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Malfoy’s mouth contorted involuntarily, as though he had tasted something very bitter.

“Now, about tonight,” Dumbledore went on, “I am a little puzzled about how it happened. … You knew that I had left the school? But of course,” he answered his own question, “Rosmerta saw me leaving, she tipped you off using your ingenious coins, I’m sure.

“That’s right,” said Malfoy. “But she said you were just going for a drink, you’d be back. …”

“Well, I certainly did have a drink … and I came back … after a fashion,” mumbled Dumbledore. “So you decided to spring a trap for me?”

“We decided to put the Dark Mark over the tower and get you to hurry up here, to see who’d been killed,” said Malfoy. “And it worked!”

“Well … yes and no …” said Dumbledore. “But am I to take it, then, that nobody has been murdered?”

“Someone’s dead,” said Malfoy, and his voice seemed to go up an octave as he said it. “One of your people … I don’t know who, it was dark. … I stepped over the body. … I was supposed to be waiting up here when you got back, only your Phoenix lot got in the way. …”

“Yes, they do that,” said Dumbledore.

There was a bang and shouts from below, louder than ever; it sounded as though people were fighting on the actual spiral staircase that led to where Dumbledore, Malfoy, and Harry stood, and Harry’s heart thundered unheard in his invisible chest. … Someone was dead. … Malfoy had stepped over the body … but who was it?

“There is little time, one way or another,” said Dumbledore. “So let us discuss your options, Draco.”

“My options!” said Malfoy loudly. “I’m standing here with a wand — I’m about to kill you —”

“My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means.”

“I haven’t got any options!” said Malfoy, and he was suddenly white as Dumbledore. “I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me! He’ll kill my whole family!”

“I appreciate the difficulty of your position,” said Dumbledore. “Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized that I suspected you.”

Malfoy winced at the sound of the name.

“I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you,” continued Dumbledore. “But now at last we can speak plainly to each other. … No harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived. … I can help you, Draco.”

“No, you can’t,” said Malfoy, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. “Nobody can. He told me to do it or he’ll kill me. I’ve got no choice.”

“Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban. … When the time comes, we can protect him too. Come over to the right side, Draco … you are not a killer. …”

Malfoy stared at Dumbledore.

“But I got this far, didn’t I?” he said slowly. “They thought I’d die in the attempt, but I’m here … and you’re in my power. … I’m the one with the wand. … You’re at my mercy. …”

“No, Draco,” said Dumbledore quietly. “It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now.”

Malfoy did not speak. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling. Harry thought he saw it drop by a fraction —

But suddenly footsteps were thundering up the stairs, and a second later Malfoy was buffeted out of the way as four people in black robes burst through the door onto the ramparts. Still paralyzed, his eyes staring unblinkingly, Harry gazed in terror upon four strangers: It seemed the Death Eaters had won the fight below.

A lumpy-looking man with an odd lopsided leer gave a wheezy giggle.

“Dumbledore cornered!” he said, and he turned to a stocky little woman who looked as though she could be his sister and who was grinning eagerly. “Dumbledore wandless,