Hateful Love

Chapter Fifty-Seven

          But I’m so exhausted and depressed that I fall asleep almost as soon as I lie down.

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          It’s got to be nearly five in the morning when someone bursts into the Room of Requirement, causing me to jolt back into consciousness—in fact, it’s multiple people. I sit up with a groan, rubbing my aching back and being angry with myself for not waking up sooner to go back to the Slytherin common room.

But I forget all about that when I look up.

          Longbottom’s carrying someone through the door, revealing Cassie, Cho, and the Weasley girl behind him. All of them are covered in dirt and absolutely frantic, and whoever Neville’s carrying has a bleeding arm and torn robes. The Weasley girl is sobbing hysterically.

          What. The. Hell.

          No one’s really seen me yet. Neville says over his shoulder in a shaky voice as he moves farther into the room, “I’ll just put her on the couch, and—“ He turns on his way over and sees me, almost dropping the person he’s holding in shock. I quickly get up from the couch as all four of them turn their heads and stare at me. Neville stammers, “W—what are you doing h—here?”

          It takes me a moment to realize he’s scared of me.

          Before I can think of what to possibly say or do, Cassie steps past Neville and leads him to the couch, saying calmly, “Relax, Neville, just put Katherine down so we can help her. Draco’s okay.”

          He hesitates, but then he just follows Cassie’s lead and puts Katherine gently down on the cushions of the couch. I shuffle out of the way, staring at them all in complete shock and not knowing what to do. I have no idea what’s happened, where the hell they’ve been.

          “She’s bleeding pretty bad, we’ve gotta do something—“

          “I don’t know how to heal a werewolf bite, Neville—“

          “Well I don’t either, there’s no need to snap—“

          “Wait, what?” I interrupt, causing both Neville and Cassie to look up at me as though they’d already forgotten I’m here. Cho is trying to get Weasley to calm down by the fireplace, and I don’t think either of them are paying any attention to us anymore. “Did you say a werewolf bite? What the hell were you all doing, where were you?”

          “The ForbiddenForest, obviously,” Cassie answers with annoyance, a tone she’s never used when talking to me. “Look, Neville, we’ve got to—“

          “You didn’t answer my question!” I snap, desperate to know what’s happened. The entire room is suddenly crowded and confused, everyone panicking while Katherine bleeds out on the couch. Neville’s trying to put pressure on her cuts to stop the blood, Cassie’s clutching Katherine’s limp hand, Ginny’s completely breaking down in the corner—

          Cassie flat out ignores me this time, practically shouting over Weasley’s sobs to Neville, “—we’ve got to just close the wound. Draco can do it, he knows the best healing spells—“

          “Hold on—“ I start, angry at being ignored and being talked about like I’m not even in the room. “I—“

          “Is that really a good idea?” Neville says in a shaky voice, looking over his shoulder at Cassie in fear. “We don’t even know why he’s here in the first place. He’s a Death Eater, we can’t trust him anyway.”