CHAPTER ELEVEN
❝blood and glory❞

⋆

IN THE MORNING IT HAD RAINED, FORETELLING THE EVENTS THAT WOULD FOLLOW THAT NIGHT. A gloomy presence sat over all the students in the Great Hall as they ate their dinner, melancholy which confused them as they did not know where this great sadness had its origin. All except for two, who sat at different tables and ate their dinner as if they did had not received the signal for it to happen that night.

She peered at their faces, the students which she surrounded herself with and mimicked for her own safety, seeing the frowns that coated them and the slumping shoulders as they too felt some weight in their chest they did not know the reason it belonged. Later, who someone told the story of the night, told them the chain of events, they would forget this moment. A simple dinner where everyone felt a weight would be forgotten, no one piecing together the mood with the events that followed because their brain did not see the importance, except for her.

Usually, laugher filled the air or at least much louder talking, yet tonight the room remained quiet, hushed whispers and silent giggles, as if they knew that this time was no laughing matter. The wolf in sheep's clothing looked away from her peers and to the professors table, to the middle of it where the headmaster sat.

He knew the importance of the night; he had sent out the signal to her and foretold her and her partner that everything happened that night. This night marked the death of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, yet he smiled at McGonagall and sipped at his soup as if it were any regular night.

Maybe because everyone else perceived it to be, no one else knew the importance and wouldn't until they heard the shrill laughter of Death Eaters and the proclamation of his death. Maybe it was because he had grown accustomed to the thought of dying and had time to come to peace with it, knowing well for a year that the school year ended with his death. He knew what was to come, he had made the decision for it to be that night, and yet he was living it as if there would be a tomorrow on earth for him.

She looked down at her hands in shame. This what a part of their agreement; this was her mission assigned from the Dark Lord himself and it always had to end this way. She had known this day would come since summer when he had assigned it to her and her partner, she had known that it was going to be that exact day since morning when she found the paper on her bedside table. The slip saying nothing more than tonight in the Astronomy tower which had caused her stomach to plummet as she knew what the events of tonight would lead to.

Her head moved up as her eyes landed on her soup. She had to blend in, she had to act as if she was a hungry student and nothing more. She was not a murderer; she was not a Death Eater. So, she took her spoon and brought more of the broth into her mouth. She was a Gryffindor girl who did not know the importance of the night; she was innocent.

°°°

"ARE YOU ready?" Draco asked her as they stood in the Room of Requirement. They had just sent the item that signaled for the other Death Eaters to come through into the Vanishing Cabinet and now they only had to play the waiting game.

"No," Rosalie answered, a small laugh spilling out her lips because this was the night that would end her life; an important day that marked a charge, a time where she could not come back from. All she could go was forward now, "But we don't have a choice. Are you ready?"

Draco shook his head, in agreement with her feelings, "I don't want to kill him, Rosalie."

"And you won't," Rosalie assured him, "All you do is wait it out until whatever Dumbledore has planned. He promised me that you would not be the one to kill him."

Draco swallowed but nodded nonetheless, not comforted by the words as he knew that Dumbledore's plan would still have him watch as his headmaster is murdered. Maybe not by his own wand, but still by his own actions.

"You should probably go ahead and get to the tower. Dumbledore wasn't very specific on the time," Rosalie told him.

"Shouldn't I wait for them? They'll want to see the great Dumbledore - their Dark Lord's greatest enemy - perish," Draco sneered out the title, though his voice was quiet as he spoke as if the Death Eaters were in the walls and could hear them.

Rosalie stilled for a moment - this was real, Dumbledore, her ally and her reason for being a Death Eater, was going to die tonight and it was by her own actions throughout the year - before nodding. "I suppose you're right. Stay then."

And Draco did. Rosalie wanted to tap her leg or play with her hands, anything to relieve the nerves building up inside of her, but she stayed still. She could not appear anxious in front of the others when they came through; she had to be the cold and pristine girl that they had always seen her as. She could not look as if there were any doubts in her mind, giving them any notion not to completely trust her.

She was Rosalie Allen; the Death Eater, and only a Death Eater. Not the Gryffindor girl, not the wolf in sheep's clothing, or even the double agent for the Order. She was the Death Eater and because of that, she had to remain completely calm. She had to look ready, happy, joyful for this time to finally come.

So she held up her chin, looking forward at the Vanishing Cabinet, and placed a small smirk on her face. That was the only emotion that slipped through, for she was ready and excited that this moment had finally come. Down with Dumbledore and long live Voldemort, as exactly they wanted.

And when they did come through, it was Yaxley who first stepped out of the cabinet. He looked around, a sick grin on his face as he laughed. He looked at the two students. "You really did it!" he cheered, laughing more as the Carrow siblings exited next.

The same sick grin was on their faces, almost a universal symbol amongst all Death Eaters. The soulless eyes and the Joker smiles, cheering for what was to come. More entered after the siblings, looking at the students as well.

"Draco will take you to him," Rosalie told them, watching as the Malfoy boy was beginning to take them.

"And you won't be joining us?" Alecto Carrow raised an eyebrow at her.

Rosalie scoffed, "The whole point of having me in the ranks is that I blend in with the regular person. No one would suspect me of being a Death Eater - I was a part of the Order last year as well. The moment I'm seen with any of you my cover will be blown and my usefulness to the Dark Lord will seize. I'm the rat, remember?"

Alecto continued to sneer at her and raised her chin, but said nothing else and no one went to challenge her staying behind. They all followed Draco out, but she was sure that not all of them would be present at the Astronomy tower to witness the death of Albus Dumbledore. They would have enough witnesses for it to be true, for Draco and herself to remain unquestioned if his death was a real event or not.

Rosalie watched them all leave, heart heavy as she knew exactly what was going to be happen. By the end of the hour, Albus Dumbledore will be dead and Draco Malfoy will be outed as a Death Eater. Rosalie Allen would not be, but that did not excuse her from guilt. Her eyes shut, sucking in a breath. This had to happen, she told herself, this was always going to happen. Even if she wasn't a Death Eater, it would Draco alone or maybe with another friend - Dumbledore would have died tonight no matter what.

But at least, if she hadn't become a Death Eater, she could absolve herself from the guilt of his death.

°°°

SEVERUS SNAPE, Hogwarts' own Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and Potions before then, was named as the murderer of the Headmaster. Severus Snape, the head of the Slytherin house, was outed as a Death Eater since the first rise of Voldemort. Severus Snape had used the killing curse on Albus Dumbledore, causing the old man to fall out of the window of the Astronomy tower and land onto the ground of Hogwarts.

Harry Potter had witnessed his death and fought briefly against Snape before he had left Hogwarts, other Death Eaters laughing and rejoicing around the castle. Draco Malfoy, who had been seen with the Death Eaters (one of them, it was now known) had left with Snape and the batch of those who had gone back to their Headquarters.

All of the students of Hogwarts had gathered to where Dumbledore's body rested now. Their wands were raised, sparks coming out, to mourn and praise the life of Albus Dumbledore. Rosalie Allen, the wolf in sheep's clothing, the Gryffindor girl in the robes to prove it, stood with them.

She mimicked the expressions of those around her. A frown was steady on her face and sadness in her eyes, acting as if she had not known since the summer before that Albus Dumbledore had to die. Acting as if she had not known since that morning, when the rain poured down, prophesying the events that would unfold that night, that Albus Dumbledore was going to die.

No, for Rosalie Allen of Gryffindor, niece of Kingsley Shacklebolt - and Order of the Phoenix member - was not a Death Eaters. She was a simple student, she knew nothing more than the others. So she raised her wand, letting the sparks come from the tips, and stared at the gruesome scene before her.

Albus Dumbledore was dead, there was no hope.

The man who had come to her at the end of her fourth year, after the death of Cedric Diggory, and offered her a grab of power and glory, who made her become a Death Eater and was her informant for all that happened in the Order meetings she was not allowed to attend, was dead. She was truly on her own, with a new mission coming before her once the end of summer came.

No, when summer came, she would be brought by her uncle to the Burrow, the residency of the Weasley family, where she would stay until the end of July. She would then accompany Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger on their quest to find the remaining horcruxes and destroy them with the knowledge she had gained from Dumbledore himself, the dead man.

It was not the legacy she wanted, not the way or reason she wanted to claim her glory, but it was the legacy she was given. And as Dumbledore wanted her to do, she would help Harry Potter with all that she could and she would let him fulfill his own prophecy as the killer of Voldemort and savior to the wizarding world.

Her secret would be discovered in the midst of this, she would outed and be the wolf among them all, no longer just hiding underneath their clothing, but she would still be of help to them. It was her legacy, as Dumbledore had already told her, and she would fulfill it. She would be Rosalie Allen; the Death Eater who helped Harry Potter become the savior and nothing more. That was her glory, her fame, and she could not fight it.

But for now, she was in her robes (the wolf among them, hiding just in their clothing, hiding just in plain sight) with glory running through her veins as she watched the scene where blood had spilt.

end of 𝖛𝖊𝖎𝖓𝖘.