Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

30 June, 1997 - Traitor

"No!"

Remus's shout barely registered in Lavinia's head, but she heard it all the same. She heard the desperation. She heard the disbelief. But more than anything, she heard the fear he couldn't quite disguise. The fear she felt trickling into the edges of her mind as she slowly, oh so slowly processed what Ginny had said.

Dead. Dumbledore was dead.

And that... that couldn't be true. It just couldn't be. Dumbledore was... well he was Dumbledore. He was a constant. He was the man who had led the Order since its inception. Who had always spearheaded the fight. Who had guided them and laid the plans all the rest of them knew they could never have managed. Dumbledore. Who was never where she needed him to be. Who was brilliant and aggravating and... and dead.

"How did he die?" asked Tonks, her voice a quiet, shaky thing. "How did it happen?"

This was not, Lavinia thought, the question they should be asking. It didn't matter to her how it had happened. There had been Death Eaters casting killing curses all over the place and she supposed even Dumbledore, brilliant as he was, could have been caught off guard in the mess. Even if... well even if that seemed horribly unlikely.

But unlikely or not, if it had really happened then the question wasn't how. It was what now? What next? How did they proceed when he hadn't told anyone his plans? When none of them knew what the next step was? How did they keep going? How did they win? Or could they anymore?

This line of thought was rather abruptly abandoned as Harry answered Tonks's question with three words that made Lavinia momentarily forget every other concern.

"Snape killed him."

Lavinia, who had been staring off into space, snapped her head to look at Harry, searching for the lie in his face. Searching for any hint that this... this wasn't true. This couldn't be true. But Harry just kept talking and there was no dishonesty in his words or his features. Only grief. And a rage that made Lavinia's stomach clench rather uncomfortably.

"I was there," Harry continued, bitterness in every word. "I saw it. We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that was where the Mark was...." He sighed slightly and shook his head, looking away from all of them. "Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs. He immobilized me. I... I couldn't do anything. I was under the invisibility cloak," he added, sounding rather as though he was trying to absolve himself of some imagined guilt. "And then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him. And-"

Here gasps interrupted Harry for a moment and Lavinia closed her eyes, looking away. There was such... disgust in Harry's face. Such hate. Such vindication. And though Laivnia knew she should have shared some part in blaming the Malfoy child, all she could think was that that was it. She had been too late. They had all been too late. And now that boy's life was forfeit to the Dark Arts. Just as William's had been. Just as Regulus's had been. And Lavinia knew better than anyone that once that choice had been made... well. There was no going back.

"Then more Death Eaters arrived," Harry was now saying, pulling Lavinia back from memories she knew were best left tucked away. "And then Snape... Snape... did it." The words were hollow. Empty. Tired. "The Avada Kedavra."

Silence fell following this as no one seemed to know what to say. How to respond. In the sudden quiet, the only sounds that could be heard were the occasional sob from Madam Pomfrey and the lilting echo of phoenix song from what sounded to Lavinia like very far away. The song was lovely, an aching sort of melody that seemed to come from the other side of a veil. It hurt to hear, like it was stripping away all possibility of falsehood. Like it had removed every defense, every what if and maybe that could have shielded Lavinia from the reality of this. And what was left was pain. Grief. And that fear that stuffed itself up her throat and threatened to choke her.