Chapter 319: The Astronomy Tower

Quinn covered ground in the hallways, jumping between Hogwarts' internal secret pathways. He kept an eye on the Recon, and with every passing second, he could see activity from several different people in the castle.

He jumped out of a secret pathway and sprinted to a T-corner nearest to him like an arrow shot from a bow. He skidded to a halt, and one full-motion, the magic flowed from his core to the world outside. The air cooled down, and ice crystal crackled, freezing in the air, starting from the middle and from the edges near the wall. Quinn exerted his magic, and in mere seconds, a thick ice barrier had blocked one hallway on the T-corner.

Quinn backed up and ran away from the ice barrier with his eyes on Recon as his legs did the walking for him. He watched as Recon showed him the position of two people on the floor above— Aurora Sinistra and Septima Vector. According to his estimates, both the professors would take the route he had just blocked to get to the Astronomy Tower. They would either try to take another course, a longer route, or try to destroy the barrier— whatever way they chose, it would buy him time.

He popped out at another path, and just like before, he shot a charged shot of ice magic, and it expanded into another thick wall, blocking one more path. . . . then another, one more, two more, three more, until a half a dozen different paths were ice-blocked.

Quinn again looked at Recon and browsed through the zoomed-out paths to find the one name he was looking for and found it moving towards the Astronomy Tower just like every other person that was out and awake at the moment.

He glanced to his right and saw a straight path, one turn around the corner, and the spiralling stairs to the Astronomy Tower would be clear sight. However, there was a Death Eater in his clear sight right now; his eyes were looking towards the stairs, and he hadn't seemed to notice Quinn.

Quinn pointed his palm towards the Death Eater, and one magic shot later, the Death Eater was lying on the ground.

He turned to his left and set his eyes on the short dark path. Hurried steps knocked on the marble floor, reverberating in the empty night, and with every footstep, the sound became louder until he saw billowing dark robes enter his sight.

". . . You."

"Severus Snape," said Quinn, looking at his potions professor.

Severus Snape stopped to a halt when he saw someone he wasn't expecting to see today.

"Who are you?" he asked, taking out his wand.

Quinn didn't reply verbally; instead, he raised his hand and shot a bone-breaking curse at Snape.

Snape conjured a silver shield and met the magic. He staggered a step when the curse pushed him back and made the shield groan and dent to almost the breaking point.

"You'll not be passing here today, Severus Snape," said Quinn, his magic flaring again.

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By the light of the Dark Mark hovering in the sky, Dumbledore climbed the spiralling stairs that led to the top of the tower was opened, something that he was sure Argus Filch diligently closed every night. There was no sign of a struggle, of a fight to the death, of a body; however, Dumbledore could feel the tenseness around him.

He stepped out to the roof, and his eyes immediately up at the green skull with its serpent's tongue glinting evilly above them. Dumbledore readied his wand as he walked near to the ramparts on the edges of the roof.

"Expelliarmus!"

Dumbledore didn't look back, and the red spell stopped before hitting him and fizzled away. He turned around; standing against the ramparts, very white in the face, Dumbledore still showed no sign of panic or distress. He merely looked across at his failed-disarmer and said, "Good evening, Draco."

Malfoy stepped forward, glancing around quickly to check that he and Dumbledore were alone.

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"Expelliarmus!" Draco yelled again, and a red jet again zipped at Dumbledore, but once again, it fizzled away before reaching him.

"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"

"No," said Draco, his eyes turning to the green Dark Mark. "I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

Draco kept a brave face, not showing any sign that Death Eaters weren't the only ones in the school tonight.

"Well, well," said Dumbledore, as though Malfoy was showing him an ambitious homework project. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah," said Malfoy, who was panting. "Right under your nose, and you never realized!

"Ingenious," said Dumbledore. "Yet . . . forgive me . . . where are they now? You seem unsupported."

"They're making sure that we are left undisturbed. To ensure that your lackeys don't interfere with what's going to happen here today."

"Hmm, I must say that you're confident if nothing more," Dumbledore smiled. "Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy."

There was silence. And in front of him, Draco Malfoy did nothing but stare at Albus Dumbledore, who, incredibly, smiled.

"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."

"How do you know?" said Malfoy at once. But he seemed to realize how childish the words had sounded and flushed under the greenish light. "You don't know what I'm capable of," said Malfoy more forcefully. "You don't know what I've done!"

"Oh yes, I do," said Dumbledore mildly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and the thing with poisoned chocolate that ended up circulating in Gryffindor. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts. . . . So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it."

"It has been in it!" said Malfoy vehemently. "I've been working on it all year, and tonight —"

Somewhere in the castle's depths below, Draco heard explosions; his shoulders stiffened and glanced over his shoulder.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight," said Dumbledore conversationally. "But you were saying . . . yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school, which, I admit, I thought impossible. . . . How did you do it?"

But Malfoy said nothing: He was still listening to whatever was happening below and seemed paralyzed.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," said Dumbledore. "What if your backup isn't able to hold back the professors, and I'm sure that soon the Aurors and my Order of Phoenix would be here soon."

Malfoy merely stared at him.

"I see," said Dumbledore kindly when Malfoy neither moved nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until they join you."

"I'm not afraid!" snarled Malfoy, though he still made no move to hurt Dumbledore. "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, and I don't think even if you wanted, you could kill me. . . . 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."

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Malfoy looked as though he was fighting down the urge to shout or to vomit. He gulped and took several deep breaths, glaring at Dumbledore, his wand pointing directly at the latter's heart. Then, as though he could not help himself, he said, "I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years."

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"Aaaah." Dumbledore's sigh was half a groan. He closed his eyes for a moment. "That was clever, and if there's a Vanishing Cabinet, there must always be a pair of them."

"In Borgin and Burkes," said Malfoy, "and they make a kind of passage between them. I was the only one who realized what it meant— even Borgin didn't know— I was the one who realized there could be a way into Hogwarts through the cabinets if I fixed the broken one."

"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," said Malfoy, who bizarrely seemed to draw courage and comfort from Dumbledore's praise. "Yeah, it was!"

"Now, I understand, yes I do," Dumbledore nodded with a soft smile. "There is little time, one way or another, so let us discuss your options, Draco."

There was a bang and shouts from below, louder than ever; it sounded as though people were fighting on the actual spiral staircase that led to where Dumbledore and Malfoy stood.

"My options!" said Malfoy loudly. "I'll kill you—"

"My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it already without entertaining me with the conversation. And let's look at this intelligently here, Draco; you weren't able to disarm me, and even if you did, I would've been more than enough for you even without my wand."

"I haven't got any options!" said Malfoy, and he was suddenly white as Dumbledore. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

"Draco, I had doubts about you, and I do appreciate the difficulty of your situation," sighed 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 realized that I suspected you."

Malfoy winced at the sound of the 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 fortunate that your unintentional victims survived. . . . I can help you, Draco."

"No, you can't," said Malfoy, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. "Nobody can. He told me to do it, or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."

"Come over to the right side, Draco, 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 to hide her likewise. . . . We can even try to save your father, but it would depend if he wants to come. . . . Come over to the right side, Draco . . . you are not a killer. . . ."

Malfoy stared at Dumbledore. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling.

"You'll save my mother?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"Yes, Draco, she will be safe. I give you my word."

Draco slowly lowered his hand until he let his arm limp down; his wand slipped from his fingers— it clicked on the floor, and now no one was there to stop it. . . .'

"Very good, Draco, very good," said Dumbledore, smiling.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The hallway around Quinn and Snape lay broken, consumed in destruction.

Quinn sighed as he stepped towards a Snape who was on his knees with Empyrean chains grabbing onto his arms and legs, pulling him to the ground. Quinn looked down on him as he struggled to look up with a cut above one of his eyes.

"You have to let me go," said Snape, panting.

Quinn shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to interfere."

"You don't understand, I have to. . ."

"No, I do understand, and that's why you can't go," said Quinn, his eyes lacking their usual shine.

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A/N:

[

I have thought about this.

Yes, Deathly Hallows depends on this event. But I also know that the situation is different from the canon right now. And going the same way didn't make sense, at least to me.

Some of you guys might have seen me writing that I'm a writer who writes chapter by chapter without much planning or outlining. Yes, that's true, but this was one of those events that I had thought about quite early in the life of this fic. Moreover, it got set in stone when I made Quinn get the Resurrection Stone.

Well, the Death Hallows' events are now out of contention. There would be a few that would pop up, but I'd be writing my own story for the most part. This is something I'm uncomfortable with as you might have noticed that I like to stick close to the plot, but if I don't try, then I wouldn't ever know and learn.

So. . . I know some of you(or most of you) were expecting the opposite of this, but this will be the direction of the story.

Looking forward to how this turns out.

]

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FictionOnlyReader - Author - The second Sin Arc is finally written and complete— Chapter 328. I am think I'm done with personality change arcs for a while. I do have another idea for a personality change, maybe I will do it in another work.

Also, Hogwarts Legacy: State of Play, is out. The game's looking dope-dope-dope. Unfortunately, I won't be able to play it. I don't have the consoles, and my laptop won't be able to run it.

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