Chapter 77

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I walked through the corridors along with Draco, his hand interlaced with mine, he had waited for me at my dorm door, so we could leave together, he has been way more protective, he feels as well as I do that a war was about to come.

We were about to have Dark Arts, with of course, Amycus, honestly his last classes have been terrifying he mostly talks about the Cruciatus Curse for some reason, and his gaze looks many times at Neville, which is not questionable at all.

However, as soon as we stepped in the class, our steps came to an halt at what our eyes sighted.

There were no chairs, no tables, anything, which quickly made me realize that today's class would be practical which does not brings me good feelings about it.

A reason for my intrigue as well, was the fact that there were first years on our classroom, my gaze still tried to remember if I didn't made a mistake and I wouldn't be having Dark Arts at this moment, but the pure confusion of my other classmates here as well confirmed that I was in the right class, but still doesn't explain why are the first years kids here.

We were all looking at each other, confused gazes being throwed all over the room, and we ended up making a shape of a half circle, waiting for Amycus, who was just standing watching us, to say something.

"So..." Amycus started, and slowly paced until the center of the circle we made. "You might me wondering, why are your younger classmates in our latest, so let me clarify that for you..." He took an unnecessary pause between his words until he spoke again. "I've decided that it's more than the perfect time for you to start performing the Cruciatus Curse, which will be tested on them." He said firmly.

The class gasped at his words, and I felt like almost fainting at such atrocity that he had just spoken, torture a kid, a eleven years old kid, that's not such a punishment that's a cold cruelty, vicious, and empty hearted, only a pure ville person could be capable of such without feeling any remorse.

"Silence..." He said firmly, and our attention went to him again, who grabbed randomly one of the kids, and positioned him in the center where he was seconds ago.

It was a Gryfindor boy, light, curly, brown hair, just a bit freckles spread over his cheeks, eyes the color of the sea, which here also surrounded by one due to him being frightened, his whole body was shaking, his features were still so young and unharmed, his skin still so smooth, but the usual shine I always found on children eyes, wasn't in him, the only shine was from his tears.

"So, who is going to volunteer first?" Amycus asked firmly.

Everybody stood in the place, unmoving, incapable to hurt a kid like that, even the rest of the Slytherins who seemed to like Amycus classes were disturbed now, also unmoved.

"Very well...I'll pick one then." He said angrily for no one to have volunteered themselves, and picked Neville, dragging him by the wrist until he was facing the kid. "Mr. Longbottom I think you will like this very much." Amycus said sarcastically. "Come on, perform the curse."

"Never!" Neville shouted. "I will never do such thing!" He said firmly, his jaw clenching at Amycus, who seemed to be amused by his reaction.

"You filthy disrespectful boy!" Amycus features darkened and he took out his wand in a quick movement, and made a deep gash on his cheek, some old ones were still in his face, still healing, while this one was now bleeding.

Neville kept a firm face even after the gasp of pain he let out, and stepped back to our circle.

"Let me show you how it's done." Amycus said firmly and pointed his wand at the shaking boy still in the center of the room, his knees almost failing to steady him.

"Crucio!" Amycus shouted firmly.

The boy imediatly fell onto the ground, while he gasped in pain, his body was squirming and twisting while his throat let out screams of pain.

My heart tightened at the sight of the litlle kid being tortured, I felt like throwing up, his screams were excruciating, making almost my ears bleed, bringing me flashes from Hermione on the Manor, but now being way more intense.

The first kids were all hugged to each other, tears falling down their cheeks, and so was the Gryfindor kid that was in the center of the room.

I gasped in scare, when I felt a hand wrap around mine, and relaxed when saw Draco, I was so focused on the boy screams and his body twisting in pain, that I didn't noticed the tears that were falling down my cheeks.

Amycus didn't kept the curse for long, and as soon as the grip on his wand released, the boy screams stopped, his eyes were still closed, his body still layed on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Now that you know how it's done, step forward to perform it yourself." Amycus said firmly and then turned to the boy layed on the floor.

He grabbed him by his robes, and dragged him through the floor as the boy gasped, and placed him back to near his classmates again.

He grabbed another one by the elbow, this one was a Hufflepuff, a girl of long brown hair, dark eyes, and perhaps even smaller and a bit younger than the boy, and Amycus placed her in the place the other boy just left.

Her head was looking down in the floor, her bangs covering her eyes, but I could tell she was crying from seeing her friend just got torture and knowing she would be the next.

For the rest of the class, he kept choosing the students who would perform the curse, he was always picking mostly the other houses, because he knew lots would refuse instead of Slytherin, so for his own amusement he would punish them, but still, that didn't let me feel any better.

It was quite big the amount of students who, with tears on their eyes, tried to perform the curse on the litlle first year kids, but failed, Amycus furious with their failure, showed how the curse was really performed, casting it against the kids, and my eyes filling with tears at such sight.

"Don't watch this." Draco whispered not long after a few kids getting tortured, and buried my head on his shoulder, as I closed my eyes shut.

I was still crying intensely, even without seeing it now, my body still flinched everytime I heard the screams from the first years getting tortured.

"Think of a field." Draco whispered on the top of my head. "Think of a field of yellow flowers." He added. "Imagine yourself there, layed on the grass, with me by your side, right in front of our house." He whispered softly.

I imagined a small house, with nothing but a few trees and a field of yellow flowers around it, no houses nearby, no darkness, no problems, nothing.

I was layed on the grass, Draco besides me, grabbing my hand, both of us with a wide smile on our lips, as he pointed at the sky.

"Now imagine us talking, about stars, about whatever you want." Draco whispered in my head.

I shoved the screams of the classroom deep in my mind, and focused only on the birds I imagined that would be singing while we stared at the stars, and Draco told me about the different constellations.

It was warm, it was a summer night, the warm breeze was hitting my skin, I was only wearing a simple peach dress, light as a feather, while Draco was only in a black jumper, and black sport pants.

My free hand was playing with a litlle flower from our field, while Draco's free hand was pointing at the sky.

The field was probably the biggest one I've ever saw, Draco made it with his magic, nobody ever bothered us, and the house was more than lovely, Draco practically had done everything as a surprise for me.

I felt free, for the first time there wasn't worries, or problems, anything, everything was so calm, only the wind to kiss our bodies, and the light of the stars reflecting in our eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the classroom, Amycus had stopped from torturing the kids, and everybody was taking their things to leave.

I had dry tears stained on my cheeks, and Draco's hand never left mine as I left the classroom.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly as soon as we stepped out of the class.

"Yeah...yeah I'll be fine." I said, not quite believing in my own words, and Draco pulled me into a tight hug, while a few tears still left my eyes as the screams were still running through my mind.

{☆~☆}

I was in my dorm, it was already night, when I heard a rush knock in my door.

I went to open it, whatever it was it seemed like something important, and worry started to built itself in me even before I opened the door.

Draco was on the other side, his eyes open wide, amd definitely looking concerned.

"Draco what happened?" I asked worried.

"Come on, Blackwell." He grabbed my hand before explaining and pulled me out of my dorm. "Potter has been sighted at Hogsmead, Snape wants us down in the Great Hall in five minutes." He said firmly, as he pulled us together until we reached the common room.

"What?!" I asked perplex.

"Don't worry, it will be fine." Draco said softly as we reached the wall that leaded to the hallways.

We walked through the corridors in a march, while the Carrows were carefully watching all of us, there was no sound except for our steps echoing when hitting the stone floor, the breeze in the castle was cold, and the shivers in my skin weren't disappearing.

Draco noticed my uneasiness, and his wand slowly wrapped around mine as we descended the stairs, marching in direction to the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was different, no tables, no chairs, they have been all gathered to the corners, and we were now standing, divided in four groups by our houses.

Snape walked between us, dressed in his black robes, his steps echoing, until he reached a small staircase and was looking down at all of us, the Carrows standing behind him.

"Many of you are surely wondering why I have summoned you at this hour." Snape said firmly. "It's come to my attention, earlier this evening, Harry Potter was sighted in Hogsmead." After these words, everybody started whispering between each other, gossiping about Harry, my body only tensed.

The Great Hall was so dark, the flames in the torchs were.so low that the light of the moon was stronger, shivers were sent through up my spine which I took as a bad sign.

"Now..." The whispers from the students stopped at these words. "Should anyone, student or staff attempt to aid Mr. Potter..." Snape's gaze fell on the Gryfindors who kept their head down looking at the marble floor. "They will be punished, in a manner consistent with the severity of their transgression furthermore, any person found to have knowledge of these events, who fails to come forward, will be treated, as...equally guilty." Snape said coldly.

We remained quiet, looking down at the floor, Snape gaze flying through the whole room.

"Now then..." Slowly he paced between the groups of students. "If anyone in here , has any knowledge, of Mr. Potter's movements this evening...I invite them to step forward...now."  His steps came to an halt, right between the four groups of students, waiting for someone to step.

Suddenly, the hearing of footsteps startled us, and made us turn around to see the Gryfindors, and we gasped in surprise when we saw Harry Potter himself, standing front to front to Snape, who was speechless.

"It seems, despite your exhaustive, defensive strategies, you still have a bit of a security problem, Headmaster." Harry said firmly and behind him, the big Great Hall swung opened, and the few last members of the Order of Phoenix stepped in the room. "I'm afraid is quite extensive." He added.

My gaze went from the Order of Phoenix back to Harry and Snape still facing each other, while I let the very last bit of hope in me grow wider.

"How dare you stand where he stood?" Harry asked abruptly. "Tell them how it happened that night. Tell them how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him!" Harry yelled at Snape, who remained speechless. "Tell them!" He shouted again.

As a response, Snape pulled out his wand, and all of us stepped the farthest we could from them two, and McGonagall stepped in front of Harry, pointing her wand towards Snape before he could do anything to him.

For a moments, they just stared at each other, until McGonagall decided to strike first, sending him a fire curse which Snape defended successfully, and then another, and another one, Snape was defending each attack successfully but stepping back at each strike, he however, never fought back, and just focused on defending himself from the fire curses.

Suddenly, one of the curses hits the Carrows, who were standing behind Snape, and their bodies fall limb in the floor.

He managed to dissappear in a black smoke cloud, who broke the glass on his escaping.

"Coward!" McGonagall shouted at Snape as he vanished.

McGonagall light up all the torchs, as all of us were now cheering, the light had been brought back, clapping, and relief sinking on my veins as the faith to win this war grew on me.

Draco hugged me, also with a wide smile on his lips, and Blaise joined as we clapped our hands and cheered.

Suddenly, all our cheering stopped when odd sounds were running through our mind.

The enchanted ceiling above our heads darkened, storm noises were coming out of it, until our attention was captured by a scream, from a girl, echoing in all the Great Hall, she was crawled into a corner, hands covering her ears, letting out nothing but screams, and then another one joined her.

Out of nowhere, and catching us out of guard, a stinging pain flew through our heads, like if a blade trespassed through our brain until it reached our ears.

"I know that of you will want to fight..." Voldemort's voice was in our head, it was in whispers but echoed in our mind like punches punching each corner of it. "Some of you may even think that to fight is wise...but this is folly..." His voice was painful in our heads, my hands were covering my ears wishing it to stop. "Give me Harry Potter, do this and none shall be harmed...Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave Hogwarts untouched...Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded, you have one hour."

We gasped out of relief when Voldemort left our minds, only a but of dizziness in our mind as he left, and now we were staring at Harry, clueless of what to do.

"What are you waiting for?" Pansy who was in front of me shouted, pointing at Harry. "Someone grab him!" She said firmly, my gaze focused on Harry.

Gonna was the first that placed herself in front of Harry, followed by Hermione, and soon enough more people joined them, protecting Harry.

"...Students out of bed..." A voice from far away shouted. "Students out of bed." Filch had announced himself in the room and stepped forward with Mrs. Norris in his arms. "Students in the corridors." He shouted, and McGonagall then spoke firmly.

"They are supposed to be out of bed you blithering idiot." She said angrily, leaving Filch's lips parted away in surprise.

"Oh, sorry ma'am" He said nervously.

"As it happens Mr. Filch, your arrival is most opportune." She walked to be now near him. "If you would, I would like you please, to lead Miss Parkison, and the rest of Slytherin house from the hall!" She said firmly, leaving my lips part away.

"Exactly where is it I'll be leading to ma'am?" Filch asked.

"The dungeons will do." She said firmly, and everybody, except for us, started cheering at her.

I let the rage sink in me, it was not fair, we had the same right to fight in the war as they have, and we would be arrested even without having done anything.

I looked at Draco, he was angry of course, but at the same time I saw some relief on him for some reason.

The final war was about to begin, and we would be locked behind bars.

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