Black Blood

027 - Sky Fall

Cassiopeia hissed as the bottom of her soft sole stepped onto a particularly jagged-feeling stone. It wasn't the first of its kind she'd treaded upon during their woodenly venture, and with misery and pain fresh upon the forefront of her mind, the girl felt certain it wouldn't be the last.

"You don't have to be here," Draco quietly said, his tone a tad aggressive, and she knew it was his way of protecting himself from the guilt he felt due to her obvious dismay.

"Hush," she just-as-quietly returned, gritting her teeth together as an unseen twig snapped beneath her other foot.

"Couldn't you at least have Kreacher fetch you some slippers or something?" he asked, his voice reaching a higher pitch.

"No," the girl exasperatedly replied, shaking her head. "Neither he nor I shall depart your side for even a single second, Draco."

"Cass-"

"No, Draco!" she half-stated, half-spat out, as she stepped onto a rather viciously-shaped tree root.

He loudly sighed in reply, allowing his displeasure and guilt to be clearly heard, and Cassiopeia parted her lips to assuage him, to ensure he didn't think her trek too difficult to bear, but before she could utter a single comforting word, a flashing light made itself known, traveling in between and throughout the dense forest before the pair.

"There's someone there," Draco quietly observed, allowing the light of his wand to dim its lustrous glow.

"Indeed," she whispered in agreement, and with a nervous glance towards the trailing house elf behind the two, she prepared herself to give the order to whisk themselves away from the possible danger.

It seemed a bit bizarre to her that they hadn't seen anyone before then, considering how many witches and wizards had attended the World Cup, and especially considering how many had likely fled into the forest adjacent to the wizarding campsite, but Cassiopeia had been secretly glad for it, as it meant less potential harm for Draco and her.

"It's the Weasley twins!" Draco hissed, which forced the girl to return her sight back to the front and freeze on the spot.

There were worse people to encounter given their situation, but if ever there existed a pair that would jinx the two highborns on the spot simply for being present, it would be the Weasley twins.

Fortunately, however, the pair, and their younger sister, it seemed, took no notice of Draco and her, and they simply ran by with looks of alarm upon their freckled faces.

"They're separated," Cassiopeia idly noted, watching the light, and the trio, disappear deeper into the dreadfully dark forest.

"What?" her cousin asked, his tone perplexed at her seemingly strange observation.

"Granger, Potter, and Weasley...they're not with the Weasley twins," she elaborated, glancing one way then another with keen, careful eyes.

"Right," he quietly replied. "They're...not together in the forest. Those three may not even be here. They might still be..."

'At the campsite,' Cassiopeia silently finished, shivering in the cool, late-summer air as the implication washed over her.

There was no love lost between her and those three, but she dearly hoped none of them had been caught by the people who were doing unspeakable things at the quidditch campsite.

"Do...you think...Granger..." Draco quietly began, trailing off as his tone raised a near-indiscernible pitch.

"I...sincerely hope not," she whispered, her mind tormenting her with the loathsome muggleborn's face being twisted in visceral agony.