Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
The Time Meddlers
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Avada Kedavra
Standing side-by-side, two wizards appeared in front of a supposedly abandoned warehouse in a bad part of muggle London. One had long, white hair with a beard to match. He was wearing half-moon spectacles, along with flamboyantly colored robes. His wand was in his right hand and pointing straight forward. At his side was a much younger man in his forties with black, greasy hair and black robes. His wand was also facing forward.
"The Shadow hasn't had time to cast the Fidelius on this warehouse yet, but is planning to do so later today, so this is our only chance."
"I hope that she is alone as you've been told, Severus," the older man replied as he began to silently remove the many other wards that were guarding their destination. "I'd hate for others to be unnecessarily hurt." Dumbledore believed that once the leader was gone, the followers would stop committing crimes, which is why he had had no problem with ninety percent of the Death Eaters evading Azkaban and walking free for a decade before someone began killing them.
"I do wonder if Delores is luring me into a trap," Snape responded, sounding concerned.
"If she is, then it's time we sprang that trap. The wards are down." He pointed his wand at the nearby door and it opened for them. "Let's go."
The two figures walked into the dimly-lit warehouse with several cobwebs all over the ceiling. In the center of the gloomy place was a desk with a woman dressed in all pink sitting at it, apparently working on parchmentwork.
"Stupefy!" whispered Dumbledore, sending a red beam of light toward Umbridge. The only problem was that the beam went straight through the figure and into the desk.
Suddenly, bright lights were turned on and an annoying, "Hem, hem," could be heard behind them. They turned to see the real Shadow, along with fifteen of her followers, wands pointed at them. "That was quite rude to walk in here and try to attack me. Shame on you," she scolded them as though they were little children. "Severus, I can't say I'm surprised at your bad behavior. Now, I'm afraid that both you and Mr. Dumbledore must be punished."
At that pronouncement, the fifteen wizards with Umbridge began firing Avada Kedavra's. Albus flicked his wand, causing a large granite stone to appear, blocking every one of the green spells. At that moment, ten more jumped out of hiding places, surrounding Albus and Severus, all shooting various dark spells which Dumbledore blocked. The Shadow conjured a large panther that leapt toward them, but Snape sent a, "Sectumsempra!" at the large cat's head. It was dead before it hit the ground.
One by one Dumbledore stupefied and bound each of Umbridge's followers while Snape himself countered everything she shot at them. When there were about five minions left, Snape shot a silent Stupefy at Umbridge, knocking her to the ground while Albus formed a magical rope that knocked her remaining servants to the ground.
"It's over," said Dumbledore while magically binding his opponents, turning his back on his long-time friend.
"Thank goodness," agreed Severus before whispering the words, "Avada Kedavra!" with his wand about one foot from Dumbledore's back. The green beam of light hit the old man, instantly sending him to the floor, dead. "I don't think I could've stood one more day listening to your talk of goodness. Just because I hate the former Dark Lord doesn't mean I don't hate you, too."
--TM--
Aside from a few people rushing about to purchase essential items, Diagon Alley was empty, despite the fact that it was about noon on a beautiful day. Those who were shopping were obviously nervous because it hadn't been long since the Shadow's vicious attack with a mandrake, killing far too many innocents. It was therefore perfectly understandable that everyone in the streets Apparated on the spot when someone appeared right in front of the Alley's entrance and fell.
This corpse did not contain any traps, but there was no way for the shopkeepers nor their customers to know that. That is the reason why nobody still in the Alley admitted to even having seen the body until the bricks were opened up for an eleven-year-old muggle-born witch and her parents, getting their first taste of the Wizarding world.
The girl looked at Dumbledore's body and screamed before running back into the Leaky Cauldron. "Is this your idea of a joke?" yelled her father at Professor Sprout, who was helping them get acquainted with her world after informing them of the existence of magic.
"I assure you that this is no joke," she said while gazing into the dead eyes of her former employer. "In fact, this man used to be the headmaster of Hogwarts before he retired."
At that moment, Tom the bartender ran up and looked. A few tears fell from his eyes before he declared, "I guess the Shadow even got him. I'll owl the Ministry." It was at that moment that Sprout realized there was a note attached to Albus' robes.
To whom it may concern,
Retired Headmaster Dumbledore has simply refused to mind his own business, sticking his crooked nose where it didn't belong. Therefore, I was forced to help him return to his retirement. I certainly hope I won't have to help anyone else retire. Mr. Dumbledore was bad, so he had to be punished. If you'll be good, you might not have to be punished.
Courtesy of the Shadow
By the time the father of the muggle-born girl learned who the Shadow was from others in the pub, he decided that his child was not entering that world nor attending Hogwarts, a decision she wholeheartedly agreed with. "Come on, Romilda," he said. "Let's go home."
--TM--
The death of Dumbledore seemed to be the only thing the students at Hogwarts could discuss from the time the article appeared on the front page of the Daily Prophet. He was given a large funeral to which Harry Potter was invited to attend, but the Boy-Who-Lived couldn't bring himself to accept.
"Whenever I think of everything Dumbledore did to me, to the students at Hogwarts by subjecting them to Snape and putting them in danger all the time, and what happened to the world because of his `great plan' I want to cheer that he's dead," Harry confided to Hermione, "but I know he died trying to fight Umbridge, and that it was four years early because of…"
"You can't keep taking the credit for everything that Umbridge does, Harry!" his girlfriend and confidant interrupted. "Even Susan knows that the Shadow is responsible for her own actions."
"What really bothers me is that when I'm not concentrating on his bad points, I'm neither upset nor happy about this. I'm indifferent to his death."
"As he was apparently indifferent to everyone who had to suffer and die for his plan to succeed."
"Exactly. Am I becoming like him?"
"That depends," replied Hermione. "Are you willing to let half of Britain die to defeat one Dark Lord with a few dozen followers?" Without waiting for a response, she continued, "Are you willing to allow a baby to be raised by abusive relatives that don't want him because you believe he has a role to play in the war with Umbridge? Are you willing to endanger an entire school time and time again as your way of training a child to be a weapon? Are you willing to turn the disciplinary system of the supposed greatest magical school in Europe into a joke for more than fifteen years just to keep an unrepentant murderer out of jail because you think he has a role to play in a war that may or may not happen?"
Harry shook his head. "No. I don't have that kind of obsession. I'm not willing to subject innocent people to suffering and death just to defeat one crazy dark lord or lady. I'm not a chess master and I don't view people as pawns."
"I wonder if that's the beginning of someone turning dark," Hermione pondered out loud. "If the moment you start viewing people as disposable pawns to sacrifice whenever needed to win your game is when you become dark."
"If that is true," said Harry, "and it makes sense to me, then Dumbledore was a dark lord and didn't even know it." He then added with a grin, "I guess he never heard of games where you simply get the highest score."
--TM--
The ride on the Hogwarts Express was uneventful, mainly because Hermione warded their compartment to stop Malfoy or anyone else from coming to harass them. The young couple sat with Neville, Susan and Hannah for the trip. Susan mentioned that Cedric Diggory had told the Hufflepuffs in the defense club that he was planning to bring their training level up the next year to really prepare them to fight people like Umbridge and her minions.
The next day, Mr. Granger was being admitted into a muggle hospital in Ireland, under the name Richard Donavan, to be given plastic surgery to deal with the wounds he'd recently incurred. It was a simple matter to persuade the hospital staff that he had all his paperwork with him, once the appropriate forms had been conjured. He would also be getting a glass eye that matched his other one perfectly. His wife would stay with him constantly, while Harry and Hermione got back to the house they were renting to work on homework.
"Get well," commanded Hermione while she hugged her father goodbye.
"I will. You take care of yourself, young lady."
"The next time I see you," said Harry in jest, "I should be the one with the worst scar. I don't like how you tried to usurp my rightful place."
"I apologize for temporarily holding your position as `most scarred person' after our attack. It was quite inconsiderate of me."
"I'm glad you realize the error of your way and are going to rectify it." At that declaration, the two males started laughing while the females rolled their eyes.
"We'll see you tomorrow," promised Harry before he and his girlfriend left.
"Goodbye," said Marissa.
"I love you," said Hermione just before they were out of sight. She and Harry left the hospital the normal way, then walked to a secluded spot before Apparating straight into their temporary home.
--TM--
Once they arrived at the house, Harry and Hermione climbed into his trunk to begin to practice their fighting. It wasn't precisely what they claimed they'd do, but it was magical work. Harry planned to watch Hermione's memories of the classes they'd decided to attend that he hadn't but wanted to train first. The electives they'd signed up for were Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. Harry wondered who the new headmaster, whoever that ended up being, would hire for C of MC since Professor Kettleborn was retiring, but was fairly confident it wouldn't be Hagrid. As fond as Harry was of the half-giant, he had to admit he hadn't been the best teacher of that class, mainly because of his fondness of dangerous animals.
After a few minutes, Susan popped into the trunk with Winky, who'd side-along Apparated her. "Hi, guys," she said. "Am I late?"
"No," replied Harry. "We just got started early." After that, the three practiced fighting with magic for several hours before turning back time so that Susan could get back home while Harry and Hermione actually did work on homework. They would be training as much as they could while trying to locate Delores Umbridge, because they wanted to end this war before she did something even worse than what she'd already done.
At the same time, many miles away, the Shadow of Pain was planning on doing just that.
--TM--
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