Open Your Eyes

Chapter Thirty-Five

Cole Black's Point of View

"Are you sure this is a good idea Cole?" Kaelie asked biting her fingernail in anxiety. I looked around the rest of the room where everyone was, still dresses in their pyjamas but with their wands at the ready.

"Yes, Kaelie I'm sure"

"It's just that Dumbledore's dark magic affects you more than it affects the rest of us. Shouldn't we all come with you?"

"No, Draco, Severus and Emrys will come with me. If they really are there than we shouldn't have too many people there at once. We may find them in a worse than desirable state. As for everyone else you should notify Rita and Professor McGonagall, they will help contact the ministry when we find them"

*What about me Cole?"

*Emmy you are going to stay with Kaelie okay? Please behave* I heard faint grumbles of discontent before she left my arm to go up onto Kaelie's shoulder who patted Emerald gently on the head. I ignored more grumbles of protest in turn to start our way to the hidden corridor on the staircase that led to Dumbledore's office.

I knew he was probably asleep at this moment dreaming of lemon sherbets and taking over the world but I restricted him access to every single part of the castle except his chambers and his office. It meant that he couldn't leave Hogwarts or its grounds under any circumstances. He was going down.

"Well then, let's go" Severus said with a grim expression on his face. I felt the same if not worse. We didn't, couldn't know what we would find. Maybe they were already dead, maybe they were completely fine. It was the unknown and the billion questions that made me feel sick to my stomach.

Within the next 30 seconds we were off, heading towards the gargoyle staircase that led to the old bastard's office and quarters. We had checked, with the Marauder's map, that no one else was out of their rooms this late at night. I didn't actually know what time it was, maybe 2am in the morning, anyway it was still dark.

When we arrived, I sucked in a deep breath, I had never actually physically entered this corridor before. It seemed so daunting before but now all I felt was the urgency to find my parents. We hurriedly made our way to where they were located, the lights getting darker and dimmer the further in we went. Lumos charms were cast to save us from tripping over our own feet.

I felt his magical signature very strongly now, it felt suffocating and was making me a little light headed but I shook it off and continued running there until I came to the opening and there were the doors with their names etched into the stone.

"Sirius, Lily?" Severus called out and there was no reply. Draco, was behind me, wrapped my hand with his own and he nodded encouragingly as we took a step forward to my father's door while Severus and Emrys carefully approached my mother's. Surprisingly neither doors were locked magically but physically which were easy to blast off with a simple wave of the hand. It made me think about what Dumbledore had done to them and I think if Draco wasn't there to ground me, I would have actually thrown up.

The door opened slowly with a groan or two and I saw a small 2x2 square metre room which held a toilet and a mound of old rags thrown onto the floor which I suppose was to resemble a bed. My eyes soon landed on a figure curled up into a ball in the corner of the room. My breath hitched in my throat as I saw my father for the first time since I was 1 years old. His hair had grown long but was greasy and knotted together. His face was almost sunken in and even though he wore a oversized rag covering his body you could still clearly see the bones underneath his skin. Tears sprung to my eyes as he looked up from the floor and all I saw staring back at me was dull eyes, evaporated of life and love.