Warrington's days had begun to feel rather like cycles. He would get up go to classes, watch for merpeople in the common room while reading up on bubble head charms and path finding charms (finding, in the process, a rather handy one nicknamed Ariadne's string) in the afternoons, practice non-verbal spell casting with Pucey in the evenings, come in to work on homework, sleep, and start over. His friends (even, surprisingly, Andrew) were busy preparing for their end of term exams, but, being exempt, Cassius found himself with a considerable amount of freetime, and few people to spend it with. He had run into Marietta a few more times, and was surprised by the realization that, at some point, they had sort of become friends. Even her friends were starting to acknowledge him, although Carl Hopkins wouldn't spend much time with him ("It's not you, mate, it's just that you're going against Potter in the Tournament, and if the Gryffindors don't support him, well, not many will be."), not that it mattered too much to him.
In general, Cassius had begun to feel that he had more friends outside of Slytherin than he had before, something he'd been convinced was because of his position as Hogwarts champion. When he'd mentioned this to Marietta, she'd laughed at him.
"Sure, Warrington. It's because you're champion, not because you're actually talking to people." He'd been offended. He'd always talked to people, in class at least. Outside of class, he'd been busy with Quidditch, or talking to his own friends… Either way, it was a nice change, and all in all, he figured there were worse cycles than the one he was in. Still, the thought that he still needed to tell Potter about the egg, at least check and make sure he knew about it still nagged him, which is why, just after breakfast a week after first considering telling Potter about the egg, he found himself leaving breakfast early.
"Hey, Potter!" Weasley was the first to turn around, looking ready to pull out his wand, but Potter soon turned as well, by which time Cassius had caught up to them. Potter was looking at him questioningly, and Cassius quickly regretted not figuring out how to begin the conversation. "Uh… how're you doing with the clue? Does yours scream too?"
Still looking a bit confused, Potter nodded. "It broke open a few nights ago-not a fun wake up call." Weasley laughed beside Potter.
"Seamus nearly wet the bed," he said between laughs, then coughed as though remembering who they were talking to.
"Um… why do you ask?"
Warrington paused, then decided to dive right in. "Well, you helped me with the first task, so I figured that if you hadn't solved this one, maybe I could help you, somehow?" It had started out as rambling, but somewhere turned into a question as he read confusion, and slight surprise, in Potter's eyes.
"Have you solved it then? The screaming?" Cassius nodded.
"Then you haven't." Potter didn't say anything, which Cassius took as a yes. Looking around to make sure Fleur and Krum weren't nearby, he continued in a lower voice. "Look, go to the baths, or the lake, or somewhere with water, and put it under, then listen to it." Potter looked skeptical, and Cassius held up his hands, returning to normal volume. "Listen, I'm just trying to make it even. You helped me with the dragon, I'm helping you with this. We helped each other, and the playing field will be even for the third task." Potter looked him over, then nodded once.
"Thanks, then. Good luck, I guess."
"You too." Potter and Weasley turned around, heading, Warrington noticed, in a different direction than before, no doubt to find Granger. Conscience relieved, he turned toward the dungeons to get his Transfiguration supplies, finding his path blocked.
"Um, excuse me Professor. I was just heading down to my dorm…" As he spoke, Cassius got the uncomfortable feeling, as he always did when talking to the Professor, that Moody was looking through him rather than just at him.
"That was very decent of you, Warrington." Warrington blinked.
"Um… thank you?" Moody laughed at his hesitation, not a particularly pleasant sound.
"You don't like me much, do you. Heard some nasty stories at home?" Cassius had, in fact, heard a number of complaints about the auror, but he only shook his head. Moody laughed again, and limped off to the Great Hall without another word. Deciding that two awkward conversations were really enough for one morning, Cassius rushed off to the dorm, not bothering to stop and chat with anyone else.
/
The library was not the place Cassius had planned to be an hour before the Yule Ball. Someone, he thought (not for the first time that night), really should have taught Jack Bagley how much cologne was too much before now. Cassius, Andrew, and Adrian had been searching through charms books for at least 25 minutes while their roommate sat off to the side dejectedly. None of the normal odor removal charms had worked, which Cassius suspected was because of the magical nature of the cologne in question.
"Salazar, Bagley, could you have chosen a worse time?" Fawley had been grudging in his agreement to aid.
"Or chosen a stronger one?" Pucey had also been reluctant to help, insisting that it would be simpler to just ask Professor Flitwick, a solution Jack had ruled out on the grounds that it would be entirely too humiliating. Cassius exhaled slowly, standing up and looking Bagley with what pity he could muster after the search.
"Come on then. We're out of time. It's Flitwick or nothing." Jack gave in reluctantly, standing with the other three and walking out of the library. Ten minutes later, all four were back in their dorm, smelling normal, and getting ready.
"Yes, it's all gone Bagley, or we wouldn't have let you back, trust me."
"Merlin, Fawley, haven't you looked at yourself enough?"
"Let me charm your robes, Warrington, Rissa's dress is darker than that and she'll want to match."
"Your robes are plenty long enough, Pucey, we all know you haven't grown since third year—ow!"
Cassius laughed and rubbed his arm as Adrian turned away again, glanced in the mirror one last time, and went to the common room, watching some third years play exploding snap. Five or so minutes later, Andrew, Zoe, Nerissa, and Adrian had joined him, Jack having already headed over to the Hufflepuff dorms to pick up his date. Chatting and laughing, they headed to the entry hall, where they met Alicia Spinnet. Top Warrington's surprise, Zoe and Nerissa immediately went to talk to her, and all three began to compliment each other, wondering if they knew each other at all, or if it was just a thing girls did.
"Mr. Warrington, Miss Brody, if you'll join us over here please." The two waved to their friends, who entered the hall, and went to line up along the wall, where Fleur already stood with Roger Davies.
"They're right you know, you do look really nice tonight." Nerissa laughed and pushed Cassius lightly.
"A little late, aren't you?"
"I mean, you still haven't told me I look nice. I spent a whole thirty minutes fighting Andrew for a look in the mirror." She raised an eyebrow.
"Thirty minutes was it? That explains a lot." She wrinkled her nose as she looked at him, but the twitching corner of her mouth gave her away and, meeting his eyes, she couldn't stop the grin from emerging. Potter walked over soon after they did, introducing his date as Parvati Patil. They had all stood awkwardly for a few minutes when Parvati inhaled sharply.
"Is that Hermione?" They all followed her eyes to the couple walking towards them, which was, in fact, Hermione Granger and Viktor Krum. This was apparently a sensational surprise, because the two Gryffindors hurried over to meet them (or rather, Parvati pulled a surprised looking Harry over), and began to talk earnestly.
"What's that about?" Cassius whispered to Nerissa.
"I guess they're just surprised Granger came with Krum. She does have a reputation of practically living in the library, you know, and he's a professional athlete. Also," she said after a pause, "I think she's done something to her hair."
"Didn't you all?" Nerissa looked like she was about to laugh again, although Cassius didn't quite understand why.
"I guess we did, didn't— oh, there's McGonagall back." Cassius faced forward as the two pairs returned, and entered the Great Hall under the eyes of all of his classmates.
/
As he walked to the punch table, Cassius looked around the Hall. Marietta was dancing with Carl Hopkins and Andrew with Zoe, and, perhaps the weirdest combination of people, Alicia and Adrian talking to one of the Weasley twins, Angelina Johnson, Jack Bagley, and Patricia Stimpson. He saw Weasley and Potter sitting down a little ahead of him, Parvati Patil by Harry, and someone, who he assumed (by the identical annoyed looks on their faces) was her sister, by Ron. Cassius winced inwardly at the awkward situation, deciding to stay far away from that area of the Hall for a while. Grabbing the punch, he walked back to Nerissa just in time to hear the opening chords of "Do The Hippogriff".
"I know I just got these, but there's no way we're not dancing to this." Voicing her agreement, she got up, and the two joined the mob of dancers in the middle of the floor, singing along with everyone else, jumping and laughing and spinning around to the lyrics of the song.
Oh! Can you dance like a hippogriff?
Na na na ma ma ny na na ny na
Flyin' off from a cliff
Na na na ma ma ny na na ny na
Swooping down to the ground
Na na na ma ma ny na na ny na
Wheel around and around and around and around
Na na na ma ma ny na na
Cassius nearly fell over from dizziness, laughing as he and Nerissa stumbled back to their seats, where they were promptly joined by Andrew and Zoe, and Adrian's whole lot. Everyone chatted, getting along remarkably well, and, for just the night, Cassius found himself forgetting about the stress of the tournament and talking more about the possibility that someone had spiked the punch, and what the effect would be on the fourth years; forgetting about interhouse conflicts and learning instead how the Hufflepuffs got food from the conveniently located kitchens for all of their parties and becoming eager at the idea of the joke shop whichever Weasley twin this was (he thought Fred, but it seemed too late in the conversation to ask) told them about his and his brother's plans for.
That night (or was it early morning?) he felt that his bed had never been so comfortable, his stomach so full, his throat so sore from laughter, and he himself so content.
I know I said this would include more than it does; however, this chapter was shaping up to be massive, so I decided to cut it off here and do that next time. So, hopefully, next chapter will be from Christmas until February 23rd, the day before the second task (assuming my dates are correct), and have more of Cassius with new and old friends, new ideas for investigating the lake, and maybe (hopefully) some background of what our favorite sixth year Slytherin's lives have looked like!
As always, please review, I hope you liked it, and let me know about anything weird going on in there, and speaking of that, I'd like to give a huge thank you to duj for all of the support- I'm so glad you're liking the story :). Thanks also to every one of you who reviewed, faved, and followed, and for everyone who took the time to read. I love you all, and you're the reason I keep writing this!