Another Side of War ➸ Camren

Rebels

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(...)

"How did he die?" Tonks whispered. "How did this happen?"

Dinah flinched at the question, she had witnessed the worst scene of her life a few minutes ago. Dumbledore's death, from above the Astronomy Tower, he was throwed as an unimportant paper doll. And Snape had done it. The professor Dumbledore most trusted throughout his life, the wolf in sheep's clothing.

Now, gathered in the infirmary around Harry's bed, everything didn't seem to make sense.

"Snape killed him." Harry answered. "I was there, I saw it. We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was... 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 couldn't do anything,I was under the Invisibility Cloak... and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him..."

Hermione took her hands in her mouth, and Ron groaned. Dinah's mouth trembled.

"... more Death Eaters arrived... and then Snape... and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't continue saying.

Madame Pomfrey burst into tears. No one paid any attention to it but Ginny, who whispered;

"Psst! Listen!"

Swallowing, Madame Pomfrey pressed her mouth with her fingers, eyes wide. Somewhere out in the darkness, Fawkes was singing "a stricken lament of terrible beauty."  And Dinah felt, as she had felt about phoenix song before,  that the music was inside her, not without: It was her own grief turned magically to song that echoed across the grounds and through the castle windows.

How long they had been listening, she didn't know, nor why the sound of her own mourning seemed to relieve her pain a little, but it seemed a long time before the door of the ward opened and Professor McGonagall entered. Like the others, she had marks from the recent battle: she had scratches on her face and torn clothes.

"Molly and Arthur are on their way." she announced, and the charm of the music broke: they all woke up as if out of a trance. "Harry, what happened? According to Hagrid you were with Professor Dumbledore when he... when it happened. He says Professor Snape was involved in some..."

"Snape killed Dumbledore." said Harry.

She stared at him for a moment, then swayed alarmingly; Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have pulled herself together, ran forward, conjuring a chair from thin air, which she pushed under McGonagall. 

"Snape!" McGonagall repeated softly, collapsing in the chair. "We all wondered... but he trusted... always... Snape... I can't believe..."

"Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens," said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. "We always knew that."

"But Dumbledore swore he was on our side!" Tonks whispered. "I always thought Dumbledore knew something about Snape that we didn't..."

"He always hinted that he had an unshakable reason to trust Snape." Professor McGonagall murmured, now wiping the tears in the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief draped in Scottish fabric. "I mean... with Snape's past... of course people doubted... but Dumbledore explicitly confirmed to me that Snape's regret was absolutely sincere... he didn't want to hear a word against him."

"I'd love to know what Snape said to convince him." Tonks commented.

"I know," Harry said, and they all turned, staring at him. "Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead."