Hateful Love

Chapter Sixty-Four

Draco practically lifts me off the ground, starting for the entrance to the castle as quickly as he can. I’m screaming for him to put me down, but I’m sobbing so much that I’m sure nothing I say is understandable. Katherine is getting farther and farther away from me as Draco sprints for the doors, and I watch with blurry vision as Danny starts to pull Cho away from the body as well.

My last sight of Katherine is obscured by a Death Eater stepping carelessly over her body.

Draco pulls me inside the castle quickly, but I had enough time to see that the Death Eater was Amycus Carrow.

I’m crying too hard to think straight. Draco is practically dragging me away from the courtyard, out of harm’s way and down the hallways of Hogwarts. I stumble over my own feet, my chest heaving with sobs that I have no way of controlling.

She—she can’t be gone…Katherine was just smiling with the rest of us. There’s no way she’s dead.

Stick together, right?

 “…Cassie? Sweetheart, please look at me.”

I open my eyes, blinking through the tears to see that we’ve come to a stop in a deserted hallway. Draco is clutching my shoulders gently and looking at me desperately, his own eyes clouded over with unshed tears. I can’t push the tears back, I can’t stop the sobbing. Katherine’s cold, lifeless body is imprinted in my mind, and her voice is still echoing in my head.

…I hope it’s me.

Draco puts both his hands on either side of my face, rubbing his thumbs carefully along my cheeks to wipe away the tears. I realize I’m slowly beginning to hyperventilate as we stand here, the sounds of the battle sounding far off and unreal.

“Cassie,” Draco says in a voice tight with emotion, “just breathe.”

So I try. He breathes with me, saying softly, “In. Out. In. Out.” Slowly, my breathing evens out—but I still can’t stop crying. Draco holds my face in his hands gently, as though he’s trying to keep me in one piece.

Then from down the hall, I hear someone shout angrily, “Crucio!”

Before either of us can react or I can comprehend what they’ve said, Draco is blasting away from me with a yell of pain. I whirl around and shakily hold up my wand, expecting to see another Death Eater from the courtyard—or worse, Amycus.

But I turn to see Arthur Weasley pointing his wand at Draco as he rushes over to me. For a moment, I think he’s gone mad, turned against us to fight for the wrong side. But as I start towards Draco to help him up, blinking to see through my tears, Arthur reaches me and pulls me back. He keeps his wand trained on Draco and pushes me behind him, asking me worriedly over my crying, “Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

“W—what? No, you d—don’t understand—“

Draco rolls onto his back, coughing, and starts to get up. Arthur blasts another curse at him instantly, but Draco weakly blocks it just in time. Arthur’s face screws up in anger and throws another spell, spitting nastily, “Stay where you are, Malfoy—“

“Stop!” I sob, doing everything I can to grab Arthur’s wand. “Don’t h—hurt him, he’s helping me—he’s not on Voldemort’s side, Mr. Weasley, please—“

A cold, bodiless voice interrupts me, and the three of us instantly freeze. I stop crying for once as I realize Lord Voldemort’s voice is reverberating around the entire castle for the second time.

“You have fought valiantly…but in vain. I therefore order my forces to retreat. In their absence, dispose of your dead with dignity.”

I cover my mouth to keep from crying out again, the image of Katherine’s body flashing through my mind. Don’t fall apart, don’t fall apart—