Two Souls

Chapter Eighty Three

       Draco writes to Voldemort the very next day about our success in repairing the Cabinet.  The temporary stress about repairing the Cabinet has moved beyond, but the hovering fear of having to murder Dumbledore still remains.

"They'll be coming tonight," Draco whispers to me nervously in his dormitory two weeks later. We've skipped dinner yet again. "We have to do it tonight."

I gulp. "I'll do it."

"But —"

"I'm the Petrinedum, it may not work if you do it. And besides, if I get caught, I don't want you to get in trouble with me. Please, Draco?" I ask, giving him my innocent face to make him feel guilty.

"I'm not leaving your side. That stupid little face of yours isn't going to sway me, Amelia," He chastises, but a sly smirk is on his face.

"Death Eaters!" Zabini shouts, sprinting in the boy's dormitory. "They're in the castle!"

Draco and I stand up immediately. Already? It's just past six o'clock — everyone should still be at dinner.

"How do you know?" I ask urgently.

"The Dark Mark! It's in the sky!" He says, pointing out the window. "And Blair says she saw one when she was using the washroom. I think the Professors are finding out now," He informs us.

"Where is everyone?" Draco demands.

"I don't know . . . I've heard Snape's still in his office. Dumbledore has gone off to the Astronomy Tower but —"

Draco and I ignore the rest of Zabini's sentence, the two of us immediately dart out of the dormitory and up several flights of the stairs, to where the Astronomy Tower is located.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco yells, bursting through the door. Dumbledore is immediately disarmed.

"Good evening Draco, Amelia," Dumbledore says rather calmly, despite his wand having flown out the window. He seems to know his fate exactly.

"Who else is here?" I ask, my eyes gazed upon the second broom propped against the wall.

"A question I must ask you two. Or are you two acting alone?" Dumbledore responds.

"No," Draco responds. "We've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well," Dumbledore says as if Draco had just shown him an ambitious homework project. "Very good, indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah, right under your nose and you never realized it!" Draco says hostilely.

"Ingenius," Dumbledore muses. "Yet — forgive me —where are they now? You seem unsupported. . ."

"They've met some of your guards. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long . . . We've came on ahead. We've — I've — got a job to do," I say shakily, drawing my wand. My arm is shaking so much that I can barely keep hold of my wand.

"Well, then, you must get on and do it my dear girl," Dumbledore says softly.

I glance at Draco with tears in my eyes before returning my gaze to Dumbledore.

"Draco, Amelia. You two aren't killers."

"How do you know?" The two of us ask in unison, sounding childish. I flush under the Mark's greenish light.

"You don't know what I'm capable of! You don't know what I've done! Amelia's a Petrinedum, you know. She can kill you in a second," Draco snaps.

"Oh yes, I do. I know everything," Dumbledore says mildly. "Amelia, your gifts are strong, they are. And you Draco, I know it all. You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts. . . So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder if your heart has been really in it . . ."