My name is Cassie.
I had been close to death before, but never this close.
I drifted in and out of consciousness. At some points, I knew I was a wolf. At others, I didn't know what I was. I was scared when I knew what was going on, and all giggly with delusion when I didn't.
However, I did manage to demorph. When I was finally human and whole, I noticed Marco—human Marco—crouching beside me. His face usually dark, tanned face was pale with… what? Shock? Fear?
He looked extremely relieved when he saw I was awake. He wiped sweat from his forehead with his arm. "Good," he croaked, "You're alive. We'd hoped we wouldn't lose you too."
It took me a few moments to register this. My heart started beating faster. "'Lose me too?' You don't mean that… well…"
He bowed his head. That was enough of an answer.
"Who?" I demanded, "Who was it?"
He looked to the ceiling. I noticed that his eyes had taken on a kind of weird sheen… he wasn't crying, was he? That wasn't like Marco at all.
"Harry," he whispered, "Ron's Yeerk shot him in the stomach with a Dracon gun. He was dead when Rachel found him. Hermione had seen the whole thing. She watched her best friend kill the other off. It must have been horrible."
I gasped in horror and my eyes filled with tears. I hadn't realized how close Harry had gotten to us before. He had actually seemed like one of our own. Losing him was as bad as losing another Animorph.
He had been an Animorph.
"I guess," I rasped, tears flowing freely down my cheeks, "That he'll be with his parents now."
Marco didn't reply and looked away.
We sat in silence for a little while.
"Well," he said, shifting position, "I guess we'd better go back and fight."
I nodded. "Yeah," I whispered, "I guess we should."
He closed his eyes lightly and started morphing. I closed my eyes too and remorphed to wolf. I was secretly a little glad to be morphing wolf, because wolves can't cry.
When my morph was complete, I howled my grief to the sky. The moon shone bright through a hole in the ceiling. I realized with a sudden pang of horror that Ax was a werewolf and that he might be running lose through the battle, biting people. I shuddered away from the thought and charged into the melee.
The battle was as horrible as any other one I had fought in, maybe even a little worse. Swords jabbed at me and sometimes a Dracon beam would singe me.
I heard another wolf howl. My ears swiveled in its direction, followed by my head. I charged off in the direction. Had it been Ax, perhaps?
I skidded to a halt when I saw a werewolf, hackles raised and teeth bared, jump on a Controller.
Ax? I called.
The werewolf looked over at me. It calmly stepped off the scratched up Controller and padded over to me, giving me a skeptical look.
Wait a minute…
A wolf was giving me a skeptical look?
Werewolf?
The question came as a bark from the creature. I backed up, startled. A whine rose in my throat. I knew that it wasn't talking in thought-speak, so how could it be talking at all?
Then I remembered something. Marco had told us, that night after he had been spying on Harry, that a cat named Crookshanks had helped him find the classroom. Hadn't it spoken to him?
No, I said with a soft whuff.
What are you?
I'm an An-An-Andalite bandit. I stumbled over the word. I had almost said Animorph!
Aaah. Isn't that what Aximili was?
How in the world did he know about Ax? Uuuum… you know Ax?
Yes. Ax and I fought side-by-side until Voldemort opened a whole in the ceiling. I'm afraid he hasn't taken a Wolfsbane potion, so he's not in control of his actions. I locked him in one of the cages so that he wouldn't hurt anyone.
The werewolf's nose twitched. It slowly wagged its tail back and forth.
Who are you? I asked.
Remus Lupin, member of the Order of the Phoenix, he replied, stretching his forelegs in front of him and hanging his head in a kind of wolf bow.
Order of the Phoenix! I gasped, Then you're with Sirius and Harry!
Yeah.
Good! Well, then, I should explain to you that I'm not an Andalite bandit. I'm a human girl, and my name is Cassie.
All right, then, Cassie. You know Harry?
I nodded vigorously. Yes. He's the one who's actually helping us. He had us meet Sirius.
Then you're on our side?
Yes.
He howled, a happy and encouraging howl. I joined in with him before I could help myself. Together, we ran off to fight side-by-side.
All went well for a little while. The tide of the battle was starting to change in our favor. I caught a glimpse of Hermione once. She looked quite bloodthirsty, but then I had gotten caught up in the fight again.
Then it happened.
I looked up as I heard the sound of ragged breath. Hooded figures were entering the room. They were giant and wearing long black robes. Hoods were pulled up over their heads and hid their faces. The only part of their bodies that were exposed were their hands. They had the look of something that had been decaying in water for a long time.
Dementors! Lupin gasped.
A cold sensation swept over me, making me feel as if I would never been happy again. I started to tremble. I crouched down, belly scraping the stone, and whimpered.
I felt myself demorphing, only I wasn't doing it. Within seconds, I was a girl again, squatting on the ground with my arms wrapped around myself. I heard Lupin sound a howl of anguish.
White fog obscured my vision. Screams that sounded like they came from a radio with bad reception sounded in my head. I shuddered and collapsed. I would never be happy again…
Memories—bad memories—hovered in my mind's eye as if they were actually happening. I could barely feel the cold sweat that was soaking my morphing outfit. Horrible… horrible…
It suddenly started to clear up. I realized that I was lying on the ground, curled up into a ball. Blinking through half-obscured eyes I saw a form waving a wand and heard an echoing voice scream, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
"Harry?" I whispered.
But no… it couldn't be… Harry was dead…
Yet, the more my vision cleared, the more the shape looked like Harry. A silver stag exploded from the tip of his wand and charged, antlers lowered, at the Dementors. His mouth was set into a grim line. He was a pale as a ghost… maybe he was a ghost…
A gray void had begun to form at the edge of my vision and it wasn't the white fog from the Dementors. It slowly spread so that I was half-blind.
He looked around and saw me. He ran over and held my hand. He felt so solid…
"Harry…" I whispered, feebly squeezing his hand.
He didn't say anything but squeezed my hand back.
"You died…"
He opened his mouth and said something I couldn't hear. I squinted up at him and watched him until he disappeared into the grayness, which quickly became black.
I slowly eased into consciousness. Something was licking my face and whining. I blinked a few times. Lupin was above me. When he saw I was awake, he barked happily. I sat up. I rubbed my head, and then my chest. The cold feeling was still there.
Lupin nudged my leg. I looked down and saw a big hunk of chocolate there. I grinned widely. "Just what I need! Thanks," I said, taking a big bite. The cold in me immediately fled. I sighed and beamed at him. How had he known that chocolate was a remedy to… whatever it is that the dementors had given me?
I closed my eyes and thought about what had just happened to me, before I had blacked out. I had seen Harry, which was for sure. It had probably been a vision, though.
But he had felt so real!
I flexed my hand, remembering. What had he said before I had lost consciousness? Had it been some lost message he had meant to say before he had died?
I reached up to hug Lupin above the shoulders, hesitated, and did so. He panted and didn't resist. "I can't believe he died…" I whispered into his fur.
He barked, as if asking whom.
"Harry. He died. Hermione saw him die." I said, and started to sob quietly. I hid my face in his fur.
Lupin threw his head back and let loose a howl of sorrow. I removed my face from his fur and howled with him.
It'll take a lot more than chocolate to heal this wound.
A/N: Okie dokie! Heh, I took an afternoon vacation yesterday and didn't finish it. ::wink wink:: Though I'm sure there are no objections, since I've been updating extremely fast this past week. I'm serious when I saw that now it's coming to a close. Allllmost done!
Stay tuned for my next chapter, "Chapter 35: Joy and Tears (Hermione)"!
