Year 6 chapter 13

                                    

                                          
9th august 1996
Azkaban
A storm was brewing overhead and the waves raged, crashing against the shore. Water droplets rained down like miniature missiles, and their hair stuck to their head and they were drenched to the bone. However, their battle raged on, Harry saw that Matthew and Draco were attacking Dumbledore with might and main. Shinsei, who Matthew was hitching a ride on, was dodging all the attacks so Matthew could focus on attacking Dumbledore. Despite their efforts, Harry had to admit that Dumbledore was a top class wizard who was barely breaking out a sweat. 
All of them would have gone to help the duo but they had their own problems. Uma was attempting to free Lily from dumbledore's brainwashing, Sirius and James were engaged in a brutal exchange of unforgivables with Pansy and daphne, Luna was handling Ron and Ginny Weasley by herself, with Millicent occasionally blocking a spell for her while battling Hermione, tonks, remus and Neville alongside Crabbe and goyle. Mariya was using her powers to control the raging sea so it shot up jets of water and pulled the attackers under.
Theo had apparently disappeared off the face of the earth while Blaise had joined the conflict and was taking on mad eye. Harry himself was dealing with the two Weasley parents, who were surprisingly experts in duelling. They were fighting tooth and nail, yet more and more ministry staff poured in, and although voices were mostly prodigies in their own right, they were seriously outnumbered. There was only so much that Fred and George could do to handle the small fries, and a few potentially lethal spells got past their tight barrier. Not to mention that their patronus barrier, which was not fully implemented yet, was fading and the dementors were flooding the prison through the holes. The only silver lining was that the dementors assaulted the ministry first due to the close proximity. 
They were fighting an uphill battle, and Harry was even more frustrated as more ministry reinforcements poured in. The longer this dragged on, the slimmer their chance of victory is. They had fought the order head on, but that was when they had 100% preparation and were prepared for the attack. Adding in the prisoners who had begun to come out of their stupor, the balance tilted precariously, and it wasn't in their favour.
Howbeit, the tables soon turned, but how it was turned was not something that Harry would ever wish happen again. Dumbledore made a mistake, a grave mistake. How and why he had done it in spite of the repercussions was a question that need not be answered now, but it had provided them a window for their escape, one that they reluctantly went through. 
"REDUCTO!"
The word echoed around the entire vicinity, and their heads all turned around synchronously. A bright blue light shone in their eyes, almost blinding them, but Harry could clearly see what had happened even though his eyes were stinging from the harsh light. Dumbledore, unexpectedly, looked shocked, maybe even horrified, as the curse hit both Matthew and shinsei, Draco was reaching out to them, and Harry realised what had occurred seconds before the tragedy. 
"He was...protecting Draco?"
The light dimmed as the rain came pouring down again. Dumbledore was discombobulated, whereas Draco stared at his hand which had dust on it, both shinsei and Matthew had been disintegrated totally. 
"We just have to make Dumbledore cast something so horrible that his people would turn on him."
Was that what Matthew meant? But, Dumbledore hadnt cast the spell that they were trying to make him cast. He was supposed to cast confringo, and Matthew would use his bracelet's ability. That was the original plan, but had it backfired? Draco stared blankly at the ash as it disappeared in the sky, swept away by the rain and wind. 
A cry of despair was heard across the entire area, the waves crashed in a chaotic melody as mariya turned to Dumbledore angrily. And it was in that same second as she was about to go charging in as a pirate ship emerged from the stormy seas.
Harry dimly recognised the familiar ship as durmstrang's while he absorbed what had just happened.
"In all the possible futures, one will die."
His knees buckled and he collapsed in the sand, his hair covering his eyes as guilt took over his body.
He should have stopped Matthew, shouldn't have let him go alone. He underestimated dumbledore's ruthlessness, and now all of them had lost a friend. At the back of his mind, the thought of why Dumbledore looked so confused rang incessantly, but it was drowned out by his thoughts of regret. He felt someone pulling at his arm and he absentmindedly stood up, following that someone as he watched mariya struggling against Millicent and Luna. They held her by her arms and she wailed as she attempted to free herself so she could go after Dumbledore. He saw Dumbledore being surrounded by the order members, looks of shock and anger adorned their faces. Even if it had been an enemy, it was too much to kill a child, especially since he was a former student of Hogwarts. 
Harry distantly felt draco's arms pull him into his chest and he accepted the embrace, with glazed eyes he saw Igor karkaroff talking with Viktor krum and his eyes followed Crabbe as he placed an unconscious mariya up against the pillar. They must have knocked her out to get her onto the ship. All of them were various stages of distress, Luna and Millicent were holding it together, but he registered the tears that they were blinking back. He could tell draco was crying as well, but strangely, he could also hear hiccups of disbelief and another feeling. He could not pinpoint what it was, but it felt familiar, like he himself had experienced it before. 
Out of all of them, Harry and mariya were the closest to Matthew, but for all the slytherins, Matthew was like the older brother who was always looking out for them. Blaise stood at the railing, remembering all the times he, Theo and Draco always stayed up waiting for Harry and he had always seen Matthew staying up with them, watching over them for any threats. Daphne herself, when she had no idea how to confess to Pansy, had gone to Matthew for advice, and celebrated with him when Pansy had the same feelings for her. Pansy, too, was like daphne, she was worried that daphne would be disgusted with her if she knew she loved her, and Matthew was with her through her crying and worries. Luna, despite being a ravenclaw, had met the Slytherin a few times, and he always helped her get back the things she lost and even protected her from the bullies once. Millicent always had a history of being sickly, she was never let out of the house for fear she will get sick. The only reason she got to Hogwarts was under the condition she come home immediately if she got sick. She had gotten sick many times, but the older Slytherin was always there, helping her get medicine secretly and sending her to the infirmary in the middle of the night so none of the others found out. Crabbe was always scolded for eating too much, and in the past he was always bullied for being fat and being stupid, but Matthew not only didn't bully him, but he always offered the boy food when he was hungry and even went out of his way to tutor Crabbe on his spells. Goyle's friends were bullies and he was always expected to be like them, thus he always attempted to act mean and bully the weaker students, but one day when he was crying in the toilet because he had to bully one of the innocent children, he had met the older Slytherin who was a second year at that time, who had taught him to stand up against his friends and make true friends, right after that he had been introduced to draco malfoy, who was much better than his former friends.
Draco could not believe that the former Slytherin prefect was gone, for Merlin's sake he could see Theo staring in disbelief at the sky. He knew the plan that they had made was for Theo to trick the others into thinking someone was actually going to die, and then for them to provoke Dumbledore into using confringo but missing and then for Matthew to summon the dragon using the leftover magic particles from Dumbledore's confringo, which right after Theo, who had gone to find durmstrang, would come back and they would be able to escape, but it hadn't turned out the way they expected and what was the result? They were all in ruins, one of their family was gone, and Dumbledore lived to plot another war. He saw one of the durmstrang people bring Uma and the limp figure of Lily potter aboard the ship and the ship quaked beneath their feet as it set course away from azkaban. He watched the group of order and ministry members fly away, their shape getting further and further away as the rain let up. There was not even a body to bury, and as Matthew himself had said, their forces could afford his loss physically, however mentally was a different story. 
To an amateur in war, it was a draw for both sides, but to a veteran, it was obvious Dumbledore had dealt a killer blow. Everything felt far away as grief sat in, no one wanted to accept it, but they needed to. The real fight was only starting after all, and Draco saw in the distance, a growing mass of black chasing after the shrinking shape of the order. Voldemort's forces had arrived, and the ones who were watching all wished that the dark lord will help them to take their revenge, or at the very least finish the job that they had set out to do. 
That day, while voices had lost an irreplaceable member, the ministry had their forces halved, many of the order were fatally injured and there were many casualties. And the next day it was pronounced in the news that the citizens were to go into high alert, stay in their homes, and that it was the starting of another wizarding war, one that would be fiercer and more vicious than both the first and second wizarding wars.
This is almost twice of the usual length, I think around 1 3/4 of the usual. I hope I did the sad part ok, this is my first time writing a sad scene.