"Where did you find that?" Cassia asked as a very cut up and bruised Neville came over to her and Poppy, holding the Sorting Hat.

"Outside Sn- Dumbledore's office," he told her, sitting down next to Poppy and slinging an arm round her.

Cassia's heart ached as she saw them, so happy together. She didn't know if it had happened yet, didn't know whether the love of her life had been killed, but she knew it was close to happening if it hadn't yet.

Then, she heard it.

It was a low, rumbling sound, sort of like a death march, and Cassia's ears perked up as soon as she heard even a trace of it.

"What's that?" She asked, louder than she had meant to, and causing a lot of heads in the hall to turn.

Neville, too, was looking around, turning to her.

Then, without speaking, the two of them stood up, Poppy right behind them. All three of them walked towards the door, and soon, a whole crowd followed them.

When they got out into the courtyard, a cold dread coiled in the pit of Cassia's stomach. Across the massive patch of rubble and rock came an army of death eaters. Voldemort, of course, was at the head of the group, and then his servants followed. Cassia spotted her mother and father amongst them, their faces pale and cheeks hollow.

And then she saw Hagrid.

The man had clearly been imprisoned, as his eyes were sunken and his face dirty, but that wasn't what Cassia was focusing on.

It was the boy in his arms. The boy with black hair, with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead, and with (though she couldn't see them because his eyes were closed) piercing green emerald eyes.

And Voldemort left no room for doubt, because as his death eaters stopped, facing the good side, he walked out into the middle of the courtyard, announcing in a loud voice.

"Harry Potter... is dead!"

And even though Cassia knew it was coming, she couldn't help it. She was filled with a such a rage for Voldemort in that moment, she couldn't help but lunge for him.

"NO! NO!" She screamed, only stopping running because Pippa held her back, her own face stony.

"Silence!" Voldemort snapped, staring straight at her. "There was a time when I thought you would be good here, Cassia. I thought you could join my ranks. Now, I think I should've known better."

"As if I'd fucking join you!" Cassia screamed, the tears coming back as Pippa held her tightly in face.

"Harry Potter... is dead," Voldemort repeated, now addressing everybody. "From this day forth, you put your faith... in me."

When nobody reacted, nobody came forth to grovel at his feet, he turned to the death eaters, yelling. "Harry Potter is dead!"

They all screeched and cheered with joy, clapping and grinning. Cassia spotted her Aunt Bellatrix amongst them, and boiled with rage.

"And now is the time to declare yourself," Voldemort turned back to the good side, opening his arms. "Come forward and join us. Or die."

She wasn't joining them, not in a million years. Cassia didn't care.

If Harry was dead, she was dying anyway.

And it seemed everyone else shared her sentiment, as nobody moved an inch in that moment, just staring at Voldemort and then at all the death eaters behind him.

Then there was a small hiss, from none other than Lucius Malfoy.

"Draco," he implored to his son, causing everyone to turn their eyes to him and Narcissa, stood at the front of the death eaters' crowd. "Draco..."

Then, everyone cast their gazes upon Draco, who was stood amongst the good crowd, yet stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Draco..." Narcissa's voice was louder, yet softer. "Come."

Cassia didn't care that they weren't speaking to her. She wouldn't join the crowd anyway.

However, she did care that Draco didn't stand up to them. That he just blindly walked out of the crowd, and towards the death eaters.

"Ah, well done, Draco," Voldemort said, with what could be described as a smile. "The same cannot be said for your sister."

He gave Cassia a pointed look as he embraced her brother, and she was seriously tempted to flip him off.

As Draco walked over to their parents, Cassia let out a small scoff. How could her family be so happy about this? How could they just not care that Voldemort was killing innocent people?

And then, to Cassia's surprise, Neville walked out from the crowd, still holding the sorting hat.

"Well, I must say, I'd hoped for better," Voldemort commented.

The death eaters laughed loudly, and Cassia pressed her lips together. She was sure Neville wasn't joining the death eaters, but she wanted to know what he was doing regardless.

"And who might you be, young man?" Voldemort looked at Neville.

He looked down. "Neville Longbottom."

There were more laughs, and Cassia wanted to scream.

"Well, Neville, I'm sure we can find a place for you in our ranks," Voldemort told him.

"I'd like to say something," Neville raised his voice.

Voldemort sighed, looking at him before forming the words. "Well, Neville, I'm sure we'll all be very interested to hear what you have to say."

Neville paused for a second, before telling everyone. "It doesn't matter that Harry's gone."

"Stand down, Neville," Seamus told him, but he was ignored.

"People die everyday!" Neville fought back. "Friends... family. Yeah. We lost Harry tonight."

Cassia nodded, now realising what he was trying to do, completely on board with it.

"But he's still with us," Neville told them, pointing to his heart. "In here. So is Fred... and Remus... and Tonks. All of them. They didn't die in vain."

He turned away from everyone towards Voldemort, who was simply smiling, and laughing quietly.

"But you will!" He yelled. "Cause you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us, for all of us! It's not over!"

And then, three things happened.

The first was that Neville pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the sorting hat, bearing it at Voldemort, and causing everyone to gasp.

The second was that Cassia ran forwards to stand next to Neville. To be part of whatever resistance he was planning.

But it was the third that shocked everybody.

Because across the courtyard, Harry Potter was throwing himself from Hagrid's arms, hitting the ground hard but not even taking a moment to recover.

Cassia gasped with shock and relief and love as she looked at him, beat up and dirty but alive and well. And it seems no one had known, because all the death eaters were looking surprised as well, but nowhere near as happy as she w-

"Confringo!" Harry yelled, shooting a spell at Nagini. It deflected, of course, but he didn't care, as Voldemort let out several shrieks of fury, trying to blow Harry to pieces with fire as he ran, evading every one.

Cassia gasped again as she saw Harry making to enter the castle, along with loads of others, death eaters and good ones alike. She sprinted after him, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Poppy not far behind her.

As soon as she saw him, alive and well, she forgot everything, and just ran, eyes locked on those bright green ones she never thought she'd see again.

She threw caution to every wind in the world as she kissed him, long and hard, gripping his face and half gasping in shock.

"For a second I thought I lost you there," she told him as she looked at him.

"For a second so did I," Harry told her, the look in his eyes something between awe and happiness. Then, he turned to Ron and Hermione. "I'll lure him into the castle, you have to kill the snake!"

And, giving Cassia one last look that said a thousand words, he ran off, baiting Voldemort to follow him.

Cassia watched him go, her heart beating in her chest even faster than before.

There was no doubt about it.

Harry Potter was alive.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

Her legs felt shaky as she looked at the snake, slithering up the next flight, Hermione by her side.

Her arm felt shaky as she picked up a rock to kill it with.

But her throw felt strong as she let out a grunt, putting all the power in her arm into chucking the small bit of rubble at the serpent.

"Hiss!"

Nagini became alert immediately, head rising up, and no doubt catching sight of the two girls at the bottom of the stairs.

Cassia was reminded furiously of Charity Burbage's death as Nagini began slithering towards them, down the stairs, heading right into their trap.

Cassia and Hermione backed away slowly, as the snake came after them, trying not to look up at Ron, who was sneaking in behind it, basilisk fang raised-

Chink!

And then Ron accidentally knocked a bit of rubble, and the snake turned, launching at him and knocking the fang from his hand, launching it over the bannister.

Shit! Cassia wanted to say, as all three of them froze, now trapped on the stairs with a snake they couldn't kill.

They did they only thing they could do; they ran. All three of them legged it down the stairs, knowing that they had to do this, they had to kill it.

Nagini followed them, slithering down and down.

"Confringo!" Cassia yelled at it, just trying to stop it in its tracks, but the fire didn't even phase it.

They were at the entrance to the great hall now, all three of them scared as anything as Nagini backed them up into the rubble, opening her mouth wide-

"Argh!"

In one slashing motion, Neville Longbottom sliced through Nagini's neck with the Sword of Gryffindor. The snake instantly dissolved into nothing more than black inky smoke, Cassia and Ron and Hermione all still wincing and backed up.

Cassia watched in wonder as Neville threw the sword down, checking if they were okay.

Then she realised.

The snake was gone.

And the horcrux inside Harry was gone.

Voldemort was the only one left.

Far off, the final battle raged.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

Cassia would never fully know, in the end, how Lord Voldemort died.

She knew it was Harry, of course. And she knew it was because of the elder wand, but she didn't exactly know how he'd been destroyed into nothing but pieces. How he'd been removed into nothing but a memory.

The great hall was buzzing with chatter, unlike before. Everyone was more hopeful for a brighter future now it was confirmed that Lord Voldemort was dead.

And the chatter even continued after Harry walked in, despite everyone looking at him.

Cassia, meanwhile, decided that for once she didn't care if all eyes were on him. She didn't care if they knew the full story or not.

As she ran up to Harry and hugged him tightly, whispering how much she loved him into his shoulder, whispering how happy he made her, whispering how glad she was he was alive.

And he whispered all of that back, pulling back to give her a kiss, a short and sweet one.

For the first time in about five years, Cassia felt herself relax fully. She felt herself become lighter, become better.

She wasn't going back to her family after this, and she wasn't going to be a Malfoy for much longer, either.

Because soon, she'd sport the last name Potter, and she truthfully couldn't wait for that moment.

When Ron and Hermione came through the door, hands intertwined as well, they pulled apart from their embrace, and Harry gave Cassia a look.

She smiled at him, giving him a loving look.

"Go."

Harry gave her a smile as he walked over to them, the three of them heading out. Cassia felt so happy as she watched them go, knowing that out of everyone, they'd gone through the most to get here, and they deserved all the happiness in the world.

"Cassia!"

But there was one person in the world that deserved the same amount of happiness, and she was running towards the blonde girl right now.

Cassia and Poppy's bodies slammed together in the middle of the great hall, all the love they felt for each other oozing out of them and into the other.

And in that moment, Cassia didn't have to say anything. Poppy was her best friend, and would always be. She was the person who could cheer her up, the person who understood her just as well as Harry, the person who'd been there for her since day one.

So right now, Cassia was contented to forget about Harry for a second, the saviour of the wizarding world, and focus on Poppy.

She remembered once, in this very hall, feeling ashamed to speak to her, ashamed to even wear Gryffindor robes.

But right now, Cassia had never been so glad that she had.

She guessed it paid off in the end.

Being the defiant one.