Cassie's POV
The common room was empty, most everyone was at dinner by now. I'd elected to skip dinner tonight and write my letters to Fred and George.
I'd just returned from the owlery when Harry came back into the common room.
I gaped at him.
"Harry? Is that blood?" I asked in shock. His robes were soaked and red, and he was paler than I'd ever seen.
"I'll explain in a minute," Harry said quickly as he darted up to the boys dormitory.
I sat down on the sofa and waited for him. My leg was shaking and I couldn't stop tapping my fingers.
Finally Harry came back down from the boys dormitory and I shot out of my seat.
"Are you okay?" I asked him immediately.
"Yes- yes I'm okay," Harry said.
My heart lifted, he was okay- physically at least. He still looked pale and shaken.
"Harry, what happened?"
"Where are Ron and Hermione?" He asked.
"They went to dinner, you know that."
"Right.. yeah," Harry grumbled.
Finally about an hour later, Harry finished telling me, as well as Ron, Hermione, and Ginny what had happened.
Harry had used a spell called 'sectumsempra' and nearly killed Draco Malfoy. He'd barely been saved by Snape coming in at just the right time.
Hermione immediately began to berate Harry for using anything that the Half Blood Prince wrote. I rolled my eyes at her, this wouldn't help the situation and I knew Harry felt bad enough as it was.
Awhile later it was just my brother and I left in the common room. I needed this chance to talk to him alone without someone else interfering.
"Harry," I said, looking over at my twin.
"Oh no. You're gonna lecture me to aren't you," he groaned.
"Maybe a little bit. But you know I have to," I said.
Harry nodded and gave me a look that clearly said, 'let's get this over with'.
"I just... why Harry? Why would you use a spell without knowing what it does? I know he was going to use an unforgivable curse... but you know plenty of other spells that would've helped! You're smarter than that!" I rambled.
"I don't know, I just did! I didn't have time to think... and so I used it and..." Harry trailed off.. looking down.
The guilt on his face was apparent. My stomach did a flip, I hated seeing Harry like this.
"I mean... at least we've figured out another category of curses. You've just discovers an unusuable spell," I said with a half smile.
It was a bad attempt at making him smile, but it was something. It barley worked, a faint smirk played on his lips before it quickly faded.
"Harry... just remember that this doesn't make you a bad person alright?"
Harry looked at me for a second, "I let so many people down. The quidditch team, Hermione, Ron, you..."
He trailed off and I knew he was thinking of Ginny.
"It happens sometimes. You made a mistake but the team will forgive you. So will me and our friends. And so will Ginny. Look at the way she stood up for you, it's okay. You made a mistake and you learned."
"Yeah.. I suppose you've got a point. At least you don't have to deal with detentions with Snape," Harry said the name with absolute disgust.
I stayed silent. Detention was the minimum punishment he could've gotten, and it was rather fair.
The common room was alive with shouts and cheering. Drinks and snacks were going around as we celebrated winning the quidditch match. The rest of Gryffindor gathered around the team, grinning.
Ginny and I high-fived each other, grinning. This was the feeling you could only get from a victory as amazing as this one. We'd knocked Ravenclaws socks off in this match and we'd won the Quidditch Cup. I had to write to the twins about it as soon as I could.
As the celebrations went on, Ron and I noticed Harry come in through the portrait hole. Grinning we hurried towards him, "We won!" Ron and I exclaimed.
Harry grinned, and I noticed his eyes land immediately on Ginny who was running towards him. We all watched as she threw her arms around Harry, and Harry in turn, kissed her.
Slightly surprised, I smirked, it's about damn time.
The look on Rons face showed what I was thinking, but when Harry looked towards Ron his expression immediately changed to 'if you must' and I nearly laughed.
Ginny looked towards me and I winked at her. I knew she'd never really given up on Harry, whether she liked it or not. The two went out to talk privately, and I found Hermione amongst the crowd.
"I can't say I was expecting that, not tonight at least," Hermione shouted over the noise.
"We knew it would happen eventually. Maybe just... not so publicly," I said, shrugging my shoulders.
I was happy that Harry and Ginny were finally together, they would both be happy.
Two hours later I was running a brush through my hair trying to get ready for bed. There was a soft knock on my door before Ginny poked her head in.
"You awake?" She asked quietly.
"No Gin, I'm sleep brushing my hair," I said sarcastically.
Ginny smirked and I slipped out into the hall to talk to her.
"Well?" I asked with a grin.
"It's official!" She said happily.
"Well it's about time you both came to your senses!" I joked.
She rolled her eyes, "and how long did it take you and Fred to even acknowledge your feelings for each other?"
"Oh, shut up," I laughed.
Ginny and I stayed up well into the night discussing what had happened with Harry. She smiled uncontrollably, and I pretended to gag at the thought of her kissing my brother. It was nearly 3 o clock before we decided to go to bed. We were were both going to be exhausted the next day.
****
Hermione was once again lecturing Harry about the prince. It was exasperating, although at this point I was starting to agree with her. There were obviously some pretty bad spells in that book, and I didn't want my brother in anymore trouble. As the lecture continued, my mind began to drift off to something I found more interesting- Fred.
"Cas?" Harry waved his hand in front of my face. Annoyed, I shoved his hand away, glaring at him.
"What?" I asked grumpily.
"There's a message from Dumbledore-"
"You don't think he found the-"
"We better go and see hadn't we?"
With that Harry and I were off to Dumbledores office.
There was a scream as we rushed down the hall. Harry and I looked at each other as we heard professor Trelawney's voice echo down the hall.
Trelawney was standing just outside the room of requirement, holding sherry bottles and looking very flustered.
"What happened?" I asked.
Harry and I once again glanced at each other as Trelawney explained how she had been thrown out of the room of requirement. The look we shared said one thing- we both knew it was Malfoy.
Harry quickly insisted that she come with us and tell the headmaster what had happened. The three of us began to walk towards Dumbledore's office, and she began to tell us about her first interview with Dumbledore.
"....but then we were rudely interrupted by Severus Snape!"
My blood ran cold.
"What?" Harry uttered.
Trelawney continued to walk and explain how Snape had heard the prophecy, and Dumbledore gave her the job.
Harry and I stood rooted to the spot.
I felt sick. It was him. Snape. Snape was the reason I never got to know my real parents. The reason I didn't get to grow up with my twin. The reason I had an abusive father and mother.
Anger boiled inside me, and I looked at Harry. He was paler than the ghosts, and he looked as angry as I felt.
Harry demanded that we see Dumbledore ourselves, and we took off in the direction of his office once again.
The minute we arrived I knew Harry would start to shout. I understood, Dumbledore should have told us. Anger was still hot inside me.
"Well, I promised you could come with me."
Harry stopped, a look of confusion on his face for a moment before he remembered the horcruxes.
It didn't take Dumbledore long to notice that something was off.
Oh no please don't ask... please don't ask.
The moment Dumbledore asked what was wrong, Harry began to shout. He was absolutely furious, as was I.
Throughout all of this, it was Dumbledore's calmness that made me even angrier. He acted as thought Snape had done absolutely nothing wrong, and that there was no reason to believe Malfoy was up to nothing.
My anger grew, and I bit my tongue to keep from joining Harry in his yelling.
"I do not wish to discuss the matter any further," Dumbledore said with a cold finality.
Harry and I stood in silence, biting our tongues.
"Do you wish to come with me tonight?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes."
A cold breeze rustled my hair into my face. The air smelled salty, and I realized we must be around some kind of ocean. I shivered as the wind rushed past my skin again.
Looking around we were around some kind of cliff area over the sea. Wherever we were, it was freezing. Dumbledore began to explain that he believed this is where Voldemort had taken some of poor children he enjoyed tormenting. For the second time that night, I felt sick.
The journey began. The three of us climbed down the rocks, Dumbledore moved very slowly due to his injured hand. I wasn't much ahead of him, Harry was going by far the fastest. The rocks were jagged, and I was slowly beginning to realize exactly how dangerous this was.
"I hope you don't mind getting a little wet," Dumbledore said.
I froze in my tracks. Wet? I have to swim through this? I thought angrily. I was in no way prepared for swimming. It was too late to go back now. Harry remover the invisibility cloak from our shoulders and my shivering increased.
Our clothes billowed around us as we swam through the chilled water. Pushing through I looked at Harry. He had a determined look on his face, he trusted that we could do this. We can do this.
Finally we came into a small cave.
I stood close to Harry, and he wrapped his arms around my shoulders in an attempt to keep us both warm. Dumbledore continue to poke around the cave until he determined that the cave wanted a sacrifice of blood.
"That's awful.." I muttered under my breathe as Dumbledore made a deep cut in his arm, offering the blood to the cave. The wall of the cave revealed an opening, and we walked inside.
We walked inside the pitch black cavern and began to walk. Dumbledore had dried our clothes but I was still shaking. Maybe it was from fear. Standing close to Harry, I continued to follow them through the cave.
Dumbledore stopped abruptly, causing a small pile up of people. Dumbledore apologized, and then began to search around for something. Eventually he found something I couldn't see. Harry and I exchanged a confused, nervous glance.
"Are you scared too?" I asked him quietly.
Harry nodded, giving my arm a tight squeeze.
As we turned our attention back to Dumbledore, he pulled a small boat out of the water. It was too small to fit all of us. I knew immediately that if someone had to stay behind it would be. Harry would never forgive me if I forced him to stay here. At the moment Harry was the braver of us anyways.
My brother looked at me as if to make sure it was okay for him to go, as if me telling him I didn't want him to would make a difference. Giving him a soft smile, I nodded and pulled him into a hug. "Be careful. Both of you," I whispered.
Harry and Dumbledore climbed into the boat, and I watched as they began to move in the direction of the green light in the center of the lake.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I leaned against the wall. There was a possibility that either one, or both of them wouldn't come back. How would I explain it to Ron, Hermione and Ginny if Harry didn't make it?
He's faced Voldemort in person, he will make it out of this too.
The minutes felt like hours before I could barely see them climbing out of the boat by the green glow. I watched intently, I couldn't see much through the darkness. I watched as Dumbledore began to drink something.. and then began to stumble and fall as he continued to drink.
I watched in horror as Dumbledore fell, and Harry was forced to make him keep drinking. I couldn't watch anymore, I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe by the time I opened them, they would be back safely.
That hope faded immediately as I opened my eyes to see Harry being dragged towards the water by an Inferi. I screamed.
"Use fire! Harry, use fire!" I tried to scream at him but it was useless. He couldn't hear me.
Muttering an incantation I hoped that the fire that temporarily bursted out of my wand would help but I was too far away. I was forced to watch in terror as my brother tried to fight the bodies off.
I should have been the one to go, I should have at least tried to make Harry stay here.
There was a bright light and I realized that Dumbledore had made a ring of fire to surround them. I felt a weight lift off of my chest as they climbed back into the boat safely. The Inferi returned to the depths of the cold lake.
After what felt like a century, they climbed safely out of the boat. It wasn't the time for reunion hugs, or being glad Harry was safe. It was obvious we had to get Dumbledore to safety and help.
I thought things would be safe once we returned to Hogsmeade but I was wrong. The dark mark lingered over Hogwarts.
With the help of Madame Rosmerta and her brooms we were soon returning to Hogwarts.