Hateful Love

Chapter Twenty-Seven

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.

Two weeks have gone by, and it’s clear Hogwarts isn’t a school anymore. It’s hell.

We aren’t allowed to walk freely in the halls anymore; there’s a new rule that all students must walk in file from class to class, always supervised by several teachers. When Katherine heard this, she threw a tantrum in our common room and paced for hours, ranting about how insane this all was. None of us said it, but we all knew she was right.

I watch students get punished daily now, for the smallest of things. I heard about a first year Hufflepuff who had taken a beating for being past curfew ten minutes, only because she’d forgotten the password to her common room. She was in the hospital wing for three days.

And in Potions a few days ago, we heard a commotion out in the hallway and all of us went outside to see what was going on. It seemed Alecto Carrow had stopped a fourth year on his way the bathroom, and the fourth year made a snide comment about not being able to do his business without being interrogated. Carrow used the Cruciatus curse on him in front of everyone.

Draco and I have been lucky, but only because we’ve been careful and have been meeting less often than we would like. And my other friends haven’t gotten in trouble yet either, which is surprising because of Katherine. But I have a sinking feeling that we won’t be able to stay out of the Carrows’ path for much longer.

~*~

“Pay attention!”

My eyelids snap back open at the sharp sound of Alecto’s voice, and I’m not the only one. Dean is so startled that he jumps in his chair. I look up to see if the Carrows’ have noticed I’d been dozing, but they seem to be more focused on Seamus Finnigan. He’s gotten into a lot of trouble with the Carrows since the start of the year, but it’s his own fault, really. He could learn to control his attitude.

“Mr. Finnigan,” Amycus says with odd politeness, “would you do us the honor of explaining the exact punishment for falling asleep in the middle of a lesson?”

My stomach dips, and I clutch at my quill with nervousness. We’d all been dozing off, but the Carrows prefer to blame it all on Seamus. A familiar feeling of anger wells up inside me, but as always, I push it back down.

I can’t see Seamus’s face, but I can tell by his voice that he’s furious. The words sound forced out as he mutters, “I don’t know.”

“Well,” Amycus says darkly, stepping beside his sister directly in front of Seamus’s desk. “That is unfortunate.”

In an instant, Seamus is standing face to face with the both of them, his chaired knocked over from getting up so quickly. Several people gasp quietly, and a few worried whispers can be heard from the back. Seamus is always a bit rebellious, but he’s never directly stood up to the Carrows.

“I wasn’t the only one falling asleep,” Seamus spits angrily, and I can see his ears turning red. “In case you two didn’t notice, half the class wasn’t paying attention to your worthless lesson.”

There’s a dead silence. I can see Seamus is shaking slightly, his fists clenched together tightly. I want to scream for him to just sit back down, to give up. He’s already sporting a black eye for mouthing off last week, and who knows what punishment he’ll get this time?