Hateful Love

Chapter Fifty-Five

NOTE: I do not own any of the ideas or characters expressed in this story (except Cassie Jackson). All of these belong to J.K. Rowling.

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Cassie P.O.V.

          My heart is pounding as our entire Defense Against the Dark Arts class waits for the Carrows to show up for our lesson. It’ll be the first time Draco and I see them after what happened last night, and I’m so nervous that I’m sitting on the edge of my seat. Pansy taps her quill impatiently against her parchment, inspecting her yellowed nails out of boredom. The Carrows are running five minutes late—and that never happens.

          Something’s wrong. The memory charm must have worked too well and now they’ve forgotten everything; or worse, it didn’t work at all. I scratch the wood of my desk with my thumbnail nervously, risking a glance in Draco’s direction. He isn’t facing me, so I can’t see his expression, but his shoulders look tense as he leans forward in his seat, the muscles in his back stretched tight with nerves.

          The rest of the class is starting to look uneasy too, some shifting around in their seats to glance at their friends. My stomach churns as I scratch at the wooden surface of the desk, biting my lip anxiously. The silence is getting unbearable.

          It’s just been ten minutes past the start of the period when Alecto Carrow hurries into the classroom, causing every single student to turn to the door nervously. Everyone knows something’s up when they see how lost Alecto seems as she wanders into the classroom, looking slightly disheveled and flustered. She walks hastily to the front, saying in a scratchy voice, “Settle down now, turn to page 431 in your textbooks and answer the questions.”

          I blink as she gets straight into the lesson. Alecto offers no explanation as to why she was late, let alone an apology—not that any of us were expecting one. She doesn’t even mention why Amycus is missing as everyone pulls out their textbooks reluctantly, some people giving each other confused glances. I flip open to the right page and realize these are the exact same questions we answered on Friday in class.

          “Um—Professor,” Seamus raises his hand cautiously. “Erm, well, we did these questions last class.”

          Alecto gives him a blank stare, then shakes her head and snaps, “Don’t be ridiculous, of course you haven’t done these yet. Are you trying to get out of doing the work? Shut your mouth and get it done.”

          Seamus’s jaw drops in outrage at this, and my heart sinks to the pit of my stomach. The charm erased her memory too far, I didn’t do it right—

          It’s looking like Seamus is about to snap back something that will probably earn him a week’s worth of detentions when Danny hisses under his breath for him to drop it. After a long moment, Seamus gives an angry snort and ducks his head back down, making me release the breath I’d been holding. If Seamus had gotten in trouble over this, I never would have forgiven myself.

          No one else has the courage to say anything, so everyone gets out a piece of parchment and start copying down the same answers from last class. But I’m still on edge, so I glance up every other minute to see if Alecto is watching me or Draco. She still looks slightly confused and her expression is usually quite blank, but she’s walking around the classroom to look at everyone’s answers like usual.

          When I glance up for what must be the thirtieth time, Alecto is at Draco’s table. I freeze, my hand holding the quill stopped in midair above the paper.