Feral Den

Chapter 6

Landing back in the Quidditch pitch made maze, I had felt the magic the Killing Curse drained from me. It was... horrifying. The need, the want to cast such a curse again that filled me.
I had never felt something like it before. I felt myself become tainted, felt myself become gross and splattered in a thick layer of what felt like mud.

Laying in the mossy grass with Cedric's dead body below me felt surreal. It felt... like a dream.
Like one of my nightmares —where it was just so real it had to be fake.

But it wasn't fake, and there was screaming —from the crowd above. Horrified wallows of terror as everyone slowly began to realize that Cedric was dead, and I was bloodied.
A hand yanked me from Cedric's body as my friends father bellowed in his sorrow, falling to his knees on the other side of where I stared unseeing at the cruel coal eyes of Snape.

His stare seemed to search mine, as if seeing through me, seeing what happened, before I was again yanked and instead of pitch blackness, met baby blue.

Dumbledore shook my shoulders, the action hurting as he yelled at me.

No, wait.

He spoke into my ear. It was the roaring of my blood that made it feel like the old man was yelling.

"Hailee, what happened?" Dumbledore asked.
He shook my shoulders again.
"What happened, Hailee?" He pressed.

I could only stare, my mouth moving uselessly as words refused to form.

Wormtail killed Cedric.

I breathed deeply through my nose.

There were two people in long cloaks —one woman and one man.

I shuddered under Dumbledores unrelenting grip.

I killed Wormtail.

I sob broke my lips, before I bit into my lower one —hard. No, no. I will not cry. Not for a rat like Pettigrew. Not for my parents murderer.

The hands gripping my shoulders squeezed before they gripped underneath my armpits and lifted me up. I very nearly fell when my right leg hit the hard ground, but I forced my left to take the majority of my weight.
My eyes remained closed as I heard a whisper of Dumbledore commanding an order and for everyone to return to the Great Hall. I could hear Mr. Diggory crying into the fabric of his son's shirt, as Cho —Cho was silent. I couldn't hear her cries, I didn't even know where the Ravenclaw was.

Taking a shuddering breath, my eyes opened through my order. Turning, I couldn't help to look back, and see that Snape, along with a boy I didn't recognize were staring at me.

My arm was grabbed, and I hissed, yanking my arm back, but the grubby hand refused to let me go. Then an arm was wrapped around my shoulders and I was being hoisted for the exit.

"Come on girl. Come on."
Madeye —it was Madeye.

I allowed the ex-auror to carry me to the castle, up the stairs that passed where everyone else was gathering. We climbed, my leg doing nothing to help, and Madeyes peg for a leg clunking heavily on the stone.
He pulled me to the Defense classroom, into his quarters and sat me in a chair. I winced as the hard wood slammed into the most tender of spots on my back.

"What happened?" Madeye barked, clunking around the office.
"I—" My words choked.

Wormtail killed Cedric.
Two figures stood in dark cloaks.
I... killed Wormtail.