The Potter Twins and the Half-Blood Prince {6}

Epilogue: A New World

SO FAIR AND FOUL A DAY I HAVE NOT SEEN

- William Shakespeare, Macbeth

The sun shone brightly over Wiltshire; the trees shaking gently in the hot breeze and the sky as blue as the Ravenclaw crest, bright and unyielding. But despite the joyfulness of such weather, Malfoy Manor stood dark and foreboding, a symbol of all that is evil in the wizarding world. You wouldn't believe it was summer inside it's dark, cold corridors, it's atmosphere enough to make a person lose hope altogether. It hadn't always been this way, but Draco had seen first hand the way his childhood home turned into a nightmarish place, which he now dreaded: The Dark Lord now walked the halls of Malfoy Manor.

Haylee never spoke of the Dark Lord, though Draco knew he was terrifying from the way her shoulders would tense when he was mentioned, and how her eyes would glaze over, remembering the horrific things she had suffered at his hands. But nothing could have possibly prepared him for how truly terrifying the Dark Lord was. And as he and Tessa stood mere meters from him he realized what true horror was.

"Albus Dumbledore is dead." His voice is cold and unforgiving, and his stare even more so. "I congratulate you, Severus, on your accomplishment," he adds, motioning to Snape with his long, dagger-like fingers in the corner of the room. "Yet, the two of you have failed me."

Draco's mouth goes dry, and it takes everything ounce of strength left in him to stay composed. Be strong like Haylee. He tries not to think about how Haylee must think of him now, after everything that's happened.

"Draco," the Dark Lord continues, striking fear in the young Malfoy's heart, "you failed in your task to seduce Haylee Potter to our side. Did I not explain to you how integral this would be in my plans?"

"You did, my lord," Draco says shakily, his hands clasped behind his back in an attempt to stop them from shaking. "Forgive me, my lord."

From the corner of the room, Fenrir Greyback gives a bark-like laugh, to which Narcissa Malfoy glares scathingly. "Maybe if the boy had gotten Potter into bed a couple more times he might have convinced her," Greyback says maliciously, creating a chorus of laughter from the other Death Eater's present. Draco feels his cheeks turn pink, and he looks at his feet, once again fighting to remain calm.

He takes a deep breath. "I tried, my lord," he says calmly, though his lip trembles dangerously, "she had begun to suspect me -"

The Dark Lord nods, raising a single hand to silence his chortling men. "Do not try to fool me. You let your love for Haylee Potter cloud your judgement: love is a weakness, be certain you do not make the same mistake twice. You did, however, successfully corner Dumbledore atop the Astronomy Tower, though you failed to finish him. Amycus and Alecto tell me you were too frightened." His voice can only be described as patronising.

In his mind's eye, Draco sees Haylee atop the Astronomy Tower, her hand outstretched to him, offering a new life if he only had the courage to take it. I know you...better than anyone in this school, you are not one of them...You just need to see the good that I see in you, Draco...I promise you, everything will be okay if you just lower your wand and come with me. Why hadn't he taken her hand when he had the chance?

The Dark Lord now turns a scrutinising eye upon Tessa, and Draco can see true anger in his red eyes. "But the fact remains, while Draco was disarming Dumbledore, Theresa was nowhere to be found. Good soldiers died during your absence, Gordon was left behind in your absence, the one inside connection we had to Harry and Haylee Potter, once again in their grasp."

Tessa, Draco notices, does not even flinch in the face of such dangerous criticism. She holds her head high, and says clearly and confidently, "I was trying to stop the Order of the Phoenix from interfering. Draco and I discussed prior, he was going to be the one to do it. His father was the one who made the mistakes, not mine."

"And yet, you are now the one who has disappointed me. You cost me a boy who was in the Potters' inner circle, a boy whose knowledge could have won us this war." Besides his own mother, Draco sees Tessa's parents begin to shift nervously, but she still keeps a straight face.

"Riley is still under the Imperius Curse," she says. "I --"

"-- at Hogwarts!" The raising of the Dark Lord's voice seems to make everybody flinch, and finally, Draco notices Tessa's hands beginning to shake. "Protected by the Order of the Phoenix, do you believe they'll let you within a mile of him now? If he's even still alive."

"I'm sorry, my lord," she says finally. "I did what I thought was best, what my visions told me were best." 

The room falls silent for a moment, though for Draco it feels like hours. The snake at the Dark Lord's feet coils itself around his chair menacingly. The sight of it makes Draco's hair stand on edge. He had once been proud of his House, proud to be a serpent, now he dreamt of being a lion, but he wasn't even half the person Haylee was; he didn't deserve any association with her. 

"You're lying," the Dark Lord seethes, pulling his wand from within his robes and beginning to fondle it. "There is no place in my new world for liars, Theresa."

"I wasn't -- I would never --"

But the Dark Lord has already raised his wand and in his raspy, terrifying tone, speaks the words which strike fear into Draco's heart for the rest of his life. "Avada Kedavra!" And with a careless flick of his wand, a green jet of light flies across the drawing-room, striking Theresa Jensen in the chest. She might have screamed, or cried, or begged for mercy, but Draco did not hear it. All he could hear was the beating of his heart -- hammering so erratically in his chest he thought he too might hit the ground. But he stared straight forward, nevertheless, trying his hardest to hear Haylee's voice in his head, and not daring to look at the ground where Theresa Jensen's body now lays, eyes closed forever.

"There is a lesson to be learnt here!" The Dark Lord says loudly, rising from his chair and turning to see address everyone present. "Remain loyal to me, and there will be a place for you in my new utopia, lie and you shall meet the same as poor Theresa Jensen. The same fate I vow to inflict upon the Potter Twins the next time we meet."

Draco finally looks up from his hands, meeting the Dark Lord's eyes; and for the first time that night, his face must have betrayed him.

"That's right," the Dark Lord continues, looking directly at him. "You failed to defect her, and so Haylee Potter will die." He crosses the floor, so he's inches away from Draco's face; the younger man bites his tongue to suppress tears, metallic blood filling his mouth as his entire body shakes. "It was foolish to believe she could ever be anything but my mortal enemy." Draco's lip quivers as The Dark Lord stares at him, his malicious eyes seeming to stare straight into his soul, ridiculing every memory of her. "Disappoint me again, Malfoy, and I will make you watch as I kill her."

And he turns once more and strides from the room, leaving Draco trembling all over, a deep, terrifying feel of panic rising in his chest, threatening to overwhelm him. The horror-struck, devastated cries of the Jensens echo hauntingly through Malfoy Manor, a sound which would forever replay in Draco's head whenever he closed his eyes. And as his mother led him away from the prying, judging eyes of his supposed comrades, he cried harder than he ever imagined possible, hoping -- praying -- even that wherever Haylee was in the world, whatever she was doing, she stayed far, far away from Malfoy Manor. Far away from him. 

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okay wow, that's it! after much longer than it should have taken me the Half-Blood Prince is finally finished!

Just some quick information regarding the final book. I will be returning to fortnightly updates; I plan to post the prologue for the final book very soon, but the first chapter itself won't be posted for a few weeks, but as always I'll post an update to this book letting you all know when it's up. 

I never ever thought that I'd reach this point, so thank you all for continuing to read and support these books, it means the absolute world to me! I'm super excited to finally be finishing Haylee's story. So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter (please let me know what you think and if you have any predictions!) and I'll see you all in the Deathly Hallows!