Kassandra Bauer and the Deathly Hallows. (Book 7)

Chapter 42: That's the way it is.

So that was it. The whole truth. I took my head out of the Pensive. Oh, Gods... All this time... 

Harry wasn't supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into the grips of the Fates arms. Along the way, he was to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life. Neither could live while the other survived. 

No... no it couldn't be true. Dumbledore would never betray Harry like that. He would never. He loved Harry like a son. I stared at the Pensive again. "That... that can't be it." I said. "Where's the rest of it?" I looked at the Stone Basin again. 

"Kassie..." Harry said very somber. 

"That couldn't have been real, Harry." I dismissed. "This has all been a waste of time. There's no way that Dumbledore would ever do that to you. He wouldn't raise you like a swine to be on the chopping block." 

"Kassie..." Harry shook his head. Apparently he believed Dumbledore and that memory were telling the truth. 

I on the other hand refused to see it that way. We got this message from Snape. The man who murdered Dumbledore in cold blood! My mind started racing again, looking for any sort of excuse. "Snape gave us the memory to trick us, didn't he?! He wanted to give it to us to get the last laugh! Yeah! Yeah that has to be it!" 

"Kassie!" Harry raised his voice.

"There is no way that Dumbledore would lie to you for the past 7 years we've known him!" I shouted still trying to deny it all. 

"KASSIE, STOP!" Harry yelled. And I stopped. And then Harry stumped back to his knees. "Will you just face facts? It's not all lies." He sadly said, his voice calmer. 

"But... but..." I started to say.

"Don't you see, Kassie?" Harry asked seeming to accept his fate. "I'm not supposed to survive. I'm to walk calmly into Death's arms.  Along the way, I'm to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life. Neither can live, neither can survive." And then he was laying on the floor. 

"No." I shook my head. "No. You can't be serious right now, Harry." 

But Harry was still there. And he sounded dead serious. "Will it hurt to die? I sort of wondered this fate when I was locked in that Sarcophagus. But all those times I thought it was about to happen, then you and Hermione came and helped me escape. But all I did was delay the inevitable, and what is left is the same thing itself: dying." 

"Harry, you're really scaring me, right now." I told him. 

"I should've died the night I left Privet Drive for the last time. If only I could've died like Hedwig, so quickly that I might not have known it had happened-" Harry's fingers were now trembling, and he was making no effort to control it. 

"Harry, no!" I interrupted. "Please don't talk this way. I-" I was now starting to tear up. "This can't be true. This can't be-" 

But I had to be like Luke Skywalker when he found out the truth that Darth Vader was his Pater. I knew it was true. Slowly, but surely, Harry sat up. "Why have I never appreciated what a miracle I was, brain and nerve and a bounding heart?" His breath was slow and deep.

"Harry..." I started to say. 

How could Dumbledore betray Harry like this? I always knew he had a plan... but this? I was the biggest idiot in all of the world. Aberforth was right when he said his brother was adept at secrets and lies. 

Was this Harry's fate? Was this it? Was his lifespan always determined by how long it would take to eliminate all the Horcruxes? Dumbledore passed on the job of destroying them to Harry, and he obeyed.