Severus POV
I saw the light, heard the scream. A moment later Sirius came out of the woods with the girl I had saved in first year. Cassie. She was limp, and her pulse gone. Sirius was crying, actually crying.
"She's...dead."
"No! Please, no!" I screamed. She couldn't be dead! Never! I felt Cassie's pulse. There was no heartbeat, just a cold, dead silence. I screamed again, tears now falling down my face, and everyone came running.
"What's going on?" Dumbledore said, standing over my shaking body.
"Cassie's gone! Gone! GONE!" Agony ripped at my gut, tore at my soul. I couldn't believe I would never talk to her again. I blindly noticed James, Lily, Remus, Peter, and all of Cassie's best friends as they crowded around the body, and I didn't care. One after another wand tip lighted, sending a shower of light into the cloudy sky. Rain poured onto the ground, sending those who didn't know her into the castle with Slughorn. I stood there, sobbing into Cassie's Gryffindor robes, until a hand grabbed my shoulder.
"Come on, Sev. We should go." It was Lily. I nodded and let her steer me through the crowd. Lily's beautiful green eyes were red and puffy, signs that she had been crying just as much as I had. We sat down in the hallway, and Lily sobbed into my shoulder. We sat there, watching the progression of people pay their respects to the one girl I had rescued. Lily pulled out a white rose and her wand.
"Her spirit will forever stay. Petrificus Totalus." She petrified the rose and lay it on the windowsill.
"For Cassie."