Too Far Gone (Don't Save Me Book 4)

Chapter 62: The Minister's Visit

A few days later the Burrow woke to the sound of screaming as Y/n thrashed in her bed. Remus and Sirius ran up the stairs, bursting into her room, wands raised as they searched for any sign of danger. Their eyes fell on Y/n as her legs tangled in the sheets and her skin dripped with sweat.

The lights of the Burrow flickered as they made their way toward her, pulling the sheets off her legs so she didn't injure herself in the tangled fabric. Remus sat on the bed next to her as Sirius turned on the lights. Several members of the Order burst into the room.

"What's going on?" Arthur yelled, his wand raised, holding Molly and the kids behind him.

"Just a bad dream," Remus explained. "She hasn't come out of it yet." He looked down at Y/n, gently pushing her hair away from her face as he tried to wake her.

She startled awake, looking around the room, as if searching for a danger that only she could see.

"Y/n, it's alright, sweetheart," Remus soothed. "It's not real."

Y/n's POV

It's not real.

If only that were true. I could see Severus's face so clearly as my father murdered Charity Burbage right in front of him as she begged him to save her.

"It was real," I muttered. "She's dead."

"Who's dead, sweetheart?"

"Professor Burbage," I replied as the image washed over me. "I-it was different this time... it wasn't happening in real time... i-it was a memory of something that had already happened."

"How can you tell?"

"Because I heard them discussing when we were moving Harry... and it... it simply felt different."

"Different how?"

"I can't explain it, Rem... it was just... different."

He nodded and I placed my head in my hands as another image washed over me. Ollivander was shaking on the floor as my father stood over him. "You told me it would work!" he hissed. I shook my head, trying to clear it of the image as Remus pulled my hands away from my face.

"Sweetheart, what is it?"

"He has Ollivander... he's upset. Ollivander told him another wand would work and it didn't."

The image of Ollivander writhing in pain faded away and I turned to Remus. "He's angry, Rem... he's so angry."

"It's going to be alright, I promise," he soothed.

If only that were true.

***

I couldn't explain the unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach as Arthur and several others raised the tent in preparation for the reception, though that mystery was quickly solved as the Minister arrived and voices were raised after a few short minutes.

Molly, Arthur, and I exchanged a look before quickly standing and making our way into the living room where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were meeting with the minister.

"What is the meaning of this?" I hissed, noticing a singed hole in Harry's shirt as the minister took a step back.

The minister struggled to explain himself before ending with: "We ought to be working together."

"I don't like your methods, Minister," Harry retorted, raising his hand, which still bore scars from Umbridge's quill. "Remember?"

The Minister's expression hardened before he turned to me. "Dumbledore mentioned you in his will, Miss Y/l/n." He took the parchment from the table and opened it. "To Miss Y/n Y/l/n, I leave the ring of the house of Gaunt, in the hopes that it will help her remember where she came from... and what she has to live for." He held out the small ring to me before continuing to read. "For only the purest good will save us all."

With that he closed the parchment and eyed me carefully. "Mean anything to you?"

"Nope," I replied, slipping the ring inside my pocket. "Albus always was a mysterious man and it appears that hasn't changed, even in his death."

Scrimgeour pursed his lips and turned on his heel to leave the room. A silence filled the room as all eyes fell on me. I could practically feel the question on everyone's lips, though they were too afraid to ask. Why would Albus leave me a ring belonging to my father? But my questions was why did he leave me a destroyed Horcrux?