Finley's eyes widened as Sebastian raised his wand at Cedric. Cedric stood firm, shielding her with his body. Her heart hammered in her chest, threatening to crack her ribs.
She didn't recognize Sebastian. Not truly.
Not the boy who sat at her bedside when she first woke from that cursed sleep.
Not the one who held her hand through the pain, who cradled her when the nightmares clawed their way out of her throat.
That boy? A lie.
Sebastian Thorns is a liar.
"Step away from her, Diggory," he said, voice calm like this was a civil request, not a threat. "And I'll let you walk."
Cedric barked a laugh, sharp and humorless. "Fat chance, Thorns. Finley's coming with me."
His wand didn't waver. "She belongs with her family. If that curse hadn't wiped her clean, she'd have hexed you by now."
"She'll understand," Sebastian replied, gaze slipping to her. "Won't you, Finn?"
She froze.
His eyes were soft, pleading—but behind them, something shifted. Something is wrong.
If she'd heard his voice before Cedric's... if she hadn't felt that pull in her gut screaming danger, she might've gone to him.
But she had.
And the voice in her head wouldn't shut up now.
He lied. He betrayed you. Find Harry. Find Draco.
Go with Cedric.
"Finney," he said again, a tremor in his voice. "Please. Come back to me."
Her grip tightened around her wand.
"No," she said.
His expression cracked. "No?"
She stepped out from behind Cedric. Her voice was steadier than she felt.
"No. You don't get to decide who I am or what I want. You don't get to call yourself my hero when I didn't ask to be saved."
Sebastian took a step forward. "Finley, if I let you go with him, you'll die out there. No one will protect you like I—"
"That's for me to decide!"
The silence that followed wrapped around them like a noose.
Her breaths were ragged. Her hand trembled.
She couldn't read his expression anymore—the softness had hardened, his posture rigid. But his breathing? Steady. Too steady. And that scared her more than anything.
Cedric's voice broke the tension. "You heard her, Thorns. We're leaving. There's nothing you can—"
"Stupefy!"
The red burst of light shot from Sebastian's wand—fast, vicious.
Too fast.
Cedric turned, trying to shield her again, to cast back, to do anything—
—but it hit him square in the chest.
He went down like a felled tree, his wand flying from his hand as his body slammed against the dirt with a thud that cracked through Finley's bones.
"Cedric!" she cried, lunging forward, knees hitting the ground beside him. Her hands scrambled over his chest, checking, begging—but his eyes were shut, his breathing shallow.
He was alive. Stunned. But down.
A sharp inhale behind her.
"Finley," Sebastian said, quietly. Gentle. As if he hadn't just dropped the only person she could trust at that very moment. "I didn't want to do that. I told you—I just want you safe."
YOU ARE READING
Miss Slytherin
Fanfiction"That's odd," Finley finally spoke as they arrived at the wall where they found the door last Christmas. "Shouldn't there be a door here?" She asked Draco who only smiled at her. "That's where you're wrong Evans, what we found last Christmas was t...
