We will meet again ~ Fred Weasley

- The Severed Connection -

"Together, they stood against the man who had spent their entire lives trying to destroy them."

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"Wait...did it work?"

The question came out of Katherine's mouth before she had even properly caught her breath.

She looked from Ron to Hermione, then to Neville, searching each of their faces for something—anything—that might tell her what had happened while she had been unconscious.

Ron didn't answer immediately.

Instead, his hand closed firmly around her arm as though he was afraid she might run away.

"We won't know until we see."

There was something almost dangerously hopeful in his voice.

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Katherine stared at him.

She couldn't understand how he could look so pleased.

How any of them could.

Voldemort could still be out there.

The Horcruxes were still uncertain.

Harry was missing or dead.

And somehow everyone was behaving as though her survival had automatically meant victory.

Hermione clearly shared her doubts.

She was shaking her head slowly, her expression far more cautious than Ron's.

"We need to be certain," she said quietly. "We can't assume anything yet."

"Exactly."

Katherine swallowed.

Her legs felt strangely weak beneath her.

She glanced down at herself.

The aftermath of what had happened in the classroom was still visible, but the pain had faded into something distant and unreal. It almost felt like it had happened to someone else.

That frightened her more than the pain had.

She had expected to die.

She had accepted it.

She had said goodbye to them.

And yet somehow she was still standing.

Still breathing.

Still here.

She didn't know whether to be grateful.

Because there was one thought she couldn't escape.

If her death had been meant to destroy Voldemort, then was he still alive?

Why was Harry still gone?

And why did she have the terrible feeling that she already knew the answer?

Ron pulled open the classroom door.

"Come on."

Katherine followed.

Neville and Hermione stayed close behind her.

The moment they stepped into the corridor, Katherine felt the atmosphere change.

Hogwarts was almost unnaturally quiet.

Dust hung heavily in the air, drifting through the shafts of light that filtered down from somewhere above. Rubble covered sections of the corridor where parts of the castle had been damaged during the fighting.