Chapter 13
An Easy Afternoon
The walk across the grounds a few minutes later was long and cold. Cassie could feel the snow getting into her shoes and wondered how cold she would be through the class with wet feet. Ginny didn't seem terribly concerned, though, and she tried to relax. She wouldn't die even if her feet were frozen before they got back to the castle. She had looked at her schedule earlier and was pleased that she had been right about this class. Hermione had rated it a green which meant no magic was needed. Ginny had only put one book into Cassie's bag and kept one in hers. "And we rarely use this one, either, but just in case." The book actually looked kind of interesting. 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi was not the most exciting title but Cassie imagined that the book itself would be something she would never see again after leaving Hogwarts. She made a mental note to spend her free time this afternoon looking at it. Yes, after Herbology, she had no more classes today which left three hours of free time before dinner. Cassie was very pleased to see that she would have some time to answer George's letter, which was in the bottom of her book bag practically begging to be reread and answered. Plus, she really wanted to write a letter to her parents. She wasn't sure how she would get it to them, but she wanted to let them know she was well and (at least so far) was having a good time.
They arrived at the greenhouses several minutes before class was supposed to start although Ginny grimaced when she looked at her own watch. "We'd better hurry. I didn't allow enough time, I don't think. I've got to do us both." Cassie didn't know what she was talking about but found out a second later. "Take off your shoes. We'll sit down over here. We'll be out of sight if anyone's being nosy." They sat down on a bench behind some pots and Ginny quickly muttered the same spell she had used that morning to dry their hair. She aimed the stream of warm air over Cassie's wet socks as well as her own and a few minutes later when Cassie's toes were feeling all warm and toasty turned the stream onto their shoes, which were steaming in the warmth of the greenhouse interior. Many students were arriving as they finished and Cassie smiled her thanks at Ginny as they both slipped now warm dry feet into dry shoes. Ginny pointed her wand at Cassie's hands. "Hurry. I've got to do your nails now, too." Cassie suddenly remembered the lions painted on her hands but did not know why it mattered if they were going to roar now or not. However, she stuck her hands out and Ginny muttered one more quick spell. The roaring, much to Cassie's relief, was audible but not extremely loud. "That should do. Come on."
The two girls stepped out from behind the pots and met several other students who were waiting for the beginning of class. Now that her feet were dry, Cassie could actually pay attention to her surroundings and she looked around with interest.
She had been in greenhouses numerous times in her life as her mother loved gardening and they would go early every spring to pick out the plants and flowers that they would use that year. This greenhouse was huge, but otherwise looked fairly typical, with plants on every available surface, gloves, fertilizer, and watering cans littering any area where there were no plants. The smell, however, was slightly different. She couldn't identify exactly what was different, but something definitely was. They stood in a group with other students and Cassie looked around with some interest. There were a few faces she recognized although she didn't know any names. No, that wasn't true. She saw Neville on the other side of the clump of students and waved at him. He waved back, obviously pleased to see her, and he made his way over to them.
"Hey, Pia. It's great you have this class."
"Hi, Neville. Yeah. I love plants so it should be fun. What exactly do we do in here, though?"
"Well, we learn what . . ."
Cassie turned suddenly, losing interest in what Neville was saying. She felt somebody running their fingers along her arm but as she looked, she didn't see anyone standing there. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" But before he could answer, she felt the fingers again. Her first thought was that Harry was playing a joke on her and was wearing his invisibility cloak, but then she moved her arm and she had to stifle a scream. It wasn't Harry. In fact, it wasn't even fingers. Some plant was touching her - normally not an experience which would scare her - but this one was sending out tentacles at an alarming rate of speed which were winding their way around her arm. "Ginny! Neville! Something, some plant is . . . Neville! Help!" The tentacles were in her hair and had her head gripped tightly and her arm was almost completely covered in green. Ginny didn't hear her panicked cry because she was visiting with some other girls and Cassie was trying not to draw too much attention to herself, but Neville saw immediately that she was worried.
"Don't worry. He's just curious about you, that's all. A simple stupefy spell takes care of most sneaky plants."
"A stupefy spell? Could you do it for me, please? My wand is . . ."
"Sure." A second later she felt the plant release her and she stepped carefully away, trying hard to disentangle her hair from the vines without looking too stupid. However, she finally gave up worrying about what she was looking like and just pulled. She felt tears come to her eyes as she left quite a few hairs tangled around the leaves and she had to reach back and grab one of her combs from one vine. Neville was trying hard not to laugh but not succeeding very well. "One of the things we learn first year is not to stand too close to creeping jasmine. It's pretty, but can actually kill you if you don't stupefy it soon enough."
Cassie stared at him with wide eyes and then composed herself, "Yeah. Well, I didn't see it, er, him." The woman Cassie assumed must be the professor entered a second later which saved her from further humiliation. The woman was someone Cassie had never seen before, short, dumpy, and a bit frazzled. She looked over the class quickly, apparently counting students. She passed Cassie by on the first pass and then did a double take.
"Miss Spencer, I presume." At Cassie's quick nod, she gave a quick faint smile in greeting and then started into her lecture. Cassie listened, but her eyes were scanning the surrounding plants carefully to see if any others were moving. Now that she looked, she realized that none of these plants were the familiar gentle plants she was used to in the greenhouses or gardens back home. These were all strange - either the color was not quite right, or the flowers had teeth, or there were signs on them indicating they were poisonous or something. Professor Sprout, a name which had made Cassie laugh out loud when she had first been so addressed by another student, shooed them over to some seedlings which apparently needed to be repotted. Cassie was not reassured by the fact that they had to put on very heavy gloves and goggles before they started work.
Ginny tried to be reassuring but it was difficult through the goggles and with numerous other students around. They worked in small groups, so Cassie, Ginny, Neville, and Saffron (who had come in late and been chewed out by Professor Sprout as well as lost points for Gryffindor) all worked together. Neville laughed at the three girls. Their nails all were roaring at different times and Professor Sprout kept shooting them nasty looks. Cassie didn't exactly understand why although she suspected it had something to do with the roaring that kept issuing from their corner. She wished that she could have used a spell to silence hers, but in the presence of the other students, she couldn't ask Ginny to do it, so she just had to put up with it.
Cassie discovered fairly early on in the lesson why this greenhouse smelled so different. The potting soil they were using had an earthy smell to it that was very unusual but it was when Neville opened the bag of dragon-dung fertilizer that she knew what the smell really was. Apparently, from what she could read on the bag as it sat next to her pot, this was guaranteed to treat all her magical plants right, and produce the biggest blooms, strongest vines, and most potent potions ingredients as any fertilizer on the market. Well, that was good. No use doing anything in half measures.
Forty-five minutes later they left the greenhouses, walking as a group back to the castle, and Cassie's head was whirling. She had seen things in that greenhouse that she could not believe. The seedlings they had been repotting had screamed if they were handled badly and apparently her previous experience had not prepared her for such tender things. Her plants had screamed basically from the first time she had laid a gloved finger on them until she had finally walked away a few minutes ago. They had squirted out all sorts of nasty foul-smelling goo, "tar" Neville had called it, which had landed in her hair and on her face and even the professor had laughed when one of them actually bit her finger and refused to let go until Ginny had stupefied it through her gales of laughing. Cassie was grateful that it had been her wand hand the plant had sunk its sharp little teeth into. No one had expected her to stupefy the plant herself. But that was the only thing she was grateful for. The class had been a nightmare, honestly, and she decided that she would have to do something else the next time Herbology was on her schedule. Ginny should have at least warned her that plants in the magical world were not anything like the ones she was used to, but Cassie wasn't mad. How could she be? Ginny had been great the entire day. And besides. Now she had a few hours where she could do anything she wanted - and she could guarantee that it wouldn't be anything to do with plants. Saffron, however, didn't share Cassie's happy state of mind. She was complaining the entire walk back to the castle about some assignment she had done badly on.
Cassie listened with some interest. Saffron was her roommate after all and she wanted to know as much as possible about her so that she didn't make a mistake. "Anyway, I'm sure my father will find out about my grades. I think someone in this school keeps him informed and he somehow thinks my grades are a reflection on him. So I'll be in big trouble. I'll probably get another howler which will be even more of an embarrassment . . . ." Cassie couldn't hear any more after that because the girl had fallen back to continue her talk with her friend. She wondered what a howler was but didn't dare ask.
Hermione was waiting in the entrance hall when Cassie, Ginny, and the rest of the group entered a few minutes later. "Hey, Pia. How was Herbology?" The smile on her face was tinged with a bit of laughter, but Cassie laughed, too. She bet she had looked quite a sight before Ginny had helped clean her up.
"It was great. You should have warned me, at least."
"How could I? You didn't give me a chance to." Cassie thought back to her quick departure from lunch earlier.
"You're right. I didn't."
"Ginny's got Quidditch practice with Ron and Harry now until dinner, so I thought you and I could spend some time together." Ginny was hurrying up the stairs, calling down to her that she would see her at dinner and Cassie waved in response.
"Okay. That sounds good. I want to get some letters written and things. But first can I go up and change shoes? Mine are wet from the snow."
"Certainly. We'll go to the library, okay? I think you'll find it interesting." Cassie hid a smile behind a hand as she slipped her book bag up on her shoulder again. She remembered what Harry had said about Hermione's almost unhealthy obsession with the library.
"I'm sure I will, too."
"Have you got any homework?"
"Um, well, yeah. I guess. Do I really have to do it, though? I mean it's not . . ."
"Of course you have to do it! You've got to turn it in like all the other students. And if you'll do your reading, maybe even a little bit ahead, you'll be even more prepared for your classes."
Cassie didn't answer. She did not want to spend these few free hours doing homework just to keep up the show. Couldn't she just fail the dang classes? It wasn't like she cared if she didn't get good grades! Plus, she only had one essay for Remus's class and she was quite sure that even if she handed in blank parchment he wouldn't care. She did have some work to do for Herbology as the professor had been quite disgusted at her lack of knowledge about the particular plant they had been working on today. But that didn't seem like it would take all weekend. And she still had Saturday and Sunday to do it anyway. Finally, she said, "Well, I can see your point. But I do really need to get a letter written to my parents."
"Oh, of course, that was thoughtless of me. You should be careful, though, what you write. Owl post has been known to be intercepted." Cassie had a sudden nervous jolt in her stomach. She was in hiding and couldn't even spill out all her frustration and fear and things in letters home to her parents. Well, she would just have to do her best. Hermione saw that she had upset Cassie a little bit. "Don't worry about it. It's a small chance. Anyway, I'm not even sure that Dumbledore will have you use owl post. He may have something else in mind." Cassie felt a little better, although now she really was not sure if she would even be able to send letters home. Maybe it would be too dangerous. But she would just go on as though she could. Maybe Remus could take them, if nothing else.
Hermione seemed quite distressed that she had even brought it up. "Look, don't worry. I'm sure Dumbledore knows what to do. Don't spend time worrying about that. Anyway, I'd like to give you a long guided tour of the library. That'll be fun, don't you think?"
"Yeah, great." She tried to sound enthusiastic and it must have worked because Hermione was smiling broadly as Cassie left her sitting in the common room as she ran up to her room to change shoes. Rhiannon was sitting on her bed, reading some type of magazine, when Cassie got into the room. "Hi, Rhiannon."
"Hi. I've heard all sorts of things about you today."
"You have?" Cassie was momentarily nervous. The girl did not seem pleased with this.
"Yes. Apparently you are making quite an entrance. For your first day."
"I'm sure it's just because I'm new here."
"Yeah. Maybe." She turned back to her magazine and Cassie realized she was being dismissed. Hm. Was the other girl jealous? Cassie didn't know exactly but she made a mental note to get to know the girl better. She seemed very fun and nice, if not tops in the academic department.
Cassie ran quickly down the steps again. Hermione was talking to some other girls Cassie hadn't met. "Oh, Pia, come meet my roommates. This is Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil. This is Ron's cousin, Pia Spencer."
"Hi." The three of them smiled rather awkwardly at each other. The two girls were very pretty and Cassie felt a little bedraggled next to them. Her hair and face had been cleaned by some type of scouring spell at the greenhouses, but it had done nothing to restore the curl in her hair or replace the makeup on her face. Hermione looked between the three of them, apparently sensing the tension.
"Come on, Pia. Let's go. Bye, Lavender, Pavarti. I'll see you at dinner. And I'll be happy to help you with that Arithmency homework." Then they were out the portrait hole and alone in the hallway. "What was that about?"
"I don't know. I've never seen them before. But they didn't seem to like me too much."
Hermione walked quietly for a minute. "Well, never mind. I'm sure we just misread them. Why wouldn't they like you?" Cassie thought about Rhiannon's reaction to her in their room and thought that Hermione was very perceptive except when it came to other girls' jealousy of someone moving in on their perceived territory of boys. All three of them obviously thought that she was going to be stealing their boyfriends or something. They wouldn't worry if they knew that the only boy she was interested in was not even attending this school. And she couldn't tell them, either. After all, he was supposed to be her cousin! What a predicament she was in now. Oh, well, it would work out when they saw that she was not trying to flirt with or date any of the boys they thought were so cute.
They made their way through the maze of hallways and staircases, passing several students who Hermione waved to or spoke with briefly. Cassie was impressed at how she seemed to be liked and respected by students from all the houses and of all different ages. She commented on this to Hermione but she only flushed pink. "That's not true, I'm afraid. There are a lot of people who hate me here. We've just been lucky with the people we've run into."
"Why would they hate you?" Hermione flushed a little.
"You know enough about this world to have that figured out. I don't really have to tell you."
"Oh. It's because you're Muggle-born, isn't it?"
"Yeah. There are people who just cannot accept . . . Well, eventually they'll have to, but right now, they just hate us." Cassie could see that despite the brave front Hermione projected, it hurt her that she couldn't be accepted for what she was. Cassie felt bad for her and wished that she could do something to fix it, but of course she couldn't. However, she knew that she had to do one thing to make something right and thought that Hermione could probably offer her some advice on how to do it.
"Speaking of Muggle-borns, Hermione. I think I really hurt Colin Creevey's feelings earlier today. I didn't mean to." She wound up telling Hermione the whole story about the pictures on the broom and with the unicorn and how he remembered her and how she had panicked that he would give away her secret accidentally and everything. Hermione listened without comment, although her expression got hard a couple of times during the telling.
"Well, I can't really tell you what to say to him exactly, but I will tell you that Colin can be trusted. He's in the D.A. and he's a really good guy. He won't give away your secret."
"So you think I should tell him everything?"
"No. Not everything. Just enough to make him realize that he isn't a prat and that you don't think he is one."
Cassie would have asked for more advice about how to do this, but then they were at the library doors, and Hermione got a look very akin to rapture on her face as they entered. They found a table in the back of the library and Hermione pulled out a very heavy looking book and dived right in, starting to scribble notes almost immediately. They sat there for a few minutes, Cassie looking around at the room, enjoying the feeling of wonder and mystery in this room. For she imagined, and she certainly could not have been far off, that answers to questions she would never even know to ask were hidden in these books. And she understood, to some degree, Hermione's love of this place. However, the witch she was just contemplating was now scowling at her and Cassie jumped in surprise. "What?"
"That noise. What is that infernal noise?"
Cassie was taken aback, unsure what she meant. Then she realized that Hermione could hear the lions on her fingernails roaring. The sound that had been barely audible in the noise of the greenhouses now echoed slightly and other students nearby were looking around, trying to figure out what the noise was. "Uh, it's my fingernails. They roar. For the game tomorrow."
Hermione pinched her lips in obvious disapproval. "Well, quiet them down immediately."
"Yeah. Good idea. I'll just pull my wand out and do that, shall I?" Her voice was soft so that only Hermione could hear her, but the witch blanched. She pulled out her wand, laying it on the table.
"Quietus." She scowled again, shaking her head at what Cassie imagined was frustration at having to put up with such childish behavior when lives were at stake, but she could have sworn that when she thought Cassie couldn't see, Hermione grinned to herself. And any feelings of guilt Cassie had had a moment ago vanished. She decided it was time to get to work. She had some letters to write.
Cassie pulled out her parchment and George's letter. Then she looked rather sideways at Hermione and pulled out an item she had secreted in the pocket of her bookbag before she had even left home. It was a package of ball point pens. She just refused to write with that quill if she could help it. She reread the letter slowly, savoring it now that she had the time, and thinking about all the things she wanted to say back to him. The envelope was still stashed at the bottom of the bag and she had ripped off the greeting, signature, and P.S. at the bottom of the letter right after breakfast. So, there was nothing to indicate who it was from or to if the letter was found by someone else.
She read it through twice and then took the cap off the pen and set it against the parchment. "Dear G.W. I am here and so far am having a pretty good time." She stopped and looked at the line she had written. She went back and rewrote over it, trying to get her new writing on top of the old. She scowled in frustration and traced the "Dear GW" again. And again. And she realized why wizards write with quill pens. "Drat, drat, drat." Hermione looked up from her book and saw what Cassie was doing. She smiled kindly.
"Sorry. There's no way around it. I've even tried enchanting the pens to release more ink. They still don't write well on the parchment. I think it's because the parchment is so bumpy and the ink only catches on the raised bumps so your letters are only half there. The quills aren't that bad."
"That's easy for you to say." Hermione just smiled in response to the frustration in Cassie's tone. "Can't you get me some regular paper, or smooth this out or something?"
"No to the regular paper, and I can smooth out the parchment a bit but it doesn't help. Trust me, I've tried it. Several different times."
Cassie scowled and reached into her bag again to pull out the bottle of ink and the quill pen. She looked at them with loathing and then opened the ink and dipped the point in. By the time she was done with her letter to George, her hands were ink-stained and she had several large drips down the front of her robes. Worse, in her opinion, was the horrible way the letter looked. It was barely legible and she was very worried about sending it to him. He would certainly be suspicious that a witch couldn't write better than this and the fact that she was a Muggle was not something she wanted to announce in this letter. Of course, maybe she wouldn't have to. Maybe he would figure it out himself looking at her horrible penmanship. She remembered how pretty Harry's had looked when he had written for her and she wished she could do it as well.
"Hermione. Help." Hermione looked up again and laughed, smothering it in her hands as another student looked up from a nearby table.
"You are a mess! You've got ink all over you. Does the parchment look as bad as you do?" Cassie nodded miserably, wishing she could be mad at Hermione for laughing, but knowing that she was undoubtedly a mess and wishing for all the world that she could look as neat as Hermione did after writing for an hour. "Well, here. I'll clean you up quickly." Hermione muttered a spell under her breath after laying her hand on her wand which was laying on the table. Cassie looked down and saw that all the ink had been removed from her hands and robes. The parchment, however, still looked just as bad. And she didn't want to have to show it to Hermione and have her rewrite it or anything. Maybe Ginny would do it for her? No. This was her brother, after all. But her worries were for nothing as Hermione continued. "I worked out a spell first year that really helps with cleaning up your parchments. It's important since the word 'eraser' is completely unheard of here at Hogwarts but the teachers can still grade you for neatness. Doesn't seem fair." She pointed her wand at the parchment and said a variation of the spell she had used a moment before although Cassie couldn't quite catch what was different about it. Cassie looked down at her letter a moment later and was extremely gratified to see that although her letters were still formed a little strangely, the random ink spots and smears were all gone. It was still a little childish looking but it was not intolerable.
"Thanks! It looks great!"
"No problem. I'll teach it to Ginny so she can help you in class and things for the first few days."
"She doesn't know it already?"
"No." Hermione got a rather pained look on her face and Cassie thought for a moment that it was disgust. "For some reason, those blasted witches and wizards don't have any trouble with the quills. Maybe it's because they've used them all their lives. Even Harry didn't struggle much with it. It was just me, the Muggle-born one, that had problems."
"Oh. I'm sorry about that."
"Yeah. Well. I've learned. Magic can compensate for a lot of personal inadequacies." She looked down at her book again and Cassie looked back at the letter, rereading it one more time to make sure that she said everything she wanted to and nothing that she didn't.
"Dear G.W., I am here and so far am having a good time. The people are very nice and my classes have been fun. I had Potions, DADA, and Herbology today. Potions was not too bad although Snape assigned me to work with a Slytherin boy. I think he was trying to make me miserable but I showed him. We made the potion perfectly and he never took any points from me during the entire class. Ron says I was bloody brilliant and Harry and Hermione were impressed although they are anxious for me to try to blend in better. DADA was great with Remus. He puts all of us under the Imperious spell (Is that spelled right?) and we tried to resist it. I did all right although I did give in at the end. Herbology was terrible. I don't think the professor liked me very much. Now I have free time and I'm writing you this letter.
By the way, as your cousin, I should warn you about being too familiar with girls, especially me. People may get the wrong idea of our time we spent together at your shop. It was fun and I want to come back there, too, but it will certainly be a while before I can visit you and cousin Fred again. Although if you could send me more dragon_Kisses_, _I _would absolutely _Love_ it. Well, maybe not. Don't want to take advantage of _You_.
Be sure to call me by my proper name, Pia Spencer. Your little joke of calling me by your pet name for me confused the owl and caused a great deal of uproar at the Gryffindor table as it was delivered during breakfast in front of everyone else. No one else calls me that, you see. Sincerely, Pia"
The letter seemed okay to her. It didn't give anything away to anyone who was reading it. And the underlined words would be random enough, hopefully, that they would just look like the typical writing of a young teenage girl. She would try to send this out via owl post tonight. She couldn't risk having him send her another letter addressed by her real name. Especially if owl post could be intercepted. That would be a disaster. She then moved on to the much easier task of writing to her parents.
She told them briefly about her classes and how nice everyone was to her. She talked a little about magic but she treated it as though it were normal and expected and thought that if anyone read this letter, they would just assume it was being written by a witch who was a little bit homesick but otherwise enjoying school. She did sign the letter using the name Pia and underlined it but figured that they wouldn't think that was all that peculiar as that was the name they often called her. She had always hated it before although she was getting used to it now and didn't mind it nearly as much as she would have imagined. She hoped they got the hint.
Of course, she made just as much of a mess with this letter as she had with the first and nudged Hermione when she was done for both spells. Hermione smiled broadly at the again ink-stained girl and did both cleaning spells. Cassie was grateful that she didn't ask who the second letter was for as she had only mentioned the letter to her parents.
When both letters were folded and placed into the bookbag to be dealt with later, Cassie pulled out her book about magical plants. The book seemed a lot less inviting now than it had before Herbology class, but she thumbed through it all the same, identifying both the plant that had tried to eat her at the beginning of class and the one that she had wrestled with for the greater part of an hour. The pictures of both of them were moving and Cassie decided that they looked just a little too realistic for her tastes, quickly moving to pages with nasty plants she had not yet encountered at school.
Finally, Hermione shut her book. "Are you ready for our tour?" Cassie smiled and tried to look enthusiastic. "All right. Then I've got to go see Dumbledore about a few things so I'll take you back to the common room when we're done here."
"We can pass on the tour if you want." Earlier, Cassie had actually been looking forward to seeing what sort of books and things were in a wizard library, but right now she was tired and nothing sounded quite as nice as curling up for a nap on the couch by the Gryffindor fire. However, she was willing to do it if Hermione wanted to and she seemed set on it, so they spent about half an hour looking at various sections of books. Cassie was impressed with the thousands of books in the library, many of which looked to be hundreds of years old or more and even included colorful and ornately drawn illuminated manuscripts. Their tour included the restricted section which Hermione apparently had a pass to as Head Girl. Cassie tried not to jump too far or get too disgusted at some of the really repulsive books Hermione insisted on showing her. The librarian, a thin-nosed woman who seemed extremely paranoid about her books, had walked by a few times as they were bent over some particularly gruesome volume, and Cassie breathed a quiet sigh of relief when they finally left the room.
The common room was a little crowded, but no one looked at her funny as she curled up on the couch the way she had imagined and enjoyed the warmth of the blazing fire for a few minutes. Hermione assured her she would be back soon but also told Cassie that it wouldn't be terribly long before the other three were back from practice and then they could all go to dinner together.
Cassie was worried that she might fall asleep, which she thought might be quite embarrassing. However, she didn't need to worry. No less than three students came over to her, introducing themselves, and commenting that they had heard what had happened in Potions that morning and admired her courage (all right, one said that she thought Cassie had been downright stupid) and Cassie blushed furiously with each accolade. She remembered Harry telling her that when you went to a school as small as Hogwarts, it was nearly impossible to keep secrets and she realized anew that she would have to be very careful. Even the slightest hint of a rumor could grow to gigantic proportions within hours. That thought scared her more than any she had had the entire afternoon and she wondered for probably the five hundredth time if she was up to the task that people were expecting her to perform.
Just when she was starting to question the wisdom of her being here at all, though, the portrait hole opened and Colin Creevey stepped inside. Great. She had made one fairly large error that day and that was an error that she had to correct. Of course, she had no idea of how she was going to go about doing that, but she had to try, at least. The subject of her thoughts had stopped next to a table of fourth year boys and she shifted on the couch as she prepared to stand, intending to ask him to speak to her for a moment. However, before she could actually even stand to move in his direction, the portrait opened again and this time the three people she was waiting for slipped through the entrance and she smiled broadly.
They were muddy, wet, and obviously wind blown, but laughing, faces glowing from the exertion of what had obviously been a long practice session for tomorrow's match. They carried their brooms in gloved hands and all wore protective leather-looking padding over their robes. They didn't see her immediately and she watched with undisguised curiosity as they moved into the center of the room. Harry and Ginny's hands were interlocked and Ron looked around expectantly, obviously thinking Hermione would be here waiting for him. And despite herself, Cassie felt a pang of what had to be jealousy shoot through her. Harry. He looked now as she had never seen him before. And her heart ached at the thought that she would almost certainly never see him again like that after tomorrow.
He was smiling, relaxed, and she understood as she had not done that long day the four of them, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and herself, had spent in Harry's house last June, why he asked about the Quidditch team. He loved the game. That was a simple and obvious fact. She had seen glimpses of that passion before the battle, when he had fingered his robes and his broom but that had been different. His passion now was for nothing but the game, the love of the game, and the love of the girl at his side. He looked at Ginny and Cassie's breath caught. He had looked at Cassie once like that before and she had been awed at the intensity and the purity of his gaze. She wondered for the briefest of moments if she had made the right decision, sending him back to Ginny. Would she have wanted to be standing there, holding hands with him? Oh, yes. Definitely yes. But she could not be. Could never be. She would have just been able to watch, not carry her own broom and fly beside him. And that knowledge made her certain. She allowed the ache for a moment. But then her smile reasserted itself and she stood.
"Hey, guys. I'm here."
"Oh, Pia. We're all a mess. We've got to head up and change. Where's Hermione? We thought she was with you this afternoon."
"She said she had to go see Professor Dumbledore about something. I'm not sure what. But she said she'd come back here and then we'd all go to dinner together."
"Sounds good." Harry and Ginny, hands still linked, headed toward the staircases, where they separated with what looked like a thorough kiss before heading up to their respective showers. Ron, however, looked around again, as though expecting his girlfriend to suddenly appear. Cassie smiled.
"She's fine, Ron. She'll be here in a minute. How was practice?" She thought that was probably what was bothering him. He didn't have anyone to boast to if practice had gone well -- which it almost certainly had considering how happy the three of them had looked.
He looked at her, rather surprised at her question. "Great. I didn't let one single Quaffle through. Not one. Tomorrow may be a shut-out. If Harry can catch the Snitch fast enough."
"That's fantastic. I'm glad. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's match." Cassie had no idea what Ron had said but since he had said it was great and it was obviously not sarcasm, then it was fairly easy to make agreement noises, like she had full understanding of every word. And he beamed under her admiration. She smiled kindly at him and, for the second time that day, had a momentary empathy for Hermione's feelings. Ron was a great guy. In fact, he reminded her a lot of someone else. She guessed that shouldn't have been surprising. They were brothers, after all.
