A/N: If you're seein' thangs... Runnin' through yo' head... Who can ya call? GHOSTBUSTERS!
Sorry. I was listening to the 'Ghostbusters' 45' record a few minutes ago. XD ON WITH THE CHAPTER.
THIS IS THE SECOND-LAST CHAPTER. WOOT WOOT. The next one is the finale.
Cassie's eyes flung open.
A million feelings and sensations rushed over her, an electric shock of pain from behind her eyes, the sickening swimming of images that wouldn't come into focus all around her, every tendon and muscle sore beyond belief, feeling as though they'd tensed for years....
She moaned and closed her eyes firmly shut, trying to ease the angry swirling in her stomach.
People poking and prodding her, feeling and squeezing and touching her head, a jumble of mixed voices saying different things, orders, relieved tones, and someone warm holding her hand so tight...
After the chaos died away, Cassie finally deemed it safe to open her eyes.
A feeling of utter relief and love blossomed within her heart as she beheld her mother staring down at her eldest daughter with nothing but concern etched on her softly lined face.
"Mum..." Cassie managed to croak, and her mother submitted to a tear or two as she embraced her small framed child.
"Oh, Cassandra..." her mother muttered, "I thought I was going to lose you..."
Cassie spent the last weeks of school in the hospital wing, being exempt from her sixth year exams. Her teachers handed her work to do themselves and everyone deemed her a general hero. But for what, she couldn't remember. She knew for a fact that she had stopped the monster from hurting or killing anymore students, but there was something missing. There was a boy there, she knew there was, but for the life of her she couldn't place who it was.
The end of the school year brought excitement among the sixth years. This time next year they would finally be graduating from Hogwarts, and most of them couldn't wait. Cassie boarded the Hogwarts Express with Kelly right beside her, waving goodbye to the castle and teachers and giggling about nothing in particular.
As they walked down the hall to a compartment, Cassie accidentally collided with a tall, dark haired boy. She looked up into the boy's face and saw him watching her with wide, grey eyes.
The sun glinted on Cassie's ebony hair, and made it shine with a golden glow, her long pale face was like porcelain, and her beautiful blue eyes the colour of the finest sapphires sparkled upwards at him, her pretty pink lips open in an expression of being slightly startled. Tom blinked long and slow, burning her image into his mind to be never forgotten.
Cassie blinked and tilted her head to this side. Tom gave her a small smile, and his dark eyes softened slightly. As he walked around her and away, Cassie suddenly knew who the boy that set the monster on the school was.
This realization that Tom Marvolo Riddle was a killer neither shocked, nor disturbed her. It simply settled comfortably in her mind, like the realization that life is short and that you will eventually die someday. She let it curl up comfortably in the back of her mind, and vowed that she will leave him his peace and never tell anyone. So, instead, she smiled and waved.
September 3rd, 1947
The first day of classes for the seventh years dawned early and sunny, the last vestiges of summer shining brightly down upon the Hogwarts grounds. All the students were heading down to their classes lazily, calling out to old friends and rejoicing in the hot day. Apart from, of course, Cassie Smith.
'Shit. I did not just light that tapestry on fire!' she thought despairingly as she ran.
Cassie ran into the disused classroom, her uniform mary-janes click-clacking on the stone floor as they marked her hastened escape. She needed to hide quickly, and fast. She quietly opened the creaking door, and slipped inside, closing it behind her with a soft 'thud' against its ancient wooden frame.
The room was dimly lit by a wide window that overlooked the grey sky and the dark lake, partially covered by what appeared to be a thin, fraying sheet that looked bleached from the sunlight of countless years. Old desks were stacked in one corner, half of them as sun washed as the sheet that barely managed to cover them. Some were broken, most heavily graffitied, all were coated in thick layers of dust. Here and there lay an assortment of old schooling equipment, and in one corner, an ancient cauldron was tipped over, the dry, sticky looking substance that had poured from it in a student's illegal attempt at a forbidden potion completely congealed to the floor. It too had a thick layer of dust sitting on top of it. With a jolt of familiarity she realized this was the same classroom she'd visited with Sam, so long ago now.
But, it was in one of the dark spots that she noticed a humanoid figure reposed gently against an old stack of books. The figure looked male, from the broad shoulders, and it was slumped over in what could only be described as a miserable pose.
It didn't take her long to recognize him. She'd seen him in enough dark places to be certain.
"Tom?" she called out quietly, placing her books gently onto a table, causing dust to curl up into the air like smoke from a fire.
He didn't reply, but she never really expected him to.
"Tom..." she said his name, mouthing the words on her small pink lips, letting them rise over her mouth pleasantly. She walked slowly towards him. He never moved, never even looked in her direction. She kneeled beside him, leaning against the old desks with a sigh.
Following instinct, she leaned her head against his shoulders.
"Tom...."she whispered against his skin, "What's wrong?"
He couldn't bear to look at her, so he looked at her shoes instead.
"You know what I've done".
It was a statement, not a question. Cassie took her time before slowly nodding. She had suspected it of him, and now her suspicions were proved true.
"And yet you still lean your head on my shoulders" his tone was bittersweet.
"I'm not afraid of you" she told him simply.
"What if I kill you now?" he asked her, his body tensing, his voice harsh.
"Then I will be dead."
He relaxed.
Then:
"Why are you here?"
He wasn't asking why she was in the disused classroom. He was asking why she was still here, sitting calmly next to a murderer.
"Because, Tom... I really wish I could change what you've done. But I can't. The things you say and the things you do go completely against what I was taught was right. So, I'll sit here with you, in a disused classroom and cuddle to your shoulder...But...I could never go with you. You've chosen your path, and I've chosen mine."
As she spoke, her voice grew watery and weak, but she forced herself to continue. The tears eventually went away, and she closed her eyes to breathe in the scent of his shirt.
"I know..." his voice was barely audible above the silence that hung as heavily in the air as the dust that swirled thickly around them.
"Just please... Let me do this for one moment" he leaned into her small, beautifully pale face.
Then he kissed her.
It was chaste, sweet, only lasting a few seconds, but stung in the mouth with sourness. This kiss was the only one they would ever share.
After a few moments had passed, Cassie rose from the floor, gently detangling herself from his embrace.
She smiled, and let one pearly tear slide down her face before she turned, retrieved her books and bag from the table she'd left them on, and slipped out the door.
A/N: I know. ; A ; I cried. I'm pathetic. XD