Katerina climbed out of Draco's bed and, still being fully clothed, had to only slip on her shoes before making for the door. She had just placed her hand on the doorknob when she froze and cast her eyes back over her shoulder. Her wand was sat on Draco's bedside table... but surely she wouldn't need it? What could Draco be doing at this hour that would be dangerous?

"Better to be safe than sorry." she muttered to herself. In the few seconds that she had taken to contemplate whether or not she should take her wand, Draco had left the Slytherin common room and was no where in sight when Katie stepped out of the common room. She thought hard about where Draco would be going at this time of the night. The library would be closed, the front doors locked — meaning that he could not get into the grounds. Then the only rational thought struck her.

The Room of Requirement, perhaps? But what would he be doing there?

Katie hurried up the marble stairs, through the corridors, desperately trying to get to the seventh floor as quickly as possible. Panting heavily, she turned a corner and, to her horror, she found a battle being fought before her. Members of the Order of the Phoenix were issuing bursts of light from their wands, fiercely firing spells at — Katie let out an audible gasp — Death Eaters.

"Katie!" Tonks yelled. "What are you doing here?"

One of the Death Eaters spun around and Katie saw, with a horrible stab of panic, that it was Bellatrix Lestrange. A deranged smile split across her face and she raised her wand, twirling it through her strangled hair.

"Ah, there she is." Bellatrix drawled darkly. She had begun to walk towards Katie, who was frozen in perilous fear, when a second Death Eater halted her.

"We mustn't take her!" the masked Death Eater called. "The Dark Lord has his own plans for her."

Bellatrix snarled. She was wearing the livid expression of someone who had just been robbed of a great treat and, with a loud growl and baring of her teeth, she wheeled around and fired a curse at Tonks, which narrowly missed the Auror and smashed an oil lamp behind her.

The creaking of a nearby door caught Katie's attention. She turned to see the door that she knew to lead to the stairwell of the Astronomy Tower and, like he had slipped ominously through his dormitory door, Draco Malfoy disappeared into the tower. Katie's heart was beating very fast. Draco sneaking off to the Astronomy Tower? Death Eaters in the school? What was going on?

Katie made the quick decision to follow Draco. After checking that no Death Eaters were watching and were avidly engaged in battle, she too slipped inside the Astronomy Tower door and hurried up the stairs, her wand aloft. Draco was already at the top of the stairs when she began ascending them, so there was no use in her calling out his name — he would not hear.

As Katie drew closer to the top of the stairs, she heard the faint but indistinguishable sounds of voices and she slowed her pace, straining her ears to hear what they were saying. However, the voices were too quiet and she could not make out the words. She emerged onto the platform beneath the top of the Astronomy Tower and listened. Now, she could hear the voices from above quite clearly, but someone else spoke — someone that was right next to her.

"Katie?"

She jumped around. Harry Potter, his clothes torn, his face white and his eyes wide, was standing only feet away from her, his wand pointing at a crack in the ceiling.

"Harry," Katie breathed. "What's going on?"

A heavy frown set on Harry's face.

"I'm so sorry..." he said quietly. "I warned you..."

This statement did not give Katie any sense of reassurance whatsoever. If anything, it only raised more questions. She was growing very anxious now.

"What do you mean?" she asked desperately, but Harry shook his head slowly and jabbed his wand towards the ceiling, which was the floor for the people standing above, and Katie understood that he was indicating for her to listen.

"How do you know what I am? I've done things that would shock you!"

Katerina felt her whole world flip. Of course she recognised this voice at once. Harry was staring at her, his eyes full of despair and pity, while she gazed open-mouthed at the ceiling. Without thinking about it, Katie moved back to the stairs. Harry seized her arm, quietly begging her not to move, but she shoved him off and climbed the stairs to the floor on which Draco and Dumbledore were stood.

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she'd bear a cursed necklace to me?" Dumbledore said and, with every passing word, Katie felt her stomach twist more and more. "Like replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison? Forgive me, Draco, I can not help feeling these actions are so weak that your heart can't really have been in them."

Katie's heart was skipping what should have been a lethal amount of beats. It was Draco that cursed Katie Bell? It was Draco that had almost killed Ron? Katie shook her head. It couldn't be... Draco wouldn't...

"He trusts me! I was chosen!"

Draco lowered his wand and reached for his sleeve, which he pulled up to reveal a Dark Mark — indisputably the mark of Lord Voldemort, burning black, on his forearm.

"Draco?" Katie said tentatively, her voice quavering. Although he did not turn around, Draco stiffened and, through the dense silence, Katie could clearly hear his breath hitch. "What are you doing?"

Professor Dumbledore's eyes momentarily flickered towards Katie, but he gave no other signs to show that he had even noticed her arrival.

"I shall make it easy for you..." Dumbledore said, reaching into his robes and extracting his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Draco cried.

"Draco, stop it." Katie pleaded quietly. She took a cautious step forward but did not dare get too close. Draco glanced at her briefly but said nothing, nor did he lower his wand, which was now shaking uncontrollably as his whole body trembled.

"Very good, very good..." Dumbledore hummed, and his words were followed by a loud clicking noise, which was the sound of the opening of the Astronomy Tower door echoing through the stairwell. "You're not alone. There are others."

"Others?" Katie's voice shook just as much as Draco's wand. "You don't mean to say—?"

Everything was registering with her. Did Dumbledore mean that Draco had let the Death Eaters into the school? Yet again, Dumbledore pretended not to notice Katie's presence at all.

"How?" he asked Draco serenely.

"The Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. I've been mending it."

Despite the fact that Draco was admitting to everything that Harry had been accusing him of doing all year, Katie still did not want to believe any of it.

"Let me guess... it has a sister, a twin?" Dumbledore sounded genuinely intrigued, impressed by the fact that someone so young as sixteen had managed to breach his many defences that he had placed upon Hogwarts.

"In Borgin and Burkes," Draco said. "They form a passage."

"Ingenious," Dumbledore whispered. "Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. Please let me help you." Katie had never heard Dumbledore sound so desperate — he really was, for the first time, pleading with someone, and Katie knew that he was not trying to save his own life, he was trying to save Draco from the emotional scarring of taking another person's life.

"I don't want your help!" Draco said, and Katie saw that he was crying now. "Don't you understand? I have to do this, I have to kill you... or he's going to kill me..."

Footsteps echoed from beneath and all three of them turned to face the stairs just as four Death Eaters — led by Bellatrix Lestrange — emerged. A surprised yet pleased expression washed over her demented features. Once more, Katie found herself too afraid to move. Were a fight to break out now, she would surely meet her end. Professor Dumbledore was unarmed and the Death Eaters were much stronger than she... but surely Draco would help her?

"Well, look what we have here," Bellatrix cast Katie a fleeting look before stepping up behind Draco, who seemed to grow even more terrified upon the arrival of the Death Eaters."Well done, Draco."

"Good evening, Bellatrix," Dumbledore said calmly — much too calm, Katie thought, for someone who knew that they must be right on death's door. Katie did not see how Dumbledore would get out of this situation. If Draco did not kill him, one of the other Death Eaters would — they were not going to miss their perfect opportunity to rid the world of its most powerful sorcerer. Though she knew she was no match for the Death Eaters, Katie still gripped her wand firmly, ready to fight if it deemed necessary. "I think introductions are in order, don't you?"

"Love to Albus, but I'm afraid we're on a bit of a tight schedule," Bellatrix whipped around to face Draco once more. "Do it!"

"Don't," Katie croaked desperately, and for the first time, Draco looked directly at her. Something was swirling in his silver eyes, something that Katie believed, though she could not be certain, was remorse. "Don't do it, Draco, please. We'll help you — I'll help you."

"Shut up, you stupid girl!" Bellatrix barked. Instinctively, Katie sharply raised her wand and pointed it at her, but the Death Eater's rapt attention was upon the quivering Draco once more.

"He doesn't have the stomach," one of the other Death Eaters seethed menacingly. "Just like his father."

"Go on, Draco... now!" Bellatrix shouted.

"No."

At the exact same time, Katie and Draco whirled around, each letting out a breath of relief when they saw Professor Snape approaching the scene. Katie tried to say something — anything — to Snape, but her voice was obstructed by a painful lump that had formed in her throat. The Death Eaters watched Snape, enthralled, through narrowed eyes, as if they were anticipating something that might happen, but Katie had no way of knowing what.

"Severus..."

Dumbledore spoke through the silence.

"Severus... please..."

Dumbledore was not begging. In fact, it sounded to Katie that he was inviting Professor Snape to do something, but exactly what he was bidding, Katie never found out, because the next moment, Snape had lifted his wand.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Katie felt time stop.

A beam of green light hit Albus Dumbledore squarely in the chest and he fell, ceremoniously, in a majestic form so true to his character, from the Astronomy Tower, to be engulfed by the darkness below and the caverns of death.

Katerina's hands clapped over her mouth but they could not seemed to stifle the scream of horror that involuntarily escaped her. Bellatrix ran to the edge of the Astronomy Tower to watch Dumbledore in his fall, then she pointed her wand to the sky, let out a scream of triumph, and the Dark Mark blazed into life above the Tower.

Practically leaping at their victory, the Death Eaters turned to leave the Astronomy Tower, each of them grinning maliciously at Katie as they passed. The only people not smiling were Draco and Snape, as each of their faces were lined with deepest regret, and as Snape steered Draco towards the stairs, Katie, shaking and crying, jumped in front of them and grabbed Draco's hands.

"No, no, don't go," she whispered, not even bothering to attempt to hide the desperation in her voice. "I know you, Draco, you're not like them — don't go with them. I won't let him kill you, I won't... we'll run away, all right? Just don't go. Please don't go."

Professor Snape did not pry Draco from Katie's clutches but waited rather patiently by the top of the steps as she begged him not to go. It was evident on Draco's strained face that he was conflicted, but he slipped his hands from Katerina's grasp and followed Snape, who led their descent down the stairs.

"No, no..." Katie muttered despairingly to herself.

"No — don't you dare turn your back on me, Draco Malfoy!" she shouted.

Exactly as he had done upon hearing her voice when she arrived at the top of the Astronomy Tower, Draco froze but did not turn around.

Sobs were threatening to escape Katie but she forcefully held them back as she said, very firmly despite her shaking voice, "If you walk down those steps, if you go with them now... we're finished, and I never want to see you again."

For a single fleeting moment, Katie really thought that Draco was going to turn around, but her last flicker of hope was extinguished when he bowed his head and disappeared down the stairs.

Katie was sure she had never known pain like this. Not only had the great Albus Dumbledore been killed right before her eyes, but she had lost yet another person who was dear to her. Of course she always knew that Draco was a prat, but evil, capable of plotting murder?

There was a crash and a reverberating scream from below and Katie realised that the Order must still be battling the Death Eaters. Wiping her eyes on her sleeve, she held her wand stiffly by her side and started down the steps, stopping when she found Harry stepping from the platform below and onto the stairs too. He also paused, and in the faint light of the moon, she could see that he was pale, trembling, and his eyes were full of terror.

And almost like it had been planned, at the exact same time, a single tear leaked from each of their eyes and they both whispered, "I'm sorry."

When Katie and Harry emerged from the door at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower, they found a battle raging in the corridor. Some twenty feet away, Ron and Hermione were battling a rather short Death Eater together, and Katie also spotted Tonks, Lupin and Professor McGonagall engaged in their own duels. Ginny was locked in combat with a Death Eater that looked like they could be the brother of the short woman that Ron and Hermione were fighting. He was casting various hexes at Ginny, each of which she dodged, and Harry leapt forwards to aid her.

"Impedimenta!"

"Harry!" Ginny cried. "Where did you come from?"

But Harry was not listening. He had taken off at a sprint right through the middle of the battle, undoubtedly, and stupidly, going after Draco and Snape.

"Harry, no!" Katie made to run after him, but someone stepped forwards and obscured her path. She looked up into a leering face, quite aged and deranged, but with the ghost of past beauty still residing in its features — a face which was framed by straight, dark blonde hair.

"You!" Katie shrieked, jumping back, an unforeseen rage exploding inside her. "Incarcerous!"

Maria Blair deflected the conjuration and let out a maniacal cackle.

"Now, that's no way to greet your mother, darling." she said, pouting falsely before laughing again.

"Get away from me!" Katie shouted, backing away but still keeping her wand held high. "I'll kill you! I will!"

Maria grinned evilly. "Crucio!"

While this certainly could not compare to the emotional pain that Katerina had felt when Draco walked away from her, the Cruciatus Curse was certainly the worst physical pain she had ever felt in all her years. It was like her very bones had been lit on fire, and as she screamed and thrashed on the floor, Maria Blair's high-pitched laughter rang in her ears. How was that the woman who had raised and loved Katie all her life?

As quickly as the pain started, it diminished, and Katie was left panting on the floor, too terrified to move. Someone kicked her so that she rolled over on to her back and she stared up into the wicked face of her mother.

"Pathetic." Maria spat.

With a sudden burst of courage, Katie hurled back, "Yeah, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

She was hit with the Cruciatus Curse again. No one was coming to save her. They were all busy in their own battles and her screams were identical to the others that were ringing throughout the corridor.

When the curse was lifted, Maria placed her foot hard on Katie's chest to stop her from standing up. Katie didn't think she would be able to stand anyway, even without the extra restraint — she was shaking too violently.

"If you weren't the Dark Lord's most wanted possession, I would kill you right here, right now." Maria hissed loud enough for Katie too hear, but quietly enough so that no one else could.

"You'd really kill your own daughter?" Katie made no effort to keep her voice quiet. She wasn't sure where she was getting her bravery from — she was completely at her mother's mercy, completely overpowered.

"I killed Leo, didn't I?" Maria said darkly. Then she leaned down over Katie's limp form and whispered. "And guess what... I enjoyed it."

With a roar of fury and a surge of adrenaline-fueled strength, Katie leapt to her feet. Her mother stumbled, as her leg had been resting firmly on Katie's chest, and looked thoroughly startled when Katie aimed her wand at her.

And without thinking, all logic having escaped her, acting on nothing but pure emotion, Katerina shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"

The curse missed Maria's face by a fraction of an inch and the blood rushed from the woman's face. She stared, shocked and terrified, at the raging girl before her, then her face twisted into a deranged smile.

"The Dark Lord was right," Maria said lowly. "You do have the potential of a Dark witch."

Boiling with anger, Katie yelled, "Why don't you take me to him, then? If he wants me so bad, why not take me now? What's he waiting for?"

Maria, who had her wand hoisted, lowered her arm and stared at her daughter as though she was seeing her for the first time. Then she let out a soft chuckle.

"Oh, Katerina, dear... he's waiting for you to come to him."

A shiver ran down Katie's spine. Voldemort was waiting for her to go to him? Well, she thought, that's a bit stupid of him. If anyone could name one good reason that Katerina Blair might have for joining Lord Voldemort, she would have awarded them. How could Voldemort possibly think that she would join him after everything he'd done?

"Well, he's going to be waiting a long time them," Katie said defiantly. "I'll join him when Hell freezes over!"

Maria gave another chuckle, but this time it was loud and droned.

"Haven't you heard?" she drawled wickedly. "There's a whiteout approaching, approaching fast, and it's headed straight for Hell."

"Stupefy!" Katie screamed.

"Crucio!"

Katie's spell missed again but Maria's aim was perfect once more, and the Cruciatus Curse rippled through Katie's veins for the third time in minutes. All thoughts of Leo and Dumbledore and Draco escaped the girl as she became focused on nothing but the sheer agony she was in. Surely, she must be dying. Suddenly, death didn't seem so bad... in fact, death was welcome; anything to escape the pain of the Cruciatus Curse.

Maria held this curse for much longer than the previous two, and Katie was overcome with the urge to scream and beg for death, but she wasn't going to give her mother that satisfaction.

"Oi! Leave her alone!" someone shouted. Katie did not know who, the voice was indistinguishable. Her hearing was fading, her vision was fading, she felt like she was fading. If this was dying, it wasn't so bad...