And All That Could Have Been

And All That Could Have Been

Prologue: The Persistence Of Loss

It was quiet. Too quiet. They were planning something. Were they? The wreckage in the house was worse than what one would expect from a giant earthquake. Smashed China lamps, ripped fabric and stuffing from the furniture, destroyed paintings that once hung magnificently on the walls, now on the floor, gigantic slashes down the middle.

"Are they still here?" Kisa Cordova-Snape asked her mother, both of them hiding in a closet in Kisa's room. The Death Eaters had broken into their house, looking for both her and her mother.

"Yes, I think so." Her mother turned to her, a look of seriousness in her eyes. She pulled out a small velvet bag and handed it to Kisa. "We must be quiet. Kisa, I need you to listen carefully. Go to Hogwarts, find your father, and tell him we need his help. Tell him something much more worse than Voldemort is here. Tell him, please, tell him that there isn't much time left."

"What about you? What are you going to do?" Kisa asked, looking at the contents of the bag. She knew the answer before her mother even answered her.

"I will distract them long enough for you to get to the fireplace if they get in here before you leave. You must hurry."

"I am not leaving without you! You can't take them all on by yourself! There must be a different way!"

"NO! Please, Kisa, for both our sakes, and the sake of your father. You must warn him!"

"This is his fault. If he hadn't joined the Death Eaters, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Yes I know. But you know what else you have to do. You need to help Harry Potter. You know what is coming, and what is here."

Of course I do. Kisa thought. She'd seen it in her dreams - nightmares - ever since she could remember. Before she could say anything else, she froze. Footsteps. They were near the bedroom. She eyed the fireplace. She needed to get to it.

"Please. Be safe. I can't bear it if you die." She looked down at the bag her mother gave her. "This is the Floo Powder you made? The one that -"

"Automatically closes the fireplace from the Network, yes. Now go!"

She opened the closet door, and heard the voices of the Death Eaters outside the bedroom, deciding on which door to open next. Hopefully, they choose a different door... The doorknob rattled. Or not.

"Kisa, go!"

She ran to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of the powder, threw it in the fireplace, and yelled, "Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Office!" The warm, green whirlwind swallowed her, right when the Death Eaters burst into her room. She saw her mother whip out her wand... and then there was nothing but green.

The fireplace spat her out and she landed in a heap, right on Dumbledore's office floor. Or would have been Dumbledore's office floor. What once were filled with unusual gold and silver trinkets were now filled with unfamiliar books. And Fawkes didn't look like his brilliant self. The feathers were dull and his neck craned down. And it wasn't time for him to molt.

"Is this right? This doesn't look like... What room is this?"

"The new Headmistress's office." A disembodied voice piped up behind her.

"Who said that?" Kisa said her wand at the ready. If someone was going to attack her, she was going to be ready.

"Me, you ingrate!" Phineas Nigellus yelled from his picture frame.

"Nigellus. What do you mean 'The new Headmistress's office'?" Kisa asked, fearing what Phineas was going to say.

"Dumbledore's dead. And you wouldn't believe who killed him..." He gave a little sad chuckle. "Your father, Severus Snape."

Kisa just stared. Dead? He can't be dead. No. And father killing him? No. He wouldn't stoop down to this level, never. "You're lying. He's not dead. He can't be. Not yet." Disbelief. Utter disbelief.

"If you don't believe me, go down to the lake. You'll see a white tomb. Then we'll see who's right." Before he finished his sentence, Kisa was out the door.

She ran down the stairs, careful not to trip onto any trick stairs. Nearly once she tripped over Mrs. Norris, and hoped to God that she didn't get caught by Filch the Caretaker. By the time she reached the empty Entrance Hall, she was out of breath and wished that the barrier preventing Apparition was non-existent. She pushed though the giant doors and ran faster than she thought she could, praying, hoping that the white tomb Phineas had mentioned wasn't there. He couldn't be dead. He's Albus Dumbledore. He wouldn't let someone like her father kill him. Not in a million years!

She kept that thought in her head, denying the fact that Dumbledore could be dead, and that Phineas was telling the truth.

This is... until she saw the white tomb right in front of her. The pristine slab of stone that held Dumbledore's body was right there. And she couldn't take her eyes off of it. "It must be someone else. Yeah." She ran towards it, hoping that the name chiseled into the stone bore someone else's name... but no. It was Albus Dumbledore's name. He was dead. He's not coming back. After all of these years... And now he's dead. He's gone. Dead.

Tears fell freely from her eyes, there was no denying it. He was gone forever, never to return.

And another though dawned on her.

What's the Wizarding World going to do?

What was Harry Potter going to do?

What was she going to do?