Draco's POV:

My feet led me through the castle, somehow knowing exactly where to go. I knew what I was to do. I knew exactly how to lure Dumbledore into my trap.

The clicking of my shoes on the stone stairs echoed through the corridor, my wand clenched tightly in my hand. I was about to do the unforgivable and my head hurt thinking about it, but I could justify it by telling myself that I was doing it so Lizzie didn't have to.

At the top of the stairs, I walked to the railing and looked out into the night sky. My eyes automatically found my constellation. Draco, the dragon, snaked across the sky. "I'm sorry," I said to no one in particular before lifting my wand and pointing it to the sky. "Morsmordre." Once this new snake began to snake its way across the sky, I took a deep breath and walked down a few steps, just out of view.

I knew Dumbledore wasn't in the castle. Everyone knew. He had taken Potter out somewhere. And once he saw the Dark Mark above the astronomy tower, he would apparate here in a heartbeat. Right into my trap.

It was a few minutes before I heard the tell tale crack of apparation and two pairs of feet on the stones of the ground above me.

"What does it mean?" a familiar voice asked. "Is it the real Mark? Has someone definitely been - Professor?" I cursed under my breath. I should have seen it coming. Dumbledore had taken Potter out. I should have known Dumbledore would have brought Potter here.

I heard Dumbledore mutter something and Harry begin to argue before Dumbledore cut him off. Potter's light footsteps walked towards the stairs and I began to panic. I stomped on the stair I was standing on, making it seem as if I was running up the stairs before throwing the door open and shouting "Expelliarmus!", my wand pointed at Dumbledore. His wand flew over the side of the astronomy tower, plummeting to the ground below.

The old man was standing alone under the stars, leaning against the rampart railing, white in the face as if whatever he and Potter had done tonight had almost killed him. "Good evening, Draco," he mumbled from the corner of his mouth. He winced from this simple task.

I took a step forward towards the man, my wand not wavering from its target. I looked around the two of us. Potter was nowhere to be seen, but I was sure I had heard his voice. "Who else is here?"

"A question I might ask you," the old man countered easily and calmly, avoiding my question. "Or are you acting alone?" I clenched my jaw. I wouldn't let him know of Lizzie. She was not going to take this fall.

"No," I answered. "There are others. Death eaters are here in your castle tonight." I shifted my grasp on my wand, my knuckles stiff from my tight grip.

"Well, well," the old man drawled. He seemed pained. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah," I panted. "Right under your nose and you never realized." My heart was going a million miles a minute.

"Ingenious. Yet... Forgive me... Where are they now? You seem unsupported."

"I'd imagine they met some of your guard. They're having a battle below. Can't you hear it?" I paused to allow the sounds of the battle I had only just realized was raging at the bottom of the stairs to reach our ears. "They won't be long. I came on ahead. We have a job to do."

"We?" Dumbledore questioned cautiously. I cursed myself.

"I. I have a job to do." The old man raised an eyebrow but didn't press any further.

"Well then. You must go on and do it, my dear boy."

I did nothing but stare at the old man. He knew what I was to do. I didn't know how he knew but he did, and here he was, inviting me to kill him.

And then he did something incredible. He smiled.

"You are not a killer, Draco," Dumbledore said softly.

"How do you know?" I snapped. "You don't know what I'm capable of. You don't know what I've done!"

"Oh yes I do," he spoke with a nod of his head. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts. So feeble that I wonder if your heart is really in it."

"It has been in it!" I sneered. "I've been working on it all year and now tonight..." I trailed off as someone let out a yelp below us. I stiffened and looked over my shoulder at the stairs, expecting someone to come racing up the stairs to stop me.

"Who are you protecting, Draco?" the old man asked, drawing my gaze back to him. "You mentioned that you have a partner in this matter. Where are they? Who are they?"

"It's me," a voice spoke vehemently behind me. "He's trying to protect me." Lizzie walked up beside me, her eyes and wand pointed at Dumbledore.

"Ah, Miss Samuels. I should have known."

"What are you doing here?" I hissed.

"We're in this together, Draco," she snapped.

"Bloody hell, Lizzie! Go help them downstairs! You can't be up here!" I tried to get rid of her. I didn't want her to see what I was about to do.

"No," she spoke forcefully. "I'm not leaving. We brought the others here together, we finish this together." I growled in frustration, knowing that she wasn't going anywhere soon.

"Ah yes, you have managed to introduce the other Death Eaters into my school, which, I admit, I thought was impossible. How did you do it?" Dumbledore asked easily.

Neither Lizzie or I answered his question as louder and seemingly more violent sounds from the battle below wafted up the stairs.

"Perhaps you ought to get the job done alone," Dumbledore offered. "What if your backup has been thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realised, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight, too. And after all, you don't really need help... I have no wand at the moment... I cannot defend myself."

Once again, Lizzie and I stared at the man, saying nothing.

"I see," Dumbledore nodded. "You are afraid."

"I am not afraid!" I snapped. "It's you who should be scared!"

"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe... so tell me, while we wait for your friends... how did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it."

"We had to mend the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement," Lizzie spoke simply, as if it had not taken us almost a year to finish.

"Ahhhh," Dumbledore's sigh was mostly a groan. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if something were paining him. "That was clever. There is a pair, I assume?"

"The other's in Borgin and Burke's," Lizzie offered when I didn't speak. I snapped my head in her direction. "They make a sort of passage."

"Very good," murmured Dumbledore. "So the Death Eaters were able to pass from Borgin and Burkes into the school to help you... a clever plan, a very clever plan... and, as you say, right under my nose..."

"Yeah, it was!" I said stiffly.

"But there were times," Dumbledore went on, "weren't there, when you were not sure you would succeed in mending the Cabinet? And you resorted to crude and badly judged measures such as sending me a cursed necklace that was bound to reach the wrong hands... poisoning mead there was only the slightest chance I might drink..."

"Yeah, well, you still didn't realise who was behind that stuff, did you?" I sniggered, as Dumbledore slid a little down the ramparts, the strength in his legs apparently fading. What had he and Potter done tonight?

"As a matter of fact, I did," said Dumbledore. "I was sure it was you. Though I wasn't aware you had a partner." His eyes flickered over to Lizzie, who clenched her jaw.

"Why didn't you stop me, then?" I demanded.

"I tried, Draco. Professor Snape has been keeping watch over you on my orders -"

"He hasn't been doing your orders, he promised my mother -"

"Of course that is what he would tell you, Draco, but -"

"He's a double-agent, you stupid old man, he isn't working for you, you just think he is!"

"We must agree to differ on that, Draco. It so happens that I trust Professor Snape -"

"Well, you're losing your grip, then!" I sneered.

"Very gratifying," said Dumbledore mildly. "We all like appreciation for our own hard work, of course... but you must have had an accomplice, other than Miss Samuels of course, all the same... someone in Hogsmeade, someone who was able to slip Katie the - the - aaaah." Dumbledore closed his eyes again and nodded, as though he was about to fall asleep. "...of course... Rosmerta. How long has she been under the Imperius Curse?"

"Got there at last?" I taunted, as someone - a girl - screamed from below, the sound echoing in my ears and making me flinch.

"There is little time," Dumbledore whispered. "Let us discuss your options."

"Our options?" Lizzie squeaked. "Our options? We haven't got any options!"

"We're standing here with our wands pointed at you. We're going to kill you," I said shakily.

"My dear boy, let us have no more pretence about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first Disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means."

"We haven't got any options!" Lizzie said sharply, her face suddenly white as the moon. "We've got to do it! We've got to kill you! Or he'll kill us all..."

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position," said Dumbledore. "Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realised that I suspected you."

Lizzie flinched at the use of the Dark Lord's name.

"I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you," continued Dumbledore. "But now at last we can speak plainly to each other... no harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived... I can help you, Draco, Lizzie."

"No, you can't," Lizzie said, her wand arm shaking violently. "Nobody can. He's got my mum. He'll kill her. We've got no choice."

"Come over to the right side, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight, Draco, to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban... when the time comes we can protect him too... and Lizzie, we can send a mission to rescue your mother. Come over to the right side...  you are not a killers..."

I stared at Dumbledore. Could he really save our families?

"But we got this far, didn't we?" I said slowly. "They thought we'd die in the attempt, but we're here...  and you're in our power... we're the ones with the wands... you're at our mercy..."

"No, Draco," said Dumbledore quietly. "It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."

I dropped my wand a fraction, and saw Lizzie waver as well from the corner of my eye.

Then suddenly footsteps were thundering up the stairs and a second later four people in dark robes appeared, their wands drawn. It seemed as though the Death Eaters had won the battle below.

"Dumbledore cornered! Dumbledore wandless! Well done, Draco! Well done, Lizzie!" Amycus Carrow cackled behind me.

"Good evening, Amycus," Dumbledore said calmly. "And you've brought Alecto too... Charming..."

Alecto gave an angry little titter. "Think your little jokes'll help you on your deathbed then, old man?"

"Jokes? No, no, these are manners," Dumbledore replied.

"Do it," Greyback growled beside me, his breath overwhelming me. I could smell a powerful mixture of dirt, sweat, and, unmistakably, of blood coming from him. His filthy hands had long yellowish nails.

"Is that you, Fenrir?" Dumbledore asked.

"That's right," the werewolf rasped. "Pleased to see me, Dumbledore?"

"No, I cannot say that I am..." Dumbledore replied.

Fenrir Greyback grinned, showing pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely.

"But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore."

"Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual... you have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?"

"That's right," said Greyback. "Shocks you, that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?"

"Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little," said Dumbledore, who crinkled his nose ever so slightly. "And, yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live..." His eyes flickered to Lizzie beside me.

"I didn't," I breathed, feeling the need to defend myself. "I didn't know he would be coming."

"I wouldn't want to miss a trip to Hogwarts, Dumbledore," rasped Greyback. "Not when there are throats to be ripped out... delicious, delicious..." And he raised a yellow fingernail and picked at his front teeth, leering at Dumbledore.

"I could do you for afters, Dumbledore..."

"No," said Yaxley sharply, making Lizzie flinch. "We've got orders. They've got to do it. Now, and quickly."

But at that moment, there were renewed sounds of scuffling from below and a voice shouted, "They've blocked the stairs - Reducto! REDUCTO!"

"Quickly!" Yaxley hissed. My hand was shaking so violently that I could hardly aim it, and Lizzie was beyond reluctant to cast any curse, let alone the Killing Curse.

"I'll do it," snarled Greyback, moving towards Dumbledore with his hands outstretched, his teeth bared.

"I said no!" shouted Yaxley; there was a flash of light and the werewolf was blasted out of the way; he hit the ramparts and staggered, looking furious.

"Draco, do it, or stand aside so one of us -" screeched Bellatrix, but at that precise moment the door to the ramparts burst open once more and there stood Snape, his wand clutched in his hand as his black eyes swept the scene, from Dumbledore slumped against the wall, to the four Death Eaters, including the enraged werewolf, and me and Lizzie.

"We've got a problem, Snape," said the lumpy Amycus, whose eyes and wand were fixed alike upon Dumbledore, "the boy doesn't seem able -"

But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly.

"Severus..."

I never thought Dumbledore would be one for begging, but here he was, standing before me, clutching his chest and staring at Snape with pleading eyes.

Snape said nothing, but walked forwards and pushed me roughly out of the way, into Lizzie. I turned and caught her easily before she hit the floor. The other three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed.

Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.

"Severus... please..." Dumbledore tried one last time to beg for mercy.

Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. My eyes widened in horror as I watched Albus Dumbledore was blasted backwards where he seemed to hang suspended in the air for a moment, until he fell back, over the railing and fell from sight.