"But why? I don't think you're going to kill me, Draco. Killing isn't as easy as people think... Well, while we're waiting for your friends, you and I Tell me...how did you sneak them in? I remember there were two of them, didn't I?"

"The other one's in the Borgin-Bock shop," Malfoy said, looking into Dumbledore's eyes, "and they've built a passage between the two cabinets. Montague told me he's locked in that one at Hogwarts." Sometimes I can't move my whole body, but sometimes I can hear the movement in the school, and sometimes I can hear what happened in the store, as if the cabinet is running back and forth between these two places, but no one can hear his voice ...Finally, he managed to escape by Apparating, even though he failed his exam. His Apparating almost killed him. Everyone thought it was a very funny story, only I realized the truth The implication - not even Borgin knew - was that only I realized that if I fix the broken one, I'll be able to enter Hogwarts through the two Vanishing Cabinets."

"Very well," murmured Dumbledore, "so that the Death Eaters can enter the school from the Borgin-Bock shop to help you... a clever plan, a very clever plan... and, as you say Yes, right under my nose..."

"Yeah," said Malfoy, who strangely seemed to take courage and comfort from Dumbledore's praise, "yes, that's it!"

"But sometimes," continued Dumbledore, "you're not sure you'll be able to fix the cabinet, are you? That's when you resort to clumsy, ill-conceived measures, like sending me an enchanted The necklace, in fact, it will definitely fall into the hands of others... and the poison in the mead, in fact, the possibility of me drinking that wine is very slim..."

"Yeah, but you still don't know who's planning these things, do you? If it weren't for Potter's meddling..." Malfoy sneered, as Dumbledore's body slid down a little bit against the wall , obviously his legs and feet have no strength, I struggled desperately, trying to get rid of the spell that bound him, but to no avail.

"I already knew that, actually," said Dumbledore. "I believe you did it."

"Then why didn't you stop me?"

"I tried, Draco. Professor Snape has been watching you on my orders—"

"He didn't obey your orders, he promised my mother—"

"Of course he would tell you that, Draco, but—"

"He's a double agent, you stupid old man, he didn't work for you at all, and you were kept in the dark!"

"Let's just disagree, Draco. I happen to trust Professor Snape a lot—"

"Hmph, you're losing control of him!" sneered Malfoy. "He keeps offering to help me—to take credit for it—to step in and do something—'What are you doing? That necklace Did you do that? Too stupid to bring it all out—'Of course he finally got his chance and put me in solitary, made me tell him what I was doing in the Room of Requirement, and fix the locker myself— —But he didn't expect that those spells couldn't stop me at all, since I sent out the notice before him and controlled you, the credit will still be mine...he is nothing!"

"How comforting." Dumbledore still had that gentle tone, "It goes without saying that we all want our hard work to be appreciated by others... You even gave poor Rosmerta a hard time for it." Forgiveness Curse, Imperius Curse, and a magic coin to contact her. Poor Rosmerta had to hide in her own toilet and slip that necklace to any Hogwarts student who went to the toilet alone. And That bottle of poisoned wine... of course Rosmerta could have mixed meth in that bottle for you and sold it to Slughorn thinking it was going to be given to me for Christmas... Yes, very ingenious...very ingenious...poor Filch would never have thought of inspecting the liquor that Lady Rosmerta was selling..."

"The Imperius Curse was lifted after Potter's incident, and I was imprisoned by Snape, and I have never known what happened outside." Malfoy sneered, "But tonight I set up the elf who brought me food If I knew you were leaving the school. That arrogant fool Snape didn't take my wand, I broke the spell he had put on the house and escaped..."

"Then you decided to set a trap for me?"

"We decided to hang the Dark Mark above the tower, forcing you to hurry back and see who was killed." Malfoy's hand holding the wand kept shaking, and he seemed to have to keep talking, "This method really works!"

"Oh ... not necessarily ..." said Dumbledore. "Then, may I take it this way: no one has been killed yet?"

"There's a man dead," said Malfoy, his voice suddenly rising an octave, "one of yours... don't know who, it's too dark... I stepped over the body... I It should be waiting for you to come back up here, it's all your fault that those members of the Order of the Phoenix came out to block the way..."

"Yes, that's right," said Dumbledore.

There were crashes and shouts from below again, louder than before, as if someone was fighting on the spiral staircase leading here.My heart was pounding in my chest, someone was dead... Malfoy stepped over the body... who could it be?

"There's not much time," said Dumbledore. "Where to go, Draco, let's discuss your options."

"My choice!" cried Malfoy, "I stand here with my wand - I'm going to kill you -"

"My dear boy, let's stop acting. If you really wanted to kill me, you would have done it after you had just unarmed me, and not stopped to talk merrily about the measures and methods."

"I have no choice!" said Malfoy, suddenly turning as pale as Dumbledore's. "I must! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

"I understand your situation," said Dumbledore. "Why else would I not have met you before? I knew that if Voldemort found out that I was suspicious of you, you would be assassinated."

Malfoy twitched in horror at the name.

"I know you accepted that quest, but I dare not talk to you about it, for fear that he will cast Legilimency on you." Dumbledore continued, "Now we can finally talk openly... You didn't cause any damage, you didn't hurt anyone, you're very lucky that those you accidentally injured survived... I can help you, Draco."

"No, it's impossible," said Malfoy, his wand hand trembling badly, "nobody could. He told me to do it or he'd kill me. I had no choice. "

"Come on the right path, Draco, we can hide you in absolute safety, safer than you can imagine. And, I can send members of the Order of the Phoenix tonight to take your mother Hide too. Your father isn't in danger in Azkaban right now... We'll protect him when the time comes... Stand on the right path, Draco... You're not a murderer... "

Malfoy stared blankly at Dumbledore.

"But I've come this far, haven't I?" he said slowly, "They thought I'd die before I was done, but I'm still alive... and you're under my control... Now take the wand It's me...you listen to me..."

"No, Draco," said Dumbledore quietly, "you are at my mercy now, not me at your mercy."

Draco didn't speak.His mouth was open, the hand holding the wand was still trembling, and it dropped a little—

Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps thumping up the stairs, and in the blink of an eye, Malfoy was thrown aside, and four men in black robes broke through the door and swarmed around the wall.

A stout man with a crooked mouth and a strange grin on his face let out a wheezing and wheezing laugh.

"Dumbledore's cornered!" he said, turning to the stocky little woman who looked like his sister, with an eager smile on her face, "Dumbledore doesn't have a wand, Dumbledore Alone! Well done, Draco, well done!"

Still unable to move, I watched in horror under the Invisibility Cloak as four Death Eaters surrounded Dumbledore, hurling insults and taunting words at him.Malfoy backed away as they pressed for action, and the werewolf Fenrir Greyback showed his blood-stained yellow fangs and approached—

The door to the wall was knocked open again, and Snape stood there clutching his wand, his black eyes scanning the scene before him, from Dumbledore slumped against the wall to the Death Eaters.

"We've got a problem, Snape," said the stocky Amycus, his eyes and wand fixed on Dumbledore, "the lad can't seem to—"

But the other man said Snape's name, very softly.

"Severus..."

That sound scares me more than anything I've experienced all night.Dumbledore was begging - and I knew what he was begging for... I wish I didn't know...

"Severus...please..."

Snape raised his wand and pointed it at Dumbledore.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A green light shot from the tip of Snape's wand, hitting Dumbledore squarely in the face.With my scream stuck in my throat, I watched Dumbledore being knocked into the air.He seemed to stay under the shining skeleton for a second, and then, like a big broken doll, slowly fell on his back, fell from the crenel of the fence and disappeared.