Chapter 9
Over the next couple of weeks, George would randomly pop out of hidden passages and give me surprise kisses on the cheeks. The first couple of times I would blush and giggle, but now I was looking forward to it at every turn. Ron was still struggling with the thought that his older brother liked his friend, but he was slowly coming around to it.
The best time though, was when Fred, George, Harry and I would play tag behind Wood's back when he was focused on telling the main chasers what to do. George was the one who started it, and it's just been an ongoing game we've been playing.
Harry was supposed to be helping me improve my Seeker skills, but it was hard to teach me how to spot the Snitch when it would sometimes be right in front of me. Wood was just going to keep me on as a Chaser reserve if I couldn't keep up Harry. And I was alright with that.
Then night before my birthday, Harry and Fred had walked ahead when George threw his arm around my shoulders.
"What is it, sir George?" I looked up at the Weasley.
His skin was still shining from the sweat that had dried on it, his hair was wet and I did not want to run my fingers through it. Though I really would like too.
"Princess, would you do the honor of going out for dinner with me tomorrow night?" He didn't make a joke about it.
"I would be honored too." I said, wrapping my arm around his back as we walked back to the common room.
"Excellent." He had the biggest grin on his face.
When we entered the common room, no one else was there. Harry and Fred must've gone up to bed so that we could have a few more minutes together.
"George-" I turned to look up at him but paused in surprise.
He was aiming to kiss my cheek, but I turned and his lips were closer than we were both expecting. He quickly pulled away but I had grabbed his arm.
"Sorry." We both said, blushing.
"I don't want to take your first kiss." He admitted after a few seconds of silence.
"That's very sweet of you." I smiled up at him.
He grinned sheepishly down at me.
"Come here." I reached up to him.
He was so freaking tall.
George bent down so that I could cup the back of his neck. I pulled down and placed a kiss in the same place he had just placed mine.
"I'm not sure I'm ready to kiss you yet. But I love these cheek kisses." I whispered against his cheek.
George grinned and placed another kiss on my other cheek.
"I'll remember that." He said quietly.
My cheeks were hurting from all the grinning I was doing.
"You better get to bed. You still have a lot of growing to do." George pulled away and patted my head.
I rolled my eyes up at him, "maybe you need to let me catch up."
"No, I'll be staying ahead." He winked down at me.
I laughed as we said good night and climbed up our separate stairs. That night, as I slept. I had the most wonderful dream about him.
'I can't believe I overslept!' I was rushing to put on my shirt that I had on the chair.
Hermione had tried to wake me up. I remember that. She had shaken me awake but I had grumbled and turned over from her. So here I was, struggling to get my uniform on. I was grateful that I had put all of my assignments for the day in my bag so all I had to do was finish putting my hair in the galaxy headband I had gotten for Christmas.
Ariel followed me down the stairs and just as I was about the push the portrait open, Harry came down the boys' staircase.
"Good morning." I said as I opened the door and we both started to jog together to the Great Hall.
"Morning, you overslept too?" He asked.
"Yeah, Hermione tried to wake me up though. I think she had something for me?" I shrugged as Ariel lead the way down the stairs.
"Oh, it's your birthday, isn't it? Happy birthday." Harry nudged my shoulder with his.
"Thank you." I grinned at him as we entered the Great Hall.
It was pink.
The Great Hall was pink.
Harry and I both paused as we blinked at the change of color. There were large pink flowers lining along the walls, and there was heart-shaped confetti falling from the ceiling.
"Oh no." I sighed as Harry and I joined Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table.
Ron was looking disgusted, Hermione was giggling.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as we sat down.
Ron pointed up to the teachers table. Lockhart was wearing robes that matched the color of the flowers and the walls of the Great Hall.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted when the Great Hall quieted down.
None of the other teachers looked pleased with him. Dumbledore though, he had a grin on his face and was enjoying the fluttering confetti.
"And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all - and it doesn't end here!" Lockhart was speaking in his exuberant way, with waves of his arms and flicking of his golden locks.
Lockhart clapped his hands and a dozen surly-looking dwarfs came into the Great Hall. However, the poor things were wearing golden wings and carrying harps.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" Lockhart had a ridiculous smile on his face.
My face was turning into horror and I looked up at George, who's smile could have rivaled Lockhart's as he looked at me.
"Oh no." I whispered.
"They will be roving around the school today, delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizards I've ever met, the sly old dog!" Lockhart had waved to each professor in turn.
Snape had a sneer on his face that told anyone not to ask about Love Potion's. Flitwick was not making eye contact with anyone and the Hall burst into conversation as soon as Lockhart had sat down.
"Please, Hermione, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six." Ron groaned as we left the Great Hall.
I watched as George hurried up to one of the dwarves.
"Oh no." I sighed.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"George." I pointed at George as the dwarf started to repeat what he was saying.
"What's the matter, afraid of a little Valentine?" Harry grinned at me.
"Oh no, not a little one." I shook my head as we entered Transfiguration.
"I'm terrified of a big one." I said as McGonagall started the lesson.
Fifteen minutes in and the door swung open. It was the dwarf George was talking to earlier.
"Cassie Zwart!" It called out.
Malfoy gleefully pointed to me as McGonagall pursed her lips together.
"No." I put my hands to my face as the dwarf came up to me.
"Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Cassie!
Happy birthday to you!"
The dwarf sang terribly.
I gave him a nod with an embarrassed smile as he left the classroom.
"Sorry." I said loud enough for everyone to hear.
McGonagall's lips got tighter and she resumed the lesson.
Then the door opened and another dwarf came in, but this time it was for someone else.
Over the course of the day, we had heard more singing dwarves than we had actual lessons. In our second class, History of Magic, George had sent another dwarf.
"Her eyes are deep like storms.
Her hair as pink as raspberries."
"That's it?" I asked the dwarf.
"Yes'm." He nodded.
"Could you find George Weasley and tell him,
His hair is as red as Weasley.
His songs as lame as a Weasley.
Weasley, Weasley, Weasley."
"Yes'm." The dwarf nodded and left the room.
"Really?" Ron asked as Binns kept droning on, ignoring the rest of the dwarves.
"Can you do better?" I asked, sighing as I laid my head down and tried to sleep.
On our way to Charms, I had a grin on my face as Harry's name was called.
"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person." The dwarf was twanging his harp in a threatening way.
"Not here!" Harry hissed.
"Harry, just let it happen." I teased as I tried to help Harry into a private area.
The dwarf had cornered him in a hallway where it seemed the entire school was in. The first years were heading to their next class and I saw Ginny had seen us and her eyes were wide.
"Stay still!" The dwarf had grabbed hold of Harry's bag and was pulling Harry towards him.
"Let me go!" Harry had snarled and his bag ripped.
Everything fell to the floor. I scrambled to pick up what I could that wasn't covered in red ink. His ink bottle had broken and anything near it had been drenched in it.
"Run!" I said to Harry, motioning for him to go as Malfoy and Percy suddenly joined the corridor.
He tried to, but the dwarf had tackled Harry's knees and sent him crashing to the floor.
"Right." The dwarf sounded smug. "Here is your singing valentine:
His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.'"
I was trying best to cover my giggles, but it was a better poem than what we've heard from everyone else.
"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class now." Percy was trying to shoo the younger students to their class.
"Malfoy." I said, pointing to him.
Harry turned around and his face paled when he saw that Malfoy had Riddle's diary.
"Give that back." Harry said quietly.
"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" Malfoy asked, clearly not looking at the name on the book.
The crowd had hushed and I took a moment to look at Ginny. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide as she looked between the diary and Harry. Her eyes flickered over to me for a second and I knew.
The diary and Ginny were connected but I didn't know how!
"Hand it over, Malfoy." Percy said sternly.
When I've had a look." Malfoy waved the diary in a taunting manor to Harry.
Percy was in the middle of a sentence when Harry took matters into his own hands.
"Expelliarmus!"
The book flew out of Malfoy's hands and Ron had caught it.
I was still staring at Ginny who was growning paler by the second as she and I locked eyes.
"Harry!" Percy said loudly. "No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!"
"Ginny had finally looked away from me, Ron had broken my gaze on her as he started to drag me along after him and Harry as we hurried into the Charms classroom.
"I don't think Potter liked your valentine much!" Malfoy snarled to Ginny as she passed him.
I had to stop Ron from pulling his wand out.
"No! You can't have another slug episode." I hissed to him as Harry pushed Ron's hand back into his pocket.
During Charms class, Hermione was helping Neville with the charm we had just mastered together. I was staring at a blank piece of parchment.
Well, it wasn't completely blank. In top was scratched words.
'Dear Sirius,' , 'Dear Mr. Black,' , 'Dear Dad,' , 'Dear Sirius Black,'.
I couldn't decide how to write this letter. And I was having a hard time focusing on writing it. I just wanted to get to Ginny, but then another dwarf came in shouting my name.
"Cassie Zwart!" It shouted.
I raised my hand and it twang it's harp.
"It's your birthday,
Happy Birthday,
Happy Birthday."
"Thank you." I smiled kindly to the dwarf as it left the room.
"Nothing for George?" Harry asked, turning around to face me.
"Not this time." I exhaled hard on through my nose with a smile.
Harry grinned back at me and turned back to the diary. Ron's wand had started to grow purple bubbles from the tip and he was trying to get that to stop. I turned back to the letter.
'Sirius Black,
I have been struggling with how to write this letter to you. I didn't want to come right out and say who I am. You don't know me, and I don't know you. I only know what the Daily Prophet has told me, and it's not all good things…
My mother is… Was Karen Zwart. She died when I was little. I never knew about you until last year, I was told you were my father.
One part of me hopes it's true, I would love to have a father. The other part of me hopes it isn't. I don't want to be related to someone who is the reason my best friends parents are dead.
I don't know how they're treating you there, in Azkaban.
I would like to come and meet you, if that is alright with you.
Your daughter,
Cassiopeia Zwart'
I stared at the parchment as I scribbled sentence after sentence. My mind kept wandering to Ginny. So I folded the parchment up and placed it in my bag and wrote another letter.
'Sirius Black,
I have no intention of sending this one to you. I just need to write things down.
The Chamber of Secrets has opened. Ginny is somehow connected to it. Along with the diary now in Harry's possession.'
I ripped that parchment up before I could write anymore.
"Everything alright?" Hermione had turned to me when she heard me ripping my paper.
I nodded at her as I laid my head on the desk.
"Cassie." Harry had poked my head.
"Yeah?" I picked up my head and looked at him.
"What's wrong?" He had put the diary away for the time being.
"I found out who my dad is." I said.
"What?!" Hermione, and Ron had turned to listen to our conversation.
"The problem is, he doesn't know I exist. And I'm trying to write a letter but I don't know how to word it." I sighed, hitting my head against the desk as I partially lied to my friends.
"Tell him the truth. You don't know what so say but you want to get to know him." Hermione had put a hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah, but if she does that he may want proof she's his." Ron said from next to Harry.
Harry didn't offer any advice as Hermione and Ron. He was looking at me when I finally looked back up again.
"If I could have a relationship with mine, I would." He said softly.
We stared at each other for a moment.
'You don't know what I know.' I thought sadly.
Instead, I nodded my head to him.
"Okay."
I pulled out a new parchment and I stared at it, unsure of how I was going to write this letter to my supposed father.
That night, as we were heading to the dormitory, Fred had pulled me aside.
"Cassie." He said as Harry, Ron, and Hermione went ahead.
"Fred." I smiled tiredly up at him.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking confused.
"Oh, I'm fine. Just had a long day." I tried to laugh it off.
"You sure?" He asked, looking deep into my eyes.
"Yeah." I nodded again.
"Okay…" He squinted at me before reaching for my bag.
"What are you doing?" I asked, holding onto it for a second.
"George is going to be out here any second. He has a surprise for you." Fred explained gently.
"Oh." I blushed as I let Fred take my bag.
At that moment the portrait hole opened and George had walked through.
"Thank you Freddie, I'll take her from here." George was smiling kindly down at me.
"You're welcome Georgie, have fun Cassie." Fred winked at me as he entered the portrait hole.
I saw Harry had turned around and when he saw me, he gave me a thumbs up as Hermione took my bag from Fred.
"M'Lady." George had done a slight bow, holding his arm out and I noticed he did look as nervous as I was feeling.
"M'Lord." I curtsied before taking his arm.
"Where are we going?" I asked as he started to lead me down the stairs.
"Well, since it's close to dinner time, I thought we'd start with a private dinner then go for a walk." George said as he pulled a tapestry back to reveal a passageway.
"Aren't we walking right now?" I asked cheekily, relaxing little by little as I was with him.
"Yes, but the walk I have in mind involves a later time." George winked at me as he moved my hand from the crook of his elbow to his hand.
He laced our fingers together and I blushed. All of these feelings whirling around my stomach, I liked that he was the one causing them.
"If I'm pushing it too far, just let me know." George said from beside me.
"Okay." I nodded, stepping out of the passageway and into a corridor I didn't recognize at first.
"I'm taking you to the kitchens." He said as I looked around.
"The kitchens?" I asked, looking up at him as he lead me down some stairs.
"Yes. I hope you don't mind, I wanted our first date to be… private." He said, looking down at me with a confident grin.
"That's actually really sweet of you." I grinned back at him as we walked up to a portrait of a bowl of fruit.
"I need both hands for a second." George pulled my hand up to his lips and gave it a little kiss before letting it go.
I had a small smile on my hand as he tickled the pear. I watched it curiously as the pear grew a door handle and George had to use both of his hands to pull on it. The entire portrait opened like a door and I gave a gasp at what I saw.
There were four identical tables to the ones in the Great Hall, and they all had wonderful smelling food on them.
"Mister Weasley!" A squeaky voice said from George knee as he helped me into the kitchen.
I looked down and there was a creature with huge blue eyes and giant ears grinning up at George.
"Hello Mindy!" George greeted the creature.
"Is this Miss Cassie?" The creature turned her blue eyes to me.
"I am." I nodded kindly to her.
"Oh good! Right this way Mister Weasley!" The creature clapped her hands together and lead us to a quiet part of the kitchen.
There was a small table set up with two tall candles and clean plates and glasses set up romantically.
"Thank you Mindy." George pulled out a chair for me.
"Thank you." I nodded to both of them as Mindy walked away.
"They're house-elves." George said quietly as he sat down across from me.
"Oh!" I nodded, looking around at the many stoves and house elves now making pudding for after the feast tonight.
"Here is your food!" Mindy had floated a few platters with meat, vegetables, and potatoes towards us.
"Thank you Mindy." I said, allowing the magical utensils to serve up my dinner for me.
With a snap of Mindy's fingers, the candles were lit and she was floating the food away from us.
"How did you like your singing valentine's today?" George asked slyly as he took a bite of his steak.
I rolled my eyes but smiled, "my favorite one would have to be the birthday song."
"Really?" He asked as we ate.
"Yeah, it was the first one and rather than be cheesy, you gave me a birthday song first." I shrugged.
"I will keep that in mind for next year." George nodded seriously.
The rest of the night, we shared stories. Mostly about the different pranks we've pulled. Since George grew up with magic, he had more variety of being able to change the prank in the middle of it happening. Whereas I had grown up with muggles and not knowing magic, so he was intrigued by the amount of effort I actually had to put in my pranks.
He enjoyed that my favorite one to pull was with a powdered sugar bag.
After we had our pudding, a small birthday cake with some ice cream, he was leading me out of the kitchens.
"Goodnight Mindy!" I waved to the house elf.
"Goodnight miss Cassie!" She waved back to me as the dishes started to clean themselves.
"Now for that walk." George laced his fingers through mine and lead me up a trillion stairs.
I was panting slightly by the time we reached the Astronomy Tower.
"Am I allowed to be up here?" I asked, knowing fully well I was not.
"Don't worry about it. Come here." George was standing next to a blanket that was here when we arrived.
I put my hand in his as he sat down first then pulled me down to sit in front of him. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. I had to breathe deeply as I had suddenly gotten butterflies in my full stomach.
"Relax." George breathed into my ear.
"I'm trying." I whispered back, not realizing how stiff I was.
George chuckled in my ear as he nuzzled into my hair.
"I love the night sky." I said, trying to change the subject.
"Your name is a constellation, yes?" George asked.
"Yeah, I just don't know which one." I shrugged, my butterflies slowly going away.
"You can't see it, not at this time of year where we are." George explained.
We spent the night talking about the stars. I was yawning by the time he had finished telling me a story the Native Americans use to tell about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
"We should get back." George stood up and held a hand out for me.
"Should we though?" I asked, taking his hand and pulling myself up.
George chuckled as he pulled out a parchment and gave it a tap, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The Marauder's Map revealed the Hogwarts castle and it's grounds. Most of the teachers were in their offices, but Filch was prowling along the main floor.
"Come on, we'll take the short way." George held the map in one hand, and held his other one for mine.
We held hands as we snuck through the castle together. With help from the map, we didn't run into Filch or any other person. The Fat Lady was not pleased when we arrived in front of her portrait. We were both grinning sheepishly as she swung open when George gave the password.
The common room was empty, the fire was still going in the fireplace.
"This is where we part ways." George said as we walked near the stairs.
"This is." I nodded, turning to face him.
"Happy birthday, again." He said, leaning down to kiss my forehead.
"Thank you." I grinned as I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek.
"I'll see you in the morning." George let go of my hand and gently pushed me to my stairs.
"Yeah, see you." I smiled tiredly at him as I started to walk up the stairs.
I waited until I heard his steps fade away before going back down and opening the first year dormitory.
"Ginny." I whispered into the darkness.
There was a shuffling and the redhead joined me at the door. I grabbed her hand and lead her down the stairs to the common room.
When we sat in front of the fire, she was crying.
"Ginny. Can you tell me-?" I didn't get to finish my question, Ginny was shaking her head and she couldn't seem to get the words out.
"Okay, okay." I patted her shoulder.
"I want to help you. I don't know how too." I said, waking up slightly.
"I don't know how you can." She whispered to me.
"Let's get the diary back from Harry and we can see from there." I said as her eyes dried up and we discussed how we were going to get it out of Harry's dormitory.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CASSIE!
Happy Valentine's to you guys! My boyfriend and I are unable to celebrate it together today (even though it's my day off from work LOL). I shall be spending the rest of the day preparing next week's chapter, and future chapters while having a LOTR marathon. Hope the rest of you have a wonderful love filled day!
afk94: I'm so glad you're enjoying this book! I hate when I'm reading something that it's progress and I finish it just after they updated it so I totally understand where you're coming from! And thank you! I will definitely try to keep this up!