Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Fourteen - Nightfall

Albus Dumbledore had been in his office, channeling his magic into young Harry Potter, when he felt a strong surge of pain from the connection he had magically forged with the young wizard, followed by an overwhelming sense of urgency.

Dumbledore stood.

It was his time to go. He faced his beloved pet phoenix.

"Goodbye, old friend. Please give my final letters to them."

Fawkes sung out a low note, and tears started flowing out of the phoenix's eyes.

Albus took one last moment to say goodbye to his world. A long life he had lived; filled with bliss and sadness. He had fought many evils, and assisted many people of the light.

He had shared a love a long time ago, a love with a fellow student that had once been at Hogwarts with him. It was now it was time he left this plane of existence and returned to her to begin the next great adventure.

Albus had taught many students, bonded with many people who grew to be great. Years of his long life had been well lived indeed.

He had been a bright child from birth, with a large family, brought up happily. He had entered Hogwarts at eleven, and amazed the best of the best with his awesome skill in charms and transfiguration. He had grown and graduated its halls, becoming an alchemist, working with a former Professor, Nicolas Flamel. He had then gone on to study dragon blood, and then became famous for discovering the twelve uses for it. He had then studied as an Auror, researching and practicing spells.

Then came the first Dark Age. He had suffered along with everyone else, but eventually he defeated Grindelwald, with the help of a newfound companion, Fawkes the phoenix.

Peace had come, and Albus met his true love, and begun to teach at Hogwarts. It seemed like 'happily ever after' then.

Until Tom Riddle, a former student, had become the second Dark Lord, and brought about a new age of darkness upon the world.

Then Riddle had killed her. His one true love.

Albus swore that he'd never love again. He fought tirelessly against Riddle, thirsty for vengeance.

At Riddle's first downfall at the hands of young Harry Potter, Albus allowed himself a life of happiness once more, reveling in the joys of watching young people grow, learn, and live. He lost the blinding rage that had propelled him to fight. In particular he watched Harry Potter, and felt indebted to the wizard who had given him another chance for happiness. He had done all he could to guide the growing wizard, and experienced pride beyond pride as the young child took on burdens most alive today could boast about, yet he had never lost his hold on humility. Years spent with his horrible relatives must've done him some good after all. Albus was proud of Harry, and dreaded the day that he would have to part with this student.

When he had risen again, two years ago. Albus was torn. He literally fell apart, although he never allowed this to be seen by anyone else.

He vowed that he'd help young Potter defeat him again. He knew he himself would not be able to do it all himself.

He slowly, bit by bit placed magical power, gained from his long years of experience into the young wizard. One day, Albus tried to quicken this process, by adding large quantities of magical aura to Harry and his friends. He found that it crippled him enormously - he couldn't walk around for four days, even with the help of Severus Snape's potions, he could only barely manage to put in an appearance during breakfasts.

Albus felt an even stronger sense of urgency from his connection with Harry.

Harry would need the extra strength now, all the strength that Albus could give him. Despite his weakened physical state, he still had a lot of magic left in him. Albus picked up his wand, and readied himself for the end.

Now he would make the ultimate sacrifice to help Harry in his moment of need, to save the only hope of the wizarding world. He raised his wand to his heart, and prepared to say the last words of his life.

"Magicka Sacrificum," he whispered.

Albus Dumbledore collapsed as the entirety of his magic left his old body, and found a home in Harry Potter.

As the magic that had lengthened his life left him in a bright white light, Albus Dumbledore looked around his office one last time, fell into his chair, letting out a pained cry with the final breath of his long life that escaped his deflated lungs.

He was not regretful for his own demise. After all, death was but the next great adventure. He was only remorseful for the fact that he wouldn't finish the adventure he had at hand.

***

"Oh god Hermione, don't be dead..."

Harry hoped with all of his being that she was merely stunned.

"Ennervate!"

Hermione's eyes slowly fluttered open, at which Harry yelled with laughter, and hugged her tightly.

"HERMIONE! Oh thank the gods..." Harry had tears of joy and relief welling up in his eyes.

"What happened, Harry? Where are we? Where's Ron and Ginny? Where's Malfoy? Where's Voldemort?"

"I'll tell you in a while... we're in Sirius' cave at Hogsmeade. Ron and Ginny... I have no idea... I'm sure at least Ginny got out... I apparated us out of Riddle Mansion... no idea how I did it but I did. Voldemort must've forgotten to place an anti-apparition charm or something..."

"But that's impossible... Malfoy said..."

"Malfoy?"

"He was guarding Ron and Ginny... and he said something to Goyle about telling Voldemort to 'recast the charms'... unless he didn't reach Voldemort?"

"He reached him alright... after the Cruciatus, I saw Malfoy whisper something to Voldemort... and then they dragged you in... I thought you were dead!" said Harry, messing up Hermione's hair as if it was her fault.

"Hmm..."

"No time to think, we still need to find Ron and Ginny. They're in Hogwarts, I think I can feel a weak link in the watches..."

"They were put under the full-body bind when I found them..."

Harry stopped and thought about it for a second. "What happened to Ginny's watch? Why didn't it deflect it?"

"I don't know, we'll ask her when we find them..."

"Well, we'll fly to Hogwarts, it's the fastest way."

"What? You stand in VOLDEMORT'S mansion, you get put under the most painful curse ever evented for thirty minutes, you're outnumbered about a MILLION to one, and you somehow get out with your Firebolt clutched in your hand, AND you somehow come and rescue me?" said Hermione skeptically, as if she expected Harry to turn into Voldemort at any second and yell 'April Fools'.

"Yeah... I wish we didn't lose the invisibility cloak though..."

Harry sobered. The invisibility cloak was one of the few things his father had left behind for him, a family heirloom.

"We didn't Harry. When... Never mind, I'll tell you when we get to Hogwarts. C'mon!"

Harry and Hermione then got on the Firebolt, but instead of heading to Hogwarts, Harry flew to Hogsmeade.

"We'll get you a broom, it'll be faster that way..."

"No, try using your portkey that Dumbledore gave you for Head Boy duties..."

"Oh yeah... forgot all about that," said Harry, grinning sheepishly.

"Activatio."

Sure enough, with a tug, Harry and Hermione found themselves in Hogwarts, standing in Dumbledore's office.

Harry turned around, and before the grin had died, he let out a horrible throaty gasp.

"No... no..."

"Shit, Hermione, get Pomfrey... or McGonagall... ANYONE! GO!" Harry roared.

He himself bent down over Dumbledore's motionless body, trying desperately to feel for a pulse. Fawkes swooped down and landed on Harry's shoulder.

He felt nothing. "Ennervate!"

No reaction from Dumbledore's cold, lifeless body.

"NO! ENNERVATE! REVIVITO!"

Still no response.

Harry began to pray out loud.

"Oh god, Hermione, where are you? Dammit, WAKE UP!"

"Ennervate..." Harry let out a hopeless whisper.

"No... he can't be..."

"Yes he is, Potter, and do you know why?" sneered Snape from the door.

How Snape managed to sneer in front of Albus Dumbledore's cold dead body, Harry would never know.

"Why..."

"Because of YOU. You've been sapping his power for nearly a year now..."

"SEVERUS!" shouted McGonagall from the office door, with Hermione in tow.

"Minerva," said Snape in a sickly sweet voice. "Potter, leave at once."

"Tell me what happened. I didn't sap his power... something happened to him... TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"

"Get out, Potter."

"NO!"

"Fifty points from Gryffindor for disobeying a direct order from a teacher. Leave NOW or it will be a hundred, and detention for a month!"

"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED, YOU..."

"Harry," said Professor McGonagall, before Snape could say anything else. "I believe you ought to sit down for this... Severus, please prepare Albus' coffin... he's had it made for months now..."

***

The two afternoons later, Harry walked in disbelief, after hearing McGonagall's long tale about Dumbledore sacrificing all his magic - not to mention his life - to get Harry the necessary energy he needed to Apparate out of Riddle Mansion. How Dumbledore had known all of this, Harry did not know, although Harry suspected that Dumbledore was very close to omniscience. Amazingly, McGonagall had also said that Dumbledore's magic now resided within him. But the fact remained. Albus Dumbledore was gone. Harry was temporarily joyous at seeing Ron and Ginny safe and well, but at the end of the night, all he could think of was how Albus Dumbledore sacrificed his life for him. Not JUST for him, he reminded himself, but for the future of the world. But just like that, and another one of the few important people in Harry's life were taken away from him by the scum Voldemort.

Yesterday morning, it was all over the papers. The 'official' cause of Dumbledore's death was of old age, but many less reliable newspapers stated a conspiracy to murder Albus Dumbledore, or that he had actually blown himself up by dropping a bottle of Firewhiskey in the fireplace, or things equally ridiculous. However, everyone mourned the death of the leader in the fight against the Death Eaters. His scheduled memorial service, although open only to the people who knew Albus Dumbledore well, was to be held two days from now. People would pay their respects to him during the time at work, and Cornelius Fudge announced a holiday, in remembrance of the great wizard in yesterday's post.

But it wasn't until this morning that the full consequence of Dumbledore's death was revealed. At post, in the eerily silent Great Hall, the swooping sounds of owls heralded the arrival of the post.

In the front page was an article that shocked everyone in Hogwarts. Everyone.

Mass Killings by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

It is with great difficulty that this reporter writes of the tragedy of the massive attacks led by You-Know-Who yesterday night. An estimated number of muggles, roughly five thousand were found dead in their homes with a lightning bolt cut across each one of their foreheads, much like the scar that the Boy-Who-Lived has. It is obvious that with the renowned Albus Dumbledore having passed on, You-Know-Who has set his eyes on the next target, young Harry Potter who brought about his death the first time they met.

Many small towns were pillaged and burnt, but the final attack, a massive rally of Death Eaters around Big Ben in London, proved to be the worst. Three thousand muggles were killed in the area at the time, and over a hundred wizards, who had tried nobly to stop the invading force, were also killed or tortured into insanity, and are currently being treated in St. Mungo's Hospital.

The final attack of that night was on the Big Ben itself. A monument for the muggle world, and an important entry point into the Ministry of Magic for the wizarding world, its fall proved to be devastating on both worlds. On the remnants of the broken clock, there was the word Potter wrote in blood.

Muggles are mystified and in terror, and Minister Fudge plans on calling a state of emergency... Our readers hope that young Harry Potter, aged 17, has a good plan to replace the late Albus Dumbledore in holding back the tide.

Harry had stopped reading at that point. He ran to the nearest bathroom, and threw up his breakfast. He walked out of the bathroom, thinking he was all right, but all of a sudden he felt dizzy, and nearly collapsed on the floor, until he was wrapped up by a pair of warm arms, and drawn away from the toilet, and when he next regained consciousness, he found himself in a warm bed. Reaching for his glasses, he instead felt an arm on where his bedside table should've been.

He had then spent an hour pouring his soul out to Ginny, who listened and responded where appropriate, but mainly they just held each other. Harry had been glad that Ginny was there, for the rest of the day would not be pleasant.

Apart from another grueling potions lesson, Harry and Hermione now had a blank void where Dumbledore's classes should've filled. The two sat silently in their shared common room, Harry mulling over the events caused by Dumbledore's death, Hermione silently reading Rare Magical Plants for Poisons and Antidotes, not looking at or talking to Harry.

All of a sudden, Harry decided he had enough of just thinking. He had to do something, even if it was just to play exploding snap. He couldn't stand thinking about death any more, not to mention that Voldemort had killed five thousand people because he couldn't reach Harry where he was now.

"Accio Firebolt. Hermione, I'm going for a fly."

***

By the next week, Harry was thoroughly fed up. His dreams were filled with images of people dying because of him, and always ended with Voldemort drawing a wand on Ginny. Students up and down the halls avoided Harry, shot him scared glances, and some even shrieked when he stepped into the Great Hall, as if they expected Death Eaters to follow Harry and start killing them at random.

The truth was, Harry couldn't blame them. He seemed to be a magnet for trouble, and without Dumbledore there, security was extremely tight on Hogwarts. McGonagall had stood in as Headmistress, although she walked around like a zombie - clearly the wizard's death had affected her deeply.

Harry decided to cut himself away from the students at Hogwarts, his friends and teachers. He was just about to fly away one night, and buy a flat in Diagon Alley for himself to live and plan a counterattack against Voldemort - or so the plan was. He couldn't bring himself to separate himself from Ginny without at least saying goodbye. She had watched him carefully with her dark brown eyes for the last week, and Harry, despite his state of shock, felt it necessary to say goodbye to Ginny. He owed her at least an explanation.

When he had approached her though, she had none of it. She told him clearly it wasn't her fault, and if he left, there would be nothing to stop Voldemort from attacking Hogwarts again. He had only feared Dumbledore before, and he was growing scared of Harry as his next strongest opponent.

Harry felt it was a whole lot of rubbish, and stated so clearly, but when Ginny lost her patience, yelled at Harry for his stupid sense of nobility, said they were over until he could get his mind back to the way it should be, and stalked out of the room, he knew he couldn't leave Hogwarts whilst Ginny was mad at him. Should he have died knowing Ginny wasn't happy, with him or anyone else, he would've regretted it more than ever. He had spent a long night in the Marauder's room, not returning to his own room until lunch the next day.

That night, he had attended Dumbledore's memorial service at Hogwarts, and he saw why only friends were allowed at his funeral. Just friends alone, there were thousands attending his funeral - the Hogwarts grounds had to be enlarged for the day to fit so many people. It was the complete opposite of Remus Lupin's funeral, which had been nearly empty. Reporters stood outside the grounds, waiting to interview the 'privileged few which were allowed to attend such a heart touching event'. McGonagall had hexed several reporters until they would leave. Harry had many people walk up to him and wish him good luck, telling him that Dumbledore had had faith in him, and they in turn had faith in him too. Harry was struck with guilt, knowing that he was the reason why these people were miserable with their friend's death.

Right now, Harry walked along the corridors with Hermione after an advanced charms class, which was now taught by a Professor Orion, an Asian witch hired officially for Transfiguration classes that were now abandoned by Professor McGonagall who had taken up the position of Headmistress.

She was different from Dumbledore. Instead of the kind blue eyes sparkling at them, Harry and Hermione found a war-hardened coal black gaze staring calmly back in Professor McGonagall's old office. This Professor, as Ron would say, was a slave driver.

The first charms lesson she had with Harry and Hermione, she had hurled two stunning curses at them as they walked into the room, which Harry and Hermione only avoided because of the net that had shot out of Harry's watch.

"Constant Vigilance!" she had shouted.

With a knowing grin, Harry and Hermione knew that these lessons would not be easy.

From sending bullet curses to mending bones, Harry and Hermione had found themselves very busy indeed with Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts.

Harry was thankful for these classes - it kept his mind away from the constant attacks that were now reported daily in the Daily Prophet.

But the fact remained.

Dumbledore was gone.

Voldemort had no one to stop him.

Everyone was either expecting him to conquer Voldemort and all evil the next second or else they were expecting tornadoes, fire, and destruction to come wherever Harry stepped.

And the only problem with these classes was that Dumbledore wasn't the one to teach them it anymore. This made all the difference to Harry, as he knew it was his fault. Hermione, thankfully, was oblivious to this as Harry, nor Ginny had told her or Ron about Dumbledore channeling power into Harry.

Harry had received an envelope with a short letter of farewell from Dumbledore, and his wand enclosed. He had smiled a bittersweet smile, and looked to the heavens in thanks. Truthfully, Dumbledore's wand had matched Harry much better than he had thought - it worked almost as if it was his own wand. Dumbledore said in his letter that he wished for Harry to keep it as his own in remembrance.

Harry spent all of his time now with Hermione and Ron, completely avoiding Ginny besides nods at mealtimes and brief 'Goodnight's at nighttime. Word spread through the school like wildfire, and Harry noticed, much to his dislike, that many of the boys who had wanted to ask Ginny to the Halloween Ball practically leaped on her. Ron had stood by Harry in this ordeal - he had gave withering stares at any male who dared go within five meters of Ginny, he talked to Ginny for Harry's sake - although without much success - and he had eventually gone to the extent of ignoring Ginny whenever she was with another boy other than Harry or himself. Hermione had, of course, maintained her usual righteous pose, supporting both Harry and Ginny, and acting as a liaison between them.

Right now, Harry saw Ginny laughing and batting at a short, sandy haired sixth year, who was grinning back at her stupidly. Harry stopped in his tracks, leaving Hermione, who was still talking about self-polishing wands at the top of her voice, walking alone along the corridor, unaware that her friend had frozen in place.

The sandy-haired boy slung his arm around Ginny's shoulders, and Harry snapped with jealousy. He was about to whip out his wand and hex the ignorant prat that DARED touch HIS girl, but he found that Fortuna, his mysticat, had done a job for him. Fortuna jumped out of his bag, ran to the boy, and scratched him twice, and bit him once, leaving bloody gashes across the boy's cheeks, and a rather nasty bite on the nose.

Harry heard Ginny grab Fortuna around the middle, and admonish, "Fortuna!"

Harry couldn't help but smile. He picked up Fortuna who was squirming away from Ginny's arms, nodded a rather cold nod to Ginny, shot the bleeding boy a withering glare, and ran to catch up with Hermione, Fortuna on his shoulder. He didn't even give Ginny or the boy a chance to moan about his cat. It was funny that Fortuna didn't scratch Ginny - Harry supposed that Fortuna loved Ginny like he did, despite his anger.

"That's my mysticat, Fortuna!" Harry smiled at his beautiful kitten, stroking him gently. Fortuna purred with happiness.

"Oh Harry, what did he do?"

"Scratched little mouse-boy back there in the face for me!"

"What? Ginny's friend?"

Harry nodded slowly. "Clever little cat must know which people are pure scum..."

"Now Harry, I don't think that's fair. I think you should go apologize for Fortuna's behavior..."

"What? ME? APOLOGIZE? To the little creep who's slinking his arm over MY girl? You must be out of your mind!" Harry muttered.

"What's whacking your bludgers now, Harry?" said Ron, who had just come out of his Charms class, and caught up to Harry and Hermione, who were walking down to Care of Magical Creatures to meet Hagrid to discuss their pets. Ron's and Hermione's eggs had just hatched three days ago, and just yesterday, respectively. Ron's was a curious hamster like creature that Crookshanks delighted in chasing about. Ron had grown rather uneasy at the point when Crookshanks leaped at his newly hatched creature, and swatted Crookshanks in the face, leaving the cat spitting furiously at him, and Hermione slapping him.

Hermione's egg had hatched into a rather ugly little leathery creature with large blue eyes, and scaly skin. Harry had tried speaking Parseltongue to the creature, with no success.

Hermione had spent hours in the library looking for an answer, also with no success.

Ron had just laughed at it, and got a bitten arm in return. It appeared that Ron had gotten the most information - they now knew that it had poisonous fangs.

Hermione had no sympathy for Ron, and they got into another row - whilst Harry had to drag Ron to get the bite checked on - it had swelled purple already at that point.

It turned out it was a rather funny poison - giving the victim a squeaky voice for a day after the bite - and more importantly, there wasn't a cure, until it healed naturally.

Ron suffered embarrassment as he made a long speech at the prefects' meeting in a squeaky, house-elf voice.

Harry himself was curious to find out what this critter was, as they knocked at Hagrid's door.

"Hang on a sec'n'..." hollered Hagrid from the door. They heard Fang's familiar bark, and Hagrid opened the door.

"Oh its you three... though' you mighta forgot all 'bout me! You haven' been to see me for a month!"

"Hi Hagrid!" Ron, Hermione and Harry said, and smiled fondly at their half-giant friend.

"C'mon in, c'mon in... tea? Some rock cakes?" waved Hagrid at shapeless lumps placed on the table.

Fang jumped at Ron and slobbered all over his face.

"Thank you, Hagrid," said Hermione. "I was wondering, could you tell me what this creature is? It hatched just yesterday and I can't find any reference in the books..."

"Oh righ' 'ermione... that there is a crownfish. Mainly water creatures... I'm surprised its managed to stay alive for a DAY without any water... you should toss it into the sink or somefin... babies usually only stay alive for a day out of water... o' course adults can last roundabout a week er so..."

Hermione let out a shriek and ran to the sink, bathing her crownfish in the sink full of water.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she said, "Thanks Hagrid."

Hagrid had laughed at Ron's whispered comment to him.

"What did you say, Ron?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Oh nothing."

"Hagrid? What did Ron say?"

"Oh... nuthin important," said Hagrid with a smile.

"Harry?"

"Don't ask me, I just went temporarily deaf back then..." Harry smiled at that. He remembered how Dumbledore had once done the same in his fourth year.

"Oh you three are hopeless. I'm going to put little Queenie in a fishtank or something..."

"Queenie?" roared Ron in laughter.

Hermione let out a loud, "Hmph!" and walked out of Hagrid's hut.

"You know, she didn't even..."

Hermione stomped back in, grabbed the fish from the sink, and with a simple goodbye to Hagrid, she walked away.

The three men laughed their hearts out.

When Ron and Harry were leaving, Hagrid pulled Harry back.

"It's okay, Ron, go first, I'll catch up with you..."

"You all righ' there Harry? I've heard bout you n little Ginny Weasley..."

A mask of indifference flew up to Harry's face. "Oh?"

"Yeah... bin watchin her sometimes late at night... sneaks up to the Quidditch pitch and dives 'round... kinda like you I thought..."

"Well..."

"Wha' I wanna say is whatever it is that's gone on with you n her... fix it n fix it quick... she's a pretty one, no doubt about it... and I could see that you do love her... something like your mother and father, if I may say so meself! Wonderful little girl you have in Ginny Weasley, charming and nice, perfect for you... but what exactly has happened between you two? Why have you broken up?"

"It's not my fault this time... you see..."

Harry launched into a heartfelt explanation about his problems with Ginny, and how he had managed to make her mad, and in turn how mad he was at seeing idiot sixth years flirting with her all day.

"Alrigh' Harry... the question is, do you still want her in your life?"

"Of course I do... she's Ginny. There's no one else better than her... but I'm NOT apologizing or anything, its not my fault! I meant every word I said!"

"You may say that now, but a time may come when its too late to swallow yer words. You may regret it one day, 'Arry... if you get the chance to make things up with little Ginny Weasley, you better well take it... don't let pride get in yer way... if the chance comes, you better well take it... or you may just end up regretting it for the rest of your life."

Harry saw a strange, pained look in Hagrid's eyes, as if he was advising Harry on his own bad experiences.

"If the chance comes... you better well take it..."