Carpe Noctem (DRARRY)

Chapter 14- Carpe Noctem

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Chapter 14- Carpe Noctem

~Harry's POV~

Harry turned sharply to the sound, scrambling for his wand in his pockets. The source of the scream, Hermionie, was standing with her hand over her mouth, staring at the corpse on the ground in front of her.

Blonde hair.

Harry's vision tipped sideways, but Ron caught him before he fell to the ground. He turned his head into his friend's shirt, unable to look. Is it Draco?

Is he dead?

Ron shifted, evidently very uncomfortable with their position. "Um... Harry? We don't know him."

Well, that spoiled the surprise. Harry separated himself from Ron but kept close as he studied the body.

It must've been several months old- its skin was blue-grey and seemed to barely be holding onto the frame. Clearish-white liquid leaked from its nostrils, mouth, and seeped out a gash in its abdomen. The bones of the ribcage were poking through the thin skin... It was very hard to tell its gender, but by the size of the body, must've been eighteen or nineteen years old. A few tiny, green sprouts were growing from between its fingers.

Harry quickly turned away, only to dry-heave onto the ground. He took a deep breath, straightened up, and looked back at the body- then doubled over to gag again. An inexplicable stench rose from it. Though Hermionie was slightly disgusted, her hand still over her mouth and nose, she seemed rather put-together. The girl removed the hand, took a slow, deep breath, and crouched down next to it.

"As you can see..." She stopped here, swallowing and looking away from the corpse, "There is a dead body. Um... Kais or Robin must've murdered them..." Hermionie forced a blank expression onto her face before continuing with her study. "Okay. I'd say it's a few months old, and probably died from that gash in the abdomen. Why they murdered him is a mystery, although I think it was planned."

Ron stood a couple of feet away, green-faced and looking like he was about to retch.

Harry, meanwhile, tried to keep his attention away from the body by studying the ground. "Great. Okay. Thanks, Hermionie. But, unfortunately, I think we should search the castle. You know, to find Draco and the Villains?" Harry said 'Villains' like it was the official title of something- as if Robin and Kais had trademarked the term.

Hermionie only nodded in response, but Ron said something. "Can we stay together? I'm not splitting up, like in all those creepy movies where somebody gets killed by being alone. Plus, I want to get away from this dead guy... He's looking straight up zombie."

So explore the castle they did. It was hauntingly like Hogwarts- but that made it easier to navigate. Dust laid everywhere, grime covering the windows in a dark filter. The whole castle was suspended, the air stagnant, everything untouched.

They didn't find any more bodies- but that wasn't to say that Kais hadn't killed more. Harry was sure he had. The only question was why. He mulled it over as they went over the castle for the second time. The obvious answers were there- power, revenge, even for fun.

But, for some reason, all those answers just didn't sound quite right. Kais had enough power, and if he had killed them for revenge or fun, he would've hung them up somewhere as a warning to the trio. So why...?

Ron interrupted his thoughts with a quiet sigh. "You guys, we've already been through the castle twice. I don't think we're going to find anything... And before you suggest going through it a third, you've inspected every single inch of this building, so why don't we just have lunch?"