Pansy's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Cass's still form on the bed. She sniffed them back, trying to get some control.
'I need to send some owls,' she said quietly. 'He has friends who will want to know. His mother....' Quickly, she brushed at her eyes.
She stood and held out her hand. 'Thank you. I'm sure you have others who desperately need your attention.'
Calling for Hilly, she asked her to bring some parchment and a quill so she could write out some owls. While she waited, she fussed over Cass, straightening the covers and smoothing his hair back gently.
When she had the parchment, she carefully told Hilly what to tell Harry, not using his name for fear that someone would overhear. Then she sat down to write some owls. She wrote first to Emilia, and it was incredibly difficult.
Then she wrote to Percy. She didn't know if he'd want to know, or if he even cared, but in his place, she would want to know so she wrote.
Then she wrote to Susan. That one she'd expected to be easier, but it wasn't. But after that, she decided Hilly had had plenty of time to tell Harry what was going on so she called her back and sent her first to Madame Pomphrey and to Healer John, begging both to come when they could and offering a substantial payment for their trouble.
Then it was owls to Monty and Miles and Higgs and Natalie, Draco and Theo and soon it was anybody whose name popped into her head. She never said Cass was dying, not to any of them. Instead, she said he was badly hurt and the healers weren't saying good things. They'd draw their own conclusions, but Pansy just couldn't put what she'd been told into words. It would make it too final.
Eventually, though, she ran out of people to write. And not once during all that time did Cass even stir. She sat in the chair and held his hand, refusing to move.