Love Never Dies. (Draco Malfoy Fan Fiction) (Watty Awards 2013 Winner)

Chapter 32: Avada Kedavra.

"Go," Bellatrix snickers behind my ear. 

My legs force themselves forward, past the terrifying scene of my father's dead body. My mind refocuses after much persuasion and I find myself heading to the Astronomy Tower as I intended to before the unexpected... hold up. 

I push myself up the steps, pulling my wand from my pocket at the same time. I reach the well of the staircase where I see Potter at the bottom of the steps. I could hear voices from above and I decide to take a peek through the small gap in the ceiling. 

"Farrell," I heard Potter whisper. My head snaps to face his direction. He gestures to look above the ceiling where a small hole was. 

I peer through and the air was knocked out of my lungs. Draco had his wand pointed right at Dumbledore. I cover my mouth with my hand and I turn to face Potter who had eyes of both frustration and anger written on them. It was impossible to read the emotion on his face in the darkness that seemed to have covered the both of us in its foreshadowing cloak.

I push myself up the stairs and everyone turns to face me. Draco's wand does not falter but I could see how much he wanted to fling it right off the balcony. Bellatrix grabs my arm and sneers beside my ear.

"Do it," she giggles. 

I whimper a little before I take my wand out and have mine pointed at Dumbledore as well. I could feel Draco's eyes on my hand as it shook out of my pocket. 

"Severus... Please...." Dumbledore mumbled, pain etched in every syllable of his voice.

"Avada Kedavra", Snape said. His voice was emotionless as the headmaster fell backwards, down to the depths of death. 

My eyes opened in absolute shock. What happened? Why did Snape do that for us? Wasn't he always the one to push Draco and I to do it ourselves? It didn't make any sense to me at all.

"Let's go," Draco's low raspy voice murmured beside my ear. 

I felt his arm slip around my waist as he prodded me forward, down the stairs. My legs follow his guidance obediently. My legs drag my light headed body down the steps. Two deaths took place in front of me. I saw two innocent people fall to the ground at their death under my gaze. Two people I cared about despite hating them. 

Subconsciously, my legs stop beneath me and I feel Draco's firm hand against my waist and I force myself forward again. Everything seemed so guided, so... emotionless. 

My legs could only do so much. I needed someone to hurl me forward, to make me go faster. And Snape was there to do that. 

"Bellatrix, take the others out of the castle now," Snape ordered, keeping his hand on mine and Draco's back as Draco's hand was wrapped around my waist. 

When the other death eaters weren't in the castle any longer, Snape guided Draco and I out of the castle through the eerie darkness that never seemed so dark. We soon were met with a dark field with the other death eaters there. I remember that place. The small hut was familiar to me. It had a putrid smell but it smelled familiar. Only then Bellatrix shot a flame of fire from her wand to the small hut that caught fire instantly. The whole sky was full of smoke that tingled my nose. Snape was with Bellatrix, a frown on his forehead. 

I heard footsteps crinkling the grass and my head whips around to meet Potter's green eyes. I've never seen his eyes this way before. So bright and so... pure. My heart was so clouded with hatred and death that I failed to notice the good and pure in the world. 

"Sectumse-", Potter cursed at Snape.

There was a bright flash and I saw Potter fall to the floor, his wand falling out from his hands. Snape went and stood right in front of him and muttered, "don't use my own spells against me, Potter."

Potter looked at Snape with his green eyes and suddenly Snape softened in expression. Potter's face was one of utmost confusion.

"That's right, I am the Half-Blood Prince," with that, Snape left the darkness, away from the crime scene. 

Potter got up from the grass, stole a look at me before running back to the castle. I knew what he was feeling, I could understand it. Dumbledore was like a grandfather to Potter and his only guardian was dead. My father was dead, too. I knew and I understood the pain in his heart in that moment of time and I wanted so much to just hug him and comfort him.

This was unusual for me to pity someone like Potter. But now that I know how it feels like to have a loved one dead, I felt sad for him. He had both of his parents dead and his one and only guardian was dead too. I don't know how he would be feeling right now but whatever it was, I could see it in his eyes that he pitied me too. 

Harry Potter's POV

"Hide, Harry," Dumbledore said to me. HIs voice was welling up with unimaginable pain. The potion must have done this to him. "Harry."

I nod and reluctantly leave and hide just a level below Dumbledore's. Until I heard footsteps up the spiral staircase. Deatheaters. God, please... Not now. I see Draco's blond hair and his pale face under the dim light. I won't let that bugger off this time. 

Snape suddenly appeared in front of me and his wand was pointed at me. What was going on? He then brought his index fingers to his lips, asking me to keep quiet, which I did without a choice. Snape went upstairs where Dumbledore was. 

Before long, Rachel was up the stairs as well.

"Farrell," she saw me and I noticed her brown eyes wet and puffy. She looked at me in confusion and I do the same. My eyes look up and she does the same. She gasps before she runs up the stairs. 

"Severus... please," Dumbledore says before the curse was muttered by a familiar raspy voice.

He was so weak, in so much pain from the potion he drank just now. 

"Avada Kedavra," Snape's deep voice said. A green light shot from his wand and Dumbledore fell off the balcony, down to the depths. 

There was silence before Snape sent the death eaters off and took Draco and Rachel. I follow quietly behind them, into the eerie and dangerous darkness. My wand was clutched tightly in my hands as I follow their footsteps. We were soon taken to Hagrid's hut. It was on fire. My heart was thumping against my chest uncontrollably. Not Hagrid, not him. I run forward, my legs obeying my commands.

"Sectumsemptra!" I yell at Snape but the spell was blocked and Snape cast a defensive spell on me. My wand falls from my hands and I fall to the grass. 

I could feel Rachel's gaze on me and I could understand the pain she was feeling. The weakness, the broken hearted feeling. I saw her father die because of Bellatrix. I saw the way she tried so hard to stay strong. I felt sorry for her, I really did. And this was unusual because the only emotion I held towards death eaters was hatred. I guess George was right, Rachel is still a Griffindor by blood. She still has a part of her that isn't bad, that isn't as evil as everyone thinks it is. 

"Don't use my own spell against me, Potter," Snape mutters to me, glaring at me on the grass. My head snaps back to reality and I see his scary face in the dim light. 

What spell? 

"That's right, I am the Half-Blood Prince," Snape says again, with little emotion before he vanishes into the forest that never felt safe anymore.

A/N: Hi all, I hope you're liking the story so far. Apologies for the late publishing of this chapter. I've had endless exams this week. I'll try my best to write more to finish this story before adding POVs. Please comment on anything that can be improved on and vote! Thank you for the 7,200 reads! x