Chapter nineteen: I wish I felt nothing.

" What?" Was Marianne's awed question, followed by John's " WHAT?" and Hélène's " WHAT?!"

She let out a tired sigh. " What you heard, guys, I'm leaving Hogwarts tomorrow morning."

Marianne asked the first thing that popped up in her mind. " You're going home in the middle of the NEWTs preparations?"

Kyra shook her head sadly. " No, I'm leaving the School for good."

A long silence followed her words, as their truth sunk into her friends' brains. John was the first to break it.

" W-what? You've been expelled?"

" No… I'll tell you everything, if you promise not to interrupt me. Otherwise, I won't have enough strength to finish it…" Whispered Kyra.

As her astonished audience simply nodded, she proceeded to tell them about her meeting with the Governors and everything that had been resolved. With the end of the story, her voice became nothing but a whisper and John couldn't hold it anymore.

" That's the single most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! As if you were going to have anything to do with the old bat!" He exploded.

" Johnny, don't. He is a victim in this, just like I am," Kyra muttered.

Marianne shook her head violently and let out a profanity, a rare thing in her. " Victim of those bastards! How dare they do such a thing to you?"

" Why didn't you choose the other option? No one here likes him anyway," asked Hélène.

" Because it would have been selfish, because he is a wonderful teacher, because I don't need magic…" started mumbling Kyra, but John stood up and starting pacing.

" There has to be something we can say, something we can do! We can't let them win this!" He protested heatedly.

" Can't you see? Not even Dumbledore was able to help me. They've already won," said Ky, adding a defeated sigh at the end of her sentence.

" But… it's only three months until graduation!"

She shrugged. " I know, Marianne… no one seems to care, though."

" We can't let you go, Ky… I won't let you go!" Exclaimed John. " I'll miss you so much!

" I will miss you too."

She started crying freely then. John took her sobbing form in his arms. He cradled her, trying to imprint all his love in that embrace, while he violently ranted about the injustice of the whole decision. Marianne kept asking her to stop crying, shedding her own tears at the same time and Hélène just sat there by her side, not crying because she was too proud to, but not talking either; even for the optimist, there was no bright side there to look at. She just desperately tried to find a way to fix things. It was useless, of course.

" Bastards! They deserve to die for making you cry like this!" She ended up shouting in frustration.

" Yes... this is too undeserved!" Whispered Marianne.

" I'll kill them," was John's somber conclusion.

Kyra took a deep breath and stood up. " Now, now, let's not get irrational. I have to leave now... I'm supposed to leave tomorrow morning and there's a lot to pack..." she lost strength there and her phrase was left hanging in the air.

" OK," said John, standing up as well with a resolute expression. " We'll go change and then we'll see you at your room. I don't know about you, girls, but I think we should spend together our last night as a group."

Hélène and Marianne promptly agreed and that proof of loyalty and love warmed Kyra's heart.

" Oh, guys, you're amazing!" She said, throwing her arms around all three of them. " Just wait after curfew to come, OK? It's easier not to be seen."

" Sure. We'll be there," assured Hélène.

Smiling through her tear-filled eyes, Kyra turned and ran out of the Astronomy Tower, leaving her friends to discuss the unfairness of what had just happened.

There was one more person she needed to see.