CHAPTER NINE
❝poisonous❞

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        "I'M GOING TO SEND SLUGHORN POISON," Draco told her, "Anonymously, of course, with a note that says to bring it to Dumbledore."

          Rosalie frowned at him. They had become much closer since her confession, since he knew her motives for joining the Death Eaters and since she had given him the consolation that she did care. That she wasn't a heartless, little girl with only world domination in her heart. She was a caring girl, too caring for the world, so she pretended that she didn't care at all.

          She closed the book she was flipping through, though her thumb stayed in the page so that she didn't completely lose it. "I thought we agreed about not killing Dumbledore until the last possible moment. Until he sends us the signal."

          Draco nodded, moving closer to her so sit down opposite of her. "We are, but the Death Eaters are getting restless. All we've given them are reports saying that the Vanishing Cabinet is coming along but it's not quite ready, and how we're still searching for the right way to murder him. They want something more, they want to hear that we've taken action again – like in October."

          "Right, when you almost murdered Katie Bell," Rosalie recalled, glad now that the girl was recovering and should be back up in the next month or so. She would hate to see a girl die during this process, especially since she was just a tool and not the target. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and now she was essentially still in a coma. It was terrible, but at least she wasn't dead and neither was Dumbledore.

          Though now, she was beginning to wish that he was. After he revealed to Rosalie her supposed "legacy", their relationship had been torn. She felt tricked; he said that she would be remembered, loved by all for centuries to come, but now he said that she would just be known as the Death Eater gone rogue who would help Harry Potter find the horcruxes needed to kill Voldemort.

          He called it a valiant legacy, but Rosalie didn't see it that way and she doubted that the true story would be printed for all to see. She was sure that in the future no one would know that she was a double agent. She doubted that the papers would recall that this had all been planned. No, they'll write her off as a once true Death Eater who woke up one day and decided to turn against the organization.

          She was so young, they would say, getting in over her head because of her abusive father. But she grew up, and when she did, she turned and helped the enemy, leading Harry Potter to the locations of the horcruxes.

          Except, she didn't know where they were. Dumbledore had told her nothing else about them yet, only about what they were and how he was going on journeys to find their exact locations. She was supposed to know the rest by the time he died but she wasn't sure she would.

          "I know, I made a mistake," Draco said snappishly, though from his eyes she knew that he was genuinely remorseful for his past actions, "But we have to do something else."

          "So you want to send poison to Slughorn so that he can give it to Dumbledore?" Rosalie inquired.

          "Yes," Draco nodded and she rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on. You don't have class with him, you don't know anything about him. Slughorn would never turn a bottle of champagne or any alcohol over to Dumbledore. He would keep it for himself."

          "So you're planning on poisoning Slughorn instead?" Rosalie said, sitting up more in her seat.

          Draco made a noise of confirmation. "It won't kill him – he's a potion master and it'll be something easily curable. I just need to be able to write back something to them all that Snape can confirm for us."

          "We can't just lie?" Rosalie asked, though even she knew that being untruthful wasn't an option. If they ever found out that the two of them had lied, it would be their end.

          He sent her a look conveying that she knew better than to ask, to think for a moment they could do that. While Rosalie could lie and say that she was completely loyal, this involved too many people – too many people who were also invested in Draco. It would be easy to see the lie, and she doubted that Snape would lie for them anyway.

          "I wish," he said after a moment, "It would be so much easier – safer, too."

          "Do you have the drink ready?" Rosalie asked him and he nodded.

          "Everything's ready. All I have to do now is get a house elf to give it to him," Draco told her and she said nothing else, only sent him a small smile before returning to her book.

°°°

          LIKE DRACO'S past plan, this one hadn't gone according to what they had agreed to. It was true that Slughorn hadn't given the bottle to Dumbledore, as the note had told him to, but had kept it for himself. "I kept forgetting," was the excuse Slughorn gave when asked about it later.

          Instead of it being Slughorn who was temporarily poisoned before he saved himself – as Rosalie and Draco had assumed and planned upon – it had been Ron Weasley. The details about why he was there that night and given a drink from that bottle were unclear, nothing leaking out that Rosalie could find and devour, but the Weasley boy was currently in the hospital wing because treated.

          Apparently, it had been Harry who saved him, not Slughorn, which was also a surprise for the duo and made them thankful that it had been Ron and not Slughorn since he might not have known what to do and would have died by their hands. That was something neither of them wanted. Rosalie had never killed another human being and she hoped to leave the war with that status still the same.

          She might be willing to become a Death Eater, but she was not willing to become a murderer. In her opinion, that was much worse and she never wanted to take another life. But now, her goal had also changed to include Draco. She wanted him to leave not killing anyone either, but if he acted too quickly, didn't wait for whatever Dumbledore planned to kill him, he might and Rosalie didn't know if she could live with that either.

          Ever since the attack, Rosalie had been more on edge. This was the second time this year that a student had been cursed or poisoned and now the staff was on high alert to find the culprit. Any minute could be her last; any minute could be Draco's last. They had been careful, no one knew he was there that day at The Three Broomsticks and no one knew who had written the note or had given the bottle to the house elf for Slughorn.

          It was no wonder she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Luna's voice.

          "What happened with Ron was horrible," the wispy girl told her, sitting down at the library table with her. She didn't seem to notice the reaction Rosalie had as she sat down, startling the girl.

          Rosalie's eyes were wide and she felt terror inside her. She knew that it was illogical to think that Luna knew what Draco and she had done – no one knew – but the thought still crossed her mind. "Yeah," she agreed, "It is."

          "Professor McGonagall is determined to find out who did it. Of course both of the items were meant for Dumbledore, but two Gryffindor students were harmed. She thinks there might be a connection," Luna continued.

          There wasn't, Rosalie wanted to tell her. It was purely coincidental. Rosalie herself hadn't even pieced to together that they were both from her house and it could be seen through that angle, even though it was clear that both items were meant to kill Dumbledore.

          Dumbledore, who still remained so terribly calm through it all. She knew why, of course, he knew that his death would come on his own terms, when he told Rosalie that it was time, but to the public...well, they didn't know the truth. All they knew was that two students were attacked and both of the gifts were meant for Dumbledore and yet he still remained apathetic. Security around him wasn't increasing, nothing had changed, and yet there was still someone right in the castle wanting him dead.

          And it was her. Rosalie Abigail Allen and Draco Lucius Malfoy. They were the ones trying to kill him, they were the ones who were going to be responsible for his death, and there was nothing she could do about it. Once it was over, no one was going to believe her when she said that she didn't want this. She would be branded as a killer, as a merciless Death Eater. No one would care about her story.

          There would be no glory for her.

          No matter what Dumbledore told her about a "valiant legacy", it would never happen. Someone would learn about her involvement and they would tell the world. That's where she was now. There was no glory in this anymore and she was beginning to learn that there never had been at all.