Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 88 - The Third Choice

Ooh this is a big one! Thanks for reading :)

 Al was hesitantly released from the hospital wing a week later during dinner, with strict instructions to not over-exert herself. She grabbed a late dinner, and headed down to the common room when it had grown chilly outside. This was a mistake, it seemed, because it meant that most of Slytherin house were there.

 When the wall opened up and Al stepped inside, the common room grew completely silent as if it was the dead of night. People openly stared at her, having read the Daily Prophet and knowing that she had been one of the people who had fought the Death Eaters.

 The crowds parted and formed a path to the girls dorms, but before she could reach there somebody spoke from behind her. "Al?" Draco's voice said softly.

 She turned around, tears stinging in her eyes. Draco was stood in the middle of the pathway that had formed. "I'm-I'm sorry," he said, his face filled with pain. All the Slytherins in the room were looking at her now, some stood on tables or chairs so they could see.

 Silence rang through the room as Al stared at him, getting a control of the hateful beast inside of her that wanted to lash out.

 "A year ago," Al said through the tears to only Draco, "Cedric Diggory died. And in his memory, Dumbledore made a speech, giving vital advice to you. To all of you." Al spoke now, to the whole common room, who waited with baited breath to see what she had to say.

 "He told you that a time may come when you must choose between what is right, and what is easy," Al continued, "And Draco Malfoy stands here today as an example of what happens when you choose what is easy."

 "Al," Draco whispered, "Al, please..."

 But she ignored him. "Another powerful wizard once told me, that there is always a third choice." Al almost shuddered at the memory of that day in the graveyard. "He told me we may have to make it ourselves, but it will be there. Today, I am offering you that third choice.

 "Many of you come from pureblood backgrounds. You may believe that you are above those who are not of purely wizarding descent. I understand. But how far are you willing to go for that?

 "Look to your right," Al said, and many of the students obliged, but hesitantly, "Ask yourself: would you kill the person you're looking at now, for that belief? Would you destroy everything they love? Because that is what you will have to do if you choose...if you choose Voldemort." There was a collective shudder. "You might laugh at the thought of joining Dumbledore," Al continued, "I would too. I don't want to join him.

 "So I am offering a third side. And whether I fight by myself, or with the whole of Hogwarts behind me, it will not matter. Because I will fight for the right choice. I will fight for every single student here who makes the right choice."

 Al turned around and left towards the dorms, but before she could reach the door there was a sound. A clap. Just one. Then followed by another. Another person joined in, and then another and another. And soon there was a thunderous applause, and Al forced herself to smile through her tear-stained face, before turning and heading for an early night.

*****

 The breeze whipped Al's ponytail as she looked out into the moonlit Hogwarts grounds from her perch on the Astronomy tower, a sealed bottle of firewhiskey next to her. Sirius had bought her that. She wasn't allowed to be out this late, but she needed time to herself. To mull things over in her head and decide what she was feeling. Sirius was dead. He was gone. Her first and biggest ally. And her friend.

 "I thought I'd find you up here," a calm voice drifted over to her, and Al turned, a single tear falling down her face, as she looked over at Dumbledore. He stepped over to her, his robes billowing and, with the agility of a man much younger than him, settled beside Al on the floor of the highest tower.