The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.68 | Dumbledore's Farewell

For one horrible moment, Margaret saw more Inferi creeping towards them. There was a searing stitch in her chest, the right side of her face was sore and there were burns on her legs. She was still supporting Dumbledore on one side, while Harry was on the other.

"We did it, Professor!" Harry whispers with difficulty. "We did it! We got the Horcrux!"

Dumbledore staggered against them.

"Are you all right, sir?" asks Margaret quietly, tightening her grip around his upper arm as she and Harry lowered Dumbledore onto some stairs by the railings.

"I've been better," says Dumbledore weakly, but the corners of his mouth twitched. "The potion... was no... health drink..."

Margaret blinked heavily and her head began to settle; there was nothing stirring around them, all was still; darkness was complete except the green hue shining down upon them...

Green hue?

Margaret looked up into another nightmare.

"Harry!"

"What?"

She pointed at the sky right above them.

There it was, hanging above the school: the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue, the mark Death Eaters left behind whenever they had entered a building... wherever they had murdered...

"What does it mean?" Harry asks Dumbledore, his voice filled with terror as he looked up at the green skull with its serpent's tongue glinting evilly above them. "Is it the real Mark? Has someone been – Professor?"

In the dim green glow, Dumbledore clutched at his chest with his blackened hand.

"Go and wake Severus," says Dumbledore faintly but clearly. "Tell him what has happened and bring him to me. Do nothing else, speak to nobody else. Harry, put your Cloak over both of you. Margaret can teleport to the dungeons. I shall wait here."

"But-"

"You swore to obey me, Harry – go!"

Harry hurried over to the spiral staircase, Margaret on his heels as he turned around and covered them with the Cloak. But her hand had only just closed upon his when they heard footsteps running up the metal staircase.

"Wait!" says Harry, pulling her next to him so that they were leaning against the sidewall.

The door burst open and somebody erupted through it.

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

"DRACO-?! Expelliarmus!"

To Margaret's horror, her body became instantly rigid and immobile, and she felt Harry fall back against the tower wall next to her, both of them propped like unsteady statues, unable to move or speak.

Under the light of the Mark, Dumbledore's wand flew in an arc and disappeared over the railings.

It quickly became apparent what had happened: Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilised Margaret and Harry to save them, and the second he had taken to perform the spell had cost him the chance of defending himself.

What was more was that Draco had come up the stairs first, shocked at who he saw.

But he had not disarmed Dumbledore.

Markus had.

"Have you lost your mind? What do you think you're doing?!" Draco rounded on Markus, who was shell-shocked next to him, his wand arm raised yet unmoving. Draco rounded on Dumbledore. "You said you were travelling! You said you won't be here tonight!"