NOTE: IF YOU REVIEWED THE NOTE THAT STATED I HAD LOST MY SCRIBBLER ON CHAPTER 21, AND YOU WANT TO SEND A REVIEW, SEND IT BY MEANS OF PERSONAL MESSAGE. Thanks!

A/N: Well. I can't find that scribbler, so I decided to rewrite the chapters. *sigh*


This was it. She knew it. With her heart beating a frantic tattoo, she ran down, down, down to the girls' bathroom, the one where she had discovered the small, frozen body. He was there, and there was no escaping her fate. Yet, this did not give her fear, but rather drilled simple understanding into her heart that she was to stop him, or she was to die.

Cold breath caressed Cassie's pale, exposed neck.

Icy cold hands held her around her middle, holding her close in what should have been a warm embrace but wasn't. It felt wrong. The taller person held her close, a small smile across his lips, but Cassie didn't feel safe. The water from the broken and overflowing sinks in the bathroom pooled around their feet, sinking deep into her school uniform shoes and soaking her white socks. She began to tremble, her clammy hands clutching the inhumanly icy sweater vest that held inside it a frighteningly cold boy.

"It's alright...I won't hurt you..." whispered the sickeningly sweet mouth in a poisonous tone into the soft skin of her gooseflesh neck.

She couldn't move and she could barely breathe. Her heart beat wildly inside her chest, but somehow she could not feel its beats, as though she had already joined her father in the grave. Her entire body began to shake, her eyes flicking for a quick moment over to the waterlogged body of the dead girl lying slumped against a bathroom stall like a discarded ragdoll, her glassy eyes staring at horrors that Cassie couldn't see. She fiercely bit back the urge to cry, to become overwhelmed by the emptiness and tragedy of what she'd done.

She'd found the Hogwarts killer, and the murderer was holding her so softly in his arms.

She knew he would kill her now. He'd warned her, by shunning her and trying to stop her from seeing him. We was trying to warn her to leave him be so that he would not have to hurt her as well, but Cassie had been too blind to see it.

Tears welled in her eyes, the world of his vest blurring and disappearing as she buried her head into his shoulder. He clicked his tongue in sympathy and rubbed her back soothingly.

"Cassie... You'll be alright..." he told her softly, but she knew better.

She shook her head into his .

"No, Tom... I'll never be alright.... How could you? How could you possibly..."

Her tears choked her and she couldn't continue.

"How could I have killed someone?" he asked, the cold bluntness causing her heart to ache.

"Yes..." she sobbed.

"It's easy...." he whispered, "but now that you've seen... I can't let you go. Join me, Cassie... Join me. You love me with all your heart... Be together with me in this. We can run away, and I will teach you to be the greatest witch of all time under my instruction and we can start the new rule of wizards and muggles alike with you and I at the top, the King and Queen of our peoples..." he crooned softly into her ear, his voice coming quicker and louder as he spoke. His excitement shone through.

Cassie stopped crying. She couldn't feel anymore. She'd become numb. Calmly, she stepped away from him, holding him at arms length and looking despairingly into his dark, onyx eyes.

"No, Tom..." she told him softly, smiling a watery, sad smile, "I can't,"

His eyes hardened.

"You know what will happen to you now, then?" he said, his voice shaking with suppressed emotion.

Cassie closed her eyes and lowered her head.

"Yes..." she whispered, her voice trembling.

Open your eyessss....

Of their own accord, Cassie's eyes flung open and she stared down at the snake-like image of Death.

A/N: Actually a lot different than the original, but I actually like this better. : D