It Was All Just A Mask [A Dramione Story]

Avada Kedavra

-    Professor Snape had sacrificed his soul, for... mine.    -

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I walked up the stairs of the astronomy tower where Professor Snape had told me Professor Dumbledore would return, and indeed he had. As I approached the top, I heard his voice talking with someone, but I couldn't depict who. It was Hermione's betrayed voice that kept replaying over and over in my head, causing me to lose focus. After all this planning and waiting, distraction was the last thing I needed. I forced myself to forget about her, sleeping peacefully and alone in the Room of Requirement. A different room from where Auntie Bella and her minions would arrive momentarily. 

When I reached the top of the tower, he was alone. I quickly scanned the surrounding area, searching for who he had been chatting with, but no one was there. The old man was alone. He just watched me as I pulled my wand out, pointing it at him.

"Good evening Draco," he said kindly to me. What did he know? He didn't seem unnerved that I had my wand tip focused on his heart, almost as if he had expected me. But how? There was no way he could have known about this. It was kept entirely secret. For an instant I wondered if Hermione had broken her promise to me and told him, but I realized that I would be in Azkaban, awaiting a death from The Dark Lord if that were the case. To my great surprise, he continued to greet me, "What brings you here on this fine spring evening?"

I addressed my worry about the second person in the room, knowing very well that Potter had an invisibility cloak in his possession that he could be hiding under, "Who else is here? I heard you talking to someone," I demanded.

"Oh, I've been talking aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful. Have you been whispering to yourself Draco?" It was a strange response, almost fatherly. He seemed genuinely concerned about me, but I couldn't let my feelings get in the way. I put my wand up higher, firmer this time.

I should've just said the two words then. The two words that would end his life. If I had said them at that moment, then it wouldn't have gotten so much harder.

 "You are no assassin Draco," he soothed.

He still believed in me. Me, standing here with my wand outstretched, ready to murder him in an instant, and he showed no sign of fear, just sympathy towards me. It was unbelievable, unheard of. I quivered, but I didn't back down, "How do you know what I am," I hissed, "I've done things that would shock you." Like making the one I love forget about me.

"Like cursing Miss Katie Bell, hoping that she would bear a cursed necklace to me. Or replacing wine in a bottle with poison?"

I didn't know how he knew, but for some reason, it didn't surprise me. The same feeling that I have always had about Professor Dumbledore resurfaced. His all-knowing demeanor, and his understanding embrace around your soul. It made me feel weak. I had to kill this man. It was my duty. "He trusts me," I caught myself repeating the same words I had earlier this year with Professor Snape. Like I had revealed my mark to Hermione, I ripped up my sleeve, showing the professor the Dark Mark emblazoned on my skin, "I was chosen."

"Well in that case, I'll make it easy for you," he held up his hands, surrendering to me, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. The only thing I could think of doing was disarming him. I pulled up the painful memory of Hermione Granger perfecting my wand movements when we practiced in the Room of Requirement last year as I snapped, "Expelliarmus!" 

The professor's wand flew out of his hands. His reaction was not one that I had expected. He seemed more shocked that I had disarmed him then when I showed him my mark. He must've known all along about the mark, but he never thought I would cast a spell against him.