Dead Lover | George Weasley

Chapter 1

2 May 1998

The Battle of Hogwarts raged all around them as Joni Morrison dragged her younger sister Cassie into a small alcove under the school's main staircase.

"Cassie, stay here and wait for me to come find you when the fighting is over," Joni ordered. She was about to head out into the midst of the battle, but the voice of her sister stopped her in her tracks.

"No."

Joni spun back around and snapped, "I don't recall giving you a choice. Now. Stay. Put." Joni had one foot out of the alcove when Cassie said again, "No. Hogwarts needs everybody who is able to defend it to fight."

Joni felt her quick temper rise and the sharp words on her tongue but she swallowed them back and took a deep breath to try to calm herself down before trying to reason with Cassie.

Breathe in. Breathe Out. 1... 2... 3...

Once she felt like she had her emotions under control, she walked over until she stood facing Cassie, placed a hand on her shoulder, while using the other hand to tilt the shorter girl's face up so that they could look each other in the eyes.

"Look, Cass, I know that you think you have what it takes to fight and maybe if you were a little older..."

"I'm only a year younger than you," Cassie interrupted. "That's plenty old enough!"

"No, it's not," Joni said firmly. "Mum and Dad put me in charge of you while we're here at Hogwarts so that means that you have to do what I say. They'd go absolutely nutter when they found out I'd let you fight."

"Who says Mum and dad would ever need to find out," Cassie said, a mischievous gleam in her eye. "I won't tell if you don't."

"I wouldn't have to tell. They already receive copies of all the newspapers. All they have to do is flip through The Daily Prophet to come across any news of us. The last thing they need is to find your name in a list of the deceased, and the last thing I need is for your death to be on my conscience. Now, please for the love of Merlin, stay here!" Without waiting for Cassie's response, Joni ran out into the fray.

Cassie took a step further back into the alcove, watched and waited until Joni was out of sight before she made her decision.

"Sorry, Sis," she whispered, "but I can't have it on my conscience that I just stood by and did nothing while everyone else was doing their part." With this final thought, she whipped out her wand from the pocket of her robes and ran out into the open, firing off spells as she went.

"Stupefy!" Cassie grinned when she saw her spell take effect on the Death Eater headed in her direction.

"See, Joni, I am old enough to fight!" She thought triumphantly as she raced forward into the heat of the battle continuing to fire off spells left and right. Cassie joined up with several of her Gryffindor schoolmates who were working together to stun a giant before he could deliver any more damaging blows to the castle. Her hands trembled slightly as she pointed her wand at the giant.

"STUPEFY!" she screamed; a red light shot out of the end of her wand. It joined forces with the others which helped to strengthen the curse, and finally managed to bring the advancing giant to a halt.

Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw what her sister didn't. Joni was so caught up in defending herself against Bellatrix Lestrange that she didn't see the other Death Eater coming up behind her with his wand pointed in her direction.

"JONI, LOOK OUT!" Cassie tried to warn her, but Joni couldn't hear her over all the other noise. Cassie, now unable to focus on her current task, watched in horror as Joni was struck with what could be none other than the Cruciatus Curse. Cassie couldn't hear her sister's earsplitting scream above the noise, but she saw her face contort with pain and watched as her body crumpled to a heap on the ground.