Challenged Love

Chapter 32

An end-of-the-year party was being held in the same room where the Yule Ball had been held just two years before. However, the party was ending, and everyone was making their way to their dorms. I pushed through the crowds, examining all of the faces I came across in hopes of finding Lara and Blaise. It felt selfish to only care to save my two closest friends, but there was no way I could warn all of Hogwarts about its impending doom. Everyone would think I'm crazy. Everyone is already wary about me anyways since my coming back after the false Daily Prophet article and not Kasper, as if I murdered my own cousin.

I then notice Lara and Blaise approaching me.

"They let you out of the Hospital Wing too late," Lara sighed. "The party just ended."

"That's disappointing," I pretend to be let down, but my voice sounded more monotone than anything.

I followed Blaise and Lara into the corridors, not knowing how to bring up the subject. I couldn't anyway, for people overflowed the corridor. That was when I suggested to take the longer route around under the excuse of "avoiding the crowds", to which Blaise and Lara complied. We trailed through the empty hallway, our steps echoing behind us. For a moment I could have swore I heard a fourth pair of foot steps, causing me to become paranoid that a Death Eater already made it inside the castle. My heart rate began to increase as these thoughts flooded my mind. I quickly surveyed the room as if a green flash of light was going to shoot towards me at any point.

"Is something bothering you?" Blaise inquired.

Just behind Blaise I saw Draco racing through the corridor behind us, and I knew then that time was wearing thin.

Lara noticed him too. "Why is Draco racing through the corridor?"

"Where?" Blaise whipped around, but Draco had already disappeared by then.

"Harry told me he had been following Draco lately- said he has been spending a considerable amount of time in the Room of Requirements," Lara mentioned.

"I saw him in there too," I blurt out.

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, he saw me too, and I paid the price for it."

"What do you mean?" Lara asked.

"His spell was what put me in the Hospital Wing," I elaborated on the subject. "I made the mistake of following him to see what he was up to as Harry did. He hit me with a spell when he discovered me- it hurt so bad."

I purposefully left out the part where he carried my limp body to the Hospital Wing.

"I will be the first one to beat him up when I see him again. The only thing he will be running from is me," Blaise proclaimed.

"I also know something else about him."

Lara and Blaise looked at each other then back at me.

"And that is?" Lara pressed, curious to see where this leads.

I'm sure Blaise was curious too. Both of them and Harry, Ron, and Hermione would practically spend the whole lunch and dinner period discussing their theories about Draco and what he was up to. It has been a burning question within the friend group for months. Harry believes Draco is a Death Eater yet has no proof. Hermione thinks Harry is ridiculous for believing it. Lara and Blaise never really declared where they stood on the topic, but they weren't completely opposed to Harry's theory either.

"Draco has the Dark Mark."

I watched as my words processed in their minds, how their faces dropped when they realized.

"How do you know that?" Lara asked, suspicion outlining her words.

"I saw it. I saw it on his arm," I professed, "and we don't have much time until it happens."

"What happens? What is going on?" Lara demands, the confusion and mystery between my words causing her to almost spiral.

"There isn't much time to explain everything, but I will say this. Draco will be letting the Death Eaters into Hogwarts tonight. Our only chance of survival is to escape Hogwarts right now."

"He couldn't do that. Hogwarts is heavily guarded by Dumbledore and his magic security," Blaise protested.

"Not if Dumbledore is dead."

"Is he?" Lara gasped.

"We just need to go," I persist.

"Go where? And how? Our best chance of survival is to hide somewhere within the castle," Lara admonished.

"Room of Requirements?" Blaise suggested.

"That's where the Death Eaters will be coming from- through the Vanishing Cabinet."

"Did Draco tell you this?" Lara inquired, sounding a bit more urgent than before.

I let the silence linger a bit too long than I should have. I pulled Kasper's journal out from under my jacket.

"I read it in Kasper's journal," I admitted, then tucked it back in my coat pocket. "Let's just find a classroom to hide in or something. I bet they will storm the halls and the common rooms."

Before we could take action, a tall, black figure rounded the corner, a silver mask covering their entire face. Lara screeched, and two other Death Eaters joined the latter. I wasn't sure if they recognized me because they didn't spell us immediately as if they were trying to get a good look at me. I really didn't think they could see anything considering how tiny the eye holes were in their mask and how little the hall was illuminated, but we all stared back each other in tense, uncomfortable silence.

None of us attempted to run. The Death Eaters could easily throw a spell while we running with our backs towards them. Instead, we pulled out our wands, ready to win or lose but not ready to surrender.

For Kasper.

The world seemed to blur around me, the burning rage running through my veins like a rapid fire. I threw a spell in their direction, but the next few moments was just a rush of black smoke. Next thing I knew I was floating above the ground.