the siphon | h. potter

~seventeen~

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.