Hateful Love

Chapter Forty-Four

          Once the second years have each picked up their own rat and have started practicing the spell, I walk around to try and help anyone who’s having trouble. One boy near the corner can’t seem to pronounce the spell correctly and is clearly getting frustrated, as he keeps smacking the rat with his wand angrily.

          “Wait, wait. Calm down,” I say, quickly putting my hand out to keep his wand down. “You’re gonna kill the rat, stop hitting it. Just take a deep breath and say it. Go on. Veraverto, you can do it.”

          The kid stops whacking the rat with his wand and lets out a huge sigh. “I’m trying, but I can’t—“ He looks up at me and freezes up halfway through the sentence, his gaze instantly turning cold. I blink, his sudden change in attitude making me seriously confused. The second year takes a quick step back and snaps harshly, “I can do it on my own, thanks.”

          And then he’s disappeared into the crowd of students practicing, leaving me alone and with my hand still half raised in the air. What…what the hell was that? As soon as he saw he was talking to me, the kid got all angry and snappy with me. I suddenly remember that something frighteningly similar happened towards the start of all these lessons, where a third year had acted terrified of me and practically ran away from me when I tried to calm him down. Is it something I’ve been saying?

          “Cassie, the rat—“

          Ginny’s voice forces me back into reality, and I see that she’s pointing at my feet. A sick feeling creeping up inside my stomach, I slowly look down to see that a rat is sniffing at my shoes.

          Barely refraining from kicking the thing halfway across the room, I let out a frightened squeak and back away quickly. A second year runs over and scoops up his lost rat, mumbling a hasty apology before running in the opposite direction. I stop shaking long enough to realize that Ginny’s laughing at me happily, pointing at the expression on my face between giggles.

          “I’m glad you find that amusing,” I seethe. I stomp away to continue helping with the other second years, forgetting about the incident with the student who seemed to hate me until the lessons are over and everyone is leaving.

          As the second years trudge out the back door in pairs, I step over to stand beside Neville and chew on my bottom lip nervously. I impatiently wait until all the students have left before turning to him and saying quietly, “One of the kids hates me.”

          I expected Neville to shake his head and tell me that I’m being ridiculous, but instead he casts his eyes off to the side and says uncomfortably, “Um, well-“

          Ginny walks over to us and looks me dead in the eye, effectively interrupting Neville. She shrugs and eyes me a little guiltily, saying, “I think a lot of them hate you.”

          “Excuse me?” I blink, crossing my arms and feeling a little offended. “What are you talking about?”

          “Haven’t you noticed the way they’ve all been looking at you?” Ginny asks, looking at me closely to see my reaction. When I shake my head, she sighs exasperatedly and continues, “Cassie, they’re all either really angry at you or terrified of you.”

          I swallow hard and look between the two of them, seeing how bad they feel for saying this to me. I reply in frustration, “But I didn’t do anything!”

          “Look,” Ginny says slowly, “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but they all know you dated Draco Malfoy. They think you told him about the lessons, and he told his Death Eater friends about it and that’s why Luna got taken from the train. They think it’s your fault she’s gone.”

          Taking a shaky step back from her, I shake my head repeatedly. Anger burns inside my stomach, threatening to spill over as I snap, “First of all, I never told Malfoy about the lessons. And second, I told you why she was taken by the Death Eaters, it’s because of the Quibbler—“

          “Don’t bite my head off,” Ginny hisses angrily. “That’s just what the other students are saying, I never told you I believed them.” But with the look she’s giving me, I can tell she believes every word.

          Practically shaking with anger, I turn to Neville and spit, “You don’t believe them, right? I would never do something like that to Luna, you know that.”

          “Of course I don’t believe them,” Neville says quickly, holding his hands up as though he’s scared I’m going to come at him. “Just calm down Cassie, we’re not accusing you of anything.”

          I finally calm down enough to unclench my fists, my nails painfully extracting from the skin on my palms. I’m still seething with anger as Ginny continues quietly, “Look, Cassie, I’m really sorry but…I don’t think you should help us with the lessons anymore. We asked you to come this time because we thought it would be alright, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea anymore.”

          Biting my tongue to keep from saying something really, really insulting to Ginny, I give a stiff nod. I look up from glaring at the ground to see Neville is watching me with concern on his face, and he says quickly, “But when this all calms down, you can start showing up again. Maybe they’ll realize that’s not what actually happened, or maybe Luna will come back—“ His voice cracks slightly, and he swallows hard before continuing, “—and then you’ll be able to help out again. Okay?”

          “Yeah,” I reply dully, knowing that I’ll probably never be allowed back here, that Neville’s really only trying to make me feel better. I mean, I’ve always said that I hated these lessons, but now that I can’t help out anymore I feel almost at a loss for what to do. Despite how angry and indignant I feel, I put on a small smile and say over my shoulder, “Alright then. I’ll see you at dinner.”

          And then I leave before either of them can say anything more to make me feel impossibly worse.

 ***************

Hey so I'm really sorry that it took me so long to update and that this is kind of a crappy chapter..but I wanted to upload cuz I've been getting so SO many reads votes and comments lately that I felt like I had to do something haha. Plus this chapter was really necessary cuz I've been dropping hints about how the younger students don't like Cassie in other lessons, so I had to explain why that was happening. Anyway, tell me what ya think of the story so far! And thank you all so much (;