Him - A Harry Potter Love Story

Chapter Thirty-Five

A/N Oh my god I have two thousand reads last time I checked it wasn't even one thousand

"Where is he?! He said he'd be back by now!" I cried out as everyone started to stand. The train had come to a stop.

"Cassie, relax. I'm sure he just decided to get off with someone else," Hermione sighed, rubbing my shoulder a little as she walked past me.

I bit my lip as I followed everyone, looking around to see if he was in the area. We got on the carriages, and I let out a small gasp when I saw the Thestrals for the first time.

Harry had pointed them out last year; but only Luna could see. I had seen my mother die...I could now see them too.

Feeling slightly intimidated by their appearance, I stayed a few feet away from them as I walked around them to the carriage.

I ran my hand through my hair, glancing back again to see if he was getting off the train. He had to just be in another carriage. He had to.

The train slowly started to move again, as did the carriages. I finally turned around, staring at the Hogwarts Castle which was growing bigger and bigger as we got closer.

When we got into the Great Hall, I finally started to panic. My eyes searched everywhere, but Harry was nowhere in sight. I sat down, now running my hand through my hair every few seconds. I realized that it had become a habit of mine when I was worried.

I didn't pay any attention to the sorting, nor Dumbledore's speech. I was incredibly nervous, not knowing where Harry was. Although it seemed like I was just being an obsessive girlfriend, needing to know where he was at all times, I was terrified that someone had come and kidnapped him or something...

Finally, after ten minutes of picking at my food and glancing at the door, Harry appeared.

I let out a gasp of relief, getting up and running into his arms. He let out a surprised laugh, squeezing me tightly.

"Where were you?" I asked, backing up after a moment. "Why is there blood on your face?!"

"Well, I um...went to go spy on Malfoy," he admitted, wincing a little at my glare. "He noticed I was there, petrified me, and threw the cloak over me."

"That's terrible," I sighed, glaring in Malfoy's direction. He had already been staring at us, his eyes narrowed.

"He, er - also stepped on my face. That's the blood," he explained as we went to sit down. "Luna found me and fixed it."

"Here," I said, handing him a few napkins. "I can't believe Malfoy did that to you."

"So, what have I missed?" he asked, starting to put some food on his plate.

"The sorting and Dumbledore's speech...I didn't really pay much attention." I bit my lip.

"Almost half of the first years were Slytherins," Hermione said.

"Yeah. We only got six Gryffindors," Ron added. "It's awful."

"And you weren't paying any attention at all?" Hermione asked, glancing up at the table. "Not to Dumbledore's speech?"

"No."

"Snape's the new defense against the dark arts teacher, Cassie," Ron said, frowning.

"What?!" Harry and I exclaimed at the same time.

"I know," Hermione sighed, looking down at her plate.

"What about Slughorn?" Harry asked. "He's up there. Isn't he the DADA teacher?"

"No, he's teaching potions," Hermione explained.

I groaned, burying my face in my hands. "I can't believe it. It was one thing nearly failing potions, but DADA?"

"Cassie, you didn't nearly fail," Ron snickered. "You got an Outstanding on your OWL."

Although I missed the OWLs, they let me make them all up a few days after I recovered from the Ministry. I got Outstandings on everything except divination and astronomy, which both were Exceeds Expectations. Harry, unfortunately, didn't get a good enough grade to take potions, which made me feel terrible. He wanted to be an auror; I wasn't even sure what I wanted to do when I left Hogwarts, but I had the grades for basically anything.

"The grade in the actual class wasn't though," I said, rolling my eyes. "Snape hates me almost as much as he does Harry."

"At least you're amazing at defense," Harry pointed out. "Even Snape can't take points off from you in that class."

"Well so are you," I laughed, blushing a little. He grinned.

"Hey, you were basically teaching DA last year on your own," he argued. "Since we never talked about lessons together, you just stepped up every meeting and taught them things I didn't even know."

"Cassie, remember that time you used that confusion charm on him and he couldn't figure out why we were all staring at him?" Ron asked, laughing.

I smirked, looking at Harry. "How could I forget?"

He narrowed his eyes, trying to keep a smile from forming on his face (but failing).

"You think that's funny?" he scoffed as I started to laugh.

"Very."

He poked my side, and I let out a squeal, jumping away from him. He chuckled as my face heated up.

"You're mean!" I whined, fake pouting.

"Come here," he laughed. "I'm sorry."

I moved back over to him and let him wrap an arm around my waist.

It was then I noticed Lavender across the table staring at Ron with longing eyes. I raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't notice. She seemed incredibly fixated on him.

Harry and I finished dinner and headed to the common room. I ran to the couch, jumping over the back to lay down. I missed Hogwarts so much...

Harry laughed, shaking his head when he saw me smiling up at him. He scooped me up in his arms, sitting down himself but keeping me in his lap.

"Did you hear anything with Malfoy?" I asked quietly, leaning my head against his chest.

"Not anything helpful," he sighed, his eyes filled with both annoyance and concern. "Mainly about how he doesn't want to stay at Hogwarts."

"You really think he'd join the death eaters?" I bit my lip, looking down a little. "As terrible as he is...I just can't see him doing that. Sixteen is too young to be a part of that."

"You're right. I couldn't see him doing that...on his own." Harry's eyes glistened in the candlelight. "But he has two parents that did. And Voldemort knows he can be valuable...if he was forced to become a death eater, he's the only follower of Voldemort that is in this castle."