Lizzie's POV:

"Do you remember me?" I asked, trying to keep my voice sweet.

"I do," the Fat Lady drawled, crossing her arms in front of her large bust. "You are the Slytherin who demanded to speak to that Hermione Granger last year."

"That was me," I admitted, somewhat embarrassed. "I'm really sorry about that. It was kind of an emergency."

"What are you doing here? By now you must have figured out that Miss Granger didn't return to Hogwarts this year."

"Yeah, I noticed," I grumbled. I had written a few letters to Harry and Hermione, sending them to the Burrow, but had received no answers. "I'm here to see Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley."

"As I told you the last time you came looking for a Gryffindor, I cannot see through the back end of my portrait, nor can I speak through it." She rolled her eyes.

"You can walk between portraits, right? So could you please walk to a portrait in the common room and see if they are in there?" I put on my best pleading face and spoke in a charming voice, hoping to appeal to her sweet side.

"Why should I help a Slytherin?" she countered easily, obviously nonplussed by my pleasantries.

"Because I'm asking nicely and I don't have to," I replied, dropping the niceness and speaking a bit more harshly. "I could hex you off of your hinges if you'd rather." She seemed to think this was thoroughly frightening and turned on her heel, waddling from her portrait. "Brilliant choice," I muttered with a frown.

It was perhaps five minutes before she returned. "They'll be out any moment now," she mumbled, put off by losing our standoff.

"Thank you." I gave her a small smile which she pretended not to see.

When her painting swung open, two people walked out. The short, round faced boy who walked out gave me a tentative smile. He had a large, purple bruise on his right cheekbone. The petite, freckled girl glared at me as if I were a murderer.

"Hi-" I began, only to be cut off by Ginny.

"What do you want?" she snapped with a sneer.

"I came to talk to you two," I responded, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

"About?"

"Could we go to a more private place?" I asked, looking to the painting of the Fat Lady, who was pretending not to eavesdrop.

"Why would-" Ginny began.

"I know a place," Neville cut in, giving Ginny a stiff look.

"Okay," I said. "Lead the way."

The boy started to walk away and Ginny followed, walking quickly to catch up to him. I followed behind the two of them, trying to make as little noise as possible.

While we were walking, they had a hushed conversation. I only caught bits and pieces.

"Why are we-" Ginny whispered.

"-what Harry would do," Neville retaliated.

"I don't care what-"

"-at least hear her out."

By the time we reached Neville's intended destination, I could tell that neither of them really wanted to talk to me, and I didn't blame them. Rumors of what had happened on the astronomy tower the night of Dumbledore's death had spread through the school like wildfire.

"What do you want?" Ginny repeated once we were inside of the Room of Requirement, once again folding her arms.

"I came to explain," I said softly, wringing my hands and trying not to look them straight in the eye.

"We don't want your-" Ginny snapped.

Neville cut her off. "Shut up, Ginny," he sighed. Her head flicked in his direction, and she remained silent.

"Okay," I whispered. "The summer holiday before last, Draco stopped answering my letters completely, until I received a letter from Malfoy Manor asking me to go there, so I did. I thought Draco had summoned me to explain why he hadn't been answering me and to apologise, but I was way wrong.

"When I arrived, Lucius Malfoy led me into one of the rooms where my father, Draco's parents, Draco, You-Know-Who, and I all sat down. My father, who walked out on my family when I was a baby, offered me over to You-Know-Who. He just turned me over like I was a possession. They threatened my mum. Said that if I didn't join them, they would kill her." When I said this, Neville's eyes softened, but Ginny continued to glare. "I was assigned to work on a task with Draco. We were to mend the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Hidden Things to allow access into the castle to the Death Eaters, and we were to kill Dumbledore."

"So it was you! Harry was right!" Ginny roared, looking to Neville, who gave her one of the sternest expressions I had ever seen.

"To ensure that we would follow through with the task, he kidnapped my mum."

"He what?!" Neville exclaimed, his mouth open in horror.

"He sent Lucius Malfoy and my own father to kidnap my mum while we were eating dinner." I looked down to my hands, which were beginning to sweat. "Draco and I spent months mending the Vanishing Cabinet and trying to find alternate ways of killing Dumbledore without casting the curse. We sent Katie Bell to the castle with a parcel that contained a cursed necklace, and we gave Slughorn poisoned mead, thinking he would give it to Dumbledore. They both failed."

Ginny opened her mouth, probably to shout at me about almost killing her brother, but Neville gave her another stern look, so she shut her mouth.

"In the end, we finished the Vanishing Cabinet and brought the Death Eaters into the castle, just as we were asked to, but Draco froze me with a Petrificus Totalus and went to kill Dumbledore himself, because he didn't want me involved. I managed to get out of the spell and track him down, just as he cornered a wandless Dumbledore. But neither of us could cast the spell. The Death Eaters found us and taunted us, telling us to kill him already, but we couldn't." I took a breath. "And then Snape showed up. He was the one to kill Dumbledore. I watched Dumbledore fall and that image will forever be burned into my mind. He will haunt me until the day I day and probably after. I will always be the girl who brought about Albus Dumbledore's death.

"Snape hurried us from the castle, stopping to duel Harry. He told us to keep going, so we did. We apparated to Malfoy Manor, where You-Know-Who was waiting for us. He congratulated us before I demanded he give my mum back. By this point, he had had her locked up for about six months, and he gave her back.

"She was frail. So very, very frail. It was as if they hadn't fed her that entire time. Draco and I took her to a guest bedroom and left her to rest while we went to brew a potion that would help her. When we got back-" A tear rolled down my cheek. I reached up and wiped it away as quickly as I could. "When we got back, she was gone."

"Oh..." Neville trailed off, his face softening. "Oh, Lizzie, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise, please..." I begged, wiping more tears from my face. "I need to apologise for getting everyone in this mess in the first place. I'm so very sorry. I'm sorry I became a Death Eater. I'm sorry I let Death Eaters into the castle. I'm sorry for poisoning Ron. I'm sorry for cursing Katie. I'm sorry for killing Dumbledore..."

"You didn't kill Dumbledore," Ginny mumbled. "Snape did."

"If it weren't for me- if it weren't for me Dumbledore would still be alive," I snivelled.

"You don't know that," Neville replied quietly, trying to comfort me. "One of You-Know-Who's biggest goals was to bring about Dumbledore's demise."

"I want him dead. I want You-Know-Who dead. I want Harry to kill him if I can't kill him myself," I whispered in a deadly voice. "I want Hogwarts to go back to the way it was before. I want Dumbledore back."

"Harry'll get him," Neville stated.

"Will he?" I asked. "You don't even know where he is, do you?"

"Well, no..." He looked to Ginny, asking for help. "But we have to trust that he knows what he's doing."

"I'm sure he does," Ginny spoke, giving Neville a look.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Lizzie, but we have to get going. It's almost curfew and I don't fancy any more detentions with the Carrows."

"Yeah, thank you for listening," I responded. Neville gave me a nod and a small smile as he and Ginny walked out of the room.

Once the door shut behind them, I looked to the ceiling and sighed. "Wherever you are Harry, I hope you know what you're doing. We need you."