Open Your Eyes

Chapter Thirty-Three

Cole Black's Point of View

Classes had just finished and Draco and I were making our way to Severus' office. Since lunch I had felt so much better than I had in the past week or so. It felt like there had been this extremely heavy weight lifted off of my shoulders and I no longer felt like someone was trying to drown me in the depths of the ocean.

As we walked our hands swung lightly and I noticed a few odd stares. I glared, daring them to do anything about it to which they averted their eyes and continued with whatever they were doing previously. I smiled at that and nodded before we started down a flight or two of stairs.

"I'm glad that Severus was able to get through to Tom" Draco whispered and I nodded humming. Within a few minutes we had arrived at Severus' office door and we knocked but received no reply. I frowned and opened it peeking it inside.

"Severus?" I asked calling out to the empty office. I opened it further and walked in, Draco only a step behind me. I then knocked on the door that led to his private quarters. No response. Panic started building in my stomach, what if Tom decided otherwise and came back to finish him off? What if Dumbledore got to him and manipulated him again? What if he vanished? What if I was seeing things earlier and Severus didn't actually arrive back?

"Hey, it's okay" Draco said wrapping his arms around my waist his hand moving loose hair behind my hair. My breathing and heart rate had quickened and I felt that familiar feeling of being weighed down again.

"Hey, breathe with me okay Love? Deep breath in, deep breath out. That's it again" I felt myself being pulled back to reality and I wrapped my arms tighter around Draco's waist my head on his chest allowing me to hear the soft drum of his heartbeat.

'I'm sorry" I said and I felt him shake his head.

"Don't apologise, you have nothing to be sorry for. It's been difficult recently and it's okay to feel stresses and upset. No one will hold it against you for being human. I love you and I will always be here, right by your side, until the day we leave this world" I felt a tear slide down my cheek and I looked up to see Draco already looking down at me his hand coming up to cup my cheek. He leaned down and kissed my lips softly and slowly. I closed my eyes and kissed back feeling the love and affection rolling off of Draco. When we pulled apart, I noticed a footsteps echoing quietly.

"Kids these days" Severus' voice, full of disappointment, sounded from outside in the corridor. When he walked in he noticed the both of us already here.

"Ah sorry I am late, there were some stupid gryffindorks playing pranks again" He said and gestured for us to follow him into his quarters where there were two small couches and a medium sized coffee table surrounding a fire place.

"Okay so I managed to find Tom hidden away at the old Gaunt manor. I was sincerely surprised when I wasn't killed by either him or Nagini when I first entered. I soon found out why, while Tom at that moment was psycho and had little sanity left, he knew that there was something wrong with him. I figured it was probably the spells slowly wearing a little allowing him to see previous forgotten memories before being manipulated by Dumbledore. He said they came to him in the form of dreams. He needed to know more about it which was why he had retreated and was living quietly for a certain period of time. I confirmed that there had been changes made to his mental and physical appearance and behaviour. I supported it by handing him the evidence form Gringotts and the letters that were supposed to be sent to him from Lily and Sirius Black. It took him quite a while to read over everything and then reread trying to take in what had happened to him."

"Did he harm you?" I asked playing with the hem on the sleeve of my school robe.

"No, after he had 'digested' the information I could feel the anger in his magic seeping out into the air but it was directed towards Dumbledore. He was surprisingly able to control most of his magic, except for the windows, he will need to replace all of those now"

"So, what is he doing now?" Draco asked

"Well he is preparing a trip to Gringotts as of now and will start to remove the decades worth of charms and potions and hexes and spells and whatever else was on him. He is also finding his horcruxes, pieces of his soul, and bringing those with him to Gringotts so that they can restore his soul to the fullest it can be. After that I am not too sure but I know he does want to contact you. It won't be right away as he needs to figure out more suitable living arrangements and a way to go out in public without being apprehended."

"Well we might be able to help with both of those things" I said and looked to Draco who nodded. Severus had an eyebrow raised.

"Oh?"

"Yeah well I have a lot of different properties so he could live at one of them but also Draco said his parents were more than happy to have him as well. As for going out in public, it's still in the works. But we, with the help of a certain reporter, are so close to being able to drag Dumbledore down for good and send him to Azkaban. One of the next articles will be about his manipulations on 'he who must not be named' and how he needed to do it for power. That should remove the rest of his titles and then if he tries to do anything afterwards that will land him in Azkaban, for life hopefully."

"I see you lot have thought it through. And one more thing before you run off to dinner, have you made any progress with figuring out your dreams Cole?"

A shiver ran down my spine and I moved closer to Draco instinctively. Feeling my uncomfortableness Draco nodded and told Severus how we found the corridor behind a hidden wall on the stairs leading to Dumbledores office. That we haven't looked in it yet but will once we're ready. After another ten minutes we left to head to dinner which would start in 15 minutes.

"You feeling alright Love?" I heard Draco ask and I nodded, for the first time in a while believing it.

"We're going to bring that bastard down and then we're going to find my parents and then finish school and live a good life" I said and Draco chuckled nodding.

"Yes, we are"

Albus Dumbledore's Point of View

Those horrible brats. I ought to have them expelled and their wands snapped. No, that wouldn't do, they know wandless magic anyway. I paced the floors of my office glaring at nothing in particular.

"I need to get my reputation and status back but how..."

"What to do, what to do"

"Oh, just give up you old hag" My head snapped up to the sorting hat sitting atop of one of the shelves lining my office. I groaned and sent a silence charm its way.

"You know those don't work on me Albus. Give up your attempts, you've already lost. Face it Albus. Your downfall has been written in the stars ever since you fired that very first compulsion charm to become a teacher here at Hogwarts"

The hat kept sending snarky remarks while I contemplated the idea forming in my head. The hat did have a point, I was losing, but not for long. I just needed to speed things up a bit. Remus was no closer to killing the brat than when he first started here so I think it right to take matters into my own hands. There is no other choice.

Next weekend the world will witness Cole Lillian Black's death in the form of jumping off of the Astronomy tower. The teen, hiding his depression from everyone, even his lover, simply could no longer live in a world with so much chaos and without his parents too. Haha if only they knew. That reminds me I must check in on them later, poor little good for nothing squibs.