NOTE: I do not own any of the ideas or characters expressed in this story (except Cassie Jackson). All of these belong to J.K. Rowling.
Dedicated to BriBae because after about a half hour of thinking, I decided to pick her comment from the sort of contest thing. I would spend a lot more time writing a long thank you to all you guys who wrote nice comments for me, but I'm sure you all just want to read the chapter :) Seriously, thank you all so much.
And I'll be posting the epilogue either sometime tomorrow or Monday, so don't forget about it! It's very important :)
Okay, here it is...the last chapter. I honestly put everything into this one, and I really tried to make it right. I hope you guys like it, I really put my heart into it.
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Cassie P.O.V.
I’m screaming, but I can’t seem to hear myself.
I’m on my knees, clutching Katherine’s body, but I can’t feel the ground beneath me.
Curses are flying past my head, but I don’t notice.
I stare down at Katherine, willing her eyes to regain their warmth, for her bright smile to return. But her face is still lifeless, and the longer I stare at it, the harder it is to breathe.
Then the courtyard vanishes for a moment, and I’m sitting in the dormitory with Katherine beside me. She runs her fingers through my hair like she would when we were little, telling me softly that it’s okay to love someone no matter what their reputation. “If you like him a lot, then it’s no big deal. I can tell you really love him.”
Then the two of us are in a Muggle clothing store with Cho, Katherine trying to get me to cheer up about missing Draco over the summer before seventh year. “And think of how it’s gonna be when you two meet each other after so long. It’ll be like the fourth of July—fireworks.”
Then the scene changes again. “I’m sorry I thought the stupid prophecy was about Draco, alright? It was a mistake. I mean, I can tell he really cares about you.”
“Nothing’s going to be the same ever again. There’s no way I can have children—“
“’The Dark Lord will return to Hogwarts and take away someone most precious to you’…I hope it’s me.”
“I’m not just going to leave all the fighting to you guys, am I?”
“Stick together, right?”
The courtyard suddenly reappears, and Katherine’s body is lifeless once more. I can feel someone trying to pull me away, so I turn around with tears clouding my vision to see Draco tugging on my shoulders frantically, shouting words that I can’t hear.
I turn back and see Cho clutching Katherine tightly, shaking her harshly and screaming for her to wake up. Draco’s dragging me to my feet, trying to pull me away from Katherine’s body and get us away from all the spells flying past. I try to wrestle myself from Draco’s grip, sobbing uncontrollably and doing everything I can to get back to Katherine—to shield her body from the curses, to hold her one last time.
But Draco refuses to let me go.
“Malfoy, get her out of here!”
Danny’s sprinting towards Cho, reaching down to pull her to her feet. He blocks another Killing Curse sent at them, turning to Draco and shouting, “Just go, Malfoy! I’ve got Cho.”
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—
“Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you. Join me in the Forbidden Forest alone. If you do not do this, I will kill every single man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me.
“You have one hour.”
Voldemort’s voice slowly fades away, hissing and echoing into nothing. A dead silence falls over the castle, and I realize there’s no more screams, no more cries of pain or explosions. The fighting’s stopped.
“Shouldn’t you be leaving?” Arthur snaps, still pointing his wand at Draco—who hasn’t made any attempt to get up. “Get out and find your father, Malfoy.”
“Mr. Weasley, he isn’t fighting for the Death Eaters,” I say, my voice sounding quiet and strained from all the crying. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“But—“ Arthur hesitates, looking back and forth between the two of us. “He was—“
“I wasn’t hurting her,” Draco interrupts in a raspy voice. “I would never—“
“But then why were you crying?” Arthur asks me, turning to look at my tear-stained face and starting to seem flustered.
I set my jaw and choke out, “My…my best friend just died.”
It kills me just to say it out loud. Arthur Weasley falls silent, taking a careful step back and slowly lowering his wand. Draco cautiously gets to his feet, still trying to stay a few feet away just in case. Arthur runs his hand over a face lined with worry and says quietly, “Oh. I am—I’m very sorry. I just thought—“
“It’s okay,” I interrupt, looking down at the ground with blurry vision and trying hard not to start crying again. “Please, we just—we need to be alone right now.”
“Of—of course,” Arthur stammers in a quiet voice, “I’ll just…I’ll just go, then.” He opens his mouth as though to say something more, looking between the two of us carefully, but he just shakes his head and abruptly hurries off down the hallway towards the Great Hall.
Almost as soon as Arthur’s gone, Draco and I stumble over the rubble towards each other. I throw my arms around his neck and he wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me flush against him. The two of us stay there for a long minute, holding onto each other desperately in the deserted hallway.
I pull away only a little, just enough so that I can look at him. My voice shakes only a little as I ask quietly, “Are you okay?”
Draco reaches down and gently brushes my hair away from my face, looking at me seriously. “Yeah, I’m alright.”
He pulls me in close again, hugging me tightly as more tears spill down my cheeks. Doing everything I can not to completely fall apart again, I choke out, “I—I have to go find Cho. And…and find K—Katherine.”
He holds me for moment longer, while I manage to somehow pull myself together. Then Draco slowly pulls away, still clutching one of my hands with his own. “Okay.”
I allow him to lead me back down the hallway, heading in the same direction Arthur Weasley had gone. Wiping my cheeks to try and erase the tear-tracks, I finally manage to get myself to stop crying. I push all the images of Katherine’s body from my mind as Draco helps me step over the stone rubble and broken glass, knowing I have to keep myself together. There’s still a war going on, even if the fighting has stopped for now.
We reach the Great Hall without seeing anyone, but as soon as we step inside, we’re met with crowds of people—sitting along the walls, finding space to sit on some benches, and a few are even lying down.
Then I look again and realize the people lying down aren’t moving.
Draco and I automatically stop holding hands as we walk inside, a habit of pretending not to be together for so long. I step further inside with Draco close behind me, passing students from different Houses and seeing all my professors—Flitwick even gives me a tired wave as I walk past. My heart sinks as I see how worn out everyone looks, how completely exhausted they all seem.
I search the crowds of people for Cho or Danny, knowing they have to be here somewhere. I see Seamus sitting next to Dean, holding a bloody towel to his nose, and I see Julie helping Madam Pomfrey heal Professor Sprout’s broken leg. Then I look to left and finally spot Cho standing next to Danny.
A lump forms in my throat as I see she’s bent over Katherine’s body.
Swallowing hard and suddenly finding it very difficult to breathe, I turn to Draco and say in a small voice, “I’m going to go say goodbye.”
He looks down at me with the saddest expression, then bends down and kisses my cheek gently. When he pulls away, I can still feel the imprint of his lips on my skin.
“I’ll be by the doors,” Draco tells me softly, uncomfortably looking around at the glares some people are giving him. “Take all the time you have to, sweetheart.”
Then he turns and heads back to sit by the entrance, and after a moment I turn back around. I take a step forward, keeping my eyes on Cho and Danny and doing everything I can not to start crying again. I can do this.
It’s time to say goodbye…
**************
Draco P.O.V.
I sit on a wooden bench right next to the hallway leading out of the Great Hall, staying a safe distance from the students sharing the same spot. Resting my elbows on my knees, I lean forward slightly and clasp my hands together. I fix my gaze on Cassie as she stops beside Cho, and my heart twists inside me when she crouches down to clutch Katherine’s hand in her own.
I look away then, because I know I shouldn’t watch Cassie say goodbye to her best friend for the last time.
Instead, I look around the rest of the Great Hall, silently watching all the students and professors comforting each other. The entire room is quiet, the silence only interrupted by the occasional sob or cry of pain. I swallow hard and look down at my hands as another one cuts through the air, thick with emotion.
But then movement to my left distracts me, and I look up. I see someone standing in the shadows just outside the doorway to the Great Hall, and I watch out of curiosity, wondering who it could be. The person steps forward, pausing just long enough to send me a crazed smile before disappearing down the hallway.
Amycus Carrow.
My blood boils, and I automatically stand out of anger, starting for the door without even thinking.
There’s one thing I didn’t tell Cassie. There’s one thing she doesn’t know about the fight in the courtyard…and I will probably never, ever tell her.
She doesn’t know that Amycus is the one who killed Katherine.
I storm out of the Great Hall, completely forgetting that I told Cassie I would be waiting by the doorway. How dare he stay here at the castle after the Dark Lord ordered his forces to retreat, as though he still belongs at Hogwarts? How could he have the nerve to stay here after what he did—?
I’m so furious that I’m caught completely off-guard when Amycus appears out of nowhere, emerging from a dark stairwell and snarling, “Crucio!”
The spell catches me in the shoulder before I even have time to raise my wand, sending me flying into a pile of rubble from one of the smashed windows. Twisting in pain as the spell races through me, I start to pull myself up off the ground as fast as I can.
Amycus blasts another spell straight at me, but I quickly block it as I get to my feet. Fury still making my vision dark, I fire a curse at Amycus and roar, “You killed her, you sick bastard—“
Then at the same time, I send a Disarming spell at him that causes his wand to fly through the air, and he blasts the Killing Curse without a second’s hesitation, missing me by inches. The curse hits the wall behind me, and I cover my face blindly as pieces of broken stone shower down onto my shoulder.
When I look up again, Amycus is mere inches away and he’s reaching for my throat, his wand forgotten somewhere down the hallway.
Before I have time to lift my wand, his fingers have closed around my neck. Amycus pushes me to the floor, slamming one elbow on my right wrist to make me lose grip on my mother’s wand. His fingers tighten around my throat, and I suddenly can’t breathe.
Gasping for air, I desperately reach up to try and throw him off me, but Amycus just leans closer to my face and hisses, “I wasn’t even trying to kill the stupid half-blood, she got in my way. I was aiming for that Jackson girl—“
Raw anger rushes through me and I lash out furiously at his face, but Amycus just tightens his grip around my neck. He leans even closer and snarls, “You know how much trouble she’s caused me? I should’ve killed her off when the Dark Lord gave me the chance—actually, I should have killed both of you—“
Black spots are dotting the edges of my vision, and I realize my arms are starting to feel heavy, hearing myself struggling to breathe but not being able to do anything. My lungs are burning for air but Amycus is doing nothing but clutch my throat harder—
“All you’ve been this year, Malfoy, is a nuisance. The Dark Lord won’t miss you when you’re gone—as a matter of fact, no one will. Even your worthless parents—“
“Stupefy!”
My eyes have started to roll back inside my head, so I don’t see anything; I only feel Amycus’s weight lifting off me and cool air rushing back into my lungs. Retching and taking huge gasps of air, I struggle to sit up slightly and look to see what’s happened.
Cassie is storming down the hallway with fury literally radiating off of her, firing curse after curse at Amycus. I watch, coughing, as Amycus frantically blocks the spells and is forced to back farther down the hallway. Cassie’s throwing curses that I’ve never seen before, using powerful charms that seem far too complex. Jets of purple light slam into Amycus’s shield charm with sparks, and Cassie even sends balls of flame straight at him, her face twisted in rage. Amycus is pushed so far back that he’s almost to the door that leads out to the grounds of Hogwarts, doing everything he can to block the curses sent his way.
“Get out!” Cassie screeches, throwing a powerful spell that blasts into the wall inches above Amycus’s head with a loud bang. Amycus ducks to avoid the spray of stone, then suddenly stumbles for the doorway, trying frantically to block the curses. “Leave and don’t come back. Get! Out!”
Amycus just barely shields off a jet of red light, then throws himself out the doorway and disappears out of the castle. Cassie storms over to the door, still spitting out curses that slam into the stone wall where Amycus had just been standing.
I shakily get to my feet, the hallway spinning, and hear the loud crack of a Disapparation. Holding my damaged throat and already feeling the bruises, I look up to see Cassie hurrying back from the door, wiping the hair out of her face and stuffing her wand back into her pocket.
Cassie crashes into my chest, pulling me tight against her and burying her face in the curve of my neck. I weakly put one arm around her, still trying not to cough up my lungs. She pulls away after a moment and gently grabs both sides of my face, looking me over carefully and whispering, “I thought…I thought he was going to kill you.”
I look down at her, my heart twisting inside me. I can never tell her what Amycus just told me. If Cassie knew that Amycus had really been aiming for her but hit Katherine instead, she would fall apart. So I run my thumb over her bottom lip and say softly, “Thank you. For stopping him.”
The sun leaks through the many open and smashed windows in the hallway, sending a flood of yellow-orange light across the fallen rubble. Cassie stands on her tiptoes and, with the dawn rising up around us, leans close and presses her lips to mine.
We don’t get more than a few seconds of peace. I pull away as we hear sounds of hurried movement coming from the Great Hall, and I twist around to see all the students and professors rushing out to the courtyard, giving each other frantic looks of fear.
Our hands, still damaged from the fire, automatically clasp together as I start after the flood of people with Cassie close behind me. I don’t know what’s happening, but it doesn’t look good. Hearing screams of loss and pain as we reach the castle doors, I stop dead at the sight before me.
Voldemort is standing at the front of a long line of Death Eaters, all his followers standing eagerly in a row of black close behind him. I hear Cassie gasp beside me, and then I see it.
Harry Potter’s dead body is lying in Hagrid’s arms.
Before I can even comprehend this, before it can hit me that our last hope is now dead, I see the bleach blonde hair of my father standing right behind Voldemort.
Quickly, I duck behind the crowd of students standing a safe distance away from the Death Eaters, pulling Cassie down beside me. She follows me without question, allowing me to lead her more towards the back of all the people. I can’t let my father see me standing on the opposite side.
“Silence,” Voldemort hisses, and the cries of anguish abruptly cut off. He steps forward, pointing to Harry Potter’s body and sneering, “You see? The Boy Who Lived is dead. He was nothing but a symbol—nothing but a boy who was killed trying to save himself, while others gave their lives to protect him.”
Voldemort steps closer to the crowd of survivors, his snake-like face twisting into an expression of sick pleasure. “There will be no more Houses at Hogwarts. You will follow the ways of Salazar Slytherin, and will obey me without question. However, I now give you the choice…to join my ranks, to become a Death Eater and be rewarded…or to die…”
For a long moment, silence falls over the courtyard like a frozen blanket, no one making a move forward. Voldemort’s cold gaze scans the crowd of students and professors, and I quickly look down, praying that none of the Death Eaters will see me.
But then I hear my name, and my blood runs cold.
“Draco,” my father hisses, stepping forward slightly and furiously searching the crowd for me. “Draco!”
My legs have turned to lead, and I suddenly can’t remember how to breathe. I feel Cassie quietly let go of my hand, and I turn to her frantically, not being able to function without her touch. She pushes my shoulder gently, mouthing silently, Draco, go.
But I don’t want to.
When I don’t make a move, Cassie shoves me hard and I stumble forward. Feeling everyone’s gaze turn to me, I realize I have no choice but to make my way out of the crowd of survivors and start across the stretch of nothing towards the other side.
The wrong side.
Voldemort reaches out to me, and I can feel the students’ and professors’ eyes burning into my back, hating me with everything they have. It’s all I can do not to flinch away when Voldemort squeezes my shoulder with a pale hand, but I manage not to betray how terrified I am. He lets go after an agonized moment where I think I might pass out, letting me weakly walk past to the line of Death Eaters.
I come to a stop beside my mother, doing everything I can to stop my entire body from shaking. She holds something out to me, and I get a sick feeling in my stomach as I realize it’s my own wand. I slowly hand over her wand that I’ve been borrowing, taking mine in return with unsteady fingers and knowing she must have taken it from Potter’s body.
“And who’s this? I must say, I’d hoped for better…”
I turn, my mother clutching my arm, to see Neville Longbottom has started forward, holding nothing to defend himself but the battered old Sorting hat.
“Ah yes, I remember,” Voldemort hisses, a sneer on his pale face. “A Longbottom, you must be. Well, I’m sure we can find somewhere for you—“
“I’ll join you when hell freezes over,” Longbottom interrupts bravely, ignoring the yells for him to stop from the crowd behind. “Harry died to save us, he didn’t just give up. And we shouldn’t either—“
And then everything happened at once.
Longbottom withdrew a gleaming silver sword from deep within the Sorting hat, Voldemort raised his wand high to strike him down—and Harry Potter scrambled out of Hagrid’s arms, stumbling to his feet.
I watch as Voldemort turns in outrage to see that his enemy is alive, starting to raise his wand to finish him for good.
I turn and see Potter is wandless.
Without a moment’s thought, without a second’s hesitation, I toss my wand as hard as I can and shout, “Potter!”
My wand spins through the air almost in slow motion; Potter looks over and automatically reaches up to snatch it out of the air. I look to see the fury in Voldemort’s eyes, as he realizes one of his own has betrayed him—
And then Potter’s caught the wand and is sprinting inside the castle.
Voldemort lets out a roar, and for a moment I think he’s going to turn to kill me. But all of a sudden, there’s chaos; everyone’s running at each other, the battle recommencing abruptly in a mass confusion. I lose sight of Voldemort as he starts off for Potter, so I turn to the left and start to push my way back to find Cassie.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going, boy?”
Lucius grabs my arm from behind, twisting it painfully and making me spin around. Death Eaters and students knocking past me, I try to wrench my arm from his grip, but Lucius refuses to let go. He drags me closer towards the bridge that leads away from Hogwarts, snarling, “We’re leaving, Draco. That little stunt you just pulled made us lose everything, we’ve got to go into hiding now—“
“We’ve already lost everything!” I snap, flinching as a girl’s scream pierces the air and twisting to search the chaos for Cassie. I finally rip my arm from my father’s grip and start to back away, seeing him standing at the edge of the bridge with my mother right beside him. “It’s over. Go into hiding without me, I don’t care. Just leave me out of it.”
As I turn away, Lucius makes another grab for my arm. “Where are you going—?”
“To find my girlfriend,” I shout furiously, ripping my arm from his hands for the second time.
Then I leave my parents’ shocked and outraged faces behind, disappearing into the crowd without a moment’s regret.
********************
Cassie P.O.V.
I try to keep my eyes locked on Draco as I push my way across the crowded courtyard, shoving past students and professors in my haste. My wand is clutched tightly in my hand as I dodge spells and curses, knowing I have to get to Draco—he doesn’t have a wand now.
Despite my efforts to keep my gaze fixed on Draco, I eventually lose sight of him; a Hufflepuff knocks into me hard, and when I look up again, he’s gone. Suddenly frantic, I spin on the spot, searching the crowds of Death Eaters and students for that shockingly blonde, almost white head of hair—
And then he’s beside me, pulling me close against his chest and whispering in my ear, “I’ve got you.”
Wincing as someone shoves my damaged shoulder, I look up at him and say worriedly, “Draco—why would you get rid of your wand like that? I mean, it was great and everything but now how are you supposed to—“
But Draco cuts me off, smirking down at me and clutching my left hand in his own. “I told you I would fight it.”
I open and close my mouth for a moment, suddenly at a loss for words. He…he remembered. He remembered how I asked him to fight it, to stay safe—but to fight it.
And he did.
Before I can think of something to say to that, there are suddenly loud screams coming from inside the castle, near the Entrance Hall. I swallow hard and give Draco’s hand a small squeeze, only wincing slightly at the pain from my blistered palm. I whisper, “Stay close to me.”
The two of us set off towards the castle entrance, and I realize most everyone from the courtyard is doing the same thing. That’s where Voldemort must be.
With Draco right behind me, still clutching my hand, I reach the Entrance Hall with the rest of the crowds from the courtyard. I had been expecting there to be only more chaos, more fighting inside, but I realize the room is deadly silent. Craning my neck to see what everyone’s staring at, I look to see Harry Potter facing Voldemort alone in the center of the hall. Covering my mouth with my free hand in fear, I strain to hear what they’re saying to one another.
“—You still don’t get it, do you?” Harry says as the two of them circle each other, the entire Entrance Hall completely captivated. “The wand chooses the wizard…the Elder Wand recognized a new master right before Dumbledore died, someone who removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will…”
I feel Draco stiffen behind me, but I have no idea what he’s talking about. The Elder Wand? That was just something made up, a tale created simply for children—
“You were never the true master of the Elder Wand, Riddle. The true master of the Elder Wand…was Draco Malfoy.”
I can feel Draco’s heart pounding against my back, his breathing sounding short and rapid in my ear. I listen, completely terrified, as Voldemort says softly, “Even if you are right, we duel on skill alone…after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy…”
A few heads turn to us, and I automatically step in front of Draco. I take hold of his other hand as well, standing with my back pressed against his chest, fear racing through me at the thought of Draco being murdered by Lord Voldemort—
“You’re too late,” Harry says, his voice echoing strangely through the silence of the Entrance Hall. “Draco threw me his wand in the courtyard, tonight. So if I’m right…I am the true master of the Elder Wand.”
All of us—students, professors, Death Eaters—watch as Harry Potter lifts Draco’s wand and Voldemort raises his own. It’s seems as though the entire Entrance Hall is holding its breath.
“Avada Kedavra!”
“Expelliarmus!”
There’s a flash of green that is met by red, and the hall explodes in a spray of light, illuminating the room and washing the walls in a blinding glow. When I open my eyes, Draco’s arms are around me as though to protect me—and Lord Voldemort is lying dead at Harry Potter’s feet.
After the briefest moment of complete silence, the Entrance Hall suddenly erupts in a deafening roar, cheers and shouts of delight seeming to shake the walls. The crowd surges forward towards Harry, the Boy Who Lived, the one who saved the entire Wizarding World from Lord Voldemort.
Tears forming in my eyes, I spin to face Draco with a smile on my face—the happiest one I’ve had all year. He’s grinning too, giving me his real smile, the one that’s so rare. It feels like we’re the only two people in the world as I throw my arms around his neck and Draco crashes his lips to mine, both of us kissing each other hard and unable to stop smiling.
The relief is making my legs feel weak, knowing that we’re finally safe. My chest still aches because Katherine is really gone, that so many people have died tonight, but I know that it’s finally over—for good.
Draco pulls away only a little, then touches his forehead to mine. Our bodies impossibly close and our breath mingling together, Draco tells me in a soft voice with the biggest smile on his face, “We’re going to be okay, sweetheart. We’re gonna be okay.”
And for the first time in two long years, I believe him.