August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter 104: Deathly Hallows

bye how are we on DH😭

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"I didn't think you had it in you."

Robyn shook her head tiredly, barely having the energy to entertain her father. As soon as she and Lloyd had Disapparated to their manor, he'd rushed outside and demanded to know whether Dumbledore was dead. Obviously, he was.

Did you do it? Did you kill him?

Yes.

He hadn't even asked her if she was okay, if she was recovered from almost being killed herself, and he'd barely acknowledged Lloyd at all or the fact that he was injured (courtesy of Robyn – whoops). Now, Robyn was sitting in a dimly lit study, her father sitting across from her. She was tired and exhausted and knackered and, perhaps most of all, sad.

Dumbledore was dead.

"I've done it before, haven't I?" she muttered, looking down at her shaking hands.

"No," he said, casually leaning back in his chair, "you haven't, actually."

She froze.

"There was an initiation!" she said fiercely. "A Muggle woman! Tortured! Dead!"

Dumbledore shook his head, "No, you have been misled."

She laughed in disbelief. "Misled? I was there – I did it! You can't tell me it wasn't real – you can't tell me the guilt isn't real. You don't know everything."

"Do you even remember doing it, Robyn?" he inquired with narrowed eyes.

Surely not. Surely Dumbledore had just been trying to stall, or trying to convince her not to kill him, or...

"What...do you mean?" she said slowly, lifting her gaze to glare at her father through lidded eyes.

"You haven't killed anyone – not before tonight, at least," he added, smiling – smiling. Honestly.

"My initiation..." she whispered, though she trailed off, speechless.

"Did you never think it...odd, that you couldn't remember doing it? That that Muggle woman had been alive one moment and dead the next – to you, at least?"

"You're saying..."

"I'm saying I knew you weren't ready, and I wasn't going to allow you to humiliate yourself – to humiliate our family – in front of the Dark Lord by failing to do as he asked, so I Imperiused you – some of my finer work, I might add, considering no one – not even you – noticed. I did it for you. I helped you."

"I didn't kill her," she breathed – it was more of a statement than a question, but he answered, nonetheless.

"No, you did not."

"This whole year – this whole year I thought I killed someone," she sniffed, covering her eyes with her hand as she shook her head over and over again, for she was conflicted. She hadn't killed someone – good. Great. But she'd felt guilty – so guilty – for so long, and for nothing.

Well, not for nothing. The woman had still been tortured and killed at Robyn's wand, but, at the very least, it wasn't actually by her. Kind of. It was. But it wasn't.

"Well, now you really have," said her father simply. "I didn't think you had it in you, but you've done it. I'm proud of you."

She wanted to cry. She couldn't believe it. For so long she'd hoped to hear those words from him, and now he was finally saying them, but it was for that. He was proud of her because he thought she'd killed someone.