Cassandra Arias sat on a yellow armchair in the Hufflepuff common room, reading yet another edition of Transfiguration Today. She did not even have to look up to know what was coming next when a shadow fell across her paper.
"Cass!" screamed an exasperated looking girl with long blonde hair that was forever getting in the way of her eyes making her trip and walk into things.
Cass raised an eyebrow, smiling at her friend who seemed to have lost yet another one of her shoes as she was wearing a mismatched pair.
"You promised! You cannot miss this Hogsmeade trip. You can't! I'll die!"
Cass pretended to cough as she hid a chuckle.
The blonde girl glared, hands on her waist as she stared down at the dark haired girl who was her best friend. "Do you HAVE to read Transfiguration Today at all times? You've read that same one about five times now!"
Cass sighed. "Adi, you must reread it to fully understand the concepts."
Adi threw her hands in the air exclaiming, "For the love of Merlin, you should've been in Ravenclaw!"
"Now, now Adi don't be mean."
Adi switched her wand, whispered Evanesco and the magazine disappeared.
"Adila, do you know how hard that issue was to get!" Cass yelled jumping out of her chair.
"You read that thing too much. You made a promise and will keep it."
Cass rolled her eyes, "At least what I read is helpful to bettering my intelligence unlike your Witch Weekly."
"Hey! That has some good stuff. Doesn't Micabo Freyr have the dreamiest smile? I would snog him from here to next Tuesday."
Cass groaned as Adi grabbed her arm and led her through the portrait, up the staircase and away from the kitchens. Happily chattering about some spell she learned in Witch Weekly to give her cheeks more color.
"Come on!" Adi exclaimed once they reached the lawns.
"That magazine was important." Cass frowned. "Are you sure you weren't meant to be a Slytherin?"
"Now who's being mean?" Adi laughed.
"Oh, you're right it too perfect a day to spend indoors."
"Aha! I knew you couldn't stay mad."
"Have I ever?"
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining brightly and although the air was brisk, it only added to the atmosphere. The leaves where turning color. Autumn was her favorite time of year because it had more variety than the other seasons. With summer and spring you had a good amount of green. With winter there was an enormous amount of white and it seemed that she was forever digging Adi out of the snow. But autumn had the browns, oranges, reds and a canvas of other colors.
Before she knew it they had passed the lake that had a variety of people sitting next to it reading and enjoying the weather before it turned. They headed out of the gates and towards the town. They reached the village with its small cottages and shops, soon candles would be hanging in the trees as Hallowe'en would be here in a few days time.
"I need to go to the post. I need to refill some of my supplies for potions."
A bewildered Adi followed Cass into the post office. "But Cass you just did that last month!"
"You know I'm abysmal at Potions. I need all the practice I can get."
"Can't you just ask that Snape boy for help, you know he's the best at potions in the whole school?"
Cass stopped in her tracks not believing her friend uttered such words. This made Adi trip over the hem of her robes onto another student who was placing his package on a barn owl, sending the owl flying into another owl. The girls' eyes widened at the scene, Owls flying everywhere, feathers falling. They apologized and quickly left making their way to the Three Broomsticks.
"How long do you think it will be before they forget this incident?" Cass asked.
"Well it did take them a bit to forget last year's fiasco. Maybe you can use the Owlery to send for your supplies."
They sat in towards the back and quickly ordered. Their cherry syrup and soda with ice and an umbrella where brought to the table in no time. They liked to think they had befriended Madam Rosmerta. It was either that or that she felt sorry about Adi having two left feet.
"How can you drink something so sweet?" Cass wondered as Adi sipped contently on her cherry syrup.
"How can you not?"
Cass shuddered, as her teeth instinctively hurt just thinking about it.
"This brings me to my last question. Why can't you ask the Snape boy?"
"Shhh…" Cass said, looking around and seeing that a few people where staring like they had grown a few extra heads. Snape was the least popular person in school and although she was not one to think about popularity, she didn't want to be jinxed every two minutes.
"How in Merlin's beard did cherry syrup remind you of that question?"
"Well you see everything and every person has their other half and an overly sour person would have a very sweet person for balance and….. Don't try to distract me!"
Cass frowned, the onetime Adi choose not to let her head float into whatever world it was usually in.
"Well, he wouldn't. He doesn't like people." Cassandra smiled at her answer thinking it a finished conversation.
Adi who was probably used to it was unaffected by the stares kept on. "Well it is only fair. McGonagall already has you tutoring him in Transfiguration. He should return the favor."
It was Cass' turn to look at her friend like she had grown an extra head. "Believe me; he would not do me or anyone a favor. He just sits there and writes notes about what I tell him. He won't even practice in front of me. When I ask he says he'll practice it in his dormitory."
The girls paid for their drinks and went on their way. Not needing anything in particular they just looked around, glad to be out of the castle. Adi commented on how lovely Madam Puddifoot's looked as they passed it and how she wished that someday someone will ask her there. Making Cass wonder how anyone would be able to enjoy a date with cherubs flying about throwing confetti on your head.
"I bet confetti is really hard to get out of your hair." Cass thought out loud as they made their way towards the shrieking shack. They had once heard the most horrible sounds coming from there. "Especially magical confetti."
"I bet is the tortured soul of a man who lost his only love and now shrieks in misery." Adi sighed. "How romantic."
Before Cass could reply Adi was pulling her towards it at a very fast pace. "Look! It's the Snape boy. It's fate! Now you can ask him."
Cass stopped abruptly with a horrified look, letting Adi trip over her own feet again.
Cass groaned.
Usually she was careful to hold on to Adi and keep her from actually hitting the ground but she seemed not to be in a very attentive frame of mind today. Surely, there he was his robes an inch too short and hair an inch too long. The wind pushing the long, dark strands over his face so most of it was hidden but she was sure he was glaring as he turned from facing the Shrieking Shack.
Avery and Mulciber laughed at what they probably thought to be a clumsy, fool-headed girl.
Adi stood up not even seeming to try to clear the leaves out of her hair.
"Hello Snape!" She said in a lively voice making Snape frown and Malfoy raise a half amused eyebrow.
Cass stood wondering what she had done to deserve this and knowing that if she were able to blush, today she would be turning into a tomato.
"So we were wondering…"
Cass eyes widened in mortification hoping her friend would suddenly loose her voice. "Since you know, Cass helps you with transfiguration and all. If you could return the favor and help her with potions. She's horrible really." Adi told an uninterested Snape.
"Favor? Is that what it is?" His voice dripped ice. "The only reason I am in the same room with her is because the professor demanded it." He snickered.
Cass saw red or she would have if it were physically possible. All she remembered was a loud buzzing noise in her head before she gave her cherry wand a wave and a tree branch hit Snape on the head. Sending him one last glare she grabbed onto Adi and left making her way back to Hogwarts. Leaving Snape scowling again as his friends laughed at the foolish Hufflepuffs asking a Slytherin for help.
Days passed with Cass still accusing Adi for the over-whelming embarrassment. Not only did she have to deal with Slytherin and their sniggering remarks but she had to deal with Gryffindors newly found love for playing pranks on her and calling her Snivellus' girlfriend. The Marauders had even once sent her a howler in the Great Hall that said her subscription to the Society of Greasy Git Lovers had been approved. She had always told Adi it didn't matter that people made fun of her, all that mattered was what she thought but this was getting ridiculous.
Cass made her way to the Great Hall for the Hallowe'en feast when she ran into Adi.
Cass sighed and smiled looking at her friend with a pumpkin hat on her head made out of a real pumpkin.
"Cass!" Adi hugged her and grinned. "You're not still mad at me are you?"
"No, it's just been a stressful couple of days. I'm sorry I have been such a banshee."
Adi giggled. "You have been terribly horrible but I forgive. Even I haven't had it that bad."
"I promise not to let people acting like big gits ruin our friendship and that I will let NOTHING ruin today for us."
Cass looked at Adi, who was biting her lip and turning a nice rose color and looked like she was about to convulse.
"Spoke too soon."
Before she could ask what Adi meant Snape was in front of them slightly hidden behind a suit of armor. Cass bit her lip, her mortification apparent on her face.
There were a few escaped bats hovering over the hallway of the ground floor and she could just see a snippet of an orange streamer that was swimming across the ceiling of the great hall.
"Cassandra." He spoke as he nodded towards her direction.
Why couldn't she just have made it into the great hall without another form of embarrassment?
"I'll save you seat!" Adi called out as she skipped into the Great Hall deserting her friend.
"Traitor." Cass muttered knowing that she was the only one with enough courage to sit next to Adi who was forever spilling things on anyone in her vicinity.
"What do you want?" An annoyed Cass asked, she could have almost sworn she saw shock come across his face but it left too quickly to be sure of.
He had wondered the same thing all the way from the Slytherin dorms. What did he care if he had been a complete git to her? No one seemed to care when they were one to him. Of course they seemed to think he did not rate as human but she had always been decent to him even if he had always pushed her away.
"And here I thought Hufflepuffs where supposed to be sweet." A ghost of a smile appeared on his face.
"Don't believe everything you hear." She muttered in a frustrated tone.
"Do you?"
"Obviously not or that would mean we're having quite an elicit love affair."
That put the frown back on his face and she couldn't help but smirk at his discomfort. It was obviously his fault for being so good at Potions that even Adi knew and had gotten it in her odd head that she needed help from him. She glared at him again as the thought swirled around her head making perfect sense to her.
He looked down and her brows furrowed. Could he just be shy and not actually as horrible as he sets out to be? That was of course absolutely impossible. This was another one of those times that made her wonder why she seemed to always look for the good in everyone.
"Well… McGonagall."
She interrupted him. "Oh! Well of course, the reason why you're stuck in a room with me for a horrible hour every week." She threw her hands up in an exasperated gesture.
Why the foolish girl couldn't just let him apologize so he could be on his way, he wondered as she went on with her tirade.
"Well! I'll tell her I've done everything I can and you won't have to waste so much time being around a foolish little Hufflepuff.'
Before she could continue she was being pulled into the broom closet off the Great Hall doors. She had glimpsed at the Marauders coming down the marble staircase before everything had gone black.
"What in the name of Merlin…."
He put his hands over her mouth before she could finish.
"Do you want to be the main event because I for one do not?" He whispered.
She shook her head.
She caught a muffled snippet here or there from the Marauders. It seemed they had a big joke planned that would include both her and Snape. Unfortunately they seemed to want to discuss their plan in length before going into the Great Hall because they were not moving. The good thing was that they could not be seen.
"Muffliato." Snape murmured leaving a confused Cass. "They cannot hear us now."
"Nice spell."
He nodded in acknowledgement.
"Lumos." She produced a dim light not bright enough to be seen from outside.
She bit her bottom lip and wished she would have let the darkness be and stayed in an ignorant bliss. The broom closet was far too small and she was far too close to him. She could feel his chest against hers. She breathed deeply trying to stop her hands from shaking, wondering why they were shaking in the first place.
"It is not horrible." He said in a voice that she could only describe as a cross between acid and silk.
There must obviously be a lack of oxygen in the small room as those two things wouldn't do well together. The acid would eat through the silk faster than Devils Snare could bind a struggling person.
"The hour." He added.
Was the girl that dim that she could not even understand a simple apology? And must she be so close?! This is a school for magic for Merlin's sake; one would think they could magically enhance a broom closet.
He tried his best to look away; looking at the brooms, at the door, at the walls but nothing seemed to be able to keep his eyes from traveling back towards her face. Her eyes where the color of toffee, a world of difference from Lily's sparkling green eyes.
She stared at his face. It seemed as if he was waging an intense battle inside. She raised a confused eyebrow. She was sure that was the closest anyone had ever gotten to a compliment from Snape.
"Thanks?"
He shrugged. "A Hufflepuff is better than a Gryffindor any day, of course never more so than a Slytherin."
She rolled her eyes. "Spoken like a true Slytherin."
He seemed to have a gift for neutralizing a compliment and was staring at her. Why was he staring at her? She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing but for some reason she couldn't seem to look away. His eyes seemed to have a mesmerizing pull to them.
Why had she never heard anyone talk about this? Well obviously everyone was too scared to look him in the eyes.
He shouldn't even think it. What if Lily where to find out? Then any chance he would have, if he had any chance at all, would disappear quicker than anyone could say Evanesco. But Lily would never want someone like him. Then who's to say this little Hufflepuff would ever want someone like him either. The only reason his own House befriended him was his vast knowledge of things pertaining to the dark arts and his grades in potions.
Although her lips looked quite enticing, as if they were aching to be kissed. Well if she disliked it, it is not as if she would tell anyone. She wouldn't want it known that someone the likes of him had kissed her therefore surely he had nothing to lose. Of course she could never replace Lily but maybe it was worth to silence the curiosity and be able to finally stop wondering about her.
She wasn't sure how it had happened or even why it had happened. But like two magnets with opposite poles the pull was too strong to resist and before she knew it their lips touched. The softness of his lips caught her off guard. Least expected was how his lips molded onto hers and the electricity that shot from them to the rest of her body.
It felt as though some strange being had possessed her body. Her hands moved up and her fingers began stroking his hair. She gasped. His hair wasn't greasy; it was quite soft.
Her lips started to part when a loud noise sounded from the Great Hall.
They quickly broke apart wide eyed, breathing ragged, shocked.
He looked at the floor. He had been wrong. The curiosity hadn't been silenced. The last thing he needed was another Lily. "I'm sure it's safe to leave." He said and walked out without a backwards glance.
She stood there wondering how that had just happened and why she wasn't completely disgusted. Had he really just kissed her or had it been an oxygen deprived hallucination.
She was only able to get to the suit of armor beside the doors of the great hall. She sat at its feet in complete confusion. "It was only a kiss. It had to be."