ruins ; harry potter [1]

forty ; coming to a close

In a moment, life can change.

In the blink of any eye, empires can fall, and water can turn to ice, and light can turn dark. Cities can crumble in a moment; life can cease to exist in a moment.

For Diana, her life never really changed. It was always the same old story, the same old verse. Her life had always been the same sequence that always led to the same outcome: save the world, lose everything.

Now, though, as she turned her face to the sky, the green, swirling light like the Northern Lights illuminating her face, illuminating her anger, she could feel her life changing. The glow of the Dark Mark was the catalyst in the event that will change everything. She knew it, as did Dumbledore, as they stood on the crumbling street in the middle of Hogsmeade. Albus Dumbledore and Diana Riddle knew the moment they set their eyes on the mark of Voldemort in the black sky.

They knew this was the end for Dumbledore, and the start of something so much bigger than anything they could ever fathom.

Harry summoned Madam Rosemerta's brooms, and the three clambered onto them. When Dumbledore told Rosemerta to alert the Ministry, Diana did not listen. When Harry put his Invisibility cloak over himself, she did not watch. She could not feel the weight of her bag against her hip or the cold wind against their face as they flew to the castle.

Diana had never really known fear, but she thought she did now.

The Astronomy Tower loomed in sight, and they landed at the top. Diana did not hear Dumbledore tell Harry to fetch Severus. She did not hear the footsteps on the other side of the door.

But she heard the blast of the door as it exploded open, and she felt her body get flown the the wall, her body freezing, immobilized. She felt a trickle down her head to her fingers like water. She heard a body next to her hit the wall, but she could see nothing except Draco Malfoy stepping into the room, causing Dumbledore's wand to fly out of his slackening hand, his face ashen and his wand aloft. He peered around the room, and his eyes glazed right over Diana; he could not see her, nor could he see Harry next to her under his Invisibility cloak.

"Good evening, Draco," said Dumbledore.

Diana couldn't do so much as twitch her fingers. She watched with wide eyes, with horror, with pain, and she knew. She knew what would come tonight.

Draco's eyes fell onto the other two brooms. "Who else is here?"

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

"No," said Draco. He tried to be strong, but Diana could hear the shallow tremor in his voice, and she could see the unsteady shaking of his hand. "I've got back-up. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well," said Dumbledore, "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah," said Malfoy, a little too strongly. "Right under your nose and you never realized it!"

The Dark Mark shone behind Dumbledore, silhouetting him in eerie green, almost the color of the liquid he had been forced to drink earlier.

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

"They met some of your guard. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long. . .I came on ahead. I--I've got a job to do."

The Guard. Terror seized her, but she could not move, and she could not ease the hard pounding of her heart.

"We, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy," said Dumbledore softly.

Draco Malfoy, so pained, so conflicted, could not seem to do what he needed too. Diana ached for him, for Dumbledore, as she watched the inner struggle of the broken boy and the gritty determination and acceptance of the old man.