Bold*- parstletounge
Italics - thoughts
"Normal"- speech and narrative
Chapter 45: Dementors On The Quidditch Pitch
3/11/1993
~~~~~~~~~
The first Quidditch match of the season was approaching and the weather had been atrocious. In practices it was hard to stay stable on their brooms with how windy it was. After Cass had fallen off her broom, to be caught swiftly by Theo (who had replaced Adrian on Cassandra's orders), Blaise had put his foot down.
"Flint I refuse to have Cass play in this weather, she will be blown off her broom however in the match Theo won't be able to catch her!"
"Don't worry Zabini, I've got a plan! We'll use the excuse of Draco's arm to get out of the match, that way we don't have to play and we ruin the Gryffindor's day at the same time, as the other houses play different to us."
The team had grinned and Marcus had alerted Madame Hooch.
———
6/11/1993
It was the day of the match and four in the morning. Cassandra hadn't slept all night from worry. She had found out that Hufflepuff would be the ones facing the Gryffindor's and couldn't help but feel scared for Cedric. She knew he was a lot bigger than her, but what if he got blown off his broom like she had done?
She sneaked out of her dorm and went down to the common room where she found Shadow curled up on the sofa. Cass gave her a stroke but continued out the door. She walked up flights and flights of stairs until she reached the room of requirement.
The young Riddle thought for a moment before walking in front of the door a few times. Entering the room she found a replica of her mother and fathers bedroom at their manor. She smiled weakly, she missed them so much.
Cass crawled into the bed and snuggled into it - it even smelled like them! Suddenly the door opened, Cassandra had her wand in her hand in an instant pointing it at the intruders.
"Easy there love!"
"Oo nice room!"
She beamed before yawning loudly. "Hey Freddie, Georgie, what are you guys doing here?"
"We could ask you the same thing!"
"Well I couldn't sleep so I came here."
"And we wanted to make sure you were okay!" Replied Fred. The two boys climbed onto the bed and pulled the cover over them crushing Cass in a hug between them. "You must be so tired, let's get some sleep."
Feeling relaxed and safe in the boys arms Cass slowly drifted of to sleep.
———
"Cass, wake up! It's almost time for the match!"
She bolted upright. "Oh Merlin! The boys are going to kill me!"
The twins laughed as she pulled on the uniform the room had provided haphazardly and then the trio walked down to the stadium. She wished the twins luck before looking around for Cedric.
She found him about to enter the Hufflepuff changing rooms and ran through the rain and wind to get to him.
"Cedric!" She yelled over the noise.
"Cass?! Get in here, you must be freezing!"
Before she knew what was happening he had pulled her inside the changing room entrance.
"Why aren't you wearing anything warm?! Here put this on!"
She blushed as he pulled his spare Quidditch jersey over her head. Before he could say anything else she attacked him in a hug.
"Please be careful," she mumbled into his chest.
Cedric smiled into her hair, clutching her to him. "Don't worry I will be, I promise - and you should know I have never broken a promise!"
She looked up at him and smiled. Cass then had to leave so they could get ready for the match. She got several funny looks as she made her way to where she and her friends always sat, some were what looked like jealous glares and others were of shock.
She had no idea what it was about until she reached the Slytherins and Blaise asked, "why are you wearing Diggory's top?"
"I went to wish him luck and he gave me this to keep me warm," she stated running the fabric through her hands.
"He should know I can keep you perfectly warm myself!" Blaise grumbled wrapping her tightly in his arms as the wind blew around them.
Cassandra squinted as she saw the teams enter the field, trying to make out Cedric. She was unsuccessful as the fog and rain made her only see blurs, she did cheer for the yellow team - though she doubted anyone could hear it through the thunder. Cassie saw what looked like the teams mounting their brooms and heard a faint whistle: the game had begun.
The game was happening all in a literal blur of colours. She could barely make out Lee yelling "Gryffindor score!"
It looked like the players were having a hard time too, they seemed to be all over the place; nearly crashing into each other. Every time a person wearing yellow swerved Cassandra held her breath.
The sky was getting darker, as though night had decided to come early. When the first flash of lightning came there was another faint whistle; the Gryffindor's had called for a time-out.
"What's the score?!" Cass yelled over the noise.
"Gryffindor are fifty points up! Diggory needs to get that snitch asap or we'll be watching this through the night!"
Soon enough the game was back on and Cassandra let out a breath of relief when she found Cedric. She locked him in her vision and clutched her wand tightly, just in case.
There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. The game was getting more and more dangerous.
Cassandra followed Cedric's every move and flinched as another flash of lightning illuminated the stands. Suddenly he began streaking up the field. Cass watched as he chased the snitch, Potter joining him soon after.
All of a sudden an eerie silence fell across the stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was like someone had turned off the sound - what was going on?
A cold feeling swept over Cassandra and she paled, looking around she could see Dementors flooding onto the pitch, moving upwards towards the two seekers. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" She yelled out, the falcon erupting from her wand. "Go and protect Cedric!" She told it and it nodded it's head, flying upwards towards the boy as Potter started falling through the sky.
Draco's patronus was surrounding the group of Slytherins and as Potter neared the ground the headmaster slowed him with a spell and cast his own patronus at the dark creatures.
Inside Blaise's arms Cassandra was shaking, she couldn't see Cedric at all and was absolutely terrified. As Hufflepuff was named winner of the match and everyone started making there way to the castle, Cass let Blaise guide her for she could not focus on anything but finding Cedric.
The reached the entrance hall and Theo and Daphne conjured some towels for the group to use. Draco had blushed as Daphne dried his hair and Theo had walked up to Cass, wrapping a towel around her shoulders.
He smiled at her gently, as he used another towel to dry her face. "You should really get warm and dry, we don't want you getting a cold!"
Cassandra let Theo dry her, still looking around and feeling a pit in her stomach when she could not find him. Just as she was about to burst into tears the soaked boy stepped through the doors.
She lept up and grabbed the towel from Theo, running towards him. "Cedric!" She cried out. He opened his arms and she leaped into them, holding him close.
"See I told you I never break promises!" He stated as she began drying his hair and face.
She grinned up at him. "Well I'm glad! By the way you didn't happen to see a silvery looking falcon which you were up there right?"
"As a matter of fact I did, it kept me safe and repelled the Dementors," he looked at her smug and relieved face, "don't tell me you were the one to cast that?!"
She smirked and waved her wand. The falcon appeared once more, disappearing after nudging into Cass's cheek fondly.
Cedric looked at her in awe, "you never fail to amaze me Cassandra Riddle!"
She blushed and finished drying him. They stood looking at each other for a minute, not breaking eye contact - Cass swore she saw his eyes flick to her lips.
"Yo Cass! Can you give us a hand too!" A voice stated, snapping the two out of their moment. She looked at the door to see Fred and George covered in mud and soaked to the core.
She and Cedric shared a knowing glance. "Let me guess, you had a mud fight?"
The twins smirked and nodded. "We've got to! Like come on look at it out there!" She laughed and her and Cedric began drying their friends.
Just as Cass was ruffling Fred's hair with the towel a voice sounded out from behind her. "Fred? George? Why are you letting her dry you? She's a Slytherin!"
Ron Weasley had walked up towards them with Granger and girl Weasley.
Cedric stepped in front of Cassandra and Fred and George glared at their little brother. "Because she is Cedric's friend and therefore our friend, you need to get over this prejudice little bro, not all Slytherins are evil!"
Cedric nodded in agreement and Cassie watched as the boy began turning as red as his hair. "But she's as evil as they come! She's You-Know-Who's d-"
"RON!" Granger interrupted giving him a hard glare that clearly said 'shut up'.
Cassandra however was intrigued how he was going to fix this. "I'm Voldemort's what?" She asked the boy, internally laughing as he flinched at her father's name.
"Um you're um one of his um Death Eaters, yeah that's it!"
"Fifty points from Gryffindor and detention with Mr Filch for a month Weasley!" Professor Snape stated, having entered the hall a few seconds before the very true accusation was stated.
"Which one?" Fred and George replied simultaneously.
Cassandra laughed and saw her Uncle was having a hard time trying not to laugh either. He, however, had to just roll his eyes. He then exited the entrance hall with a swoosh of his cloak.
Ron glared at Cassandra and in return she flashed her eyes red, making him shrink back in fear.
