Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 83 - Farewell To Dumbledore

There was a heavy moroseness in the air the following morning as I sat down beside Harry in the common room. Without a word, he pulled out a locket from his pocket and handed it to me. Inside was a note on which was written the following:

To the Dark Lord I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B.

I frowned. "R.A.B. . . ." I sighed. "R.A.B.?"

"It was all for nothing. . . ." he said in a low, strained voice.

I knew not what to say so I simply pressed his head on my shoulder and caressed his back gently. Hermione hesitantly sat down in front of us.

"Harry, listen," she said. "I found something. . . . about Snape."

"What about him?" Harry said heavily.

"Well, it's just that I was sort of right about the Half-Blood Prince business," she said tentatively.

"D'you have to rub it in, Hermione? How d'you think I feel about that now?"

"No — no — Harry, I didn't mean that!" she said hastily, looking around to check that they were not being overheard. "It's just that I was right about Eileen Prince once owning the book. You see. . . she was Snape's mother!"

"I thought she wasn't much of a looker," Ron said.

"I was going through the rest of the old Prophets and there was a-tiny announcement about Eileen Prince marrying a man called Tobias Snape, and then later an announcement saying that she'd given birth to a —"

"— murderer," spat Harry.

"Well . . . yes," said Hermione. "So . . . I was sort of right. Snape must have been proud of being 'half a Prince,' you see? Tobias Snape was a Muggle from what it said in the Prophet."

"Yeah, that fits," said Harry. "He'd play up the pure-blood sides he could get in with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of them. . . .He's just like Voldemort. Pure-blood mother, Muggle father . . .ashamed of his parentage, trying to make himself feared using the Dark Arts, gave himself an impressive new name — Lord Voldemort — the Half-Blood Prince — how could Dumbledore have missed — ?"

We did not say anything. After a few moments, we rose and walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, though I had little appetite.

We were sitting quietly at the Gryffindor table when Professor McGonagall stood up to speak. I gently nudged Harry with my elbow as I noticed him staring absently into his bowl of Pixie Puffs.

"It is nearly time," she said. "Please follow your Heads of Houses out into the grounds. Gryffindors, after me."

We all stood quietly and followed her, and I realized, as we walked out through the oak doors, that we were heading toward the lake. I saw hundreds of chairs placed in rows, and a long aisle running down the center toward a marble table at the front. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I filed into seats at the end of a row beside the lake. I noticed Neville being helped into his seat by Luna and smiled slightly to myself. The four of us exchanged disgusted looks when we saw Dolores Umbridge walking toward her seat, an unconvincing expression of grief on her toad-like face.

Suddenly a most beautiful melody erupted from a chorus of mermaids in the sunlit water. I noticed Harry looking around for the source of the music and leaned in toward him.

"In there," I whispered in his ear and pointed to the mermaids.

I nudged him again as Hagrid began to walk down the aisle, tears streaming down his face as he carried what I knew to be Dumbledore's body wrapped in purple velvet. Tears began streaming down my own face as I watched him, and I unconsciously clutched Harry's thigh so hard that my knuckles turned white. He moved his own hand toward mine and entwined them before resting his head atop mine.