TWENTY KILL THE BOY

     Following Draco, Xander ends up in the astronomy tower. He has no idea what the boy's plans could possibly be, but he's going to stick around to find out if it kills him. He hides behind the wall that leads into the open-air of the tower's peak, but he knows his heavy breathing from running to keep up with Draco is going to give him away. This is proved correct when Draco's voice can be heard.

"You need to get out of here, Xander, I mean it," Draco calls out, his voice is choked up like he's holding back tears. Footsteps can be heard coming up the stairs to the astronomy tower and the boy wonders who else knows about this. "Shit, you need to hide. Go, please. Please, Xander."

Xander can hear the pleading in the boy's voice and he caves, hiding underneath the grated floor just in time for two people to apparate onto the top of the astronomy tower. He doesn't speak a word as he sees that it is Dumbledore and Harry, which might explain why they had the ability to apparate on school grounds in the first place. Draco hasn't seen Harry, though as the boy is ushered into the same hiding spot as Xander. Immediately, both of them have their wands out and pointed at each other, but both of them don't want to make noise so no spells are cast as they eavesdrop on the conversation between Dumbledore and Draco.

"Good evening, Draco, what brings you out on such a fine spring evening? Or is it Summer?" Dumbledore spoke calmly as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but nothing about this felt safe. Xander's stomach was sinking further and further with each passing moment.

"Who else is here? I heard you talking," Draco called out, not answered the headmaster's question.

Dumbledore answered with ease, "I often talk aloud to myself. I find it extraordinarily useful. That which sounds sane at a whisper can seem utterly mad when said for all the world to hear. Haven't been whispering to yourself, have you, Draco?" The boy didn't respond. "You are not an assassin, Draco."

"How do you know what I am?" Draco spoke, his voice angry and choked with tears. Xander wanted nothing more than to pull him away from the situation, but he knew he couldn't. "I've done things that would shock you!"

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping she would, in turn, bear a cursed necklace to me? Like, replace a bottle of mead with one laced with poison. Forgive me, Draco, but these attempts are so feeble I cannot help but question if your heart has really been in them. I'm curious when Voldemort gave you this task, when he asked you to kill me, was it in a whisper?"

Draco once again avoided the question as he shouted, "He trusts me! I was chosen!"

Xander and Harry watch with careful eyes as Draco reaches out and lifts his sleeve. Neither of them needed to see it to know what Draco is revealing to the headmaster. Xander never wanted to believe Draco was a lost cause, now he was questioning even that. Still, he didn't want to give up the boy. Not when so many people had already done so.

"Then I shall make it easy for you," the headmaster said with a calm and collected voice as he raised his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco casts and Dumbeldore's wand goes clattering against the floor.

"Well done, Draco," the words that leave Dumbeldore's mouth are surprising, "But I warn you, killing is not nearly as easy. You're not alone, are you? There's others. How?"

"The Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement," he answered with his familiar sneer, sounding oddly proud of himself.

Dumbledore hummed, "That cabinet has been broken for years."

"I've been mending it."

"Ingenius. Let me guess, it has a twin."

"In Borgin and Burkes. They form--"

"A passage, yes," the headmaster continued, "Very good. I once knew a boy years ago who made all the wrong choices. Let me help you, Draco."

Xander still has his wand trained on Harry and for a moment, he thinks Harry might attack him. However, they seem more focused on the conversation above than each other.

Dumbledore's comment seems to infuriate Draco as he yells, "I don't need your help! Don't you see? I have to do it! I have to!" His voice shifts into a whisper, "I have to kill you or he'll kill me."

"Say that again, Draco. But aloud this time."

It was at this moment that the door flew open and a woman Xander had only seen in her Azkaban mugshots, Bellatrix Lestrange, entered the astronomy tower, calling out in her teasing voice, "Well now, look what we have here! Dumbledore. Wandless and alone. Cornered in his own castle, well done, Draco."

Harry slowly shifts his wand upwards towards where the image of Bellatrix Lestrange peaks through the floorboards. Dangerously close to Draco. Xander keeps his wand focused on Harry. More death eaters flood into the tower and Harry looks as though he is about to cast a spell. Xander knows that if he attacks Harry now, he is indirectly assisting death eaters in the murder of Albus Dumbeldore. This should be enough to make him pocket his wand, but the sound of Draco's cries stop him from doing so. Xander had a feeling that if he looked himself in the mirror at this moment, he wouldn't recognize who he had become.

Just as Xander is about to disarm Harry, a ghostly figure reveals itself to them. Snape looks at both of them, pressing a finger to his lips to tell them to keep quiet. Snape draws his wand and disappears again. Another death eater is teasing Draco, trying to egg him on. Draco's wand is posted at Dumbledore, ready to cast an unforgivable curse.

"No!" Snape exclaims, pushing Draco aside.

"Severus..." Dumbledore's surprise is unmasked as the professor comes into view.

Before Xander even knows what he's doing, he keeps his wand out and begins to make his way towards the entrance that lets him get out from underneath the floor. He listens as Dumbledore pleads, but he can't tell if he is pleading for Snape to kill him or pleading for them to spare his life. As soon as the killing curse is cast, Xander comes up from the floor. A hundred things are happening at once as Xander hears Harry's ghastly scream as Dumbledore's lifeless body falls from the edge of the astronomy tower. Bellatrix cheers and a loud boom overtakes the tower as she casts spells into the sky. Xander grabs onto Draco and pulls him away from the death eaters, pointing his wand towards them without a second thought.

"Xander, you need to run," Draco calls as Bellatrix is immediately fascinated by this new character entering the scene.

"Well, who might this be, hm?" Bellatrix muses, her voice a careful mockery as she looks Xander up and down, "You got a little boyfriend Draco? How adorable. Shame, we're going to have to kill him now."

"Don't you fucking touch him," Xander snarled, not even recognizing the own angry voice that was leaving his lips. He felt foreign in his own body as he faced the death eaters.

"Merlin, just grab the boys, we cannot stay here," Severus's voice breaks the tension as he leads them down the stairs to the astronomy tower, a death eater Xander doesn't recognize rips him away from Draco as they are all forced to follow. Xander is in far over his head as the man's grip shoots searing pain up his arm and Draco's face is a haunting blank slate as they enter the main castle. Students in pajamas are flooding the hallways, looking up at the spells Bellatrix had cast in the sky, curious as to what the commotion is. As they pass, Xander sees Diana running to him and calling out to him, but he can't get to her.

As they leave the main castle, Draco stops and turns to face Xander, but Bellatrix calls out, "Draco! Draco, forget the boy! You cannot stay here! They will kill you if you stay!"

Xander turns and he sees Harry chasing after them, but Snape pushes the rest of them forward and stays to fight off Harry. In a moment, he watches Harry go down and Snape approaches him. At the same time, Bellatrix sets Hagrid's hut on fire and Xander watches it light up in mere seconds as flames consume the small home.

"Kill the boy!" Bellatrix calls out as the death eaters begin to disperse. The death eater holding onto Xander disappears, making a run for is as Draco refuses to point his wand at Xander. In the light of the flames, he can see the searing reflection of tears on Draco's pale cheeks. "Oh, Merlin's bloody beard, I'll do it, then!"

Bellatrix raises her wand and Xander prepares for the final moments of his life. He wonders if his mum would be happy to see him.

As the witch is about to utter a killing curse, he hears Draco's voice call out, "Expelliarmus!" Bellatrix is disarmed as Draco calls out to the boy, "You need to run! I don't care if you never listen to me again, just listen to me now! Run, Xander, please."

"You idiot boy!" Bellatrix calls out as she searches for her wand.

"Leave the boy, we need to go!" Xander hears Snape's voice from behind him and he takes that opportunity to break into a run. As he approaches a stupefied Harry on the grass, he collapses on his knees next to him to make sure he's still alive. He turns, watching as Draco disappears along with Snape and Bellatrix. Tears are streaming down his face, but that is the least of his problems.

He watches a thousand lights shoot up into the sky and he knows now that the student body has learned of Dumbledore's death. With all the strength he has left in him, he drags Harry up and around his shoulders so they can walk together with most of Harry's weight on him. Slowly, they make their way back to the castle. Draco saved him. He couldn't believe it. He thought the boy was going to let him die, but he didn't. Now, Draco was gone. Xander wondered if he would ever see him again.

However, as he and Harry dragged themselves back to the castle, that was the least of the worries. He recalled the conversation he had with Diana months ago about how the school was changing. Now, he knew for sure: Hogwarts was never going to be the same.

END OF PART ONE.

I can't believe part one is already over! It's barely been a month since I posted this story and yet here we are! I hope you guys liked this part and I promise there is plenty more angst to come!