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72.85% HP: A Magical Journey [Complete] / Chapter 321: The Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 321: The Half-Blood Prince

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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The flap door to the Astronomy Tower's roof blasted open, and a crowd of people came bursting onto the top. A mix of Aurors and Hogwarts professors, all competent in their own rights, exploded onto the scene with wands whipped out, fully expecting to get involved in a fight. . . . but the reality of the situation was the opposite.

"Albus!" McGonagall huffed in her night robes with a sleep cap on her head.

On the roof stood in the middle were Albus Dumbledore kneeling on the floor with Draco Malfoy laying flat on the ground, his chest moving up and down.

Albus Dumbledore kneeled in the middle with Draco Malfoy laying flat on the ground. The young Malfoy's chest heaved up and down; he had his eyes covered with his arm, and those straining who could hear above their own breathing could hear him mumbling something repeatedly.

"Everything is alright, good people," said Dumbledore with a smile. "Draco here is just having a little bit of difficulty breathing; I'm sure he will be fine in a moment."

Draco's hand weakly shot up and grabbed Dumbledore's robe. "My mother," his eyes bore daggers into the older man.

"Emmeline, if you would," said Dumbledore to a lady in the crowd, "about the thing we talked."

Emmeline Vance, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, nodded and turned to other members who cleared out with her. They had the mission to one Narcissa Malfoy to rescue.

"Poppy, can you escort him to the hospital wing? I think he might also need a dreamless sleep potion for his comfort today," Dumbledore said as he stood up. The Medi-witch scurried to Draco's side; within moments, he was on a stretched and being levitated out of the rooftop with an Auror escort.

"Albus, something terrible has happened," McGonagall spoke the moment she saw a chance, "the Death Eaters! They—."

"Draco tells me he had managed to sneak in some Death Eaters into Hogwarts, yes, I'm aware of it." Dumbledore glanced at the Aurors and professors here present and frowned. The number of people present in front of him was strange. "Are all the Death Eaters already captured? I did hear some sounds of fighting earlier. . . ."

The people looked at each other awkwardly, making Dumbledore confused.

"Is something wrong?"

"Albus. . . the Death Eaters were already captured before we could reach them," said McGonagall. "We tried to look for them but couldn't find a trace of a single person with a Death Eater ensemble on their body or a Darm Mark on their arm. . . the only reason we could even found them was that a ghost discovered them on the seventh floor."

"What happened?" he asked, confused.

One of the Aurors in the crowd spat, "The invisible vigilante happened."

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked with eyes narrowed.

"On our way here, we came across obstructions. Seemingly every hallway that led to here was blocked by blocks of ice; some were even blocked twice or thrice." McGonagall sighed and shared a glance with others. "And the hallway just outside. . . that was blocked by a block of ice that was at least a couple meters thick, it took a joint effort to melt, cut, sheer through it to get here. We even found another Death Eater on the stair's base."

"How did he get in?" Dumbledore asked, his voice taking a serious note.

McGonagall shook her head. She(or they) had no idea. Nothing pointed where the masked crusader came from or how did he leave. . . or when he left.

Dumbledore's mind swirled in thoughts. The invisible vigilante was an unknown factor he was not expecting to rise up for today. He looked up at the Aurors present on the scene and said, "Aurors, if you could please keep this incident silent until morning, I would also talk to Amelia about this."

The lead Auror stood in attention and nodded. Dumbledore flashed his patent smile but didn't wait for chit-chat. He gave a look to his deputy and walked away with his professors in tow.

"What is it? Is something wrong? I can tell something's wrong," McGonagall's wrong.

"Find where Severus is," Dumbledore said with urgency. "No, wait," he paused and turned to Lily, "please get me the twins and ask them to bring the map with them."

The words on Lily's tongue about her children died when she heard about her map. She nodded, "I will get the map. I know how to use it," and she went off rushing.

"Is there something you want to tell us, Albus?"

Dumbledore turned to face his professors and started with a sigh, "Severus took a vow, an Unbreakable Vow. . . ."

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Dumbledore, the Head of the Houses, Lily Potter, and two Aurors, James Potter and Sirius Black, stood in front of one of the many classrooms of Hogwarts.

"He's in there," said Lily with deep sadness in her eyes.

"The door is open," Sirius pointed out. He exchanged glances with James, who nodded. The two Senior Aurors took out their wands, one spell later, and they were inside the room.

The room was empty. . . except for one thing.

Severus Snape sat against the wall, his head bowed down, dressed in his black robes as if it was just another day, and he was ready to face it with all his dark, sneering, meanness. Yet the same man who was always at attention, his vulture gaze always glaring at any potential prey, with a poison vial on his tongue. . . the same man had his head bowed, back hunched, his long oily hair falling in the front of his face, nothing that would reflect what the man actually was.

Everyone in the room knew that Severus Snape had promised an Unbreakable Vow. He had made a deal in the heat of the situation, knowing well that there was a chance— no, it was almost inevitable — that he wasn't going to be able to uphold the promises that his life depended upon.

Albus Dumbledore was going to live, which meant that Severus Snape wasn't going to.

Everyone knew that.

And that's what happened, Severus Snape was dead.

Yet, for some reason, Severus Snape had a beautiful spread of sparkling white lily flowers with lovely yellow stamens that only served to accentuate their beauty, spread over him as if serenading the man.

"Was he. . . here?" Sirius put the thoughts in everyone's minds into words. "Did the invisible vigilante do this?"

James Potter stared at the flower spread and the man he had never liked. The man he loathed for putting his family in danger by whispering the prophecy into Voldemort's ears. The reason for his parents' death. He always thought he would feel joyous the day Snape would die, but that wasn't the case; there were no such emotions. He wasn't sad about the man's death, yet he wasn't happy about it. He turned to his wife and found her also staring, but he could see the sadness in her eyes, unlike him.

Lily watched her estranged childhood friend. The first person she ever knew from the world she had ended up adopting, the one who had told her so much about it when she was just a naive girl with stars in her eyes, prepared for what was to come. She hated Snape for the danger he had put her children into— if it was just her, she could've thought differently, but not when it came to her children. Yet the same person was her friend. She couldn't stop the feelings from her formative years rising, the ones from before everything astray, and she had lost her best friend, and he had lost her. She stared at the lilies, and her feelings further complicated— she knew that while Snape had relayed the prophecy to Voldemort, he had also pleaded with Dumbledore for her safety. . . and she didn't know how to feel about that.

"Oh, Severus," Dumbledore walked to Snape with slow steps.

He had been Headmaster of Hogwarts for long decades. He had seen children enter his school and leave as adults. Snape held a special place in Dumbledore's heart as a student. When students graduated, he would seldom see them, only at events or in passing by. But Snape had entered his sanctuary when he was eleven, and apart from the two turbulent years of war right after graduation, Snape had always been in Dumbledore's sight, first as a student, next as a peer.

He had come to trust the man. He had come to see that the troubled man with all his various faults had walked the road of redemption, not allowing himself the life's jor so that he could repent for the mistakes he had made. Dumbledore stared at Snape, a rare moment of dullness in his blue eyes. He had again failed another of his students. Dumbledore wondered if he could have done things differently, if he had done better, maybe Snape would've been alive. . . maybe even happy.

"I'm sorry, Severus," he muttered, a teardrop entering his beard, "I am sorry."

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The portrait door to the Headboy Suite opened, and Quinn stepped inside his room with heavy steps. Every step felt like he was walking in wet mud, pulling him down and becoming heavier with each step.

The lights in the room turned up when he entered momentarily before turning down at a silent command from Quinn, plunging into cold darkness— something he felt he needed right now.

Darkness could hide him, he thought.

Quinn raised his hand to his chest. He looked at his hand, and he could still feel as if the green glow was still flashing from his palm. After staring at the palm of his hand, he tapped the chest, and Noir that covered reverted back into the base state. It shrunk down into a triangular plate and fell onto the ground.

He stared at it. The thoughts of picking it up passed his mind. It wouldn't take any physical movement from him. Just a single command and the Noir plate could be in his hand or in his briefcase.

Quinn didn't pick it up, leaving it on the floor. Instead, he walked to his bed and let himself fall into it. He laid on his stomach with his face to the side, staring at the single spot in the room illuminated by the moonlight stretching from the gap in the curtain.

He had taken a human life.

He had killed.

Did he feel guilt? No.

Was he going to give some excuse for justification? No.

Was he utterly unbothered by it? No.

He felt numb, as if his heart and mind had been stunted. There was no sadness, no horror, nor regret about taking life, nothing at all. It felt like Occlumency had been turned up, and his emotions had been disconnected, yet he could tell that mind magic wasn't the reason behind his state.

As he blankly stared at the moonlit spot in the room, his eyesight started to darken. He was tired. But sleep wasn't the thing that was taking over him. He was losing control. His time for in control of his own body had come to an end.

As the darkness took over him, Quinn decided to close his eyes and go to sleep. He was tired, and right now, he couldn't feel anything.

«Sleep, I will take care of it from here on. It's okay, I will take over for you.»

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Quinn West - MC - Numb ~ Linkin Park.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Quinn couldn't break an Unbreakable Vow, at least not right now. I hadn't laid the suitable groundwork for it, and introducing it out of nowhere would leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I mean, I have made some sketchy writing choices, but introducing something without groundwork is not one of them.

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If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.

The link is in the synopsis!


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Chapter 322: Farewell

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]

The link is also in the synopsis.

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The castle was abuzz early in the morning. Students poured into the Great Hall, but unlike the usual morning lethargy, people walked in groups, talking among themselves in whispers and peeling their ears on what others were talking about.

"Was your room locked last night?" Eddie asked. He moved around restlessly, looking around the hall.

Quinn nodded his head, "I woke up when I heard the noise. I tried to see what was going on but couldn't open my door."

"Neither could we, the door refused to budge. Though I did get to see the Dark Mark in the sky. Barton's window had a clear view of it. It was mad creepy— I mean, ugh, the snake coming out of the skull's mouth, looking at it made me feel like a snake would slither out of my mouth. . . disgusting."

"I couldn't see it," said Quinn. "I have a great lake-side view, but not of the Astronomy Tower. . . a pity, really. I wanted to break the door but felt bad for the portrait outside; it would've been wrecked if I tried something."

He had managed to isolate the ruckus of his fight with Fenrir Greyback on the seventh floor, but his fight with Snape had been anything but silent. The Defense Against The Dark Arts professor had thrown more dark curses and spells than all other Death Eaters combined. Quinn had to be on alert to make sure none of those nasty spells nicked him, so the thought of creating a sound barrier had not been the priority. Moreover, people breaking his ice barrier had also made noise.

"Did they tell you anything about what happened last night?" Marcus asked Quinn.

Quinn shook his head, "I went to the faculty office with Clarrise" — Headgirl — "and the other seventh year Prefects, but the professors sent us away— told us they'd inform us after breakfast with everyone else." He jutted his chin towards the hall entrance where two Prefects stood, sending people going out back into the hall. "We were also ordered to not let anyone leave the Great Hall."

"Someone died," said Eddie, suddenly.

Quinn froze for a moment before he relaxed his shoulder.

Eddie continued, "I mean Death Eaters only cast it when they kill someone, right?"

"Who do you think died?" asked Marcus. "I asked around, all the dorms were closed just like ours, so it must be a faculty member."

"When you went to the office, was there someone missing?" Eddie asked Quinn.

"I. . . there were a couple of them missing," said Quinn. He clenched his fist under the table. "But not all the professors come to the office first thing in the morning, so. . . ."

"No use thinking about it; the professors are here," said Marcus.

Quinn turned his eyes towards the 'back entrance' of the Great Hall. It was a small regular-sized door near the faculty table. The entrance was used by some professors who preferred not to take the main entrance for their respective reasons. But today, all the professors (including Hagrid, who crouched to save his head) entered the Great Hall from the back entrance.

The Great Hall lulled into whispers which were somehow louder than them talking usually. Their eyes followed the stream of professors as they walked to the faculty table and took their seats.

Marcus had been watching the professors as they sat down just like everybody else was doing, but then his eyes widened as he noticed something off about what he was seeing.

"O-One. . . one of them is missing," he said.

Eddie's brows were squished together, but they rose up when he saw what Marcus was seeing. There was indeed only one professor missing from the bunch.

Marcus' shocking revelation reached the ears of his neighbors and then set the trigger on what seemed like a complex, far-spreading domino chain that reached every corner of the Great Hall. In the time the professors took their seats, the whispers had blown up into full-blown heated discussions.

Quinn didn't say anything; instead, he watched the wall behind the faculty table. The Great Hall was usually decorated with four house colors. Today, however, there were black drapes on the wall behind the teachers' table. Quinn knew instantly that they were there as a mark of respect to Snape.

Dumbledore ended Quinn's musings by standing up at the staff table. The Great Hall, which was boisterous in discussions, became very quiet.

"All of you," said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, "must have heard or even seen that there was a Dark Mark over Hogwarts yesterday."

He paused, and his eyes fell upon the Slytherin table. Theirs had been the most subdued table before he had gotten to his feet, and theirs was the saddest and palest faces after they had realized what had happened.

"There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," said Dumbledore, "but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here," he pointed to an empty chair on the faculty table, "enjoying our feast with us. . . . I'm sorry to inform all of you that last night. . . Professor Severus Snape passed away."

The quiet that Dumbledore had commanded shattered and blusterous sound rushed into the Great Hall as if trying to fill a void left behind a vacuum. Stunned and frightened, every face in the hall was turned toward Dumbledore now.

On the Slytherin table, people could be seen hugging each other, crying with bowed heads, and trying to comfort each other. Severus Snape might have been hated by most Hogwarts, but to Slytherin, he was everything a house could want from their head— he supported them, always took their sides, taught them how to behave like Slytherins, and was synonymous support symbol to all those who wore green.

Quinn turned to his back. Daphne, Astoria, and Tracey sat directly behind him. Astoria was leaning into Daphne as her sister hugged her from the side while Tracey sat to their side with her head buried in her hands, hunched over the table.

He wanted to go comfort them but held himself back. Right now, it felt like he would be an outsider going into something he didn't understand and wasn't a part of.

'I will console her later,' he thought while watching Daphne. And as the thought passed his mind, Quinn paused for a moment and waited for something he was expecting. . . . but nothing happened.

"Yesterday," Dumbledore started again, "a group of Death Eaters broke into Hogwarts to cause harm and sow disaster. They appeared to have come to get rid of me" — there were gasps — "and the fact that I'm standing in front of you safe and sound, it is clear that they failed and were captured. . . however, in that defeat, they took away the life of Professor Snape, who bravely faced them, but tragically sacrificed for the safety of the school. . . ."

Quinn knew this was going to come. The truth of the matter couldn't come to light. If the fact that Snape swore an Unbreakable Vow to kill Dumbledore even became public knowledge, it would be a disaster and ruin Snape's reputation beyond all repair. That wasn't something the Order of Phoenix could do— even if not well-liked, Snape was still a member.

". . . his sacrifice would never be forgotten, so I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses to Severus Snape."

They did it, all of them; the benches scraped as everyone in the hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, "Severus Snape."

Quinn glanced back at the Slytherin table. His eyes searched for Draco, but the young Malfoy was nowhere to be found. It seemed that the Order had already hidden Draco hidden. Hogwarts was no longer safe for Draco— if Draco could be a Junior Death Eater, then others could be as well, and they might not have any qualms about taking a life, especially if their target was a 'betrayer.'

"Severus was not the friendliest of person, but those who knew him were aware of his qualities that made him a great individual," Dumbledore continued. "He was a good and loyal friend, even better confidant, a hard worker, he valued commitment and dedication above anything else. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not."

Dumbledore looked sad. His line of sight would always be forward, full of confidence, but today his eyes were lowered as he spoke to the students. Seeing their headmaster like this was a first for all. A sense of sadness for the most disliked person in Hogwarts spread through the hall.

"Everyone in this hall," said Dumbledore, and his eyes lingered on the Slytherin students, "will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. Once again, I say to you all— in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences in background and culture are nothing if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.

It is my belief — and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken — that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. Yesterday, an exemplary man was taken from our midst.

Remember Severus Snape. Remember, if the time should come when you have to choose between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a man who was good, loyal, and brave because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Severus Snape."

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn waved his hand over a sheet of paper. It wriggled over his palm and folded itself into a bird. The paper bird flapped its wings and flew away into the sky, heading into the building. On the other hand, he walked out of the castle to sit in the grass and get away from all the Snape talk that was happening no matter where ever he went.

He wanted a moment of silence and peace.

He looked around to find a comfortable spot with some shade. He didn't have to look for long as there was one right in front of him. . . but the perfect spot was occupied.

A smile appeared on his face. He wanted some alone time, but he guessed that some company wouldn't hurt.

"Fancy seeing you here," said Quinn.

Ivy Potter, who had been sitting under the shade of the tree with her back against the trunk. She opened her eyes and came across the smiling face of Quinn West. She blinked in surprise and sat up straighter.

"What?" he asked.

". . . No, it's nothing," she shook her head. "What is it?"

"May I join you?"

". . . Sure."

Quinn smiled wider and sat down under the shade, but unlike Ivy, he laid down in the shade.

Ivy continued to stare at Quinn, making him ask: "Is something wrong?"

"There's something different about you, today. . . ?" she said.

Quinn chuckled. He took a deep breath and put his hands behind his head. "I guess there's something different. The annoyance had been silent."

Indeed, there had been nothing but silence.

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Quinn West - MC - Drinking in the silence.

Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - A simple white lie.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Alright, that was enough of a break; we're getting back on track.

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If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and blast those ideas.

The link is in the synopsis!


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