CHAPTER NINE: AND SO IT BEGINS

Harri stared at the spot where she had seen her beloved grandfather fall from the Astronomy tower, tears pours from her emerald eyes. She could not believe it! It had to be a nightmare! A cold, sick, horrible nightmare! She was snapped back into reality moments later at the sound of her uncle's voice.

'Out of here, quickly,' ordered Severus, tearing his eyes away from the spot the man he had just murder had been.

He seized Draco by the scruff of the neck and forced him through the door ahead of the rest; Greyback and the squat brother and sister followed, the latter both panting excitedly. As they vanished through the door, Harri realised she could move again. What was now holding her paralysed against the wall was not magic, but horror and shock. She threw the Invisibility Cloak aside as the brutal-faced Death Eater, last to leave the tower top, was disappearing through the door. A new emotion had taken place in her body. It was like the emotions she had felt when she thought that Bellatrix had murdered Sirius, only this time it was much stronger. This time she had been betrayed by the two people she had loved the most. Draco's reasoning she could understand, though she was still furious about him not telling her, but Severus'...she was going to find out the truth.

Harri tore down the tower's steps - after she had stunned the last Death Eater - before leaping the last ten steps of the spiral staircase and stopped where she landed, her wand raised. The dimly lit corridor was full of dust; half the ceiling seemed to have fallen in; and a battle was raging before her, but even as she attempted to make out who were fighting whom, she heard the hated voice shout, 'It's over, time to go!' and saw Severus disappearing around the corner at the far end of the corridor; he and Draco seemed to have forced their way through the fight unscathed.

As Harri plunged after them, one of the fighters detached themselves from the fray and flew at her: it was the werewolf, Greyback. He was on top of her before Harri could raise her wand: she fell backward, with filthy matted hair in her face, the stench of sweat and blood filling her nose and mouth, hot greedy breath at her throat -

'Well, well, well, if it is Harrietta Dumbledore,' he half purred. 'You are even more beautiful than I imagined. I bet a pretty little thing like you must taste wonderful!' he said, before lowering his mouth close to the struggling Harri's neck.

Just as Harri felt Greyback's mouth about to bite her, his weight was suddenly knocked off her, and someone hurried forward shielding her from view.

'Keep you filthy hands away from my goddaughter!' yelled Sirius, sending curse after curse at the werewolf, until Greyback laid unconscious on the floor.

'Thanks Sirius!' yelled Harri as she tore after Severus and Draco.

As she did, she had to run past a corridor of Hufflepuffs all in their pyjamas who had awoke due to the noise of the battle.

'Harri! We heard a noise, and someone said something about the Dark Mark -' began Ernie.

'Out of the way!' snapped Harri, knocking two boys aside as she sprinted toward the landing and down the remainder of the marble staircase. They had not moved fast enough. The rest of the Hufflepuffs did though. The look she had on her face and the tone of her voice was enough to make anyone move.

The oak front doors had been blasted open, there were smears of blood on the flagstones, and several terrified students stood huddled against the walls, one or two still cowering with their arms over their faces. The giant Gryffindor hourglass had been hit by a curse and the rubies within were still falling, with a loud rattle, onto the flagstones below.

Harri flew across the entrance hall and out into the dark grounds: she could just make out three figures racing across the lawn, heading for the gates beyond which they could Disapparate - by the looks of them, the huge blonde Death Eater and, some way ahead of him, Severus and Draco.

She saw a flash of light in the distance that momentarily silhouetted her quarry. She did not know what it was but continued to run, not yet near enough to get a good aim with a curse. Another flash, shouts, retaliatory jets of light, and Harri understood: Hagrid had emerged from his cabin and was trying to stop the Death Eaters escaping. Harri sped up, to an unnatural sped as an unbidden voice in his head said: not Hagrid...not Hagrid too...

As she got closer she saw the vast outline of Hagrid, illuminated by the light of the crescent moon revealed suddenly behind clouds; the blonde Death Eater was aiming curse after curse at the gamekeeper; but Hagrid's immense strength and the toughened skin he had inherited from his giantess mother seemed to be protecting him. Severus and Draco, however, were still running; they would soon be beyond the gates, able to Disapparate.

Harri tore past Hagrid and his opponent, took aim at her uncle's back, and yelled, 'Stupefy!'

Due to her anger, she missed; the jet of red light soared past Severus' head; Severus shouted, 'Run, Draco!' and turned, wand raised, but once he saw who it was, he lowered it slightly. Draco had ignored Severus' order and looked at the angry, and hurt, Harrietta Dumbledore's tear stained face.

'Go back to the castle, Harrietta!' Severus ordered.

'You are no longer the boss of me, you traitor!' screamed Harri, throwing a curse right at Severus. He blocked it. 'How could you? How could you murder Grandfather? How could you kill your own Father?'

Severus did not answer her, instead he shouted of to the huge Death Eater harassing Hagrid.

'Stop!' he shouted. 'It is time to be gone, before the Ministry turns up!'

'Sure, run away you coward!' yelled Harri. 'What's wrong? You don't want to fight me? Are you scared to hurt me? Why would you care? Go ahead...Kill me. Kill me like you killed him you miserable, disgusting coward!'

Severus looked at Harri before running off with Draco and the other Death Eater. Harri would have followed, but she knew that Hagrid needed her help at the current moment.

'HAGRID!' yelled Harri as she ran to the burning house.

As she approached an enormous figure emerged from out of the flames carrying Fang on his back. With a cry of thankfulness, Harri sank to her knees; she was shaking in every limb.

'Yeh all righ', Harri? Yeh all righ'? Speak ter me, Harri...'

Hagrid's huge, hairy face was swimming above Harri, blocking out the stars.

'I'm all right,' lied Harri. 'Are you?'

'Course I am . . . take more'n that ter finish me.'

Hagrid put his hands under Harri's arms and raised her up with such force that Harri's feet momentarily left the ground before Hagrid set her upright again. She could see blood trickling down Hagrid's cheek from a deep cut under one eye, which was swelling rapidly.

'We should put out your house,' muttered Harri, 'the charm's "Aguamenti".'

'Knew it was summat like that,' mumbled Hagrid, and he raised a smouldering pink, flowery umbrella and said, 'Aguamenti!'

A jet of water flew out of the umbrella tip. Harri raised her wand arm and murmured "Aguamenti" too: Together, they poured water on the house until the last flame was extinguished.

'S'not too bad,' said Hagrid hopefully, a few minutes later looking at the smoking wreck. 'Nothin Dumbledore won' be able to put righ' . . .'

Harri felt as though someone had just pierced her heart with a knife. Hearing her grandfather mentioned - now that her anger had passed - the realisation that he was never coming back had finally sunk in. For a moment Harri tried to keep her lips steady and the tears at bay, but in the end she fell to her knees and started to cry, startling Hagrid.

'Harri, wha - wha's wrong?' Hagrid quickly sat down next to her to comfort her, while Fang butted his head against her. He also was trying to comfort her.

'Unc-Uncle Severus, he - he killed... he killed Grandfather,' cried Harri, burring her face in her hands.

'Don' say that,' said Hagrid roughly. 'Sev kill Dumbledore - his own father - don' be stupid, Harri. Wha's made yeh say tha'?'

'I saw it happen.'

'Yeh couldn' have.'

'I saw it, Hagrid.'

Hagrid shook his head; his expression was disbelieving but sympathetic, and Harri knew that Hagrid thought she had sustained a blow to the head, that she was confused, perhaps by the after effects of a jinx.

'What musta happened was, Dumbledore musta told Severus ter go with them Death Eaters,' Hagrid said confidently. 'I suppose he's gotta keep his cover. Look, let's get yeh back up ter the school. Come on, Harri.' he added, picking her up and putting her back on her feet, before leading her back to the castle.

Harri did not attempt to argue or explain, instead she just blindly followed him as tears continued to pour down her face. She was still shaking uncontrollably. Hagrid would find out soon enough.

The oak front doors stood open ahead of them, light flooding out onto the drive and the lawn. Slowly, uncertainly, dressing-gowned people were creeping down the steps, looking around nervously for some sign of the Death Eaters who had fled into the night. Harri's eyes, however, were fixed upon the ground at the foot of the tallest tower. Even as she stared wordlessly at the place where she thought her grandfather's body must lie, she saw people beginning to move toward it. Then an agonising scream met her ears. The agonising scream of someone who had just lost a loved one. The agonising scream of her Grandmother, Minerva.

Hagrid and the students quickened their pace, but Harri kept hers the same. She could barely see through her tears. When she arrived at the circle of silent and sad observers, they all moved aside and let her pass, sympathy evident on all their faces.

In the middle of the circle was Minerva clinging to Albus' body, screaming for him to wake up, with Rhiannon attempting to pull her daughter away, while tears slowly fell down her cheeks.

Harri eventually stopped and fell down to her knees next to the still figure of her grandfather. His eyes were closed; but for the strange angle of his arms and legs, he might have been sleeping. Harri gazed down at the wise old face - which had given her much advise and comfort over the years - and tried to absorb the enormous and incomprehensible truth: that never again would her grandfather speak to her, never again could he help her, hold her and love her. And it was all because of Severus. The man that she called uncle, but he had been so much more than that. True, they had started off on rough ground, but over the years he had become the face she saw when someone said if she could describe her father. He was the man that had half raised her. He was the man that protected her, taught her and above all, was one of her best friends and like an older brother and father to her...and now; it was as though it had all been an act...a con to trick her into trusting him.

A sob escaped Harri lips and her body began to shake once more. Next thing she knew was that she was in a pair of strong, warm, loving arms. She immediately knew that it was Sirius that was holding her.

'Hush, my princess. It will be all right,' Sirius said gently, trying to comfort her, but it did not work. The only thing that would make her happy would be if Albus opened his eyes as though he had only been sleeping. But that would never happen. Albus Dumbledore was gone...forever...

-THE UNMASKED MYSTERY-

The first thing Harri realised when she awoke was the fact that someone was gently stroking her fridge away from her face, and when she opened her eyes, she met the sad eyes of Aurora. She was in the hospital wing - again - with Sirius, Remus, the Weasleys, Neville, Hermione, Luna, Rhiannon, Minerva and Tonks.

'Hey, how do you feel, sweet heart?' Sirius asked, from his seat next to her bed. His eyes were sad and full of worry and concern.

Harri shrugged, trying not to cry again. At the end of the bed, Minerva still had tears flowing down her face.

'Harri, honey...I - I know this will be hard, but I n-need you to tell me exactly how A-Albus d- how it happened,' said Minerva.

Harri did not answer straight away. She did not want to speak about what she had witnessed, but as she looked at her grandmother's desperate face, she knew that Minerva had the right to know.

'Uncle Severus killed him,' sobbed Harri. 'I was there, I saw it. We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was... Grandfather was ill, he was weak, but I think he realised it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs. He immobilised me, I couldn't do anything, I was under the Invisibility Cloak - and then Draco came through the door and disarmed him -'

Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth and Ron groaned. Luna's mouth trembled.

'- more Death Eaters arrived - and then Uncle Severus - and he did it. The Avada Kedavra.' Harri could not go on, but they all knew what happened next.

Harri looked up at the ceiling and somewhere out in the darkness, Fawkes was singing in a way Harri had never heard before: a stricken lament of terrible beauty. The song pierced through Harri. She wished that it would stop. Why couldn't Fawkes go and sing somewhere else?

When Harri looked back at her friends and family, she could see that they were all lost in their own thought. Although she did not know it, each of them was wondering how Severus and Draco could have done such a thing. The two people they trusted the most. Ron, Fred and George were all secretly planning away to get back at Draco for hurting Harri, their little-sister-in-everything-but-blood, while Minerva was holding her chest, filled with grief of having lost her husband and son all in one day. Aurora, however, was looking down at her engagement ring, her face unreadable.

-THE UNMASKED MYSTERY-

After Albus' death, life at Hogwarts began to change. All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed. Some students were hurried away from Hogwarts by their parents over the next couple of days - the Patil twins were gone before breakfast on the morning following Albus' death and Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father. Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused point-blank to accompany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the Entrance Hall which was resolved when she agreed that he could remain behind for the funeral, which had meant so much to Harri. Seamus told Harri and Ron, that wizards and witches were pouring into the village, preparing to pay their last respects to Albus, and they were not the only ones.

Some excitement was caused among the younger students, who had never seen it before, when a powder-blue carriage the size of a house, pulled by a dozen giant winged palominos, came soaring out of the sky in the late afternoon before the funeral and landed on the edge of the Forest. Harri watched from a window as a gigantic and handsome olive-skinned, black-haired woman descended the carriage steps and threw herself into the waiting Hagrid's arms. Meanwhile a delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minister for Magic himself, was being accommodated within the castle. Harri was diligently avoiding contact with any of them; she was sure that, sooner or later, she would be asked again to account for Albus' last excursion from Hogwarts. And frankly, she was in no mood to do such a thing and if the Ministry was to harass her, she would not hold back in giving them a piece of her mind.

After Albus' death, Harri spent most of her time along in her room and would not speak unless it was absolutely necessary. Minerva was in even worse shape than Harri having not only lost her husband, but her best friend too. It did not help either that the beautiful weather seemed to mock them; Harri could imagine how it would have been if Albus had not died.

The news of Albus' death had made the front cover of the Daily Prophet and every day the news was the same, about the Aurors trying to find Severus Dumbledore. Harri knew that they were wasting their time. She was sure that he was safely under his brother's wing.

On the day of the funeral, the mood in the Great Hall was subdued. Everybody was wearing their dress robes and no one seemed very hungry. Minerva had left the throne like chair in the middle of the staff table empty. Hagrid's chair was deserted too: Harri thought that perhaps he had not been able to face breakfast; but Severus' place had been unceremoniously filled by Rufus Scrimgeour. Harri avoided his yellowish eyes as they scanned the Hall; Harri had the uncomfortable feeling that Scrimgeour was looking for her, and he soon found her when she enter the hall wearing a long black skirt with a three-quarter length black top with red faint red vines on it. Her long black hair cascaded down her back with a tiara on her forehead. Around her neck was a pendent Albus had given her when he told her the truth of her family. In her hands, she held a few white flowers. She walked straight to her grandmother's side, ignoring everyone from the Ministry, and moments later, Minerva rose to her feet and the mournful hum in the Hall died away at once.

'It is nearly time,' she said, voice shaking. 'Please follow your Heads of House out into the grounds. Gryffindors, please follow Professor Vector.'

As everyone filed out from behind their benches in near silence. Harri glimpsed Slughorn at the head of the Slytherin column, wearing magnificent long emerald-green robes embroidered with silver. She had never seen Professor Sprout, Head of the Hufflepuffs, looking so clean; there was not a single patch of dirt on her hat, and when they reached the Entrance Hall, they found Madam Pince standing beside Filch, she in a thick black veil that fell to her knees, he in an ancient black suit and tie reeking of mothballs.

Once everyone had left the Hall, Rhiannon, Minerva, Harri and Aurora, left the Hall and headed to the Lake where the funeral was to be held. Everyone agreed that it was only fitting for Albus to be laid to rest at Hogwarts. When they arrived at the funeral Harri noted that an extraordinary assortment of people had already settled into half of the chairs: shabby and smart, old and young. Most Harri did not recognise, but there were a few that he did, including members of the Order of the Phoenix: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody, Sirius Black, Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink, Remus Lupin, with whom she seemed to be holding hands, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Bill and Fleur and followed by Fred and George, who were wearing jackets of black dragon-skin. Then there was Madame Maxime, who took up two-and-a-half chairs on her own, Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron, Arabella Figg, the Dursleys' Squib neighbour, the hairy bass player from the wizarding group the Weird Sisters, Ernie, driver of the Knight Bus, Madam Malkin, of the robe shop in Diagon Alley, and some people whom Harry merely knew by sight, such as the witch who pushed the trolley on the Hogwarts Express. The castle ghosts were there too, barely visible in the bright sunlight, discernible only when they moved, shimmering insubstantially in the gleaming air.

Harri sat right up the front with Minerva, Rhiannon, Aurora and Aberforth.

At last the funeral began and a little tufty-haired man in plain black robes had got to his feet and stood now in front of Albus' body. Harri could not hear what he was saying. Odd words floated to her. "Nobility of spirit"..."intellectual contribution"..."greatness of heart"...it did not mean very much. It had little to do with Albus as Harri had known him. She suddenly remembered Albus' idea of a few words: "nitwit", "oddment", "blubber" and "tweak". She smiled sadly. She would do anything to hear him say those words once more.

Harri suddenly became aware of what the tufty-haired man was saying when he was calling upon her to give her respects and presentation to Albus.

'- and now I call upon Harrietta Dumbledore, Albus' most beautiful and precious treasure to sing her goodbyes.'

Harri slowly got to her feet, flowers in hand, and walked to the stand the man had been standing. Her grandfather had always loved music and he loved it when she use to sing, so this was her goodbye to her grandfather.

She began aware of the music playing softly in the background and began to sing. Her voice was like Fawkes sad cries, and by the end, those who were not already crying began to cry. The hurt and anguish in Harri's voice was enough to soften even the coldest of hearts. Even the Slytherins, who had hated Albus, were teary.

Once Harri had finished singing, she turned to the body of her grandfather, and placed the flowers gently on top of him.

'Goodbye Grandfather, I'll miss you so much,' whispered a sobbing Harri. 'But I promise, I'll find every one of Uncle Tom's Horcruxes and I'll mend our broken family. I'll make you proud.' And with that, Harri took her seat, angrily wiping away her tears.

Then, at the end of the funeral, bright, white flames erupted around Albus' body and the table upon which it lay: higher and higher they rose, obscuring the body. White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: Harri thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that she saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire had vanished. In its place was a white marble tomb, encasing Albus' body and the table on which he had rested.

Slowly, everyone got to their feet and went on their way. Amongst everyone moving, Harri thought that she had seen her Uncle Tom and Severus amongst the shadows, but when she went to get a closer look, there was nothing there and she concluded that it must have been her imagination. Though she could not understand why she would imagine such a thing. Neither one of them cared about their father. Tom was always throwing Killing Curses at him and Severus was the one who actually did kill him.

Harri sighed, and began to walk around the lake, before stopping half way around it and sitting down on one of the large boulders, absently gazing out across the lake. She found it extremely peaceful, that was until...

'Harri!'

Harri groaned and turned to look coldly at Rufus Scrimgeour, who was limping rapidly towards her around the bank, leaning on his walking stick.

'I've been hoping to have a word... do you mind if I sit with you?'

'No,' said Harri indifferently, staring back out across the lake. She would hear what he had to say, and if she did not like it...he would have been better of facing a furious Voldemort.

'Harri, this was a dreadful tragedy, and I'm sorry for your loss,' said Scrimgeour quietly, 'I cannot tell you how appalled I was to hear of it. Your grandfather was a very great wizard. We had our disagreements, as you know, but no one knows better than I -'

'What do you want?' Harri asked flatly. She was not in the mood for games.

Scrimgeour looked annoyed but, as before, hastily modified his expression to one of sorrowful understanding.

'You are, of course, devastated,' he said. 'I know that you were very close to your grandfather. The bond between the two of you -'

'What do you want?' Harri repeated, starting to become annoyed. She knew that he did not feel upset about what had happened.

Scrimgeour stared at Harri, his expression shrewd now.

'The word is that you were with him when he left the school the night that he died.'

'Whose word?' asked Harri.

'Somebody Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the Tower after Dumbledore died. There were also two broomsticks up there. The Ministry can add two and two, Harri.'

'Glad to hear it,' Harri said coldly. 'Well, where I went with Grandfather and what we did is my business. He didn't want people to know.'

'Such loyalty is admirable, of course,' said Scrimgeour, who seemed to be restraining his irritation with difficulty, 'but Dumbledore is gone, Harri. He's gone.'

Harri snapped.

'Don't you think I realise that he is gone?' Y=yelled Harri, standing up furiously, tears streaming from her eyes. 'Do you really think that I need you to come here and tell me that, especially like that? And who do you think you are to come up to a girl who had just lost her grandfather, at the grandfather's funeral and demand such a thing? You have no right to stick your nose in our business, especially on a day like today!'

Scrimgeour glared at her for another moment and Harri glared right back. Just as Scrimgeour was about to say something, a quiet, but cold voice stopped him.

'Minister, might I escort you to the Great Hall. I believe that Harri could use some time along,' said Sirius.

'Black, stay out of this. It has nothing to do with you.' snapped Scrimgeour.

'On the contrary, you are harassing my goddaughter. That makes it my business. Now, shall I escort you to the Great Hall?' Sirius said coldly.

Scrimgeour turned to look at Sirius, anger written all over his face, but catching sight of the anger in Sirius' eyes, he nodded and walked off, with Sirius.

Harri had never felt so grateful to Sirius in all her life. Harri watched as they moved to the castle. She soon became aware of two figures hurrying towards her: Ron and Hermione. The two people she could always count on, no matter what. The two people that were as much her family as Sirius, Aurora and Minerva.

'What did Scrimgeour want?' Hermione whispered, coming to a halt.

'Same as he wanted at Christmas,' shrugged Harri. 'Wanted me to give him inside information on Grandfather.'

Hermione's face darkened. How dare he ask Harri such a thing, especially on a day like today?

Ron seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, and then he said loudly to Hermione, 'Look, let me go back and hit Percy!'

'No,' she said firmly, grabbing his arm.

'It'll make me feel better!'

Harri laughed. Even Hermione grinned a little, though her smile faded as she looked up at the castle.

'I can't bear the idea that we might never come back.' she said softly. 'How can Hogwarts close?'

'Maybe it won't,' said Ron. 'We're not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Every where's the same now. I'd even say Hogwarts is safer; there are more wizards inside to defend the place. What d'you reckon, Harri?'

'I'm not coming back even if it does reopen,' admitted Harri.

Ron gaped at her, but Hermione said sadly, 'I knew you were going to say that. But then what will you do? '

'I'm going back to Acacia once more, but it'll be a short visit, long enough for me to gather a few of my belongings, and then I'll be gone for good.'

'But where will you go if you don't come back to school?'

'I'll be tracking down the rest of the Horcruxes.' said Harri, her eyes upon Albus' white tomb, reflected in the water on the other side of the lake. 'That's what he wanted me to do, that's why he told me all about them. If Grandfather was right - and I'm sure he was - there are still four of them out there. I've got to find them and destroy them and then I've got to go after Voldemort himself and end this madness. And if I meet my dear Uncle Severus along the way,' she added bitterly, 'so much better for me, so much worse for him.'

There was a long silence. The crowd had almost dispersed now, the stragglers giving the monumental figure of Grawp a wide berth as he cuddled Hagrid, whose howls of grief were still echoing across the water.

'We'll be there, Harri,' said Ron.

'What?'

'We'll go with you, wherever you're going.'

'No -' said Harri quickly; she had not counted on this; she had meant them to understand that she was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone. She could not bear it if another loved one was lost.

'You said to us once before,' said Hermione quietly, 'that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?'

'We're with you whatever happens,' said Ron. 'But, mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else.'

'Why?'

'Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?'

Harri looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.

'Yeah, we shouldn't miss that,' she said finally, before turning and looking back at her Grandfather's tomb.

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A/N: Harri's funeral dress is on facebook.

Unmasked Mystery III: is now up
Facebook page: Link on profile
Written: 22 November 2011
Updated: 8 January 2012

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY. I DO, HOWEVER, CLAIM SOME COPYRIGHT OVER HARRI SINCE SHE IS HALF BASED ON MY ORIGINAL VALKYRIE CHARACTER, PRINCESS HARRIETTA.