CHAPTER EIGHT
❝destiny❞

⋆

HER RELATIONSHIP WITH DRACO HAD NOT IMPROVED SINCE OCTOBER. It was now February and there was still a stagnation between them. They worked together in silence, talking only when needed and even though Rosalie liked to pretend to think she was stone cold, that meaningless relationships did not affect her, it was getting hard to keep believing that.

          For she knew what her relationship with Draco truly was; they were partners in crime, partners in this task and maybe another later, but they were not friends. They held nothing close between them that would allow her to truly feel this, to feel this brokenness and a longing for it to come back. They had barely had any conversation that hadn't pertained to their mission, so she had no reason to be sad. There was no reason for this pang in her heart when she thought about him or when he turned away from her.

          Yet, even though logically she knew that there was no reason for this – that this was petty and should not affect her in the slightest way – it still did. She still hurt and flinched whenever he looked away from her, seemingly too disgusted by her to even see her face. To notice that she was even there.

          And it still hurt when he would not say a word to her, when he would give her a cold tone in his answers. Rosalie hated that she felt this way, that there was a feeling between the two of them that wasn't just the partnership she wished it was. No, it had seemed in their time together that she had begun to care for him. To feel sympathetic for his duty, how he was forced into this while she had chosen it. She felt a sadness and a guiltiness whenever they met together to work on the Vanishing Cabinet.

          She wanted to apologize, to explain to him her choice, but every time she got close to spilling it all, to displaying her vulnerability, her brained stopped. Her mouth wouldn't open, her voice wouldn't work, nothing would come out to explain it. Her mind was not allowing her to tell him them truth; her mind was keeping her safe.

          Of course her mind would. Telling him the truth risked exposure to her disloyalty and could lead to her death but it would also place Draco in a position of beheading. Well, a killing curse to be truthful, but it might cause his termination. Yet, even though it was safer not to say a word and to allow this divide between them, Rosalie wanted to close the gap.

          It was dangerous, it was impractical; it was full of emotions that she shouldn't be having, yet it was still there and it nagged her constantly.

          And soon her will broke, her mind couldn't hold her back; she had to fix this. She wanted to fix this because this could be a friendship, this could be the end to her but the beginning of some connection with a human that she had been lacking for such a long time. She needed to say this, she needed to let it all out.

          "Draco," she choked out, determined not to freeze; determined to tell him everything that she had been harboring, wanting to tell him for so long but found herself unable to speak.

          He stopped what he was doing and looked at her expectantly, though his gaze did not last long before just looking past her. There was a pang inside her.

          "I have to admit, I wasn't entirely truthful with you when you asked me why I joined the Death Eaters," she said carefully, trying to ease the panic rising inside her. This could be the wrong move, this could be the step that ended everything. Dumbledore would not be happy with her if he found out, but she had to do this.

          She took a step forward, ignoring the confusion that had lightly touched his features for a second before his face turned back to stone. "I didn't lie to you either. I do want those things...I want power and glory, but not for being a Death Eater – not for killing Dumbledore," Rosalie continued. "I am a spy for the Order of the Phoenix. You heard of them, right?"

          Draco nodded, answering her question, but he stayed silent. Bowing his head, he was clearly deep in thought, taking in the information she had told him.

          "You're a spy for the other side? They sent a minor like you into this?" Draco asked her, his tone full of anger when he looked back up at her.

          Rosalie was taken aback from this. She expected anger at her, she expected for him to say that it made sense in a way...but she did not expect him to say this against the Order. To question why they would send in a teenage girl like herself into this war, and it made her question Dumbledore as well – even if only for a second.

          "Yes," she nodded, "I report to Dumbledore everything I know from the Death Eaters."

          "So he knows that we're planning on killing him?" Draco asked her.

          Rosalie nodded again, "And he's okay with it. He accepts it, knows that it needs to happen."

          He took another moment to process the words. Returning with, "Promise me that you aren't going to sabotage this. I need to know that this will all go according to plan. I can't lose my mother."

          Again, Rosalie couldn't help but be shocked by Draco. He was surprising, an enigma that she had thought she figured out, only know he was proving her wrong. She truly did not know a thing about Draco Malfoy, as she had originally thought. It was strange and alarming; she could not allow this failure to happen again.

          "I promise," she told him, "I'm still a Death Eater, remember, and that means I can't look suspicious. Everything they ask me to do, I have to. I don't have a choice. We will see this through; the Vanishing Cabinet will be fixed and Dumbledore will die."

°°°

          A NOTE had been left on her bed by one of the house elves, telling her that Dumbledore had requested a meeting with her that night around eleven. It also left his password, which he often changed so that anyone dangerous who learned it one day wouldn't be allowed in to harm him the next. His wasn't the only one, seeing as to gain access into the Gryffindor tower one had to tell the Fat Lady the correct password.

          And that night, around ten minutes until eleven, Rosalie left her bed and slipped downstairs, out of the tower and through the corridors of the castle until she reached the entrance of Dumbledore's office.

          "Peppermints," she told the gargoyle, watching as the staircase to his office appeared. It always amused her how Dumbledore's passwords were different types of candies, bringing a small smile on her face that was sure to be gone by the time she reached his office.

          She made her way up the stairs, going into the office and once there, she took her seat which faced his desk. There was not a long wait time until Dumbledore himself appeared and sat at his desk and gave her a serene smile.

          "Miss Allen, it's wonderful to see you again," he greeted her, as he often did when they meet together.

          "You saw me last week," Rosalie reminded him, though she was sure that he hadn't forgotten, "That's not a very long time."

          "Well, I have been gone for business the past few days. Felt longer to me than just a week because of what was happening," he replied and she nodded, accepting that. He didn't often elaborate on the trips he had been taking this year and she knew better than to ask questions. "How have you been?"

          "Alright. Draco and I are still working on the Vanishing Cabinet, it's coming along. It's working but we're not able to send it exactly where we need it to be, so not completely done yet."

          Dumbledore nodded, "And my death?"

          "Still looking on ways to poison you," Rosalie answered. It had been incredibly weird and uncomfortable when they first began to talk during the school year and he asked her this, but now as time progressed it became more normal. "Neither of us want to use the killing curse."

          "As I have told you before, all is taken care of. The two of you won't become murderers if you are able to hold off Draco until the time I tell you," he said.

          It was supposed to comfort her, she thought. The safeness that she would not be the one to kill him or know that it was Draco who had sent him to his deathbed, but it was not. There was no comfort in knowing that he was going to die and all she could do was know; all she could do was allow it.

          This was supposed to absolve her from the guilt, but it wouldn't. She still felt responsible because Voldemort had ordered him to die by the end of year by their hands and even though it would not be them, she still knew. She still knew this was going to happen and was telling Dumbledore that this was his last year.

          "I know," she said back.

          "It is my destiny," he continued, "I did not believe in destiny when I was younger; I did not think of it as the tell-all, I wanted to defy it – I wanted to prove that I could write my own fate, take it into my own hands. Those were the thoughts of a foolish boy, but I have grown. Destiny will always find you, Miss Allen, it is not wise to run from it."

          She did not know what to say, so she stayed silent, only nodding her head so that he knew she was listening intently and soaking up his advice to her.

          "Everyone has a destiny, we cannot create our own path. It was already written to happen. For me, it is to die before the year ends. For Harry, it is to defeat Dumbledore. And for you...you will be the guide to Harry so that he may become the savior."

          She frowned. "What do you mean?"

          Dumbledore smiled, "You wanted to be remembered, am I correct? Well, you will be remembered as the girl who helped Harry Potter find the horcruxes needed to destroy Voldemort. It will be a valiant legacy."

          But it was not the one she wanted.