June 30th, 1997

I always used to feel safe at Hogwarts. Even during the first war when things were starting to heat up and the death toll was starting to rise, I always felt safe when I was at Hogwarts. I spent most of my seventh year patrolling the corridors with Regulus. Now, I'm back at Hogwarts, patrolling the corridors again, but feeling anything but safe this time.

My mind keeps going to my kids. Atlas, asleep in Gryffindor Tower, Elio, asleep in the dungeons, and Cassie, fast asleep at Jack's house. Regulus and I received a Patronus two hours ago saying that we were needed at Hogwarts. The Death Eaters might try and infiltrate the castle tonight. So here I am, wand at the ready, as I walk through the deserted corridors with Remus. Tonks and Regulus are someone in the castle as well, but it was in everyone's best interest to split up just in case anything goes south.

"Where is Dumbledore even?" I mutter, walking past the empty Great Hall.

Remus shrugs, "He told McGonagall that he had business to tend to."

"There's something off about this whole situation," I say.

"There's always been something off about Dumbledore," Remus adds.

He's not wrong.

There's the sound of rapid footsteps, and Remus and I quickly turn around with our wands raised. I lower my wand immediately after seeing Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood running towards us.

"Professor Snape said that there's something wrong on the seventh floor," Hermione explains, slightly out of breath.

Luna nods, "We have to tell the others." She is the spitting image of her mother that at this moment I briefly think that it's Pandora I'm talking to.

Remus and I exchange a look and I send off a Patronus to alert Regulus, Tonks, and Bill. The four of us take off towards the seventh floor. Even though we're moving fast it takes awhile to reach the seventh floor.

By the time that we reach the corridor outside of the Room of Requirement, Regulus, Tonks, and Bill are coming from an adjoining corridor and we meet in the middle.

There's a lingering cloud of dark smoke in the corridor that is almost obscuring my vision and I choke on it as I accidentally inhale it in order to catch my breath.

"What happened?" Bill yells. I see a small flicker of light but it doesn't help with the cloud of darkness that has just only started to disperse.

"It's one of Fred and George's inventions," Ron replies.

I can't see anything through the darkness except for the general shapes. There's three people in front of the Room of Requirement, Ron, Ginny, and Neville. I can feel Regulus standing at my side, and everyone else is scattered around.

"Peruvian Darkness powder," Ginny says.

"Here, it's clearer over here," Tonks calls.

I turn around and follow her voice, coming back in the direction that we came from. The entire corridor is clouded in a hazy darkness, but it gets easier to see the further you get from the Room of Requirement.

"What happened-"

I feel a wave of something wash over me. It feels like a spell is slowly being reversed. My head feels clearer for some reason.

"Something just happened," Regulus says, looking over at me with a slight look of panic in his eyes. Based on his expression, the same thing just happened to him.

There's a flash of bright green light coming from outside. Remus runs over to the closest window and peers out of it. "Fuck," Remus yells.

I run over to the window and all of us are crowding around.

The Dark Mark is illuminating the grounds of Hogwarts. It is bright in contrast to the dark sky and the sight of it makes me feel slightly ill. I glance over at Regulus, who has one hand pressed over his left forearm.

While his mark is always covered with some sort of disillusion charm or a long-sleeve shirt, it will never go away. Despite Regulus defecting, everytime a Dark Mark is cast his arm starts hurting.

There's a loud bang that echoes throughout the quiet castle.

"Go wake everyone up," Remus says, turning towards Hermione, Luna, Neville, Ron, and Ginny. "Get out of the castle."

When no one moves Remus yells. "Now!"

They all scatter and split up to go warn all of the Houses. Bill, Remus, Tonks, Regulus, and I all start down the stairs at an alarmingly fast rate.

There's the occasional loud banging that seems to shake the entire castle.

Once we reach the ground floor, Bill goes one direction, Remus and Tonks go another, and Regulus and I are heading towards the sound of banging and breaking of glass.

We stop in front of the Great Hall. Draco Malfoy is standing stiffly just inside the doors, a slightly horrified look on his face. There's another sound of breaking glass and then the sound of heels on the stone floor.

Bellatrix Lestrange comes out of the Great Hall, twirling her wand with a smug look on his face.

Regulus steps forwards and points his wand at her. Draco takes a few steps back looking absolutely terrified right now.

"Ah, it's baby Black," Bellatrix says in a sing-song voice as she looks at Regulus.

Regulus points his wand right at her head. "Bella," He says, his voice cold.

"You don't look any more scary than you did at sixteen," Bellatrix says. "You'll always be the weak one of the family." Her gaze drifts from Regulus to me. She frowns, "Well, now that I think about it, I think your kids might turn out as even more of cowards as you and Sirius did."

"My brother was not a coward," Regulus states.

"The only one who has a chance is Elio. I think we could get him on the right path, all he needs is a little guidance," Bellatrix says looking bored even though the tip of Regulus's wand is inches from her skull. "He could be powerful, despite the fact that his mother is a filthy half-breed-"

"Stupefy-," Regulus yells.

"Crucio-," Bellatrix yells at the same time.

She somehow manages to dodge Regulus's spell at the exact moment that her spell hits me. My wand clatters to the floor as my entire body feels like it's on fire. I've been through a lot of physical pain in my life but nothing quite as bad as this.

I'm screaming and I can't do anything to stop it. The pain is excruciating and it's all over. I can't even pinpoint what hurts because everywhere hurts. I can't even gather a coherent thought other than the fact that I'm in pain and I want it to stop.

Regulus grabs me just before I hit the floor, his wand falling beside mine on the floor of the corridor. "Meredith-," He looks more panicked than I've ever seen him.

I whimper in pain, my vision starting to blur from the pain.

I vaguely register the sound of retreating footsteps and then the pain stops. There's tears running down my face and my throat feels raw from yelling. I bury my head into Regulus's chest and sob as he holds me close to him.

"You're okay," He murmurs. "It's all over."

There's footsteps again and Regulus scrambles to grab his wand as I lift my head from his chest.

"Regulus, Meredith," Bill calls. "You're going to want to see this."

Regulus helps me up from the floor and hands me my wand. I'm not in pain anymore, at least not physically. We follow Bill outside, walking very quickly. Regulus wipes the tears from my face as we reach a crowd of students.

"Move, excuse me," Bill yells.

Students part out of the way for us until we reach the front of the crowd. When I finally see what everyone's gathered around, I inhale sharply and have to fight the urge to turn around.

Dumbledore is lying on the grass, dead. I look up at the Astronomy Tower above us and the Dark Mark hanging in the sky before looking back down at Dumbledore. His eyes are still open, even in death.

"It was him," Regulus mutters. "It was him, Meredith."

I glance over at Regulus as all of the memories start coming back. The night that my family was killed. There's always been parts that are fuzzy to me, like they were altered with.

I look back at the dead body in front of me. The body belonging to the man that tampered with my memory and resulted in the deaths of all of the people I love.