Hateful Love

Chapter Sixteen

NOTE: I do not own any of the ideas or characters expressed in this story (except Cassie Jackson). All of these belong to J.K. Rowling.

~*~

Cassie P.O.V.

I’m crying again. I’ve been crying this whole week, I think dully, wiping at my cheeks. You’d think it would have gotten old by now.

          I suppose I have good reason to be crying today; I’m at Matt’s funeral. I promised myself this morning that I wouldn’t cry, that I would stay strong for Katherine and Cho. But as I watch the casket being lowered slowly into the earth, I don’t see how I could have expected not to cry.

          I can hear someone sobbing loudly in the crowd of darkly-dressed people, and it painfully reminds me of the Quidditch match. That stupid, pointless Quidditch match…

Dumbledore said a few things at the beginning of the funeral, but I wasn’t paying attention. It’s not like any of it matters anyway; nothing can change what happened.

Katherine is shaking beside me, so I reach over and give her hand a squeeze. I know she’s not doing good, even worse than Cho and I. As we watch the teachers flick their wands solemnly at the pile of dirt to fill the grave, I can’t help but feel like I should be doing something more for Katherine. These past few days, she’s done nothing but sit in our common room and stare blankly out the window. At night, while I desperately try and get some sleep, I can hear Katherine crying.

The sun is much too cheerful today. It should be raining, I think, more tears spilling over as the professors finish with Matt’s grave. It feels like nothing should be happy today.

Almost the entire student body is here. A few Slytherins didn’t want to go, but I don’t blame Draco. We both know it’s better if he stays away from the funeral.

People are starting to turn away from the freshly dug grave when Katherine loses whatever control she had earlier. She breaks into loud, wracking sobs, and several people turn their heads to look sympathetically at her. Gently, I take her shoulder and lead her away from the crowd, Cho reaching for her other hand. We stop under the shade of the nearest oak tree, our backs to the crowds of students to shield Katherine from view.

I rub her back soothingly as she cries into my robes, Cho clutching at Katherine’s left hand. None of us say anything as she sobs endlessly into my shoulder.

Eventually, she calms down enough to just sniffle and hiccup occasionally, so I pull away from her and brush the hair out of her eyes. I look down at her seriously through my own tears and ask, “Are you okay?”

Katherine gives a dark, small laugh as she replies coldly, “What do you think?”

If this had been any other time, I would have snapped back at her. But instead, I stay quiet as Cho intervenes softly, “Cassie’s just trying to help.”

Katherine rubs her eyes furiously and responds guiltily, “I know, I just…I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Biting my lip, I envelop her into a tight hug and whisper, “Me neither, Katherine. But it’s gonna be okay.”

We stay like that under the tree, just the three of us, completely silent and taking comfort from just being with each other. I close my eyes, more tears running down my dampened cheeks, and repeat to myself silently, It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay…

~*~

Draco P.O.V.

I’m sitting before the cold and empty fireplace, rubbing my face with exhaustion, when Marcus Flint bursts in with a few other Slytherins and changes everything.

I only look up because he surprises me; I thought everyone was down at the funeral. I resist the urge to roll my eyes as Flint plops himself down beside me onto the couch.

“Well, mate,” he smirks at me, then glances back at the other two Slytherins with a grin on his face. Turning back to me, he continues, “Today is a good day.”

I lean forward to rest my elbows on my knees, wanting to be as far away from Flint as I can. “Good for you.”

“You don’t understand,” Flint says, and his friends laugh. “You don’t know why this is such a good day.”

“Enlighten me,” I respond dryly, not really caring in the slightest.

Flint leans back on the couch and locks his fingers behind his head in a laid-back manner. Smirking again, he says, “It’s a good day because I didn’t get expelled.”

I can tell he’s waiting for me to ask, so I reply reluctantly, “What did you do this time?”

“You’ll never guess,” Flint grins. When I don’t attempt any sort of guess, he continues proudly, “I’m the one who knocked that Ravenclaw keeper off his broom.”

I hear him saying the words, but my brain won’t process them. Flint takes my shocked silence for one of awe, as he chuckles, “Yeah, it was all me. Thought Hooch would have seen me hit that Bludger at him, but guess I was lucky.”

Grinding my teeth, I stare at him coldly. Flint picks up on this, and looks at me in confusion. “What’s your problem, mate? No one’s gonna miss him. He was a Mudblood, he deserved—“

There’s a loud pop that seems to vibrate through the air as my fist connects with his jaw. Flint flies over the arm of the couch, hitting the floor in front of his friends with a hard smack.

I feel so blind, blind with rage, as I kick the tiny coffee table over and jump on top of Flint. Holding him down, I give him another good punch in the nose and hiss in his face, “Fuck you, Flint. Fuck. You.”

He clutches at his bleeding, broken nose and stammers in fear, “Why—why do you care about some—“

“Because someone I love a lot really cared about him,” I snap coldly. “And she’s really messed up now that he’s gone, and it’s your fault.”

Flint’s two friends suddenly realize they should be helping him up, so they leap forward, yanking me off him roughly. Flint wipes at his nose and slides away from me, then somehow manages to get to his feet. He smirks through the blood, saying, “Got yourself a girlfriend, Malfoy?”

I try to leap on him again, to punch him senseless, but his stupid friends won’t let go of my arms. I hiss with frustration, “Shut the fuck up. I wouldn’t be talking if I were you, Flint. You’re so dumb, you had to stay back a year; what kind of woman would want that?”

Flint glares at me, then rushes forward and knees me in the stomach. The breath leaves my chest completely, and I fall to the floor, clutching at my stomach. I barely refrain from yelling out in pain, but I’m glad I manage to stay quiet. I don’t want to give Flint the satisfaction.

“You’re a faggot, Malfoy,” Flint scoffs quietly, and his friends laugh. He gives me one last painful kick in the stomach before he and the other two exit the common room.

I squeeze my eyes shut and groan quietly, clutching my stomach. I’m lying there, mulling over what I’ve just done, when I realize I admitted out loud that I loved Cassie.

And I find that I don’t regret it at all.