harry
Her body was motionless on the floor. Harry didn't think he could feel any worse after he watched Sirius fall through the archway. He was wrong.
"I'm going to kill you!" Harry yelled at Bellatrix and began attacking her relentlessly. Voldemort was regaining his his composure next to him, but Harry didn't care. He blasted Bellatrix with curses until she slid into a fireplace and Disapparated in burst of fire.
Harry turned and saw was scared her off. Dumbledore was walking out of a different fireplace on the other side of the Atrium.
"It was foolish of you to come here tonight, Tom."
Voldemort replied, but Harry didn't listen. He ran over to Cass's body and collapsed to the floor. Pain shot through his knees as they collided with the hard wooden planks. But it didn't bother Harry in the slightest. Every sliver of his focus was concentrated on the fear coursing through his body.
Her eyes still weren't opening, she still hadn't moved.
"Cass?" Harry pleaded. She wasn't dead, she couldn't be. He didn't recognize the curse Bellatrix used on her, but he knew it wasn't the Killing Curse. But Cass still wasn't moving.
He reached down and cradled her head between his shaking palms. As he raised her torso onto his lap, her long brown hair brushed against the floor. It caught against the pieces of debris that were falling all around them. Dumbledore and Voldemort's magic was so powerful it was tearing the building apart.
A blast of heat blew through the atrium as Voldemort released a ball of fire. In an attempt to shield Cass, Harry covered her body with his as the fire got closer. Luckily, Dumbledore deflected it with his own wave. As Dumbledore entrapped Voldemort inside the ball of water, Harry drug Cass to safety.
Once Harry was sure Cass was safe, he ran out to Dumbledore. He wanted to hurt someone, he needed to.
Harry pointed his wand at Voldemort, his arm shaking with anger. However, Dumbledore swept Harry out of the line of fire with a simple wave of his hand. Harry fell back to the floor angrier than before. Before Harry could retaliate, he was suddenly standing in the path of thousands of flying glass shards. The glass ripped through the banners overhead as easily as they ripped through the air. Harry was about to receive a few more scars.
Thankfully, Dumbledore had other ideas. He raised his wand and the glass turned to dust as it past through. The cold, dark room was suddenly bright to the eye.
Voldemort stood before them in shock. However he wasn't angry, as if he hadn't expected to win. The dust funneled around Voldemort as he Disapparated. Harry let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Wind hissed through the halls touching everything in it's path. Once it reached Harry, he collapsed.
Every terrible moment of Harry's life began replaying through his mind. As if someone was picking through his mind and plucking the darkest, most painful memories. Cedric slamming into the cold ground. His mother's dreadful scream. Sirius disappearing in the archway. Cass laying lifelessly on the floor.
"You've lost, old man," a foreign voice hissed through his own lips. His head split in pain as more memories passed before his eyes.
The pain didn't cease. Instead, it was beginning to overwhelm him, nerve by nerve. Everything seemed hopeless. And in that moment Harry wanted to die.
But if he was going to die, he wanted to see Cass one last time. Harry turned his head, she was laying only fifteen feet away.
When he saw her unconscious body, Harry's mind was able to break away from the tormenting memories flying through his head. And his own thoughts began to form. How could he leave her? He would never get to kiss her again. Never be able to tell her how much he absolutely loves her. Never see her smile again.
That quick glimpse of Cass reminded Harry what he was fighting for.
Another blast of pain shot through Harry as his memories began to change. Rain dripped from Cass's swollen lips after Harry pulled away from their kiss on the muddy quidditch pitch. Ron and Hermione rocked with laugher next to the crackling fire in the Gryffindor common room. Sirius's eyes beamed with happiness as he opened his arms for Harry's embrace. Harry had seen death and despair, but he had also experienced intense love and happiness. That's something you don't give up on.
"You're the weak one... because you'll never know love or friendship, and I feel sorry for you."
It was if all of the memories of happiness and love consumed the despair. Harry could feel Voldemort lose his grasp on control as he became overwhelmed. He was slowly losing to a power he had always underestimated, love.
The dust surrounding Harry flew into the air as Voldemort left his mind. Dumbledore sat beside Harry, staring in wonder at the dome that was now surrounding the boy. Harry didn't have the energy to react as Voldemort appeared in his full form above him.
"You're a fool, Harry Potter. And you will lose everything," Voldemort smiled.
Before Voldemort could do anything else, the sound of blazing fire erupted throughout the Atrium as wizards began Apparating through the fireplaces. Voldemort looked up at the Ministry employees and scrunched his nose, realizing his mistake. He Disapparated from the room and the dust around Harry fell to the floor.
The Minister of Magic appeared in front of the crowd, "he's back."
After a moment of shock, the whole room was in a frenzy. People were scurrying in fear, photographers were taking photos, hands grasped for quills to begin writing their first letter of many for the night. Harry could only stand and watch.
*****
Harry closed the door to Dumbledore's office very slowly. He descended the staircase even slower. Everything Dumbledore had told him was still fresh on his mind.
The idea of him being at the center of a prophecy foretelling the fate of the wizard in world was a lot to process. He balled his hands into fists at the thought of the idea. The only reason why Voldemort attacked his parents that night was to kill him. For a second, just a quick second, Harry wished it had been Neville that Voldemort had chosen to kill.
Harry hated himself as soon as the thought crossed his mind. But he couldn't help but wonder what his life would've been like if he had grown up with his parents. Maybe his family would've been like Ron's. A big family living together happily. Harry could've been an older brother. I'd make a good brother, Harry thought.
But the idea was absurd. Harry didn't live in a loving home with his parents. Instead he lived a life where he had to watch every parental figure he ever had die right before his eyes.
The thought of Sirius dragged Harry right back to reality. He was pacing the long stone hallways of Hogwarts. The sound of his footsteps on the cold stone floors echoed through the long, empty halls. The other students were in bed, completely unaware of everything that had happened.
Harry could have gone back to his dormitory, but he knew he would never be able to fall asleep. Instead, he made his way to the infirmary.
Dumbledore had told Harry his friends had been sent there immediately upon arrival. Hopefully they were unable to fall asleep too. Harry didn't want to be alone with his thoughts.
It took nearly fifteen minutes before Harry walked through the massive doors of the infirmary. Chattering inside was Luna, Ginny, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. However, their conversations came to an abrupt halt when they heard the thud of the closing door.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry only smiled back as his friends greeted him with happy tones and warm smiles.
Neville was the only one who seemed to still be in pain. His ankle was resting on a pillow in the air and the scrapes on his forehead were stitched up, but everyone else seemed to be relatively okay.
Seeing everyone talking as if nothing happened was confusing to Harry. He had expected them to be angry with him. After all, Harry had led all of them into a trap where they almost died. They shouldn't be smiling at him, they should be angry. He was going tell them this, but his attention got diverted.
Unintelligible muttering was originating from further down the room. Through the darkness, Harry could see the frame of a plump woman dressed in pink laying motionless on one of the beds.
"Is that—" Harry began.
"—Umbridge... yeah," Ron finished.
"Shit."
"Apparently Dumbledore found her wandering the woods. She hasn't said anything other than complete nonsense since she got here," Ginny chimed in.
"We won't have to put up with it for long. Madam Pomfrey said she's being transferred to St. Mungo's in the morning. She says it's because her condition is to difficult to treat here, but honestly I think Madam Pomfrey just doesn't want to help."
"I don't blame her," Harry mumbled back to Hermione.
Besides Umbridge, Harry and his friends were the only other people in the room. His eyes scoured the remaining beds, looking for Cass, but she was no where to be found.
"Where's Cass?" He asked the group.
"She's in one of the treatment rooms. Madam Pomfrey was trying different remedies to wake her up, but nothing has worked yet."
A sigh of relief left Harry's lips. At least she wasn't dead.
"I'm going to go make sure she's okay."
The treatment rooms had always seemed mysterious to Harry. Madam Pomfrey never let anyone inside, unless they were gravely injured. Fortunately, he had never been injured enough to see the inside of one.
Cass, however, wasn't so lucky. She had the room all to herself. Harry was surprised as to how much the room resembled a muggle hospital room. There was a needle and paper monitoring her heartbeat and many tubes were protruding from an IV in her hand.
The equipment surrounding Cass appeared to be situated for the long term, so hopefully this meant she wasn't leaving for St. Mungo's along with Umbridge in the morning.
Very quietly, Harry drug a nearby chair to the bed and sat down. He watched as Cass's chest rose and fell with each silent breath. It was an odd sight. She reminded him of Hermione during second year when she was petrified. But somehow this was more unsettling.
Her hand felt ice cold against his skin as he held it between his palms. Harry rubbed her fingers with his in attempt to warm them. He knew how much she hated to be cold.
"I'm so sorry," Harry gasped as tears began to run down is cheeks. "This is all my fault. All my fault."
Emotion was like the ocean. You could try and put up barriers to try and contain it, but the tide will always win. All it takes is one big wave to send everything crashing down. And as Harry grasped Cass's hands, looking for any sign of consciousness, a tsunami of emotions flooded his being.
The grief was overwhelming. When Cedric died, Harry felt more fear than sadness. But this time Harry could feel the weight of despair and hopelessness throughout every inch of his body.
"Please," he pleaded, "please wake up, Cass. I can't lose you too. Please."
But she couldn't hear him. Cass remained frozen on the bed. Her dark hair was strewn carefully around the pillow of which her head was resting. If it weren't for the bruises and scraped littering her skin, Cass would've resembled a perfect doll. The bruises across her neck were the most apparent. Harry thought back to the image of Greyback's hands suffocating her back in the death room.
"FUCK!" Harry yelled in a rage of fury. He pushed the chair out from beneath himself and it ended up across the room, knocking over a few tables in it's path. Harry didn't care. All that he could focus on was his anger. His anger at Bellatrix for killing Sirius. His anger at Voldemort for killing his parents. But mostly his anger at himself for not being able to help.
Each thought of his uselessness collided with the stone wall before him. In a blind rage, Harry's fists became the outlet for these thoughts. Punching the wall didn't hurt, all he could feel was his anger.
Harry was only broken from the violent trance when someone knocked him to the ground from behind. Harry looked down at his broken and bloodied hands before turning his gaze to the boy in front of him.
"Harry what the bloody hell are you doing?!" Ron yelled from behind him.
He didn't answer. Instead, Harry ran from the room and didn't stop until he reached the common room.
The warmth of the fireplace coaxed Harry to finally sit and rest. It was easy to distract himself by listening to the sounds from the dorms above. It was morning now, and the Gryffindor students were readying for school. None of them knew yet of the exciting gossip that was waiting for them when they reached the Great Hall. Harry knew the news of last night's events would swarm the school before first period could even start.
So, he decided to enjoy the last moments of peace in the common room before that could happen. Harry spent hours in the lonely arm chair, watching the flicking of the flames. Slowly, he was joined by his friends that were one-by-one released from the infirmary.
By the time dinner came around, everyone besides Cass was sitting with him in the common room. Madam Pomfrey had healed all of their minor injuries and they were better than ever. At least that's what they told him.
As the group sat in silence, all Harry could do was look at the one empty seat. The arm of his chair were Cass always squeezed herself in. He expected himself to begin crying again as he stared at the empty space next to him. But he just felt empty. As if he had no more emotions left to express.
It made his next decision much easier. He needed to keep Cass safe... Which meant he needed to stay away from her.
He couldn't visit her, he couldn't date her, he couldn't show any emotions towards her. It would only endanger Cass further.
It went against every fiber of his being, but it didn't matter. He could only focus on protecting the people he had left.
**********
A/N
Hello everyone! Sorry for leaving you on that cliff hanger for so long, but this chapter was hard to write.
I've also been planning out the events for their sixth year and I have some ideas I can't wait to write. I'm trying to figure out different plot lines I can include that are different from the books so if you guys have any ideas let me know. Whether it's about Cass and Harry or just Cass's development I'd love to hear your opinions!
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