The appeared on the top of the astronomy tower as day was dawning. Rosalyn supported Dumbledore, who was still weak from drinking the potion. She sat him down on the tower, scared for him.

"Severus," Dumbledore hissed. "Go and wake Severus, tell him what happened, bring him to me. Go and find Severus, Rosalyn, and speak to no one else."

Rosalyn nodded weakly, and ran towards the steps that descended below the tower. But then everything changed.

A door opened downstairs, and Dumbledore suddenly froze. For a second, he and Rosalyn stared into each other's eyes, and the girl knew that the 'find Severus' plan had been scrapped. "Hide yourself below," Dumbledore told her. "Hide yourself and don't reveal where you are."

And, unknowingly obeying the last command he would give, Rosalyn descended below the tower. She was alone, but she could see everything that was going on.

It only took a few seconds before Rosalyn and Dumbledore were not the only ones on the tower. And a few more before the newcomer became unmasked.

"Good evening, Draco," Dumbledore said politely. "What brings you here on this fine night?"

"Who else is here?" Malfoy asked in a voice that sounded (no matter how much Rosalyn tried to dispute it) close to tears. "I heard you talking!"

"I often talk aloud to myself," Dumbledore continued calmly. "You see, I find it very useful. Do you talk to yourself, Draco?"

As Rosalyn finally found a place where she could see, she gasped at Malfoy's face. It was contorted in pain, misery and longing.

"Draco, you are no assassin..." Dumbledore started.

"How do you know?" Draco quickly. "You don't know what I've done!"

"Yes, I do, you almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, these actions have been so weak that I wonder if your heart has really been in it..."

"He trusted me! I was chosen!"

With that, he pulled up his left sleeve to reveal the dark mark, branded upon his forearm. Rosalyn knew that he was a death eater. Though, at this point, she wasn't really sure if she felt smug or sorry.

Dumbledore sighed. "Then I shall make it easy for you-"

"Expelliarmus!"

Dumbledore's wand flew out of his hand, but the Headmaster made no attempt to go and collect it. Rosalyn sighed. She and Dumbledore knew the same thing. Draco would not kill Dumbledore that night.

Suddenly, a door opened downstairs. Rosalyn raised her wand, and Dumbledore asked Draco yet another question. "We are not alone tonight, are we?"

"No, there are death eaters in your school tonight!" Draco said rather smugly.

Dumbledore was silent for a second, before uttering one word. "How?"

"The vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement!" Malfoy spat out. So Arthur was right, Rosalyn thought.

"Ah yes, it has a sister, a twin..." Dumbledore sighed.

"Borgin and Burke's!" Malfoy shouted.

But Dumbledore was taking a step back from this. "But Draco... years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices, please let me help you..."

"I don't want your help!" Malfoy yelled. He was properly crying now. "Don't you understand? I have to do it! I have to kill you! Or he's gonna kill me..."

Meanwhile, Rosalyn had to hide behind a pillar whilst four people, two of which she knew, rushed up to the tower.

"Well," said the unforgettable voice of Bellatrix Lestrange. "Look what we have here."

"Good evening, Bellatrix," Dumbledore said, as if he was the host of a tea party.

"Well do it!" Bella hissed at her nephew. "Do it!"

"He doesn't have the stomach," commented Fenrir Greyback, the other that Rosalyn knew. "Just like his father... how about I-"

"No!" Bellatrix snapped. "The Dark Lord was very clear... it has to be him..."

A wooden plank creaked behind Rosalyn, and she turned round.

Snape, finger to his lips, wand outstretched, stood before her. Her eyes widened in shock as he started to ascend the steps.

The two sides seemed to divide further as they saw Snape, but Rosalyn only had eyes for Dumbledore as she watched the scene unfold.

"S-Severus," Dumbledore said weakly. "Please..."

Now, if anyone had been watching Snape very closely, they would have seen a flash of pain in his eyes. They would have seen remorse. They would have thought of him differently.

But Rosalyn didn't. All she heard were two words.

"Avada Kedavra."

It was as if it happened in slow motion as she watched the green light flash across the tower. She watched Dumbledore get hit, then fall off the tower. Rosalyn couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything. Dumbledore was dead.

Rosalyn heard Bellatrix say the incantation for the dark mark in the sky. The sign that the death eaters put over dwellings where they had murdered. She heard the death eaters rush down off the tower, having to hide as they did so, then she stood still for about a minute, breathing in. Trying to explain to herself what had just happened. However, there was no 'happily ever after' for this story.

Dumbledore was dead.

She then set her sights on the predator not the prey. Snape... she told herself, he can't have... Dumbledore trusted him... and he killed him...

And then, angry tears on her face, she ran out of the tower. She was going to try to avenge Dumbledore.

She found the death eaters mess all over the castle. The great hall had been destroyed, the sky was raging and the portraits were all scared, hiding in each others frames. The culprits were out in the darkened grounds, more mess behind them. Hagrid's hut was on fire.

"Snape!" She bellowed, not able to stop herself. "HE TRUSTED YOU! HE TRUSTED YOU!"

She fired spell after spell at him, hating him with all her heart, but the potions master deflected everything she threw at him. "FIGHT BACK, YOU COWARD, FIGHT BACK!" Rosalyn just wanted to cause him as much pain as possible. "SECTUMSEMPRA!"

That was when she was thrown backwards, landing on the grass with a thump. Snape slowly walked towards her.

"You dare use my own spells against me," he murmured slowly. "Yes, Potter... I am the Half Blood Prince."

Rosalyn wasn't even that shocked, to be honest. She was too angry to be. She lay on the ground, winded, as Snape billowed his robes and followed the death eaters which Rosalyn had always been so sure (and she now knew) he belonged to.

☆☆☆

As soon as Rosalyn got up to the school, she knew something was wrong.

Maybe it was the way that everyone was looking at her, or the way that there were tears on everyone's faces.

Rosalyn knew that a battle had taken place in the castle that night, and that members of the Order were there, but she didn't know about the casualties.

It was Lupin, tears even falling down his cheeks, that alerted her to the truth.

And showed her the body.

"N-no," Rosalyn said, tears falling thick and fast. "No, it- it can't be-"

But it was.

First Dumbledore, now-

Izzy. On the ground. Eyes open and unblinking.

Dead.

And Rosie was aware of Neville pulling her closer, and wrapping her arms around him, sobbing into his chest.

But she wasn't aware of much else, as she wished the whole world would swallow her up.

☆☆☆

"It was Bellatrix who did it," Lupin told her somberly later, the day after. "She, um... she tore through the castle, destroying everything... and, um... Izzy was the only one who was brave enough to stop her."

"Try and stop her, you mean," Rosalyn cried, wiping yet more tears. She and Lupin were sitting, Rosalyn in a bed in the hospital wing, Lupin sat beside her. The room was empty, and neither minded.

"No, she would've managed," Lupin smiled rather fondly. "If Dolohov, one of the others, hadn't hit her with a full body bind."

Rosalyn looked down, not wanting to listen but at the same time wanting to know.

"And then Bellatrix, she... she was angry," sighed Lupin. "She couldn't not do it... I mean..."

He trailed off, and Rosalyn nodded, both of them slowly sobbing.

"I'm so sorry, Rosalyn," Lupin said to her. "Sirius hasn't been gone long... and now Izzy..."

"It's okay," Rosalyn said. "It's just... hard."

Lupin nodded, looking the girl straight in the eye. "They were my best friends, Rosie. And one by one... they've all gone."

Rosalyn nodded.

"I-I can't pretend to know what you're going through," said Lupin. "But I'm here... and so is Harry, and Hermione, and Ron, and Neville, and every single one of your friends."

Rosalyn looked at him, and nodded.

She wasn't ready to get over this.

But Lupin was giving her a shoulder to stand on, and that was...

That was really nice.

☆☆☆

The memorial had started. All the students of Hogwarts and all the teachers (well, almost) had showed. McGonagall stood at the front, looking down upon her colleague's deceased body. And her friend's.

Rosalyn had fought with her to include Izzy at this. After all, after Dumbledore's demise she was the one who had tried to defend the castle. The castle the man had given up his life to defend.

But in the end, McGonagall hadn't needed much persuading. She had wanted to honour Izzy, as well as Dumbledore, and she couldn't think of a better way to do it.

Rosalyn, meanwhile, was pushing through the crowd, to get to the front, where Neville, Ron, Hermione and Harry were waiting. But Rosalyn didn't stop at them, she went right to Dumbledore and Izzy's bodies.

She didn't care that people were looking, she didn't care that people thought she was weird. She had to say goodbye to the person who had countlessly defended her, no matter what. And she also had to say goodbye to the person she had looked up to endlessly, and that did her very best for her, right til the very end.

Full on crying now, she put a hand on Dumbledore's heart, unspoken words flowing from her unstoppably.

She turned to Izzy, who looked so peaceful... so undisturbed.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed, looking at both bodies now. "So, so sorry..."

She felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and knew it was Neville, so she leant into him. She was afraid to trust now, but she knew he would help her.

Rosalyn and Neville stood up and joined the crowd as everyone lit their wands. Rosalyn had been to only a few wizarding funerals, but this had happened at every one of them. It was a sign of hope, of the light the person's life made upon people.

The light flooded the castle, but Rosalyn, somehow, thought they both deserved so much more. Then again, everyone did.

No one who was dead in this world had had quite the grieving they wanted.

☆☆☆

It had been a rough month. With Dumbledore gone, McGonagall had become an acting headmistress. A new one would be found next year. All exams were now finished, and now it was the last day of term.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Rosalyn were up the top of the tower. Before then, Rosalyn had been too hurt to tell anyone but Neville about what had happened on the top tower, and how he had died, but recently, she had opened up to them.

"D'you think he would've done it?" Hermione asked, she, Rosalyn and Harry looked over the edge of the tower. Ron sat behind them, resting his legs. "Draco?"

"No," Rosalyn said immediately. "No, he was lowering his wand. In the end it was Snape, it was always Snape... and I did nothing."

Hermione slid closer to her and looked at the locket, which Rosie had in her hands. She then shared something which she had found out the past month. "It's fake," she told her best friend bitterly. "Open it."

Hermione opened it to reveal a small slip of parchment that Rosalyn had read many times. Hermione read it aloud.

" 'To the Dark Lord, I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more. R.A.B.' Who's R.A.B.?"

"Dunno," Rosalyn said.

"Well, whoever they are, they have the real horcrux," Harry input.

"So that means it was all a waste," Rosalyn sighed. "All of it..."

There was silence between them for a few moments before Hermione addressed Harry. "Ron's okay with it, you know, you and Ginny. Though, if I were you, when he's around, I'd keep the snogging to a minimum."

She and Rosalyn sniggered as Harry pursed his lips.

"I'm not coming back," Rosalyn said slowly, turning out to face the view. She had to tell them this, so she just came out and said it. "I've got to finish what Dumbledore started, and I don't know where that'll lead me, but I promise I'll let you two and Ron know where I am."

"I've always admired your courage, Rosie," said Hermione, turning out as well. "But sometimes you can be really thick. You don't seriously think that we aren't coming with you? You need us, Rosie."

"Yeah," Harry nodded, as Ron came to join them.

"We'll stick together," Hermione told her best friend.

And so the four of them watched Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, fly away off into the sunset, no idea about what was going to happen, but knowing that whatever it was, they would face it together.