Chapter 37 - Make Your Choice...

The sun rose and kept rising. It rose until it was exactly 9:06 a.m. the next morning. Cyrus’s eyes opened, encompassing the light. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his bright eyes. He looked down at the silent form of Kit. She was tossing in her sleep a little bit. He lay his hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her awake. She opened her eyes and covered her mouth, looking pale.
“ Rus… ugh! I feel sick…”
Cyrus looked concernedly at her, placing his hand on her forehead. She felt normal, or, so he told her. She nodded and took his hand.
“ I had a nightmare of… of us… dying from your father!”
Cyrus shook his head and smiled warmly.
“ Don’t worry yourself Kit. My father won’t lay a grimy paw on you! I promise you that.”
Kit looked up at him, her eyes glittering with passion. She felt slightly better knowing that she didn’t have to worry with Cyrus around. They only had a week left of school though. They wouldn’t be under the protection of Professor Dumbledore after that. She took Cyrus’s hand. He grasped it tightly.
“ You know, Kit, I want a family really badly. Don’t you want a family? We could get married the day we leave here too! I have a house that I’ve had my eye on for a while. It’s not huge, but it’ll do. So, what do you think?”
Kit smiled and blushed. She wrung her hands while Cyrus’s hands remained around hers. His hands were warm. Kit’s hands were cold and clammy. Cyrus stroked her hair from her face. She looked at him and frowned.
“ What will you do for a job Rus? Don’t you want to be a working husband?”
Cyrus smiled and laughed lightly. He rubbed his eyes, tears coming from his laughter.
“ Of course! How can I protect the one I love if I don’t? I told you I would become an auror. Weren’t you planning on that too?”
Kit nodded, things beginning to look brighter.
“ There is that smiled that I love, Kit. You are so pretty when you smile.”
Cyrus nuzzled her, rubbing his forehead against hers. She smiled as Cyrus hugged her and kept her close to him. He helped her up and she brushed her hair out and washed her face before going to class.
Cyrus was taking a different class today. She was stuck in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Snape was the substitute for the class. He began to read monotonously from a book and she felt herself slowly drifting off and entering a dream world. Her bubble popped quickly.
“ Johnson? Answer me this, what was this discussion on?”
Kit fumbled with her words, fiddling with her papers. She remembered the lesson plan, but he hadn’t followed it. Snape was getting impatient at Kit’s lack of response.
“ We were discussing the art of being an animagus. You must know how they transform, right?”
Kit was startled. How did he know she was an animagus? Had he seen her transform?
“ Uh… they… um… are all like, poof… and then… they’re an animal?…”
Kit saw the look of fury in Snape’s face. He looked about ready to have an owl. Kit smiled wide, her white teeth glittering with the mischief, just like the sparkle in her eyes. Snape glared and slammed the book down in front of Kit, causing her to jump and fall out of her seat. Malfoy and his friends began to laugh hysterically. Kit watched Snape’s rage boil over.
“ That just earned you three nights of detention with me! This starts tonight, understand?”
Kit flushed and looked at the floor and felt overwhelmed with embarrassment. She folded her arms and began to feel the cold stone floor beneath her. She pushed herself up and heard the classes get dismissed. She grabbed her books from her wooden table. She walked slowly out of the classroom, unaware of Hermione and Ron and Harry waiting for her.
“ What was that about? Aren’t you quite good at Defense Against the Dark Arts?”
Harry folded his arms across his chest. He wanted to know what she did and why she did it. He knew she could become some sort of animal, but he wasn’t quite sure which animal it was.
“ Um… well, I….”
Kit didn’t get a chance to finish that last thought though. Cyrus came running up, almost dropping his papers and books. He was panting and was out of breath. He then he dropped all of his books, holding one particular piece of paper. He was grinning while he handed it to Kit.
“ I got it! I am going to training! I am going to a seminar for auror training! I start at the end of next week!”
Kit smiled and hugged Cyrus. He hugged her back, laughing. He looked at Harry and Ron and Hermione. They were all thrilled as well.
“ Way to go Cyrus! I’m so proud of you!”
Kit looked at him up and down. He looked flustered too. It was pretty funny that he was just mentioning that fact not so long ago.
“ I’m so happy for you! Now we can settle down too. Aren’t we getting married next week though?”
Cyrus nodded, looking confused. He scratched his chin, thinking hard. He began to state his idea to Kit.
“ Well… I think…”
“ Don’t do that. You might hurt yourself.”
Kit giggled at her last comment. Cyrus took about one more minute of pondering before he fully took in what she had just said.
“ Hey now! That’s not nice Kit!”
She laughed, rubbing her hands through his blonde hair.
“ Yes, I know that was mean. But you know I love you.”
Cyrus nodded, embarrassed at the fact that he had been insulted in front of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He quickly picked up his books, dragging more papers into his overloaded arms. Kit helped a little bit before Snape walked out of the dungeons. Harry and Ron slipped out of the scene with Snape. Kit blushed and stood up.
“ Yes Professor?”
Snape glared at her, sticking his nose up in the air. Kit glared right back.
“ You are starting at eight o’ clock sharp. I’ll see you then.”
Kit sighed looking towards Hermione and Cyrus. Hermione looked sympathetically back at Kit before walking away solemnly. Kit turned back to Cyrus, her eyes meeting his.
“ I can’t meet you until late tonight… okay?”
Cyrus didn’t seem to like the idea of his girlfriend being alone with Snape at night, but he nodded slowly.
“ You just let me know if he tries anything… well… WHOA!!!”
The ground shook suddenly, knocking Cyrus off of his feet. Kit turned and saw Professor Flitwick running at full speed towards them. He ran into Snape’s office, leaving Kit and Cyrus alone.
“ Rus! What’s happening? What’s… EEEEEK!”
Kit felt the whole building shake. Complete silence followed. Harry had left a short while ago, accompanied by Dumbledore. Kit looked at Cyrus, fear in her face. She then felt chills travel up her spine. Snape hadn’t emerged with Flitwick yet. An eerie howl was heard near the stairs. The only stairs that they could leave on were guarded. A werewolf guarded them. He drooled, slime and blood oozing from his foaming mouth. Kit was paralyzed with fear. This kind of thing only happened in books! Cyrus saw the werewolf’s intent. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the creature.
“ Expelliarmus!”
Cyrus shouted the spell with all of his might. Kit was pale, but still aware of the danger. She took out her wand and Cyrus took her hand, pulling her away from the body of the knocked-out werewolf.
“ Oh Cyrus! What’re we gonna…!”
Cyrus put his hand over Kit’s mouth. Three deatheaters ran by, speaking to each other through the masks.
“ Well, Draco, you had better attend to the Master’s bidding!”
Malfoy ran behind them, scattering powder. Lupin was heard shouting though, scaring off the deatheaters. Lupin discovered Kit and Cyrus in a dark hallway, Cyrus standing beside Kit with an arm around her. His wand was pointed at Lupin however, halting the man’s steady pace.
“ Hurry you two, we need everyone down in the Great Hall to help! We are being invaded by Voldemort’s servants!”
Kit gasped, accompanied by a groan from Cyrus. They glanced at each other before another large blast was heard. Ginny sprinted by the hallway, screaming and running from an overweight deatheater. Kit ran after the deatheater, getting separated from Cyrus.
“ Kit! No!”
Cyrus couldn’t get back to Kit before Lupin dragged him away and down the stairs.
Kit couldn’t mess with spells right away, so she did the first thing that came to mind to help poor Ginny, who was stuck in a corner, trying to hide from the fat deatheater who was trying to coax her out. Kit ran up and tackled the man, knocking him to the floor with a THUD!
“ Keep your filthy hands off of her you disgusting pervert!”
Ginny was panting, out of breath. She smiled at Kit and then Kit saw a small bottle filled with golden liquid. Ginny took the next nod from Kit as her signal to leave immediately. The overweight deatheater got up, a muffled groan escaping his lips.
“ Why, you little…!”
The man grabbed Kit’s ankle and pulled her to the floor. She fell to the stone floor and cried out as her ankle bent to the side hard.
“ Eeeeiiii! Let me go!”
The man wouldn’t let go of her foot, giving Kit no other choice. She used her other foot to kick the man in the back of the head. He howled in rage. Kit jumped to her feet and ran as fast as she could to the Great Hall. When she reached the two large doors leading into the Great Hall, she dropped open her mouth. There were werewolves and deatheaters and aurors everywhere! She saw Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Bill Weasley, and many other professors fighting each other. She eventually saw Cyrus pinned against a wall by Bellatrix. She saw the pale woman trying to grab Cyrus’s arm. Kit felt heat going to her cheeks. Nobody touched her man!
“ Why you…! Bombardo!”
Bellatrix turned just in time to see the beam of light miss her by an inch. She was shocked at the attack by this puny blonde girl!
“ Just who do you think you are blasting me huh?”
She raised her wand and pointed it at Kit. Kit stopped moving, aware of the chance of getting hit by an unforgivable curse.
“ I was just telling my little Cyrus here…”
“ YOUR Cyrus?! He’s mi…”
“ If you say one more thing, I’ll kill him on the spot. Anyway, I was telling Cyrus here how if he joins my Lord, Ireane can be brought back to life.”
Cyrus went pale, dropping his wand on the hard floor. Ireane could be brought back to life?
“ You can… can bring her back?”
Kit watched the unbelievable actions unfolding. McGonagall saw Bellatrix grab Cyrus’s arm and run out of the two large doors leading outside. Kit sprinted after them, causing McGonagall to yell for help from Lupin and other professors nearby.
Kit was running after Bellatrix and Cyrus. Bellatrix turned and dropped her wand. She ran towards Kit with a silver dagger. Kit couldn’t dodge the weapon in time. It hit her square in the stomach, making blood drip down and pour from the wound. Kit winced at the pain, but continued to watch Bellatrix’s actions. They were running towards the tallest tower in Hogwarts. Suddenly, the deatheaters disappeared. Cyrus was gone too. Kit stopped running when she reached a large crowd beneath the tower. Dumbledore was lying on the ground in a spread-eagle position. Harry was crying on the ground beside him. Kit was in the front of the crowd. She suddenly was struck by reality. Cyrus was gone and Dumbledore was dead. She felt tears pour from her eyes. She sunk to her knees. She felt the presence of someone behind her. Lupin stood over her, examining her wound from above. The next thing Kit saw was complete darkness.

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